mr_me Posted June 7, 2022 Share Posted June 7, 2022 (edited) http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/tech/master.html According to the above page, pins 16 and 18 aren't exactly known, but pin 20 should be ground. Edit: Actually this is what it says about 16 and 18. "These pins are tied to ground on non-Intellivoice cartridges, and left open on Intellivoice-aware cartridges." Edited June 7, 2022 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted June 7, 2022 Share Posted June 7, 2022 does this mean that the backbit just needs to have some special code for certain games? I guess it's "good" there were only 4 originally made for it? but not so good for homebrews that don't catch wind of this and get included in the firmware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted June 7, 2022 Share Posted June 7, 2022 The Intellivoice changed / re-used some of the pins on the Intellivision connector. These pins are used for the voice chip's serial bus for voice expansion chips. The Intellivoice has 2 chips, the SP0256 voice chip and the SP0640 expansion chip. The 2 chips are connected together by the same serial bus present on the Intellivoice connector. The SP0256 has some built-in phrases that every game can use, such as "Mattel Electronics presents". The SP0640 expansion chip is for custom phrases for each game by sitting on accepting voice data written to it via the normal 16-bit bus, buffering it, and then pumping it out onto the serial-like bus. Given that the "Mattel Electronics Presents" is heard but the rest of the game's voice audio is not, my guess would be that the BackBit is grounding some of the re-assigned pins which prevents the SP0256 and SP0640 from communicating over the serial bus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted June 7, 2022 Share Posted June 7, 2022 You can play Intellivoice cartridges without an Intellivoice, e.g. World Series MLB, so the cartridge leaving 16 and 18 open shouldn't be an issue. If you have an Intellivoice, they allow the buffer chip to work, whether it's used or not. Doesn't seem to be an issue just leaving them open all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted June 7, 2022 Share Posted June 7, 2022 Looking at the schematics, pin 20 is connected to a rom(buffer) disable input on the voice chip. So that might also have to be left open, as Evietron pointed out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted June 7, 2022 Share Posted June 7, 2022 14 hours ago, evietron said: I figured it out. I needed to disconnect pins 16/18/20 on the cart from GND. Is there any adverse affect for not grounding these pins on a non-voice ROM? Oops, I missed this comment before I posted my long comment. It should be fine to leave pins 16/18/20 open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evietron Posted June 7, 2022 Author Share Posted June 7, 2022 4 minutes ago, Lathe26 said: Oops, I missed this comment before I posted my long comment. It should be fine to leave pins 16/18/20 open. Thanks for the confirmation. Looking at the schematic for the Intellivision, pins 14..28 are all shorted together. It would appear that the Intellivoice repurposed those 3 pins for what is plugged into it. As a voice activated cartridge will leave those 3 pins open, but not actually do anything with them, there doesn't seem to be any harm to leave them floating. If you look at this document, page 13 states that the Intellivision must be tolerant to those 3 pins being connected to ground, but also implies that they don't have to be. This document is what originally tipped me off that these 3 pins might be the issue with not getting any voice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted June 7, 2022 Share Posted June 7, 2022 12 minutes ago, evietron said: Thanks for the confirmation. Looking at the schematic for the Intellivision, pins 14..28 are all shorted together. It would appear that the Intellivoice repurposed those 3 pins for what is plugged into it. As a voice activated cartridge will leave those 3 pins open, but not actually do anything with them, there doesn't seem to be any harm to leave them floating. If you look at this document, page 13 states that the Intellivision must be tolerant to those 3 pins being connected to ground, but also implies that they don't have to be. This document is what originally tipped me off that these 3 pins might be the issue with not getting any voice. I think you mean that the Intellivoice must be tolerant to having those 3 pins grounded by a non-voice cartridge since the doc is the specification for the Intellivoice itself. I accidentally type "Intellivision" sometimes when I meant to type "Intellivoice". Short version is that not connecting these 3 pins to ground in the BackBit and leaving them floating should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evietron Posted June 7, 2022 Author Share Posted June 7, 2022 1 hour ago, Lathe26 said: I think you mean that the Intellivoice must be tolerant to having those 3 pins grounded by a non-voice cartridge since the doc is the specification for the Intellivoice itself. I accidentally type "Intellivision" sometimes when I meant to type "Intellivoice". Short version is that not connecting these 3 pins to ground in the BackBit and leaving them floating should be fine. Yes, indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted August 2, 2022 Share Posted August 2, 2022 I just received a shipping confirmation for my order! ? Thanks! dZ. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted August 2, 2022 Share Posted August 2, 2022 Awesome, evietron A has been really great in communication with me on the backbit site. Production has been going on. She's cranking them out a few a day. I'm around 40th in line so I'm waiting and will report in as soon as I get mine. Very exciting to know there are at least 39 other intellivision users out there with a multicart! Hopefully many more now that those who might have been on the fence about trusting preorders for new hardware will take plunge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted August 2, 2022 Share Posted August 2, 2022 4 hours ago, DZ-Jay said: I just received a shipping confirmation for my order! ? Thanks! dZ. Just got mine as well! Excited! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cjherr Posted August 2, 2022 Share Posted August 2, 2022 Me three! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted August 2, 2022 Share Posted August 2, 2022 No notifications for mine. But I also ordered one of the chip tester pros as well so mine is likely to be delayed until everything is ready since I believe the chip testers were also pre-order status at the time I ordered the Intelly BackBit cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 2, 2022 Share Posted August 2, 2022 1 hour ago, -^CrossBow^- said: No notifications for mine. But I also ordered one of the chip tester pros as well so mine is likely to be delayed until everything is ready since I believe the chip testers were also pre-order status at the time I ordered the Intelly BackBit cart. No notifications for me, either. I ordered some with the adapters back in April, and recently added on the new Bally Astrocade adapter. I've been in contact with her via email about the order status. Sounds like it will be a bit longer still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+videofx Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 I just received a shipping confirmation for my order! ? Cant wait to try it! Will there be firmware updates? How do we get them? THanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 (edited) Firmware updates are posted on their website as a file download. Latest one is dated August 3, 2022. Edited August 4, 2022 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BBWW Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 Got 'em! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 Nice I did get my notification as well. I wonder if it will come with the latest firmware. does anyone know how you check the firmware? maybe it appears on the intellivision screen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Is backbit going to emulate the intellivoice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cjherr Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Just able to check a few games, but so far, very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 10 hours ago, artrag said: Is backbit going to emulate the intellivoice? I believe @evietron said it did. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 14 hours ago, artrag said: Is backbit going to emulate the intellivoice? I don't think @evietron was going to emulate an Intellivoice, just support Intellivoice games when the BackBit was plugged into a real Intellivoice. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 No it definitely does. I've been in casual communication with @evietron and she confirmed B-17 bomber and others work with it. I'm still waiting for mine to arrive to really test it, but I take her at her word if she says it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 It emulates Intellivoice cartridges, I don't think it emulates the Intellivoice. You still need an Intellivoice if you want to hear speech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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