Space Harrier to JAMMA

 

 

Here's the pinout for the Space Harrier 50 pin connector.

A1		B1
A2		B2
A3		B3
A4		B4
A5		B5
A6		B6
A7	+5V	B7
A8	Stick Up/Down	B8	Stick Left/Right
A9	Ground	B9
A10		B10
A11		B11
A12		B12
A13		B13
A14	Shot 3	B14	Shot 1
A15	Shot 2	B15	Start
A16	Service	B16	Test
A17	Coin 2	B17	Coin 1
A18	GND (coins)	B18
A19	Coin Counter*	B19	GND (test/service)
A20		B20	GND (PSU)
A21	GND (buttons)	B21	GND (PSU)
A22		B22	5V (Start Lamp)
A23	Start Lamp	B23	Coin Counter*
A24	Coin Counter 2	B24	+5V (PSU)
A25	Coin Counter 1	B25	+5V (PSU)

So the inputs for Space Harrier are very straightforward, there are two axes for direction and three shot buttons, as well as the usual coin, start and test and service inputs. In testing I actually found that the "Shot 1" and "Shot 3" buttons are reversed, though it doesn't really matter.

I bought myself an old analogue PC joystick and set about rewiring it for both Space Harrier and Hang-On. In the case of Hang-On I still use my Out Run pedals for the accelerator and brake, so only the left/right axis of the joystick is needed.

Another decision I made was to not cut the 15-pin joystick connector off, and I also didn't want to connect directly to the Space Harrier board, so instead I soldered all of my connecting wires to another 15-pin connector for the joystick end and a big Molex plug at the other end.

The wiring inside a PC joystick is a little different to what the Sega games expect. Also, if you have an old joystick or buy one it may have extra electronics on the inside for autofire etc. It was easy to connect the fire buttons on the joystick though the axes were more complicated. Looking at the pinout above you can see that there's only one +5V line and one Ground line, so you'll need to connect each of them to both pots. The joystick I have works perfectly, with full range in each direction.

I didn't want to cut any wires I didn't need to on the harness, so I use the Service button on both games for credits. The start button is mapped to the fourth button on the joystick.

 

 

 

Graphical faults on Arcade PCBs

Here are some graphical faults with games I've encountered and have been able to verify on other boards, mostly because I bought a second board to replace the first. In all cases, it turned out that the fault was on both PCBs (and others elsewhere), so here they are for reference.


Dragon Spirit
This is an easy one to spot. On the Namco release, wait for the attract mode to show the dragon attacking the first end-of-level boss. As the dragon is being shot and dies, part of the sprite disappears, as shown here. This can also be seen sometimes during the game itself.

The Atari release is interesting. I bought it thinking it wouldn't have the fault. What's interesting is that a new attract mode is available on the Atari release and on the "New" Namco version. Setting the Rank to A or B on the Atari version changes the attract mode to the one with the obvious fault. The New Namco version has a much shorter attract mode, and the Atari version's is much longer. The Old Namco version only has A and B Rank options available (according to the Atari manual, Rank C is the recommended setting).

I've seen this fault on another PCB in an arcade in Tokyo.



Splatter House
Like Dragon Spirit, Splatter House is a Namco System 1 game, and exhibits similar problems. One example can be seen quite early in the first level, when part of Rick "disappears". It was very difficult to get a good photo of this, you can only just about see the problem.

Here's a nice video by superdeadite showing this problem exactly on his PCB (about 20 seconds in).

I've also seen this in an arcade in Tokyo. Other System 1 games may exhibit this behaviour. I think I've seen it briefly on Marchen Maze, but not on Pac-Mania.


Bubble Bobble
Here's a problem on the two Bubble Bobble PCBs I own. On levels where fire bubbles appear, bursting them and allowing the flames to spread results in some of the flames not being fully visible, or sometimes not visible at all. On the JAMMA+ forum some other Bubble Bobble owners confirmed the existance of this problem. Both of my PCBs are Taito versions. I burnt new ROMs to switch one to the Romstar version, this made no difference.



Dynamite Dux
Another game where I bought a replacement PCB for a fault I thought my first one had. When the rock monster at the end of the first level is attacked (most notably with bullets) some of the rock sprites show corruption. My second board was not fully original, it had decrypted ROMs but still shows the same problem.



Psycho Soldier
This is a well know fault. Thin lines appear on the left hand side of the screen as the action scrolls.



After Burner
This is an unusual one, and may be particular to my setup. If the game's Cabinet Type dip switch is set to "Upright", I get graphical problems visible on the sky when the high scores appear. This goes away if the Cabinet Type is set to either of the "Moving" types. Furthermore, if I turn the PCB on and immediately play a game before the first attract mode starts, I don't get the problem. If I were to guess I would say that the problem is related to my JAMMA harness and perhaps is timing related. I had sent it away for repair and the board came back just as it had been, but with the dip switch changed, so I'm guessing the guy repairing it found nothing wrong. He forgot to send back the joystick and harness too, but that's another story altogether.



Athena and Bogey Manor
An annoyance rather than a glitch with these two games is that they expect the monitor to be rotated through 180 degrees to every other horizontal PCB I have.