Another really weird thing: in "Risker", the music seems to be constantly increasing in pitch/speed. I'm seriously curious as to
why. Is it just a 2A03 that's slowly being overclocked? (
The VT168 is basically an overclocked dual-core 2A03, so it's possible. Edit: No, I was misremembering-- according to VRTech, it's an overclocked dual-core 6502, and doesn't appear to have the NES sound generator included. But then there's Highway Racing on VT168, which has the very-obviously-NES fanfare in it. So who knows.) Or is the NES music actually a sample that's being played at variable speed?
Seriously, this thing is just
bizarre.[/quote]I figured that first thing would be an error with the video recording device and not the console itself, because it'd be really weird if it was caused by the latter. It doesn't happen with the other games (as far as I can tell) and seeing as Risker is the first game on there, I doubt the whole VTxx(x) thing has anything to do with it.
Also, I'm pretty sure the Highway Racing game used a PCM sample or something like that, which might explain why the tune plays slower than usual. (They probably recorded it off a PAL Famiclone or something)
BTW, what are the other games anyway?
Ooh, I just found more detail on the 36-in-1, courtesy of this soon-to-expire eBay listing (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Time-Top-Super-Game-36-1-Plug-and-Play-TV-Game-/350448303004).
Unfortunately, it's bad news. There aren't actually 36 unique games on it-- it's 12 unique games with 3 levels apiece.
The games on this one that aren't on the 7-in-1 are:
Ice & Fire Fighter
First Blood
Frantic Raindrop
Army Strike
Sharp Knight
YoYo Rabbit
Bombs Away
And the 7-in-1 has two games that aren't on the "36"-in-1:
Crazy Speed
Bomb Boy (probably the same as Bombs Away?)
Two other things that are noticeable about the 7-in-1 from Takashi's photo gallery (https://picasaweb.google.com/114262786521102688839/TimetopGM802#):
* It's from six years ago. The board is dated June 15, 2005.
* The console's model number is "GM-802", which falls right in line with some of the other Timetop model numbers I've seen. (Their LCD system that runs on the same chipset is the GM-228.)
The pinout of that chip definitely matches one of the VRT chips, but I have no clue which. They all have sound (XOP1 and XOP2), reset (XREST) and video (XVIDEO) mapped like that. Edit: Nope, can't be the VT16 or VT18; those have the pins for reset and video on a different side from audio. Has to be a VT03.
Hello everyone, I'm the guy that uploaded the videos. This thread has been really informative about hardware, glad to know a place such as this exists. I agree that the VT-03 seems like a match as is the ROM pinout on the application note... well, almost. I'll need to check under the daughterboard for the traces, but the chances of data retrieval sound pretty good right now.
- codeman38
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Another really weird thing: in "Risker", the music seems to be constantly increasing in pitch/speed.[/quote]While the audio in the videos is seriously off-sync, the pitch drifting happens in the hardware as well. Seems to be completely random and affecting only Risker.
While the Easy-Normal-Hard switch is wired to the CPU, it seems to not alter the games in any manner.
If anyone is interested in Timetop's older Game King series of portable consoles (the ones with the very low-res LCD), they might find my small set of Game King manuals and boxes (http://www.low-end.net/GameKingFiles/index.html) scans interesting.
Awesome scans, thanks! :D
Cool! Good to see you have joined this forum :)
About the Gameking, have you ever played Soldier on it?
- iniche
- May 30 2011, 04:00:29 PM
Cool! Good to see you have joined this forum :)
About the Gameking, have you ever played Soldier on it?[/quote]Curiously, I lack that one. I do have Might, that is another Contra-inspired game (but that doesn't share much of the gameplay other than the rolling jump).
Oh shit!!!!
Everywhere I looked, I could not find any information on that... I looked up many places. Also, people who edited the gameking entry of wikipedia kept insisting that the game Might does not exist... This is actually groundbreaking to me since even I began to question its existence.
Wow! Would you be able to screen some in-game shots? I don't even mind if it's through camera, I badly want to put it on my blog :D
- iniche
- May 30 2011, 10:01:45 PM
Oh shit!!!!
Everywhere I looked, I could not find any information on that... I looked up many places. Also, people who edited the gameking entry of wikipedia kept insisting that the game Might does not exist... This is actually groundbreaking to me since even I began to question its existence.
Wow! Would you be able to screen some in-game shots? I don't even mind if it's through camera, I badly want to put it on my blog :D[/quote]I actually added half the titles in the Wikipedia entry, but I can't submit my own site as a reference because that's self research. :rolleyes:
Its really hard to take shots of a working Gameking for several reasons, so I've uploaded a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH0XpG814bI) of Might running off the Gameking II. Hope that will do the trick.
Whoa! Yeah, that's perfect. More content to add to my blog there.
Holy crap, the intro is blatant ripoff of NES Contra's sprites. Also, the tank that takes you down appears to be from Soldier. Is it me, or does the game over theme sound like a warped version of the beginning of Super Mario Bros NES?
Interestingly, some guy planned an emulator for gameking, but as soon as he had the chance to be a sellout, he removed all traces of it.
- Quote:
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I actually added half the titles in the Wikipedia entry, but I can't submit my own site as a reference because that's self research. :rolleyes: [/quote]
On the other hand, you could just pretend to be someone else and cite your own website... they can't really tell, now can they?
Also, would you happen to know any info, even a bit, on the colorful version of Soldier, CS-1?
- iniche
- May 31 2011, 09:00:19 PM
Also, would you happen to know any info, even a bit, on the colorful version of Soldier, CS-1?[/quote]Sounds a lot like CS off the LTPS Handy Game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R1DoxviIKY) to me, which happens to be another Contra ripoff.
BTW, not sure if you noticed but one of the sound effects in the intro of Might is taken from the 3D Pinball game on Windows XP.
I caught that, too. I assumed it was a stock sound effect.
- Cheetahmen
- May 31 2011, 09:16:52 PM
Sounds a lot like CS off the LTPS Handy Game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R1DoxviIKY) to me, which happens to be another Contra ripoff.
[/quote]Oh, god damnit! :P
I really hope that's the same game I have in mind...
Or else more content to add...
Another 16-bit Console!? :pandamad: