Rare boards you'd like to see repro'd

Tornadoboy

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Ok this topic has been done before, but I thought I'd start it anew as a lot of cool stuff has come out recently and it's always fun to fantasize out loud! :D

Boards that HAVE been repro'd:

- Quantum (sounds like there's going to be a new run of them soon too!)
- Omega Race main board, the one that get's acid eaten
- Trackball/control decoder board for Mad Planets/Reactor
- Ampliphone XY deflection and HV boards (Thanks Dezbaz!)
- Eliminators 4-player adaptor board

Announced or rumored to be in the works:

- Pole Position I & II multi-board
- Universal Nintendo PPU replacement
- VS Castlevania/Top Gun daughtercard

Boards I'd love to see done:

- I, Robot
- Cosmic Chasm
- Turbo Sub
- Slither EPROM/sound board (I may take a crack at it)
- Star Wars
- Major Havoc
- Monaco GP (redone in more reliable FPGA form)
- Exidy Star Fire/Fire One boards
 
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I see you marked one of the boards as FPGA rebuild, but what does everyone consider as best, original board layout to keep as close to what it's supposed to be or a redesign of the original that is functionally the same and plug n play with the original harness? I know it's a debate that goes back and forth, and I am curious to what is more favored.
 
I see you marked one of the boards as FPGA rebuild, but what does everyone consider as best, original board layout to keep as close to what it's supposed to be or a redesign of the original that is functionally the same and plug n play with the original harness? I know it's a debate that goes back and forth, and I am curious to what is more favored.

Personally I prefer original whenever possible except when there were serious design flaws that made a game difficult to keep working or has impossible to get parts, Monaco GP is a nightmare to debug since it's all discreet logic with a gazillion chips and no CPUs, and Pole Positions are notoriously unreliable. If I work out a repro'd Slither board it will be the original circuit with a new PCB foil pattern, simply because I don't have an original to work with.
 
Gottlieb system 80 sound and speech board. Super simple, If I knew about 5% more I could easily design a drop in replacement universal unit.
Full single pcb replacement would be cool to replace cpu, driver and sound pcbs...
 
Personally I prefer original whenever possible except when there were serious design flaws that made a game difficult to keep working or has impossible to get parts, Monaco GP is a nightmare to debug since it's all discreet logic with a gazillion chips and no CPUs, and Pole Positions are notoriously unreliable. If I work out a repro'd Slither board it will be the original circuit with a new PCB foil pattern, simply because I don't have an original to work with.

I to am in the same boat on this one. There have been a few boards I thought about doing based on schematics so that I can make it run original but no board to figure out the layout on. Repro'ing boards that you have an original on isn't a hard job to do, just a lot of time is spent.
 
I like to see boards that have high fail rates; such as:
Ivan Stewart Super Off Road
Nintendo Super System
Revolution X

I am sure there are more, but repo'ing those 3 alone would make you a millionaire
 
Rarer Sega vectors. Cinimatronic vectors. Issue is finding a board that is
Rare/unliable but has a big enough audience. I'm going to guess major
havoc would be a hit. Could be used in original cabs, tempest and space duel cabs.
Almost everything is avaliable except dedicated rollers.

I bet Zektor or eliminator would be buys. But a multisega w/sound might kill that.
 
What exactly does repro'd mean when it comes to PCB's? LIke full working reproduction boards or just the bare PCB's and a few parts and you have to supply the rest from other parts you have already?
 
I think Major Havoc bare pcb is a no brainer.

This is so true. Should easily be top of the list. And as far as how original it needs to be. I would say people will buy anything they can use for this one lol!
 
This is so true. Should easily be top of the list. And as far as how original it needs to be. I would say people will buy anything they can use for this one lol!

I have a suspicion this might be worked on already? I dunno, but a bare PCB (a true 'repro'), like the Quantum one.. The rarity is there, people want the game, people with it might want a bare PCB for a hobby build as a replacement. A game can be done in a Space Duel cabinet, just look what the billtronix guy did.. He even did full custom MH artwork on the cabinet:

http://www.biltronix.com/Space_Duel_to_Major_Havoc_Conversion.html
 
These PCBs aren't really hard to find, AFAIK. It's the SC-01 speech chip that's the bitch.

The sound and speech boards fetch good $$ on ebay.
I suspect it would actually be much simple to build a board that mimics the system 80's sound and speech function, than to even buils and sell anything to merely replace the sc01a.
 
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What exactly does repro'd mean when it comes to PCB's? LIke full working reproduction boards or just the bare PCB's and a few parts and you have to supply the rest from other parts you have already?

It would all depend on demand on this one. On the hobbyist level of repro ing boards, you aren't having the factory populating the boards, so you spend A LOT of your time building it out, but at the same time, it makes it much easier to test that your build is 100% functional if they come pre-built. This is a hard one to choose without community input ahead of time.
 
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