Six sequential two-sprite bitmaps make an explosion. In conjunction with an uncontrolled car, this makes:
In the actual game, a number of car parts also project from the explosion.
Similar to the cars, clever use of palette permutations allows sequences of sprites to contain different …
read moreFollowing on our investigation of the Namco 04xx, here we look at the sprite bitmaps found in Pole Position. We know that both 32x32 and 16x16 sprites are supported by this hardware.
Sprite bitmap ROMs are found on Pole Position schematic sheet 14B. We find that five pairs …
read moreAn online reference from Dig Dug reveals the following.
The following restates that table with connection information in Pole Position.
| Pin | Name | IO | Signal in Pole Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1H | I | HPOS0(1H) |
| 2 | 2H | I | HPOS1(2H) |
| 3 | /HSYNC | I | /HSYNC |
| 4 | H4 | O | H4* |
| 5 | H8 | O … |
There are two Namco 07xx custom chips in Pole Position: one on the CPU board and one on the video board. They perform the same function on each board, which is to determine the exact position of the CRT beam.
Only the 07xx on the video board is directly related …
read moreThere are various ways to interpet the colors available in Pole Position.
The final output of the video hardware is realized with a 12-bit digital-to-analog resistor network. Because of this, Pole Position might generously be called a 4096-color game.
The wikipedia article states that 3840 colors are available. Not sure …
read moreThere are two Z8002 CPUs in Pole Position, labelled A and B. Each has a custom logic chip labelled PAL-1. Here is a portion of the schematic redrawn.
It's evident from the analysis that PAL-1 decodes certain Z8002 bus transactions, and generate signals to complete those transactions.
The previous article described the internal workings of the noise generator used in Pole Position. This article tackles the actual application of Namco 54xx in the Pole Position game.
The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator makes it easy to inspect the internal operation of Pole Position, since it …
read moreIn Pole Position the Namco 54xx custom chip appears in the Miscellaneous Sound Generators section. Here is the portion of the schematic redrawn.
We know the Namco 54xx is a Fujitsu MB8844 MCU with a mask ROM. Thanks to Guru, we actually have the ROM contents, so we …
read moreIn Pole Position the Namco 52xx custom chip appears in the Speech Processor and Memory section. Here is the portion of the schematic redrawn.
We know the Namco 52xx is a Fujitsu MB8843 MCU with a mask ROM. Thanks to Guru, we actually have the mask ROM contents …
read more