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I need an old computer for 2 reasons

U

USSEnterprise

Experienced Member
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Jan 3, 2006
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Jackson, New Jersey
I have a few other hobbies than this, pinball and robotics. I have 1 EM pinball and one SS, and am on the robotics team at school. Here's what I need the old computer for. I need to learn assembly for the robotics team, and I need to be able to burn EEPROMS for the Pinball Machine. What would be a good machine to do this on?
 
There's plenty of books for documentation for assembly, & there's plenty of EPROM burners for any PC. I have one, well half of one. It's missing the control board (PCI board).

(Please note that assembly is different for each CPU, it's not universial like C++ or BASIC)
 
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What sort of CPU are you looking at? If an 8-bitter will suit your needs, I'd suggest the Z80. It's fairly simple to work with and documentation is very abundant.

--T
 
Yes, a BASIC Stamp is a good choice for a pre-built controller (I didn't realize they used that chip). I'm pretty sure there is an EPROM programmer module available from Parallax, designed to work with thier hardware.

--T
 
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the classic eprom burner wasn't specific to a machine I don't think. Lots used the parallel port. I have a book, unfortunately all stuck together do to getting wet and mildewed, which had several project burners that were controlled by BASIC, and therefore could be run off on nearly any machine (hmm perhaps the earlier projects in the book were off the serial port I'm thinking). You could do a search on Amazon, obviously eprom is in the title, and I doubt you'll be inundated with hits. It was published by Tab ~late 80's I think.
 
I have several books that cover the subject, most of which are geared towards the Z80 processor. I tend to keep them all within easy reach for reference purposes.

--T
 
I picked up a free IEEE based EPROM burner capable of 2 and 4K chips, but I don't have any software or could find any generic one. I think I should look for some other burner, perhaps one that can take 8 or 16K chips as well.
 
Basic Stamp

Basic Stamp

The Basic Stamp programs in an optimised version of tiny BASIC. You can download a Windows development system from parallax. The Basic Stamp uses it own serial communications protocol to load programs.

I know the development software works with windows 95. I haven't used it since that version.

If you want to develop arcade ROM you need to get the MAME emulator for testing, and find the proper cross assemblers in the Gnu Compiler Collection (GCC) the Zilog Z80 and the Mostek 6502 were common chips in the older arcade games. some newer games use motorola 68000 chips and Some may use custom video coprocessors.

When you get away from the Windows/Intel world there is a plethora of interesting and innovative processors out there.
 
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