Mythicon PCB Question......

[ninermaniac]

I like to tinker as some know. I never popped open a Mythicon cart before. Surprise!!! Is the PCB what they call a virtual PCB? I really can't find much info on it. Any help will suffice.

This came out of a FireFly Mythicon cart.

 

Edited March 18, 2008 by ninermaniac

[+Psionic]

Actually, Mythicon PCBs are just shingles and scrap tin with a little bit of dogshit holding them together.

Edited March 18, 2008 by PingvinBlueJeans

[ninermaniac]

After opening one up and looking at it. I think I'll agree.

[ovalbugmann]

Photo Please? - so don't have to rip up my Sorcerer.

[ninermaniac]

Pic posted!

[CPUWIZ]

Search the forums for "epoxy blob style", all XONOX and many late releases from Atari were made this way. Also a bunch of Taiwain carts, IIRC.

[Wickeycolumbus]

looks like a normal cart, but instead of an EPROM or PROM, it has just the core of the rom covered in epoxy.

 

EDIT: Sorry, i guess CPUWIZ posted right when I was.

Edited March 18, 2008 by Wickeycolumbus

[+batari]

I will have to disagree with the general consensus here. Personally, I'm impressed that Mythicon would use a surface-mounted ASIC in what, 1983? Too bad their software development wasn't nearly as advanced as their engineering.

[supercat]

I will have to disagree with the general consensus here. Personally, I'm impressed that Mythicon would use a surface-mounted ASIC in what, 1983? Too bad their software development wasn't nearly as advanced as their engineering.

 

I agree to some extent, though if Mythicon was planning to profit by selling game carts for $10 they must have been planning to make a whole lot of them with minimal unit cost. On the other hand, Froggo was also a low cost seller and their carts used a 74xx along with, IIRC, an OTP 2764, so package parts can't have been that horrendously expensive.

 

I wonder if anyone had any ideas for what the second game would be in the Firefly Series, Sorceror Series, or Starfox Series?

[CPUWIZ]

their carts used a 74xx along with, IIRC, an OTP 27C64

 

That is precisely what they used, although the "label-variation" versions, made in IIRC China, were also blob-style.

[ovalbugmann]

Thanks for the pic!

[A.J. Franzman]

epoxy blob

A.K.A. "COB" (Chip On Board).

[Bruce Tomlin]

I will have to disagree with the general consensus here. Personally, I'm impressed that Mythicon would use a surface-mounted ASIC in what, 1983? Too bad their software development wasn't nearly as advanced as their engineering.

It's not an "ASIC", it's just a plain old 4K mask-ROM chip die, without all the unnecessary plastic that makes it not need a clean room for assembly.

[+batari]

I will have to disagree with the general consensus here. Personally, I'm impressed that Mythicon would use a surface-mounted ASIC in what, 1983? Too bad their software development wasn't nearly as advanced as their engineering.

It's not an "ASIC", it's just a plain old 4K mask-ROM chip die, without all the unnecessary plastic that makes it not need a clean room for assembly.

Then how is A12 inversion done if it's just a standard ROM?