Home Page Forums MAME MAME TMS-09xx/1xxx thread (was New Dumps)

Oops, I meant to reply to this and forgot. I tried my scanner's descreening filter when I scanned the backgrounds, but it definitely made them look fuzzier, and I couldn't decide which looked better. It's likely that someone has a better descreening filter that could be applied to the backgrounds.

Spelling B 1979 emulated and working =)

Cool! I posted the Sears Follow Me info: www.seanriddle.com/tms1000.html

Do you have a better picture of the output PLA? If not, I see it only uses O0/O1 so that should be simple to solve.

*edit* this is what I can make out of it: http://tsk-tsk.net/net/temp/searsfollowme_metal_opla.png

By the way, is there any marking on the PCB that proves that it's Tiger Copycat?

I do. I'll post it and let you know. For some reason, O3-O6 are tied together, but unused.

<edit>It looks like you got it.


<edit2>There are no logos or copyrights on the PCB; the only text is CC REV B. CC is probably Copy Cat?

The later Tiger Copy Cat that I have only has this on the PCB: WS 8107-1. The cases are extremely similar. The later game has cutouts for switches that are no longer used that are covered by a sticker.

I used to do this with CD covers and such a lot... If I can remember my steps, I'll try them on the background and see how it works...

What resolution do you scan them at? One of the best ways to de-screen is to scan at a really high resolution (1200 or 2400 dpi), then apply some de-screen techniques, and re-size the image to 600 or 300 dpi equivalent if you don't need the giant images.
The only way to really remove them is to lightly blur the image to force them to blend (ultimately, that's what descreeners are doing, but with algorithms tuned to the print patterns and such), which causes the softness you were noticing. But if you do that at something at least twice the resolution you want in the end, when you re-size it, the softness goes away for the most part...

Sometimes just scanning at a really high resolution, and then re-sizing the image is enough to hide it adequately. Just depends on the printing techniques used on the original image.


I think I have an original-release Copy Cat (and several generations of it)... If I can find them, I can take a look and see how they compare.

Yep, those would be minimum guidelines. I always overdo it though as I don't want to have to scan anything twice... 600dpi is minimum, 1200dpi is better if you can. Higher than that is probably over kill for the stuff we are doing. Always turn off color correction and any other manipulation the scanning software wants to do (auto contrast, brightness, etc...)

I don't use commercial filters (although the Descreen one I've heard it pretty good). I use several steps involving Gaussian blur, unsharp mask, the resizing technique... I've always done it manually, and I've never liked the ones built into the scanner software (but my scanner is a few years old, I can only assume that has improved with time).

Are the original scans available? The Lone Ranger link doesn't seem to work...

Rik- I will rescan the backgrounds and upload them. Thanks!

I uploaded info on the newer Tiger Copy Cat game. The TI Master Selection 1983 doc says that the 20-pin version of the TMS1700 is the TMS1730, with 5 O outputs and 6 R outputs, but doesn't show the pinout. I'm not completely sure which of the 8 O and 9 R outputs were used- I tried to guess from the die shot. But 22 pads were bonded on the die, although the chip only had 20 pins. For some reason, 2 of the unused O output pads were bonded to.
www.seanriddle.com/tms1000.html