Berzerk / Frenzy Multi Board

[GadgetFreak]

Well I should have been writing a manual for my Slice tester and some instructions for the AS1 multi but as usual I got sidelined with something more technical. I was looking at modding my spare Berzerk board to run Frenzy but soon realised it would be better served by a plugin Z80 board with rom and NV ram.
Here is the result of my work

And the screen shots of the menu

As the ram is 8K I also added a jumper so you have the option of 2 independent sets of high score data. All dips apart from the SA test ones are stored in the NV ram. It's also possible to return to menu when not in a game by using Fire button and either of the start buttons at the same time. You can also set it to start straight into the last game played and bypass the menu and also the startup tests/beeps.

I will make this available for sale very shortly as both kit and pre-built.

 

[DonkeyKongler]

very good work

I definitely take one..........

edit:

question,
the sound (speech) roms remain unchanged?
and will it be possible to transfer the existing highscore on the board to the nvram?DonkeyKongler2019-04-06 06:24:39

 

[philmurr]

Another excellent piece of work

 

[Syrup2407]

Awesome work!

 

[Hurray Banana]

Loving the Teletext graphics Aaron. Awesome work as always

 

[GadgetFreak]

the sound (speech) roms remain unchanged?
and will it be possible to transfer the existing highscore on the board to the nvram?

The sound roms are the same for both Berzerks & Frenzy.
If you have a replacement NV ram board in 1E then it would be quite easy to read this in and write it back to the new nv ram on my board.
If you have the original ram with a battery on the board then no as the ram will loose its data when removed. But if when purchasing you send me a pic of your high score table and which Berzerk version I could edit them into the NV chip before I send it out.

*** Having just checked my GAL equations it may be possible for me to add a high score transfer option to the menu, it will need some work though ***

Loving the Teletext graphics Aaron. Awesome work as always

The title gfx idea came from Frenzy and I actually use the Frenzy code to generate it

 

[GadgetFreak]

I now have this modded to auto transfer an existing HS table from either Berzerks or Frenzy across to the NV ram on my board on first boot. The only requirement is a full (5 scores) valid HS table.
I have noticed that after booting the first time and getting the HS table copied over, if I then remove the board, put the Z80 back in and fire up the original roms the HS table has been set to FF's. At the moment I am not sure why this happens though in reality its not really a problem.

 

[DonkeyKongler]

auto transfer an existing HS table

excelent.........

 

[GadgetFreak]

Finally finished the code off.
I have modified the GAL again to allow the data bus to still be connected to the mainboard ram during writes. This means the existing HS table is not erased to FF's when the NV table is copied to.
I have also added a test style beep when the board boots to indicate that the HS copy has been done. You can also force the update by powering up the board with the joystick held right and the 1 or 2 player start button just in case the NV ram has data that looks like a HS table.

 

[Hurray Banana]

The title gfx idea came from Frenzy and I actually use the Frenzy code to generate it

nice

 

[DonkeyKongler]

auto transfer an existing HS table

my intention behind this, is to be able to remove the battery from the pcb......DonkeyKongler2019-04-07 16:44:41

 

[stevebm1]

great work

 

[big10p]

Very impressive!

 

[GadgetFreak]

my intention behind this, is to be able to remove the battery from the pcb......

Yes, thats fine. In fact you can remove the ram chips as well once you have your high scores copied over. The need for stopping the initial corruption was so that you could fill both NV ram banks with a high score copy.

 

[Luigi]

Any clue when this will be available? And how much we have to spend?

 

[GadgetFreak]

It is finished. Donkey Kongler has one. In fact I improved the code with some of his ideas and as he had the German speech rom which doesn't work with Frenzy or slow bullet Berzerk we worked out a fix using double size sound roms and a single wire from my board.
I've just been busy trying to get the manual for my Slice tester done.
I also haven't firmed up a price yet but was thinking of offering it as a build it yourself kit of parts or ready made and tested.