From - Tue May 12 19:00:48 1998
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From: CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler <windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de>
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.classic
Subject: INTERTON VC4000 bought with 37(!) carts... (I have SCHEMATICS!,programming infos etc.| Description)
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 18:59:36 +0200
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I am usually none of these crazy guys traveling round half the world to get
rid of much money for a "Chase the Chuckwaggon" game cart,but this sunday I 
again "wasted" some money for something very interesting:

On sunday I was on a flea market(Germany,city Buxtehude),and on a videogames 
market stand I first discovered many Atari VCS carts in their original boxes.
The salesman wanted 10DM(5.55 US$) for each.Than I discovered,that many of the
carts were VCS7800 ones,and though I got originally boxed the games "Motor
Psycho","Planet Smashers" and "Desert Falcon"(!) together for 20DM(11.11$).

Then I discovered a quite dirty "Interton VC4000" videogame console without
carts in the pile.I asked if he had games for it,and he showed me a huge card-
board box containing 37(!) originally boxed games for it,including manuals and
keypad overlays.He wanted 60DM(33.33$) for it.With the console(with 2 original
+ 2 replacement controllers) in a plastic bag hanging on my rusty bike's stee-
ring bar and the huge box on the rear rack I carefully rocked home,regarding
the swinging cargo.(Afterward I straightly went back to the flea market once
again - and got a dozend of grammophone records for free.)

At home I took the dirt stained Interton and its controllers apart and cleaned
it carefully.

Interton controllers contain a small,self-centering analogue joystick and a
keypad with 15 buttons + 2 extra buttons(internally conected) for "fire".

One set of controllers(black joystick handle) contains hard plastic keys pres-
sing metal leave feathers down onto a contacted PCB.(1 feather contact is mis-
sing under a fire button of 1 controller.) The other,similar looking control-
ler set(silver handle) contains soft plastic keypads pressing down a plastic
foil keypad.

I tested the game console and discovered,that the sound was very noisy and
hummy.When I touched some contacts on the PCB,the sound became clean =>I suc-
cessless adjusted some trimmers and then experimented with capacitors from the
rightmost RF-modulator contact to its next contact(GND).I found out:the bigger
the cap,the better the sound and the worse the picture =>I soldered a 10pf ce-
ramic one across the 2 pins =>sound still hasn't improved.(May be I just mel-
ted the capacitor to much while soldering.)

The Interton has a unique PCB design,rather resembling an old arcade PCB with
a lot of 74LS.. stuff and 3 plugged daughterboards.The rear one contains the
voltage rectifier+regulator.The right one generates the video output to the 
RF-modulator and contains a dozend of simple logics ICs(?).The left one con-
tains many analogue components(and an NE555?) and seems to be the sound board.

The 2 main processors(?) have 40pin cases made of white ceramic(!).Their
brown,square label plates say "CT4291 7807" and "CT4281 7805".There is also a
"7404" logics chip made of the same strange white ceramic(ever seen this spe-
cies?) on it.

I tested some of the "cassettes"(carts).The games resemble to VCS2600 2KB and
4KB games and are nothing really great,but some games have unique features.
I got all games from number 1 up to 38,except 34.
(In my old videogame books I read that there was also a game #40 released,but
no mention of #34.Though does anybody know if #34 exists and what it was?)


When I tried the "paddle games"(Pong...) cassette,I recognized something I had
seen before.Since long time I own a (German) hobby electronics book about 
building and programming a videogame console.

When I compared the screen shots in it with my Interton,I discovered that both
obviously use the same graphics system.(The "paddle games" itself are not 
identical,but looking really similar to the one from the 1KB assembly listing
in the book.) The graphics quality is roughly compareable with a "Phillips 
G7000"/"Odyssey 2" system.The Interton has 8 colours and 8 sprite magnifica-
tion levels.The background graphics(as described in the book) seems to be cha-
racter based(only very few?) and has a varying horizontal resolution,i.e. it
can display mazes made of horizontal and vertical lines,while the equidistant
horizontal lines are characters with only 1 pixel hight,while the vertical 
lines between them are made from full-size characters.

The sound system described in the book has a single squarewave voice with 
pitch from 30Hz up to 3.9kHz(?),and it contains an analogue(!) noise generator
based on the noise from a transistor with collector pin not connected.In the
Interton I previously discovered the same strnge transistor on the left,small
daughterboard.The Interton seems to generate shot sounds by muffeling this
white noise using a voltage controlled filter(but no volume registers??).
I have the musics cart for the interton,which also only plays one plain 
squarewave voice without any volume control etc.One can enter a melody up to
32 notes into its sequencer.

As well the Interton as the game system in the book contain many 74LS.. for
graphics etc.,and also the game controllers described in the book have each
an analogue joystick + 16 buttons,like my Interton.

In the book stands "All informations are only for non-commercial purpose and
not regarding existing patents etc.",which made me conclude that they might
have reverse engineered the Interton VC4000.

The only significant difference between the system in the book and my Interton
is,that the game in the book has a "2650A" CPU(40 pins) + "2636" and "2621"
for video.None of the latter 2 have also 40 pins,but graphics look extremely
similar,though I guess that my Interton may contain these 2 just integrated 
into the 2nd 40pin main IC,while the CPU perhaps has only another name,but the
same instruction set.

The book is very detailed and contains as well schematics(the PCB layout is
completely different,basing on 4 or 5 stacked small PCBs),as the theory of
operation of the graphics- and sound hardware,a description of the assembly
language,a description how to build a RAM-cart for game developement,and a
complete listing of Pong-like videogames.(60 game variants in 1KB EPROM - 
whow!) If it is really identical to the Interton VC4000,it must be really a
treassure for an emulator programmer.(Don't forget - it's German.)


The book has the name: 

 "TV-Computerspiele - Realisierung der Hard- und Software (Topp 166/167)"
 
 ISBN 3-7724-0436-7

written by: 
  
 H.Bernstein, scientiffic assistence Prof. Otmar Kilgenstein

publisher:

 "Frech-Verlag",(C) 1980



It's like a fate that I got the game console + nearly all carts with box/manu-
als while I already had that book exactly describing how this thing works.Un-
fortunately I have no time to write an emulators within the next years,al-
though it could perhaps excite me.

[No,I don't intend to sell it.]

I don't know if the carts are EPROM based,because I didn't dare to open one
yet because I didn't want to ruin the label.Entropy is everywhere,though I on-
ly can hope that bitrot won't eat them for breakfast before I will get the 
possibility to dump them on a PC diskette for making an emulator.
(The 6 carts of my "Mr.Altus"(= "Emmerson Arcadia"?) also still aren't back-
upped yet.)

                        MAY THE SOFTWARE BE WITH YOU!

*============================================================================*
I                  CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler                  I
I         (teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!)          I
I                                      !                                     I
*=============================ABANDON=THE=BRUTALITY==========================*
From - Thu May 14 17:53:41 1998
Path: news.uni-hamburg.de!not-for-mail
From: CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler <windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de>
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.classic
Subject: More about my INTERTON VC4000... (description)
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 17:53:06 +0200
Organization: (I'm teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!)
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Dan Mazurowski wrote:
> 
> CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler wrote:
> >
> > The only significant difference between the system in the book and my Interton
> > is,that the game in the book has a "2650A" CPU(40 pins)
> 
> Dang, there it is again! The mysterious 2650A! Who manufactured that
> chip, and why is it in so many of the less popular game systems? (Please
> correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this same CPU was in the Acertronic
> and Arcadia, and I know it's also found in the Tryom.)

Andrew Davie wrote:
> 
> >> The only significant difference between the system in the book and my
> Interton
> >> is,that the game in the book has a "2650A" CPU(40 pins)
> 
> I have the tech manual for the Signetics 2650 microprocessor, dated 1975.
> I would be fairly confident in my assumption that the 2650A is a variant of
> this processor.
> A

In the mentioned book they wrote(in 1980) that this CPU may be a difficultly
findable part,because it is an "industrial type".They say,that it must be a 
2650A,because "it is faster than the 2650".

But the only large ICs in my Interton are the strange white ceramic ones la-
beled "CT4291 7807" and "CT4281 7805",each having 40 pins.

I again desoldered the mentioned capacitor and resoldered it =>without the 
cap,the static noise was way worse,but also with it installed,noise is still
extremely loud(it is weaker during tones are played?),and a bigger cap doesn't
make it disappear any more,but only deteriorates the TV picture instead.

The left,small daughterboard(ca. 6*6cm) is indeed the soundboard.Its only ICs
are 3 op-amps,rest is analogue stuff.Removing it causes the game sounds to 
disappear,but this has absolutely no effect on the static noise.(There is a 
potentiometer accessable from outside to adjust the RF sound carrier frequen-
cy(?) to get best sound,but also in optimal position the static doesn't disap-
pear.The Interton seems to be incapable to simultanously generate noise and
tones;it may be that it uses the same register to either control the pitch of
the single squarewave voice,or alternatively the volume+timbre of the noise
generator(which has nothing to do with the static).

I believe to remember that some years ago a teenager showed me and played with
me his Interton VC4000,and its sound from his small TV had also terrible sta-
tic noise in it.Does anybody know if all Intertons make this noise?

The graphics board(right daughterboard) consists mainly of 12 74LS.. ICs and
also seems to contain the main clock generater of the system.When the Interton
crashes(e.g. after touching the clock pins),it still displays some strange 
sprites and characters in different sizes,and not just vertical lines like a
VCS2600,though I conclude that it is much more hardware-controlled than the
brilliant VCS design.Sometimes after turning the Interton on,the sound board
makes a continous tone/noise,which doesn't react at the reset button,but only
disappears as soon the game makes own sounds.


Rksnowman wrote:
> 
> Due to my Interton VC 4000 games catalogue cart #34
> is named Space Laser. I do not have it so I don't know
> exactly if it was released. I own cart  #40: Super Space
> so this one was definately released.

Yes,in my videogame books they already ention #40 too,but no #34.


By the way,it is astonishing,HOW BAD many of the Interton games play.
E.g. there is the "Pac Man" variant "Monster Man",which has basically always
only 1 single dot(an insect sprite) at each time in the maze.After the player
collects it,the next one appears at a different location and so on and so on.
(But at least the 4 bonus pills exists.) The Odyssey 2 "Munchkin" plays way
better than this.
Another really bad game is a 3D space shooter where 2 space ships zoom(only 3
size stages...) slowly towards the player.The game has a 99 seconds time limit
and the player has to shoot them with a gunsight.When one ship is shot,the 
other one also disappears.(Obviously the programmer was too stupid to program
sprite collisions detection for both ships separatedly,although the 2 ships
have different colours.) After waiting too long,the ships crash into the 
frontpane( =>boom sound + red flicker),but it neither affects the timer,nor 
the score in any negative way.In the 2nd game on this cart,one player controls
a space ship on an empty background,and the 2nd player a space station(white
potatoe-like thing,2D graphics).The player 1 must "dock" on it by crashing his
ship against the space station and simultanously pressing the "brake rocket"
button,which disables his joystick control as long as it is kept pressed
(though only a bit of inertia works).If the button isn't pressed while tou-
ching,it goes boom.The 2nd player must try to hinder him from docking by mo-
ving the space station around with his joystick.I never played something more
boring(?).
Many Interton games have only 2..4 sprites on the screen simultanously,which
can in no way be due to a hardware restriction,because some games have more
sprites,and unlike a VCS2600 they not even flicker.

In one of my videogame books(from 1983?) they wrote,that the Interton VC4000
would be the oldest and most widespread videogame console in Germany,and they
mention that the price of its chess cart was 298DM(that would be now 165.55 
US$!).I guess that I saw way more VCS2600 than Intertons in my live,though I
can't imagine that they were "the most widespread game console".
On flea markets I only saw few Intertons yet(and never another one with 37 
carts),though I think they are relatively rare. - Perhaps many people trashed
them because the games were so boring...

The "Space Invaders" variant "Invaders" has less sprites on the screen than
other versions(the rows are a sort of diagonal to compensate this),but it 
plays quite ok.Another of the better games(but difficult to control) is "Cir-
cus"(similar to "Circus Atari" etc.).The tank game resembles to 2600 "Combat"
(even with a "Tank Pong" variant),and like the 1st Combat prototype,it even
disables the score display during sprites are on the screen.

The "Car Racing"(?) cart contains 3 different games in 16 variants.The 1st 
game is a vertical scrolling car race(no moving track) with a "cloud" of many 
car sprites in different colours scrolling forward or backward dependant on 
the player car's direction.As soon as the "car cloud" touches the screen bot-
tom,it just disappears and flips back to the top.The 2nd game is much like
"Night Driver" on MAME,except that the player has a small,red car sprite on a
blue background.In 2 player mode the 2nd player moves a yellow car behind
the car of the 1st player in a fixed distance.There are no opponent cars.The
3rd game variant resembles to "Sprint" on MAME or "Indy 500" on VCS2600.

(I'm not shure yet if Interton games really play bad,or if they perhaps have
 certain hidden,secret,inner values("zoners"...).)

It would be interesting to know,what on the Interton could have been done when
programmers would have written similarly elaborated games for it like for the
VCS2600.The Interton has the capability for scanline interrupts(visible eg. in
the hunter game colour bar effect and effects in the "Winter Games" ski jump),
and also higher developed sound effects could be possible done.(The "Monster
Man" game has some interesting ones.) Imagine,how a "Pitfall II",or a "Zaxxon"
could have been looked and sounded like,if they were be done similar faithful-
ly like the VCS 2600 ones.

(Whenever an emulator comes out,I could imagine that there may perhaps arise 
a similar hobby programmers scene around the Interton VC4000 like the ones al-
ready known from the VCS2600 and the Vectrex.But it may also be that the In-
terton is just not an enough brilliant hardware design to justify one.)

                        MAY THE SOFTWARE BE WITH YOU!

*============================================================================*
I                  CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler                  I
I         (teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!)          I
I                                      !                                     I
*=============================ABANDON=THE=BRUTALITY==========================*
From - Fri May 15 16:44:26 1998
Path: news.uni-hamburg.de!not-for-mail
From: CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler <windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de>
Newsgroups: rec.games.video.classic
Subject: Re: More about my INTERTON VC4000... (description)
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 16:43:34 +0200
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Sam. wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 14 May 1998 09:59:25 +1000, "Andrew Davie" <adavie@bde.com.au>
> wrote:
> 
> >I have the tech manual for the Signetics 2650 microprocessor, dated 1975.
> >I would be fairly confident in my assumption that the 2650A is a variant of
> >this processor.
> 
> Is there any chance of scanning it in? I'd love to see it. Currently,
> I know of a web site with the pinout and a brief instruction set
> listing, but no information on what to do with it.
> 
> I also saw mention of it on an historical CPUs page. Apparently, it's
> a 1-chip version of Digital's PDP-8 CPU (in the PDP, it was spread
> across a number of chips). Is that any use to anyone? It's one of the
> first microprocessors, though it's almost completely forgotten about,
> while Z80s are still used all over the place in embedded applications.

Wasn't PDP8 the machine where the very first "Space War" videogame was written
on?! Perhaps someone could emulate this absolutely museal artifact.It would
be fascinating to see it!

> Lastly, a bloke on alt.folklore.computers posted a request a couple of
> days ago for the 2650 manual.

The book is entire German,and actually I don't own a scanner yet(but may buy
one).My only Internet access is from a technical college where I study soft-
ware-technics.I doubt that scans of an entire book would fit easily on 1.44MB
diskettes and my disk quota here has only very few MB free,though uploading it
from here would be very difficult.


Sam. wrote:
> 
> I'm interested by this, because by your description of the games, it
> seems Acetronic-like, but not the same. The Acetronic only has 2
> chips, a 2650 and a 2636 (no idea what it is [it could be 2638 and
> I've read it wrong]), then a load of analogue bits, and 8 various
> 14-pin ICs.
> 
> The Acetronic's joystick is the same as you describe. It's Space
> Invaders also has the high-res, but diagonally stepped aliens, and has
> day and night modes (where day means a light blue background), and
> guided or fixed missiles, Combat style. Also it has a Circus game, a
> night-driver style driving game, and a racing game, exactly like you
> describe (with the clouds of cars), though I think the car games are
> on separate cartridges.

Yes,the Invaders game has an easy "day"- and a faster "night" mode.By the way,
the Interton joysticks have only 12 regular buttons(+ 2 internally connected
fire buttons),and not 16 like the system decribed in my book.(My "Mr.Altus"(=
Emmerson Arcadia?) has 16 buttons.) On Interton all 3 car racing games are on
the same cart.

> >VCS2600.The Interton has the capability for scanline interrupts(visible eg. in
> >the hunter game colour bar effect
> 
> Does this game have incredibly large chunky black hunters?

The hunter game is of "shooting gallery" style and looks quite similar to VCS
2600 "Air Sea Battle".Yes,the hunter sprite is black and quite blocky,and in
most modes it not even moves.In other modes the hunter can either be moved ho-
rizontally or only move its gun to left,middle and right to shoot diagonally. 


> If this is all sounding very similar, and you have the knowhow to
> disassemble games and figure out how it works, I'd like to talk about
> it some more. I'll wire it up and play some more games on it.

I have only little assembler experience(on Motorola M68000) yet,which I got 
for college practise works.I didn't write any 8bit assembly programs yet.I al-
so still own no EPROM burner/-reader,although I would like to buy one as soon
as I find a payable one that is capable to read/write many different EPROM 
types.

                        MAY THE SOFTWARE BE WITH YOU!

*============================================================================*
I                  CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler                  I
I         (teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!)          I
I                                      !                                     I
*=============================ABANDON=THE=BRUTALITY==========================*
Betreff: Re: Interton 4000 hardware info...
Datum: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 21:07:23 +0200
Von: CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler <windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de>
Firma: (I am teachmaster of Logologie - the first cyberage-religion!)
An: AutismUK@aol.com

AutismUK@aol.com schrieb:
>
> In a message dated 26/06/00 20:18:11 GMT Daylight Time,
> windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de writes:
>
> << I have the book about a do-it-yourself Interton.Perhaps I will scan it in
>  in future and make a PDF file or anythink similar of it.At the moment I have
>  no time for such things. >>
>
> Any chance of a basic list of memory locations, or something ?
>
> Paul Robson.

Ok,here is what you perhaps may need...  :)

AutismUK@aol.com schrieb:
>
> Hi.
>
> I am in the middle of (trying to) develop an emulator for the
> Acetronic/Radofin/Interton/Prinztronic/Voltmaster series. I
> have (to date) dumped 5 cartridges.
> (i.e. the video games with a 2650 and a 2636)
>
> I found a document on your site where you have a technical
> document for the Interton. I would be grateful if you would
> consider providing me with some information about the
> graphics chip.

My book is German,I hope,the below clumbsy English translations will help
you.

> Primarily :-
>
> Which locations are used for graphics ?

The address scheme of the thing described in my do-it-yourself book is:

000..7FF: 16kB EPROM   \
800..DFF: RAM?         / selected by CE1
E00..E77: RAM?
E80..EFF: RAM?         ] selected by not-CE2
F00..FFF: PVI-contents

Graphics
~~~~~~~~

the PVI adress space:

F00  object field 1
F0E  2 bytes temporary memory[RAM?]
F10  object field 2
F1E  2 bytes temporary memory
F20  object field 3
F2E  (free)
F40  object field 4
F4E  32 bytes temporary memory
F6E  (free)
F80  background vertical bars 40 bytes
FA8  background horizontal bars 5 bytes (this controls their width)
FAD  1 byte temporary memory
FAE  (free)
FC0  I/O and control
FD0  I/O and control
FE0  I/O and control
FF0  I/O and control
FFF

> At present I think there are sprites at $1F00,$1F10,$1F20
> and $1F30/38/40. Sprite data in the first 8 bytes.
>
> I think the positions are kept at $1FxA and $1FxC (is this
> correct or is it B & D ?)

each object field: (=sprite data structure)

0 \ 10 bytes of bitmap (Each object is 8 pixels wide.)
9 /
A   HC  horizontal object coordinate
B   HCB horizontal dublicate coordinate
C   VC  vertical object coordinate
D   VCB vertical dublicate coordinate

The HV/VC registers store the count of clock pulse and lines those shall be
skipped before the object is drawn.Horizontal(vertical) distance between each
sprite and its duplicate is HCB(VCB)+1.(By the CPU multiple duplicates can be
drawn for each sprite by writing new HCB/VCB values after a duplicate has been
displayed(i.e. raster interrupts?).Vertical overleaping among an object and
its duplicate or of 2 of its duplicates are imposible.

> Background data seems to be between $1F80 and $1FA7
> but I am not sure how this works. It seems to operate on a
> 2 consecutive bytes per line system, but lines seem to be
> of varying width.

CE1 and not-CE2 are outputs from the PVI.$E80..$EFF also controls the analogue
multiplexer.

                     bit               R/W  description
byte    7   6   5   4   3   2   1   0

FC0   | size 4| size 3| size 2| size 1|  W  size of the 4 objects(=sprites)

FC1           |C1 |C2 |C3 |C1 |C2 |C3 |  W  colours of the 4 objects
              |  colour 1 |  colour 2 |
FC2           |C1 |C2 |C3 |C1 |C2 |C3 |  W
              |  colour 3 |  colour 4 |

FC3                           |sh |pos|  W  1=shape 0=position
                                            display format and position
FC4   (free)
FC5   (free)
FC6       |C1 |C2 |C3 |BG |scrn colr  |  W  background lock and colour
          |backg colr |enb|C1 |C2 |C3 |     3="enable"

FC7   |            sound              |  W  squarewave output

FC8   |       N1      |      N2       |  W  range of the 4 display digits
FC9   |       N3      |      N4       |  W

      |obj/backgrnd   |complete object|  R
FCA   | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

FCB   |   |VR-|   object collisions   |  R  Composition of object and back-
      |   |LE |1/2|1/3|1/3|1/4|2/4|3/4|     ground,collision detection and
                                            object display as a state display
                                            for the status register.Set VRLE.
                                            wait for VRST.Read out or transmit
                                            [copy?] all bits until reset by
                                            VRST.


FCC   |            PORT1              | R   PORT1 and PORT2 for the range of
FCD   |            PORT2              |     the A/D conversion.Cleared by VRST
FCE   (free)
FCF   (free)

Size control by byte FC0

 bit  matrix
|0|0|  8x10
|0|1| 16x20
|1|0| 32x40
|1|1| 64x80

Each sprite seems to be an 8x8 bit object.

Please don't ask me to describe in English how the background graphics is ge-
nerated.It is a terrible mixture of character and bitmap screen concept,which
is only good to display maze-like stuff and it is an as stupid concept as the
Philips G7000 graphics system.I hope you have a technical description of the
IC,but I guess that alot of 74LS stuff also determines the screen layout.The
clock frequency is 3.54MHz,i.e. 280ns per pulse.

Vertically there is an alternation of 2 TV rows and 18 TV lines high rows.
Each row is made of the bits from 2 bytes.This makes 10 rows of 16 bar pairs.
The bars are stored as bitmaps in 40 bytes from $F80..$FA7 (2 bytes per row).
(I call the 18 lines high 8 bar rows in the following a "fat stripe",and the
2 lines high 8 bar rows a "slim stripe".)

There are 16 equidistant,software addressable "pixels"(called "bars") in each
screen row,those can be displayed between 1 to 8 clock pulses(i.e. hardware
pixels) long.How long each of the bars is extended to the right(2,4 or 8 clock
pulses) is determined by additional bits.There are 5 additional bytes at $FA8
..$FAD to determine these widths.

address affected rows

FA8     1..4
FA9     5..8
FAA     9..12
FAB     3..16
FAC     17..20

In these bytes bit 7 and 6 seem to select the bar width,while the other
bits determine which lines in each stripe are lengthened according to bit
7,6.Here is the following badly understandable table.

bit 7,6  clock/bar
|0|0|        1
|0|1|        2
|1|0|        1
|1|1|        4

bit  function

0    Lengthen bar correspondingly to 1 to 8 clock pulses
1    Lengthen the upper 9 rows correspondingly to 2 to 8 clock pulses
2    Lengthen the lower 9 rows correspondingly to 2 to 8 clock pulses
3    Lengthen the bars to the set[adjusted?] 3 to 8 clock pulses
4    Lengthen the upper rows to the set 4 to 8 clock pulses
5    Lengthen the lower 9 rows correspondingly to 4 to 8 clock pulses

6  \  Lengthen the selected vertical bars correspondingly to the coding to
7  /  1,2 or 4 clock pulses

(I am not shure if the above table only describes an example picture,or if it
explains the general meaning of the bits in these bytes.)

The bar width in the upper and the lower half of each fat stripe seems to
be setable seperately through bits 1,2,4 and 5.The bar width within each row
half(left or right) is constant,i.e. all 8 bars in a fat or slim stripe can
only have the same width per row.(I guess,when you look at the awful back-
ground graphics of the Interton 4000 you will know what I mean.)

Score counter display
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> I do not know how the score memory locations ($1FC8,9 (7?))
> are positioned on the screen.

When bit 1 at $FC3 is 0,there are 20 clock pulses(pixels) between the 2nd and
3rd digit,resulting in a gap "00 00" suitable for 2 player counters those can
count from 00 to 99.When bit 1 is 1,there is no gap,i.e. "0000" suitable for
1 player games counting up to 9999.

Setting bit 0 at $FC3 to 0 makes the counter appear at the screen top between
row 0 and 19 of the background.Setting it to 1 moves the counter down between
row 180 and 199.

At $FC8 and $FC9 the score counter value is stored as BCD(?).Pseudotetrades
(digits between A..F) blank the counter display(make it invisible).

The score counter is horizontally centered(I found no register to change
this.).The characters are symmetrical 7 segment style with 12 pixels(clock
pulses) x 20 rows each.Between the characters are 4 pixels space(20 for the
gap).

Colours
~~~~~~~
sprites?

bit  green blue  red  colour

0       0    0    0   white
1       0    0    1   cyan
2       0    1    0   yellow
3       0    1    1   green
4       1    0    0   purple
5       1    0    1   blue
6       1    1    0   red
7       1    1    1   black


"props"(playfield) and score counter

value colour

0     black
1     blue
2     green
3     cyan
4     red
5     violet
6     yellow
7     white

The counter colour can be inverted by a special command.

The enable bit at $FC6 activates the generation of the playfield.The bit VRLE
at $FCB is the vertical reset[retrance?] status bit.When it is set,an automa-
tical erasure(clearing of the register?) happens when $FCB is read.

background

value colour

8     black
9     blue
A     green
B     cyan
C     red
D     violet
E     yellow
F     white

> Control information is kept between $1FC0 and $1FFF.

> I have no colour information at all. I suspect the keypad/joystick
> information is at $1E8x but haven't verified this yet.


About the controllers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
here is the following table

FLAG  non-CE2  function

L     L        horizontal potentiometer and release[?] for the 74258
L     H        vertical potentiometer and release[?] for the 74258
H     L        horizontal potentiometer and lock[?] for the 74258
H     H        vertical potentiometer and lock[?] for the 74258

By the CPU outputs FLAG and not-CE2 is selected between both joysticks.PORT
values can be between 20 and 225.The vertical potentiometers are read at
PORT2,the horizontal at PORT1.

Controllers are connected by a 74258 "four 2 to 1 data selector/multiplexer
with inverting tri-state outputs".Its outputs 1Y,2Y,3Y,4Y are directly con-
nected to the data bus.The select input gets its signal from the address bus
at the adress ADR2.The 74258 gets its signal from the adress bus through "Q_c"
from a 4053.

The buttons address is multiplexed by a 74156 into 4 rows.

output   function

1Y0      column A
1Y1      column B
1Y2      column C
1Y3      "program" and "start" (console?)keys

The colums are connected to 1A,2A,3A,4A of the 74258 for the left keypad con-
troller.(The right one connects 2Y0,2Y1,2Y2 with 1B,2B,3B,4B).

Sound
~~~~~
squarewave frequency:

     7874
f  = ----
 r   n+1

00=quiet 01=3,937kHz  FF=30Hz

n is depandant from the value stored at 1FC7.

The tone generator is a 74378 which reads its input value at a falling edge
of the WRP line from the CPU.The data are stored when WRP gets high again.
The 74378 only works when the not-CE2 input is low,i.e. when at the address
bus is an address between $E80..$EFF and there is a write command.

The 74LS378 is connected the following way:

pin  connection

1    not-CE2
2    switches white noise on when high? (controlled by D2?)
3    D2
4    D3
6    D4
11   D5
13   D6
14   D7

There is no volume control,but programs can control the volume of the white
noise sound.(Noise also gets duller when it gets quieter.Possibly programs
control noise volume by a pulsewidth modulation that is integrated by a capa-
citor.)

> I am not sure what locations are available for programmers
> to use.

> I realise this is quite a lot of information, but anything you can
> give me will be very much appreciated, both by myself and an
> aquaintance who is working on a MAME driver using the same
> graphics chip (Signetics 2636)

I hope this informations can help you(and that I didn't just waste a day by
messing around in this book).I allow you to publish these informations on the
internet for emulator programmers etc. so far you keep my credits intact.

> If you can get the relevant sections copied I will happily pay for
> any copying/mailing costs.

Somewhere in future I will scan the book in.There are detailed programming
instructions and a 60 variants TV tennis type-in listing included,though this
German thing is certainly a primary programmer reference for you hobbyists.
I hope,anyone soon will attempt to port VCS2600 "Pitfall II" to the Interton.
;-)
(No - it would look and sound so ugly... brrr! (Perhaps anybody finds out a
music voice multiplexing algorithm for the Interton 4000.) But a well playable
"Reactor" variant could certainly be ported to this badly designed cucumber.)

> Credit will of course be given for any assistance in the emulator
> read me.
>
> Danke Schon
>
> Paul Robson (autismuk@aol.com)

Do you have schematics how I can dump the ROMs of my "Interton 4000" carts?

                        MAY THE SOFTWARE BE WITH YOU!

*============================================================================*
I                  CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler                  I
I         (teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!)          I
I                                      !                                     I
*=============================ABANDON=THE=BRUTALITY==========================*
        {http://www.informatik.fh-hamburg.de/~windle_c/e_index.html}

Betreff: Re: Interton 4000 hardware info...
Datum: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 22:57:23 +0200
Von: CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler <windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de>
Firma: (I am teachmaster of Logologie - the first cyberage-religion!)
An: AutismUK@aol.com

AutismUK@aol.com schrieb:
>
> This is my first draft of the technical documentation, built from your file,
> and my previous researches. It also contains the pinout connections.

> The machine was only available in countries which had the PAL system, so is
> limited to Europe and Australia (AFAIK).

I guess,the reason for this was rather,that in Europe the superior Atari VCS
2600 was long times way more expensive(twice?) then in USA.

In the book stands,that the graphic subsystem could also be build in an NTSC
version.The PAL version uses a 2621 IC as the sync generator(312 rows),an NTSC
version would need a 2622(262 rows).I don't know how much the programs would
need to be changed to run on NTSC speed,but as far I understand,the Interton
design should make less trouble than the VCS2600 here,because its screen lay-
out is much more hardware-determined(and though less flexible... the VCS was
really a brilliant hardware design).

Here is also a note,that the sound hardware is capable to output 256 tone va-
lues per TV row(i.e. possibly it could play samples or multiple interleaved
voices).I don't know if any game makes use of it,but it may be important for
the emulator design.An Interton can also make raster interrupt colour stripes
- e.g. used in the ski jump game.

                        MAY THE SOFTWARE BE WITH YOU!

*============================================================================*
I                  CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler                  I
I         (teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!)          I
I                                      !                                     I
*=============================ABANDON=THE=BRUTALITY==========================*
        {http://www.informatik.fh-hamburg.de/~windle_c/e_index.html}

Betreff: Re: Interton 4000 hardware info...
Datum: Mon, 03 Jul 2000 16:43:15 +0200
Von: CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler <windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de>
Firma: (I am teachmaster of Logologie - the first cyberage-religion!)
An: AutismUK@aol.com

AutismUK@aol.com schrieb:
>
> In a message dated 30/06/00 21:59:18 GMT Daylight Time,
> windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de writes:
>
> << Here is also a note,that the sound hardware is capable to output 256 tone
> va-
>  lues per TV row(i.e. possibly it could play samples or multiple interleaved
>  voices).I don't know if any game makes use of it,but it may be important for
>  the emulator design.An Interton can also make raster interrupt colour stripes
>  - e.g. used in the ski jump game. >>
>
> Can it ? I got the impression the interrupt was called either at VSYNC
> or at the start of the display frame. The games I have disassembled so
> far only seem to support raster work using the sprites.

I just know that Interton games can display horizontal colour stripes(e.g. as
the background colour).I don't know whether they are technically based on a
real interrupt or if they are programmed in a VCS2600-like way(see Stella FAQ)
using CPU cycle counting or a timer that halts the CPU or anything like that.

I could also imagine that 2 score counters can be displayed above AND below
the playfield by synchronously changing the counter position bit and counter
contents at the right time during the screen gets updated.I didn't play my In-
terton for some years,though I don't remember if any games use this feature.

                        MAY THE SOFTWARE BE WITH YOU!

*============================================================================*
I                  CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler                  I
I         (teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!)          I
I                                      !                                     I
*=============================ABANDON=THE=BRUTALITY==========================*
        {http://www.informatik.fh-hamburg.de/~windle_c/e_index.html}
---
Betreff: Re: Interton 4000 hardware info...
Datum: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 18:16:58 EDT
Von: <AutismUK@aol.com>
An: windle_c@informatik.fh-hamburg.de

This is my first draft of the technical documentation, built from your file,
and my previous researches. It also contains the pinout connections.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

                      Acetronic Technical Document
                      ============================

First Version : 28th June 2000

Authors :       Paul Robson             (Put it all together)
                Christian Windler       (Provided much info about 2636)
                Mike Coates             (Working on MAME Driver)

This document describes the internal workings of the Acetronic / Prinztronic /
Radofin / Interton / Waddingtons series of computers.

1) Introduction
===============

The main components in the machine are a Signetics 2650 CPU, clocked at 4.43Mhz
Mhz and a Signetics 2636 Display Generator. These provided most of the data
memory, graphics and other features of the machine.

There are a few other chips : a Signetics 2621 (Generates the video signal ?),
a "TEA 1002" (?), an LM324 (Audio Circuitry ?), a 74LS378, a 74LS258 and a
74LS156 which provide other features, including simple sound generation and
connections of the controllers.

Program memory is available via plug in cartridges. The cartridges contain a
9316 (all found so far), which appears to be a 2716 compatible PROM. Each
cartridge is 2k x 8.

The machine was only available in countries which had the PAL system, so is
limited to Europe and Australia (AFAIK).

The approximate machine specifications are as follows :-

- 2650 running at 4.43Mhz Mhz
- 2k ROM Program Memory
- 43 bytes (yes really !) Data memory
- 4 Single Colour Sprites [it is possible that one is an 8 colour sprite]
- 1 Score Line, can display 4 BCD Digits
- Background consisting of a series of alternate lines, rather like the
  Odyssey 2's display.... very slightly.
- 2 x 12 button 2 axis analogue controllers

2) Cartridge Connector
======================

Cartridges are connected via a 16 x 2 way 0.156 inch connector. Unfortunately
I cannot find a supplier for this part, and other parts are either too large
or will not physically fit due to the cartridge design. So to build myself a
proper cart reader I shall have to temporarily sacrifice one of my MPU1000s :(

The connections are as follows :-

(these are the centre/left pins at the top, so if you look at the front of
the machine NC/0V is on the LEFT)

  ACETRONIC               9316 PROM

Front   Rear            Front   Rear
=====   ====            =====   ====
NC      0V              NC      VSS
DB0     2636            Q1      CS
DB1     Unknown         Q2      NC
DB2     WRP             Q3      NC
DB3     2636            Q4      VBB
DB4     NC              Q5      NC
DB5     5V              Q6      VCC
DB6     OPREQ           Q7      NC
DB7     NC              Q8      NC
NC      A0              NC      A0
A11     A1              PRGM    A1
A10     A2              VDD     A2
A9      A3              A9      A3
A8      A4              A8      A4
A12     A5              VBB     A5
A7      A6              A7      A6

ROM Dumping is done at present by getting an Atmel STK200 to fake the CPU. This
is slightly awkward because the 2636 takes over the data bus on a regular basis.

3) Memory Map
=============

0000-07FF       2k x 8 PROM, containing program memory
0800-1E7F       Unused
1E80-1EFF       Cartridge/Keypad multiplexing
1F00-1F0D       Sprite #1
1F0E-1F0F       Program Memory (2 bytes)
1F10-1F1D       Sprite #2
1F1E-1F1F       Program Memory (2 bytes)
1F20-1F2D       Sprite #3
1F2E-1F2F       Program Memory (2 bytes)
1F30-1F3F       Unused (8 colour sprite data ?)
1F40-1F4D       Sprite #4
1F4E-1F6D       Program Memory (32 bytes)
1F6E-1F7F       Unused (check)
1F80-1FA7       Vertical Bar Bitmaps
1FA8-1FAC       Vertical Bar Controls
1FAE-1FAF       Program Memory (1 byte)
1FC0            Sprite Sizes
1FC1-1FC2       Sprite Colours
1FC3            Score Control
1FC4-5          Program Memory (2 bytes)
1FC6            Background Control Byte
1FC7            Sound Frequency
1FC8-9          BCD Display Digits
1FCA            Object/Background or Completion Collisions
1FCB            Object/Object Collisions
1FCC            Horizontal Read Controller Port (Port 1)
1FCD            Vertical Read Controller Port (Port 2)
1FCE-F          Program Memory (2 bytes)
1FD0-1FFF       Unused

4) Sprite Objects
=================
The Acetronic supports up to 4 objects, each of which has a graphic build up
out of 8 x 10 pixels. It is reported that their *may* be an 8 colour sprite
available for use, but I can't test this until I've built a development kit.

The 4 sprite objects are located at $1F00,$1F10,$1F20 and $1F40. Each uses 14
bytes of the memory map.

The first ten bytes (1Fx0 - 1Fx9) define the graphic for that sprite in a
classic "left to right,top to bottom" style.

1FxA (Horizontal) and 1FxC (Vertical) contain the position of the sprite as the
number of clock pulses/lines that are counted before the sprite is drawn.

1FxB (Horizontal) and 1FxD (Vertical) contain the position of the duplicate
sprite. Each sprite can have a duplicate drawn below it, and offset to the
right. The 1FxB and 1FxD locations contain the horizontal and vertical
offsets to these objects, minus 1 (e.g. add 1 to get the correct position !).
Once a duplicate has been displayed, it can be redrawn by resetting this
register. Duplicates *cannot* appear on the same scanline as any other
duplicate, or the original sprite. These are probably decremented on the
fly.

Location 1FC0 sets the size of the sprite. This byte is split into 4 x 2 bit
size records as follows :

        Sprite 4:Bits 7,6
        Sprite 3:Bits 5,4
        Sprite 2:Bits 3,2
        Sprite 1:Bits 1,0

The size is identified as follows :-

        00       8 x 10 pixels
        01      16 x 20 pixels
        10      32 x 40 pixels
        11      64 x 80 pixels

Locations 1FC1 and 1FC2 set the colour of the sprite.

        Sprite 1: Bits 3..5 of $1FC1
        Sprite 2: Bits 0..2 of $1FC1
        Sprite 3: Bits 3..5 of $1FC2
        Sprite 4: Bits 0..2 of $1FC2

The colours are encoded as follows :-

        Green   Blue    Red     Colour
        0       0       0       White
        0       0       1       Cyan
        0       1       0       Yellow
        0       1       1       Green
        1       0       0       Purple
        1       0       1       Blue
        1       1       0       Red
        1       1       1       Black

Sprite collisions with both the background and the other sprites are
available, see the section on the collision bytes

5) The Background
=================

Now, this is the *really* wierd bit. If you've ever played any Odyssey^2
games, you'll have noticed that there is, superimposed on the graphics,
a grid, and many games use it.

Well, there's a different system on the Acetronic, it is based around the
concept of lines. It is a bit like a very simple memory mapped display of
16 pixels horizontal x 20 pixels vertical, a bit like a grid.

Each of those "cells" is either blank, or contains a "pattern", which is
the same for every cell in the line. These cells are turned on and off
using the 40 bytes between $1F80 and $1FA7, each consecutive two bytes
representing a single row.

However, unlike most displays the "grid heights" vary from row to row,
alternating 2 pixels and 18 pixels in height i.e.

Rows    0,2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18        are 2 pixels in height
Rows    1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19        are 18 pixels in height

If you look at the different backgrounds on "tank battle" you can see this
very clearly.

Each row is 128 "clocks" (pixels) in width, and there are 16 cells in each
row, 8 "clocks" wide. Thus the pixel resolution of the Acetronic is 128x200.

There are 5 further bytes, from $1FA8 to $1FAC, which each modify the rows
for the four cells, working top to bottom, as follows

        Rows            Byte
        1-4             $1FA8
        5-8             $1FA9
        9-12            $1FAA
        13-16           $1FAB
        17-20           $1FAC

Each of these affects *ALL* the cells in the row, though not all modifiers
effect each of the cells (some do not apply to 2 pixel high cells).

Bits 7 and 6 set the basic size of each cell. These can be used to change the
bar widths from horizontal bars, to solid blocks for example. The width is
from left to right ; so a width of '1' will put a single pixel line, a
width of '4' will fill half the square, and so on.

        Bit 7   Bit 6   Width (Pixels)
        -----   -----   --------------
        0       0       1
        0       1       2
        1       0       1
        1       1       4

Bits 5 to 0 modify these widths, extending certain of them to 8. For this
byte, each group of four bars is split into six by halving each of the
"fat" bars. This diagram shows it (the bars are NOT to scale !)

        Display Bars    Split Bars
        ============    ==========
        -----------     -----------
        0               0
        -----------     -----------
                        1a
        1               -----------
                        1b
        -----------     -----------
        2               2
        -----------     -----------
                        3a
        3               -----------
                        3b
        -----------     -----------

Bars 0 and 2 are 2 pixels in height, and Bars 1a,1b,3a and 3b are all 9 pixels
in height (half of eighteen). The modifiers work by extending the width of these
bars to 8 as follows (if the given bit is logic '1') :-

        Bit 0 : Bar 0
        Bit 1 : Bar 1a
        Bit 2 : Bar 1b
        Bit 3 : Bar 2
        Bit 4 : Bar 3a
        Bit 5 : Bar 3b

These modifiers operate across the whole line : different parts of the same
horizontal bar *ALL* have the same width in that bar.

The background is controlled by the byte at $1FC6 as follows :-

        Bits 4-6 : Background Colour
        Bit  3   : Background Enable ('1' to display it)
        Bit  0-2 : Screen Colour

The colours are as follows :-

        000     Black
        001     Blue
        010     Green
        011     Cyan
        100     Red
        101     Purple
        110     Yellow
        111     White

Sprites can collide with the background, see the section on collision bits
which follows.

6) Collision Bits
=================

The collision is done using the bytes at $1FCA and $1FCB.

Collisions are enabled [TODO:Check this] by bit 6 of $1FCB. When this is set
to logic '1' the bytes at $1FCA/B can be checked for the various collisions
*until* vertical sync, when they are reset. This occurs AFTER the vertical
blank interrupt (see TANK.BIN)

Each bit goes to logic '1' on a collision. The bits are assigned as follows :-

        $1FCA   Bit 7 : Sprite 1 & Background
                Bit 6 : Sprite 2 & Background
                Bit 5 : Sprite 3 & Background
                Bit 4 : Sprite 4 & Background
                Bit 3 : Finished drawing Sprite 1
                Bit 2 : Finished drawing Sprite 2
                Bit 1 : Finished drawing Sprite 3
                Bit 0 : Finished drawing Sprite 4

        $1FCB   Bit 7 : Not used (returns 0 ?)
                Bit 6 : Enable bit
                Bit 5 : Sprite 1 & Sprite 2
                Bit 4 : Sprite 1 & Sprite 2
                Bit 3 : Sprite 2 & Sprite 3
                Bit 2 : Sprite 1 & Sprite 4
                Bit 1 : Sprite 2 & Sprite 4
                Bit 0 : Sprite 3 & Sprite 4

7) Score Counter
================

The 2636 supports a 4 digit BCD Score counter. The score data is stored at
$1FC8 (MSByte) and $1FC9 (LSByte). It is drawn using a 12 pixels x 20 rows
font, in (I think !) the inverse colour to the background. The font is a
very simple "square blocky" one. The digits can be drawn at the top or bottom
of the screen, and can either be 1 x 4 digit display (0000) or 2 x 2 digit
display (00  00).

The position is controlled by location $1FC3.

        Bit 0 : Vertical        0 = Lines 0..19, 1 = Lines 180..199
        Bit 1 : Gap             0 = No Gap,1 = 20 clock gap between digits

The digits are horizontally centred. If a value is an illegal BCD value
(A-F) it is not displayed.

8) Game Controllers
===================
[TODO]

9) Sound
========

The sound frequency is kept at location $1FC7. The output sound frequency is
calculated as F = 7874/(n+1), if n = 00 then there is no sound.

The tone generator is controlled by writing to $E80-$EFF, this selects the
sound controller. It appears that line D2 (TODO:Needs checking !) turns on
the white noise generator.

10) Other Control Locations
===========================

There are none that have not been covered in other sections.

11) Interrupts
==============

Interrupts appear to be generated on a regular basis. How regular...
working on it :)

12) Frame Generation
====================

[TODO:Probably the same as the Arcadia]
---
