Does Neo-Geo Irritating Maze PCB work with other carts?

[JoyMonkey]

I just bought an Irritating Maze kit on eBay. It consistes of a 1 slot Neo-Geo MVS PCB (model MV-1B), Irritating Maze cart, an oversized 4.5" trackball with harness, and a marquee.
I don't have any other Neo-Geo stuff, and I'm wondering if this PCB will work with other MVS carts???
I've been doing various Google searches and hearing conflicting answers. Has anyone here used the MV-1B to play other games?

The MV-1B manual is available here:
http://www.hardmvs.com/manuals/MV-1BusersManual.pdf
it doesn't say other carts won't work, but some reviews say otherwise.

[SirPoonga]

It should work.  How is the trackball hooked up?  Throught he 8 pin connector?  So hardly anything goes to the JAMMA harness?  If so You would have to wire up your own jamma harness to put other games in it.

[JoyMonkey]

It should work.  How is the trackball hooked up?  Throught he 8 pin connector?  So hardly anything goes to the JAMMA harness?  If so You would have to wire up your own jamma harness to put other games in it.

Apparently there's an extra attachment PCB that maps the trackball to player1's controls on an additional Jamma connection, and maps player1's joystick controls over player2's.
So says this guy:
http://www.hardmvs.com/html/iMazeQ.htm

But I'm wondering if this attachment PCB is removed, will the Jamma connections work just like normal?

[paigeoliver]

Probably the best way to find out is to buy the next $10 Neo Geo cart that pops up on ebay.

And also, grrrrr. I had that kit in my watch list, as it was local, and I could have skipped out on paying shipping charges by picking it up.

Also, take this next one with a grain of salt. I once went over to a guys house who had a Neo Motherboard running in a handbuilt cocktail table, with some fighter game in it, but he had the irritating maze trackball in a box of parts nearbye. He talked about the game for a minute, and did not indicate that he had more than one Neo motherboard.

[SirPoonga]

Hmm, the circuit converts the trackball to something like atari 2600 tball works?

[JoyMonkey]

The seller was kind enough to try the PCB out with another MVS cartridge and he says it worked fine. I'm still curious to see if the jamma pin-outs work with regular games though.

[jerryjanis]

This got me doing some digging - I saw this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3246036519&category=13716

Apparently, the arcade game would give you a startling blast with air when you die!  That's rad.

[SirPoonga]

JoyMonkey,  yeah, you will probably have to rewire your own JAMMA harness though.


Jerry.  hehe, i always like the Whirlwind pinball.

[paigeoliver]

This got me doing some digging - I saw this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3246036519&category=13716

Apparently, the arcade game would give you a startling blast with air when you die!  That's rad.

Only the "dedicated" version had the air blaster. So far I have never bumped into one of those. I have seen two conversions on location, and one at auction.

[SirPoonga]

Are you getting teh system?  When?  Any news on it?

Is it a standard tball that is hooked into a circuit to convert the tball insto something like atari 2600's tball?  (simulates pressing directions)

[Howard_Casto]

Just for the record, we looked this up for the Controls.dat Project

(cheap plug, go here Now! : http://fe.donkeyfly.com)

It appears there is a trackball driver in the neogeo source currently, althought it wasn't there in the past.  So trackballs, for this game only are supported.

Also pop n bounce was planned to support a paddle as it's a araknoid type game.  The prototype paddle was never publically released, but you can still turn it on in mame via the games options.  The inputs are all screwed up though as it uses a trackball input scheme.  

[SirPoonga]

Also themame driver says the game used a special driver to support tballs.  So it might be a normal tball.

[JoyMonkey]

Also themame driver says the game used a special driver to support tballs.  So it might be a normal tball.

I hope so. The connections on either side of the tball body look the same as a regular Happ tball (have a look here).
I don't know what the overall size of the thing is yet, but I'd imagine that I'm going to have to build a much bigger CP than I usually do, I usually like things nice and compact (like my women   ).

[SirPoonga]

When you get it either reply here or to me.  This affects the controls.dat project

[JoyMonkey]

When you get it either reply here or to me.  This affects the controls.dat project

I was just thinking the same thing. It's currently listed with all the regular Neo-Geo games that use the 8-way/4button controls.
This is a little off-topic, but will the Neo-Geo games eventually listed individually?

[SirPoonga]

Eventually I will take the romof and cloneof filter off the project.

All games work with those controls in neogeo, even irrmaze.  Just that popbounc and irrmaze are the only ones iwth a tball or paddle/spinner.

We know there are clones that use different controls too.  For now we want to focus on the parents.  If oyu know a clone that is different PM me so I can make a note of it.

[JoyMonkey]

Just got the Irritating Maze kit delivered today and  

Look at the size of my balls!



I knew it'd be a little bigger than my Golden Tee tball, but I wasn't expecting anything like this. It seems just like an oversized Happ tball, so hacking it to a mouse should be no problem.

I haven't tried out the MVS board yet, been too busy playing with my balls.

[SirPoonga]

You might go blind.


Does it look like the tball uses a normal optic interface?

[JoyMonkey]

Does it look like the tball uses a normal optic interface?

Yep, it's just yer average Happ tball optic interface. Just oversized a bit.
Here's some photos: