turning an old arcade board into a computer?
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Phils Arcade
Senior Member
What you have to remember is that arcade boards were specifically designed to run just that game. Many have custom chips that, again, are designed to do a specific task really fast.
In saying that the likes of the older Atari boards may be hacked. It's custom POKEY or Pot Keyboard chip was designed and fitted into many of the Atari home computers as well as arcade PCBs. These were used to read the values for paddle style games as well as keyboard matrix for input and for the well known sound generation. I think they also contained code to interface with Ataris disk drive.
Would be an interesting idea, at least these old boards run original 6502, 68000, or Zilog Z80 families of processors, so this is simple enough to get data on, and burning a new set of code to ROMS.
Atari did produce a BASIC programming cartridge for their 2600, very simple, but it did work to an extent, so if it can work on that very limited machine, then why not on an arcade board.
Good luck if you're thinking of tackling such a project.
Infurious2022-08-12 07:19:28
In saying that the likes of the older Atari boards may be hacked. It's custom POKEY or Pot Keyboard chip was designed and fitted into many of the Atari home computers as well as arcade PCBs. These were used to read the values for paddle style games as well as keyboard matrix for input and for the well known sound generation. I think they also contained code to interface with Ataris disk drive.
Would be an interesting idea, at least these old boards run original 6502, 68000, or Zilog Z80 families of processors, so this is simple enough to get data on, and burning a new set of code to ROMS.
Atari did produce a BASIC programming cartridge for their 2600, very simple, but it did work to an extent, so if it can work on that very limited machine, then why not on an arcade board.
Good luck if you're thinking of tackling such a project.
Infurious2022-08-12 07:19:28
Several people have ported different games to arcade hardware:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/alt/32113/ZX-Spectrum/Pac_Manic_Miner_Man
https://github.com/MikeDX/pitfall-scramble
https://github.com/MikeDX/taito-invaders-wiz
And of course, creating a BASIC interpreter is only really the same as making a game - the trouble you'd have really is speed, and well, as you mentioned - input ... there's no way you'd be able to attach a keyboard to any older hardware. You wouldn't be able to do it on anything too "classic".
IMO, the better way to go about it is as MikeDX has done in the link above - create something which compiles to arcade hardware. It's not like you'd be able to even save any programs you'd make in BASIC.
pobtastic2022-08-12 14:21:53
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/alt/32113/ZX-Spectrum/Pac_Manic_Miner_Man
https://github.com/MikeDX/pitfall-scramble
https://github.com/MikeDX/taito-invaders-wiz
And of course, creating a BASIC interpreter is only really the same as making a game - the trouble you'd have really is speed, and well, as you mentioned - input ... there's no way you'd be able to attach a keyboard to any older hardware. You wouldn't be able to do it on anything too "classic".
IMO, the better way to go about it is as MikeDX has done in the link above - create something which compiles to arcade hardware. It's not like you'd be able to even save any programs you'd make in BASIC.
Code:
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If you are looking to use a Z80 based PCB, then SymbOS might be a good place to start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SymbOS
http://www.symbos.de
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SymbOS
http://www.symbos.de