Arcade Protos

potential arcade proto find. need a bit of translation help pleeze.

for me these are holy grails. they fascinate me more than any other type of proto, even though I've never come across any. potentially until now. though I have my doubts.
you see I went to a warehouse the other day and bought some stuff. the guy passed me a list of the PCBs he had left, and amongst them was Battle Bird. which is the game pictured here:
http://www.system16.com/irem/hrdw_unknown.html

I asked the guy about it: its this very board but no cab - has standard jamma connection.
it is unmamed and on the mame site there is something to the effect of 'released/finished?' so it is not known if it actually is a proto.
I have my doubts, probably rare though.

so after doing some detective work I was able to write the name out in japanese. used bablefish to translate and got mostly indecipherable posts from japanese bbs. I was wondering though if someone could please help me out.
on this site:
http://ton.2ch.net/retro/kako/992/992515537.html
-posts 222 and 264 speak of this game, the posters seem to have played it a while back, though I'm not sure to what effect.

I just want to know what the deal is. the cab looked really cool - was ment to do a 3D effect.

help!!

I will buy this I think. if it's rare would be cool to sell back to the japanese somehow.. teehee.

 

You are quite right, 264 mentions that he played it in an arcade (could have been a location test) and even though his memory is fuzzy the timings work out with what we know of the development of the game. Therefore that may show the existence of the board, however it may not be a finished version. Well at least it should have a couple of levels if it had a run in any arcade.

There is no more solid information in the posts really apart from vague memories of how cool it was (graphically)

I say go for it, you could be on to a nice thing.

 

thank you very much. it seems to me it was a loke test. for all intents and purposes, he played it around the time when it was supossed to be released - I found another 'thread' in Japanese where someone asks about this and the reply reffers to the person who had played it some 20 years back (the post we are currently talking about) before the game vanished. something like that.

yep going to pick it up. hope it still works. just wish the cab came with it. but it looks very interesting indeed. plus I love Irem (the japanese spelling seems to read 'Eye Rem'? lol..)

post 222 is not about this game then?

 

Post 222 mentions the game - but nothing particularly useful about it. 264 sounds like he/she actually played it rather than just seen the screenshots we have all probably seen. Glad to be of some use and keep us posted when you get it. It would be great if it came with some documents that had a picture of the cab it used - wishful thinking I know.

 

yeah. I think docs are out of the question. not sure about getting it dumped, but I'm seriously considering it for the sake of preservation. I just hope it works properly.

 

Lets not talk about dumping, we don't want a 10 page thread here (I'm against the concept). I just fancy seeing a pic or two, especially of this 3d/clever blurring effect (if it works without said cab)

 

alright. no problem. getting a decent cab for a decent price in this country is next to impossible, so I'm going to get a crappy one to test out all the PCBs that come my way. I'll definetly take some pictures of it when (and if) its up and running. the 3d effect I understand was due to the mirrors or curve of the screen so I'm not sure it'll work. had you heard of this game beforehand?
I know I read like a broken record but check this proto cab out (it's fantastic looking):
http://www.arcadeflyers.net/?page=flyerdb&subpage=flyer&id=110&image=2

btw: anyone know of any decent arcade forums?

 

Yep, that certainly is one cool looking Cab. Seems there's a curved bit to rest your head on so you're looking directly through the hole at the screen.

I'd love to see screen shots or even a video of the game running.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the link to the flyer, hadn't seen that one before, I just have seen a couple of screens like most other people. The really exciting thing is how the thing animates, I don't know how playable it will be as with the curved glass it is probably very blurry indeed + quite hard to judge bullets (there is a reason it was never finished properly). However it is indubitably a very unique arcade game, and that cab looks amazing! Although your neck will probably get sore quickly - virtual boy style.

Still thanks for getting me excited about a game I had almost forgotten about completely.

 

no worries Warakia. we're on the same boat.
just got back with the board and a couple of others (damn heavy!). they tested it there - looks to be fully playable. sound was fine. one of the guys played it for about a minute. graphics remind me of glock on gamegear - though a bit more complex maybe (the pseudo polygonal style. maybe not I didn't get a goog enough look at it, I was maybe a little too exited).
anyway, here's some snaps I got - sorry about the crap0ola quality, my camera was on the wrong damn setting..




note that it was tested on a custom cab they have which they use to test and fix boards.

the intro was in english (writing going up the screen), and from the little knowledge I have of these things - some of the chips on the board where flash? dunno, they have handwritten numbers and I think stickers over them too. I'll check later.

 

cheers Assembler. I wouldn't know where to start. might hold on to it see if I can't trade it for some other proto if this is indeed a proto. wondering how to properly take a picture of a board without potentially damaging flash roms. they are covered I think. with flash on or flash off on the camera?

they're changing the jamma connection on an atari/namco TX.1 for me, also a Taito Air Inferno, a Sega Robo Wres 2001, and a Full Throttle (predecesor to Chase HQ).
I brought back with me a Konami Hard Puncher, a Barko.Corp Adventure (can't find this game mentioned anywhere at all - there's also a Japanese game called IQ180 can't remember the company name - where you have to spot the difference between 2 almost identiacal pictures - can't find that anywhere either), and the above board.

last time I went over the guy gave me a Where's Wally Sega board and trackball controllers to go with it for free!!

I DON'T EVEN OWN A DAMN CAB YET!!! I'm going insane.

anyway is any of the above mildly interesting? - can someone enlighten me as to the scarcity and/or price of them?

TX.1 - semi-sequel to Pole Position which used three screens - is a massive metal box. I can't see myself shipping that anywhere - maybe to the UK if one of my bros picks it up on the other end should I send it by ship.

blah. sorry for going on.

 

the board is made up of something like 10 seperate boards. it's massive. don't know if its a proto, a rare game, pulled back whatever. don't know how to actually look at something like this. the Jamma connector was added by the guys at the warehouse (the original connection is still there). here's some more craptastic pics, this time of the top of the board:

 

Warakia - could you verify what it sais here?
http://members.fortunecity.com/douyo/961762393.html
it is my understanding that one person asks about Battle Bird - a game that came out around the time of Space Harrier - and the answer is that it was a disaster and sold very poorly maybe due to the cab - and that they had only seen it the once in Osaka? the company almost went bankrupt due to this venture?

are we to gather then that it was actually released or that it was loke tested and it went miserably badly?
what does this mean?:
大失敗というほど出回らなかったはずです。

intruiging stuff..

 

First things first (silly phrase), make yourself a copy to actually use, you don't wanna go messing it up somehow. Looks very messy/easy to screw up.

Well looking at the board - it looks more like a complete version to me. (guess due to nice label) Anyway, have a look at the options menu for clues. Either way it doesn't really matter if it is a proto, or a loke or even a finished version. It is still a working version of the game - the only one I'm aware of - so massive score on that one. Next I suppose you see how many levels it has, as some loke arn't complete.

As for the Japanese - you got the general idea, still no-one said they remembered seeing it any time after the time of the release. So it still doesn't show that there is a finished version. Sounds like everyone who played, played the initial version that may have been a loke (may not have been though). And yes it was very expensive which is why its no surprise hardly any were sent out (the gist of the use of that phrase).

As for the value - no idea. You may get pm-ed! It is obviously very rare!

 

thank you very much for the info. actually the price I was wondering about was with respect to the other boards I found, as I don't even want to think about how much this one may or may not cost. I'm not going to get rid of it for now.

as for making a copy of it - no idea how to go about doing that. I can barely turn on a computer properly, let alone make a copy of this game. I'll probably play it a couple of times and then keep it in storage.
rock on.

 

Pretty sure they're EEPROMs not Flash. Don't think flash had been invented in the mid eighties
Basically erasable with UV light, So I'd guess camera flash could harm them.

I'd say being EEPROMs its more likely to be a proto, since EEPROMs aren't generally used in final versions of things, I believe.

Sorry If you already knew this.

 

if it's a hole in the middle of the chip it's a EPROM that gets erased with UV light.
If no hole, it's a EEPROM that gets earesed electronicly.
It can also be a PROM, these can't be erased (I think), don't know how to tell if it's a PROM thought..

 

I didn't and thankyou for the tidbit. magic to find something like this. can you tell if they're EEPROMS from the pictures? pictures I've seen of other common boards look pretty much the same. as I say this one you can just about see hand writting on some of the rom chips. I snapped just 3 pictures of the board 2 of which are the ones pictured above - sorry if I come off stupid, but that won't do any real harm right? the one's which are questionable are covered with yellow stickers.



the Barko.Corp board, Adventure I have never heard of at all - its japanese from the looks of things, quite animesque, various minigames. quite alot of the chips have a silver tab/sticker/label on them which read mitsubishi.

also another game I think was called IQ180 which no info can be found online - can't recall the manufucaturer, definetly Japanese - its a spot the difference game. ain't saying these are proto or unreleased, but until I find out info on them they will be a mystery, might have to take pictures and submit the to KLOV.

these guys where amongst the biggest importers of arcade games and had been around since aprox. '85. now they're selling up and shutting shop. many of these boards they would get from other countries second hand, which is possibly how some of the rarer stuff made its way to them.

 

I'm only guessing they're EEPROMs - the fact that there are yellow stickers covering the middle generally denotes this - the sticker is used to cover the UV Window, which is used to erase the chips - Of course the stickers aren't 100% perfect.

I don't really know that much about EEPROMs, so I'm not sure whether taking a few pics would have caused damage. I'm sure someone will though.