Is it possible to extract the current win count from SFII or other games?

[twistedsymphony]

I'm fairly certain the answer is NO but I figured I'd ask anyway.

The Sega Versus Billboard project I was working on, lot and lots of people had asked me if it was possible to hook it up to a CPS2 in order to work as a win counter for SFII or Marvel vs Capcom. I think this idea started because there was a few pictures of Versus City cabinets playing SFII and displaying what looked like a number on the Billboard.

My guess is that the billboard was running through some attract mode script and this is just a lucky chance that the photo snapped it when it was displaying something that looked like a number. There are a couple of billboard animations that can produce this pattern.

I've never owned a CPS2 and I really don't know anything about the hardware, but looking over the service manuals for a few CPS2 games I can't find any indication that there are any output headers anywhere on them that could facilitate communication with the billboard unit. Theoretically if you could get access to that information you could build a device to generate the command to update the billboard, but I still don't think that could easily be done.

So just to put this to bed. I'd like to ask some of you who DO know a lot about the CPS2, is there any way for an external device to get the current win count from a CPS2, or any other fighting game?

 

[l_oliveira]

There are free input/output pins on the kick harness which can definitely be used that way. But the game has to be coded to support the billboard.

 

[twistedsymphony]

Interesting, I thought the kick harness connector was input only. Do you know of any games off hand that use it as an output?

 

[l_oliveira]

Straight from MAME source:

         Extra Button Connector
          ----------------------
                TOP    BOTTOM
        --------------------------
            GND  01    02  GND
            +5V  03    04  +5V
           +12V  05    06  +12V
   Configurable  07    08  Configurable
   Configurable  09    10  Configurable
   Configurable  11    12  Configurable
   Configurable  13    14  Configurable
   Configurable  15    16  Configurable
   Configurable  17    18  Configurable
   Configurable  19    20  Configurable
   Configurable  21    22  Configurable
   Configurable  23    24  Configurable
   Configurable  25    26  Configurable
   Configurable  27    28  Configurable
    Volume Down  29    30  Volume UP
            GND  31    32  GND
            GND  33    34  GND




Pins 07 to 28 can be configured to anything
as games require. This includes coin inputs,
coin lockouts, joysticks and buttons. There
are at least 2 known configurations seen in
CPS-2 games released so far (see below).


Known Extra Button Connector configurations -

             Most fighting type games         
             ------------------------         
                   TOP    BOTTOM              
           ----------------------------       
               GND  01    02  GND             
               +5V  03    04  +5V             
              +12V  05    06  +12V            
                NC  07    08  NC              
      2Up Button 6  09    10  NC              
                NC  11    12  NC              
                NC  13    14  NC              
      1Up Button 6  15    16  NC              
      1Up Button 5  17    18  NC              
      1Up Button 4  19    20  NC              
      2Up Button 4  21    22  NC              
      2Up Button 5  23    24  NC              
                NC  25    26  NC              
                NC  27    28  NC              
       Volume Down  29    30  Volume UP       
               GND  31    32  GND             
               GND  33    34  GND

Look how many unused pins are there to be used with the wins counter... lol

 

[majors]

Do you know of any games off hand that use it as an output?

I know V.Tennis 2 (Naomi) using the Sega I/O, there is a jumper on the I/O to change from kicks to 7-seg(for lack of a better term). Then using the Sega cable -005 loom, it will control the winner flashing and count. The issue is, 6-button games need the jumper set to "kicks" for button 6 so you lose the ability to control the topper to display a win count.

There have been some folks trying to figure it out over at AO, but I have not kept up with their progress. I do not think there are any pre-programed code in the topper to keep a track of win counts, it all has to come from the game board.

 

[twistedsymphony]

I know V.Tennis 2 (Naomi) using the Sega I/O

I was talking about CPS2 games specifically, hence why this was posted in the CPS2 forum.

I'm well aware of the NAOMI and other Sega platforms that communicate with the Billboard. This thread was just about confirming my suspicions that the CPS2 doesn't have any billboard compatible games.

I'm one of the folks on AO who has been trying to figure it out.
If you're interested in catching up with my progress it's all documented here: http://solid-orange.com/1431
any new information I uncover will be posted here: Sega ST-V/Model 2/Model 3/NAOMI VS Billboard Output.

 

[mountainmanjed]

I know i'm late to this another problem would be is to add a win counter to ST. Which would just be figuring out a good place to add a jsr after something reads round counter if it is 2.