Interest Check: Ikari Warriors (JAMMA) High Score Save Kit

DarrenF

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Interest Check: Ikari Warriors (JAMMA) High Score Save Kit

I've modded my Ikari (JAMMA version) to save high scores.

I plan on sharing the modified ROMs and instructions on which RAM to replace with NVRAM, once I've finalized and cleaned things up a bit--and perhaps added more features. I'll also be selling a kit (EPROMs + NVRAM + socket) similar to how Matt at scoresaves.com offers his. If you're not familiar with this type of kit, it's not a "plug & play" solution, like the Braze kits, but it does involve removing one RAM chip and soldering in a socket. The EPROMs that will need swapping are already socketed.

In any case, I'm trying to gauge interest, to determine if it's worthwhile making up the "kits" or not.

Existing Features:
- saves all 10 high scores and the 5-letter initial entries.
- HS table can be reset to defaults holding down the PL2 start during power-up.

Potential Features: (these don't exist yet, but I may be able to get them done)
- fix bug (SNK, not mine...) in the JAMMA version that uses the wrong button for PL2 high score initial entry.
- dipswitch-selectable freeplay

Conceptually, I could do these EPROM mods for the non-JAMMA version too, but... I do not have a non-JAMMA version of Ikari, so there's no way for me to figure out which RAM IC needs to be replaced with NVRAM. So at present, I'm only working on the JAMMA VERSION OF IKARI WARRIORS. [If there's a lot of interest in the non-JAMMA version, I may be able to work something out. If someone with a non-JAMMA PCB, an EPROM programmer, and some time can help...]

DarrenF

PS - Oh, and once this is done, it should be pretty straightforward to apply the same concept to create a HSS kit for Victory Road, too. I have it already, and it's nearly identical to JAMMA Ikari.
 
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Cool Darren. I wish I had an Ikari so I could test it out.
If you'd like me to host a page (or pages) for your stuff on my site I'll gladly do so.
Which reminds me... I really need to put up a page for my freeplay hacks too. I have some score saves (for oddball games that nobody really cares about) that I haven't shared yet either... Nova 2001, Rush'N Attack, etc.
 
Which reminds me... I really need to put up a page for my freeplay hacks too. I have some score saves (for oddball games that nobody really cares about) that I haven't shared yet either... Nova 2001, Rush'N Attack, etc.

Rush'N Attack you say? I just picked up a PCB for that game and would be interested in a high score kit for it.
 
Very kewl mod!! Wish i had one myself to do this to!
I love seeing other members doing things like this! Really makes this hobby so great!
Good luck with the project. :)
 
OK: 1 interested, and 2 attaboys. It's a good start, I guess :)

I seem to have the bug (for player 2 initial entry) taken care of now. A little more testing, and I'll call it fixed. Then I'll take a deeper look at creating a freeplay mode. Looks like there is 1 unused dipswitch...
 
Cool Darren. I wish I had an Ikari so I could test it out.
If you'd like me to host a page (or pages) for your stuff on my site I'll gladly do so.
Which reminds me... I really need to put up a page for my freeplay hacks too. I have some score saves (for oddball games that nobody really cares about) that I haven't shared yet either... Nova 2001, Rush'N Attack, etc.

I can send you the hacked ROMs, if you'd like to try it out in MAME...

Thanks for the page hosting offer. I may take you up on that at some point; but for now I think I can put another page to go with www.finck.net/outrun

Yeah, it would be very cool if you could put up other hacks you've done. Or at least a list, so someone like me doesn't end up duplicating effort :)
 
I no longer have mine but when I did the one thing I really really wanted was a way to either restart the game once you finish the game without actually turning off the game. Or better yet something in the game itself that recognizes it's at the end and restarts automatically. I suppose if possible it might be cool if the game hit the end and after say 10 seconds it starts back at the beginning of the game and continues scoring where it left off when you completed the game.
 
As a soldering wuss, I would be interested in any kind of plug and play version even if it is just HSS.
 
As a soldering wuss, I would be interested in any kind of plug and play version even if it is just HSS.

Anyone can solder. Even teenage girls can solder. I know, because I worked in a PCB factory for 2 years and trained a lot of people to do it, ranging from 18-year-old girls to little old ladies; from 18-year-old guys to men approaching retirement age.

However, soldering is not particularly intuitive, and if you don't have proper instruction and proper equipment, it is probably going to be quite a challenge. I learned at the factory; I'd never even tried it before I worked there; so I had an ideal environment to learn (expert instruction and top-notch equipment pre-selected for the task at hand). Under those conditions you can almost immediately start making perfect through-hole joints (through-hole is pretty much all you'll ever be doing when working with classic arcade PCBs). But if you never learn properly in the first place, you could be doing it for years and still be making substandard joints.

For equipment; for the most part any soldering iron will do if you're only soldering a few PCB joints here and there. I've even used a flat head screw driver heated with a propane torch as a soldering iron before when I didn't have access to a real iron (and those two joints I made are still working fine a dozen years later). I used a Metcal STSS and MX-500 at work with an STTC-126 tip cartridge, and that's also what I use at home. Metcals are very expensive new, but sometimes you can get good deals on them used (like I did).

For solder wire, something in the .020" to .025" diameter range is ideal for most things on a classic arcade board. You want flux core (I prefer "no clean" flux) and the 63/37 alloy is ideal, though 60/40 also works and I guess it is usually a little cheaper.

Have a wet sponge nearby to clean excess solder off the tip of the iron (just wipe the hot iron tip on the wet sponge and the excess solder will come off).

If you're right handed, hold your iron in your right hand and your wire in your left. Position the tip of the hot iron so that it is contacting both the pad (of the PCB) and the post (of the component), and feed about an inch of wire into the pad and post (more or less depending on exact solder wire diameter and pad/post size; you soon learn to eyeball it). When the solder has filled the joint, pull the iron and wire away at roughly the same time. The joint should look shiny/smooth and be shaped like an Atari Fuji logo when viewed from the side.
 
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As a soldering wuss, I would be interested in any kind of plug and play version even if it is just HSS.

The only reason it isn't plug-n-play is because of the HSS....
Making a plug-n-play kit is a lot of work, and triples the cost. That is assuming the CPU is socketed (I don't have an Ikari, so I don't know), otherwise it is pretty much impossible to do.
 
The only reason it isn't plug-n-play is because of the HSS....
Making a plug-n-play kit is a lot of work, and triples the cost. That is assuming the CPU is socketed (I don't have an Ikari, so I don't know), otherwise it is pretty much impossible to do.

Precisely correct, of course. Matt has been down this road, and apparently done this many times. I'm not messing with designing a PCB, with custom address decoding, and a modern NV component, etc. I very much like the simple, tried-and-true "custom code EPROMs & a 2K NVRAM" method used by JROK & Matt... so that's what I've done. [FWIW, the CPUs are socketed on Ikari.]

So it's now up to 2 interested, and 2 more maybe. I may have over-bought when I ordered a tube of 14 NVRAMs... :p

Anyhow, I tested some more, and I'm now convinced that the bug in the original code that hosed up initial entry on PL2 is now fixed. I also continued looking at how to best do the freeplay mod. And... I started messing with Victory Road, so see how similar the code is to Ikari. Luckily, Victory Road doesn't have the same PL2-inital-entry-button problem that JAMMA Ikari does.
 
Here is a free play hack for Ikari Warriors.


Ikari Free Play

I'm aware of that freeplay hack. It's a fine hack, and I appreciate the time and effort the author spent documenting and sharing it. However, there are a number of reasons I will not using it:

1) it is permanent, not selectable. I don't want to have seperate EPROMs for freeplay and nonfreeplay. I intend to make it selectable via a dipswitch setting.

2) it disables the ROM check entirely; I intend to leave the ROM check intact and update the checksum for the hacked ROM.

3) it puts "99" (credits) on the bottom of the screen. I've never seen any "factory" freeplay mode that does that. In my experience, freeplay modes tended to do away with the concept of "credits," so that's how I intend to make mine work.
 
I have it working the way I want in MAME. Time to reprogram my EPROMs and do some hardware testing.

I also had another look at Victory Road... might be difficult squeezing the new code into the tiny unused space just below 0xC000. I may have to hunt out some more real estate elsewhere in the ROM.
 
OK:
Interested = fizgig, gregafree, blimpey
Might be interested = JC Arcade, OldTymeToys

I have the (hopefully) final version programmed and I've been testing it on hardware. So far everything is working as expected, including dipswitch-selectable free play mode...

I'll play test it some more this week, and try to put together a webpage, install & use instructions, etc. over the weekend.

PS--If those of you with JAMMA version Ikari Warriors PCBs could contact me via PM. I'd like to get photos of your top and (if possible) middle boards. I just want to make sure the other boardsets out there are just like mine before I write instructions.
 
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