Mame game : brickzn : Brick Zone (v6.0, Joystick)

Game infos

Description Brick Zone (v6.0, Joystick)

Name brickzn

Manufacturer SunA

Year 1992

Runnable yes

System arcade /

Number of players 2P sim

Added to MAME .160

Romset size 1.16 MB

Romset file 11 files

Romset zip 501 B

Language English

Evaluation 40 to 50 (Decent)

Genre Ball & Paddle

Driver infos

Driver status good

Driver emulation good

Driver color good

Driver sound good

Driver graphic good

Driver cocktail

Driver protection

Driver savestate yes

Inputs infos

Input service no

Input tilt no

Input players 2

Input buttons

Input coins 2

Controls infos

type	ways	minimum	maximum	sensitivity	keydelta	reverse
dial		0	255	30	15	yes
joy	2					no

Display infos

type	rotate	flipx	width	height	refresh	pixclock	htotal	hbend	hbstart	vtotal	vbend	vbstart
raster	90	no	256	224	60

Configuration

name	tag	mask
0: Use Cheat 1&2 Setting Name Off Value 1 Default no Name On Value 0 Default yes	CHEATS	1
1: Unused? Name Off Value 2 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	CHEATS	2
3: Unused? Name Off Value 8 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	CHEATS	8
4: Unused? Name Off Value 16 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	CHEATS	16
5: Unused? Name Off Value 32 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	CHEATS	32
6: Unused? Name Off Value 64 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	CHEATS	64
Cheat 1 Name Off Value 8 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	P1	8
Cheat 2 Name Off Value 8 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	P2	8
Select First Stage Name Off Value 4 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	P1	4
Select Next Stage Name Off Value 4 Default yes Name On Value 0 Default no	P2	4

Dipswitchs

Bonus Life
- 10K
- 30K
- 50K
- None
Cabinet
- Cocktail
- Upright
Coinage
- 1 Coin/1 Credit
- 1 Coin/2 Credits
- 1 Coin/3 Credits
- 1 Coin/4 Credits
- 2 Coins/1 Credit
- 3 Coins/1 Credit
- 4 Coins/1 Credit
- 5 Coins/1 Credit
Demo Sounds
- Off
- On
Difficulty
- Easiest
- Easy
- Harder
- Hardest
- Moderate
- Normal
- Very Easy
- Very Hard
Display
- No
- Yes
Flip Screen
- Off
- On
Lives
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Play Together
- No
- Yes
Service / Invulnerability
- Off
- On

Roms list

console	name	size	crc	sha1	region	offset	status	optional
arcade	10.o8	65536	4eba8178	9a214a1acacdc124529bc9dde73a8e884fc70293	audiocpu	0	good	no
arcade	11.n10	65536	6c54161a	ea216d9f45b441acd56b9fed81a83e3bfe299fbd	pcm	0	good	no
arcade	p1.h5	131072	7a6bb583	ff7018c07182fce0ff6954bbe3b08fa5105f6be0	gfx1	80000	good	no
arcade	p2.i5	131072	592d45ce	8ce9236b7deba6cf00999680314ac04eff624a6d	gfx1	60000	good	no
arcade	p3.k5	131072	2e4f194b	86da1a582ea274f2af96d3e3e2ac72bcaf3638cb	gfx1	40000	good	no
arcade	p4.l5	131072	cc8fb330	fd263f65b81acbfc00fe339c461068ab160c04af	gfx1	20000	good	no
arcade	p5.m5	131072	ca59e2f7	dbb9f2b316a44f760768f0430798e0c4e9e8f3ff	gfx1	0	good	no
arcade	p6.h7	131072	bbf31081	1fdbd0e0853082345225e18df340184a7a604b78	gfx1	a0000	good	no
arcade	p7.i7	131072	4dd88631	0dbcaf3420dad82c3ed94d231948fe69b044b786	maincpu	30000	good	no
arcade	p8.k7	131072	ec3e266d	4441a5ae88e51353f6d1eb22c00becb0a7ecea6e	maincpu	10000	good	no
arcade	p9.m7	32768	bd7a3c01	05fb2836f1c8d8818847ccb76e7b477f13a9929b	maincpu	0	good	no

Chips list

name	tag	type	clock
4-Bit R-2R DAC	rdac2	audio
AY-3-8910A	aysnd	audio	1500000
Speaker	speaker	audio
YM3812	ymsnd	audio	3000000
Z80	pcm	cpu	6000000

0.160 [System11]

0.74u2 [Luca Elia]

0.37b14 [Testdriver]

WIP:

- 0.160: System11 added Brick Zone (v6.0, Joystick). Emulated sound latch protection in Brick Zone [Luca Elia, System11]. Use measured clocks from Brick Zone PCB, fixes music tempo [System11]. Promoted clone Brick Zone (v1.1, Spinner) to working [Luca Elia]. Changed YM3812 sound clock speed to 3MHz. Added 'Display' dipswitch. Changed description of clone (v1.1) to 'Brick Zone (v1.1, Spinner)'. Renamed (brickzn) to (brickznv5).

- 0.156: Do swapped opcode decrypt when command is written rather than predecrypting specific ranges [David Haywood].

- 0.152: Unigame added clone Brick Zone (v1.1). From the proto stash, seems to have different encryption / protection.

- 0.149u1: Brian Troha added DIP locations to Brick Zone sets. Correct default settings as per manuals.

- 0.147: Promoted Brick Zone to playable state [Luca Elia]: Fixed gfx ROMs loading. Fixed inputs in joystick version. Alternate data decryption. Fixed alternate opcode decryption ranges. Palette encryption, banking and writes disable. Work RAM disable. Multiplexing of registers through protection. Added cheat / debugging inputs. Fixed gfx1 rom loading. Replaced 8-way Joystick and Trackball with 2-way Joystick and Dial. Added 3rd button. Added dipswitches 'Service / Invulnerability', 'Select First Stage', 'Cheat 1', 'Select Next Stage', 'Cheat 2', '0: Use Cheat 1&2 Setting', '1: Unused?', '3: Unused?', '4: Unused?', '5: Unused?' and '6: Unused?'. Changed description to 'Brick Zone (v5.0, Joystick)' and clone (v4.0) to 'Brick Zone (v4.0, Spinner)'. Renamed (brickzn3) to (brickznv4).

- 8th September 2012: Luca Elia - SunA is a Korean company whose arcade output is covered in this interesting article (http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/korea/part1/company-suna.htm). As you can see the originality of their production is questionable, but the execution and graphics are not bad for the time. In the past I have emulated both SunA's 16-bit and 8-bit hardware (SunA16.c and SunA8 driver) and unfortunately many of their earlier games have another, much less pleasing feature in common: Use of encryption and protection. This includes games such as Hard Head and Hard Head 2 that I got up and running long ago, as well as the more coriaceous Star Fighter, Spark Man and Brick Zone that have instead been languishing in non-working state to this day. Recently I (took a deep breath and) had another look at Brick Zone to see if anything could be moved further. This Arkanoid clone uses: different encryptions for data and opcodes; run-time tweaking of both data and opcode decryption; encrypted palette ram; run-time disabling of main and palette RAM writes; multiplexing of different hardware on the same address according to sequences of values written to the protection registers; a lot of obfuscated protection tests, including some red herring, in key moments (e.g. bosses) that produce consistent gameplay malfunctions if not passed. The fact that the sprite-based video hardware is a bit on the "unnecessarily convoluted" side is just the icing on the cake. As you can see the attempt has been successful although it forced me to follow and heavily comment a substantial portion of the game code disassembly (Z80). I don't claim a perfect emulation, some bugs may still be lurking in some of the 100 stages, but the game is now promoted to working state. It turns out the parent set shown in this post, which is version 5, is the joystick version, and uses the second button to activate a short supply of "shields". The other set dumped is an earlier version 4 and actually a spinner version (compatible with Arkanoid spinners), but without the "shield" feature. I'm now looking at the other two non-working games in the driver with renewed interest...

- 0.135u4: Angelo Salese fixed Brick Zone parent set bitplane graphics. Fixed gfx1 rom loading.

- 0.96u2: Nicola Salmoria simplified the decryption code in the sun8 driver, and made some improvements to the Brick Zone main set. Changed description of clone (v3.0) to 'Brick Zone (v4.0)'.

- 0.88: Changed AY-8910 clock speed to 1.5MHz.

- 0.78u5: Changed Z80 CPU1/2/3 clock speeds to 6MHz.

- 0.74u2: Added 'Brick Zone (v5.0)' (SunA 1992) and clone (v3.0).

- 0.37b14: Luca Elia added (Testdrivers) Brick Zone (v5.0) (SunA 1992) and clone (v3.0).

- 1st April 2001: Luca Elia decrypted Hard Head 2, Star Fighter and Brick Zone, but none of the games are working due to other problems.

LEVELS: 100

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History

Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Brick Zone (c) 1992 SunA Electronics Ind. Company, Limited.

A ball and paddle game.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3 Mhz), AY8910 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (4x) DAC (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : trackball
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Brick Zone was released on January 13, 1992.

- CONTRIBUTE -

Edit this entry: https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=338&o=2

Brick Zone (v6.0, Joystick)