Midway Wolf Unit Multi

[Joeybagadonuts]

I'm sure it might have been brought up but I would love a wolf unit multi. 7 games on the same board. The security chips have been cracked so it shouldn't be too bad to produce. I have a working board to donate if you guys ever want to try.

Joe

 

[Nic034]

Yeah,

It would be great !

 

[rewrite]

This would be great!

 

[twistedsymphony]

all the pieces are there, it's just a matter of someone doing the work.

I think the biggest roadblock is that a "bank-switching multi" (like the C2 and M72) is usually good for platforms with a small game set, however there are so many large ROMs on this hardware it'd be super cumbersome. Then a flash-rom multi (like the CPS2 and F3) would be pretty expensive for such a small game set.

to put this into perspective a 4-in-1 (which wouldn't even cover all games) would require 20+ 27C322 EPROMS.

 

[xodaraP]

The only way to get all games would be to use a custom board with 64Mb 26L6420 devices. These are SOP-44 and the ICs on Wolf Unit are 32 pin 27C040 and 080 so I’m not sure how that would work

I’d definitely like to see it though

 

[XtraSmiley]

Yes!

 

[brizzo]

all the pieces are there, it's just a matter of someone doing the work.

Indeed, the most important part was writing the U64 mcu code to work with every game (so no need to use my patched ANY-U64 rom set).

Then a flash-rom multi (like the CPS2 and F3) would be pretty expensive for such a small game set.

Relatively the flash memory is inexpensive, it is all the voltage translators and assembly costs associated with the part count. My most recent design from late last year uses only 6 flash chips (with enough capacity for 8 games, ~$40 usd), but requires 34 voltage level translators (interfacing 3v to 5v logic, bus control for mcu to program flash on 3 different data buses which are isolated from each other).

My biggest problem with multis is feature creep. I last got hung up on designing a method to save and restore the SRAM on game select. Also have a couple bugs to solve with patching roms to hard set the dip settings. Maybe one day I will accept not having every feature covered and get it out there along with too many other projects at 90%...

 

[brizzo]

Solved the bug with dip switch patching. Made a program to make configuration easy

 

[Hackcell]

interesting.

 

[jassin000]

The Wolf has some nice games, but without (Y/T games) MK1/2, Narc, Smash TV, NBA Jam TE I'd just never be interested in a multi.
As discussed, a multi supporting these games isn't feasible due to many different types of sound boards and configurations.

MK3/U sucks hard IMO, Rampage WT is awesome, NHL just wishes it had NBA's magic and Hangtime also just wishes it had NBA's magic.
What a worthless PCB, convert 'em all to RWT!

 

[twistedsymphony]

The Wolf has some nice games, but without (Y/T games) MK1/2, Narc, Smash TV, NBA Jam TE I'd just never be interested in a multi.
As discussed, a multi supporting these games isn't feasible due to many different types of sound boards and configurations.

Dude you're talking about 4 completely different hardware platforms...

Narc is Z-Unit, Medium Res and not even JAMMA

as for Y-Unit and T-Unit games there are really only 3 different types of sound boards
1. The CVSD sound board used by Some Y-Unit Games (everything except MK1, Total Carnage and T2 IIRC), and some older MCR68 games
2. the ADPCM sound board used by some Y-Unit Games and all T-Unit games except for MK2
3. the DCS sound board used only by MK2

Different games use different revisions of these sound boards AFAIK the biggest difference is the clock speed and the size of the ROMs supported.

Based on this we could probably have a T-Unit multi that supported all T-unit games except MK2
and maybe a Y-Unit multi that supports all CVSD Y-Unit games using a later revision CVSD Sound board as a donor.

 

[jassin000]

Dude you're talking about 4 completely different hardware platforms...

I know and that's really the issue, 4 different hardware platforms with what maybe two/three good games on each?
A T-Unit multi with out what is IMO the T-Units best game (MK2) would be a total waste of money/worthless to me.

*-Unit Multi (which isn't possible) or don't bother (where I'm at with this project).

Really this is more a post about me bad mouthing the Wolf Unit hardware.
Because while it maybe the easiest to actually get a multi up and running on... It has the absolute worst games in the Midway *-Unit family.

I'm always shocked by the people who own it and defend the games on it, are we playing the same games? I feel like I'm taking crazy pillz!

 

[twistedsymphony]

Because while it maybe the easiest to actually get a multi up and running on... It has the absolute worst games in the Midway *-Unit family.

eh... I mean none of them have a really strong line up of games but Wolf Unit makes the most sense IMO. While you might not like them It has the largest total number of games, and the most expensive list of games.

And while a multi might not make sense it would be nice if Y-Unit games were cracked for conversion, because High Impact would make a cheap donor for stuff like Smash TV, Strike Force and Trog.

Z-Unit
-Narc

Y-Unit CVSD
-High Impact Football
-Smash T.V.
-Strike Force
-Super High Impact
-Trog
-Trog (prototype)

Y-Unit ADPCM
-Mortal Kombat (rev 1.0 - rev 4.0)
-Terminator 2 Judgement Day
-Total Carnage

T-Unit ADPCM
-Judge Dredd
-Mortal Kombat (rev 4.0 - rev 5.0)
-NBA Jam
-NBA Jam TE

T-Unit DCS
-Mortal Kombat II

Wolf Unit
-2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge
-Mortal Kombat 3
-NBA Hangtime
-NBA Maximum Hangtime
-Rampage: World Tour
-Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
-WWF Wrestlemania

 

[jassin000]

Z-Unit
-Narc

Y-Unit CVSD
-High Impact Football
-Smash T.V.
-Strike Force
-Super High Impact
-Trog
-Trog (prototype)

Y-Unit ADPCM
-Mortal Kombat (rev 1.0 - rev 4.0)
-Terminator 2 Judgement Day
-Total Carnage

T-Unit ADPCM
-Judge Dredd
-Mortal Kombat (rev 4.0 - rev 5.0)
-NBA Jam
-NBA Jam TE

T-Unit DCS
-Mortal Kombat II

Wolf Unit
-2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge
-Mortal Kombat 3
-NBA Hangtime
-NBA Maximum Hangtime
-Rampage: World Tour
-Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
-WWF Wrestlemania

Good games in Green, Ok in yellow, everything else suck city.

I'm counting 7, about one or two per hardware revision...
By my own color/quality estimations, the single most valuable multi would actually be Y-Unit, with two good games and one ok.
Wolf Unit would actually be the next with two ok games and one good one, yea even I'm surprised by that, I would have guessed T-Unit.

Not being able to include MKII with the rest of the T-Unit games really kills it (I did suspect that).

 

[fluxcore]

Always great to see someone post in a thread simply to shit on a project.

I think a wolf multi would be great, even for the library as it stands. There are also now SEVERAL 'hacks' of UMK3 to add all kinds of bug fixes, tweaks and features - would be neat if they could be supported somehow as well...

 

[jassin000]

Always great to see someone post in a thread simply to shit on a project.

Opinions will be expressed, both positive and negative.

Your signature says it all... There is no knowledge that is not power Translation, MK3 fan who loves the Wolf Unit.
Should we be at all surprised you think a multi would be great? I'm not.

List of best-selling arcade games

The following lists the arcade games that sold the most arcade hardware units, including arcade cabinets and conversion kits.

• Space Invaders (500,000)
• Pac-Man (400,000)
• Street Fighter II (300,000)
• Donkey Kong (152,000)
• Ms. Pac-Man (125,000)
• Asteroids (100,000)
• Defender (60,000)
• Centipede (55,98
• Galaxian (45,000 in the US)
• StarHorse2 (38,614)
• Donkey Kong Jr. (30,000 in the US)
• Mr. Do! (30,000 in the US)
• OutRun (30,000)
• Tempest (29,000)
• Mortal Kombat II (27,000)
• Dance Dance Revolution (25,000+)
• Beatmania (25,000)
• Q*bert (25,000)
• Mortal Kombat (24,000)
• Robotron: 2084 (23,000)
• Dig Dug (22,228 in the US)
• Pole Position (21,000 in the US)
• Popeye (20,000 in the US)
• Pump It Up (20,000)
• Missile Command (20,000)
• NBA Jam (20,000)
• Jungle Hunt (18,000 in the US)
• Paddle Battle (17,000)
• Dragon's Lair (16,000)
• Scramble (15,136 in the US)
• Battlezone (15,122)
• Phoenix (15,000 in the US)
• Stargate (15,000)
• Mushiking: The King of Beetles (13,500)
• Mahjong Fight Club 3 (13,000)
• Sega Network Mahjong MJ4 (12,892)
• Star Wars (12,695)
• Super Cobra (12,337 in US)
• Space Duel (12,03
• Pong (8,500–19,000)
• Indy 500 / Speedway (12,000)
• Breakout (11,000)
• Oshare Majo: Love and Berry (10,300)
• Sea Wolf (10,000)

Funny, I see MK and MK2 on that list... But where is MK3 and UMK?
Hey now that I think about it... Show me a single Wolf Unit game on that list, forget MK just a Wolf game period.

 

[brizzo]

I'm not a fan of wrestling in general;

But WWF Westlemania is a totally rad and fun game in my books.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

But WWF Westlemania is a totally rad and fun game in my books.

Me too. Was the most expensive can I had bought until my recent purchase of the two Final Fantasy machines.

Also, comparing sales numbers of arcade games across era's isnt really a good argument for or against the quality of the games because arcades were in sharp decline when some were released. And in the early arcade days even some shit games made bank.

BTW UMK3 sales were pretty much zero since it was a free update.

 

[Psyko-M1]

But WWF Westlemania is a totally rad and fun game in my books.

Me too. Was the most expensive can I had bought until my recent purchase of the two Final Fantasy machines.
Also, comparing sales numbers of arcade games across era's isnt really a good argument for or against the quality of the games because arcades were in sharp decline when some were released. And in the early arcade days even some shit games made bank.

BTW UMK3 sales were pretty much zero since it was a free update.

WWF kinda came at the end of the US Arcade lifecycle.
I almost never saw any cabinets at any arcades I went to around Chicagoland.
Everybody was happy to get their home console ports and call it a day around the time of it's release.
If I'm not mistaken, that scumbag Chicago "shock jock" Mancow is in the crowd of that one.

 

[twistedsymphony]

Funny, I see MK and MK2 on that list... But where is MK3 and UMK?
Hey now that I think about it... Show me a single Wolf Unit game on that list, forget MK just a Wolf game period.

Star Horse 2 is also on that list, but I think most of us would still rather play any of the Wolf Unit games.

honestly the lack of Wolf unit games has more to do with Arcades starting to die in that era than how good the games were.

I don't see any other late 90s or newer games outside of Rhythm, Mahjong and Card Trading.

as a matter of fact I have a few Star Horse NAOMI carts on their way to me from Japan right now, care to trade them for some of your unwanted Wolf Units?