Re: Battlezone Question

Glad you have worked it out....

Amazingly simple circuit, but very clever and flexibale for doing multiple windows eh ? Those Atari engineers really knew what they were doing !!

Cheers, Colin
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Matt Rossiter
  To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
  Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 6:52 PM
  Subject: RE: VECTOR: Battlezone Question

  Well, It looks like both LM319 comparators at B12 and D12 were bad. Which doesn't surprise me since I originally had to replace the +15v regulator and some of the other components connected to it. The WNDWBLK line was stuck high.

  So, that's sort of an interesting option. You can hook up a +5v jumper to Pin 7 or 12 of one of the comparators to disable WINDWBLK and it will give you a full screen view. :)

  Thanks for the tips!

  Matt

  On Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:54:27 -0500, "Chris Brooks" <armis@pcdochouston.com> wrote:

    I’m such a dork - you are right – there is a circuit that at first look makes a couple of predefined areas, enabled by two latch lines. When the XY signals exceed set values, it blanks out the Z..

    I totally read that message wrong! I thought he was saying you couldn’t see the debris in the window! Ugh, it was too early for me I guess..

    So, yes – the circuit is made of XY comparators C11, D12, B12, area latch at H10, and a Z-blanking or gate at B7.

    Thanks,

    Chris Brooks

    713-931-0975

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    From: COLIN DAVIES [mailto:colin.w.davies@btopenworld.com]
    Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 6:55 AM
    To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
    Subject: RE: VECTOR: Battlezone Question

          There is a window circuit if I recall.... You need to check this out...

          The game software tells the vector generator to draw two points (either corner) to define the window size.

          Anything drawn outside of this done with zero intensity.

          It draws two windows iirc... One for the Game Screen, and one for the HIgh Score Section (Which could be the whole screen ?)

          Regards, Colin

          --- On Thu, 12/3/09, Chris Brooks wrote:

            From: Chris Brooks
            Subject: RE: VECTOR: Battlezone Question
            To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
            Date: Thursday, 12 March, 2009, 10:57 AM

            This is part of the game programming, and is as designed. There is no hardware that differentiates between upper screen and lower screen formats or areas, like there is on say Pac Man… For vectors, its just a list of drawing points in memory.

            So you indeed still have a boardset that works perfectly!

          Thanks,

          Chris Brooks

----------------------------------------------------------------------

          From: Matt Rossiter [mailto:matt@rossiters.com]
          Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 1:50 AM
          To: Vectorlist
          Subject: VECTOR: Battlezone Question

          I have a boardset that works perfectly except for one strange thing.

          Normally in the red area where you see the score and warning messages, you don't see things like exploding tank parts, missiles dropping out of the sky, the screen cracks, etc. On this board you can see everything in the red area.

          Although it looks pretty cool, I'm wondering what part of the circuitry limits the playground area and the score/messages area? It seems like there should be some "Y" limitation. I notice that the screen gets really bright in attract mode right before the Battlezone logo scrolls up. Which means to me the beam is already turned on before the Battlezone logo is visible on the screen.

          Maybe a bad counter?

          Matt

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Received on Fri Mar 13 16:08:32 2009