Monday, September 12, 2011

OutRun Philko Bootleg

Philko were a South Korean company, founded in 1985, responsible for manufacturing a number of arcade bootleg PCBs. They manufactured a good quality bootleg of OutRun, along with other Sega titles, before being prosecuted in 1989.


The OutRun bootleg is identifiable by the copyright message reading BETA as opposed to SEGA, as shown in the screenshot below.


Although the hardware is different to the original Sega boardset (see MAME source code for details), it turns out that the game code is identical to the standard Rev B edition. The only changes are in fact the copyright message, the patched rom checksum and the encoding detailed below. 

Bizarrely, Philko felt compelled to perform some crude encryption on their code by bitswapping it. As documented in the MAME source code, for the main CPU bits 11,12 and 6,7 should be swapped. For the sub CPU bits 14,15 and 2,3 should be swapped. 

There are at least two distinct revisions of the Philko PCB. Both revisions are three-layer boards. They have the same power and video connectors but a different edge connector for the controls. 

Here is an example of the first revision, kindly provided by Luke Wells. 


Here is an example of the second revision. Note that a custom processor (top middle) has replaced some of the sound section, and the control edge connectors are different (bottom left):


Here are some closeups I found on ebay:



Dip Switches are located on the Middle PCB (Board 2)

Board Dip switch banks are labelled as 1 & 2. These correspond to an original board as follows:
  • Dip switch bank 1 = Original board dip switch B 
  • Dip switch bank 2 = Original board dip switch A


Small Molex .1" - Video Connector
1-Red (Closest to power connector)
2-Green
3-Blue
4-Sync
5-Ground

18 Pin Connector - Controls

Component Side           | Solder Side
-------------------------|------------------------
1  (GND)-Brake Pot 1     | (GND)-Gas Pot 1            
2  (GND)-Steering Pot 1  |   
3  Steering Pot 2 (Wiper)|   
4  Gas Pot 2 (Wiper      |
5  Brake Pot 2 (Wiper)   |
6  Motor Control         |
7  Start Lamp*           |
8  (5v)-Brake Pot 3      |
9  (5v)-Steering Pot 3   |
10 (5v)-Gas Pot 3        |
11 (5v) From Supply      |
12 Test                  |
13 Start 1 |
14 Gear H/L              |
15 Coin 1                |
16 ?                     |
17 (GND)                 |
18 (GND)                 |

*using an LED connect the Cathode to Pin7 and the Anode to 5VDC

Here are photos of a bootlegged cabinet, provided by Francois:

Lots of differences! (Start button, Steering wheel, bezel etc.)

Bootleg cabinet interior shot. Click to enlarge

So this means a couple of things to bootleg board owners: I can potentially provide a version of OutRun Enhanced Edition if there's demand. Or owners can patch with a bitswapped Sega revision B romset, if they dislike the BETA copyright message.

28 comments:

Karl said...

Hi,

I had an outrun bootleg cab which I bought from a fairground, the cab has long since been broken up but I can tell you it was dimensionally pretty much identical to an Electrocoin 'Goliath'. I still have the control panel and monitor glass kicking around somewhere. The control panel on mine was similar to the real thing but in a different colour and the sega/ferrari logos were different. Also the shaker motor assembly is different consisting of (I think) two solenoids, there is a seperate control board for this which i still have.

K.

yt said...

Thanks for the info. Do you have any photos of your machine?

Karl said...

I don't think I have any photos of the complete cab, I don't know if *all* the 'beta' bootlegs were in this tyoe of cabinet either but I saw a couple like it when they were new. I could take some photos of what's left of the hardware if you like.

K

yt said...

It could be interesting if you have time, as I haven't seen the bootleg documented anywhere :)

francois said...

hello
i have a complete bootleg philko uprigth cabinet . are you still interessed for photos ?

yt said...

Yes please!

Some photos inside the cab would be cool as well.

francois said...

here are two photos of my cabinet :

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2112/sam1669k.jpg

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/1193/sam1693r.jpg

good work on OutRun ! see ya

yt said...

Wow - now that's interesting. I've never seen a fully bootlegged cabinet before. Do you think it's a modified original cabinet with replacement board, or is the entire game a bootleg?

francois said...

hello
i think it's an entire bootleg. only the Marquee is "sega" .
however, there is "1986 sega" at screen and when the game is running
bye

Kungfu Steve said...

Awesome Project! :D Outrun is one of my Favorite driving games.

Two things Id LOVE to see, would be an option to display in steroscopic 3D. Id go out and buy a 3dtv & glasses almost immediately.

Maybe you can make a depth calculation via translation of the sprite priorities? The 60 frames ability, could be used as 30 per eye.

Single Direction Motor output ability would be great too. Theres nothing like a real outrun shaker wheel assembly. Its the equivalent to hanging onto a Reciprocating Saw. :)

yt said...

Steve - presume you meant to post this under the Cannonball section :)

3D would be awesome. I don't have immediate plans to do this myself, but certainly would support an effort to do so.

Vibration is more of an immediate possibility.

francois said...

hello
if you want to see my bootleg cabinet running :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt9cZYK09sI
(you can you the interior at the end)
bye
francois

yt said...

Cool! Interesting that your bootleg PCB does not display 1987 BETA like some of the bootlegs...

Are there any graphical glitches, or does everything run fine on the bootleg PCB?

Unknown said...

the game works fine, but there is some minor glitches. look at the colors of the testarossa when a new road begins, for example.
see ya :)

Unknown said...

Hi, I have the same PCB. Could you tell me what colour is the cables for the test and service buttons? Thanks

Unknown said...

Hi to everybody! I've also got a Philko's bootleg OutRun cabinet one month ago, having trouble finding some wiring diagrams or schematics (for basically every part, like pcb's, power switch, which is in a really bad shape...). It would be wery helpfull, if somebody could send me diagrams and schematics for it, of course, if you have them...I can also send you some fotos or any kind of info about my cabinet...thanx!

yt said...

vladaigor - I added some basic wiring information. Feel free to pass on any photos or knowledge you might have and I'll update the thread.

Unknown said...

Thanks a lot yt. I'll try it

yt said...

Updated pinouts with motor/start lamp and test details.

Unknown said...

I have a bootleg philco cab, it needs some repair(everything works except for the start button, but i think it's the microswitch, however the game is playable but with graphic glitches) and on the test it tells me that it have 2 rams "bad", now how can i identify the non working rams since the ic in the test has no reference on the board? can you help me out of this? if you need pictures or anything else i can provide you!

yt said...

You could try fixing some of the RAM chip data lines low during the test. (connect a wire to a data pin and attach it to ground).

This way you will be able to identify which chip is which! :)

Obviously you may crash the game completely doing this, so best to wait until your in the test mode.

One Philko bootleg I saw (there are multiple revisions of the board) didn't run the RAM test at all, so it's lucky it works for you.

Unknown said...

i'm not good to electronics, i know how to solder or desolder but i'm absolutely not practice in electronics, i know whats a data pin but not practice in using it, maybe some photos of the pcb can help identify where the rams are located? i think they're on the thirb pcb, but not sure... sorry for my ignorance!!!

koutaro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
yt said...

I'll have to check my PCB for you - but it's currently in storage so I won't access it for a while.

koutaro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gamefun29 said...

One of the arcade I went to as a kid had the Philko bootleg. Sometimes the graphics of the cars and scenery would disappear, leaving only the road and the text...

Unknown said...

I search for a long time the little PCB to control the 2 solenoids for the steering wheel.
Anyone know the schematic or can post pictures from this Board in good resolution ?

Marty

Arcade-Gamer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.