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I uploaded a cleaned-up die shot from The Generals 8010: http://www.seanriddle.com/thegenerals_metal.jpg

I think pin 1 must connect to the paddle, and from there to the bottom middle pad. I think pin 9 is the upper right, with numbering counterclockwise.

That would make the 4 LED outputs the 4 pads with the giant transistors, and the piezo outputs the 2 pads with smaller transistors.

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Originally Posted by krick
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.

It doesn't look like it has analog sound generation hardware, it looks like it's all state machines. Still it needs someone good at tracing out transistors to work out what the transition tables are.

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The die measures 2.8mm x 2.5mm. I have higher-res pics, and I'm going to clean it again in nitric acid before using Whink on it.

I'm surprised how much plastic is still stuck to the die; the plastic basically fell apart after I torched it, much more easily than even the TI chips. Then I cleaned the die in 300C nitric acid for 6 minutes, followed by ultrasonic cleaning in MEK. I repeated the cleaning twice more.

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Here are some more pics of the die from The Generals. I cleaned the die in nitric acid again, then used Whink on it. Since I had used nitric acid on it a few times, I only Whinked it for a minute, then took pics, then whinked it again, etc:
http://www.seanriddle.com/thegenerals_metal2.jpg
http://www.seanriddle.com/thegenerals_acid1.jpg
http://www.seanriddle.com/thegenerals_acid2.jpg
http://www.seanriddle.com/thegenerals_acid3.jpg

I also scanned the pieces, the manual, and part of the board:
http://www.seanriddle.com/thegenerals.7z

Here's a pic that's on the front of the box. The parts placement on the PCB is correct, although the traces are shown on the parts side (I guess it was boring the other way). But it's funny that the "electronic brain" is an empty socket!
[Linked Image from seanriddle.com]

I've got a 1979 Electronic Battleship coming. I think it will be identical to the 1977; if so, I'll get the missing O output PLA bits. If it's different, I'll document it and look for a cheap 1977 version. In the meantime, I picked up a 1982 Electronic Battleship. It's different in that it uses 4 AA batteries instead of 2 9Vs, and it has the code book. It uses a COP420 instead of a TMS1000. There's no sound chip; the COP generates all the effects.
http://www.seanriddle.com/cop400.html#bship82

Here's the code book:
http://www.seanriddle.com/bship82codebook.pdf

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hap asked to post it, since he can't connect to the forum:

<hap> can someone post an update for me on the handheld thread that Battleship '82 is emulated and playable? and also ask sean if he could provide a pcb photo please


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Hmm, I couldn't connect yesterday through my ISP; I had to tether to my phone. All other sites seemed to work OK.

Cool! I wasn't sure if the COP400 emulation was working well enough yet.

Here are the PCB pics:
http://www.seanriddle.com/bship82pcbfront.jpg
http://www.seanriddle.com/bship82pcbback.jpg

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Well, as it turns out, the weird '1980' Electronic Battleship board I have must be a cost-reduced, ASIC-ified version of the 1977/1979 version.

Front: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79094972/bship1980front.jpg
Back: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79094972/bship1980back.jpg

I haven't checked whether it has the book programming stuff (I doubt it), but it uses a single chip which has markings very similar to the ASIC-ified MB Simon chip seen here:
http://www.waitingforfriday.com/images/2/2e/Pocket_Simon_Circuit_Top.jpg

Hence I believe it is an ASIC. Its audio sounds very similar to the 1982 version when turned on, but the (much cheaper than 1977/1979) switches need some repair (carbon coated conductive paper disks are falling off the backs of the switches; the 1977/1979 version has metal conductive bell-shaped contacts attached to the switch shafts instead which are much harder to damage or fall off, but are also clearly more expensive to produce).

I assume this whole thing was done as a cost reduction measure, possibly as a buildup to lower the retail price of electronic battleship sometime in 1980.

LN


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Cool! I decapped that Simon ASIC: http://www.seanriddle.com/simon.html

The 1977 Battleship sounds are more "analog" than the 1982 sounds- the sonar ping especially is better.

I think it would be tough to put the codebook stuff into an ASIC. I bet that's why they switched to the COP.

My 1982 PCB and switches look as good as the 1977 unit. Maybe the cost-reduced version caused customer service headaches so they went back to the better version? There are still lots of giant solder joints to crack, though.

It'll be interesting to see if the 1979 that I have coming is like the 1977 with the TMS1000 and SN76477, or like the 1980 that you have.

It looks like the 1980 chip has 2 oscillator inputs (both tied to batt- with a resistor, batt+ with a cap).

(Had to use the phone to connect to the forum again.)

[Linked Image from seanriddle.com]

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I posted info for US Games Super Sport-4:

http://www.seanriddle.com/tms1100.html#ss4

I didn't get any of the overlays, so hopefully there are some scans out there.

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I posted info for Entex Soccer:

http://www.seanriddle.com/tms1000.html#entsocc

This one does not have the Pro/Am switch, which probably adjusted the clock speed. But I bet the ROM is the same.

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