Phils Arcade
Senior Member
That's a lot of soldering to go through. Can whoever you get to produce the PCBs, provide a socket soldering service? At least all those pins would be pre done and only needing the I.C.s to be pushed in.
Mr Do! Appreciation PCB redesign
- Thread starter myPinballs
- Start date
myPinballs
Active member
Infurious said:
There certainly can be an option for an assembled board of all discretes added and fully socketed, just add ics, as i work with a uk company already to do this for some of my other products, but it does depend on interest and the cost. Plate through assembly is not that cheap these days to get it done for you, though it is still possible. Most pcbs houses only want to do smd work now.
dankcomputing
Newbie
- Credits
- 23CR
This is mighty impressive.
Martinmurphy30
User
Amazing work, I'm not familiar with the Mr do PCB but what does it use for colour proms? And you mentioned alterative colour sets? So I'm guessing fast enough eeproms with the different colour ROMs selectable? I've created a small daughter board to replace the colour proms on a choplifter bootleg (or original) to replace the original proms with eeproms which you could easily make a miltiboard from. Again fantastic stuff!
myPinballs
Active member
bobmoo79 said:
Assembly pics coming soon. I’ve been assembling it in a logical order so I can test things as I go. The clock circuit is working good as is the horizontal & vertical count sectionmyPinballs2022-12-30 20:54:12
myPinballs
Active member
Martinmurphy30 said:
Pretty much spot on
I also created an adapter board for Nintendo colour proms so I put that logic into this board with a dip switch that can set 1 of 4 different banks so I can create sone Halloween and xmas colour sets later
Martinmurphy30
User
When you get this working I'd definitely be interested in buying one to assemble! Please keep posting! Great stuff!
myPinballs
Active member
A progress pic of assembly so far This all the sockets and parts needed (hopefully) for the clock, video count, main cpu and memory addressing, video output and foreground graphics(text) sections. Still need to populate all the sockets you see empty. Will be giving it a go soon and see what we get. I'll be using the built in memory tests to to check each graphics section once i get this part functional.
myPinballs2023-01-01 17:10:25
This all the sockets and parts needed (hopefully) for the clock, video count, main cpu and memory addressing, video output and foreground graphics(text) sections. Still need to populate all the sockets you see empty. Will be giving it a go soon and see what we get. I'll be using the built in memory tests to to check each graphics section once i get this part functional.
myPinballs2023-01-01 17:10:25
myPinballs
Active member
Martinmurphy30 said:
Thanks for the message and support
I will certainly add you to the interested list. I'll keep posting info as i go. I aim to share as much about the journey for this as possible including any issues i meet along the way to
myPinballs
Active member
Now we are back and running on the new Ukvac, I can update on recent progress with the mr do clone!!
Originally I was trying to assemble different sections of the video section to test independently ie bgnd foreground, sprites etc but I just wasn't getting any stable picture. So I decided to assemble some other parts as well. Here is the progress
This got me to this stable screen.
Game doesn't run yet , but to see some decent clear video output was a good milestone and also proves a lot of design sections. Next to work out why the game code doesn't run.
I also populated the reset of the sprite section to see what the garbage screens looked like to compare with an original board etc.
This is what I get now on first power on. Not the same yet but is encouraging.
More to come
Originally I was trying to assemble different sections of the video section to test independently ie bgnd foreground, sprites etc but I just wasn't getting any stable picture. So I decided to assemble some other parts as well. Here is the progress
This got me to this stable screen.
Game doesn't run yet , but to see some decent clear video output was a good milestone and also proves a lot of design sections. Next to work out why the game code doesn't run.
I also populated the reset of the sprite section to see what the garbage screens looked like to compare with an original board etc.
This is what I get now on first power on. Not the same yet but is encouraging.
More to come
This is amazing work, I'd be looking at one for a project and I've still not got a vertical setup. I was only thinking yesterday why I'd not seen more projects like this for pricier games like G'n'G etc.
Mr Do! has a real following, it's something I've known for years I've 'missed the point of' I've just never given it enough time.
Very much looking forward to updates.
I presume the game uses customs that would need to be recreated or salvaged?
Mr Do! has a real following, it's something I've known for years I've 'missed the point of' I've just never given it enough time.
Very much looking forward to updates.
I presume the game uses customs that would need to be recreated or salvaged?
Phils Arcade
Senior Member
Crazy amount of soldering. Even for one board I'd be wanting a solder flow tank, lol.Now we are back and running on the new Ukvac, I can update on recent progress with the mr do clone!!
Originally I was trying to assemble different sections of the video section to test independently ie bgnd foreground, sprites etc but I just wasn't getting any stable picture. So I decided to assemble some other parts as well. Here is the progress
View attachment 822
This got me to this stable screen.
View attachment 837
Game doesn't run yet , but to see some decent clear video output was a good milestone and also proves a lot of design sections. Next to work out why the game code doesn't run.
I also populated the reset of the sprite section to see what the garbage screens looked like to compare with an original board etc.
View attachment 823
This is what I get now on first power on. Not the same yet but is encouraging.
View attachment 821
More to come
myPinballs
Active member
I’ve consolidated as much as possible and checked all parts are still readily available. I've also made a few changes so there's less overall part differences. I’d like to reduce the parts count alittle more to, but need to get it running in this form first. I have designed a few pal chips to in the game section and that's what i need to check next.
myPinballs
Active member
Had a break from this to clear the mind! Solved one of the main issues today which was to do with my memory address design. Had to change a few things in the pal equations
Program now running and we got something meaningful displayed at last. Its good to see it say rom ok as the design uses a single 256k rom and reworked memory addressing to facilitate
If someone already has a list of the ram number errors and what ics threy correspond to on the original design that would be handy
More to come
Program now running and we got something meaningful displayed at last. Its good to see it say rom ok as the design uses a single 256k rom and reworked memory addressing to facilitate
If someone already has a list of the ram number errors and what ics threy correspond to on the original design that would be handy
More to come
myPinballs
Active member
Got past the ram1 error. More refinement of my pal memory equations. Now we have a RAM4 error, but we also have this!!!
First successful boot with the game actually running. I/O is working now to, joystick input and credits. Attract and high score list, can start and play a game
First successful boot with the game actually running. I/O is working now to, joystick input and credits. Attract and high score list, can start and play a game
myPinballs
Active member
More progress, got some sprites working now to, though still wrong positions (shifted up slightly) and some other mess-ups.
Also, ran the alternative test rom on the board (from @philmurr) very useful, which also runs ok now. But interestingly this rom does not complain about RAM4 (which is foreground ram). It runs successfully and goes to the input test. Confirmed all inputs work ok, inc dip switches and joystick etc. Had to add some pull-up resistors to the dip switches as I forgot those on the 1st design and was getting flickering and slow changes on the screen. Now sorted.
So I am wondering why the built in test is complaining about foreground ram (RAM4) when @philmurrs test is happy. Also I wonder if the test roms could be expanded to test the sprite rams to. I'm still unsure if the built in test checks these or not.
Also, ran the alternative test rom on the board (from @philmurr) very useful, which also runs ok now. But interestingly this rom does not complain about RAM4 (which is foreground ram). It runs successfully and goes to the input test. Confirmed all inputs work ok, inc dip switches and joystick etc. Had to add some pull-up resistors to the dip switches as I forgot those on the 1st design and was getting flickering and slow changes on the screen. Now sorted.
So I am wondering why the built in test is complaining about foreground ram (RAM4) when @philmurrs test is happy. Also I wonder if the test roms could be expanded to test the sprite rams to. I'm still unsure if the built in test checks these or not.
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