Williams Multigame!

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The Williams Multigame is a hardware/software combination that allows Robotron, Defender, Joust, Stargate, Bubbles and Splat! to be played in a single cabinet simply by selecting them from an onscreen menu system.

The kit is designed to be installed on a Robotron or Joust CPU board. (Although a Bubbles or *modified* Stargate board can probably be used. I have not tested those configurations.)

The menu system displays a marquee image for each game which are selected by pressing the Player One Start button. Pressing the Player Two Start button will start the game that is selected.

The "Setup" option allows selecting which games will be displayed in the menu (if you want to disable particular games), as well as allow selection of a "default" game which can come up instead of the menu system when the machine is turned on.

The Setup menu also allows clearing the high score area for any game-- high scores are kept independently for all games. Click here for a more detailed description of the menu system capabilities!

(Menu option for the Multigame Menu System.)

(CPU Daughtercard)

Installation:
Installation is relatively simple. Two wires (power and ground) must be connected to +5V and ground. I recommend that these are simply soldered to the main CPU board. You may build an adapter to plug it into the power-supply harness if you prefer.

The ROM board is unplugged from the main CPU board and the CPU daughtercard is plugged in in it's place. The ROM board then plugs into the daughtercard. The program EPROMs are removed from the ROM board.

A small daughtercard plugs into the Sound board EPROM socket and one wire connects to the 40-pin header on the sound board.

The "Widget" I/O board from the game is replaced with a new board that has connections for all the required buttons for all the supported games.

(New "Widget I/O" Board)

The replacement Widget board automatically maps all the required inputs (two 8-way joysticks, and nine buttons) depending on which game is selected.

The MultiGame Menu is called on power-up and can be recalled by simultaneously pressing Player One and Player Two start buttons.

ROM Image/EPROM Requirements:
(IMPORTANT!)

The Williams Multigame kit will ship with a DOS-based PC application that will assemble a set of ROM images to be programmed onto a 27C040 and 27C256 EPROM. ROM images can be obtained from your own ROM boards, or the internet as long as you have a legal right to do so. Detailed instructions are included.

Availability and Price:
The Williams Multigame is now shipping. The price is $139 per kit. The optional JAMMA cardedge can be purchased for $10.

(Overall installation [sound board and daughtercard not pictured] including optional JAMMA adapter)

Most all installations will require customizations to the control panel of the machine to allow all the games to be played without swapping control panels. Optionally, a JAMMA adapter is available with the kit that makes placing the kit in a horizontal JAMMA cabinet relatively easy. (And if can even be switched with other boards by the MultiJAMMA!). High quality metal control panels and cabinet artwork is now available from www.phoenixarcade.com ! (Yay!)

Other than connecting power and ground to the main CPU daughtercard no other soldering is required. Your original boards are not modified in any non-reversable way. Since the Multigame includes battery-backed up memory you can remove the leakage-prone alkaline batteries from your boardset and still retain all your settings.

Note that a computer capable of running a DOS application and the proper ROM images (available from your original ROM boards, or from the internet if more convenient) are required to make this kit work. You will also need to be able to burn a 27C040 and 27C256 EPROM which are included in the kit. People on the internet will program EPROMs for you for a modest fee if you do not have a programmer, but I can not provide any Williams ROM code for copyright reasons.

Updated: 2/24/2003


© 2001, Clayton Cowgill clay@yahoo.com