gregf |
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I recall seeing Knights in Armor at a pizza place back in mid 1970s when I was with my relatives. It was either in Lakewood or Cerritos. I may have played it once or twice and didn't care for it as a kid back then. In fact, I may have thought it was more disgusting than Exidy's Death Race even though Exidy's Death Race received more complaints than any arcade video game until Mortal Kombat arrived in arcades in early 1990s. And true that Exidy Chiller could have been a target just like Death Race was in 1970s of receiving complaints, but there probably were only a few Chiller cabs out there compared to Death Race cabs which were more common back in mid 1970s. Hence of why Death Race got lots of complaints back in 1970s. I don't recall seeing Knights in Armor anywhere else such as at Knott's Berry Farm's Buffalo Nickel arcade nor at Disneyland's StarCade center back then in mid to late 1970s.
I got some pages (source is from photocopies, not from original manual) regarding Project Support Engineering Knights in Armor. The logic schematics though might be original blue print sheets....about 20 pages worth that look to be in legal size format rather than a large size fold out sheet such as the logic schematics sheets that were printed for Midway games from the 1970s era.
http://mamedev.emulab.it/undumped/index.php?title=Knights_in_Armor
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=1725
Here is the cover....from a photocopy page...not from the actual manual.
[ATTACHED IMAGE - CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
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gregf |
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Here is one of the set up pages explaining to the game operator of what should appear on the screen when adjusting the game settings. The description, besides being somewhat comical imo, explains a little bit of the game play.
[ATTACHED IMAGE - CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
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gregf |
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And here is visual layout of cab, pcb etc.
I was expecting the game to have a dual pcb layout arrangement, similar to Kee Games Tank, but it appears to be a single pcb, non-cpu video game which is a good thing since it hopefully means that it has a better chance of being emulated compared to the multi-pcb board rack non-cpu video games made by PSE. Knights in Armor pcb still needs to be found and roms dumped from the pcb.
[ATTACHED IMAGE - CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
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Stiletto |
They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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Holy crap!
[Re: gregf]
#287228 - 05/21/12 08:36 PM
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Epic find. Good job, gregf.
- Stiletto
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Re: PSE's Knights in Armor - a few jpeg scans
[Re: gregf]
#287234 - 05/21/12 09:33 PM
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interesting reading, as always and a great find
I don't think we'll see this stuff emulated/simulated in our lifetime but you are gonna get them documented.
Nice to see you posting again.
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gregf |
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Re: Holy crap!
[Re: Stiletto]
#287246 - 05/21/12 10:29 PM
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>Epic find. Good job,
The Knights in Armor logic schematics helped make purchase turn out to be very good imo. I wasn't sure what the purchase would include.
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gregf |
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Re: PSE's Knights in Armor *edit*
[Re: Antny]
#287247 - 05/21/12 10:41 PM
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>I don't think we'll see this stuff emulated/simulated in our lifetime but you are gonna >get them documented.
Good to know this guess from last year no longer holds true. :-)
The usual roadblocks, like all unemulated games, still remain such as if game uses roms that have not been dumped, or if logic schematics are unavailable, or if the game uses any odd custom designed chips that are undocumented (ie: Votrax sc-01).
The Knights in Armor purchase also includes an instructions sheet for game instructions that are taped inside the bezel piece (see cab illustration). I'll take that to Mr. Do for scanning at a later time.
Edited by gregf (12/22/13 10:50 PM)
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Re: PSE's Knights in Armor - a few jpeg scans
[Re: gregf]
#287822 - 05/25/12 05:47 PM
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gregf |
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Re: PSE's Knights in Armor - rom chip info
[Re: gregf]
#319139 - 12/22/13 10:41 PM
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*Pardon about bumping this up again*
>And here is visual layout of cab, pcb etc.
Now that emulation of single board hardware non-cpu games is possible, time to do initial documenting (info for MAME and DICE) of Knights in Armor's roms on a Knights in Armor pcb.
The pcb illustration image indicates two roms in the corner of a Knights in Armor pcb. According to Knights in Armor logic schematics, here is what they are and the chip type that is used for the rom.
-- From Knights in Armor logic schematics: Man rom or also shown as ROM 1 (located at M1 on the pcb)..the functions throughout schematics list M.video etc which is related to ROM 1 (ie: Man Rom).
Also from Knights in Armor logic schematics: Horse rom or also shown as ROM 2 (located at M2 on the pcb)..the functions throughout schematics list H.video etc which is related to ROM 2 (ie: Horse Rom).
Both rom chips are listed as type: 82S115P there is also 8205R so that is probably a chip equivalent in case the other type isn't available. --
A PSE's Knights in Armor pcb still needs to be found and roms dumped from the pcb.
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Re: PSE's Knights in Armor - a few jpeg scans
[Re: pong]
#319161 - 12/23/13 08:23 PM
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I have the graphics ROMs for another PSE game called "Bazooka" made in 1977 and the boards schematics, but it seems that one page or two are blurred which prevents proper 'emulation'. I hope someone has the game manual with schematics so it would be possible to emulate this game too.
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Sune |
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Re: PSE's Knights in Armor - rom chip info
[Re: gregf]
#319181 - 12/24/13 04:05 AM
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> (ie: Man Rom). > (ie: Horse Rom).
That made me laugh.
Tetris:
L ROM T ROM S ROM Square ROM Long ROM
Bomb Jack:
Bomb Jack ROM Bomb ROM Lit fuse ROM Bird enemy ROM UFO enemy ROM Weird bee in a snail house enemy ROM Ball with red squares enemy ROM Space mummy enemy ROM P symbol ROM B symbol ROM E symbol ROM S symbol ROM Platform ROM Character set ROM (then six more PCBs with background tiles)
..later games would need like..a 33 board stack.
S
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gregf |
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Re: PSE's Knights in Armor - rom chip info
[Re: Sune]
#319187 - 12/24/13 05:58 AM
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>> (ie: Man Rom). >> (ie: Horse Rom).
>That made me laugh.
I had to do a double take when first reading that description on the schematics page, but that's how it is printed. A good thing too because the way the Knights in Armor schematics are printed, it is confusing and it barely provides any description of some of the chips and their specific logic functions of what is supposed to happen. Atari, Midway, and Cinematronics schematics are a little more generous in the descriptions in their printed schematics.
The Knights in Armor schematics are ledger size (11 x 17) so Adam and/or Rich will have their hands full working with the schematics later. The best case scenario is the two roms only handle storing data images and not controlling anything else because that way maybe Knights in Armor could be partially emulated (still the roms to be found and dumped eventually).
>Tetris:
>..later games would need like..a 33 board stack.
The pcb would be a skyscraper if it were a board filled with each rom for each image of a Naomi hardware game.
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Sune |
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> A good thing too because the way the Knights in > Armor schematics are printed, it is confusing and it barely provides any description > of some of the chips and their specific logic functions of what is supposed to > happen. Atari, Midway, and Cinematronics schematics are a little more generous in the > descriptions in their printed schematics.
You aren't kidding. The Asteroids schematics not only include a complete parts list but also very thorough descriptions of each circuit, it was so good that I was able to figure out what was wrong with the sound on my machine and repair it myself. I learned a lot and I managed to not break anything
S
[ATTACHED IMAGE - CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
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