The game Decathlete (known as Athlete Kings in Europe) is now running on Darksoft‘s rom-cart for the Sega Titan Video (ST-V) arcade system, the STV Multi.
Back in late 2016, Darksoft decrypted and released 5 of the 6 remaining protected ST-V games for the STV Multi. Only one game has remained encrypted since then, and that’s Decathlete. Recently, Ukrainian developer Metallic has stepped up to the plate and defeated the game’s last security barrier. As a result, two versions of Decathlete were successfully dumped. The main difference between the two versions/board revisions lies in the Eprom model (epr18967 vs epr18967a). Both versions are fully compatible with all ST-V region BIOSes.
Some graphical glitches were spotted during the game’s initial testing phase but most bugs seem to be sorted out at the moment. Darksoft is still asking STV Multi users to test the game thoroughly, using different setups, in order to make sure that no bugs are left behind.
With Decathlete finally being playable on the STV Multi, only one game from the entire ST-V library remains problematic: Batman Forever. While Batman Forever already boots on the STV Multi, it runs without audio. The original Batman Forever ST-V cart generates audio via an external sound board that included an ADSP-2181. That’s why Batman Forever’s audio will likely never be restored on the STV Multi current version.
Decathlete is now available for download on the Arcade-Projects forums. If you own an STV Multi, give the game a try and let the developers know if you found any glitches/bugs.
Links:
- More info about the Decathlete dump and download link: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/decathlete-for-stv-finally-working.23240/
- Order the STV Multi here: https://highscoresave.com/darksoft-stv-multigame-kit/
- STV Multi Roll-Up Pack: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/decathlete-for-stv-finally-working.23240/
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