Combat Physical Computing Mod

[flavoredthunder]

Hi, I am interested in modifying a combat cartridge so that little lights flash when a tank hits a barrier in the game field.

 

Does anyone have any advice or resources they can point me towards to accomplish this?

Thanks,

Mark

[DanBoris]

This should be doable but it would take some work. First you would have to modify the cart to add some logic to control the LEDs. The simplest way would probably be to take a set of unused addresses and create a circuit to recognize an access to those address and to turn each LED on or off. You could have one address for on and one for off, or maybe each access to an address toggles the LED. Since Combat is 2K you should have 2K worth of free addresses to use.

 

Second you would have to modify the software to add the LED control to the part of the program that checks for obstacle collision. Since Combat has been disassembled this shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Dan

[flavoredthunder]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your response. I have a couple questions in regards to your answers:

 

First you would have to modify the cart to add some logic to control the LEDs. The simplest way would probably be to take a set of unused addresses and create a circuit to recognize an access to those address and to turn each LED on or off.

 

When you say create a circuit do you mean in addition to the existing cartridge circuit board, like a daughter board? Is it possible to wire directly to the board (I am no EE which I am sure will become very clear.)

 

You could have one address for on and one for off, or maybe each access to an address toggles the LED. Since Combat is 2K you should have 2K worth of free addresses to use.

 

Yes, I was assuming a flip-flop would be the best way to go, that way I am not limited to just a LED, if I so choose I could use the binary switch to work as logic to turn on any other device (Every time a tank explodes, my toaster turns on).

 

Second you would have to modify the software to add the LED control to the part of the program that checks for obstacle collision. Since Combat has been disassembled this shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Would it be as simple as adding to the existing code so that in addition to storing the collision data to it's normal memory locations it also stores it to the address my device is to monitor?

 

Thanks,

Mark

[DanBoris]

When you say create a circuit do you mean in addition to the existing cartridge circuit board, like a daughter board? Is it possible to wire directly to the board (I am no EE which I am sure will become very clear.)  

 

It would probably require a couple chips to achieve so you would be easier to build it on a seperate board that would still fix inside the cart.

 

Would it be as simple as adding to the existing code so that in addition to storing the collision data to it's normal memory locations it also stores it to the address my device is to monitor?

 

Yes, it probably would be that simple. You would turn on the LED when the collision happens, but the tricky part would be controlling how long the LED stays on so it's visible. You would have to leave it on for a few video frame or it would flash so fast you probably wouldn't see it.

 

Dan

[flavoredthunder]

Thanks Dan,

I'll let you know if I turn anything up.

Best,

Mark