Coverting a Road Blasters PCB to Marble Madness

Tornadoboy

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Hey everybody,

Is it possible to convert a Road Blasters cartridge PCB to a Marble Madness by replacing the EPROMS? Also how can you tell if your System 1 main board has the hardware to handle trackballs?

I have an extra boardset and would love to try converting it over without spend serious $ for an original board.
 
Changing the EPROMs is not an issue (assuming your RB boardset is the same as the MM as I believe there are two types), however there is a custom chip (called a slapstic) that is unique to Marble Madness. Without that little chip, you are SOL.

More info on the Slapstic: http://www.system16.com/atari_slapstic.php
 
Changing the EPROMs is not an issue (assuming your RB boardset is the same as the MM as I believe there are two types), however there is a custom chip (called a slapstic) that is unique to Marble Madness. Without that little chip, you are SOL.

More info on the Slapstic: http://www.system16.com/atari_slapstic.php

Interesting info. Thanks for the link.

I would give the EPROM swap a try and see what happens. According to the link posted the Roadblasters slapstic chip is functionally the same as Marble Madness.

137412-103 (Marble Madness) appears to be functionally identical to 137412-110 (Road Blasters & APB)

If you could test and prove this it would be valuable information for the community.

I have Road Blasters and APB sitting in my garage but no ambition ;)
 
Interesting info. Thanks for the link.

I would give the EPROM swap a try and see what happens. According to the link posted the Roadblasters slapstic chip is functionally the same as Marble Madness.



If you could test and prove this it would be valuable information for the community.

I have Road Blasters and APB sitting in my garage but no ambition ;)

As I recall, I did try that (swap the RB slapstic into a MM board) and it did NOT work. :( I have both sitting in my garage, I could double check if people want me to.
 
Interesting... maybe I'll give it a shot at some point. My understanding is that not all System 1 main boards can handle trackball decoding, how do I tell if any of mine can? If swapping EPROMS doesn't work I may someday pony up the $300 (seems the typical price) for an original MM game board, but I'd want to make sure the rest of the hardware would support it.
 
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Interesting... maybe I'll give it a shot at some point. My understanding is that not all System 1 main boards can handle trackball decoding, how do I tell if any of mine can?

Take a look if your board has a LETA chip on it. Part numbers: 137304-1001 or 137304-2002
 
Interesting... maybe I'll give it a shot at some point. My understanding is that not all System 1 main boards can handle trackball decoding, how do I tell if any of mine can? If swapping EPROMS doesn't work I may someday pony up the $300 (seems the typical price) for an original MM game board, but I'd want to make sure the rest of the hardware would support it.

I didn't realize they sold for that much. I'll have to see if I have any of them in storage :)
 
I didn't realize they sold for that much. I'll have to see if I have any of them in storage :)

Yeah I've seem them listed for as much as $350 on Ebay, although I couldn't tell you if it actually sold for that much, and there's one for $295 on there now. They go for well over $100, that's for sure.
 
I didn't realize they sold for that much. I'll have to see if I have any of them in storage :)

Yeah I've seem them listed for as much as $350 on Ebay, although I couldn't tell you if it actually sold for that much, and there's one for $295 on there now. They go for well over $100, that's for sure.

$350 is for a kit (marquee, pcb, CP). Boards have been selling for $125 or so...
 
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