Hi!... My name is Roberto Fresca, and I'm part of the MAME Dev Team since 1998. Here you can find some technical things about rare hardware. This site is intended to avoid duplicated efforts.
This page is still in construction...
Hi!... My name is Roberto Fresca, and I'm part of the MAME Dev Team since 1998. Here you can find some technical things about rare hardware. This site is intended to avoid duplicated efforts.
This page is still in construction...
--- 2011/09/20 02:45 ---
Thanks to an anonymous collaborator that kindly loaned his board, we have a newer version (20.05) of Croupier (Playmark, 1997). The PCB looks original, and has the infamous unidentified MCU. This new set is now the parent. The MCU calls are similar to the former set, so *maybe* we can try something with this unknown device further. For now, the MCU is simulated to keep the game working. Will see what can we do. Here some snaps...
In other news, we're working on another roulette game. Still preliminary, but at least we
got a disclaimer and a test screen...
Also I added a new poker game to the Baby Poker hardware (based on i8039 CPU), but is not working due to several things.
BTW... I'm *STILL* busy managing what I commented in the previous entry... More news soon!
--- 2011/09/08 02:30 ---
Oh, yes!... I'm still alive!. Some personal troubles and the big critical changes in the source got me out of the scene. I'll try to rewrite all the pending things that are not working anymore...
This time, I was dealing with another Wing game dumped by EMMA Italian Dumping Team: Bingo. Seems an addictive hybrid game. Here some snaps...
Also the Dumping Union recently sent me a new dump that was located as a clone. Both sets are
working properly with sound, complete inputs and buttons-lamps support. :-)
I'm also busy managing something big... More news soon!
--- 2011/05/16 04:00 ---
This time, a new version of Champion Poker (IGS) has arrived thanks to Team Europe. The set is in plain english and seems to be v100. Inputs were written from the scratch, and lights need to be reworked from the scratch too. Here some snaps...
I'll see if can get some spare time to rework the button-lamps.
--- 2011/04/05 02:30 ---
If you put in the first telepod Witch Card (Video Klein) and Royal Card (TAB Austria), surely you'll find this rare fusion in the second telepod. Thanks to Team Europe that kindly rescued and dumped the board. The game needs initialized NVRAM to work properly. The board has a epoxy CPU box with CPU, battery backed RAM, PLD and program ROM inside (as usual for Video Klein stuff). Here some snaps...
Frankengame courtesy of Bartok Science Industries... :-P
--- 2011/04/01 02:10 ---
Ok... Some time ago I received a original Lucky'74 CPU box. The same you can see in the picture below.
I just was curious about what's inside this epoxy brick, so I pulled out the cover...
Veery carefully, to avoid any damage. I found a CR2032 battery connected to 2 ultra-thin wires.
You can see a more detailed image here. The box is just a big trap. One side with a cover (front), that can be opened with some skills. A small place with the battery and two micro wires passing through a little hole to the other side. But the other side is all filled with epoxy resin.
Well... I was affraid that any attempt to remove the pot can damage the contents, or just melt down these 2 wires. So, I ordered a X-ray to see the wires connections... Guess what??
Being honest... Now I'm thinking twice about melt down the epoxy. Will see soon.
********** EDIT (2011-04-02) **********
Heh!... Now the April's Fools Day is gone. Sorry for the joke :-). Here is the correct (non-fake) X-Ray snap. Enjoy it!...
And thanks to all people that supported with good humor this joke... Even the japanese gentleman that offered to buy the "buggy" CPU. ;-)
--- 2011/03/30 18:30 ---
This time, the victim is Major Poker, from PAL System (Osaka, Japan). The game is a SUPERB strip poker 'alla' Lucky'74, but
with better whores graphics system (8bpp, interleaved by columns, and other rarities). The hardware is a
hell of PLD's with banked RAM, ROM, multiplexed inputs and much more... This game also has an addictive Fever mode.
Special thanks to Tomasz Slanina, that made a superb job helping with graphics and banking, and Rob Ragon for his invaluable help providing hardware specs, measurements, and some videos for comparison.
Here some snaps...
Another rare jewel finally preserved... :-)
--- 2011/03/05 15:30 ---
Again, with the help of Rob Ragon we found some great treasures! If you were to ask any old arcade operator about gambling games history, they would all say that it started with the Winners Circle horse racing machines. Made in the very early 80's (1980-1982) by Corona Co LTD, these machines were very addictive to play and used very modern hardware for the age. After a time, some companies made new software and hardware modifications for these boards (with some major hardware changes) to allow roulette to be played with as many as 6 players. The hardware is composed by 2x Z80 CPU's, 1x AY-3-8912, blitter for video, and a lot of weird things. Special thanks to Angelo Salese, that kindly helped me rewritting the blitter system and hooking periodic interrupts to the sound CPU. Here some snaps...
See the attract running: here.
Also supported some sets of Ruleta RE-800, running in the same hardware, with multiplexed ports and full artwork. The game allow up to 6 simultaneous players...
We're very happy getting this stuff finally preserved.
--- 2011/02/25 16:30 ---
Thanks to Rob Ragon that kindly supplied some dumps, we have now working Brasil 86, Brasil 87, Brasil 89 (an alternate version), and Brasil 93. The last one seems to be developed from another game, and has no lamps support at all. Strange, but real. Maybe was designed that way... Here some pics
