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BeatHead (prototype)

  1. Game infos
  2. Sound
  3. Driver
  4. Inputs
  5. Controls
  6. Display
  7. Dipswitchs
  8. Roms list
  9. Chips list
  10. Categories
  11. MAMEinfo
  12. History
  13. High scores
Download beathead.zip (4.56 MB)
Snapshot

Game infos

Description BeatHead (prototype)
Name beathead
Manufacturer Atari Games
Year 1993
Runnable yes
System arcade /
Number of players 2P sim
Added to MAME .037b10
Romset size 4.56 MB
Romset file 13 files
Romset zip 2 B
Language English
Evaluation 50 to 60 (Not Good Enough)
Genre Platform

Sound infos

Sound_channels 1

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 yes
Input tilt yes
Input players 2
Input buttons
Input coins 2

Controls infos

type ways minimum maximum sensitivity keydelta reverse
joy 8 no

Display infos

type rotate flipx width height refresh pixclock htotal hbend hbstart vtotal vbend vbstart
raster 0 no 336 240 60 5281920 336 0 336 262 0 240

Dipswitchs

Roms list

console name bios size crc md5 merge sha1 region offset status optional
arcade bhpcm0.bin 131072 609ca626 9bfc913fc4c3453b132595f8553245376bce3a51 jsa:oki1 0 good no
arcade bhpcm1.bin 131072 35511509 41294b81e253db5d2f30f8589dd59729a31bb2bb jsa:oki1 20000 good no
arcade bhpcm2.bin 131072 f71a840a 09d045552704cd1434307f9a36ce03c5c06a8ff6 jsa:oki1 40000 good no
arcade bhpcm3.bin 131072 fedd4936 430ed894fa4bfcd56ee5a8a8ef5e161246530e2d jsa:oki1 60000 good no
arcade bhpics0.bin 524288 926bf65d 49f25a2844ca1cd940d17fc56c0d2698e95e0e1d user1 200000 good no
arcade bhpics1.bin 524288 a8f12e41 693cb7a2510f34af5442870a6ae4d19445d991f9 user1 200001 good no
arcade bhpics2.bin 524288 00b96481 39daa46321c1d4f8bce8c25d0450b97f1f19dedb user1 200002 good no
arcade bhpics3.bin 524288 99c4f1db aba4440c5cdf413f970a0c65457e2d1b37caf2d6 user1 200003 good no
arcade bhprog0.bin 524288 87975721 862cb3a290c829aedea26ee7100c50a12e9517e7 user1 0 good no
arcade bhprog1.bin 524288 25d89743 9ff9a41355aa6914efc4a44909026e648a3c40f3 user1 1 good no
arcade bhprog2.bin 524288 87722609 dbd766fa57f4528702a98db28ae48fb5d2a7f7df user1 2 good no
arcade bhprog3.bin 524288 a795d616 d3b201be62486f3b12e1b20c4694eeff0b4e3fca user1 3 good no
arcade bhsnd.bin 65536 dfd33f02 479a4838c89691d5a4654a4cd84b6433a9e86109 jsa:cpu 0 good no

Chips list

name tag type clock
ASAP maincpu cpu 14318181
Atari JSA III Sound Board jsa audio
M6502 jsa:cpu cpu 1789772
OKI6295 jsa:oki1 audio 1193181
Speaker mono audio
YM2151 jsa:ym2151 audio 3579545

Categories

MAMEinfo

0.37b10 [Aaron Giles]


WIP:

- 0.172: SOUNDCPU rom loading cleanups [Osso].

- 0.167: David Haywood fixed horizontal partial updates in BeatHead (prototype).

- 0.149u1: Added 'Atari JSA II Sound Board' sound.

- 0.147u2: Initial round of atarigen cleanup/modernization [Aaron Giles].

- 0.143u4: Changed ASAP CPU1 clock speed to 14318181 Hz.

- 0.139u2: Aaron Giles moved BeatHead's read/write handlers into members of beathead_state as an example of using the new delegates. This provides examples of both static (via an address_map) and dynamic (via install_handler calls) mapping using delegates. Updated BeatHead to use new virtual functions instead of specifying callbacks in the MACHINE_DRIVER.

- 0.139u1: Aaron Giles changed atarigen_state to be a base class from which all the related Atari drivers derive their state from.

- 0.135u4: Some more Atari driver shuffling [Aaron Giles]: Added atarigen_init() function which allocates all timers and registers for save states. Updated all drivers to call it. Converted some drivers to use device timers.

- 0.135u3: Aaron Giles converted atari drivers over to using driver_data for the most part. Some shared systems still exist with globals, but this tackles the atarigen module and the variables local to each driver.

- 0.132u4: Fixed ADPCM rom loading.

- 0.123u6: Fixed debug assertion in BeatHead.

- 0.123u2: Zsolt Vasvari changed BeatHead driver to use partial updates instead of caching scanline level information.

- 0.122u4: Changed M6502 CPU2 clock speed to 1789772 Hz, YM2151 to 3579545 Hz and OKI6295 to 1193181 Hz.

- 0.114: Couriersud added general save state support to the atarijsa and atarigen modules.

- 0.100: Aaron Giles fixed crashes (video update) in BeatHead.

- 0.37b15: Changed M6502 CPU2 clock speed to 1789500, YM2151 to 3579000 and OKI6295 to 9037 Hz.

- 0.37b10: Aaron Gile added 'BeatHead (prototype)' (Atari Games 1993).

- 17th November 2000: Aaron Giles sent in a driver for an Atari prototype game called BeatHead.


LEVELS: 37 (endless)

History


Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Beat Head (c) 1993 Atari Games.

Jump on the tiles that match your color or that have your color and your opponent's color. Jump on enough to fill your spaces before your opponent fills his.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : ASAP (@ 14.31818 Mhz), MOS Technology 6502 (@ 1.7895 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 9.037 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 336 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 32768

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

Beat Head has nothing remotely resembling Sprites or M.O.s., the hardware is a fairly naive bitmap, although it is implemented in VRAM, which allows, e.g. fast copies to reduce the CPU needed for static content.

Beat Head is the only Atari Coin-Op game to derive its 'time base' from the audio, and to do so uses a rarely used feature of CPU/Audio communication. A bug there would not affect any other game, and would manifest in Beat Head as timeouts and 'jerks' as the video was re-sync'd to the audio.

- TRIVIA -

At the time, Atari were very keen to fund 'unusual' game concepts, such as "Toobin'" and Beat Head was one of those chosen. However, the game mechanic was incredibly repetitive and once you'd beaten 5 opponents, not much really changed. The reason for the very limited number of 'waves' is that the game did not get past a 'short field-test' stage. It was intended to be out only a few days. Atari had a pretty bad rep in those days, which showed in the cash box. And Beat Head had fairly powerful enemies within Atari, so it was killed at a very preliminary stage of the program. It certainly was never intended to be so limited.

The phrase 'Stella on Steroids' on the POST screen is a reference to the old Atari VCS, codenamed 'Stella'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

Edit this entry: https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=221&o=2

High scores

MAMESCORE records : 02/04/2017 13:01

hulkiii____________________________45


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