0.78 [Norbert Kehrer]

NOTE:
- The original ROM images for Super Tank (c) 1981 Video Games GmbH have been made available for free, non-commercial use. Authorization from Reinhard Stompe, founder of Video Games GmbH.

WIP:
- 0.136u2: Atari Ace converted Super Tank to use driver_data structure.
- 0.115u1: Zsolt Vasvari cleaned up the Super Tank driver. Fixed cpu1 rom loading.
- 4rd March 2005: f205v dumped Super Tank main board and 2x video board versions. On the 2nd video board was a different prom.
- 0.78: Norbert Kehrer added Super Tank (Video Games GmbH 1981).
- 18th December 2003: Norbert Kehrer fixed another dipswitch bug in the Super Tank driver.
- 16th December 2003: Pierpaolo Prazzoli fixed the dipswitches and added two unknown PROMs to the Super Tank driver.
- 15th December 2003: Norbert Kehrer submitted a fully working driver for Super Tank.
- 14th December 2003: Norbert Kehrer - I finished my first and preliminary version of a MAME driver for Super Tank. It was very hard to figure out, how all the hardware works. This reverse-engineering process took me many days. I had practically no information about the hardware, no memory map, and not even schematics. I ended up in writing my own stand-alone emulator for the game to do my testing, before I could convert it to MAME. Now, after I finally found out, how the video hardware really works, I see, that compared to other machines it is rather simple! My respect to all the MAME developers, who wrote so many drivers for previously unemulated systems, has become even bigger. After I knew, how most of the things in Super Tank worked, it was really easy to make a MAME driver. The MAME source code is so well-organized, that it is big fun to code a driver for it. Well, "coding" is the wrong word. It is more like making only declarations on the machine hardware, and all the ugly procedural semantics are hidden from you and solved in the huge macro and function libraries of the MAME programming framework. Thanks to the MAME team for this great software. The arcade game "Super Tank" was made in 1981 by the German company Video Games GmbH. It is a shooter where you control a tank and have to clear a field of mines and bushes. You are chased by enemy tanks, which fire at you. After wiping out all the mines and bushes, you reach the second level. It is kind of a "boss" level, where you have to fight a big enemy tank, the Super Tank. You can destroy it by a direct hit into its gun. As far as I know, Super Tank was sold in Germany, Austria, and other European countries, and it was licensed to the company Computran for distribution in the US market. I would be interested in more background information on the companies Video Games GmbH (they were located in the town of Lich in Germany) and Computran. I would also like to know, in which other countries Super Tank machines were in the arcades. If you know something about this, please email to norbert.kehrer@utanet.at

Romset: 19 kb / 8 files / 12.9 zip