I believe I see the error in my ways. I had never installed the car-emplode-v2.00 setup.exe. and instead was just running emplode.exe from the v2.10 software folder thinking I wanted the newest version, and associating the .upgrade to that. The Rio Upgrade Wizard is only contained within the v2.00 software. and once I installed that it now match up with the instructions and load the upgrade file as I was expecting. I knew it would come down to user (my) error.

I guess it has been too long sense I messed with this. Starting to recall the process. Still not out of the woods, since now the upgrade wizard throws, . But it does seem to connect via the serial port and load to the player. Something to look into further tomorrow.