Re: CRT gun driver levels?

On Thu, 20 Aug 1998 17:54:40 -0400 (EDT), Ed Henciak <ethst3+@pitt.edu> wrote:

>I don't know about tthe color games, but I believe Solar Quest used 64
>different intensities. I think another DAC was used to control the Z
>axis, and the intensity value was latched by the bit that normally handels
>on and off. I forget where the intensity value comes from...Zonn?

The standard B&W Cine' game uses two intensity levels and OFF, Sundance used 16
levels and OFF, Solar Quest used 64 level and OFF.

The DACs for both Sundance and Solar quest was made from discrete HV transistor
(4 for Sundance, 6 for Solar Quest) that adjusted the 90v brightness line
directly. Though for a Cine to WG it won't make any difference to the software
how the intensities are handled hardware wise.

What will make a difference will be the software -> hardware interface. The
intensities were set by setting up the X-DAC position, then strobe the line
normally used to set the High/Low intensity in a normal Cine' game. The X-DAC
itself is not involved with the intensity circuit. It just shares the same data
lines.

Sundance and Solar Quest are not compatible (Solar Quest's 64 colors is not a
superset of Sundance's 16 colors). The logic levels are reversed and different
data lines were used for the address.

Boxing Bugs (and War of the Worlds) used the Color Card which mapped 16 levels
of intensities into each of the RGB guns using the same 12 data lines of the
X-DAC.

All three games use the same latching technique (The 'intensity' line is used to
latch the Colors/Levels).

If you get serious about needing this information I'll write up a short
description of what data lines are the MSB, Colors, Logic Levels, etc. so you
won't have to wade through the CINEINST.TXT doc. (It should all be in there.)

-Zonn
>
>Ed
>
>I'm almost positive there are a couple other cine vector games that used
>multi-level intensities
>
>On Thu, 20 Aug 1998, Clay Cowgill wrote:
>
>> After promising myself I was NOT going to look at the
>> Cinematronics->Wells Gardner monitor adapter I somehow managed to start
>> tinkering with it at lunch today...
>>
>> Anyway, I was plinking around with one of the schematics from Al's scans
>> with Electronics Workbench and noticed what I consider "odd" behavior in
>> the Z-output section.
>>
>> Do any of you have a feel for CRT electron gun drive levels and what's
>> reasonable? I seem to recall 4V being about peak into a vector monitor
>> and black level being maybe 1.8-2V?
>>
>> How many intensity levels did the Cinematronics vector stuff use? The
>> circuit I'm playing with seems to output 0V, 2.27V, 3.99V, and 4.07V.
>> That's telling me it's really just two intensities and "off". Is .08V
>> enough to even see a difference on a BW vector display? (I wouldn't
>> think so, plus the difference is probably smaller than is caused by part
>> tolerances anyway...)
>>
>> Curious to hear anyone's experiences w/ this stuff.
>>
>> -Clay
>>
>> BTW, I'm out of the new SW/ESB boards at the moment, so I'm getting a
>> few more PCB's run. Anybody have a good source for X2212's (novram)?
>>
>

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

 ------ ___ Member of A.A.C.S.:
 |---- | ( ) Association for Artistically
    / / ( () ) Challenged Signatures
   / / //\\ // (__)
  / ---/ // \\ //\\ // zonn @ zonn . com
 -------| // \\/
Received on Thu Aug 20 17:45:11 1998