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twistedsymphony

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There are a few NAOMI games that will only function if the game find a Rotary Encoder I/O board on Node 2 in the JVS I/O chain.

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Those games are:
Crackin' DJ
Crackin' DJ 2
Kick '4' Cash
Outtrigger
Shootout Pool
Shootout Pool Prize
Virtua Golf / Dynamic Golf

(if you know of others let me know)

"Rotary Encoder" inputs are used on trackballs, rollers and spinners; most application where an input could move in one direction indefinitely.

Interestingly, despite the fact that that Sega JVS Type-2 I/O features rotary encoder inputs these games wont play because they're on JVS Node 1 instead of Node 2. However a Type 2 I/O can be placed on Node 2 with a different I/O board on Node 1 allowing the game to function.

Having recently acquired a couple of the dedicated Rotary Encoder boards and realizing that one of the large connectors was completely undocumented online I set about figuring out what all the pins are and I discovered that the board actually has digital inputs and outputs in addition to rotary encoder inputs:

CN1 - Digital I/O Connector:
(24-pin JST NH Connector)
1: +5V
2: +5V
3: +5V
4: +5V
5: P1 Start
6: Service
7: P1 Up
8: P1 Down
9: P1 Left
10: P1 Right
11: P1 SW1
12: P1 SW2
13: Output 0
14: Output 1
15: Output 2
16: Output 3
17: Output 4
18: Output 5
19: Output 6
20: Output 7
21: GND
22: GND
23: GND
24: GND


CN2 - Power Input
(4-pin JST NH Connector)
1: +5V
2: +5V
3: GND
4: GND


CN3 - JVS Output
(USB B Female)

CN4 - Rotary Encoder Input
(16-pin JST NH Connector)
1: +5V
2: +5V
3: +5V
4: +5V
5: Encoder 1A (Trackball X-Axis)
6: Encoder 1B (Trackball X-Axis)
7: Encoder 2A (Trackball Y-Axis)
8: Encoder 2B (Trackball Y-Axis)
9: Encoder 3A
10: Encoder 3B
11: Encoder 4A
12: Encoder 4B
13: GND
14: GND
15: GND
16: GND

The 4-pin power connector is identical to the one found on the Type 1,2, and 3 I/O boards as well as the 5V header on the NAOMI filter board.

Interestingly, the JVS Test screen says that this I/O board reports having a "9-bit" input, this despite there only actually being 8 input pins meaning that it's fibbing :D Another oddity is that there are no coin inputs available or reported, nor are there coin meter outputs available. I'm not sure if there are any games that would let you play without coin inputs but if anything this board is certainly interesting.

Since this board has output pins available I'd be interested to see if any game would allow them to be used to extend the 8 output pins available on something like a Type 1 I/O to improve compatibility. I don't presently have any games that fall into that situation at the moment so it will have to wait to be tested.

EASTER EGG:
I also noticed that there is a cat face masked on the PCB in the top left, using 5V and Ground vias as eyes. (check the attached picture)
 
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you're right, I was under the impression that the Reel used rotary inputs but It's actually some kind of analog setup. Thanks for confirming the other games too.
 
out of curiosity, have you tested board alone for trackball games if the digital IO is wired up? it looks like it.

I ask because JVS chain voodoo is an interesting thing, and different games handle it different ways-
Offhand, most 2x6 games, when presented with a chain of JVS, choose the one furthest from the PCB as the master, or in the case of some games, or in the case of some games, support player 1 off board 2, and player 2 off board 1, both using Player 1 controls... (this is using chained Type1's)
 
@defor none of these games will work, just display various JVS errors.

JVS chaining is not that voodoo, but typical terminated enumeration method.
 
out of curiosity, have you tested board alone for trackball games if the digital IO is wired up? it looks like it.

I ask because JVS chain voodoo is an interesting thing, and different games handle it different way
I have hooked it up alone but I only ever tested that in the JVS Test in the System menu. I haven't tested with any games.
I doubt it would work with any of the Trackball games alone simply because they don't work with the Type 2 I/O on node 1 and that's a much more fully featured I/O board with rotary encoder inputs.

But that's just it, different games handle JVS differently. the NAOMI games were all designed to expect the the Rotary Encoder input on something other than NODE 1 so if they don't find it then they pitch a fit, but that's just base don how the games have been designed not necessarily the JVS standard itself.

I have been thinking about seeing if I could re-work the OpenJVS project to emulate this board, and perhaps allow a normal PS/2 connection for plugging in a mouse, that would at least make Outtrigger a lot more playable as using the trackball is pretty clunky.
 
@defor none of these games will work, just display various JVS errors.

JVS chaining is not that voodoo, but typical terminated enumeration method.
I meant that games support it differently, and it's odd theres no consistant standard.
 
don't think there supposed to be standards. I've checked my emulator and found 44 input layouts for Naomi games (heh, it took me some time to make them all :) ), so I think game devlopers was on its own how to implement and wire inputs.
 
Did you verify the pinout? I have it on my desk now as I'm working on the JVS library for the Jammafier & JVS-PAC2, and I'm getting:

5: Start
6: Up
7: Down
8: Left
9: Right
10: B1
11: B2
12: B3

(no service)
 
It was over 2 years ago when I did this. I honestly don't remember the details, but I believe I just grounded out the pins one at a time while in NAOMI test mode.
 
It was over 2 years ago when I did this. I honestly don't remember the details, but I believe I just grounded out the pins one at a time while in NAOMI test mode.
Ah yes - the post turned up when I googled the part number, didn't actually look at the dates :)
 
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