Commando HSS Kit Progress

souzilla

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I thought I would start a thread for people to follow the status of this kit.
I have not looked at Commando in a while, but just finished going through the board.

I started with the free play mod that I did a while ago. The rom mod always has the game on free play. I am going to modify this to use the 4 coins for 1 play dip setting to turn free play on and off.

When they made this game they encrypted only the op codes which makes it difficult to have all the game code on one eprom on the HSS kit. Normally this is done similar to how mame does it. There is the completely encrypted rom and the completely unencrypted rom and the kit would bank switch when M1 is low or high (depending on how the kit was made).

One other things that makes the kit difficult is most of the z80's are not socketed so for a daughter board you would need to desolder the 40 pin z80 and put a socket there. Also, if you have a pcb with a ttl version of the custom chip that does the encryption a daughter board will not fit on the board. For these reasons I am thinking that it might be easier for this kit to just be two eproms and an nvram chip. This way you only have to socket the 28 pin ram and you can use the HSS kit even with the TTL custom chip.

The problem is I need to program this carefully since the op codes need to be encrypted for each line of code and can be time consuming.

I know some people pre-paid for the kit and were expecting a daughter board, I am curious to see what people's thoughts are. If the kit is not a daughter board but two eproms and an nvram (and socket of course) would you re-consider your pre-payments?

I could probably turn this around in a couple of weeks if people like this approach.
 
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I wouldn't be disatisfied or feel ripped off if its not a daughtercard. I'd just be ecstatic for the high score capability for an old favorite, whatever form it takes...as long as it does what I paid for it to do. I view high score save kits as not simply paying for daughtercards, but for your time, brainpower and hard work :) But that's just me.. let's see how the others that prepaid feel :)

Tom
 
Like fatherpain, I don't have my heart set on a daughterboard. If the eproms and nvram solution is easier for you (and it sounds like it would be easier for us as well), I say do it that way.
Thanks for your continued hard work!
 
As long as the outcome is what was asked for, I dont really care how ya get there (except a ton of soldering)
 
With the eprom and nvram replacement solution, there would be no on-screen menu, correct?
So the start level would still have to be changed via the dip switches?
Just curious. It would be a minor inconvenience, but not that big of an issue for me.
 
One of the things I always hated about that game is that it didn't save the scores. Gives you something to shoot for! (pun intended) Great game though.
 
OK, another update. First off, sorry about the thread subject. Had a typo and now I can't change it.

I decided that best course of action is just to have the two eproms and the nvram/socket be the kit for the reasons above. The free play code is just about done (4 coin for one play will now be free play). I already have a proof of concept working on my board (ram next to the eproms replaced with nvram) and it is working good. Socketing the ram was not bad, just a little annoying because the socket for the eprom next to it gets in the way a little. I just need to put in the code to clear the high score. It will likely be similar to my other HSS kits... P1+P2 start during bootup.

The code will likely be ready for testing early next week, if anyone can test please let me know. Now might be a good time to socket your ram to prepare. :)
Obvioulsy I will test the basics but I am not good at the game so if there are any good commando players now is your time to shine!

Just for good measure
Please note this will not be a drop in kit unless the ram on your game board is already socketed (at least you will not need to socket the z80... 28 pins vs 40 pins).
 
Just clarifying a few things (based on some emails I got)
1. There will not be any menu or on screen dip settings
2. I am not changing the way the high score table works (just saving and restoring it)
3. The only thing that will be different from the regualr game (other then high scores saving) is that there will be a Free Play mode by re-using the dip switch setting for 4 coins per play
4. There will most likely be some soldering needed, unless the ram on your pcb has already been socketed

I hope this clears things up
 
How important is the ability to turn freeplay on and off? It is a lot of code to do that logic for this game and could introduce bugs. Would be cleaner to have either a freeplay or coinage set... thoughts?
 
Also, I thought I would mention I am using the "World" version of the roms. It will work on a pcb that has the US or Japan version but it will play the World version of the roms.

The difference between World and US that I can find is you can have more letters on the High Score Table instead of just your initials

The difference between World and Japan is the attract mode. Commando is in Japanese and there is an additional screen that cycles through the attract mode.

As far as I can tell the game play on these is the same.
 
Bump... any thoughts?

How important is the ability to turn freeplay on and off? It is a lot of code to do that logic for this game and could introduce bugs. Would be cleaner to have either a freeplay or coinage set... thoughts?
 
Just taking a pole at the moment... it is completely possible to make it switchable, but adding more code and complexity could add bugs so it would need and extended testy period. I was just curious because I thought mose people either prefer free play or coinage, I didn't know many people switched back and forth. I think only one of the eproms would need to be swapped to change from free play to coinage.

Anywho... just getting some thoughts, the rest of the code is pretty much done
 
If its not too much.. then I'd prefer both coinage and freeplay. btw I'm available as a tester if needed, though it may take me a little while to test as my free time is hit and miss.

Tom
 
ok, I wrote a lot of code to get free play to work and here is where it ended up

1. 4 coins for one play enables free play, stays in attract mode until you press player 1 start or player 2 start. Removes the insert coin message and on the second screen adds the text "Push Start Button" and "One or Two Players"

2. Any other coinage settings act the way the original game worked. Drop a coin and it goes to the "Press Start" page, it does not stay in attract mode.

I assume this is ok, any thoughts?
 
ok, so it is pretty much ready... I just have to write up the instructions and do a little more testing. I would like a couple of people to help test it, but I would like the following people to fit this criteria

1. Have time to test it over the next week or two
2. Have already or can quickly socket the ram on the second board in the stack (picture attached)
3. Are pretty good at commando so they can go through a bunch of levels and exercise more of the code than I can

How the testing will work
1. For the first two people I will send both eproms and a DS1225 nvram with a socket (likely pulls, but ok for testing purposes).
2. When these are ready for primetime you wil receive the final version mailed by Slava
3. I will email you the instructions when they are complete, hopefully this weekend

Any takers?
 

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