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arkanoid: MAME ROM Information.

History:

Arkanoid (c) 1986 Taito.

After a sudden alien assault, the Arkanoid spaceship has been destroyed and the only survivor, the small 'Vaus' space vessel, has been mysteriously trapped in another dimension by an unknown enemy. The player is charged with helping the 'Vaus' overcome the security systems, as well as the many enemies that guard them, before finally finding and destroying 'DOH', the alien responsible for the attack.

Arkanoid is an update of the early ball and paddle video games - and specifically of Atari's 1978 classic, "Super Breakout" - in which the player takes control of a paddle at the bottom of the screen and must use it to deflect a ball into rows of bricks at the top of the screen, thus destroying them and, eventually, clearing the screen to progress to the next level.

As well as impressive and colourful graphics, Arkanoid introduced a number of new elements to the classic bat 'n' ball gameplay. Certain bricks, when destroyed, would release a power-up - in the form of a falling capsule. the player had to catch the capsule to retrieve the power-up. Among the many enhancements the power-ups provided were an increased 'bat' size, multiple balls, 'sticky' ball (which would stick to the bat and could be released when the player chose) and even a laser, which allowed the player to shoot the bricks.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A75

Main CPU : Z80 (@ 6 Mhz), M68705 (@ 500 Khz)

Sound Chips : AY8910 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Players : 2

Control : paddle

Buttons : 1

=> FIRE - Used to launch the energy ball at the start of each new round and each new life, to relaunch the energy ball after it is caught by the vaus when the C ('Catch') pill is in effect, and to fire lasers when the L ('Laser') pill is in effect.

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1986.

Arkanoid has remained a popular game and is commonly cloned by aspiring game developers in freeware and shareware titles. Many companies have also regularly cloned the game in arcades.

Arkanoid's popularity led to it being featured in "Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2", which has a whole level (4 stages in all) dedicated to the game, including DOH as the level boss.

Nick Mollison holds the official record for this game on extremely hard settings with 1,156,930 points on September 7, 2008.

Zack Hample holds the official record for this game on normal settings with 1,658,110 points on March 13, 2000.

Official releases :

Taito's Arkanoid

Taito America's Arkanoid

Taito's Tournament Arkanoid

Bootleg releases :

Tayto's Arkanoid

Game Corporation's Arkanoid

Hack releases :

Two-Bits Score's Arkanoid Plus

Game Corporation's Block

SPA Co.'s Block II

Paddle 2

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version supports cocktail mode whereas the others don't.

- SCORING -

Points are scored for destroying bricks and killings aliens.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Pill descriptions :

S - Slow : slows down the energy ball.

L - Laser : enables the vaus to fire laser beams.

C - Catch : catches the energy ball and shoots it when you want it.

B - Break : allow player to move to next playfield.

E - Expand : expands the vaus.

P - Player : gains an additional vaus.

D - Disrupt : splits the energy ball into three particles.

* The power pills are completely random except that the extra life and warp pills are twice as unlikely to occur. Only one extra life pill is possible per "vaus". If the pill randomizer selects a duplicate pill based on the last pill dropped, a multi-ball pill is substituted. Thus, the multi-ball pill is the only one you can get twice in a row. The randomizer uses player score as the seed, so it is possible to control which pill is dispensed by purposely breaking pill dispensing blocks with specific scores displayed.

* On each level, the ball will not speed up completely until it hits the back wall, so :

1) Try to remove bricks from the bottom up, or punch a hole through thicker areas of bricks rather than go straight through (e.g. take out the left side of level 2 rather than the single block at the right as you will catch far more pills).

2) If you have collected a lot of S pills and the ball has been in play for a bit of time, be prepared for a sudden speedup.

* Also, the D token speeds up the balls and is pretty useless on most levels (the one with the enclosed diamond is the only good example I can think of).

* As only one pill can fall at a time, multiple balls can reduce your potential score quite drastically. Every pill is worth 1000 points. For the first few levels, get every pill you can, but do not use the special powers. You will get a lot of extra ships and should get a gray P or two - thereby starting early with 6 or 7 ships.

* In the final level, where you face DOH himself, you should get 15 hits (1000 points per hit) on DOH/per man until you defeat DOH with the 16th hit on your last man to end the game.

- SERIES -

1. Arkanoid (1986)

2. Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (1987)

3. Arkanoid - DOH It Again (1997, Nintendo Super NES)

4. Arkanoid Returns (1997)

- STAFF -

Game designed by : Akira Fujita (AKR)

Programmed by : Yasumasa Sasabe (SSB)

Director of hardware & co-programmer : Toshiyuki Sanada (SND)

Assistant programmer : Toru T. (TOR)

Graphic designer : Onijust H. (ONJ)

Sound composer : Hisayoshi Ogura

Sound effects : Tadashi Kimijima

Pattern designer : Akira Iwai

- PORTS -

* Consoles :

Nintendo BS ("BS Arkanoid") [might be a prototype]

Nintendo Famicom (1986)

Nintendo Super Famicom (1997)

Nintendo DS (2007, "Arkanoid DS")

* Computers :

PC9801 (1986 - Taito)

PC [MS-DOS] (1986)

MSX (1986)

BBC B (1987, "Arkanoid" - Imagine)

Thomson TO7 (1987)

Tandy (1987)

Commodore C64 (1987)

Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1987)

Apple II (1987)

Atari 800 (1987)

Atari ST (1987)

Commodore Amiga (1987)

Amstrad CPC (1987)

Amstrad CPC (1988, "Les Défis de Taito")

Amstrad CPC (1988, "Taito Coin-Op Hits")

Thomson M05

Thomson TO8

- SOURCES -

Game's rom.

Machine's picture.

MAME Info:

0.34b8 [?]

0.30 [Brad Oliver]

Artwork available

Bugs:

- arkgcbl arkgcbla: [possible] there is small square during intro on big ship exhaust. haynor (ID 04814)

WIP:

- 0.143u2: Added clone Arkanoid (Japan, older). Renamed (arkmcubl) to (arkanoidjb). Marked MCU rom as bad dump in Arkanoid (World) and clone (US, older).

- 0.138u4: Brian Troha added or corrected the PCB location for the genuine Arkanoid rom sets and documented the MCU Taito ID number. Arkanoid now load (but don't yet use) the decapped MCUs (arkanoid1_68705p3.ic14, arkanoid_mcu.ic14 and arkanoid_68705p5.ic14) [Dr. Decapitator]. I think the MCU dump we're using with the original sets is actually from a bootleg? It's similar to the ones dumped from other bootlegs and the 2/3 of the decapped MCUs appear to be very different. Another bootleg had a dump very similar to the fresh decaps instead. This needs sorting out properly. The hookups for the different types of MCU is not identical.

- 10th July 2010: Smitdogg - We're working on a "for sure" legit Taito Arkanoid MCU (for the ones we already have, it's hard to tell if they are all from bootlegs or not; bootleggers made their own MCUs for this game).

- 25th June 2010: Guru - The 68705P3 ans 2x 68705P5 MCUs for Arkanoid have now been successfully processed (decap, de-protect & read).

- 0.136u1: Corrado Tomaselli changed Arkanoid to use YM2149.

- 0.136: David Haywood added clone Block (Game Corporation bootleg, set 3).

- 0.135u4: Fabio Priuli fixed memory leak in debug mode in clone Block 2 (S.P.A. CO. bootleg).

- 0.135u3: f205v and ANY added clone Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware, set 2). Changed description of clone 'Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware)' to 'Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware, set 1)'.

- 0.135u1: Fabio Priuli added driver data struct to Arkanoid driver.

- 16th November 2009: ANY dumped Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware, set 2).

- 0.134u3: Andy Welburn and Stephane Humbert added clone Block 2 (S.P.A. CO. bootleg).

- 4th October 2009: Smitdogg - Another cool dump from Andrew Welburn has been added (Block II), the emulation is preliminary at the moment but coming right along as you can see below. It's a bootleg of Arkanoid.

- 0.133u1: Renamed (arknoidu) to (arkanoidu), (arknoiuo) to (arkanoiduo) and (arknoidj) to (arkanoidj).

- 0.129u3: Fabio Priuli fixed paddle input for clones arkbloc2, arkgcbl and paddle2.

- 0.128u7: Robiza added PAL to clone Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware).

- 0.128u6: Robiza added correct proms to clone Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware).

- 0.127u4: Dazzer added correct colour PROMS to clone Tournament Arkanoid (US) and fixed rom names.

- 30th July 2008: Guru - Arkanoid chips arrived to be decapped, thanks to Dox.

- 0.123u4: Corrado Tomaselli changed/verified clocks in Arkanoid.

- 0.123u1: Stephane Humbert fixed some Arkanoid clones INPUT_PORTS definitions that were curiously using PORT_START_TAG("DSW") instead of PORT_MODIFY("DSW").

- 0.122u6: Changed M68705 CPU2 clock speed to 3MHz.

- 0.122u4: Bryan McPhail fixed MCU emulation (arkanoid061gre). Bit 7 is suspected to be MCU reset, the evidence for this is that the games tilt mode reset sequence shows the main CPU must be able to directly control the reset line of the MCU, else the game will crash leaving the tilt screen (as the MCU is now out of sync with main CPU which resets itself). This bit is the likely candidate as it is flipped early in bootup just prior to accessing the MCU for the first time.

- 0.115: Aaron Giles updated 68705 clocks to take into account the internal divide by 4. Added constant so that it is clear why this is being done. Changed M68705 CPU4 clock speed to 750000 Hz.

- 0.114u4: Tormod Tjaberg updated clocks in Arkanoid based on measurements from a real PCB.

- 0.108u4: Stephane Humbert added clones Arkanoid (bootleg with MCU, harder), Arkanoid (Game Corporation bootleg, set 2) and Arkanoid (Tayto bootleg). Also added many more notes/info to the Arkanoid driver. Changed description of clone 'Arkanoid (Game Corporation bootleg)' to 'Arkanoid (Game Corporation bootleg, set 1)'. Renamed (arkatayt) to (arktayt2).

- 0.108u3: Big update to the Arkanoid driver which improves emulation of some bootlegs [Steph]: Interverted 'arkblock' and 'arkbloc2' sets for better comparaison. Renamed sets. Changed some games descriptions. Removed flags from the following sets: arkbloc2, arkgcbl and paddle2. Changed description of clones 'Arkanoid (Japanese bootleg Set 2)' to 'Arkanoid (bootleg with MCU)', 'Arkanoid (Japanese bootleg Set 3)' to 'Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware)', 'Block (Game Corporation bootleg)' to 'Block (Game Corporation bootleg, set 1)' and 'Block (bootleg, Japanese)' to 'Block (Game Corporation bootleg, set 2)'. Renamed (arkbl2) to (arkmcubl), (arkbl3) to (arkgcbl), (arkbloc2) to (arkblock) and (arkblock) to (arkbloc2).

- 3rd September 2006: Mr. Do - Added instruction cards for Arkanoid.

- 0.106u3: Fixed rom names in clone (Tayto bootleg, Japanese).

- 0.105u4: Fixed rom names in Arkanoid.

- 19th March 2006: f205v dumped Arkanoid (bootleg on Block hardware).

- 0.104u4: Adam Bousley added save states to the Arkanoid driver.

- 29th September 2005: f205v dumped Arkanoid (bootleg with MCU, harder). It's a bootleg of "Arkanoid (Japan)", with notice screen eliminated (it only shows a black screen with a red WAIT) and a fix (no dips selection) 1 ball x game and NO starting level selection.

- 0.82u2: Curt Coder merged memory maps in the Arkanoid driver. Moved Paddle 2 (bootleg) trickery to machine\arkanoid.c.

- 0.70u2: Angelo Salese added preliminary MCU simulation to Paddle 2, but it still has some issues.

- 0.69a: A number of changes to the timer system [Aaron Giles]: All the CPU scheduling has moved into cpuexec.c and been taken out of timer.c. A number of bugs relating to time tracking for suspended CPUs have been fixed. A side effect of all this is a change in the behavior of the CPU scheduling. For the most part, games are fine with this. However, there were a few exceptions: The timing of the MCU communication in the Arkanoid driver is broken.

- 0.69: Stephane Humbert added clone Arkanoid (US, older).

- 15th July 2002: Stephane Humbert added another version of Arkanoid.

- 7th July 2002: Smitdogg and Dave Widel fixed the sprite placement in Dig Dug and added a clone of Arkanoid.

- 0.60: Added clones Arkanoid (Japan bootleg Set 3), Block (bootleg, Japan) and Paddle 2 (bootleg 1986).

- 0.37b15: Frotz fixed Arkanoid "instant death in final round" bug.

- 0.37b5: Added clone Tournament Arkanoid (US).

- 12th June 2000: Kieron Wilkinson added the Tournament Arkanoid romset to the Arkanoid driver.

- 1st April 2000: Guru - Dumped Tournament Arkanoid (Taito 1987, Romstar License).

- 0.36b4: Highwayman added clone Block (Game Corporation bootleg). Added TESTDRIVER Block (bootleg 1986, Japanese) and Block (Game Corporation bootleg 1986).

- 0.35: Added clones Arkanoid (Japan) and Arkanoid (Game Corporation bootleg). Nicola Salmoria fixed later levels in clone (US). Changed description of clone 'Arkanoid (USA)' to 'Arkanoid (US)'.

- 24th June 1999: Nicola added made-up 68705 roms to Arkanoid's US and Japan versions, which fixes the later levels.

- 24th April 1999: Roberto Fresca added an Arkanoid version with round selector.

- 0.35b6: Replaced M6805 CPU2 with M68705.

- 0.34b8: Added clones Arkanoid (Japanese bootleg Set 3) (Testdriver) and Block (bootleg, Japanese) (Testdriver). Changed description of 'Arkanoid (Taito)' to 'Arkanoid (World)' and clones '(Romstar)' to '(USA)', '(bootleg)' to '(Japanese bootleg Set 2)' and '(Tayto bootleg)' to '(Tayto bootleg, Japanese)'.

- 0.33b7: Removed Arkanoid (BETA bootleg) from MAME. Added color proms ($0, 200, 400). Changed description of 'Arkanoid' to 'Arkanoid (Taito)' and clones '(U.S. Romstar)' to '(Romstar)' and '(Bootleg)' to '(bootleg)'.

- 0.33b3: Known issues: There might also be protection related problems in clone Arkanoid (U.S. Romstar) (later levels corrupted).

- 0.31: Thierry Lescot added clones Arkanoid (BETA bootleg) and (Tayto bootleg). Aaron Giles added clone Arkanoid (Bootleg). Due to a missing image for the 68705 microcontroller, the BETA bootleg doesn't work. Due to features of the 68705 not emulated yet, the "arkbl2" bootleg set doesn't work. Since it doesn't have to emulate the 68705, the Tayto bootleg is faster than the other versions. Dual paddle in cocktail mode is not supported. 6805 emulator, needed by Arkanoid [Aaron Giles]. Known issues: Due to a missing image for the 68705 microcontroller, the BETA bootleg doesn't work. Due to features of the 68705 not emulated yet, the "arkbl2" bootleg set doesn't work. Since it doesn't have to emulate the 68705, the Tayto bootleg is faster than the other versions. Dual paddle in cocktail mode is not supported. Added MCU rom arkanoid.uc (8k) to Arkanoid and clone Arkanoid (U.S. Romstar).

- 0.30: Brad Oliver added Arkanoid (Taito 1986) and clone (U.S. Romstar). Not playable.

LEVELS: 33

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Tournament Arkanoid

Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH

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Romset: 170 kb / 12 files / 68.5 zip

MAME XML Output:

<description>Arkanoid (World)</description>

<manufacturer>Taito Corporation Japan</manufacturer>

</input>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</game>

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