Sep 232015
 

24/09/2015

A09 Konami-1 v1.4 update ( enhanced )

This is the final version unless some major bugs are found. I really can’t think of any other features you would want in an assembler.

  • RESET & IRQ vector support via -r & -i command line switches
  • Specifying -r or -i switch automatically pads binary to nearest multiple of 8kb
  • Creates multiple binary files from target for easy deployment to EPROMs ( max 8*8kb files )

The source code within the following archive contains original code which is copyright under the GPL2 & BSD3 licenses.

Please see comments in a09.c & konami1.c for license details.

Version: A09 v1.4

1.4

25/08/2015

A09 Konami-1 v1.1 update ( enhanced )

In this version the following improvements have been made

  • Source lines increased to 256 characters
  • Symbols increased to 32 characters
  • Use of underscored permitted in symbols
  • Symbol table is generated dynamically, previously it was limited to 2048 labels

Source, Windows & OSx64 executable provided in the package which can be downloaded from Programs/Software.

Thanks and credit goes out to Cmonkey for the first 3 improvements.

Version: A09 v1.1

v1.1

12/07/2015

If you’re reading this again at some point in the future then chances are you’ve discovered the following error message and want to fix it.

Sorry, no storage for symbols!!!

The A09 assembler has a maximum limit of 2048 labels hard coded by default which is definitely not enough if you want to re-assemble 6809 source from some of the konami1 games, dis-assembly can easily exceed 2048 labels.

#define NLABELS 2048

Modify the above value of 2048 in the source to your desired value and compile using the following command line. I increased mine to 100,000 as memory is not an issue these days.

gcc -o A09.exe A09.c konami1.c

9/7/2015

To get people who are interested started in home-brew apps on the Konami-1. I’ve included a very basic hello world asm source example which I’ve added to the download package. Produces the following output on a Track & Field PCB in SOCKET1A. The game EPROM A5 must be in SOCKET5A for this to work as the reset vector to the ROM A1 is obtained here.

Normally, your home brew code should be modified to start from 0xe000 and installed in SOCKET5A on the track & field pcb. The binary should be padded out to 8kb and the reset vector can be set to e000 from offset fffe in the produced binary using a hex editor.

7/7/2015

This assembler is based on the original A09 assembler sources written by L.C. Benschop which can be found here at https://koti.mbnet.fi/~atjs/mc6809/

This is a modified version of the above source that encrypts op-codes in order to run code on the Konami-1 CPU. This was the custom 6809 CPU used in games such as Gyruss, Track & Field, Circus Charlie, Roc ‘n Rope..etc.

This will allow for home-brew apps to run on the Konami-1 CPU without the need to encrypt op-codes by hand. The code uses the konami1_decodebyte() as found in the MAME sources, this function handles the op-code encryption for the Konami1.

Version: A09 v1.0

k1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shadow Warriors repair log

 PCB Repair Logs, Repair Logs  Comments Off on Shadow Warriors repair log
Sep 202015
 

Just a quick fix for a Shadow Warriors PCB I had since many years but never looked at:

Shadow Warriors_PCB

Gameplay was fine but all the backgrounds GFX were scrambled and messy:

bad_backgrounds

This is the part of circuit which generates the backgrounds, located on video board:

backgrounds_circuitry

Luckily EPROMs and RAMs were socketed so I first tested the latter and found a bad one @3D (a Toshiba T5563 pin to pin compatible to a generic 6264) :

T5563@3D

Replacing the bad chip was enough to clear the issue.

backgrounds_fixed

 

 Posted by at 11:21 pm
Sep 202015
 

I got this Major Title 2 PCB for cheap from ‘Smitdogg’ of MAME team:

Major Title 2_PCBX i

He said me board had some GFX issues.Actually when I powered it up I got no sprites at all:

no_sprites

For first I checked the sprites EPROMs with my logic probe and found no activity on all pins.These four sprites MASK ROMs on video board are addressed by the ASIC “GA22” on CPU board :

NANAO_GA22

I probed it and all its pins were silent too.I tried to reflow it without luck, sprites were still absent.Then, looking at the board, I noticed an open jumper ‘J3’ right hear the GA22 ASIC:

J3_open_jumper

Looking at other M92 CPU boards I could see that this jumper was always closed to position ‘B’ (so with central and right pins shorted together).So I did it on my board too:

J3_closed_jumper

and sprites were magically restored!

Now the technical explanation.The jumper is actually for selecting which clock signal must be delivered to the sprites generator ASIC “GA22”.If closed in ‘B’ position, ASIC will receive a clock signal of 26.6666 Mhz (which is the correct value for most of M92 games) :

26.66666_signal

If closed in ‘W’ postition, the ASIC will get a 18.000MHz signal (no sprites with this configuration) :

18.000MHz_signal

Last issue to fix was some audio background noise:

I quickly traced it to a missing 47uF 16V electrolytic capacitor @C213 in analog sound section:

missing_C213_capacitor

End of job.

 Posted by at 10:17 pm

Slam Masters (US) CPS 1.5 PAL dump added

 PAL Updates  Comments Off on Slam Masters (US) CPS 1.5 PAL dump added
Sep 182015
 

In the past days ‘coolmod’ dumped the PAL from his Capcom Slam Masters (US version) CPS 1.5 PCB.PLD was an unlocked PAL16L8 so he provided both original and GAL16V8 .jed and successfully tested the latter.Thanks to him.

 Posted by at 6:43 pm