IAM/KLOV Videogame PCB Photobox.

Now there aren't main games where multiple runs of the same game where made with different chip counts, were there?

Good question. I know there are some Atari games like Asteroids that had multiple board revisions (A, B, C, D), but I don't know off-hand whether they had a difference in chip count.

Then there are some games (like Defender or Donkey Kong) that had different boards for the upright and cocktail versions...
 
Then there are some games (like Defender or Donkey Kong) that had different boards for the upright and cocktail versions...

Um... I'll have to figure out a way to address that...

Just off the top of my head.....Asteroids, Defender, Missile Command, Tempest, Galaga....

That's not a fun thought for moding this particular page...
 
Absolutely... I think the comment if I was reading it right was that those games were issued at different times with different boards and different chip counts. I'd be happy if I read that wrong.
 
Absolutely... I think the comment if I was reading it right was that those games were issued at different times with different boards and different chip counts. I'd be happy if I read that wrong.

I remember coming across some differences in traces with two different revisions of Tempest, but I don't recall if the chip count was different. I have a few sets of Tempest boards in the gameroom now that I'll check to see if they are different revisions, and if so, if they have different chip counts...
 
Absolutely... I think the comment if I was reading it right was that those games were issued at different times with different boards and different chip counts. I'd be happy if I read that wrong.

This is gonna be two-folded (well, actually 3-fold).

Take Donkey Kong...it was issued as a two-board "sandwich"...or a four-board "sandwich". I've personally never took a chip count to see how they compare, though, I'd be shocked if they were the same. Speaking of chip count....that sounds like a nightmare. I can see the arguments now...."Mr. Do! has 157 chips"...reply, "No it doesn't...it's 158 chips". With another chiming in..."I counted 156 chips". Have you ever counted the chips on a motherboard? The margin of error seems likely high :)

Next, we'll look at Dig Dug. It officially came with two different board designs. They are both physically the exact same size, but the layout is night and day different. Once again, I've never done a chip count between the two.

Third, we'll look at Tempest. It's a two-board set. I've seen the boards with stock factory 2716 EPROMs.....I've also seen the board with stock factory 2532 EPROMs. 2532s have twice the storage capacity as 2716s....thus, you have half as many EPROMs loaded onto the motherboard....leading to an obviously different chip count.

It's a great idea, but I don't know a way around these hurdles...the picture idea is excellent.

Edward
 
Don't forget things like Pac-Man that have daughtercards (that have chips), but some early versions had a single chip instead of the daughtercard...
 
Um... I'm wondering about going ahead with a chip count feature, but limiting it to games from the 1970s. It seems most useful for the 1970s TTL unmarked boards anyways..

?
 
Okay, I have 80+ board pics that I am going to go thru to see if they need to be uploaded.

Question #1: If a game PCB is in a stack of more than one board, do you want individual pics of each board, or a pic of all the boards together in the stack? For example, you have the 1943 The Battle of Midway PCB pic as the top board of a 2-bd stack. I have a pic of the bottom board. Should I upload it also?

Question #2: I uploaded a Qwak! PCB pic yesterday, and didn't see anything where it asked for the number of chips. Is this something you would like us to do and add in the comments, or will you guys do it from the pic? And would it be all boards of a stack combined, or individual boards each, or something else entirely?

Question #3: Just thought of this. Do you want pics of sound boards, power supply boards (like Atari ARII's or whatever), etc that aren't part of the stack, also?

Anyway, I already have pics of the stacks, so I'll start uploading the ones you don't have yet...
 
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BTW - I'll have to add the chips up later if you want me to do so. I have the pics here on my laptop, but I'll have to wait until I get to my PCB's...
 
Just so you have a lot more questions to answer:

Q: If a posted PCB pic is blurry or low quality, and we have nicer one, should we bother uploading it?
 
This thread made me realize that I take a shitload of pictures of my machines. So I checked the various entries of games I own, or boards I own or had, and I had some stuff not in there. Anyway found images of 2 PCB's you guys didn't have so I uploaded them.

Anyway just a thought on adding something else... Maybe adding some more image classifications for other game parts- like say audio boards or filter boards- things that would help when researching a game or finding parts. Maybe just add this to the main entries in general, and not to the PCB search feature.
 
I'm going to address a number of these posts in a week or so but my time is extremely limited in the meantime.
 
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