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====== Hardware ====== | ====== Hardware ====== | ||
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The Bally Professional Arcade is a full-color videogame system based on the mass-RAM-buffer technique. A mass-RAM-buffer system is one in which one or more bits of RAM are used to define the color and intensity of a pixel on the screen. The picture on the screen is defined by the contents of RAM and can easily be changed by modifying RAM. | The Bally Professional Arcade is a full-color videogame system based on the mass-RAM-buffer technique. A mass-RAM-buffer system is one in which one or more bits of RAM are used to define the color and intensity of a pixel on the screen. The picture on the screen is defined by the contents of RAM and can easily be changed by modifying RAM. | ||
- | The system uses a Z80 microprocessor as its main control unit. The [[:system ROM]] has software for four games: Gunfight, Checkmate, Scribbling, and Calculator. Additional ROM can be accessed through the cartridge connector. Three [[hardware:custom chips]] control the video interface, special video processing functions, keyboard and control handle interface, and audio generation. | + | The system uses a Z80 microprocessor as its main control unit. The [[software:system ROM]] has software for four games: Gunfight, Checkmate, Scribbling, and Calculator. Additional ROM can be accessed through the cartridge connector. Three [[hardware:custom chips]] control the video interface, special video processing functions, keyboard and control handle interface, and audio generation. |
The system exists in both high-resolution and low-resolution models. The three custom chips can operate in either mode. The mode of operation is determined by bit 0 of [[hardware:i o ports|output port]] 8H. It must be set to 0 for low-resolution and 1 for high-resolution. This bit is not set to 0 at power up and must be set by software before any RAM operations can be performed. | The system exists in both high-resolution and low-resolution models. The three custom chips can operate in either mode. The mode of operation is determined by bit 0 of [[hardware:i o ports|output port]] 8H. It must be set to 0 for low-resolution and 1 for high-resolution. This bit is not set to 0 at power up and must be set by software before any RAM operations can be performed. |