Monday 30 October 2017

Party like it's 1999, conclusion of non-JAMMA boards test and gameroom overview

First on the bench today is '99 -the last war AKA SEGA's Repulse. A space invaders clone with forward movement and scaling! And like the late pop singer, its gone to heaven before I could get it going.




Finally, I have Storming Party AKA L.S.A (Land, Sea, Air) by TAITO. The opening music is awesome, pretty punching for a game that era. Lots of vehicles to ride!!





Current state of gameroom: Vacancy: Zero, Status: 100%



Sunday 29 October 2017

More archaic boards to the test...

The saga continues with the next 3 boards. First on the bench is Get Star by Taito. It was during these times the online resources are becoming increasingly vague with which pins is the Speaker + and the Speaker -. I decided that statistically, the Speaker + is on the Component side and the Speaker - is on the Solder side.

If you ever wondered how Altered Beast is like in space? This is it.




Bemler from the Ultraman universe makes a cameo.


Next is a curly one. On first glance I can see "Tut" written on the harness, which I assumed is for Tutankham (an early Konami release...cool) and on the top board its written "Space Alot" (which was Space Pilot later on...) and only noticed a silk screen Taimu-Paylot.



And the money shot! And yes, I will try this game thank you very much.



Finally for the night, I had an early game developed by Seibu Kaihatsu. Its Knuckle Joe, or as I like to call it, Hokuto no Thunder. I haven't given it a good go, but these twitchy reflex games have a certain charm to them.



Thursday 26 October 2017

Out of the ashes...a Baraduke shall arise.

Been busy with more testing and wiring. First on the bench is CAPCOMs' 1942. The board's connecting edge looks like a JAMMA connection and also 1942 pinout is slightly different from the pinout found in games of the same era like Makaimura and Trojan.




I suspect a faulty RAM or 6...damn you Fujitsu, damn you to arcade hell. The game sounds and plays good but the graphics is all messed up. But the night is young, so I pressed on, digging deeper.



I never had a love for this game unfortunately, but to my surprise, it started up and played beautifully. It is an original TAITO board in a sea of bootlegs. Glad it worked and still traumatic to play.





Hitting while the iron is hot, I wired up Gulivan Cosmic Police. Who has an uncanny resemblance to Robocop using a Jitte to murder monsters and other nasties alike. Alas, it was a no goer. The background tiles is messed up and the foreground text is messed up too. However, the sprite of the characters were working so I can only image it being a RAM fault again. Digging deeper for another win...




Under the wrap is an original NAMCO Baraduke (you just have to take my word for it). The pinout is the same as Gaplus and some of the contemporary NAMCO releases. This time round, the established harness utilised the 3 pin molex supplying +5V, 12V and Ground. All good and was a tidy adaptation to JAMMA too. The gameplay is similar to Atomic Robokid which I played to death on the old Megadrive, but this time round the game gives you a couple of hit before getting charred by bullets with a couple of hits and an instant charred death if you touch the enemies (extra crispy mind you). They also implemented a kickback animation whenever you fire the weapon, of any calibre, which is a messy mechanic to say the least. You are also required to be careful not to kill friendlies as well which is always sad to watch.




Monday 23 October 2017

Has been a JAMMA'n weekend

Went to work on a couple of games. I decided to make adapters for the authentic boards first before moving onto the reproduction/bootleg boards. First on the bench is GAPLUS or Galaga 3. Got to admit, playing Galaga with a 8 way stick is kind of scary but it is definitely Galaga through and through.



Next on the bench is Stinger. It harks ZAXXON. But now the ship is smaller, enemies number has increased and also the stage is bigger. It also employs a support system. I need to put more time into this game. Nice to see an official TAITO NZ sticker on it though.






Finally, I had Bank Panic on the bench. This game was never played in NZ as far as I can tell because the harness adapter has not been wired up until today. This game employs a 2 way joystick movement and a 3 buttons shooting scheme: Left, Centre and Right, corresponding to the Doors the Sheriff character will be shooting at and you need to shoot the masked cowboys. Basically a gun game, with joystick and buttons.





Finally folks, it is always not a good idea to jam the wind...unless you are Windjamming. It was a wonderful long weekend.


Friday 20 October 2017

It is going to be an "alibaba" weekend for me...

My parcel from the mainland arrived and it is great to see them recycling packaging!



So will be getting to work on those boards that has been dormant for so many years..looking at you Gaplus!