Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 156 of 418 1 2 154 155 156 157 158 417 418
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
S
Very Senior Member
OP Offline
Very Senior Member
S
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
Hmm, single-chip combo of TMS1x00 and SN76477? Or did they just recreate all the sounds digitally?

The codes are A1-J10, giving 100 preset positions. I think that's an index into a table, since there are constraints on how the grids are populated.

A grid bitmap would take about 13 bytes per game, which seems like too much. 2 bytes/ship (start x, start y, size, direction) would reduce that to 10 bytes per game, and you could crunch that data into 1.5 bytes/ship pretty easily.

Let me know when you've got the driver working and I'll help figure out the missing bytes in the O output PLA.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
H
hap Offline
Very Senior Member
Offline
Very Senior Member
H
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
Did it come with instruction manual? If so could you photograph it? I can't find the manual online for the 1977 version, only for the 1982 version.

BTW Here are the .pla files necessary for emulation: http://tsk-tsk.net/net/temp/bship.zip

Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
S
Very Senior Member
OP Offline
Very Senior Member
S
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
I scanned the manual: www.seanriddle.com/electronicbattleship77.pdf

Other than the codebook stuff, I don't see anything in it different from the non-talking manual on Hasbro's site.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
H
hap Offline
Very Senior Member
Offline
Very Senior Member
H
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
Thanks. I tried the test procedure and I think it works, by looking at what the game outputs on the O pins. Next is hooking up the SN76477.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
H
hap Offline
Very Senior Member
Offline
Very Senior Member
H
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
Is the chip corner unsalvageable? I don't think I can get very far with the sound emulation myself.

Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
S
Very Senior Member
OP Offline
Very Senior Member
S
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
Yeah, it's somewhere on my driveway, sorry. Even if it came off in one piece, it's only like 1/2 mm x 3/4 mm, so it's pretty tiny. I didn't even notice it was chipped until I looked at it under the microscope.

There's one on ebay now for $10+$15 shipping. I'll email the guy and see if he'll ship just the middle part for less.

Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
S
Very Senior Member
OP Offline
Very Senior Member
S
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
I got The Generals today- thanks krick! I torched the chip and took some pics, but I need to clean off some stuck plastic with nitric acid. The top of the chip is labeled 8010 4E-0443 8014, and the bottom, very faintly, says 8010 PHIL. Turns out that 8010 is the part #; it's also on the die, along with C SMC 1979. It's definitely not an MCU.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
H
hap Offline
Very Senior Member
Offline
Very Senior Member
H
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,368
Likes: 120
Boo, I lost the bet.

krick you're not out of luck yet, but this will take a lot of effort to emulate and is way out of my league. I hope this sort of low-level stuff will be a candidate in the future.

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 23
K
Member
Offline
Member
K
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 23
I'm guessing that some of the chip is just logic gates for the piece comparison part.

What I don't understand how it plays noises and the victory tune (Taps). Is part of the chip analog for the tone generation?

Does emulating this stuff fall into the Derek Renaud / couriersud domain?

It's nowhere near the complexity of something like pong, so hopefully, it won't need a Dice-level effort.

Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
S
Very Senior Member
OP Offline
Very Senior Member
S
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,051
I don't think there needs to be any analog. It is similar to, but simpler than, Simon. Just a state machine that gets inputs from the pieces, and some of the states output square waves for the tones.

The SMC databooks on bitsavers talk about their custom chip offerings: http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.bitsavers.org/pdf/standardMicrosystems/

The info changes from year to year, but one year they mentioned that custom work was about 1/3 of their revenue. And they mention the different industries that used their custom chips, including entertainment and toys.

They moved into networking chips and got bought by Microchip a few years ago.

After I clean up the die, I'll post the pics.

Page 156 of 418 1 2 154 155 156 157 158 417 418

Link Copied to Clipboard
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 305 guests, and 1 robot.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
ShoutChat
Comment Guidelines: Do post respectful and insightful comments. Don't flame, hate, spam.
Forum Statistics
Forums9
Topics9,320
Posts121,923
Members5,074
Most Online1,283
Dec 21st, 2022
Our Sponsor
These forums are sponsored by Superior Solitaire, an ad-free card game collection for macOS and iOS. Download it today!

Superior Solitaire
Forum hosted by www.retrogamesformac.com