Attack UFO - Arcade game that uses the 6560

[lance.ewing]

the game does very few actual accesses to the VIC, so its almost useless to tell the differences by looking at the game code...

Yeah, I realise that. We won't know unless we manage to source the chip itself, which isn't impossible, but is extremely unlikely. I would assume that any customisation was done at Ryoto Electrics request, so if the game isn't using it, then the chances are the unused registers would do what they would normally do.

I've been thinking about building a clone of this machine in hardware as well, but not having this customised version of the 6560 means that the ROMs would have to be patched so it doesn't turn on the reverse mode. The same might need to be done to stop the multicolour mode as well, although that could probably be handled by hardwiring the 4th line of the colour data bus so its always off rather than coming from colour RAM.

one thing that is obvious though is that the defaults differ

I haven't yet worked out what you mean by defaults. I don't think the control registers themselves have intended default values on startup of the chip.

meanwhile, i have it kinda working without a patched kernal.... the monkey patched screen copying stuff makes it kindof slow to play however...

https://nofile.io/f/8Y5P3Fj9esZ

Hopefully I can give this a go later today. Looking forward to it.

[groepaz]

I don't think the control registers themselves have intended default values on startup of the chip.

at least some of them must have defined default values - else this game would show random garbage

[lance.ewing]

I don't think the control registers themselves have intended default values on startup of the chip.

at least some of them must have defined default values - else this game would show random garbage

Are you sure? I've got my emulator working now. At the start of the game, it appears to set the following:

Code: Select all

VicWriteMemory: - address: 1000, value: 02
VicWriteMemory: - address: 1001, value: 1C
VicWriteMemory: - address: 1002, value: 97
VicWriteMemory: - address: 1003, value: 2C
VicWriteMemory: - address: 1005, value: 07
VicWriteMemory: - address: 100F, value: 01
VicWriteMemory: - address: 100E, value: 00
VicWriteMemory: - address: 100D, value: 00
VicWriteMemory: - address: 100C, value: 00
VicWriteMemory: - address: 100B, value: 00
VicWriteMemory: - address: 100A, value: 00

It has written to every writable control register. Everything else is read only. The game is working fine and I haven't explicitly set any of the control registers to default values within the emulator itself. They would all implicitly be starting at 0 as a consequence of Java primitive integer types defaulting to 0. I don't think the real chip would have reliable initial values.

Below is a link to my Attack UFO emulator in its current state, as an executable JAR file. You will need to install Java if you don't have it installed already. It uses libgdx, so I should be able to get it working on Android if people are interested. Would need some kind of touch controllers for that though.

https://sites.google.com/site/mos6561vi ... ackufo.jar

Edit: Forgot to mention the controls:

Insert a coin: Left mouse click, or the C key, or F1, or the plus key
Start game (after inserting coin): Right mouse click, or the S key, or Enter key
Movement: Left/Right arrow keys, or A and D, or L and '
Fire: SPACE, Ins, Up arrow

(no sound emulation yet)

[groepaz]

Are you sure? I've got my emulator working now. At the start of the game, it appears to set the following:

oh! interesting i must have somehow missed that in the process... i had to add some of my own init stuff to make it not show crap at least

your emu crashes on me though

Code: Select all

$ java -jar attackufo.jar 
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
        at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglGraphics.setVSync(LwjglGraphics.java:555)
        at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:122)
Caused by: java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0
        at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay.getAvailableDisplayModes(LinuxDisplay.java:954)
        at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay.init(LinuxDisplay.java:738)
        at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.<clinit>(Display.java:138)
        ... 2 more
AL lib: (EE) alc_cleanup: 1 device not closed

[lance.ewing]

Are you sure? I've got my emulator working now. At the start of the game, it appears to set the following:

oh! interesting i must have somehow missed that in the process... i had to add some of my own init stuff to make it not show crap at least

your emu crashes on me though

Hmmm. I've been running it on Linux as well. Will have to Google that.

Does it do that on start up?

[groepaz]

yeah right at startup (it doesnt quite start that is )

[lance.ewing]

yeah right at startup (it doesnt quite start that is )

I think I'm a couple of years behind with the libgdx version. I'll try updating it to the latest this evening to see if that fixes it. The lwjgl version needs to be 3 and I'm probably on 2 still.

[eslapion]

How exciting. Apparently this episode 2 of Collector's Quest mentions something to do with Attack UFO, and I'm assuming it might show the original game machine:

https://noco.tv/emission/35016/nolife/c ... s-quest/02

Unfortunately it looks like we need to subscribe and pay to watch it, and my French is virtually non-existent, so not much point in me watching it other than for the visuals. But I thought there would be people in the forums here that would be very interested in this. Hmmm, wonder if it might show the internals of the machine.

Yes, I can't find a way to watch this without paying for it and there truly isn't much about Attack UFO in there.

[lance.ewing]

yeah right at startup (it doesnt quite start that is )

Give this one a go to see if it works:

https://sites.google.com/site/mos6561vi ... lwjgl3.jar

It was created with the latest stable release of libgdx and is now using lwjgl3. It now also needs to be run on Java 8 if you weren't trying that already.

[lance.ewing]

there truly isn't much about Attack UFO in there.

Does it show a picture of the machine unit or screen or anything like that?

[eslapion]

there truly isn't much about Attack UFO in there.

Does it show a picture of the machine unit or screen or anything like that?

I can't tell. It seems audio versions are available in podcast form from soundcloud and PlayerFM and not a very long time in the episode is dedicated to this machine because it's not even listed in the descriptions.

Opening title on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8gdybFeEEI

Documentary about the founding of Nintendo (20mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XnlZ4LkX8Q

BTW, I know David Viens. He is a member here, his alias is V1and3 and he is designer of the first Behr-Bonz menu!

[lance.ewing]

BTW, I know David Viens. He is a member here, his alias is V1and3 and he is designer of the first Behr-Bonz menu!

Oh, in that case, perhaps we should invite him to log in and leave a comment regarding what he saw of the game. He seemed quite excited in his tweet.

[eslapion]

Oh, in that case, perhaps we should invite him to log in and leave a comment regarding what he saw of the game. He seemed quite excited in his tweet.

What's happening with his business is making him difficult to reach lately.

[plgDavid]

BTW, I know David Viens. He is a member here, his alias is V1and3 and he is designer of the first Behr-Bonz menu!

Oh, in that case, perhaps we should invite him to log in and leave a comment regarding what he saw of the game. He seemed quite excited in his tweet.

Hey!
Seems my old account is deactivated (davidv_) so I created this one.
Sorry about the video being unavailable, it was free to watch for 48h or something like that.
It didnt show more than the powered down Attack UFO cabaret itself, not its insides. I was interested in this ever since its mention in Bagnall’s book. Tried to ask some of my fellow MAME devs about who still owned it and no one seemed to remember. Beeing searching for one ever since. Whether its a pre release VIC-I or custom mod is anyone’s guess. The only pictures of the pcb are lowres, but afaik the chips markings were sanded off perpetuating the mystery even more.

I havent watched the last two installments of the video series since....paywall, but presumably the dudes that won the lot still own the cabaret. Something to look into I guess.

[highinfidelity]

yeah right at startup (it doesnt quite start that is )

Give this one a go to see if it works:

https://sites.google.com/site/mos6561vi ... lwjgl3.jar

It was created with the latest stable release of libgdx and is now using lwjgl3. It now also needs to be run on Java 8 if you weren't trying that already.

Nice, it works!!! I don't know if it's only me, but it seems a bit too stretched vertically than it should. Was it really that way? I mean on real hardware.