Punch-Out created because of surplus TVs

pc10builder

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Do you think they have some NOS monitors at Nintendo Japan somewhere stored in a magical warehouse filled with NOS cabinets? Haha.
 
just think the whole world would have changed if they didnt move forward with donkey kong ""So we can only roll one barrel then?" You can't make Donkey Kong with just one barrel."
 
That was awesome. Thanks for posting that. I've been wishing someone would do an interview with Genyo Takeda specifically about the Punch-Out series for a long time, and this interview was that, and more. Punch-Out and Super Punch-Out are by far my favorite arcade games; but it is not as easy to find history on them like it is for e.g., Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros.

One of my long-standing questions was partially answered in that interview; i.e., was the announcer's voice in arcade PO and SPO synthesized or did they record a real voice; and if the latter, whose voice was it? According to the interview, they got someone from Nintendo of America to do the voice. I still want to know whose voice it was. Can you imagine talking to some random guy and then in a moment of realization, "Wait a minute, aren't you the announcer from Punch-Out?" I'd ask him to say "Come on, stand up and fight!"

BTW, Genyo Takeda is awesome. When I got my Super Punch-Out board a few years ago, it had an audio issue. I asked around at all of the arcade-related forums and I couldn't find a solution. As a last ditch, shot-in-the-dark effort, I decided to write a letter (a real letter, not an email) to Nintendo of Japan in care of Genyo Takeda to ask for help with the problem. I described the audio issue in the letter and linked him to a site I'd set up with audio recordings of the issue. I also included my email address as a means for him to reply.

What do you think the odds are of that approach working? Is a bigshot at Nintendo on the other side of the world going to care about an audio problem on a board they manufactured over 20 years ago? I thought it unlikely, but it only cost about a dollar (postage to Japan) to try. Nintendo of America certainly didn't care; I'd already called them.

Much to my surprise I got an email a couple of weeks later from an NoJ engineer from R&D3 who'd worked on the original Punch-Out project in the '80s. He said that Genyo Takeda had assigned him to help me with my problem. After about 5 emails back and forth, he pinpointed the problem, and I fixed it for the cost of a TTL logic chip.

Here is the initial email reply I received; for anyone interested in reading it:

I am an engineer working for Mr. Takeda at Nintendo. Generally speaking,
the manufacturing companies are not able to support technically and do the
maintenance of too old products out of warranty, because there would be no
spare components to replace or fix, even if we locate the problems. Anyway
Mr. Takeda assigned me to help you, as much as possible, fix the problem of
your Super Punch-Out hardware. However please keep it in your mind that I
do my best to locate the problem, but you should not expect excessively,
because I would not like to make you be disappointed finally.

For your information, I found the pdf file of the Punch-Out's circuit
schematic at
http://arcadeconnection.serverbox.org/arcade machines/english/Punch-Out!! [Operation]%20(EN).pdf.
I attached the file here for you.

So I have a question about your CPU Printed Circuit Board, at the location
of 4F and 4H, Do you find a pair of the same sound processors of 2A03s?
These 2A03s are the processors with sound frequency-modulation features,
which are the derivative version of Nintendo Entertainment System's chip.
One 2A03 generates two channels of sounds, so totally four channels of the
sound sources are to be mixed through tie-up by ohmic-resistors. Anyway
could you check two processors of 2A03 (4F and 4H) ? Thank you.

An interesting thing about that email is that he inadvertently gave some insight into the design of PO and SPO hardware. He mentions two 2A03 CPUs, but PO/SPO only have one 2A03 CPU, plus an empy socket beside it which could accept a second one (some boards don't even have the empty socket):

It
was a long ago for me, so I can not remember that we implement two 2A03s in
the final Super PunchOut!! product, or single 2A03. Please let me know
whether 4F and 4D are both empty, I mean "NOT soldered at all" or
"removed". If the location of 4F and 4D are both virgin, I mean thru-hole
are not soldered at all in the past, it makes me that we designed the PC
Board lay-out for two 2A03s, but we did not implement two 2A03s in the
final product of Super PunchOut!!.


Anyway give me more time to remember. And give me the answer. Thanks.

Emphasis mine

So they did originally intend to have two 2A03 CPUs (just like the empty 2nd socket would suggest) but that never made it to the final design. I thought that was quite interesting. I wonder how the game would have sounded with both 2A03s implemented in the design.
 
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One thing you can say about these guys at Nintendo Japan, they have this shit in their blood. There's no wonder that the guy tried to help you out, every interview I've ever seen with those designers their love of the games always shows. Miyamoto's comments at the end about how when a game is designed now, and it's crap, they just add stuff to make it better when the fundamental concept of the game is flawed shows the man's genius and love for making fun games that kids adults and grandmas can enjoy. I have a ton of respect for the design team at Nintendo.
 
Wow, that's really cool that he actually sent your info to someone to help out with the problem. That rocks!

Wade

Definitely cool. The interview was a nice read, but that little story about writing to Nintendo of Japan was much better.
 
Wow, that's really cool that he actually sent your info to someone to help out with the problem. That rocks!

Wade

I agree. I was amazed. It didn't take him long to pinpoint the problem either. He narrowed it down to either one of two TTL logic chips that were mounted side by side on the board, and he suspected one of them more strongly than the other for being the cause of the problem:

The
LS138 (2D) is to steer the output location to one of the LS374s. I would
like to give an advice that you should replace one IC and check the change
of the result one by one, out of two LS374s (2H and 2J) and LS138 (2D). I
would like to bet the LS374 (2J) first, judging from your explanation at
your web-set.
Next would be the LS374 of 2H. Even though the percentage to
replace LS138 looks very low, you'd better also order the LS138 and
prepare. Thanks

Emphasis mine
He was exactly right. I replaced the LS374 at location 2J and it fixed the audio problem.

Also, he took the time to help while he was very busy working on a little thing called "Revolution" which was soon to be released as the "Wii":

I read your mail. I also found that we did not insert another 2A03, just
prepared as the contingency plan. So anyway, your product which includes
the sockets, must be the early product of "PunchOut" and upgraded to
"Super PunchOut" by the Arcade operator.
Coincidentally I also found the same conclusion after collecting the old
information. I am sorry for not answering soon. I am now very busy for the
next-gen project called Revolution.


Emphasis mine

That is awesome. I'd print out the emails and frame them for the gameroom. Really.

That's not a bad idea (though most people outside this hobby wouldn't get it). I don't have a gameroom yet though (I have plans for one, if I can ever get the room, which is being used for storage, cleaned out). Currently I have two arcade machines in my dining room, two in my living room, and one out in the shed.
 
I think that interview needs to be archived somewhere in the community, because a few years from now it will be a dead link and people will be quoting (and misquoting) from it. It really had a lot of interesting information in it!

Wade
 
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