Hallo Franz, hap & Berger!

Danke für die Emulation des Novag Gomoku Computers! Der macht wirklich viel Spaß. Ich bin kein schlechter Spieler, aber ab Stufe 4 killt er mich regelmäßig.

Schönes Teil!

Grüße,
Sascha

__________________
This post may not be reproduced without prior written permission.
Copyright (c) 1967-2026. All rights reserved to make me feel special. :-)

Yes, it's very addictive! I'm on level 3 and I still haven't beaten it. Until I do, I won't move on to level 4.

Hallo Thorsten,

habe dazu mal die rein interessehalber die KI „befragt“ und folgende zusammengefasste Antwort erhalten: Die Codebasis des Milton Bradley Phantom ist stark verwandt mit der Mark-V-Engine (gleicher Autor, gleiche Such-/Bewertungslogik oder zumindest großer Teil), aber es handelt sich nicht um einen reinen Klon: Anpassungen waren notwendig für ROM-Größe, Steuerung der Robotik und die Ressourcenzuteilung (geringerer RAM, andere Ein-/Ausgaben).
Wahrscheinlich ist eine integrierte Firmware, die sowohl das Schachprogramm als auch die Mechanik steuert, d. h. das Programm ist eine „kombinierte Anwendung“: nicht nur Schach-Engine, sondern auch Hardware-Controller.David Levy (bekannter Schach-KI-Entwickler) sagt laut Schach-Computer-Wiki, dass “most of the same code” zwischen seinem Programm und dem Milton Bradley-Programm verwendet wurde.

Viele Grüße, Alwin

Hi,

Some people think that to emulate an old computer, in this case so that hap can make the MAME driver, all you need is the rom and a photo of the PCB. This is true in some cases, for example when the photo is of good quality and shows both sides of the PCB, when hap has already emulated a similar one before, etc. But with new and/or complex computers, this can result in many hours of work for hap, and/or the assumption of certain aspects that may affect the fidelity of the emulation. Sometimes that's the only thing he can get to work on developing the MAME driver, but it's not ideal.

That is why both Sean and I, when reverse engineering a chess computer (or similar), not only provide the rom dump, but often also actual measurements (frequencies and shapes of some critical signals), as well as partial or complete schematics.

In the case of the Novag Gomoku computer, I decided to make a complete schematic diagram, not only to help him in his complex work, but also to be able to share it, since it is a rather unusual computer, unlike other Novag chess computers.

Archive link: Novag Gomoku Computer - Schematic

Best,
Gerardo

Hello,

I have made some Sargon 2.5, Fidelity CC7, CXG star chess, Yeno 301XL and Constellation Junior emulators with only the roms, without any information about the hardware and the PCB except the CPU or microcontroller used.
Sargon was more difficult because it used specialized integrated circuit for I/O (without rom) and 14 segments leds for display (I never had this computer, thinking that it have 7 segments display).

PCB is not necessary, but win time, for simple machine.

Cordialy,

mychess.
ps : Thank much for the schematic.

Wer hat wohl den Novag Gomoku programmiert? Auf jeden Fall steht kein Kittinger im Rom..

Richard Lang hat 1983 für den TRS-80 Color Computer (6809) ein Gomoku / Renju bei Levy's Intelligent Software programmiert.

https://archive.org/details/coco2car...t_Software_Ltd

https://colorcomputerarchive.com/rep...%20(Tandy).pdf

Ein schöner Fund und ein interessantes Spiel.

Schön, dass ich nicht der Einzige bin, der Gomoku spielt!

__________________
This post may not be reproduced without prior written permission.
Copyright (c) 1967-2026. All rights reserved to make me feel special. :-)

Hello Mychess,

Sure, hap must also have emulated dozens, if not hundreds, of electronic devices (since he doesn't just deal with chess computers as a MAME developer) with just the rom and some other information (perhaps just a video of the machine in operation). But that's not always possible, especially with complex computers.

True, we have no clues as to who could have programmed it.

Best,

To me this is obvious, but I'll briefly say it:

Just ROM dumps: yes, writing an emulator is possible, it's like solving a big jigsaw puzzle without having a reference picture.
Photos(PCB too) and video reference (thanks google image search, ebay auctions photos, youtube, etc): Saves time, improves accuracy.
PCB measurements, service manual, pinout or schematics: Saves even more time, improves accuracy more.

With complicated hardware, you'd really want the 3rd option.
Novag Gomoku, without Berger's schematics, I'd be stuck for a while doing trial & error to find the led and sensor positions.

If you only have ROM data, here's an example of how complicated it can get:
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob...164/ks0164.cpp
It's a CPU emulator, written without any CPU manual or disassembler. So, people painstakingly looked at the hex data and figured out the instruction set.

Hallo,

wer mit dem Link von Gerardo nicht klarkommt, findet die Anleitung im Anhang.

Danke an Gerardo für den Link.

Gruß
Micha

Angehängte Dateien

Novag_Gomoku_Instructions.pdf (377,7 KB, 37x aufgerufen)