Re: Converting Star Castle to Armor Attack

In message "Converting Star Castle to Armor Attack", jwelser@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu writes:

>On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Matt Rossiter - Verio Southern California wrote:
>
>> One more quick question....
>>
>> How hard is it to take a CPU board out of a Star Castle and turn it into
>> and Armor Attack? Is it just a matter of changing the 4 roms or do you
>> have to change the custom proms as well?
>
> No, you don't need to change the PROMS. These are essentially
>microcode PROMS which are the same for all B/W Cinematronics games.

True.

> There IS the issue of the slightly different memory map (or,
>rather, expanded memory of Armor Attack.) Armor Attack/Solar Quest use
>more memory than Star Castle/Rip Off.

True. 8k vs 16k.

> I've never made this mod., but I remember Zonn and Paul K. talking
>about it from time to time. My recollection also tells me that it's
>pretty easy to mod the SC/RO board to run AA/SQ. I think it involved
>using one of the spare gates already on the board.

Also correct.

Check out Steve's Cine conversion faq. It will tell you everything you need to
know for the conversion you're interested in.

>As for other issues...
>I think the mod that is necessary is for intensity. Isn't Star Castle
>something like 16 levels of vector intenstiy while Armor Attack is 64?

This won't be a problem. They are both bi-level (dim, bright, off) games.

There is one 16 lvl (Sundance) and one 64 lvl (Solar Quest) game.

>Who's responsible for this Cine-MGame?

Me, Mark (something).

>Will it require a working CPU board as a basis (like Mpac and ESB/SW)?

Yes, it plugs into one of the ROM sockets. Also, the *working* part is important.

>Will it need discrete sound boards for each game?
>If so, will it have a multi-sound-board interface or
>have a more sophisticated way of doing this...?

You can use discrete sound boards. However, it (the CMG) has a
bi-directional interface to support the Cine Multi Sound board (when
we make it). The plan is ultimately to support the sound
as well as high scores and option settings, the rotary encoder i/f
and the analog i/f for TG.

>Which games will it support (AA/RO/SC or more)?

It supports ALL of the games.

>Please tell me (us) more ....

I wrote a more detailed description of the CMG. If you can't
find it in the archives, I can dig it up and send it to you.
I've been meaning to do this for some other people as well.

>SPW (I have an AA cocktail that's anxiously awaiting it,
>and some monitor repair)

Cool, I'll keep you posted.

>While we're on the subject... What's the status on that Cinematronics
>Multigame? I've got a Ripoff cocktail that's anxiously awaiting it. ;-)

It's actually working quite nicely. The h/w is done. I finally got a reflow oven.
Need to make the boards, but the s/w is really the biggest project.
Actually, I'm really happy with the way it's turning out.
The display and sound interfaces are working well too. I think any
person who knows something about the platform will really like it!
Oh, yeah, I think the game players will like it too!

It's just not quite as easy to design products for a proprietary system
with no tools, than it is when you're using an off the shelf CPU
with a separate vector state machine. ;-)

-Mark
Received on Mon Sep 13 14:27:09 1999