Saturday, March 15, 2014

CannonBoard First Steps

As a reminder CannonBoard is a project to enable OutRun machines to be cleanly swapped to a PC running CannonBall. A modern PC connects to an Arduino which in turn is connected to the CannonBoard hardware. The OutRun controls then plug directly into the CannonBoard hardware.

Colin posted me a prototype CannonBoard PCB last week. Click the images for a larger version.


Here's a shot from the back so you can see how it connects to the Arduino.


Here it is connected up to my chaotic test harness with the original OutRun connectors:


To make testing simpler, I'm using my hacked together OutRun controls. I normally attach these to an original OutRun PCB, but they're perfect for testing this setup.


Some LOL wiring here. It all works though. Note the stylish shoebox. 

CannonBall is currently working with the controls, which means there's no reason this shouldn't work with the original controls in a proper cabinet now. I've sent a test version back to Colin to play around with. In the meantime, I'm just pleased to have my name on a PCB.


I have another project in the pipeline - Project Baby. It's due to start any day now and will likely consume a fair chunk of time ;) Aside from that, I'll be working on the CannonBoard interface mostly during my moments of spare time. I'm looking forward to getting the motor outputs hooked up among other things.

6 comments:

matt said...

Congrats on the baby!

sega19 said...

Would this board work with a Turbo Outrun cabinet?

yt said...

sega19: Yes, should do!

Kungfu Steve said...

Im not sure if this has been asked before... but how exactly does the traffic work in Outrun? Is it all automatic AI? Is there ways to tell the game to increase traffic in areas? Can you set traffic patterns, such as that you place them, and set them in motion at a certain spot on the track / time? And if not, can traffic features be added? For example, to increase difficulty and make levels more dynamic & interesting?

Kungfu Steve said...

Im not sure if this has been asked before... but how exactly does the traffic work in Outrun? Is it all automatic AI? Is there ways to tell the game to increase traffic in areas? Can you set traffic patterns, such as that you place them, and set them in motion at a certain spot on the track / time? And if not, can traffic features be added? For example, to increase difficulty and make levels more dynamic & interesting?

yt said...

The table at the bottom of this post has some brief information on traffic.

It could be possible to extend it to say "when in this section of a particular stage, change the amount of traffic to x cars on-screen simultaneously."

However, you can't define patterns as such with the engine as it stands. The only defined pattern is the one you see on the right hand side when pulling away at Stage 1.

The original Japanese release and the later World releases have some differences regarding traffic AI. Mainly to do with setting the speed of the AI traffic as it bunches up together. Very hard to notice any difference though when playing.