Hardware info
San Francisco Rush and San Francisco Rush: The Rock runs on Atari's "Flagstaff" hardware:
* 192MHz R5000 main CPU (system clock 48MHz)
* Galileo GT64010 system controller
* National Semiconductor PC87415 IDE controller
* SMC91C94 ethernet controller
* ADC0848 8 x A-to-D converters
* 3dfx FBI with 2MB frame buffer
* 2 x 3dfx TMU with 4MB texture memory
* Midway I/O ASIC
* 8MB DRAM for main CPU
* 512KB boot ROM
* 33MHz TMS32C031 audio CPU
* 8MB ROM space for audio CPU
* 512KB boot ROM
San Francisco Rush 2049 and its revisions run on Atari's "Denver" hardware:
CPU board:
Durango - RM7000 or RM5271 @ 250-300MHz, 8-32MB RAM
Sound I/O board:
Denver SIO - ADSP2181 @ 33MHz, no ROM, 4MB RAM
Video board:
Voodoo 3
This hardware is very different from one another, so San Francisco Rush cannot be upgraded to 2049, and vise versa.
Each version of both games has its own security data stored on a Microchip Technology PIC16C57. Denver hardware has its security PIC located at U27 on the Sound I/O board, and Flagstaff's is at U96. A mismatched or missing/damaged PIC will prevent the game from starting up. On Denver hardware, "IOASIC" will repeat on the 7-segment display if this is the case. Legitimate security PICs are protected with the security bit and are unable to be dumped by conventional means.
Upgrading
To upgrade San Francisco Rush 2049 to Tournament Edition or Special Edition, the bare minimum upgrade kit consists of the following parts:
- Security PIC (PIC16C57/PIC16F57-I/P or equivalent PIC)
- Boot ROM (27C4001/27C040/27C401 or equivalent EPROM)
- IDE Hard drive or CF card with IDE adapter (the SE image in MAME is almost 20GB, but the original HDD is smaller, so as small as 4GB will work)
- SATA devices with an IDE adapter will not work, nor will IDE DOMs.
** The Vegas hardware is very picky about what CF cards will work.
All of this data can be found elsewhere on the Internet. There are plenty of websites out there that host up-to-date versions of romsets from MAME, so they will not be provided here.
There is more components included with the official kits, but these 3 parts are the minimum required for the game to work.
The BRAM database will be wiped if a new version of the game is installed, so game settings, date and time, and play statistics should be recorded before upgrading.
Writing the security PIC
A universal programmer such as the TL866A can program both the security PIC and boot ROM. Other programmer support will vary, especially for the PIC. The GQ-4X and GQ-4X4 can write the boot ROM, but not the PIC.
Programming is mostly straightfoward, however there are some things to keep in mind:
- FOSC0 will need to be set to 01 (XT oscillator) in the programmer settings, otherwise the game will not work. Depending on the programmer, this may just be setting the oscillator type to XT as opposed to setting bits.
- The USER ID0-3 may need to be shortened to only 4 digits, as having more may cause verification to fail. "0FFF" is a tested value that works for all of the IDs.
- Programming the Special Edition security data may require an extra step of deleting the extraneous 7 bytes from the buffer. Otherwise, the device might not program correctly.
If the game doesn't boot, erase the device and recheck the configuration.
Make sure to not install the chips in backwards. They can survive a short amount of time reversed, but they will quickly get hot and die!
Hard Drive
As with any 20+ year old hard drive, the original drives in these machines might have corrupt data, freeze during gameplay, or not work at all. Both games use a standard IDE 3.5" HDD to store the bulk of the game data.
San Francisco Rush and San Francisco Rush: The Rock
San Francisco Rush and San Francisco Rush: The Rock shipped with a 1.2GB Quantum Fireball drive. These drives are notorious for being unreliable, and a replacement solution should be considered if your machine is still running one.
Compact Flash Card
The recommended solution for this game is to install a Compact Flash card in place of the hard drive. This increases reliability and loading speed, and decreases noise and the amount of moving parts. Just about any CF to IDE device will work, the best one is known as the "CF-IDE40". This one plugs directly into the CPU board, sparing the need for an IDE cable.
IDE Hard Drive
An easy solution is to simply replace the hard drive with another one. Manufacturing of IDE hard drives ceased late 2013, however, so any drop-in replacement you find will be close to 10 years old already (as of 2021). If you have a pile of them sitting around though, it won't hurt to put it to use.