Any chance of a Sea Wolf HS save kit?

DP Louie

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Like the title says... Is this even possible?

I just got my Sea Wolf going and I've been enjoying it for the last couple of days. It just sucks that the scores aren't saved. I have no idea what would be involved with something like this. I know that Space Invaders uses a similar boardset, and Braze's multi kit saves the scores, so I'm assuming it's do-able. Nothing fancy, no initial input, just a score save feature.
 
I wonder how they would work out the problem of the score rolling back to zero once you hit 10,000?

Well, that wouldn't be a problem for me seeing as how I'll probably never be good enough to score that high. :D

Seriously, I didn't know it did that. Interesting. So does it display the score (say 11,100 ;)) momentarily then zero out? I wonder why it does that...
 
Well, that wouldn't be a problem for me seeing as how I'll probably never be good enough to score that high. :D

Seriously, I didn't know it did that. Interesting. So does it display the score (say 11,100 ;)) momentarily then zero out? I wonder why it does that...

If you end up scoring 9,900...the next ship you hit puts you AT 10K or over, so it rolls back to zero, or 300, or 600, or whatever. When I scored 11,100 the final score read 1,100. I'm assuming that the programmers probably thought most operators would set the dipswitches to 60 sec, and I personally believe that 9,900 is the max you can score on a 60 sec game; so there was no reason to make the numbers go any higher. Or, maybe it was a program memory thing. Maybe they couldn't add that extra number for scores. That may be the case, after all, the PT boat gets choppy when another boat is on the screen at the same time. That's some friggin low memory.
 
Actually it would be cool if the HS save kit included an extra digit for the score and allowed you to have a longer game. I can't imagine it would be that hard to do. The Galaga kit and Asteroids kit included extra digits for the score.

Not that I have the technical skills to make such a kit...
 
Bumping this up. I think it would be awesome to see a Sea Wolf high score save kit with diagnostics like the Space Invaders kit.
 
What diagnostics would you like that aren't already in the test rom I developed? Or do you just mean building it into a kit that allows you to go into a test mode without having to swap chips? I would really love to tackle this project someday as I really loved developing the test rom and I really love Sea Wolf, but it's not something I'd have time for probably until next winter, best case scenario. I invite people to remind me about it from time to time. :)
 
What diagnostics would you like that aren't already in the test rom I developed? Or do you just mean building it into a kit that allows you to go into a test mode without having to swap chips? I would really love to tackle this project someday as I really loved developing the test rom and I really love Sea Wolf, but it's not something I'd have time for probably until next winter, best case scenario. I invite people to remind me about it from time to time. :)

I was thinking a kit that would allow diagnostics without swapping chips, and save high scores. A one stop shop kind of thing.
 
I was thinking a kit that would allow diagnostics without swapping chips, and save high scores. A one stop shop kind of thing.

OK, that's what I thought you were getting at, and I agree that would be both ideal and cool. :cool:

I still think its funny how the programmers implemented the high score reset button, but didn't put in a high score save option.

An absolutely stupid "feature" IMO. I wonder if any other game ever had that "feature". Who knows? If I get around to working on such a kit maybe I could also eliminate the roll-back-to-zero problem.
 
I would really love to tackle this project someday as I really loved developing the test rom and I really love Sea Wolf, but it's not something I'd have time for probably until next winter, best case scenario. I invite people to remind me about it from time to time. :)

Is this finished yet?


What... too soon? :D
 
Is this finished yet?


What... too soon? :D

It's never too soon... ;)

Jeff, that would absolutely rock if you could pull this off! I will offer some "gentle" reminders from time to time... If I had any skill in this area, I would attempt this myself.
 
What diagnostics would you like that aren't already in the test rom I developed? Or do you just mean building it into a kit that allows you to go into a test mode without having to swap chips? I would really love to tackle this project someday as I really loved developing the test rom and I really love Sea Wolf, but it's not something I'd have time for probably until next winter, best case scenario. I invite people to remind me about it from time to time. :)

I think it's next winter, so I'm reminding you about it :D
 
Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about this to be honest. I still don't have time, but I'll put it on my to do list. :)
 
I have a couple of ideas about how to implement this a Midway 8080 high score save, like Sea Wolf for example.

One method would involve having to re-strap the motherboard for 2732 EPROMs, but otherwise wouldn't require anything but changing/installing already socketed chips.

The other method would involve having the PCB strapped for 2716 (which some may already be), but would require a little PCB to be used (increasing the cost) in addition to changing/installing socketed chips.

Which method would be preferable?
 
I would get a kit for Sea Wolf.

High score save with extra digit
Diagnostics
Time limit increased option
Any other cool mods that are possible.

Get crackin'!

:D
 
I would get a kit for Sea Wolf.

High score save with extra digit
Diagnostics
Time limit increased option
Any other cool mods that are possible.

Get crackin'!

:D

Hold on a second here... I just today thought of a neat way to have hook up and use some NVRAM on these boards. The built-in RAM doesn't lend itself to anything, as it's all 1-bit DRAM; but I figure I can put a DS1220-type device into one of the EPROM sockets, and with a little bit of clever wiring and programming, modify the game code to write/read to/from it... so save the high score.

All those other things are possible much bigger programming tasks. Esp the extra digit and diagnostics. Increased time shouldn't be hard. The game is programmed to use only 1 single byte (in BCD) as the score, with a meaningless "00" stuck on the end; so 9900 is the max. Adding another digit would require modifying the score management code, and not just a little bit.

So the feature-set I'm thinking about is more like: high score save (using current scoring scheme, not extra digit), freeplay, and _maybe_ another time option. And it would require the user to re-strap the board for 2732 EPROMs, install a 2732 with the modified game code, and a DS1220 NVRAM for HSS.
 
Any features would be better than nothing.

Keep thinking about it!!! :)
 
So the feature-set I'm thinking about is more like: high score save (using current scoring scheme, not extra digit), freeplay, and _maybe_ another time option. And it would require the user to re-strap the board for 2732 EPROMs, install a 2732 with the modified game code, and a DS1220 NVRAM for HSS.

This sounds great to me! I'll definitely buy one if you decide to produce them. It would be awesome to have access to ShanMans SW test rom somehow, but my main desire is for a HS save kit.
 
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