Namco Galaxian
This article is a generic description about Namco's 8-bit "Galaxian" hardware. For the specific arcade game, see Galaxian.
The Namco Galaxian was an 8-bit arcade game system board, which was first used by Namco for Galaxian in 1979; it was the first board from the company to use the Zilog Z80 microprocessor (as opposed to the older Intel 8080). It used specialized graphics hardware supporting RGB color, multi-colored sprites and tilemap backgrounds.[1] Its introduction of colorful tilemap graphics distinguished it from the Taito 8080 monochrome framebuffer system of Space Invaders.[2] Namco Galaxian also introduced a sprite line buffer system, which was adopted by later systems such as the Namco Pac-Man, Midway's Tron hardware[3] and Sega Z80.
Namco Galaxian specifications
- Main CPU microprocessor: Zilog Z80 @ 3.072 MHz[4] (8-bit & 16-bit instructions @ 450,000 instructions per second)[5]
- Sound chips: Namco custom sound hardware[6]
- Audio channels: One programmable 4/8-bit waveform channel, three 4-bit square wave channels, two 17-bit noise channels, one modulated noise pulse channel[6]
- Graphics chipset: Namco custom video hardware[1][6]
- Display resolution: 256x224[7] to 384x264[8] (horizontal), 224x256 to 264x384 (vertical)
- Refresh rate: 60.60606 Hz (V-sync)[6]
- Color model: RGB[9]
- Color palette: 224[1]
- Colors on screen: 32[6]
- Background planes:
- Sprite capabilities: Line buffer,[3] 8x8 to 16x16 sizes, 4 colors per sprite,[6] 15 sprites (7 main sprites, 7 shells, 1 missile) per scanline, 240 sprite pixels per scanline, sprite flipping,[1] sprite animation[10]
Expansions
King & Balloon
King & Balloon adds the following audio upgrades:
- Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 2.5 MHz[6] (8-bit & 16-bit instructions @ 364,000 instructions per second)[5]
- Second sound chip: Namco custom DAC[7]
- Audio capabilities: Speech synthesis[7]
List of Namco Galaxian arcade games
Namco
- Galaxian (1979) - Namco's first big hit
- King & Balloon (1980) - one of the first games to feature synthesized voices
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/mame/video/galaxian.c
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=oK3D4i5ldKgC&pg=PA173
- 1 2 http://www.vasulka.org/archive/Writings/VideogameImpact.pdf#page=25
- ↑ "Game Logic Schematic". Midway Galaxian Parts and Operating Manual (pdf). Chicago, Illinois: Midway Games. February 1980. pp. 22, 24. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
- 1 2 http://www.drolez.com/retro/
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/mame/drivers/galaxian.c
- 1 2 3 http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=513
- ↑ https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/mame/includes/galaxian.h
- ↑ http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7885
- ↑ http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~%20sedwards/classes/2011/4840/reports/Galaxian.pdf
External links
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