Major Havoc Conversion Question

bheineck

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Considering buying a Gravitar and converting to Major Havoc. Don't know a ton about the conversion specifics so my question is.....once the Gravitar is converted to run Major Havoc will the Gravitar game still run? just wondering if this is an easy way to have Major Havoc, plus Gravitar.
 
you should try to find the gravitar to major havoc adapter board first.. If there is one, it has to be extremely rare.. I know atari made space duel to MH, and lots of tempest to MH.

MH is supposed to run on amp monitor and the kits are for wells monitor games. You need to find the adapter board as it has display correction built into it. MH will run in a regular tempest cab without the adapter, but the screen will look a little like an hour glass(bowing). But the space duel kit remaps the wiring. So you have to find the adapter board. Same deal with gravitar and black widow. The wiring would not be right..

But to answer your question, you need to swap the pcb. So, it will not run both games. The swap will also require a change in controls as MH uses a roller controller or a spinner.
 
I have never seen a Gravitar to MH adaptor board but I would figure that the SD adaptor board would probably work for a WG6100 but the cp wiring is another issue.
 
Okay, call me clueless and you'd be spot on. Anyway I was thinking that the coversion board marked "space duel" would work for all three (Space Duel, Gravitar, and Black Widow) since the conversion instructions from what I could tell are essentially the same for each game. Is that way off base?

Also I wasn't thinking you could play both games in the same cabinet at the same time, but I was wondering on one of these conversions to Major Havoc, once all the modifications are made, is it as easy as swapping out the PCB and CP to go back to playing the original game or have the modifications that were made to play MH made it not possible to now play the original game without undoing all the modifications and basically converting back?
 
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The hard part will be finding the MH PCB.

Really, you can make your own harness by re-pinning or making an edge connector adapter. You won't have pin cushion correction but the game will be very playable.

Personally I would convert a Space Duel. They are more common. Wait, I already did that. :)
 
The hard part will be finding the MH PCB.

Really, you can make your own harness by re-pinning or making an edge connector adapter. You won't have pin cushion correction but the game will be very playable.

Personally I would convert a Space Duel. They are more common. Wait, I already did that. :)

Yes! I wouldn't do anything until I had the MH PCB. What I was thinking is.....isn't Gravitar a better game than Space Duel? I never really played either when Iwas younger, but I did play MH. So I was trying to find out if I took a Gravitar and converted to MH is it just a PCB and CP swap if I get the itch to play Gravitar or will I have done too much during the conversion to easily switch back? Even if I converted a Space Duel to MH, the question still remains on swaping the Space Duel parts back in to play that game. Get my angle?
 
you would probably have to do a custom harness adapter to go from gravitar to major havoc or gravitar to space duel adatper to major havoc.

Keep in mind that the gravitar harness is not stuffed with extra input wires. To play black widow you have to add 4. To play space duel you would need 2 more(maybe 3). I think gravitar might have just enough for MH..

I think someone made a display corrector pcb a while ago. so you might also want to look into that.
 
you would probably have to do a custom harness adapter to go from gravitar to major havoc or gravitar to space duel adatper to major havoc.

Keep in mind that the gravitar harness is not stuffed with extra input wires. To play black widow you have to add 4. To play space duel you would need 2 more(maybe 3). I think gravitar might have just enough for MH..

I think someone made a display corrector pcb a while ago. so you might also want to look into that.

Thanks mrbill2084! I think I my at some point buy a DPtwiz Gravitar type cabinet and get a vector to VGA Converter and maybe try and make a custom harness. Big plans, but so little time. :)
 
if your going to fake it, why stop at the monitor... track down a zvg and play them all...

Doesn't a ZVG only work when output is done to a vector monitor? It seems the hardest thing to find is a vector monitor. Unless you can then plug it into the vector to vga converter. I plan on someday not "faking it", but until I can collect all the necessary parts, "faking it" seems like a decent option. :)
 
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Why do you say "track down a zvg"? Can't you just buy one online from Zektor?

Zonn was not remaking them a while ago. Now, he is doing a last run.. If you can't find a 6100, your not looking hard.. working space duels can be had for under $500 no problem.

Sorry about the faking it comment, I meant to say if your not concerned about 100% original, then why not go full on kit..
 
Zonn was not remaking them a while ago. Now, he is doing a last run.. If you can't find a 6100, your not looking hard.. working space duels can be had for under $500 no problem.

Sorry about the faking it comment, I meant to say if your not concerned about 100% original, then why not go full on kit..

No big deal, but after you said that, I looked into it and I got one!
 
In my experience with vector game emulation, my discovery has been that macmame os9 running on a nice, bright crt monitor is about as close to the brightness of a real vector monitor, without a real one, as you're gonna get. ZVG is still just mame but it can be run on a real vector monitor. I'm not certain that the MH Return to Vaxx hack will run with ZVG, I will find that out soon. AAE has many, many issues which may get worked out one day, and Tim said he was working on it again but we'll see...
 
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