Fun with the Synetix SuperSprite board

I was looking at the old Creative Computing article again about the Third Millenium Arcade Board and the Synetix Supersprite board and I thought, why not see if I could make a copy of the a2arcadebd.cpp and see if the SuperSprite would work?


So let's take a2arcadebd.h and a2arcadebd.cpp and search and replace arcadebd with ssprite, and change a few of the strings, and save it as a2ssprite.h and a2ssprite.cpp. The Synetix Supersprite demos hang when it tries to do speech, so we hook up a tms5220, copying lines from a2echoii.cpp.

src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.h

// license:BSD-3-Clause
// copyright-holders:R. Belmont
/*********************************************************************

    a2ssprite.h

    Synetix SuperSprite 
    (code based on Third Millenium Engineering Arcade Board)

*********************************************************************/

#ifndef MAME_BUS_A2BUS_A2SSPRITE_H
#define MAME_BUS_A2BUS_A2SSPRITE_H

#pragma once

#include "a2bus.h"
#include "video/tms9928a.h"
#include "sound/ay8910.h"
#include "sound/tms5220.h"

//**************************************************************************
//  TYPE DEFINITIONS
//**************************************************************************

class a2bus_ssprite_device:
 public device_t,
 public device_a2bus_card_interface
{
public:
 // construction/destruction
 a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock);

protected:
 a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, device_type type, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock);

 virtual void device_start() override;
 virtual void device_reset() override;
 virtual void device_add_mconfig(machine_config &config) override;

 // overrides of standard a2bus slot functions
 virtual uint8_t read_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset) override;
 virtual void write_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset, uint8_t data) override;

private:
 DECLARE_WRITE_LINE_MEMBER( tms_irq_w );

 required_device<tms9918a_device> m_tms;
 required_device<ay8910_device> m_ay;
 required_device<tms5220_device> m_tms5220;
};

// device type definition
DECLARE_DEVICE_TYPE(A2BUS_SSPRITE, a2bus_ssprite_device)

#endif  // MAME_BUS_A2BUS_SSPRITE_H

src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.cpp

// license:BSD-3-Clause
// copyright-holders:R. Belmont
/*********************************************************************

    a2ssprite.c

    Implementation of the Synetix SuperSprite

    

*********************************************************************/

#include "emu.h"
#include "a2ssprite.h"
#include "sound/tms5220.h"
#include "speaker.h"


/***************************************************************************
    PARAMETERS
***************************************************************************/

#define TMS_TAG "ssprite_tms"
#define TMS5220_TAG "ssprite_tms5220"
#define AY_TAG "ssprite_ay"
#define SCREEN_TAG "screen"

//**************************************************************************
//  GLOBAL VARIABLES
//**************************************************************************

DEFINE_DEVICE_TYPE(A2BUS_SSPRITE, a2bus_ssprite_device, "a2ssprite", "Synetix SuperSprite")

//-------------------------------------------------
//  device_add_mconfig - add device configuration
//-------------------------------------------------

MACHINE_CONFIG_MEMBER( a2bus_ssprite_device::device_add_mconfig )
 MCFG_DEVICE_ADD( TMS_TAG, TMS9918A, XTAL_10_738635MHz / 2 )
 MCFG_TMS9928A_VRAM_SIZE(0x4000) // 16k of VRAM
 MCFG_TMS9928A_OUT_INT_LINE_CB(WRITELINE(a2bus_ssprite_device, tms_irq_w))
 MCFG_TMS9928A_SCREEN_ADD_NTSC( SCREEN_TAG )
 MCFG_SCREEN_UPDATE_DEVICE( TMS_TAG, tms9918a_device, screen_update )

 MCFG_SPEAKER_STANDARD_MONO("mono")
 MCFG_SOUND_ADD(AY_TAG, AY8912, 1022727)
 MCFG_SOUND_ROUTE(ALL_OUTPUTS, "mono", 1.0)

 MCFG_SPEAKER_STANDARD_MONO("mono2")
 MCFG_SOUND_ADD(TMS5220_TAG, TMS5220, 640000) // copied this line from a2echoii.cpp
 MCFG_SOUND_ROUTE(ALL_OUTPUTS, "mono2", 1.0)
MACHINE_CONFIG_END

//**************************************************************************
//  LIVE DEVICE
//**************************************************************************

a2bus_ssprite_device::a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock) :
 a2bus_ssprite_device(mconfig, A2BUS_SSPRITE, tag, owner, clock)
{
}

a2bus_ssprite_device::a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, device_type type, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock) :
 device_t(mconfig, type, tag, owner, clock),
 device_a2bus_card_interface(mconfig, *this),
 m_tms(*this, TMS_TAG),
 m_ay(*this, AY_TAG),
 m_tms5220(*this, TMS5220_TAG)
{
}

//-------------------------------------------------
//  device_start - device-specific startup
//-------------------------------------------------

void a2bus_ssprite_device::device_start()
{
 // set_a2bus_device makes m_slot valid
 set_a2bus_device();
}

void a2bus_ssprite_device::device_reset()
{
}

/*
    C0nx map: (info from Synetix SuperSprite Owners manual.pdf page 33 of 266)
    0 - TMS9918 VDP vram read/write
    1 - TMS9918 VDP register write
    2 - TMS5220 Speech read/write
    3 - Video Switch APPLE VIDEO IN OFF
    4 - Video Switch APPLE VIDEO IN ON
    5 - Video Switch APPLE ONLY OUT
    6 - Video Switch MIX VDP/EXTERNAL VIDEO
    7 - TMS 9918 WRITE ONLY/FRAME RESET
    C - AY Sound data write
    D - AY Sound data write
    E - AY Sound register write or data read
    F - AY Sound register write or data read
*/


uint8_t a2bus_ssprite_device::read_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset)
{
 switch (offset)
 {
  case 0:
   return m_tms->vram_read(space, 0);
  case 1:
   return m_tms->register_read(space, 0);
  case 2:
   return 0x1f | m_tms5220->status_r(space, 0); // copied this line from a2echoii.cpp
  case 14 ... 15:
   return m_ay->data_r(space, 0);
 }

 return 0xff;
}

void a2bus_ssprite_device::write_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset, uint8_t data)
{
 switch (offset)
 {
  case 0:
   m_tms->vram_write(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 1:
   m_tms->register_write(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 2:
   m_tms5220->data_w(space, offset, data);
   break;
  case 12 ... 13:
   m_ay->data_w(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 14 ... 15:
   m_ay->address_w(space, 0, data);
   break;
 }
}

WRITE_LINE_MEMBER( a2bus_ssprite_device::tms_irq_w )
{
 if (state)
 {
  raise_slot_irq();
 }
 else
 {
  lower_slot_irq();
 }
}

and we need to hook it up in the apple2e driver with an #include and a SLOT_INTERFACE and put a couple of lines in bus.lua for a2ssprite.h and a2ssprite.cpp:

diff --git a/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp b/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp
index 732a525b6d..ec55024dc8 100644
--- a/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp
+++ b/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ Address bus A0-A11 is Y0-Y11
 #include "bus/a2bus/laser128.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2echoii.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2arcadebd.h"
+#include "bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2midi.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2zipdrive.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2applicard.h"
@@ -3713,6 +3714,7 @@ static SLOT_INTERFACE_START(apple2_cards)
        SLOT_INTERFACE("vtc1", A2BUS_VTC1)    /* Unknown VideoTerm clone #1 */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("vtc2", A2BUS_VTC2)    /* Unknown VideoTerm clone #2 */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("arcbd", A2BUS_ARCADEBOARD)    /* Third Millenium Engineering Arcade Board */
+       SLOT_INTERFACE("ssprite", A2BUS_SSPRITE)    /* Synetix SuperSprite Board */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("midi", A2BUS_MIDI)  /* Generic 6840+6850 MIDI board */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("zipdrive", A2BUS_ZIPDRIVE)  /* ZIP Technologies IDE card */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("echoiiplus", A2BUS_ECHOPLUS)    /* Street Electronics Echo Plus (Echo II + Mockingboard clone) */


diff --git a/scripts/src/bus.lua b/scripts/src/bus.lua
index bbf1f35bd5..8fe12f0b58 100644
--- a/scripts/src/bus.lua
+++ b/scripts/src/bus.lua
@@ -1673,6 +1673,8 @@ if (BUSES["A2BUS"]~=null) then
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2echoii.h",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2arcadebd.cpp",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2arcadebd.h",
+               MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.cpp",
+               MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.h",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2midi.cpp",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2midi.h",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2vulcan.cpp",

After you do this and compile with make you can launch mame with the -sl7 ssprite parameter and run the supersprite demo programs.

./mame64 apple2e -sl7 ssprite -flop1 "StarSprite Demonstration.DSK"










from "Third Millenium Arcade Board - Article Creative Computing 1984.pdf"