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Namco Sys1 Beraboh Man (Bravoman), custom I/O board?

frsj8112

frsj8112

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I just had a look at the Namco Sys1 game list and found this obscure game called 超絶倫人ベラボーマン, Bravoman.

It seems to run together with a custom I/O board for the buttons. Does anyone know anything about this?

180901531_3.jpg
 
Anytime someone talks about a specialized input mechanism you've got my attention!

I've known of the game for quite some time but I didn't realize it used some kind of specialized inputs.

looking around the flyer seems to imply that the buttons are force sensitive: https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=5739&image=2

very cool, it's be great if we could track down a manual, schematic, or even some better pictures of the IO PCB.

MAME source has this note:
Code: 
/*
    buttons (pressure sensitive)
    each button has two switches: the first is closed as soon as the button is
    pressed, the second a little later, depending on how hard the button is
    pressed.
    bits 0-5 control strength (0x00 = max 0x3f = min)
    bit 6 indicates the button is pressed
    bit 7 is not actually read by the game but I use it to simulate the second
          switch
    */

so I'd suspect the circuit on the PCB is a timing circuit that calculates "strength" from the speed at which the button is pushed.
 
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The article implies that it only interprets strength "in 3 stages"
As cool as having the 2-stage buttons would be maybe this could be adapted for use with a Capcom 6-button layout?

I could see a custom adapter with a CPS2 connector and some onboard circuitry to translate the buttons into appropriate strength values.
 
twistedsymphony said:
The article implies that it only interprets strength "in 3 stages"
As cool as having the 2-stage buttons would be maybe this could be adapted for use with a Capcom 6-button layout?

I could see a custom adapter with a CPS2 connector and some onboard circuitry to translate the buttons into appropriate strength values.
Click to expand...
Isnt there a hacked or official rom to use 6 buttons?

I was looking to repro the adapter board way back, but the buttons are also different so dropped looking into it.
 
Derick2k said:
Isnt there a hacked or official rom to use 6 buttons?
Click to expand...
looking at MAME source I see a "PRESSURE_SENSITIVE" flag that either enables pressure sensitive buttons or 6-buttons, I don't see any sort of dip setting or alternate ROM for this, it's more like a MAME source override to play it that way, not sure it would work on actual hardware.

Derick2k said:
I was looking to repro the adapter board way back, but the buttons are also different so dropped looking into it.
Click to expand...
Given that I've seen two variants of these buttons linked in this thread, one from Sanwa and one from Semitsu. I'm wondering if there are more than just this game that used them.

some possible candidate for a custom solution:
https://www.wellnowus.com/6pin-dpdt-plastic-momentary-pcb-2-step-push-button-mini-switch-product/

https://www.otto-controls.com/p4-momentary-action-two-step-custom-pushbutton
 
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Doing a bit more research seems to imply that musical keyboards use a similar "velocity switch" where the timing between the two switches is used to determine the strength at which the button was pushed.

I've not been able to find any off the shelf microswitches for this but "keyboard switches" is too generic a term since theres a billion results for computer keyboards.

this was also interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mechanical...this_is_my_first_unmodified_analog_cherry_mx/

another cheap/easy way to do this would be with leaf switches... thinking about it now I'm honestly kind of surprised that's not what the original buttons were. or maybe they're just too finicky and inconsistent?
 
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Derick2k said:
Isnt there a hacked or official rom to use 6 buttons?

I was looking to repro the adapter board way back, but the buttons are also different so dropped looking into it.
Click to expand...

The Darksoft Namco System 1 Multi has a hacked version of this game that puts three punch strengths on P1 buttons and three kick strengths on the P2 stick. The System 1 hardware doesn't support 6 action buttons for a single player.
 
ShootTheCore said:
The Darksoft Namco System 1 Multi has a hacked version of this game that puts three punch strengths on P1 buttons and three kick strengths on the P2 stick. The System 1 hardware doesn't support 6 action buttons for a single player.
Click to expand...
I know, meant to say 3 buttons per player. Thats what I saw in a sales post on yah, claiming that you can use a combination of the 3 buttons per player, along with some adapter pcb they had made up.
 
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