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My Next Hardware Project - System 80B CPU Board

Well done Jim, your persistence paid off ! For us too. ;).

Looking forward to getting the Rev 3 in my Victory, then Arena plus another down the line when got the cash to ensure they stay reliable. :thumbs:
 
Cheers, This board has been a personal battle to get to this point, but it feels worth it to have a good long term option for pinheads and hopefully this will inspire others to fix those dead games, long forgotten or thought to be unfixable :)
 
Great job you are doing there Jim.
Machines being brought back to life that were only good for parts , that is before these boards.
 
I have a new option to consider for the manufacture of the rev3 boards. Gold plated edge connectors?? What do people think? Yes or No? The idea being that it should improve the connectivity over time
 
Update:

So its been awhile since the last update, but there has been plenty going on behind the scenes. The rev 3 boards are nearly complete and i have finally resolved all the little remaining niggles. Boards have been tested and working a variety of 80b games. The hardest issue to resolve was a very strange high score store issue. This was finally tracked down to a combination of factors, including what i believe to be a mistake/bad design in the original cpu board by gottlieb. It appears (and thanks to one of my other testers for the added insight here) that the timing of the R/W line from the 6502 is the same as the address lines, so there is no margin, and with the delays in the address decode (which is quite substantial, 3 gate delays or more) things are out of spec when the signal is fed direct. Now, this doesn't appear to be much of an issue with the old 5101 ram, (mainly due to its SLOWNESS), but add in more modern rams and suddenly the issue is magnified, (and yours truly ends up banging his head on the desk for 3 months!!!)

Also the way the non used address lines are tied has a major effect on the address location used for the small amount of bookkeeping storage. On the timekeeper rams that i have been using for an enhanced board version you need to be careful this range doesn't run into the actual clock section of the ram.

Also, with previous scenarios there were occasional bookkeeping value storage issues and non specific errors moving through the totals. And on some games the memory test would report a bad ram. These issues are all also now fixed :)

Also, the board now properly can use both the timekeeper ram and a regular 6264 ram (as used in most dmd games in the 90s) External battery connection to the included ext bat feed is obviously needed here to retain the saved data. I've uploaded a few pics from the tests in my Gold Wings today..

Its time for a beer :)


Get one to me,sure I will break,I mean test it :)
Nice work!
 
0, Zero, Nada, Zip-De-Do-Dah, Nothing, Nil

I should probably expand alittle on this. Obviously gold connectors adds to the cost, but i think if i order a lager number of boards this time i can swallow up the added cost and not add it onto the £180 finished price.
 
Final thing being added to the rev 3 boards is a 40 pin ribbon connector for connecting to Nu-Wumpf Driver boards. Ive been in contact with them and they very kindly shared their pinout for their upgraded driver board. Great Guys :)
 
ni-Wumpf compatible 40 pin driver connector added to rev3 boards
 

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I'm a little new to this and your projects. Just caught it on JMP's thread. Do you have licensing issues with what you're doing?

Great work, BTW!
 
I'm a little new to this and your projects. Just caught it on JMP's thread. Do you have licensing issues with what you're doing?

Great work, BTW!

Shhhhhh. Lawyer sabre rattling from across the pond is akin to sleeping with a family members disabled dog. ;):D
 
No Issues as far as i am aware, as the board is my own design using off the shelf parts. It is NOT a copy of the original. In fact the original is not even designed that well!. It does not include game code or roms owned by gottlieb or their copyright owners. You simply plug in your existing roms, which you own as you bought the game!
 
No Issues as far as i am aware, as the board is my own design using off the shelf parts. It is NOT a copy of the original. In fact the original is not even designed that well!. It does not include game code or roms owned by gottlieb or their copyright owners. You simply plug in your existing roms, which you own as you bought the game!

That's how you WIN!!!! Keep up the fantastic work!
 
Maybe i should add a note that this projects in not endorsed or affiliated with Gottlieb, Premier or any of their copyright holders. It is 100% english innovation!
 
We're proud of you Jim and all the work involved in saving some of the older machines.
And it's a British thing, nice one.
 
Maybe i should add a note that this projects in not endorsed or affiliated with Gottlieb, Premier or any of their copyright holders. It is 100% english innovation!

I vote for a logo of Winston Churchill shaking his fist backed by the union jack on every pcb :D
 
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Jim's latest board installed in my Victory last night and working perfectly. :thumbs:

Intend getting these in all three of my Sys80B games. Cheers Jim, your hard work has paid off.

Right, I'm off to find an Excalibur to bring back to life....!! :D
 
You certainly go a taste for the system 80 Gotliebs John.

I for one didn't see that one coming.
 
After looking at exchange rates and all sorts of things including parts suppliers i have ammended the rev3 price to £140 plus shipping for the standard option of these 25. This seem to fit better in the current marketplace. This will still include the gold plated edge connections :)

Contact me direct to pre-order. I'm taking a 50% upfront and then 50% on shipping approach. Payment is via paypal.

Thanks
 
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As another option for people i can offer rom sets to replace old/knackered/wrong language ones, plus I can amend the display text to be more custom for you if you are interested in this. See the goonies pinball project thread or this quick test video

 
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