Phoenix High Score Save

philmurr

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Following on from my post about the Phoenix freeplay mod, I've now got the high score save hardware working.

I designed a plug-in replacement circuit board for Phoenix boards, replacing the existing RAM #4000-#43FF with non-volatile RAM. 2 options were designed into the same board, either to use 6116 RAM with battery backup, or use a Dallas NVRAM module (although these modules are getting old now and more difficult to find which is why I also designed in the 6116 option).

There was a problem though, and it appeared to be speed-related. The old RAM that I needed to replace is made up of a couple of 2114's rated at 450nS access time. The replacement memory is much quicker than the old (100-200nS), and when I installed it, I got the occasional corruption to the screen and other memory, eventually causing the game to crash.

Studying the schematics, it appears the original designers were aware of the potential problem, but the old RAM was just so slow it didn't care. Having a look at the schematics shows the odd capacitor here and there on inputs to gates, especially around the memory addressing area. There was one capacitor shown that wasn't present on my board, so I installed one, and used the slowest RAM I could find in the module. I've now had the game tested running for a couple of days and it's performed flawlessly.

It uses the same code I released last week for the free play mod, so there's nothing really different to see in the game although it still supports all the features of the freeplay mod. There isn't a high score table [no ROM space to make one], so all that happens is when you turn the game off, when you turn it back on the high score is still there!

I've a number of spare PCB's that will shortly be for sale in the relevant section on here. You'll need to desolder the existing 2x2114's as they tend not to be socketed, but the Phoenix PCB seems to be quite good quality so I've not had any problems with lifted tracks. You'll also need to install the relevant capacitor if it's not already present, and use as slow a RAM chip as you can find. It seems to work fine with Dallas 200nS modules, and 6116-3 (150nS) but I'd suggest using 6116-4 (200nS) chips if you build that version.
 

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Awesome news. Will you be offering ready to go kits? Or sell your boards, so we can populate them?
 
I've partnered with Joe at www.highscoresaves.com for this project for all sales in US / Canada - it will actually work out a whole load cheaper for you than buying directly from me as I'm in the UK and shipping is a killer.

He'll be selling bare PCB's, fully assembled boards and will also burn any EPROMs you need for it. I'll be around for any technical support if needed.

Joe will no doubt send out an update once his prices, etc. are finalised
 
substitute chips

Could you use a Simtek STK25C48 or a ZMD U63716 and eliminate the need for the battery?
I have some of both of these!
 
Could you use a Simtek STK25C48 or a ZMD U63716 and eliminate the need for the battery?
I have some of both of these!

You can try it but it's unlikely. The Phoenix board is relying on slow RAM (even the 100nS Dallas modules give problems) and the Simtek looks to be rated at around 45nS.

I don't have any to test so can't confirm for definite.
 
I'm in for one of these kits. Hopefully, the finished product will include both the freeplay and a high score save....

If you just want free play, the ROMs are available online free of charge. If you want high score saving then you'll also need the plug-in module that Joe will soon be offering.
 
I will post more details soon.
Thanks for this kit Phil! Sounds like there will be some good support here in the US! ( and before VectorCollector says it, Canada too!)
;)
 
Of course, you will be getting the first email. :)
These are coming along! I SHOULD have the first one ready to ship on Wednesday if all goes well.

With the next batch of MultiVs Lite and vs castlevania being worked on, a few new products being tested, and some other things in terms works....I'm not stressing! ;)

Thanks everyone for the support! Filing orders and shipping them out fast!
 
Well I've pushed the Phoenix hardware and software as far as I can be bothered to without resorting to additional ROM and RAM, so this will be the final code update. It now has a high score table!

It stores the top 5 scores, (but unfortunately no initials, there really isn't any space left for this), but at least it's a bit more interesting than just a single high score. Attract mode is maintained, just shifted down the big "Phoenix" writing and the emerging and disappearing bird (the bird is still animated).

It works fine in Mame, but I want to test it properly on real hardware before releasing the code

Code will be freely available in the next couple of weeks once it has been tested properly.

The only additional screenshots differing from previous are of the high score table itself, one showing the default after reset, and the other after a couple of games.
 

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Sorry to necro, but is this available? I went on Joe's site and they appear to be out of stock. Are they make to order?
 
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