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History of the RECEL Pinballs Here
Thanks to a message left by one of our nice visitors on this site, we recently discovered that Gottlieb was not the only manufacturer having used PPS4 spider chips for their CPU board. RECEL also used a similar architecture. On the link above is collected precious data concerning these machines.
There is very little information on these machines. In particular the datasheet for the 11696 is nowhere to be found. Even without a datasheet, if we could have a hand on this device we would be able to analyse its functionalities and recreate them in a minute. So, if you want to help, and if you have information on the 11696 GPIO, please contact us Here and we will see how you can participate to this exciting project of resuscitating vintage pinballs, and eventually share some benefits with you. Don't hesitate contacting us whatever information you have on this series of chips, it is useful since there is almost no information at all for now.
At the moment, the only documentation on this board is Here
On the Mame Github Here we picked also the following information:
| IOL code | #U | Device Type | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| b1101 (0xD) | B3 | 11696 | PIO |
| b0010 (0x2) | B1 | A1762-13 | 16 outtput control |
| b0100 (0x4) | B2 | A1761-13 | Access NVRAM HM6508+few output control |
| b1111 (0xF) | B5 | 10788PA | Display control |
Thanks to Paulo, one of our nice visitors on this site, who agreed to lend us the two spiders of RECEL (A2361&A2362) where the code resides, we eventually were able to read the program that runs RECEL pinballs. As an easter egg, Paulo also sent us a game eprom (for screech) we also read (1702 eprom from 1972, weird chip) and archived on github. This material is now (for the first time) available to the community.
Binaries of Recel Here
or use the command: git clone https://github.com/garzol/RECEL.git
Commented code disassembly Here
Now that we have everything to make clones of A1761s and A1762s we have almost what we need to repair any Recel System III.
There are few situations where we are facing a dead end (up to now, but things may change).
If the processor is dead, the only solution is to find a good one in replacement. We don't know how to clone it yet. We expect to be able to very soon.
If the 10788 is dead, the only solution is to find a good one in replacement. We don't know how to clone it yet. We expect to be able to very soon.
If the 11696 is dead, the only solution is to find a good one in replacement. We don't know how to clone it yet. The problem here is that it is impossible to find a datasheet for this GPIO. Cloning such a device is theoritically easy, but it is not realistic trying to make clones of it since we don't know in details of how it is controlled.
If you identified that your problem comes from a BIC, an A1761 or an A1762, then we have a solution for you. We cannot offer it “of the shelf”, because we never tested it in real life. Nevertheless, we are 99.99% confident that it will work.
Therefore, if you want to try our solution, as a guinea pig for the community sake, we offer a 50% rebate to the first candidate. No risk for you. If it does not work, you return the clone, you would have paid only for the shipment. If it does work, you have a running machine for almost nothing. If you are interested, please contact us Here and explain your problematic. We will reply quickly and exchange by email to see if we estimate there is a good chance to solve the problem.
If the problem is related to one A17, or both of them, the only thing we have to do is to replace one or both by one or two clones, just as we do for Gottlieb system I.
If the problem is related to one BIC, or both of them, this is where the beauty of our solution resides: BICs are only used for interfacing the eprom. By integrating the eprom contents right in our clone, we will interface the 256 bytes of the eprom internally. All you have to do is replacing any A17 by its clone, and pulling out the 2 BICS to prevent bus contention. And that's it. One single clone will play the role of the A17+the 2 BICS+the eprom. The code in ROM is unchanged!
Ready to check it out?