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Random DU Updates
#338896 - 04/14/15 05:21 AM
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gregf |
Ramtek's Trivia promoter
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Re: Random DU Updates *edit*
[Re: Smitdogg]
#338901 - 04/14/15 01:29 PM
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>Andrew Welburn got Ramtek Knockout. It's pre-CPU era but has some proms.
This Ramtek find by Andy is impressive. It is a Ramtek game I have never heard of. I don't know if it is listed on other various info sites. As for the Knockout name, I only know of Digital Games's product so this is news to me. I hope the proms do make it into the ramtek.c source file in case etabeta has time to cover this find.
After seeing Andy's photo of Knockout game screen image and pcb is dated 1974, it looks like Ramtek could actually be the first company that made a block type screen genre that simulates a pinball game. And it looks as though maybe Midway, Exidy and Chicago Coin joined the bandwagon the following year. That is my current guess. The odd part is Ramtek Knockout went by unnoticed for some time.
Atari's early pinball game is different so I am excluding their game from the others. It is very interesting that Ramtek had figured things out with dip switches whereas other companies (Chicago Coin and likely Exidy as well and along with Midway) were using wire jumpers for score settings. The two dip switches have to be related to score adjustments settings (ie free game etc.) and other options such as number of coins credits for players to play game.
Hopefully some logic schematics can be found for this pcb some time later cause there will likely be no volunteers willing to hand create schematics from scratch in order to emulate the game. I wouldn't be surprised that one of the proms contains game data for ball control movement and player's paddle movements just like Clean Sweep.
http://www.andysarcade.net/pix/AA02587P.JPG
impromptu pcb info from the photo. - Ramtek pcb 055300 1974
8 position dips @ 8F and 11E
proms:
550306-02.4b 550306-03.3b 550306-0x.2b -
Edited by gregf (04/15/15 08:56 PM)
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Stiletto![Administrator Administrator](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/adm.gif) |
They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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Re: Random DU Updates
[Re: gregf]
#338905 - 04/14/15 03:42 PM
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> > Andrew Welburn got Ramtek Knockout. It's pre-CPU era but has some proms.
Andy has a screenshot here: https://www.facebook.com/AndysArcade/pho...2788146/?type=1
> This Ramtek find by Andy is impressive. It is a Ramtek game I have never heard of. I > don't know if it is listed on other various info sites. As for the Knockout name, I > only know of Digital Games's product so this is news to me.
Barely listed. It was listed in old game lists as you would see at The Wiretap Arcade Bronze Age Archive, which sourced info from places like flyers, old arcade industry newsletters and magazines (like The Golden Age Arcade Historian likes to cite frequently) and old USENET posts. (But no citations, so we don't know where the old game lists heard of it.) Such as: http://www.coinop.org/kb_dl.aspx/KB/faqs/list-bronzeagebyyear.html http://www.coinop.org/kb_dl.aspx/KB/gametech/listbyyear.txt http://www.coinop.org/Game/101868/Knockout Due to this, it also was listed at Discrete Logistics: http://discrete.mameworld.info/ and mentioned on SlyDC's Volly page: http://www.ccjvq.com/slydc/topic/volly/volly.htm
But yeah, I always suspected it was confused with Digital Games' game too ![](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
> I hope the proms do make > it into the ramtek.c source file in case etabeta has time to cover this find.
Well, that's my plan too, even if etabeta doesn't find the time, but I am also really busy too. ![](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
> Two different dip switches...interesting. And hopefully some logic schematics can be > found for this pcb some time later cause there will likely be no volunteers willing > to hand create schematics from scratch in order to emulate the game.
I wouldn't rule Andy's ability to do this out, I believe he can trace schematics - mainly just lack of time, with other things his priority.
- Stiletto
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Re: Random DU Updates
[Re: Stiletto]
#338912 - 04/14/15 09:28 PM
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Y'all 2 should battle post for ultimate length supremacy. Too bad Haze left or you could have a 3way.
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Re: Random DU Updates
[Re: Smitdogg]
#338913 - 04/14/15 09:56 PM
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*hands around mouth whispering*
Pssst.....I think one of them is cloned from the other. I haven't figured it out yet.
Edited by Antny (04/14/15 10:29 PM)
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Comboman |
Can't think of a good title
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Re: Random DU Updates
[Re: Stiletto]
#338921 - 04/15/15 02:04 AM
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gregf |
Ramtek's Trivia promoter
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Re: Random DU Updates
[Re: Stiletto]
#338952 - 04/15/15 11:57 PM
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>Andy has a screenshot here: https://www.facebook.com/AndysArcade/pho...2788146/?type=1
It looks like Ramtek had the lead with this pinball genre and Midway, Exidy and Chicago Coins and a couple others joined in the following year. It is interesting that Ramtek uses proms and actual dip switches while the other companies used wire jumpers for settings adjustments.
>Barely listed. It was listed in old game lists as you would see at The Wiretap Arcade >Bronze Age Archive, which sourced info from places like flyers, old arcade industry >newsletters and magazines (like The Golden Age Arcade Historian likes to cite >frequently) and old USENET posts. (But no citations, so we don't know where the old >game lists heard of it.)
It had to be arcade technicians or something along that line that may have been aware of some of the 1970s era games and mentioned them when they were talking back in mid to late 1990s just when emulation was taking place. I wonder where some of the info Jim Hernandez had put into the text list file came from.
>>I hope the proms do make it into the ramtek.c source file in case etabeta has time to >>cover this find.
>Well, that's my plan too, even if etabeta doesn't find the time, but I am also really >busy too.
Okay. It looks like it might only be Ramtek Knockout that uses proms and all the others are all TTL. Chicago Coin TV Pin Game is all TTL. And if they did license from Exidy's TV Pinball, then TV Pinball should be same. That leaves Midway TV Flipper and wondering if it uses proms or not.
>>Two different dip switches...interesting. And hopefully some logic schematics can be >>found for this pcb some time later cause there will likely be no volunteers willing >>to hand create schematics from scratch in order to emulate the game.
>I wouldn't rule Andy's ability to do this out, I believe he can trace schematics - >mainly just lack of time, with other things his priority.
I do believe a good portion of the dip switches will relate to score settings such as free game or bonus points etc. And maybe number of coin credits per play.
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gregf |
Ramtek's Trivia promoter
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Reged: 09/21/03
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Posts: 8632
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Loc: southern CA, US
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Re: Random DU Updates
[Re: Smitdogg]
#338953 - 04/16/15 12:00 AM
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>Y'all 2 should battle post for ultimate length supremacy. Too bad Haze left or you could >have a 3way.
Orc instead of Haze because nobody from UK region could yell 'Tosser' better than Orc.
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Stiletto![Administrator Administrator](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/adm.gif) |
They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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Re: Random DU Updates
[Re: gregf]
#338959 - 04/16/15 06:05 AM
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> It had to be arcade technicians or something along that line that may have been > aware of some of the 1970s era games and mentioned them when they were talking back > in mid to late 1990s just when emulation was taking place. I wonder where some of the > info Jim Hernandez had put into the text list file came from.
I asked Jim once recently (since his file kept coming up in things I'd been looking for lately), he told me this:
Quote:
I started the arcade database around 1990-1992. I would say my database is probably the oldest around.. years before the internet, I typed in everything myself pretty much. I traveled to Europe and some places of Asia, and other places in the US on vacation, and while I was there I would document and play rare and hard to find arcade games because some of these games were only made in the 100s. I had been a huge arcade game pcb collector at the time way before ebay, the internet, or MAME was around. When MAME came out and I was on the MAMEDEV team in 1997, I decided to donate my list to the internet to help developers and ROM Archivers. I think to this day it was a very good decision, a lot of people are still using that document and there are many copies around. I did use magazines like Play Meter, Replay, and Japanese magazines like Gamest in the past for release dates. I worked in the video game industry in consumer and arcade co-op gaming for over 20 years so I had a lot of access to information most people would not have access to. I also had connections to game developers, street operators, and distributors. Fact: I wrote most of it on a 286 machine with WordStar and Microsoft Word.
![](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/awe.gif)
- Stiletto
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