ROM programming ?'s
Why DoYou Care
assuming some incarnation of assembler, which brings up another question i
have regarding what kind of processors most use. also, how big are the ROM's,
i.e. what is the normal range of memory required for different games. just
curious.
Jonathan N. Deitch
Williams uses a single 27C040 eprom, and games are written in 6809 assembly.
RAM is a 2K SRAM. Normal addressing is like this :
0000-1FFF RAM
2000-3FBB expansion (I think this is where the security chip hooks in)
3FBC-3FBF DMD display
3FC0-3FDF I/O
3FE0-3FFF WPC I/O
4000-7FFF bankswitched ROM
8000-FFFF non-bankswitched system ROM (last two pages of ROM)
I think.
- Jonathan
--
mus...@gsusgi2.gsu.edu | "I Hate it when I can't trust | Atlanta 1996 !!
jde...@aol.com | my own technology!" - LaForge | Play Pinball !!
jde...@gisatl.fidonet.org |--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- "Thrills! Chills! Magic! Prizes!" -- Hurricane
Gene Roddenberry, Isaac Asimov, Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss, Mel Blanc ... Sigh ...
Sean Riddle
: dole...@falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Why DoYou Care) writes:
: >i was wondering in what language pinball games are usually written in. im
: >assuming some incarnation of assembler, which brings up another question i
: >have regarding what kind of processors most use.
: Williams uses a single 27C040 eprom, and games are written in 6809 assembly.
In case anyone is interested in disassembling some code, I have written a
6809 disassembler that is available from my home page.
--
Sean (sri...@ionet.net)
<a href="http://www.ionet.net/~sriddle">Please don't hurl on my URL!</a><p>
eatlv
>
>dole...@falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Why DoYou Care) writes:
>
>>i was wondering in what language pinball games are usually written in. im
>>assuming some incarnation of assembler, which brings up another question i
>>have regarding what kind of processors most use. also, how big are the ROM's,
>>i.e. what is the normal range of memory required for different games. just
>>curious.
>
>Williams uses a single 27C040 eprom, and games are written in 6809 assembly.
>
>RAM is a 2K SRAM. Normal addressing is like this :
>
>0000-1FFF RAM
>2000-3FBB expansion (I think this is where the security chip hooks in)
>3FBC-3FBF DMD display
>3FC0-3FDF I/O
>3FE0-3FFF WPC I/O
>4000-7FFF bankswitched ROM
>8000-FFFF non-bankswitched system ROM (last two pages of ROM)
>
>I think.
>
>- Jonathan
Interesting... I'ld like to know if anyone here has ever edited their pinball
program and done some customization. I think that would be REALLY fun, possibly
even reprogram the game completely into different rules! I figure you could just
copy the ROM and burn your own EPROMS and keep them handy. heck, even put in a
set of ROMS and have a switch to switch to which MOD you'ld like to play. I'ld
like to start with putting in different music, edit the displays, and such and
eventually move into changing some of the rules, maybe even making new modes!
Lee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Lee Van Doren ea...@eancr2.att.com *
* AT&T Network Systems - CIO (V) 410-584-6420 *
* Cockeysville, MD (F) 410-584-4962 *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott R Tiesma
If I had the knowledge... and knew a bunch of other people who do too...
I'd try and get in contact with PAT LAWLOR... ask him what he wished
he'd been able to incorporate into Road Show... and then I'd try and make
his wishes come true.... (you know... how people always complain (or
sometime complain) that they wonder how much better RS would have been
had Pat had time to finish it the way he wanted to???
Just think... then you could give/sell the roms to williams (GIVE) and
they could issue a new (AWESOME) update... like going from LA-4 (or whatever
they're up to) to H-100 b/c it's such a new and modified game!!!!
(Did I just see a cow?) "You've made it to the Final Round!"
o ___ "Not an ordinary game, nor an ordinary player."
(__) o /__/| "Gulp. MMMmmmm. Hmmhmhmhmh. MMMMMMMMM BLEGCH!!!!"
(oo) | || "The sun is shining, but the ice is slippery..."
/\/) | || ============================
/ X\ ____| || = Scott R. Tiesma ==========
Y / / \\ ___~~~____|_|| = ties...@student.msu.edu =
\/ / ~---~~~~ || = ties...@egr.msu.edu =====
\|/ |____________|| =================================================
|| || || Anxiously Awaiting THEATRE OF MAGIC =============
^^ ^^ SRT'95 ^^ ========================================d=o=h-o==
Karl Brostr|m
eatlv <ea...@eancr2.nse.att.com> wrote:
> Interesting... I'ld like to know if anyone here has ever edited their
>pinball program and done some customization. I think that would be REALLY
>fun, possibly even reprogram the game completely into different rules! I
>figure you could just copy the ROM and burn your own EPROMS and keep them
>handy. heck, even put in a set of ROMS and have a switch to switch to which
>MOD you'ld like to play. I'ld like to start with putting in different music,
>edit the displays, and such and eventually move into changing some of the
>rules, maybe even making new modes!
Well... this would be quite a job to accomplish. Before being able to do
anything at all, you'd have to "crack" the checksum algorithm. This may
or may not be a tough task. Then you'd have to disassemble the ROM, trying
to learn how to interface with the various peripheral hardware. To make
changes possible, you'd most likely have to re-source the entire ROM (praying
that your re-sourcer doesn't mix up data and code too much -- which is
bound to happen). From that huge text file, it'd be pretty hard to make out
what's what. The best thing would probably be to rewrite the software from
scratch... but you'd still have to know how to interface with the hardware.
The music is a chapter in itself... Using the system software play routines
means that you need to know the format in which the actual music (not the
samples) is stored *and* the format in which the samples are stored (FFT?).
Again, it would be possible to write a player of your own...
Small patches and extras would probably not be such a big problem... Such
as editing ASCII strings and modifying graphics (non-interleaved bitplanes)
and masks. But doing major changes would, I think, be quite an exhausting
job... Even the guys at WMS make mistakes, and they're pros! :)
/Karl
--
ka...@cd.chalmers.se aka d3k...@dtek.chalmers.se
*-===========================================================================-*
Check out my home page: http://www.cd.chalmers.se/~karl/
Bill Ung
|In article <D5wEJ...@nntpa.cb.att.com>,
|eatlv <ea...@eancr2.nse.att.com> wrote:
|> Interesting... I'ld like to know if anyone here has ever edited their
|>pinball program and done some customization.
|
|anything at all, you'd have to "crack" the checksum algorithm. This may
|or may not be a tough task.
Well, as far as I can tell, it isn't an easy task. I haven't figured it
out anyway. Should someone figure this out, you can just forward that
information right along. I'm presently trying to modify an EARTHSHAKER
ROM, which works pretty well, aside from the initial boot-up, "U26 ROM
FAILURE" message. After that, everything is great, so I could live
with the error message if I wanted to, but I'd just as soon not. :-)
--
Bill Ung
u...@filenet.com
HIGH SPEED: "Dispatch this is 504, suspect got away."
EARTHSHAKER: "Ooohhh, bitchin!!"
WHITEWATER: "Dang, lost another one!"
Karl Brostr|m
Bill Ung <u...@filenet.com> wrote:
>Well, as far as I can tell, it isn't an easy task. I haven't figured it
>out anyway. Should someone figure this out, you can just forward that
>information right along. I'm presently trying to modify an EARTHSHAKER
>ROM, which works pretty well, aside from the initial boot-up, "U26 ROM
>FAILURE" message. After that, everything is great, so I could live
>with the error message if I wanted to, but I'd just as soon not. :-)
old Williams arcade games, told me that the following algorithms turned
up...
1) Add all bytes in one ROM - use *last* byte of ROM to make the sum equal
to zero.
2) Add all bytes in one ROM - compare the sum to a stored value in another
(might be the same) ROM.
3) Add all bytes in *all* ROMs with carry and compare value to a stored
constant
Remember... the evil programmers :-) at WMS might have done just about anything
to any individual number... maybe a COMA or a NEGA... who knows... the ONLY
way to be sure is to disassemble the code. Again, check out Sean's homepage
for a MC6809 disassembler in C. (I forget the URL, but just hook up to my
homepage and select the automagically generated hotlist, and you'll find it
somewhere near the bottom). On his homepage (which, IMO, happens to be a
*great* homepage, be sure to check it out!!) you'll find help on how to use
this disassembler...
All I know from having briefly viewed the code ROM for the Shadow is that
graphics is stored non-interleaved (yay!) and that most ASCII strings are
stored as... ASCII strings! Yay! They're even null-terminated! :-)
And they use C-notation (%)... Kudos to Ted Estes & Larry ...Hmmm what's
his-name-now-again!
Found a few "hidden" strings as well... how about...
"Hey bob.... the little man knows all!"
"uno... dos... tres... quatro... jugador"
Now... what the hell does "jugador" mean...?? Is it Spanish?
Well, I have a party to attend to... so I'd better be leaving!
/Karl (just slightly drunk)
(who've been drinking too many beers to post, perhaps... :-)
Don Coons
Karl Brostr|m <d3k...@dtek.chalmers.se> wrote:
>In article <950329015...@fritz.filenet.com>,
>
>Found a few "hidden" strings as well... how about...
>
>"Hey bob.... the little man knows all!"
>"uno... dos... tres... quatro... jugador"
>
>Now... what the hell does "jugador" mean...?? Is it Spanish?
>
jugar means to play, jugador means player. So the string you found is
for one, two, three, or four players. Probably part of the starting
code, if I was to guess.
Don Coons
d...@wnb3b2.att.com
Karl Brostr|m
Britt Brooks <bri...@barracuda.dadd.ti.com> wrote:
>I'd like to know if both Spanish and English were supported with the
>same set of ROMS. Maybe in a limited fashion, but still...
I thought German, French and English were the only supported languages.
That's why the Spanish struck me as a bit odd. Then again, I've never
bothered to check out the language support... so I might be wrong.
/Karl
Graham West
[quoting other people about 'jugador' in roms]
: This is correct. "Jugador" (pronounced who-ga-dor) means player in Spanish
: I'd bet it is used when a Spanish lauguage is selected. Is that possible
: on the pins (I mean to have more than 1 language)? I would assume you
: needed a completely new set of ROMS. It would be neat if you could use
: the software to change the language your machine speaks...
Of my three machines, the two that have alpha displays support English and
German text. The speech is still in English but all the text written on the
display (everything from in-game messages to diagnostics) comes up in the
selected language.
: I'd like to know if both Spanish and English were supported with the
: same set of ROMS. Maybe in a limited fashion, but still...
I guess there are ROMs which support other languages as well. By the way, all
games (with European ROMs anyway) support default pricing systems for more
countries than you can shake a stick at.
Graham
--
Graham West, University Of Bradford, UK .... g.i....@bradford.ac.uk
"The cupboards are bare, but the streets are paved with gold." Neil Young
Martin Ayub
> German text. The speech is still in English but all the text written on the
> display (everything from in-game messages to diagnostics) comes up in the
> selected language.
The Funhouse I used to have had English, French and German options.
I once set it to French, just for a laugh. Rudy is called Robert in the
French setting BTW.
Then, could I find my way back through the menu to the Language setting
with everything in French? No I couldn't!
Had to resort to the manual, and menu numbers!
Haven't tried that since.
Martin.
<Inset favourite sig here>
Bill Ung
|>out anyway. Should someone figure this out, you can just forward that
|>information right along. I'm presently trying to modify an EARTHSHAKER
|>ROM, which works pretty well, aside from the initial boot-up, "U26 ROM
|>FAILURE" message. After that, everything is great, so I could live
|>with the error message if I wanted to, but I'd just as soon not. :-)
|
|old Williams arcade games, told me that the following algorithms turned
|up...
|
|1) Add all bytes in one ROM - use *last* byte of ROM to make the sum equal
| to zero.
As logical as this seems, I wonder how exactly it would work. The 6802
microprocessor uses the last two address spaces, $FFFE and $FFFF as the
system reset vector. Assuming that the ROMs are sequential (GAME1 is
$0000 - $7FFF and GAME2 is $8000 - $FFFF), Earthshaker last two bytes
read $0F8B so is that our reset vector? If so, where is the checksum
stored?
|2) Add all bytes in one ROM - compare the sum to a stored value in another
| (might be the same) ROM.
|3) Add all bytes in *all* ROMs with carry and compare value to a stored
| constant
*sigh*, that's seriously looking for a needle in a haystack (or in the
case of option #2, looking for a needle in multiple haystacks). Without
knowing where it's located, or what the algorithm is, you don't have any
physical data to hang onto. Any number could be it, any location could
be it.
|Remember... the evil programmers :-) at WMS might have done just about
| anything
|to any individual number... maybe a COMA or a NEGA... who knows... the ONLY
|way to be sure is to disassemble the code. Again, check out Sean's homepage
|for a MC6809 disassembler in C. (I forget the URL, but just hook up to my
|homepage and select the automagically generated hotlist, and you'll find it
|somewhere near the bottom). On his homepage (which, IMO, happens to be a
|*great* homepage, be sure to check it out!!) you'll find help on how to use
|this disassembler...
Two problems:
1) I don't have access to the WWW.
2) I don't presently have the time to figure this out. I'll try,
but if others are working on this, I'd rather contribute to a
collaboration.
|Well, I have a party to attend to... so I'd better be leaving!
|
|/Karl (just slightly drunk)
|(who've been drinking too many beers to post, perhaps... :-)
Hope you're not driving...
Federico Croci
>I guess there are ROMs which support other languages as well. By the way, all
>games (with European ROMs anyway) support default pricing systems for more
>countries than you can shake a stick at.
Yes, and usually the only one missing it's the one you really need. ;-)
--
Federico "Wiz" Croci
w...@pinball.nervous.com
Dirk Wriedt
>I thought German, French and English were the only supported languages.
I wonder why German and French are the only european languages supported.
The Italians seem to play a lot, too.
What about the swedish people?
>/Karl
Ciao
Dirk
--
You are making me VERY unhappy.
Federico Croci
>I wonder why German and French are the only european languages supported.
>The Italians seem to play a lot, too.
Yes, I can confirm this. 8-)
Usually, Williams/Midway includes italian instruction cards in their
games; manual it's in english, and text on the display is in english
too. By the way, the warning on the back of the backbox to not transport
a pinball with its head up it's also printed in italian language. :-)
Gottlieb: everything in english, apart for the stickers in the
coin-slots. ;-)
Data-East/Sega: italian docs, italian text on the display and italian
manual if the distributor cares to translate it. At least, _there's_ a
distributor.
tha...@thargie.xs4all.nl
> >The Italians seem to play a lot, too.
> Yes, I can confirm this. 8-)
Hmmm.. i played (I think it was a Gotlieb) with german text.
It was POLICE (OR something like that)
Multiball was 2 balls :-)
And there was a 5-credits in one BONUS!
It had aligators in it and a jail ofcourse..
But as i said, text was defenitly in german!
That's why i thought for a while Godlieb was a german
manufacturer.
)
( ( (
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( ||||||| (
( O O )
____oOO___(_)___OOo____
( )
) *THE END* (
( )
) (
(|||||||||||||||||||||||)
## CrossPoint v3.02 ##
Mark Phaedrus
>> >I wonder why German and French are the only european languages supported.
>> >The Italians seem to play a lot, too.
>> Yes, I can confirm this. 8-)
>Hmmm.. i played (I think it was a Gotlieb) with german text.
>It was POLICE (OR something like that)
Police Force. Williams, though they may not mind you thinking it was a
Gottlieb. :-) (Not one of their better efforts... the police car toy was
neat, and I loved the theme and the artwork, but that center ramp just
blew the scoring balance away, and the Take High Score pretty much finished it
off.)
>Multiball was 2 balls :-)
Quite a few older machines are this way, actually. The nice thing about
this is that it lets one ball get stuck somewhere without affecting gameplay
at all...
>And there was a 5-credits in one BONUS!
<crack-crack> <crack> <crack-crack> The only other machine I've seen
with an award like this was the ten-credit bonus on Hot Shots, though that
was at least theoretically skill-based...
--
\o\ If you're interested in books/stories with transformation themes,\o\
\o\please try <URL:http://www.halcyon.com/phaedrus/Menu.html>, or \o\
/o/anonymous-ftp to ftp.halcyon.com in /local/phaedrus/translist. /o/
/o/ Comments and submissions to this list are always welcome. /o/
Brian Dominy
> Police Force. Williams, though they may not mind you thinking it was a
>Gottlieb. :-) (Not one of their better efforts... the police car toy was
>neat, and I loved the theme and the artwork, but that center ramp just
>blew the scoring balance away, and the Take High Score pretty much finished it
>off.)
Speaking of which, who designed that game? I nearly forgot all the times
I used to play that game in high school. I would walk out of the arcade
and the sound of the center ramp, over and over again, would be ringing
in my ears. I even dreamed about being *un*able to hit anything but the
ramp over, etc. (This is not a joke, funny as it may seem.)
I do remember that the original theme of the game was going to be "Batman",
but the licensing fell through and they stuck with something generic.
- Brian
--
Brian Dominy | The prices of the prizes were furnished to the contestants
gt6139a@ | prior to the show, and have been rounded off to the nearest
prism.gatech.edu | dollar. Gift certificates do not include sales tax.
Mikael Gunnarsson
>> I thought German, French and English were the only supported
>> languages.
DW> I wonder why German and French are the only european languages
DW> supported. The Italians seem to play a lot, too.
DW> What about the swedish people?
Yeah, what 'bout us? 8^)
/Mikael
( UUCP Dialup connection )
Keith P. Johnson
>Speaking of which, who designed that game? I nearly forgot all the times
>I used to play that game in high school. I would walk out of the arcade
>and the sound of the center ramp, over and over again, would be ringing
>in my ears. I even dreamed about being *un*able to hit anything but the
>ramp over, etc. (This is not a joke, funny as it may seem.)
I believe it was a Mark Ritchie/Barry Oursler effort. It has
characteristics of both of them around that time. For example, getting
several different areas or targets to light jackpot was a Mark Ritchie
thing (Diner, Taxi come to mind); getting a rapable shot is
characteristic of Barry Oursler (Bad Cats, Hurricane, Dr. Who).
keith
--
Keith P. Johnson, kee...@rahul.net, kee...@access.digex.net
Definitions in this sig are real words learned from making up words in Boggle.
hards (n) - the coarse refuse of flax
Dirk Wriedt
> DW> supported. The Italians seem to play a lot, too.
> DW> What about the swedish people?
>Yeah, what 'bout us? 8^)
Are you playing pinball up there, too? The swedish pins have built-in
heaters, I suppose, to keep the ball from getting frozen to the playfields
;-)
>/Mikael
Russel Willoughby
: > Police Force. Williams, though they may not mind you thinking it was a
: >Gottlieb. :-) (Not one of their better efforts... the police car toy was
: >neat, and I loved the theme and the artwork, but that center ramp just
: >blew the scoring balance away, and the Take High Score pretty much finished it
: >off.)
: Speaking of which, who designed that game? I nearly forgot all the times
: I used to play that game in high school. I would walk out of the arcade
: and the sound of the center ramp, over and over again, would be ringing
: in my ears. I even dreamed about being *un*able to hit anything but the
: ramp over, etc. (This is not a joke, funny as it may seem.)
I think PF was an Oursler/Python production. And despite its scoring
flaws, I always thought it was a lot of fun. Obviously, though, a poor
game for tournament play.
--
Russel Willoughby
-----------------
rus...@iglou.com
Ola Rodenkirchen
: > DW> What about the swedish people?
: >Yeah, what 'bout us? 8^)
: Are you playing pinball up there, too? The swedish pins have built-in
: heaters, I suppose, to keep the ball from getting frozen to the playfields
: ;-)
No, we USE them as heaters! ;-) Actually, my apartment went quite hot when
I had my Jungle Lord there, but on the other hand it's just 22 square
meters. When I got it, I also had a video game at home, and three
computers for my BBS. Got rid of the videogame first, of course, but the
trusty old pin went away too when I got bored of climbing over it to find
my bed... That's why my little pal Rudy lives at my office right now.
But to say something about languages, most swedes knows english quite
well (ok, don't complain about my posts, I said most! ;), especially
compared to the french... And we use subtitling, not dubbing as the
germans and french, so we are used to hear Dirty Harry talk english.
: Ciao
: Dirk
: --
: You are making me VERY unhappy.
Big deal! ;-)
//Ola
--
#-------------------------------------------------- FunHouse! FunHouse! Fun
! Ola Rodenkirchen / supe...@algonet.se House! FunHouse! FunHou
! Sysop 2:201/2117 @ fidonet (+46-8-6530522) se! FunHouse! FunHouse!
! Only BBS in Sweden with special pinball section! FunHouse! FunHouse! Fun
Mikael Gunnarsson
Fredag April 14 1995 skrev Dirk Wriedt till Mikael Gunnarsson:
>> DW> What about the swedish people?
>> Yeah, what 'bout us? 8^)
DW> Are you playing pinball up there, too?
Of course we are!
DW> The swedish pins have built-in heaters, I suppose, to keep the ball from
DW> getting frozen to the playfields ;-)
Come on! It's not THAT cold up here... (OK, it snows in April but...)
But we do have chairs with built-in heaters to prevent our butts from getting
stuck... ;-)
And it depends a lot on where in Sweden you live... If you, like me, live in
the southern parts, you might even have SUN in the summer... :-)
DW> Ciao
DW> Dirk
Cya!
DW> You are making me VERY unhappy.
Too bad...
Dirk Wriedt
>Hej Dirk!
>Fredag April 14 1995 skrev Dirk Wriedt till Mikael Gunnarsson:
> DW> Are you playing pinball up there, too?
>Of course we are!
That was beyond doubt :-)
> DW> The swedish pins have built-in heaters, I suppose, to keep the ball from
> DW> getting frozen to the playfields ;-)
>Come on! It's not THAT cold up here... (OK, it snows in April but...)
I live in the very north of Germany, and we sometimes have snow in April,
too. The winters are not as strong as in Sweden, and since the greenhouse
effect and the diminishing ozone, we at least get real hot summers :-)
>But we do have chairs with built-in heaters to prevent our butts from getting
>stuck... ;-)
Thats an invention. Do you have to pay for this, too? Something like 10
mins/Kr 5, 20 mins/Kr 8 :-) What about an "extra heating" award ?
>Cya!
>/Mikael
Ciao
Dirk
--
You are making me VERY unhappy (Rudy)