barrier: MAME ROM Information.
History:
Barrier (c) 1979 Vectorbeam.
The basic idea behind Barrier is that you have to move your little marker to the end of a grid, while avoiding the other markers. Actually that is the only idea. The game is played on a 3x9 grid that is displayed at angle to make it appear to be in 3-D. You move your little triangle around on the grid, while attempting to avoid the little diamonds that are also moving around on the grid. Reaching the end of the grid teleports you back to the front of the grid.
- TECHNICAL -
Barrier ran on the Cinematronics hardware platform, which also ran such games as "Warrior", "Speed Freak", and "Star Hawk". It used a huge X-Y monitor that was almost entirely covered with a monitor bezel that only allowed the small triangular playfield to show through. Around 70 percent of the monitor's total area was hidden from the player. The monitor was too large for the cabinet, it actually poked out through a notch in the back door. The control panel featured a Start button and four directional buttons, even though this title would have been better with a 4-Way joystick. The sideart shows a picture of a blue wizard who has the playfield of the game as his body, and the same wizard is repeated on the monitor bezel that blocks out most of the screen. This game had a metal marquee that did not light up. The marquee graphics were also repeated directly below the control panel, just in case you didn't see them on top of the machine.
Cabinet dimensions : 69'' (175cm) high x 25'' (64cm) wide x 26,5'' (67cm) deep.
Main CPU : CCPU (@ 5 Mhz)
Screen orientation : Vertical
Players : 2
Buttons : 4
=> Up, Left, Down, Right
- TRIVIA -
Released in August 1979.
The 2nd programmer hired by Tim Skelly, Rob Patton, was only 17 when he joined Cinematronics. This game is very reminiscent of the old Mattel hand-held football games from the late 70's. The gameplay is not as deep, though :o). Vectorbeam didn't have a game to ship after "Speed Freak" and needed a product to sell so Cinematronics sold them "Barrier" and in the words of Tim Skelly, 'laughed our asses off about it'.
- STAFF -
Designed & programmed by : Rob Patton
- SOURCES -
Game's rom.
Machine's picture.
MAME Info:
0.35b6 [Aaron Giles, Zonn Moore, Jeff Mitchell, Neil Bradley]
Artwork available
Samples required
WIP:
- 7th November 2007: Mr. Do - The old artwork for Barrier was based off of a lo-res flyer, so we got a good scan of that one, too. Only thing, though, is the photo on the flyer was of the cabinet straight on, and the artwork is at about a 45-degree angle, so the screen never really displayed correctly on it. It's been given a bump up in quality, and stretched to line up more accurately with the game screen. Not perfect, but about as good as we're going to get unless we find the real thing.
- 4th August 2006: Mr. Do - Converted Barrier artwork from MAME.net.
- 0.87u3: Aaron Giles added sound to Barrier, Star Hawk, War of the Worlds and Boxing Bugs (note that samples don't exist yet, but I'm working with Zonn Moore to get them for everything except Barrier). Added Samples sound (playrdie, playmove and enemmove.wav).
- 0.37b2: Added 5x 'Unknown' dipswitch.
- 0.35b6: Added Barrier (Vectorbeam 1979) [Aaron Giles, Zonn Moore, Jeff Mitchell, Neil Bradley].
- 7th March 1999: Brad Oliver has finally sent in the Cinematronics vector games driver with working support for Space Wars, Barrier, Star Castle, Tailgunner, Rip Off, Armor Attack, War of the Worlds, Warrior, Star Hawk and Solar Quest.
PLAY INSTRUCTIONS:
- The player attempts to reach the top of the grid without being hit by the computer enemies. When the top is reached, you scroll 'around' to the bottom and begin again.
Other Emulators:
* AAE
* Cinelator
* CINEMU
* Retrocade
Romset: 5 kb / 8 files / 3.97 zip
MAME XML Output:
| | <game name="barrier" sourcefile="cinemat.c" sampleof="barrier"> |
| | | <description>Barrier</description> |
| | | <manufacturer>Vectorbeam</manufacturer> |
| | | <rom name="barrier.t7" size="2048" crc="7c3d68c8" sha1="1138029552b73e94522b3b48096befc057d603c7" region="maincpu" offset="0"/> |
| | | <rom name="barrier.p7" size="2048" crc="aec142b5" sha1="b268936b82e072f38f1f1dd54e0bc88bcdf19925" region="maincpu" offset="1"/> |
| | | <rom name="prom.f14" size="256" crc="9edbf536" sha1="036ad8a231284e05f44b1106d38fc0c7e041b6e8" region="proms" offset="0"/> |
| | | <rom name="prom.e14" size="32" crc="29dbfb87" sha1="d8c40ab010b2ea30f29b2c443819e2b69f376c04" region="proms" offset="100"/> |
| | | <rom name="prom.d14" size="32" crc="9a05afbf" sha1="5d806a42424942ba5ef0b70a1d629315b37f931b" region="proms" offset="120"/> |
| | | <rom name="prom.c14" size="32" crc="07492cda" sha1="32df9148797c23f70db47b840139c40e046dd710" region="proms" offset="140"/> |
| | | <rom name="prom.j14" size="32" crc="a481ca71" sha1="ce145d61686f600cc16b77febfd5c783bf8c13b0" region="proms" offset="160"/> |
| | | <rom name="prom.e8" size="32" crc="791ec9e1" sha1="6f7fcce4aa3be9020595235568381588adaab88e" region="proms" offset="180"/> |
| | | <sample name="playrdie"/> |
| | | <sample name="playmove"/> |
| | | <sample name="enemmove"/> |
| | | <chip type="cpu" tag="maincpu" name="CCPU" clock="4980750"/> |
| | | <chip type="audio" tag="mono" name="Speaker"/> |
| | | <chip type="audio" tag="samples" name="Samples"/> |
| | | <display tag="screen" type="vector" rotate="270" flipx="yes" refresh="38.000000" /> |
| | | <input players="2" coins="1"> |
| | | | <control type="joy" ways="4"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Lives" tag="SWITCHES" mask="1"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="3" value="0" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="5" value="1"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Demo Sounds" tag="SWITCHES" mask="2"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="0"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="2" default="yes"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Unknown" tag="SWITCHES" mask="4"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="4" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Unknown" tag="SWITCHES" mask="8"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="8" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Unknown" tag="SWITCHES" mask="16"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="16" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Unknown" tag="SWITCHES" mask="32"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="32" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Unknown" tag="SWITCHES" mask="64"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="64" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="0"/> |
| | | <driver status="imperfect" emulation="good" color="good" sound="imperfect" graphic="good" savestate="supported" palettesize="0"/> |
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