Level42
New member
Hey how about some video of both systems ? 
Gottlieb Mylstar on FPGA (Q*bert and 9 other games working)
- Thread starter ElmarTrjoer
- Start date
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- curveball fpga krull mad planets q*bert
2600
Well-known member
No, JROKs Williams board simulates and emulates the "surrounding" hardware.
ElmarTrjoer
New member
It's already late here, but I will put some video up tomorrow switching through all games. I never put something on youtube - so let´s see if I can figure that out
Hell yeah!!!!!!!!!
I had a chance to play a real one at the Houston show. A very hard game to figure out, but really cool once I sort of got the hang of bashing the little guys into the walls instead of hitting it myself.
A joystick would definitely not cut it.
ken
jrok
Well-known member
Sampled playback !
This is about as good as I can get the emulated audio
http://jrok.com/xfer/msf/hello_test.wav
And a sample of the original
http://jrok.com/Hello.wav
That repro is based directly on Patent 4,829,573, which is 101% absolutely NOT a true emulation of the SC-01.
Although the SC-01 internal ROM was alleged to have been dumped I've not heard of anyone actually having access to the contents
In summary.. I'll just use samples.
- James
That emulated sample sucks...
ElmarTrjoer
New member
Exactly the problem, wrong voice clock and pitch
James, we need to team up to find someone doing a SC01 and SPO250 on an FPAA!
I personally don´t really care about voice for a TV game joystick, but those hard-core arcade freaks out there would kill us for not providing _proper_ support.
James, we need to team up to find someone doing a SC01 and SPO250 on an FPAA!
I personally don´t really care about voice for a TV game joystick, but those hard-core arcade freaks out there would kill us for not providing _proper_ support.
I, for one, will SPIT on the screen if Qbert sounds like that first .wav.
jrok
Well-known member
Level42
New member
OK I basically understand how voice synthesizers work (the old one's) after I had been reading about them some time ago.
But I'm no expert, so please explain me why Mame can do the Berzerk voice but you guys can't get the Q*bert one right ?
(I have to say that that first wav file sounds a lot like Berzerk-bert)
But I'm no expert, so please explain me why Mame can do the Berzerk voice but you guys can't get the Q*bert one right ?
(I have to say that that first wav file sounds a lot like Berzerk-bert
)
jrok
Well-known member
OK I basically understand how voice synthesizers work (the old one's) after I had been reading about them some time ago.
But I'm no expert, so please explain me why Mame can do the Berzerk voice but you guys can't get the Q*bert one right ?
(I have to say that that first wav file sounds a lot like Berzerk-bert
The TSI speech synthesizer used in Berzerk is very simple compared to the SC01, at least from my understanding of it. Plus it uses an external ROM for the speech data. Same is true for the SP0250 chip.
The thing that's the real killer is a good dump of the internal sound ROM of the SC01.
These are the source parameters which drive all the internal filters and timing. Even with completely accurate programmatic representations of the filters without those parameters it's be really REALLY hard to guess at the parameters for each phoneme.
- James
Does MAME emulate Q*Bert's voice or does it use samples?
DarrenF
Well-known member
MAME uses samples for Q*Bert
The SC-01 requires very little data to drive it. For example, the phrases that Black Hole (pinball) says are only tens of bytes long each; so only a few hundred bytes for all dozen or so phrases. There's a lot of funtionality built into that thing.
Berzerk, on the other hand, with the S14001, has about 4kb of voice data... and I don't think it says quite as much.
The SC-01 requires very little data to drive it. For example, the phrases that Black Hole (pinball) says are only tens of bytes long each; so only a few hundred bytes for all dozen or so phrases. There's a lot of funtionality built into that thing.
Berzerk, on the other hand, with the S14001, has about 4kb of voice data... and I don't think it says quite as much.
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Dunno if you've seen this, but it's pretty interesting (pg. 31): http://www.scribd.com/doc/6930090/Servo-Magazine-200712 . I met that guy at a microcontroller/robotics convention a few months ago and he had several of his articles posted. I saw that and was like, WOW... that's the SC-01!!! He was probably thinking... WTF??? what a weirdo... but we talked about it for a while.
DogP
DogP
Level42
New member
I see. I did read that the sC01 had been decapped a couple of years ago but havent looked further. So........how about using a real SC01 as an option ? I would definitly think it would be worth the extra money.
I think what is most noticable on MAME versus real hardware is the speech. I recently played original Qbert cabs, one with MAME and one with real hardware. I think the gameplay was about the same on both, at least I didnt notice, but there seems to be something that makes me hear the difference.
This is even still true for Berzerk.
idiotcountry2
Member
Gottlieb does not own any rights to the video arcade software (nor likely the hardware design either). It's actually unclear *who* really owns the rights, despite what some people/companies claim.
Great project.
Lindsey
Well-known member
Interesting..
I've been working on the same thing, to keep the FPGA small and ensure perfect functionality it uses the original CPU and cycle timing/wait was matched to the original hardware.
It can play all the gen-1 mylstar games, along with screwloose & 3 stooges.
I've not really worked on it since March (!) ack.
Board: http://jrok.com/xfer/msf/msf_mar27_a.jpg
Menu: http://jrok.com/xfer/msf/msf_mar27_b.jpg
Setup: http://jrok.com/xfer/msf/setup.jpg
Reactor in Vertical mode, http://jrok.com/xfer/msf/react_v.jpg
Qbert in Horizonatl mode http://jrok.com/xfer/msf/qb_h.jpg
Eventually I'll release it like the Williams boards when I get a chance to build a few.
- James
edit: freaking links....
I always admire your soldering skills. Amazing.
ElmarTrjoer
New member
Video on youtube
As promised, a video. It got a bit long - if you don't like the "professor section", skip it
Cheers, TRORT
As promised, a video. It got a bit long - if you don't like the "professor section", skip it
Cheers, TRORT
Wow... just amazing. Best video I have seen on here in a looooong time. Thanks so much for doing this Elmar!
