Pyramid Plunder update

[Charlie]

==> Has anyone here actually made one of them?<==
Well, yes...sort of.  It was a lot bigger than the typical "credit card" card, because I used a standard through-hole ROM in a socket (which doesn't quite fit the height requirement -- ha!).  You can see it in the thread here someplace that references the EPROM emulator.  It's the same board, I just pull out the ribbon cable and plug in the ROM.  I'll see if I can find the link, then edit this post.

Charlie

Found it: http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=6480.15
Go there and look for the pictures.

[TheOldMan]

Wow. I don't know how I missed that whole thread, especially since you were discussing it with Arkhan. !

So, my first question is: assuming I'm a complete neophyte at electronics (which I'm not, btw, but I'm no EE major, either), How hard would it be to layout and etch say a half-dozen of these boards? And, assuming I'm uber-careful abut following instructions exactly, could I expect a > 50% good board yield?

Next, I notice your board is set up for two different EPROMS. If I wanted to use a completely different EPROM, is there anything major I should look out for? (ie, does the EEPROM have to be 5V?) I also notice you have U1 and U4 in there - what are they / what are they for?

I guess what I'm really trying to find out is how hard it would be to replace the EPROMS you are using with 'more modern' equivalents. I'm thinking its gonna be a little hard to find good 27256 PROMs. :-( I know the stuff I was looking at used more modern flash chips, but even those are getting hard to find at a reasonable price.

(And, fyi, I have a 27256 eprom burner - just not for the pc. But, I can serial send the file from the pc and burn it on the eprom no problem....I think. Have to check and make sure the old hardware still works)

Thanks Bunches. I'll be sure and go through that thread much more carefully in the near future.

[Charlie]

The most important part of the layout is the connector represented by the "fingers" of track at the bottom of the board.  You need to exactly match the size, spacing and position of the original HU card so your PCB will slide dead center into the TG.  This problem is easily(?) resolved by track positions within 0.003 inches (that's 3 one-thousandths of an inch!).  I say easily because it's just(?) a matter of dead-on exact design.  A more significant problem is the realization that the PCB thickness is NOT the standard 0.032 inches or 0.064 inches, but is in fact 0.096 inches.  This non-standard value means a more expensive PCB, as it is a special fabrication.  I solved this by ordering .064 boards, then gluing some .032 stock to it on the other side.  You should get a 90+% board yield, just probably not on your first try.

Generally, all legacy proms match about 95% in their pinouts.  It was only after prom sizes made "fantastic" advances to 512K and 1 meg that the  pinouts started deviating.  So, I chose two common sizes (at least, common at the time) that had compatible pinouts.  I have not looked at newer SMT chips, but I would expect some commonality there also.  As for the 5 volt issues, I can say two things.  The first is that the TG is 5V on the HUcard ports, so generally you want to use 5V parts.  The second is that there is a commercially available programmable card that uses 3.3V parts, but has the ability to work compatably with 5V stuff.  However, those parts are very expensive.

The particular board in that picture includes a RAM chip.  I did that because I had not fully determined the proper pinouts for the EProm, and so had no access to the RAM inside the TG.  Your board will not need this.

Hope this helps.
Charlie
 

[lord_cack]

How about we make a new thread somewhere else and continue this line of discussion. Nothing wrong with it, but its derailing Arkhan's original topic.

[TheOldMan]

Okay. I'll take it back to the original topic.

[Arkhan]

Not at home right now, but all the tilesets are done.  I will make new and improved screenshots when I get in from the lolbor day festivities.


shits off the hook yo.

[Arkhan]

screen shots are made, ready to be posted, as soon as this dumbass PHP photogallery piece of shit decides its going to work and whatnot so you can see them.

If it doesnt work tomorrow after I wake up, Ill just spew me some <img> tags

[lord_cack]

Im excited, I can't wait to see the new graphics   

[_joshuaTurbo]

Im excited, I can't wait to see the new graphics   

Me too!

I saw Ark was on a little earlier- but no new pics...

lol, I'll keep on checkin back.

[Arkhan]

Im excited, I can't wait to see the new graphics   

Me too!

I saw Ark was on a little earlier- but no new pics...

lol, I'll keep on checkin back.

yeah im not at home til like 6pm EST and then I will punch it in the cock and make it work.

with or without the fancy PHP photogallery.

[Arkhan]

SCREW THE DUMBASS PHP PHOTO GALLERY.   IT REFUSES TO ACCEPT MY .PNG'S, .JPGS GIFS ETC. ETC.

FIGHT THE POWER.


im uploading new shit and imgtagging as we speak.  check in 10 minutes

[Arkhan]

http://www.aetherbyte.com/pp.htm

GET SOME

[touko]

eh cool tiles sets !!!
Do you plan to let fall player caracter in level 6 ??

[Necromancer]

Yippee!  It only took 18 days to make this thread non-worthless. 

Looking good, but the player's sprite should have a black outline around his legs (like the rest of his body).

[Arkhan]

Yippee!  It only took 18 days to make this thread non-worthless. 

Looking good, but the player's sprite should have a black outline around his legs (like the rest of his body).

he does, lol. 

In the .pcx file that is totally not being used because its on a different machine.

It'll get thrown in with the enemies, power-up thingies, and actual warp tiles when they're all done.

That red dot with the black outline is a warp tile.   You can stand on them and have them move you across the maps,

eh cool tiles sets !!!
Do you plan to let fall player caracter in level 6 ??

Nooooo, that would be plain mean.  haha



the game as a whole is just about complete.  now to think about bonus-stuff for it.