New Product Sneak Peak: CoinUp - 1UP (Freeplay for your non-freeplay games)

[trickman]

Any update?

 

[ajcrm125]

Well every game I've tested it out to date works prefectly.

Anyone have a working Sega Vector game with the above described coinup protection issue to test this on?

 

[trickman]

Well every game I've tested it out to date works prefectly.

Anyone have a working Sega Vector game with the above described coinup protection issue to test this on?

So when will the new versions be available?

 

[ajcrm125]

So when will the new versions be available?

Unless I have someone with a Sega Vector that can show me that my implementation doesn't work for them this version is good to go as far as I'm concerned. And even if there is an issue with the Segas, it can be addressed later and will not effect normal mode. (I have a DIP to enable Sega vector mode)

In fact, all the Sega mode does is shorten the coin pulse to about 10ms. All of the games I've tested work fine with this setting so I'm wondering if I should make that the standard. In which case I'd have an extra dip switch to do something with.

So I guess here's a question to the group...
Any coin-up type function you would want to see added? I don't want to pull the trigger on this only to have someone come up with a good idea later for an addition.... everyone that had purchased one would have missed out.

 

[trickman]

Unless I have someone with a Sega Vector that can show me that my implementation doesn't work for them this version is good to go as far as I'm concerned. And even if there is an issue with the Segas, it can be addressed later and will not effect normal mode. (I have a DIP to enable Sega vector mode)

In fact, all the Sega mode does is shorten the coin pulse to about 10ms. All of the games I've tested work fine with this setting so I'm wondering if I should make that the standard. In which case I'd have an extra dip switch to do something with.

So I guess here's a question to the group...
Any coin-up type function you would want to see added? I don't want to pull the trigger on this only to have someone come up with a good idea later for an addition.... everyone that had purchased one would have missed out.

*shrug* All I know is it'd be nice to see the attract screen of R-Type and Dig Dug again.

 

[Big Arn]

I'm ready for this new version too.

 

[ajcrm125]

These are good to go!
http://www.onecircuit.com/node/41

 

[schoeps]

I have 2 of these on my PC10 Counter tops, Love em! Thanks!

 

[trickman]

That's good news! With Xmas coming, I'm running out of money fast! But I'm looking to pursue at least one of these in the new year.

 

[mjenison]

I think I'd be in for one of these. I only own one game, TAPPER and already have the FREEPLAY ROM which took a conciderable amount of effort to get the right one for my Tapper. But, it eliminates the title screen and high score screen in the attract rotation, plus you never hear the 1P and 2P coin up sounds anymore which were different for 1 and 2 players.

I think this item would be perfection!

The freeplay ROM eliminates the title screen and the high score display? That's really lame.... Perhaps someone should write a proper freeplay hack for it then.

Just came across this post...

The Tapper Free Play does not "take away" the title screen and high score display; that's how a normal Tapper behaves once it has credits put on it.

The way my freeplay hack works in this case (and in many cases) is that when the game boots up, it immediately puts two credits on the game. That hack is simple, and the rest of the hack usually revolves around putting the words "free play" somewhere on the screen.

So the game is behaving the same way as if it had two credits put on it. I don't know why Bally/Midway put in special code to skip the title screen and high score screen once a credit is put on (maybe they don't poll the player inputs during these screens? I highly doubt it), but my free play hack didn't "take away" those screens. However, I will take a look at what it would take to skip the code that skips those screens, because it kind of sucks not being able to see the high scores ever.

BTW, people can PM me directly if they come across an issue with my free play hacks. I think all the issues I've found so far I've run across accidentally in these forums (except for the one person who emailed me about my Moon Patrol hack apparently breaks cocktail mode...for those people who have Moon Patrol cocktails??).

Most of my hacks are quick and dirty (no dip support, no work gone into condensing to the least amount of eproms affected) and are not what I'd consider "productionalized". But I also don't charge for these so you're getting what you pay for.

Sorry for the combination thread-revival/hijack.

 

[mattosborn]

Just came across this post...

The Tapper Free Play does not "take away" the title screen and high score display; that's how a normal Tapper behaves once it has credits put on it.

The way my freeplay hack works in this case (and in many cases) is that when the game boots up, it immediately puts two credits on the game. That hack is simple, and the rest of the hack usually revolves around putting the words "free play" somewhere on the screen.

So the game is behaving the same way as if it had two credits put on it. I don't know why Bally/Midway put in special code to skip the title screen and high score screen once a credit is put on (maybe they don't poll the player inputs during these screens? I highly doubt it), but my free play hack didn't "take away" those screens. However, I will take a look at what it would take to skip the code that skips those screens, because it kind of sucks not being able to see the high scores ever.

BTW, people can PM me directly if they come across an issue with my free play hacks. I think all the issues I've found so far I've run across accidentally in these forums (except for the one person who emailed me about my Moon Patrol hack apparently breaks cocktail mode...for those people who have Moon Patrol cocktails??).

Most of my hacks are quick and dirty (no dip support, no work gone into condensing to the least amount of eproms affected) and are not what I'd consider "productionalized". But I also don't charge for these so you're getting what you pay for.

Sorry for the combination thread-revival/hijack.

The easiest thing to do in a case like this is have the Start buttons add the necessary credits and then start the game. You usually also need to add a little code that runs at the end of a game that zeroes out the credit counter (in case someone pressed a Start button during gameplay). That way the credit counter is always zero during attract mode, so you get all the screens displayed.