Re: My Lastest Find

<sorry, I hit send by accident, before I completed this message>

The gameplay is very much a simulation. The other tanks do not fire at you,
and the only way to end the game is to run out of ammo or shoot a 'friendly'
tank or helicopter.

The Turret is controlled by a 'Star Wars' style yolk controller. It turns
the guns and lets you change the elevation of the gun. There are a set of
foot pedals that control the actual movement of the tank. There are 3 type
of weapons

25mm cannon (Chain-gun) ;
7.62 mm coaxially mounted machine gun;
TOW missile launcher with twin tubes.

The upper left of the bezel hold the Range control, and also the
magnification switch. The range control sets the height of the gun before
you launch rockets or shoot the machine gun. The magnification switch
changes your view from 3x to 10x.

On the right side of the bezel, there is a switch for arming the TOW
missiles. Once you fire these missiles, you can guide them with the 'laser'
sights. You can steer the missile into targets, or into the ground if you
overshoot the target.

At the lower right near the yolk, are 7 buttons for selecting the 'AP' (armor
piercing) rounds, or the 'HE' High Explosive rounds. You also have the
choice of 'SS' single Shot or 'CF' Continuous Fire modes. You can also
switch to the '7.62mm' machine gun also.

It usually takes one hit from a TOW missile, 5 from the rockets/shells, or
10-20 from a machine gun to bring down an enemy. Some tanks can only be shot
with the TOW missile. The helicopter is the most difficult target to destroy.

NO SCHEMATICS came with the board. (I have never seen any schematics for any
proto, as the schematics are the last thing completed when a game goes into
production).

The board is basically a standard Battlezone board with a wirewrap add on
board for all the additional inputs. It features a D/A converter for input
from the yolk and the Range controls.

In order to convert a Battlezone, you would have to add a Star Wars
controller with two independent sets of triggers on the front side, a
buttload of wire jumpers, an I/O board with a D/A converter, a ROM daughter
card, 11 buttons, 3 pots, two pedals, and a bunch of cabinet wiring. The
wirewrap board has a zillion traces that go to the AVG board. The Mathbox
proms, seems to be stock and have production part numbers on them.

I'm not sure why there are a set of handles screwed to the side of the
cabinet. It seems like they wanted an easy way to move it around, but they
drilled holes right through the sideart. There are reinforcement plates
behind the handles.

The ROMS are dumped and safe.

My source shall remain confidential.

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Received on Sun Oct 8 04:44:31 2000