Pleiads high score save / enhanced free play

philmurr

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The latest of my high score save / enhanced free play mods is Pleiads.

A fairly unpopular game, said to be the follow-up to Phoenix but I can't really tell any similarities other than the look of the graphics. Runs on almost identical hardware to Phoenix, and tons of the code is identical which has meant I've been able to get this running in a very short time since starting to disassemble it. The feature list is:-

;provides enhanced free play (attract mode in free play) selected by the unused DIP
;prints free play on screen when in free play mode
;removes the bit that asks you to insert coins when in free play mode
;high score saving in Mame for one high score even when you press reset
;does a "proper" high score reset in Mame,for some reason the code doesn't do a full reset and memory clear
;prints high score sooner than when you press P1 or P2 to start a new game
;only checks DIP for freeplay mode at start of game
;press P1 and P2 at power-up to clear high score
;fixes the "player 2 doesn't get the high score" bug that I just found this afternoon

Will also save the high scores to NVRAM on a real board.

Photos of it running in Mame are attached, 3 screenshots showing "FREEPLAY" in attract mode, and no asking for coins to be inserted, a screenshot of normal attract mode selectable by the unused DIP switch, and finally of the game playing. And if you're playing as Player 2 your high score will now register!

Note that it only works with the Tehkan version of code ("pleiads" in mame). When you first run it ensure you press P1 & P2 on startup to clear the scores and high score RAM to a known state. It hasn't had a massive amount of testing so please let me know if you find any bugs (that weren't already there...)

The modified ROMs you need (not the full set) can be found here http://www.ukvac.com/forum/uploads/183/Pleiads_freeplay_ROMs.zip
 

Attachments

  • Pleiads demo screen 1.JPG
    Pleiads demo screen 1.JPG
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  • Pleiads demo screen 2.JPG
    Pleiads demo screen 2.JPG
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  • Pleiads demo screen 4.JPG
    Pleiads demo screen 4.JPG
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  • Pleiads demo screen 5 no freeplay.JPG
    Pleiads demo screen 5 no freeplay.JPG
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  • Pleiads game play 1.JPG
    Pleiads game play 1.JPG
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Nice! I just picked up a Pleiades and currently restoring it. Such an underrated game and its the reason I love classics today.
 
What kind of roms are needed to make this work on actual hardware? I assume a Dallas Ram needs to be installed somewhere?

Just replace the relevant ROMs (downloadable from that link) on the real hardware.

It will work as enhanced freeplay without a Dallas RAM, just won't save scores on power down. You'll need to install the RAM the same way as my Phoenix high score save (see instructions on Joe's highscoresaves.com website. The module won't fit directly due to different pin spacing, but if you use longer jumper pins they can be bent to shape to fit the Pleiads board.
 
Does anyone have these ROMs backed up? The site either seems to be having issues or the files were lost. Either way, would really like to get a hold of these.
 
Does anyone have these ROMs backed up? The site either seems to be having issues or the files were lost. Either way, would really like to get a hold of these.

Freeplay attached, hopefully philmurr doesn't mind reposting.
 

Attachments

  • Pleiads_freeplay_ROMs.zip
    7.6 KB · Views: 19
Freeplay attached, hopefully philmurr doesn't mind reposting.

Thank you. I know a lady here that has been keeping a game room running since the 80's with a few machines in there that the local kids can come in and play. She's been coining this thing up manually for 30 years. lol I told her I'd try to get her a free play chip so we wouldn't have to hack the thing up.

So, if it's any consolation; it is going to a good cause.
 
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