Quote:
Originally Posted by Argus25
One of the first ROM based arcade video games using the ROM for storing the Maze image was Atari(Kee Games) arcade TANK from 1974. There were two large pcb's linked by a strap with scores of TTL IC's (it made the arcade Pong pcb from 1972 with 66 TT IC's look small) on each and just the one ROM, again no microprocessor. Unlike Pong it had also advanced to an interlaced scan and had much better TV sync generators.
As I recall the ROM also held images of the Tank too at various rotational angles just one half of it and it was reflected to get the other half. The Tanks could be driven around the maze for combat and the sound effects of the Tank's engines were amazingly realistic, done with some Motorola analog IC's. It was a very power hungry pcb.
It is interesting to see video games with memory, but no microprocessor.
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That's very interesting to read Hugo. It must have taken considerable effort designing and developing such circuitry and to put it into production. The original TTL ICs were quite power hungry but seemed to be a very robust technology. Industry standard ICs that can be sourced (in their day) from most countries so component accessibility and repairs should not be a problem.
The Elektor game Elabyrinth isn't actually a video game. It uses a an arrangement of LEDs for the 'display' but is nevertheless an interesting project using an EPROM.
Regards
Symon.