Atari slapstick and leta questions?

machfelon

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I am converting a RoadBlasters to a Marble Madness.

My RoadBlasters was an orignal RB not a conversion. I have checked and it has a LETA chip (2nd generation 137304-2002). Same one is in my 720 as well.

Is this LETA compatible with MM?

I am also reading that certain Atari Slapsticks might work with out modifications especially from a RB to a MM. I thought they were labled 137412-XXX, I can only find 3 chips labeled 137415-101) Are these newr generation slapsticks? And if these are on the RB board should I be ok with the new MM board?
 
Pretty sure if your system 1 mother board has a LETA chip then it will work with marble madness. I say this because MM is the only system 1 game that uses the LETA chip (it's for the trackball control) so the chip is only there to allow you to play MM.
 
The slapstic chip is located in the corner of the game board (not the main board). It is labeled 137412-1xx

Marble Madness uses the 103 chip. Road Blasters is usually 110. (109 on some versions.)

The good news is that Marble Madness will run fine on the 110 chip.

Here's a link to some useful information about the slapstic chip and which games use which one.

http://aarongiles.com/slapstic.html


The LETA chip you described should work fine for MM.


I've "made" a MM board out of Indiana Jones carts (I've also made Peter Packrat too). The Road Blasters cart doesn't work. It uses larger eproms. There are some older versions of Road Blasters that use a compatible cart as Indiana Jones, Marble Madness and Peter Packrat. If you have a RB on one of those, it uses every eprom socket.

Assuming you have a compatible cartridge it's not hard programming the eproms from MAME ROMS. The hard part is finding blank PROMS. If you can find them, they are easy to burn too (assuming you have a programmer that will do it).

Good luck
 
OK-
If you build a MM out of a RB cartridge, post up specific details on how to do it.

There were TTL and LSI versions of both boards. The LSI ones use custom chips (SLAGS) graphics to replace a bunch of TTL chips. The LSI boards can use larger capacity eproms also. Both boards have jumpers to choose from two different sizes of eproms. I think the larger setting on the TTL board is the same as the smaller setting on the LSI board.

I think during my last Frankenstein session I was able to get the MM program ROMS up in the RB LSI cartridge, but couldn't get any graphics displayed. It could have been due to me not having the right chips or the correct strapping, but another user had notes about similar results.

I there there may need to be some shuffling of the graphic ROM data. I wasn't super-thorough in my determination of the graphics placement and the strapping. (It isn't an obvious thing without some study).

Kerry
 
Kerry,

You got that MM working yet? :)

... Altan
 
OK-
If you build a MM out of a RB cartridge, post up specific details on how to do it.

There were TTL and LSI versions of both boards. The LSI ones use custom chips (SLAGS) graphics to replace a bunch of TTL chips. The LSI boards can use larger capacity eproms also. Both boards have jumpers to choose from two different sizes of eproms. I think the larger setting on the TTL board is the same as the smaller setting on the LSI board.

I think during my last Frankenstein session I was able to get the MM program ROMS up in the RB LSI cartridge, but couldn't get any graphics displayed. It could have been due to me not having the right chips or the correct strapping, but another user had notes about similar results.

I there there may need to be some shuffling of the graphic ROM data. I wasn't super-thorough in my determination of the graphics placement and the strapping. (It isn't an obvious thing without some study).

Kerry

Yeah, I made it to the same point. It could be just a matter of putting the graphics EPROMS in the correct locations too. Maybe doubling up the images. Haven't had any time to play with it though.
 
Kerry,

You got that MM working yet? :)

... Altan

Finally, brother!

I gave up on my TTL board and got an LSI cartridge. It was sooooo close- I finally figured out that a couple of those SLAGS chips (mentioned above) were bad. They're the same across all the LSI carts and I pulled some from other boards.

Perfect. I got new translucent balls and that little lighting kit from somebody here- looks pretty good, then a few games into it, the monitor zapped out.

I'm fine with that- monitors are generally easy. I picked up a few more things and took on a couple of repair jobs, so the MM is sitting idle right now.

I actually hit your website today- looks good. I've played the Star Wars pin that Chip bought from you too. Too bad he's almost 100 miles out!

Take care-
Kerry
 
Finally, brother!

I gave up on my TTL board and got an LSI cartridge. ...

Kerry, great news --- except for the monitor part :)

Regarding DESW... it's a small world!

... Altan
 
Finally, brother!

I'm about to embark on the same quest.. I have a Roadblasters LSI cart with the 110 slapstic.

Did you encounter anything that might help future generations when you did it?

I guess the eprom size jumpers are self evident based on what chip is in the socket.
 
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