Williams Arcade Multigame

 

The Williams Multigame was my first arcade machine. I was sick of seeing Robotron machines go for $1k on ebay, so I bought a pcb set for $100, and decided to make my own. This was to be my playing machine so I was not too disappointed about not having the original cabinet or art. I started with only a pcb set and some information that I obtained off of the internet. As you can see I built the enclosure from plywood, which I later stained. If you are interested in building your own multigame, there is plenty of information out there to get you started. You will need a device programmer to dump the ROM images from your origninal ROMS, and then burn the compilation image onto EPROMS. The williams multigame machine can play Robotron, Joust, Stargate, Splat, and Bubbles. High scores and all settings are saved for each supported game. The game selection and control remapping are handled by a PIC microcontroller which has a tremendously fast scan time that eliminates the potential for control lag. This eliminates the need for analog switches or adapters to take care of the inputs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recommendations for You:

 

I highly recommend the NVRAM of Simtek for use in High Score / Settings saving. It is flash based so that there is no battery to fail ever, and it acts just like SRAM which the hardware expects to be talking to. Make sure you disable the existing RAM chip by cutting it's enable line and pulling it high!!

 

For EPROMS, try to find Fairchild. I had a bit of bad luck with some AMD 27c040's that I got, but the fairchild EPROMS work great. I think this was a bus driving problem, or maybe I just got a bad batch.

 

Here are some patch files for those impatient types like me:

 

Patchfile to remove the rugtest from Robotron

Patchfile to remove the rugtest from Joust

Patchfile to remove the rugtest from Stargate

Patchfile to remove the rugtest from Splat

Patchfile to remove the rugtest from Bubbles

Questions: Email

 

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All information provided is for intellectual advancement only. The author is not responsible for how this information is used. The info provided is as-is, use at your own risk.

 

My Best Robotron Score To Date: 3.2M at wave 110.