Sega Multigame FAQ

Getting some pretty good questions, so I think I'll just reply to all and
make a running "FAQ" that I'll put on my webpage.

Q) Your card replaces the cpu board. So will this make the board cages a
bit more reliable?

A) Point of clarification-- it doesn't actually replace the CPU board. It
plugs into the CPU board. It *does* replace the entire EPROM board. The
EPROM board is loaded with old hot-running EPROMs, so the whole thing
should run cooler. Far fewer components to go bad too, so I would expect
overall system reliability to increase at least a bit.

Q) I am having a HARD time finding a Tac/Scan or Star Treck CP, could a
tempest spinner work without afecting game play ?

A) It should work pretty closely. The number of slots are different
though, so the Tempest spinner should rotate faster for an equal number of
turns. (That could make Zektor pretty zippy...) You'll still need a
"Single Player Control Interface" board to use the spinner though. I don't
have one of these myself so I was thinking about making a couple. Let me
know if any of you would like one... I also have a PIC microcontroller
that acts as a general-purpose "spinner" interface (so one wheel can "talk"
Sega G-80, Atari, Omega Race, and TRON/MCRII formats)-- again, let me know
if I should make it available.

Q) Will the self test be availble for each game ?

A) Right now, no. There's nothing technically prohibiting it, but it's
pretty tedious patching the self-test code and it adds quite a bit of code
to the multi-game menu. (I only have about 512 bytes left without playing
some tricks.) The daughtercard runs the Star Trek self test which will
test the RAM, Video system, multipliers, spinner, all buttons, and
Universal Sound Board. If people are really worried about testing the
other sound boards I can probably cobble something together, but I'll make
it available on the web later for those that want it.

-Clay

Clayton N. Cowgill Engineering Manager
_______________________________________________________________________
/\ Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. clay@supra.com
\/ Communications Division http://www.supra.com/
Received on Tue Nov 11 15:31:19 1997