the cutting room mirror

My Arcade Micro Player

view on tcrf.net

The Micro Player is a series of miniature arcade cabinets which play the NES versions of various arcade games.

Games checked via coding includeː

Games checked on the machines themselves, but not through the actual code, includeː

Unused Graphics (Caveman Ninja)#

Beginning at address 60010 is a series of bizarre menu graphics for completely-undocumented bootleg compilations. No actual menu coding, let alone the games themselves, are present.

My-arcade-micro-player-4in1-gfx-mockup-1.png
The first graphic bank is a 4-in-1 featuring Frogger, Pac-Man, and Space Invaders; the fourth game apparently had "T" on its name given the CHR with letters, but it still cannot be determined. Note that Frogger was never released on the NES, meaning it was likely either the JungleTac port or the version found on the Gamezone II.

My-arcade-micro-player-4in1-gfx-mockup-2.png
The second graphic bank is another 4-in-1 featuring...less blatant rip-offs of the same games? The first two are Across River, a Frogger clone, and Maze [Tussle], a Pac-Man hack. The other two games are unknown, though the third was presumably a clone/hack of Space Invaders (apparently still titled such going by the CHR).

My-arcade-micro-player-4in1-gfx-mockup-3.png
The third graphic bank is yet another 4-in-1, going back to fully-bootleg territory. In this one, all of the games can be determined - Asteroids, Pac-Man, Centipede, and Q*bert. Asteroids and Centipede never had official NES conversions, meaning they were likely the Atari Flashback ports or, in the case of Asteroids, the Gamezone II version.

My-arcade-micro-player-4in1-gfx-mockup-4.png
The final two banks are much more basic, originating from a newer-looking 380-in-1, with no games listed. The first bank features letters that perfectly match the final versions' G-MODE copyright string; this was likely used for testing purposes.

Multicart Coding (Caveman Ninja)#

At address 70010 is coding for a bootleg 188-in-1 menu; unfortunately, it seems to be too corrupted to actually run. "CavemanNinja" is the first game listed, meaning it likely overwrote the first menu slot.

The 188-in-1 game list is as follows (note that no actual data for any games outside of Caveman Ninja is present):

CavemanNinja
BEAR APPEAR
DIAOYU ISLANDS
BIRZZLE
PLANE
PLANTS & ZOM
FURY BIRDS
CROSS FIRE
SINCE BOAR
SQUIRRE
SUPER CONTRA 1
SUPER MARIO BROS
ADVENTURE ISLAND
CIRCUS
ROAD FIGHT
90 TANK
F1 RACE
CHOUJIKUU YOUSAI
KUNG FU
GALAGA
BRUSH ROLLER
MARIO BROS
LODE RUNNER
BUBBLE
ENEMY BASE
DIG DUG
FIVE CHESS
BUGGED RACER
BOMBER MAN
SUPER GALAGA
POOYAN
SEA ADVENTURE
LUNAR BALL
ISLAND DEFEND
ICE CLIMBER
GOLDEN MINER
IKKI
CITY CONNECTION
WATER & FIRE
FRONT LINE
SUPER BOMBER MAN
WATERFALL
TWIN CARD
BATTLE CITY
SEA WAR
TROJAN
GARDEN WAR
FINDING NEMO
COMBATA
CLIMB ICEBERG
NUTS MILK
ROPE GAMES
STAR FORCE
SUPER POOYAN
STAR GATE
SUPER DIGDUG
SLALOM
MUSIC MOMENT
DONKEY KONG 3
MARIO-STORM
MAPPY
SNOOKER
FRUIT GIFT
HAPPY ADVENTURE
CONTE ENEGY
DEVIL WORLD
BASE2 CONTRA
POPEYE
PAC MAN
FIRE DRAGON
EXERION
LINK BALL
BINARY LAND
MARIO-PRINCESS
FIND SAME
SKY DESTROYER
LOVE HOUSE
SHOOT CAR
BALLOON FIGHT
MARIO-SHELLING
FORMATION Z
FOREST ADVENTURE
GROT KID
BEAR & BALD
MANOR BATTLE
KARATEKA
TOM & JERRY
SUPER ARABIAN
DEFEND BASE
SNOW FIELD
JOUST
GALAXIAN
JEWELRY
MOUSE
HAPPY ISLAND
ARKANOID
HONEY DONKEY
ZHANG GA
FRUIT SLOTS
100M DUSH
SAME BIRDS
110M HURDLES
ARCHERY
TREASURE CAVES
TRIPLE JUMP
FINAL SHOOTER
STAR
SHOT JAPS
AETHER FIGHTER
AIR FIGHTER
AETHER KAVASS
Z BALLTE
AIMLESS
SUPER ADVENTURE
ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE
ARABIAN
PICK VEGETABLES
DINOSAUR
TWIN COPTERS
LOVE PENGUIN
PENTA BASE
WHITE TERROR
WARPMAN
JUMP BALLS
PINBALL
WORLD CHAMP
ZIPPY RACE
PK ARKANOID
SUPER PAC MAN
TENNIS
ENERGY ZONE
CHINESE KF
BOX WORLD
THE HERO
X RACING
FINAL ARKANOID
FIELD COMBAT
SHOOT BALLON
FINAL MAN
STRAFE
SUPER TANK
BIRD WEEK
HANGER CONTRA
LIDO
STAR DEFENSE
CORRIDOR
PENGUIN TRAVEL
WRECKING CREW
DRAGON FLYING
FARMER
COLOR GEMS
SUPER ARKANOID
GHOST PALACE
MOTO RACING
BURGER TIME
MARIO-CASTLE
BOMB SWEEPER
ALIEN'S LAIR
ARMOR WARS
HELLFIRE
SPACE FOUND
BIRD STORY
FAMILY TENNIS
MORPH PLANE
FAT FISH
CLOUD UP
ON THE ROAD
FINAL RESCUE
BATTERY DEFEND
SHEPHERD
THE PORTER
FIELD BATTLE
CRANE KNIGHT
CIRCUS VENTURE
SHOOT ALIEN
HOBBS VOYAGE
SEA BATTLE
BLAST MARIO
MEMORY HELICOPER
SKY EXPEL
TIME BOMB
SUPER GALAXING
CLOUD FLYING
FINAL ADVENTUR
GHOST VALLEY
HAMBURGER
TABLE BALL
CLOWN
SPEED RACING

Judging by two of the games being "DIAOYU ISLANDS" and the disturbing "SHOT JAPS", it was likely created around 2012-13 (during the peak of military escalation and protests relating to the Sankaku Islands dispute).

Wellminds Technology

A credit to "Wellminds Technology", another plug-and-play manufacturer, appears at address 7F505.

PAC-MAN

An extra string of Pac-Man appears at 7F7A7. Just in case he hasn't been present enough yet...

Controller Test#

On the Namco and Taito machines, hold Up + Start when powering on the unit to access a controller test. Earlier (2018) systems play music from the first level of Mighty Final Fight; a ginormous amount of plug and plays and handhelds use music from the game, which Wellminds is speculated to be behind. Later systems have no music, but feature Konami NES sound effects. The Data East units do not feature any kind of controller test.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Other Notes#

For the Namco units (minus Ms. Pac-Man), the game that plays is determined by jumper pads on the PCB. By soldering different jumper pads, you can make the cabinet play a different game.