What's new
Here are the sprite graphics comparing prototype to final version using MAME's tile viewer

Prototype:
bubproto.png

Final:
bubfinal.png
 
Looks like the sprite graphics for the Bonus Games that are sometimes triggered by item pickups are missing from the proto. Very interesting!
 
More progress removing eproms from their epoxy graves! Took about an hour to get these freed, not so bad.

Made a small heat shield using tin foil and kapton tape to protect the board inter-connector. Wearing fitted respirator, nasty dust. Eye protection too, don't want a chunk of crud in the eye!


20170713_122735.jpg


20170713_124823.jpg


20170713_132529.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20170713_124205.jpg
    20170713_124205.jpg
    279.8 KB · Views: 242
  • 20170713_125559.jpg
    20170713_125559.jpg
    277.7 KB · Views: 249
  • 20170713_132818.jpg
    20170713_132818.jpg
    299.1 KB · Views: 265
Got the final eprom extracted, along with the PAL logic chip and computed the chip equations (will make another thread on this in the future)

Here are some screenshots of what others have been finding poking around:

0000.png
 

Attachments

  • 0002.png
    0002.png
    3.5 KB · Views: 358
Huh, so that debugging menu, level editor and changing the gameplay variables are all built-in to the prototype? I just assumed back in 1986 that the designers would be mapping out the levels on graph paper and the programmers would then enter the levels and gameplay values directly into the code. I remember reading articles about how Super Mario Bros was developed that way. Anyway, those tools would be a lot of fun to play with!
 
More progress removing eproms from their epoxy graves! Took about an hour to get these freed, not so bad.

Made a small heat shield using tin foil and kapton tape to protect the board inter-connector. Wearing fitted respirator, nasty dust. Eye protection too, don't want a chunk of crud in the eye!


20170713_122735.jpg


20170713_124823.jpg


20170713_132529.jpg
Insane how that stuff just gets into everything.
 
well that will be interresting :)

"-There's a whole debug mode with a stage/air/enemy/etc current editor
-No treasure room on level 20
-Lightning bubbles animate differently
-Candy cane is either missing or not showing at the usual points
-Max
number of bubbles is different. Old ones normally disappear and allow
new ones. In this the old ones stay and new are clipped out
-The extend sequence is different, you get the extra life right away and the animation with the dinosaur is missing
-You can still fire after collecting the magic book power up, on the final version you can't
-A blue and silver necklace that makes a screen full of stars drop down from above. Not seen that before
-Level 34 uses a different colour palette
-There is a timer with the potion special item I just can't see it. Final has it visible
-Monster starting positions are slightly different on level 71
-I'm sure you get more time to pop them on 65-70
-Oh it says 10,000 for a perfect off the potion. You should get 100,000
-It doesn't give you enough time on level 79.
-fire bubbles knock out some of the level tile
-sometimes just fall through the floor
-level 95 is much easier
-Level 97 you usually get unlimited time, but not on this version
-Level 99 is easier. The bottom is different, allowing you to drop down through the screen which you can't do normally
-End boss you don't have to collect a special bottle - you've already got the lightning bubbles right away
-Usual special codes dont work
-"Unused dip" is a level select
-After selecting a level press 1p fire for really really cool shit"
 
am i the only one that finds it funny that they went to the trouble of epoxy, but put the eproms in sockets first!!
Not really surprising. it's a prototype so they socket a lot of stuff so they can easily pull/reburn stuff if they have to. then once they were ready for testing in the wild they just dumped epoxy on it instead of soldiering all the sockets and then soldering all the chips.

but can you imagine how much more of a pain it would be to remove the chips if they WERENT socketed?!
 
it would be a real pain to desolder them on the top of removing all the epoxy...
 
stupid forum software sucks stuff out of the old cache!!!

what a mess!!
 
Back
Top