Version 2.2 of the PCB built for Gorf including the 5v regulation to power the MiSTer direct from the cabinet’s power supply. This version uses a 2 amp version of the 7805 regulator and a couple of smoothing capacitors and takes power from the 12v line on the cabinet. An alternate version uses a commonly…
One of the members of UKVAC (Aaron) put together a piece of test gear that allows you to visually check the signals on an IC whilst the board is running normally and I picked one up earlier this year as it can do a few things that the ABI Board master cannot. Having sourced a…
Carnival on a Gremlin / Sega Vic Dual PCB. Just had blue bars on screen, although probing the Z80 showed it was trying to run code. Using a logic probe I discovered that the /WRITE signal of the ram chips was always high. This signal comes from a 74LS10 at U77. Checked this chip and…
I did some more testing and changes on the MiSTer -> Astrocade interface and have made some changes. Main PCB now includes a ‘Menu’ button to bring up the main OSD. The third speech only channel has been added for Wizard of Wor and I fixed the missing track from V2. The RGB board has…
After some major modifications to the existing screen mount hardware I have managed to fit the full HD industrial display unit into the original casing for the virtual pinball. Almost a perfect fit, you can just see the screen surround on the left and right. However, it now handles full HD, so that, combined with…
The existing HD plasma screen in the playfield of my virtual pinball now has a couple of lines across it and flickers badly from time to time. So after keeping an eye on marketplace and ebay for a while, I managed to get a Full HD Philips industrial display screen which looks pretty good in…
Guru, of mame dumping fame, reworked the PCB for the galaxian multigame to change a few of the chips to easier to come by versions, which in some cases, means surface mount. The ram can be CMOS and battery backed or FRAM instead. The DS1210 is an SMT version which should be cheaper. Some testing…
As mentioned in an earlier post, this is a version of Locomotion that had been adapted for Galaxian hardware. It wasn’t totally working and needed some errors in the code fixed as well as the colours sorting out, but it now joins the other games in the Multigame.
Whilst making recent changes to the Galaxian core on MiSTer, I looked at the newest games in the Mame core as well to see what had been added that runs on standard galaxian hardware. One, that was flagged as ‘Not Working’ was “GuttangT” I didn’t originally plan to look at this any further, but the…
I know it looks the same as the pictures from the Multigame connected to a galaxian PCB, but this time I updated the Galaxian core on the MiSTer to allow me to run the multigame on it. It should make testing things a lot quicker since the MiSTer is always connected and ready to go….
Populated the necessary locations for Gorf on the new board, did some sanity checks to make sure I wasn’t putting 5v down any lines to the DE10, discovered a missing track and some layout errors. It all works and I even managed to get the speech working from DDRAM, so you don’t actually need to…
The MiSTer core for Cosmic Guerilla has been completed. This core uses a TMS9900 CPU where the original uses a TMS9980 (8 bit version of same CPU, just does 2 byte reads/writes instead of 1 word read/write). However, game speed is controlled using vertical counter, so should be the same as the original. Sound effects…
I thought that swopping the CPU in the cosmic core to allow me to do Cosmic Guerilla would be simple. How wrong was I … 16 bit vs 8 bit, different memory read write signals, different port handling, even the reset is different! Anyway, for the first time it actually shows something running on screen….
The postman bought me a package today containing the updated versions of most of the PCBs from the website as well as the new ones for the MiSTer -> Gorf (and others) interface. I need to get soldering and make sure that they actually work. I think I’ll start with the multigame, not had one…
I managed to pick up a PCB for the shield needed to build a PIN2DMD, which although it is primarily for virtual pinballs, it works in real ones and supports features such as colour files to liven up the graphics on the DMD I bought all of the parts needed to assemble it, but, due…
One of the first things I did on the MiSTer once I had acquired a setup was to take the code for the Astrocade console, add in the additional hardware used by the arcade versions of the games to see if I could get them running. (See original post here) Following that I then decided…
Capacitor burnt. (game board), particularly at C37 the capacitor was showing signs of extreme heat. Replaced them all with 22uF 25V axial electrolytics. No Speech / Some SFX missing. (game board) Output from speech chip SC01 was OK, as was output from IO Custom (X3). checked transistors in output stage and 2N4401 was faulty. (Q2)…
Since the company I used to use for PCB production has ceased doing them for general customers (they only do their own now) I have reworked all of the PCB files available from this site to meet the constraints of another company. I need to finish checking them, but should hopefully order some samples of…
I have finished moving the remaining pages from the old Frontpage website over to WordPress and put some of the archive history back in. I did have to modify a few things to make it more ‘mobile’ friendly so all pages should be viewable on your phone. (a few require you to rotate your phone…
Information about Williams Make Trax game. PCB Screen Shots Pinouts If you are making a Jamma loom, then use the negative sync on pin R, as most monitors in Jamma cabinets appear to be set for this. The sync is taken from here, put through a 74LS04 inverter and back to pin F to generate…
Information about Midway Galaxian PCB Screen Shots Pinouts Connections for AC version shown in (BOLD) DIP switches
Totally dead, no screen display (blank white screen). For this I used the Fluke Z80-S2650 adapter to check out the ram and rom, and located two errors. The rom mapping was incorrect, with a large range of locations returning random values. Examining the board (since I have no schematics), all of the chip select lines meet up…
Altered Beast – Colours missing, no reds, other colours looked like diminished palette (like windows in 16 colours) – used test mode to perform ram test, and one ram chip identified as faulty (I10). Replaced this and red was back, but still reduced pallette. Looking at colour circuit, and it uses resistor arrays driven by I11…
On power up – black screen, no sign of life at all. I removed the 68000 CPU and fitted a socket, so I could use the Fluke on it. This revealed that the main program ram ($10C000-$10FFFF) was totally dead. Replacing the two ram chips IC25 and IC26 solved this problem. Board now started up,…
Screen filled with coloured lines, unstable, no sync (see above) – check clock signals from horizontal and vertical scan generators (74161’s at 2R,2S,3R,3S) – no signal feeding into pin 2 of horizontal generators. Follow trace back to 7474 at 3N, signal going in, nothing coming out – replace chip and screen display back to normal….
6 Slot – Memory test on power up giving error Address Write Read 00008000 5555 55FF Checking with Mame, the memory chips in question were only small, so looking at the board revealed two DIL 5814’s. Chip select signals to these were toggling as expected, so I needed to identify which ram chip was which….
Blank screen, Blanking line to output colour proms always enabled. Trace back to 74161 in timing circuit – output stuck, input clock all look OK – replace chip and picture appears. Blue video only – The video lines are controlled by three transistors near the edge connector, checking these revealed that 2 were not giving…
Boots up, and plays, but incorrect sprites – most noticeable little bug changes into ‘END’ at one point. Check 74ls138 at 8n, controlling graphics banking, and pins strobing. Replace chip and now uses correct sprites. Quiet missile sound and explosion sound. Both of these effects use the op-amp chip, LM324 at 7T. Replace this chip…
The board originally failed to get into the game, instead resetting just after drawing the ‘MISSILE COMMAND’ logo. Test mode faired a little better, managing to report RAM OK, MAP OK and ROM OK before resetting. Ram and Rom checked out OK using the Fluke. Measuring various CPU signals revealed that the interrupt seemed very…
Boot up with garbage, quickly clears screen and then nothing. Used Fluke with Z80 pod – read rom OK, and write ram OK, but timeout reading any Ram location. Check fluke status and ‘wait’ always set. Check pin 24 of Z80– stuck low, trace back through 7H,7C,6C1 to 6B1 pin 2 – always low, although…
No picture, Hole blown through LOPT. Had problems tracking down replacement – little tip given to me by Hantarex engineer – you can use the LOPT from an MTC9000 as long as you cut pin 2 off. (If you leave it connected, you will get a direct short to GND)
Ran through self test OK, came up with chequer board screen and then reset most of the time. Occasionally would start game, but with credit noise continually playing and credits rapidly counting upwards. This is caused by CPU 4 (E5) not running properly. checked the eprom and ram (C5,D5 and E5) and ram was faulty….
Macro’s arcade website finally makes it into the current century! After many years of being a Frontpage website, it is slowly being transferred across into WordPress. Not all of the pages and news have been transferred across, so expect the rest to re-appear over the coming weeks. Hopefully it will make it much easier for…
No display – When move board, display flickers – go around board pushing each chip in turn, when press on 2E picture appears. Pin 16 rusted, only just in place. replace chip – picture back to normal. No star display. Board had been hacked to play an alternate game, pin 15 on chip 2B had…
Missing Chip. This was a converted moon cresta board. The IC at 1.2S (shoehorned in sideways between rows 1 and 2 by the sprite ram) was missing. This was not featured on any schematics I had, so I traced the connections to see what it could be. It basically takes the output from the sprite…
Crashing game. Game woud start attract mode, but shortly after would crash and boot loop. Entering test mode (hold player 1 start button whilst switching on) and it would pass first time around, but fail at random addresses on subsequent runs. The /WAIT signal on the main Z80 is handled by the IC at E2…
Glitched graphics. Screen changes as board is flexed. Moved around board pressing chips until pressing the custom surface mount chip at B6 changed the effect. Noticed that the corner most pins had come up from the board. After an unsuccessful effort to resolder them, I used some enameled 38 swg wire to solder from the…
No Sound. Signal at output of SN76477 pin 13, follow through to input of sound amp, then from output until we reach electrolytic capacitor used to decouple connection to speaker. Signal going in, nothing coming out – replace capacitor sound back to normal. Only drawing a few pixels of player balloon sprite. Following the schematics,…
I managed to complete another core for the MiSTer today, been a while as I needed to get the two PCB’s working enough to sample the sounds. But all of the games from Mame’s Universal Cosmic driver that use a Z80 are now on there. Cosmic Alien, Devil Zone, Magical Spot, No Mans Land and…
I was looking for some information on arcade monitors, specifically listings of capacitors needed for Capacitor Kits, and everything I found seemed to be in the way-back archive rather than on current sites. So duly reformatted the information that I found, started adding links to manuals and schematics, where I have them, and of course…
If you have the galaxian multi game, then I have a beta to test – Clean Sweep finally makes it in there. It should work with high scores and dip settings although it hasn’t been extensively tested. Grab the rom images here
I have now added the eagle files for the Galaxian multigame PCB’s to the multigame page so you can create modified versions should you desire.
The gerber files for the Galaxian multigame are now available here! – It started off as a easy to fit version of the 8 game, since they were a real pain to solder all the wire links for the colour prom. Shipping around the world for kits has been getting increasingly dodgy, with more parcels going missing this year…
Following on from Astrocade hardware, I thought I would like to do a core as near as possible from scratch. So apart from using the Z80 from opencores, and basing the timing code on that used in the Pacman core, I went from the Crazy Balloon schematics to produce a complete core for it. Where…
Well, what a weird year it has been so far. I’ve been learning to code in VHDL and Verilog on the MiSTer platform. The first task was one I have wanted to do since I bought an FPGA Replay was to take the existing Bally Arcadia console core, add in the necessary extra ram, pattern…
New game on the way for the multigame, a conversion of Clean Sweep from the Vectrex. I have it running on standard galaxian hardware, just need to do some address and control changes to make it compatible with the Multigame setup.
I heard from a user about a problem with the signed Xeltec drivers. So in case you are having the same problem :- My new PC has windows 10 installed as UEFI. Installing it that way enables secure boot by default and saves the default keys to your motherboard. Secure boot adds another layer of…
Finally finished building my new test rig! Hopefully get the rest of the test gear setup again and start fixing some boards.
Aaron mentioned that Amidar in the multigame always runs in cocktail mode, no matter what settings you selected. I am amazed no-one else had noticed this since it has been like it since the start! Anyway, for the one person who actually plays Amidar in two player mode, I have now fixed the bug. Grab…
Phil, posted some code to implement attract mode when in freeplay for Moon Cresta. The version used in the multigame (bootleg on galaxian hardware) is close enough that it works with some minor modifications. I also fixed the ‘Freeplay’ message whilst I was in there. He has also posted code for scramble which I will…
Slight update to the PinDMD3 driver, it now uses a 1×8 pixel colour mask to avoid ‘power of 2 texture’ problems. New cab delivered, so something else to keep me occupied on those winter nights – Crazy Climber!
The new driver for PinDMD3 has been completed and is now available for download here. By default it works exactly the same as the ‘normal’ FPInterface and converts images and font data to DMD colour scales to display, however, add a decal with a special texture to the table and it proceeds to send all background…
A fellow collector, Phil, posted some code to implement attract mode when in freeplay for Galaxian on one of the forums I frequent, so I have adapted the code to work with Galaxian, Galaxian Part X and Moon Alien within the multigame. I have also fixed a long standing coin counter bug just in case…