Document Title: [Grav_to_BlkWidow.txt (text file)]
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| SWITCHABLE CONVERSION BETWEEN GRAVITAR AND BLACK WIDOW |
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COPYRIGHT 1993
REVISION NUMBER: 1.1 (first public release)
REVISION DATE: 17 March 1994
CREATED BY: Doug Jefferys
STANDARD DISCLAIMER:
--------------------
The author hereby grants permission to reproduce and distribute this
document for personal use, subject to the condition that the document
(along with any copyright and disclaimer notices) is not modified in
any way. The opinions expressed within this document are those of the
author only and not necessarily those of the author's employer. This
document is provided for informational purposes only. Although the
author has made every effort to provide accurate information, he cannot
guarantee the accuracy or usefulness of any of the information contained
herein due to the complexity of the issues involved. The author takes
no responsibility for anything arising as a result of anyone using the
information provided in this document, and the reader hereby absolves
the author of any and all liability arising from any activities
resulting from the use of any information contained herein.
GENERAL OVERVIEW:
-----------------
Once upon a time there was a game called Gravitar. Best described
as "Lunar Lander with guns", it was a good game, and lots of fun.
Once upon a time there was also a game called Black Widow. Best
described as "a cross between Robotron:2084 and Centipede, but played
on a vector monitor", it was also good, and lots of fun.
Black Widow boards have a cute little sticker on 'em. If you own
such a board, and you peel back this sticker, you'll be greeted with
a neat surprise: they're actually Gravitar boards in disguise.
Okay, so the control panels are a little different -- you might
want to add two four-directional joysticks to your Gravitar panel,
or you might want to add five buttons to your Black Widow panel,
but considering that you can save yourself the trouble of buying
a whole new cabinet, it's a small price to pay.
Now that you've gotten the control panels out of the way, there
still remains the subject of the boards. A simple ROM swap will
do the trick, but won't help you much if you want to switch back
and forth on a regular basis. You're looking at either a lot of
ROM swapping, or finding a new board to plug in. One method is
time-consuming and potentially damaging to the components, and
the other requires a considerable hardware investment.
Wouldn't it be nice if it were just a matter of flicking a switch
and swapping control panels? Why bother swapping an army of ROMs
when both games can be held on a single chip? People have designed
multi-carts for home video game systems before, so why can't the
same idea be applied here?
Unlike home games, most arcade games from the early '80s ran on
proprietary hardware architectures which were unique from game to
game. It turns out, however, that the multi-cart technology *can*
be applied in some rare instances. This is one of them.
At the end of this project, you'll have two small daughterboards and
a few small connectors. Plugging the daughterboards into sockets on
the main board and soldering the wires from the connectors onto some
test points (also on the main board) will give you the ability to
convert back and forth between the two games at the flick of a switch.
Sections labeled "Tech Note" are primarily for people who want to
know *WHY* the hack works, and how it was designed. If you're only
interested in building the unit, you can skim over these sections.
INGREDIENTS:
------------
1 - Working Gravitar/Black Widow machine (kinda helps :-)
1 - Set of controls for whichever game you don't currently own
1 - 27512 EPROM at 450ns or faster
1 - 27256 EPROM at 450ns or faster
3 - 7408 quad AND chips
2 - chunks of blank breadboard, .100" spacing, about 2.5 inches square
2 - 12-pin female .100" MTA connectors
2 - 12-pin male .100" strip headers
1 - 4-pin female .100" MTA connector
1 - 4-pin male .100" strip header
2 - 28-pin chip sockets
2 - 24-pin chip sockets
3 - 14-pin chip sockets
4 - 14-pin male .100" strip headers
You will also need an EPROM programmer (or a friend who has one),
binary dumps of the original Gravitar and Black Widow ROMs, a wire-
wrapping tool and a soldering iron.
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS:
----------------------
0) Read all of these instructions before you begin.
Steps 1 and 2 can be done at your desk in about half an hour.
Step 3 is just background information, but you should probably
understand the material as the hack won't make much sense without
some background information.
Step 4 should take about half an hour.
If you get tired, *STOP* and take a break. Half an hour spent
lounging around the house and finishing off last night's pizza
will make you feel better and will save you at least two hours
of debugging time later :-)
1) Create the ROM data files:
1.1) Read the Gravitar and Black Widow ROMs (All 2532s except for
the one 2716) and store the data on disk. We will assume, in
this example, that you name the data files after the chips'
part numbers.
1.2) Create a dummy file of $FFs, 2048 bytes long.
Call this file "blank.fff"
1.3) Create the program ROM, a 27512. The contents of the Gravitar
and Black Widow program ROMs will be mapped onto the following
addresses relative to the 64K of memory available on the chip:
$0000-$0FFF = BLANK
$1000-$6FFF = GR 201..206
$6FFF-$7FFF = GR 206 (may only need to copy $6FFA..$6FFF)
$8000-$8FFF = BLANK
$9000-$EFFF = BW 101..106
$F000-$FFFF = BW 106 (may only need to copy $EFFA..$EFFF)
Executing the following script will create the required file:
cat blank.fff > 27512.dat
cat blank.fff >> 27512.dat
cat 136010.201 >> 27512.dat
cat 136010.202 >> 27512.dat
cat 136010.203 >> 27512.dat
cat 136010.204 >> 27512.dat
cat 136010.205 >> 27512.dat
cat 136010.206 >> 27512.dat
cat 136010.206 >> 27512.dat
cat blank.fff >> 27512.dat
cat blank.fff >> 27512.dat
cat 136017.101 >> 27512.dat
cat 136017.102 >> 27512.dat
cat 136017.103 >> 27512.dat
cat 136017.104 >> 27512.dat
cat 136017.105 >> 27512.dat
cat 136017.106 >> 27512.dat
cat 136017.106 >> 27512.dat
Tech Note: No, you can't use $0000-$0FFF for storing your
own hacks unless you want to modify the address
decoding considerably. This hack is designed to
use the game's on-board address decoding to do
most of the work, and the low $1000 bytes of the
27512 ($8000..$8FFF in Gravitar's memory map)
don't map onto any existing ROM space.
Tech Note: You probably *CAN* use $7000-$7FF9 (and $E000..$EFF9)
as blank space for your own hacks. I suspect that
only the last six bytes of this memory are required
to hold the 6502's reset vectors. No guarantees,
as I haven't had time to test this theory, but it's
a good guess.
1.4) Create the vector ROM, a 27256:
$0000-$07FF = BLANK
$0800-$0FFF = GR 210
$1000-$3FFF = GR 207..209
$4000-$47FF = BLANK
$4800-$4FFF = BW 107
$5000-$7FFF = BW 108..110
Tech Note: Again, since we're using the on-board address
decoding and chip selection signals, you can't
use the low $0800 bytes for storing your own hacks.
Executing the following script will create the required file:
cat blank.fff > 27256.dat
cat 136010.210 >> 27256.dat
cat 136010.207 >> 27256.dat
cat 136010.208 >> 27256.dat
cat 136010.209 >> 27256.dat
cat blank.fff >> 27256.dat
cat 136017.107 >> 27256.dat
cat 136017.108 >> 27256.dat
cat 136017.109 >> 27256.dat
cat 136017.110 >> 27256.dat
2) Fry up the ROMs:
2.1) Burn a 27512 with the contents of "27512.dat", and burn a 27256
with the contents of "27256.dat".
Tech Note: In case you're wondering why we didn't put the vector
ROMs and program ROMs onto the same chip, there's a
catch in the game's architecture: the machine has
separate address and data buses for program and vector
RAM and ROM. We are therefore forced to have two sets
of address and data lines, and consequently, two chips.
Tech Note: When we're done everything, flicking a switch will
pull the A15 line of the 27512 high or low, resulting
in data being read from the top or bottom (Gravitar
or Black Widow) halves of the chip. The same idea
will be applied to the 27256 and A14. It's now just
a matter of figuring out when to enable/disable the
chips' outputs -- address decoding.
3) Okay, you've got your chips. Now we have to figure out when to
read data from the chips, and from what addresses we should do
the reading.
[Editor's Note: This whole section is basically an extended tech
note, but it's probably worth reading, just to
get a feel for what we're trying to accomplish
with all of this...]
Figuring out *when* to read data is fairly simple. The game PCB
has test points on all chip selection lines, marked !ROM[0..5] and
!VROM[0..3]. Figuring out *where* to read from is a bit more fun;
we will use the chip-selection signals to *deduce* the addresses
from which we're going to read our data.
The cute part of this technique is that we only have to deduce
a few address lines, as A0..A11 and D0..D8 are all supplied to
us from the existing chip sockets. This greatly reduces the
amount of wiring involved and, as an added bonus, allows us to
plug the "final product" into any socket we feel like.
So, our inputs are the !ROMx and !VROMx chip selection lines,
and our outputs are going to be a set of address lines above
A11, and one chip selection signal to enable/disable the main
chip. A little muddling with the schematics and game memory
map produces the following logic functions:
PGM: A12 = !ROM1 && !ROM3
A13 = !ROM0 && !ROM3 && !ROM4
A14 = !ROM0 && !ROM1 && !ROM2
!CS = !ROM0 && !ROM1 && !ROM2 && !ROM3 && !ROM4 && !ROM5
= A13 && A14 && !ROM5
VEC: A12 = !VROM0 && !VROM2
A13 = !VROM0 && !VROM1
!CS = !VROM0 && !VROM1 && !VROM2 && !VROM3
= A12 && A13 && !VROM3
What we will eventually want to do is hook up a bunch of 7408
quad-AND chips to evaluate these functions and pass their results
on to the ROMs.
There's one other catch. We're using 28-pin 27xx-series EPROMs,
and the board is set for 24-pin 25xx-series EPROMs. We have to
integrate an adaptor into the circuit in order to allow us to use
the address and data lines as they come from the socket without
doing extra wiring.
4) Here's where the fun begins. Build the adaptor to allow you to
plug the big EPROMs into the 2532 sockets on the two pieces of
daughterboard.
Tech Note: Here are the pinouts for a 2532, a 27256, and a 27512.
We want to build something that will let us plug the
27xxx-series chips into the game's existing 2532
sockets.
__ __ __ __
+5V| U |+5V A15| U |+5V
__ __ A12| |A14 A12| |A14
A7| U |+5V A7| |A13 A7| |A13
A6| |A8 A6| |A8 A6| |A8
A5| |A9 A5| |A9 A5| |A9
A4| |+5V A4| 2 |A11 A4| 2 |A11
A3| 2 |!CS A3| 7 |!CS A3| 7 |!CS
A2| 5 |A10 A2| 2 |A10 A2| 5 |A10
A1| 3 |A11 A1| 5 |!CE A1| 1 |!CE
A0| 2 |D7 A0| 6 |D7 A0| 2 |D7
D0| |D6 D0| |D6 D0| |D6
D1| |D5 D1| |D5 D1| |D5
D2| |D4 D2| |D4 D2| |D4
GND|_____|D3 GND|_____|D3 GND|_____|D3
Note the similarities between these pinouts. We can
ignore the !CS signal on the 2532, as it no longer
has any relevance to us, and we'll also have to move
the +5V and A11 lines. The rest of the pins can go
straight through to the chip; no wiring required.
We'll use strip headers for those "straight through"
connections, cutting off any lines we don't need, and
bending any lines we'd like to reroute away from the
chip, again simplifying the wiring job ahead.
4.1) Start by putting the 14-pin strip headers into both boards,
as shown below. Note that you want the longer pins of the
strip header to stick out of the top side of the boards, and
the shorter pins to be on the bottom.
Viewed from the top, the boards should look like this:
LEGEND:
-------
. = empty hole on breadboard
* = a pin from a 14-pin male strip header
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PIN 15 .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. PIN 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The view from the side should look like this:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
=========================================== < breadboard
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * < plastic surrounding pins
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | < pin
4.2) Cut off pin 22 (!CS) of the strip header; it won't be used
by anything in the circuit.
4.3) Bend pins 23 and 26 at right angles. These will eventually
supply the circuit with its +5V power.
4.4) Also bend down pin 20. This pin will supply the chip with
the A11 signal from the 2532 socket.
When you have completed the preceding three steps, both boards
should look something like this when viewed from the top...
LEGEND:
-------
. = empty hole on breadboard
* = a pin from a 14-pin male strip header
x = a *cut* pin from the strip header
| = a *bent* pin from the strip header
. . . . . . | . . | . . | . . . . . . . . .
. . . . * * | * * | x * | * * * * * . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PIN 15 .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. PIN 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...and something like this when viewed from the side.
LEGEND:
-------
= = breadboard material
* = the plastic that surrounds the row of pins in the strip header
| = uncut pins
x = the stub of the cut pin
. = the end of a bent pin, pointing towards the viewer.
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
PIN 15 | | | | | . | x . | | . | | PIN 28 < pin (also bent/cut pins)
===========================================
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
4.5) Using a soldering iron, tin the leads of the tops of the strip
header pins and the pins of a 28-pin socket. This will make
the next step infinitely easier to perform, and make the final
product considerably more reliable.
4.6) Place the 28-pin socket on *top* of the strip header pins and
solder all connecting pins in place. Probably the best way
to start is to solder the four pins on the corners of the chip
first. This will hold things in place solidly enough to do the
rest of the soldering job. When you're done, finish up by
reflowing the solder on the four corner pins you started with.
When you are done, you should have something that looks like this:
LEGEND:
-------
# = body of 28-pin socket
! = pins from 28-pin socket
= = breadboard material
* = the plastic that surrounds the row of pins in the strip header
| = uncut pins from the strip header
x = the stub of the cut pin
. = the end of a bent pin, pointing towards the viewer.
########################### < 28-pin socket body
########################### < 28-pin socket body
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! < pins from 28-pin socket
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
PIN 15 | | | | | . | x . | | . | | PIN 28
===========================================
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
4.7) You're almost done. Now you want to wire up the last few pins to
complete the adaptors, specifically the A11 line and the +5V lines.
Going back to our side view, we've labeled the appropriate pins
with "A" and "B". Connect the two "A" pins to connect A11, and
connect the three pins marked "B" to supply +5V to the chip.
###########################
###########################
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
| | | | | | A | | | | < A = A11 to the 27xxx
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | A | B | | B | | < A = A11 from the 2532
PIN 15 | | | | | . | x . | | . | | PIN 28 < B = +5V from the 2532
===========================================
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |B < B = +5V to the 27xxx
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
4.8) Complete the adaptors by plugging them into the two 24-pin sockets
you obtained earlier, as shown in the diagram below. (Due to the
limitations of ASCII drawings, we have not shown the wiring you
performed during the previous step)
LEGEND:
-------
# = body of 28- or 24-pin socket
! = pins from 28- or 24-pin socket
= = breadboard material
* = the plastic that surrounds the row of pins in the strip header
| = uncut pins from the strip header
x = the stub of the cut pin
. = the end of a bent pin, pointing towards the viewer.
###########################
###########################
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
| | | | | | A | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | A | B | | B | |
PIN 15 | | | | | . | x . | | . | | PIN 28
===========================================
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |B
####################### | | < 24-pin socket body
####################### < 24-pin socket body
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! < pins from 24-pin socket
Test-fit the completed adaptors by plugging them into the 24-pin
sockets on the main board. You will probably have to bend the
test points down to give yourself enough clearance. Just be
gentle when bending the test points out of the way and be sure
not to bend them down so far that they short out the traces
on the main board. When you are done, the test points should
probably be at about a 30-degree angle relative to the board.
5) Lay out the rest of parts as shown in the diagrams below.
The EPROM sockets will already be present from the adaptor work
you performed in step 4) above. You still have to add the 14-pin
sockets for the 7408 quad-AND chips and the 12- and 4-pin connectors
which will be used to connect the hack to the main board.
Now it's time to start wrapping!
The wrap lists will be in the form "Xn - Ym", where "X" and "Y"
denote components as depicted in steps 5.1) and 5.2) below, and
"n" and "m" denote pin numbers. Explanatory notes and/or signal
names are shown off to the right of the list.
For example:
E28 - X14 | +5V
means to connect pin 28 of the EPROM to pin 14 of the first 7408,
and that the connection carries +5VDC.
Remember that the wrap lists are from the point of view of the
pin numbers on the ICs -- i.e. that the diagrams shown above
depict the boards as shown from the *PARTS* side, not the *WIRING*
side. You will have to mentally flip things around if you want to
use the diagrams to do the wrapping.
This bears repeating, especially for inexperienced wire-wrappers.
Make absolutely sure that if you're connecting something to "the
second pin from the leftmost" on some chip on the diagrams above,
that you actually connect it to the second pin from the RIGHT on
the chip when you're looking at it from below. It's an easy
mistake to make, and it can be very frustrating.
If you've got small labels to stick on the bottom of your board
to prevent this kind of mistake, by all means use 'em.
Okay, you're ready to wrap. Grab your tools and wire, get comfy,
and go to work!
5.1) Program (27512) board:
LEGEND:
-------
. = empty hole on breadboard
P = 27512 EPROM
X = 7408 quad-AND chip
Y = 7408 quad-AND chip
C = 12-pin connector
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . P P P P P P P P P P P P P P . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PIN 1 P P P P P P P P P P P P P P . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C PIN 1 . .
. . . . X X X X X X X . . . . . C . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
PIN 1 X X X X X X X . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . Y Y Y Y Y Y Y . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
PIN 1 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.---------------------.
| POWER / MISCELLANY: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| P28 - X14 | +5V |
| X14 - Y14 | +5V |
| P14 - X7 | GND |
| X7 - Y7 | GND |
| P14 - P20 | !CE should be low; the chip should always be active |
| C2 - P1 | GAME_SELECT connects to A15 on the 27512 |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
.---------------------.
| CHIP SELECT INPUTS: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| C5 - X2 | !ROM0 |
| C5 - X9 | !ROM0 |
| C6 - X10 | !ROM1 |
| C6 - X12 | !ROM1 |
| C7 - X4 | !ROM2 |
| C8 - X1 | !ROM3 |
| C8 - X13 | !ROM3 |
| C9 - Y12 | !ROM4 |
| C10 - Y5 | !ROM5 |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
.--------------------------.
| INTERMEDIATE PROCESSING: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| X8 - X5 | !ROM0 && !ROM1 |
| X6 - Y2 | A14 == (!ROM0 && !ROM1) && !ROM2 |
| X3 - Y13 | !ROM0 && !ROM3 |
| Y11 - Y1 | A13 == (!ROM0 && !ROM3) && !ROM4 |
| Y3 - Y4 | A13 && A14 |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
.------------------.
| ADDRESS OUTPUTS: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| X6 - P27 | A14 |
| X11 - P2 | A12 |
| Y11 - P26 | A13 |
| Y6 - P22 | !CS == (A13 && A14) && !ROM5 |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
5.2) Vector (27256) board:
LEGEND:
-------
. = empty hole on breadboard
V = 27256 EPROM
Z = 7408 quad-AND chip
C = 12-pin connector
D = 4-pin connector
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . V V V V V V V V V V V V V V . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PIN 1 V V V V V V V V V V V V V V . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C PIN 1 . .
. . . . Z Z Z Z Z Z Z . . . . . C . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
PIN 1 Z Z Z Z Z Z Z . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . PIN 1 D D D D . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.---------------------.
| POWER / MISCELLANY: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| V28 - V1 | +5V |
| V1 - Z14 | +5V |
| Z14 - D3 | +5V |
| V14 - Z7 | GND |
| Z7 - D1 | GND |
| V14 - V20 | !CE should be low; the chip should always be active |
| C2 - V27 | GAME_SELECT connects to A14 on the 27256 |
| D2 - C2 | GAME_SELECT originates at the 4-pin connector |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
.---------------------.
| CHIP SELECT INPUTS: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| C5 - Z1 | !VROM0 |
| C5 - Z5 | !VROM0 |
| C6 - Z4 | !VROM1 |
| C7 - Z2 | !VROM2 |
| C8 - Z9 | !VROM3 |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
.--------------------------.
| INTERMEDIATE PROCESSING: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Z3 - Z13 | A12 == (!VROM0 && !VROM2) |
| Z6 - Z12 | A13 == (!VROM0 && !VROM1) |
| Z11 - Z10 | A12 && A13 |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
.------------------.
| ADDRESS OUTPUTS: |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Z3 - V2 | A12 |
| Z6 - V26 | A13 |
| Z8 - V22 | !CS == (A12 && A13) && !VROM3 |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
6) Wire the connectors:
Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of two cute little
daughterboards with cute little connectors on 'em. Maybe now would
be a good time to turn them into something useful, eh?
For the easiest "fit" in terms of wiring, the vector daughterboard
should be plugged into location M7, and the program daughterboard
should go into E/F1.
Plunk your daughterboards into the suggested locations, and imagine
a single wire connecting the daughterboards to each other, and lots
of wires connecting the daughterboards to the nearby !ROMx and !VROMx
test points on the game PCB. Finally, imagine some wires going from
the vector daughterboard to a switch, either in your cabinet, or on
the control panel, which will be used to switch between the two games.
This gives you a rough idea of what the final setup will look like.
6.1) Program (27512) board:
One of your .100" female MTA 12-pin connectors should be labeled
as follows:
1 - GND
2 - GAME_SELECT
3 - +5V
4 - N/C (key)
5 - !ROM0
6 - !ROM1
7 - !ROM2
8 - !ROM3
9 - !ROM4
10 - !ROM5
11 - N/C
12 - N/C
GND and +5V are actually redundant -- they are artifacts of a
previous design, and can be included for completeness, or can
be omitted.
!ROM0 through !ROM5 should be filled with medium-length wires.
Insert one end of the wire into the connector, and make sure
you have enough length to connect to the appropriate !ROMx test
point on the game PCB.
GAME_SELECT should hold a long wire; long enough to connect it
to the other daughterboard in the vector ROM area of the main
board.
6.2) Vector (27256) board:
The other .100" female MTA 12-pin connectors should be labeled
as follows:
1 - GND
2 - GAME_SELECT
3 - +5V
4 - N/C (key)
5 - !VROM0
6 - !VROM1
7 - !VROM2
8 - !VROM3
9 - N/C
10 - N/C
11 - N/C
12 - N/C
GND and +5V are actually redundant -- they are artifacts of a
previous design, and can be included for completeness, or can
be omitted.
!VROM0 through !VROM5 should be filled with medium-length wires.
Insert one end of the wire into the connector, and make sure
you have enough length to connect to the appropriate !VROMx
test point on the game PCB.
GAME_SELECT should hold a long wire; long enough to connect it
to the other daughterboard in the program ROM area of the main
board.
6.3) 4-pin connector:
The final .100" female MTA 4-pin connector should be labeled
as follows:
1 - GND
2 - GAME_SELECT
3 - +5V
4 - N/C (key)
If you're using an external switch, GND and +5V *NOT* redundant
here; you'll need a way of turning GAME_SELECT high or low at
the flick of a switch.
If you're mounting the GAME_SELECT switch on the control panel,
however, you only need to wire up GAME_SELECT, as GND and +5V
are already present on the control panel.
See section 8) below for more details; you should decide which
choice you will take before completing this step, as the choice
affects the amount and style of wiring you'll have to do.
7) Wire up the test points:
7.1) Plug the 12-pin and 4-pin connectors into the daughterboards.
7.2) Tin the leads of the !ROMx and !VROMx wires coming from the
connectors. Also, tin the "leads" created by the !ROMx and
!VROMx test points on the main PCB.
7.3) Solder the !ROMx wires onto the !ROMx test points, and the
!VROMx wires to the !VROMx test points.
Check everything twice, and wiggle the soldered wires to make
sure your joints are solid. A broken solder joint here can
send a loose wire shorting across dozens of nearby PCB traces,
with potentially catastrophic results. If you've tinned your
leads properly and done a good job of soldering, you'll never
have to worry about it.
8) Connect the game selection switch:
First, decide what kind of a switch you want to use. You can either
mount a switch externally, connecting it to the game PCB through the
4-pin connector, or you can mount it on the control panel for a more
finished appearance.
8.1) External switch:
The 4-pin female connector in section 6.3) should have three
wires coming out of it; GND, +5V, and GAME_SELECT. Connect
these to a toggle switch such that one switch position forces
GAME_SELECT to +5V, and the opposite position forces GAME_SELECT
to GND. You're done!
8.2) Control-panel-mounted switch:
For maximum ease of use, and a lot less strain on the connectors
to boot, you don't have to hook your switch directly to the 4-pin
connector. Instead, hook things up directly to the game's wiring
harness and mount the switch on the control panel.
This is especially useful if you've added joysticks (or buttons,
depending on what you started with) to your existing control panel
to avoid the need for panel-swapping. If you're going to modify
your control panel, why not go all the way? A toggle switch mounted
directly below the P1 and P2 start buttons is easy to access and
gives your cabinet a finished, professional appearance.
If you decide to go this route, you only need the GAME_SELECT pin
on the 4-pin connector from section 6.3). Connect the wire coming
from the 4-pin connector to one of the unused pins on the PCB.
Then, add a pin to the main wiring harness to carry the GAME_SELECT
signal to the main control panel, the utility panel, or any other
area of your cabinet. If you use the control panel, for instance,
you only have one wire to worry about, as you can use the +5V (LED
driver) and GND lines already present on the panel connector to
hook up your switch.
Connect GND, +5V, and GAME_SELECT to your toggle switch such that
one switch position forces GAME_SELECT to +5V, and the opposite
position forces GAME_SELECT to GND. You're done!
TROUBLESHOOTING:
----------------
- When working directly the main PCB (wiring up the !ROM and !VROM
test points), be careful about static. If you've got an ESD-safe
workstation, use it. The probability of damaging your board while
soldering is low, but there's no point in taking unnecessary chances.
- Check *EVERYTHING* for shorts, etc... before powering up your
converted board. Go over it and look for little bits of solder
that went to the wrong place, strands of wire, *anything* that
could cause trouble. If you've got a multimeter with a continuity
checker, use it. The fifteen minutes you spend now may save your
boards later.
- The test points on the PCB are fairly tall. Once you've plugged
the hack into your board, you may notice that the test points come
into contact with the bottom of the daughterboards, either shorting
out pins, or pushing the daughterboards out of their sockets. As
you can probably guess, both of these possibilities are Bad Things.
If it happens on your hack, bend the test points down to about
a 45-degree angle. This will solve the problem. Just use gentle
pressure, and be careful not to bend the test points down all the
way, or you'll run the risk of shorting out the traces on the PCB,
which is an Even Worse Thing!
- Solder is brittle and can crack easily. If you've bent the test
points as described above, you might want to reflow the solder
joints connecting the wire to the test point, and the test point
to the PCB. You should also pay close attention to the quality
of the solder joints that form the connection between the various
layers of your adaptors, and be gentle when plugging in or removing
the daughterboards.
- When switching between games, power things off and wait for a few
seconds before flicking the switch. Switching "on the fly" will
confuse the hell out of the machine. In most cases, the program
will crash, leading to an immediate reset, but it's conceivable
that there are portions of code during which a switch could lead
to sufficient confusion to cause hardware damage. Why take the
chance?
Good luck building this gadget, and happy hacking!
}
