Since getting Zenitone's Invader's Revenge working with sound (without needing the dedicated sound board), I've wanted to get the code out there for people to play, but there hasn't been a useable bit of hardware to put it on. So rather than just produce a single ROM board with MVRAM for high score saves, I thought it wouldn't be much more difficult to make it into a multigame with a few more features.
Everyone knows about the Braze SI multigame kit that's been around forever. This isn't meant to replace that nor compete with it. This multi was designed to allow other, less well-known 8080 CPU, SI-hardware-based games to be played. So whilst the initial release has the maximum 8 games the board can handle, I intend to make software updates available so people can pick and choose what games (up to a point) they want on it. And to be honest, Space Phantoms and Space Ranger are pretty awful
There will also be a plug-in colour ROM board to replace the colour PROMs so it can work with colour boards and in cocktail cabs - the PCBs have arrived, I just need to build and test.
There are some old favourites in there that it would be silly not to include such as Space Invaders and Lunar Rescue. The full list of games currently included are:
Space Invaders
Taito Lunar Rescue
Universal Galaxy Wars
Nichibutsu Moon Base Zeta
Zenitone-Microsec Super Invaders
Zenitone-Microsec Invader's Revenge
Zilec Space Phantoms
Leisure Time Space Ranger
All games have menu-selectable options, all save high scores (some have the feature to save the name too).
They all have selectable freeplay option (whilst maintaining attract mode). If you're in freeplay mode it doesn't tell you to insert coins, instead it tells you to press start. The fun animation on Space Invaders/Super Invaders has also been changed so it shows "PRESS SSTART" instead of "INSERT CCOIN" for when the alien drops a missile on the extra letter.
It can also be set to boot to a particular game at power-up, or just to the menu. When in a game, holding P1 & P2 start down for a second or so returns to the menu.
So far it's been tested on a MIdway L-shaped black & white board, other testing is underway to confirm it will work on Taito L-shaped and 2/3-layer boards. There's not much to show on a screenshot of the games (apart from it saying FREEPLAY instead of CREDIT, and PRESS START instead of INSERT COIN), so here's a couple of pics of the menu, and one of the installed board.
Everyone knows about the Braze SI multigame kit that's been around forever. This isn't meant to replace that nor compete with it. This multi was designed to allow other, less well-known 8080 CPU, SI-hardware-based games to be played. So whilst the initial release has the maximum 8 games the board can handle, I intend to make software updates available so people can pick and choose what games (up to a point) they want on it. And to be honest, Space Phantoms and Space Ranger are pretty awful
There will also be a plug-in colour ROM board to replace the colour PROMs so it can work with colour boards and in cocktail cabs - the PCBs have arrived, I just need to build and test.
There are some old favourites in there that it would be silly not to include such as Space Invaders and Lunar Rescue. The full list of games currently included are:
Space Invaders
Taito Lunar Rescue
Universal Galaxy Wars
Nichibutsu Moon Base Zeta
Zenitone-Microsec Super Invaders
Zenitone-Microsec Invader's Revenge
Zilec Space Phantoms
Leisure Time Space Ranger
All games have menu-selectable options, all save high scores (some have the feature to save the name too).
They all have selectable freeplay option (whilst maintaining attract mode). If you're in freeplay mode it doesn't tell you to insert coins, instead it tells you to press start. The fun animation on Space Invaders/Super Invaders has also been changed so it shows "PRESS SSTART" instead of "INSERT CCOIN" for when the alien drops a missile on the extra letter.
It can also be set to boot to a particular game at power-up, or just to the menu. When in a game, holding P1 & P2 start down for a second or so returns to the menu.
So far it's been tested on a MIdway L-shaped black & white board, other testing is underway to confirm it will work on Taito L-shaped and 2/3-layer boards. There's not much to show on a screenshot of the games (apart from it saying FREEPLAY instead of CREDIT, and PRESS START instead of INSERT COIN), so here's a couple of pics of the menu, and one of the installed board.
