Can a Space Firebird board be converted to Space Demon?

Partially, yes. The CPU and Video boards are identical to each other, but the Fortrek ESS (sound) board and the Sega/Nintendo ESS boards have some minor differences which cause issues with both sound and video during gameplay. The starfield is also generated on the ESS board.

So, if you are OK with playing space demon with incorrect sound and video (just like in MAME), you can convert a Space Firebird board set to Space Demon and go to town. Provided you CAN actually program all the eproms, and the color prom - read below.

Alternatively, you could disconnect the ESS board and the gameplay video will be correct (no blue screen during gameplay) but you'll be missing the starfield and all sounds. Kind of a bummer to play it that way.

One note: the eprom on the ESS boards (20E) is a 2708 eprom, which is a tri-voltage eprom. Not very many programmers out there can program to it. So you'll need to get someone else to burn that eprom for you. The other eproms are all 2716's. There's also a 256k color prom at 4I on the video board that differs between the two boards too. But that won't stop you from completing the conversion, it will just make your colors look a bit different.

Darthi8nt and I have been playing with these boards for nearly 6 months now, and have not been able to successfully complete the conversion. We HAVE had both the Fortrek and Sega/Nintendo boards in his hands, though, and he's had a chance to get some good high resolution photos of the Fortrek boards that he repaired for a private collector. I'm hoping we'll be able to convert a Space Firebird ESS board to match a Space Demon ESS board and we'll finally be able to complete a successful conversion. Plus, it should provide us with some useful information to give to the MAME developers to re-code the drivers for Space Demon in MAME so that it emulates properly. I'm fairly certain that they basically just used the Space Firebird drivers and inserted the Space Demon romsset, because that's the way our attempt at the conversion works - attract mode seems fine, but the minute you launch a game, the screen goes all blue and stays that way until you blow up. The same thing happens in MAME.

Best case scenario would be to find a non-working Fortrek board set, capture the ESS board, and keep it. Then you could swap roms and the ESS board and you could theoretically run both games on one set of boards plus an extra ESS board.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info! I will snap some photos when I get the one I bought in the mail.

Edit:
Maybe I should just buy SRW's ;)
 
SRW's wouldn't be for sale any more if he were within 300 miles of me.

:D

It is the $ that keeps me from getting it.

Did you notice that it says Fortek on SRW's board set? Weird since it is in a Nintendo cabaret cabinet...

attachment.php
 
Not weird at all. Space Demon only came in that cabaret, never in any other cabaret.

Space Firebird, though licensed from Nintendo to Sega/Gremlin, was never housed in Nintendo Cabaret. Instead, it was in its own cabaret:

delete-4.jpg
 
Not weird at all. Space Demon only came in that cabaret, never in any other cabaret.

Space Firebird, though licensed from Nintendo to Sega/Gremlin, was never housed in Nintendo Cabaret. Instead, it was in its own cabaret:

delete-4.jpg

OK, I knew about Space Firebird, I was tempted to buy Kjoel's
 
Oh, and how hard would it be to plug into a Donkey Kong cabaret cabinet? Yes I know it is missing a button. :D Does it need 18v?
 
I'm not sure. I know that the DK power supply already has everything you need to power the boards, but you need to do a bit of re-arranging on one of the connectors. See here:

I did some more checking on this. The Space Firebird board set is not compatible with the DK power supply, but if you have a spare set of 9 and 10 pin power cables, you can easily make a power harness that will work.

The 9 pin power is a direct match:

Pin 1: Gnd
Pin 2: Gnd
Pin 3: Gnd
Pin 4: +12v
Pin 5: +12v
Pin 6: +5v
Pin 7: +5v
Pin 8: -5v
Pin 9: +24v

The 10 pin power cable, however, does not match. On the DK power supply, it's:

Pin 1: -5v
Pin 2: -5v
Pin 3: -5v
Pin 4: -5v
Pin 5: Gnd
Pin 6: Gnd
Pin 7: Gnd
Pin 8: Gnd
Pin 9: +5v
Pin10: +5v

The Space Firebird 10 pin power needs:

Pin 1: Gnd
Pin 2: Gnd
Pin 3: Gnd
Pin 4: +12v
Pin 5: +12v
Pin 6: +12v
Pin 7: +12v
Pin 8: +5v
Pin 9: +5v
Pin10: -5v

So, by de-pinning the 10 pin power cable, and rearranging wires, I can get Gnd, +5v, and -5v supplied to the 10 pin connector. But the Space Firebird also needs +12v on that connector too. The solution? Borrow one of the 12v wires from the 9 pin power cable, leaving one 12v in the 9 pin, and using the other 12v in the 10 pin.

I tried this arrangement with my DK power supply and my Space Firebird board set and it booted perfectly. Now I have a custom made power harness allowing me to bench test my other Space Firebird board using my DK power supply.
So yes, you technically COULD drop in a SF boardset, but you'd need to swap out the 9 and 10 pin cables for some custom ones.

I was lucky enough to find an eBay auction with a complete boardset, wiring harness, power supply, speaker, coin meter, and iso transformer out of a cocktail that someone must have stripped, so I basically have everything I need to populate a cabaret - EXCEPT a Fortrek ESS board :(
 
I'm not sure. I know that the DK power supply already has everything you need to power the boards, but you need to do a bit of re-arranging on one of the connectors. See here:

So yes, you technically COULD drop in a SF boardset, but you'd need to swap out the 9 and 10 pin cables for some custom ones.

I was lucky enough to find an eBay auction with a complete boardset, wiring harness, power supply, speaker, coin meter, and iso transformer out of a cocktail that someone must have stripped, so I basically have everything I need to populate a cabaret - EXCEPT a Fortrek ESS board :(

So the connectors are the same on a Space Firebird board? I think I would just make an adapter so I wouldn't have to repin the connector evey time. :D
 
I just got a Space Firebird board in the mail today off a member here, and therr are no ribbon cables.

The ribbon cable connectors are 2 50 pin and 1 34 pin, so I won't be using any pc cables. :(

Anyone have a spare set?
 
Back
Top Bottom