VIRTUAL LIBRARY
American Laser Games Virtual Library - Images and information on the major components

MANUALS & SCHEMATICS
American Laser Games - Operation & Service Manual for All Games:
  - Version 1.04 - 24 Apr 1993 (61 pages)
  - Version 1.05 - 16 Sep 1993 (63 pages)
Fast Draw Showdown - Operation Manual (34 pages)
Fast Draw Showdown - Wiring Diagrams (4 pages)
Mad Dog McCree & Who Shot Johnny Rock? - Operating Manual (23 pages)
Mad Dog McCree - Operators Manual (Europe / Atari) (26 pages)
Field Assembly for 33"/50" Games - Instructions (3 pages)
Dragon's Lair II to ALG Conversion - Instructions (20 pages)

ROM IMAGES

GAME VERSION RAM / ROM
BOARD REVISION
PALs
U4 / U5
Crime Patrol 1.00 B R6 / R5
1.20 B R6 / R5
1.40 B R6 / R5
1.51 B R6 / R5
Crime Patrol 2 : Drug Wars 1.10 B R6 / R5
1.30 B R6 / R5
Fast Draw Showdown 1.30 B R6 / R5
1.31 B R6 / R5
Gallagher's Gallery 2.00 B R6 / R5
2.10 B R6 / R5
2.20 B R6 / R5
The Last Bounty Hunter 0.06 B R6 / R5
1.01 B R6 / R5
Mad Dog McCree 1c A R1 / R2
2.02 B R6 / R5
2.03 B R6 / R5
Mad Dog II : The Lost Gold 1.00 B R6 / R5
1.10 B R6 / R5
2.02 B R6 / R5
2.04 B R6 / R5
Space Pirates 1.4 B R4 / R2
1.4b - Made in 2021 [1] B R6 / R5
2.2 B R6 / R5
Who Shot Johnny Rock? 1.5 A R3 / R2
1.6 A R3 / R2
1.6a - Made in 2006 [2] A R1 / R2
1.6b - Made in 2006 [2] B R6 / R2

[1]  Space Pirates 1.4b makes the original single-player ROM version 1.4 compatible with the more common R6/R5 PAL chips.
      This is useful because ALG's version 2.2 for use with R6/R5 PAL adds two-player support by making compromises/reductions in the gameplay that are considered inferior.
[2]  Who Shot Johnny Rock? 1.6a and 1.6b were made to add compatibility with more RAM/ROM board and PAL chip combinations.

 

 

Compatible Laserdisc Players - Sony LDP-1450, Sony LDP-1550, Sony LDP-2000, Sony LDP-3600D and compatibles

Sony LDP-1450 - Operating Instructions (19 pages)
Sony LDP-1450 - Service Manual (98 pages)
Sony LDP-2000/2100/2200 - Operating Instructions (23 pages)
Sony LDP-xxxx - Command Set Info

Aftermarket Laserdisc Player Replacement - The Dexter board is a drop-in replacement that substitutes for the laserdisc player and plays the video digitally.

 

 

Different Versions - Three different versions of these arcade games exist. The first two use laserdisc technology, and the third is based on a 3DO home console. Early systems were made for one player only and use a plain Amiga 500 motherboard, a genlock, a Sony LDP-1450 laserdisc player, a Rev. A RAM/ROM board, a sound amplifier board, a single-player optoisolator board, and a light gun. When two-player games were developed, a partial redesign of the existing hardware was done. The RAM/ROM board was upgraded to Rev. B. The optoisolator board was expanded to accept a second gun as input, and the sound amplifier board was integrated into it. The two boards combined were named the TAOS board. A one-player game can be run on a two-player setup by using the proper RAM/ROM board and utilizing the second player gun as the only gun for shooting.

Later versions were built around a Panasonic 3DO system, based on CD-ROM technology. The 3DO systems were slightly modified for use in arcade games, utilizing a custom interface (Coyote board) to connect to the guns, coin mechs, and control panel inputs. An example of a modification that was done is the spindle motor replacement. Regular 3DO spindle motors were not designed to run all day in an arcade environment and were failing soon, so Panasonic replaced them with heavy-duty ones. The gameplay is pretty much the same as the laserdisc versions, but the video quality is inferior. The arcade game CD-ROMs are different from the home consumer versions, and they are not interchangeable.

All versions of the games, both American and European, run on the NTSC video format. The genlock and/or 3DO video outputs are NTSC composite, so the games can be played on a regular NTSC TV or monitor with composite video input. However, for arcade use, a standard NTSC demodulator board is used to display the NTSC video on the arcade monitors (25" and 33" versions). The big screen models use a regular 46" retro-projection Pioneer TV mounted inside the cabinet.

Gun Info - For info on the gun wiring, check the ALG Gun Wiring Diagram. Most of the guns were black metal. Early models needed an external 'shot amplifier module' between the gun and the optoisolator board. This module was later removed/replaced with a hardware upgrade of the PCB mounted inside the gun itself.

Most of the weapons use a mercury switch installed inside their shell to detect the gun position (horizontal = shooting ; vertical = gun folded, reload position). Who Shot Johnny Rock? uses a small machine gun without a mercury switch (the game doesn't support reloading). Space Pirates uses a sort of space laser gun. The 3DO guns are orange plastic guns. Similar guns of the same color were sometimes also used in the laserdisc versions of the games. The guns were lighter, with the same hardware as the metal guns, but mounted inside a gun shell marked 'Nintendo'.

Interchangeability - Most of the games are interchangeable with minor hardware adjustments; however, Fast Draw Showdown uses a vertically mounted monitor, and all the other games are horizontal. To change games, you basically have to change the RAM/ROM board and the laserdisc. The laserdiscs were all manufactured by 3M, single-sided, and plastic-backed, with audio in English and dubbed in many other languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.

RAM / ROM Board - There are two types of RAM/ROM boards. Rev. A, the early version, uses two 27512 EPROMs (64 kB each), and Rev. B uses two 27C1001 or 27C010 EPROMs (128 kB each). In addition to the two EPROMs (U1, U2) which contain the game code, each RAM/ROM board is equipped with a zeropower RAM (U3 - MK48Z028-20 or equiv.) and two PAL chips (U4, U5 - PAL16L8). The idea of the PALs was to scramble the address lines and the PAL IC surfaces were scraped to prevent illegal reproduction of the boards. Other than that, the software on the EPROMs isn't encrypted at all, just scrambled in the addresses. Mad Dog McCree has its own scramble (Rev. A), and Who Shot Johnny Rock? has its own (Rev. A), but the other games (Rev. B) were all the same. It was too much trouble to keep coming up with additional board versions. Each game could run on the same RAM/ROM board; however, for production, they were run through different programs to scramble the bits. For more info on this, visit the ALG RAM/ROM Info page.

Mad Dog McCree and Who Shot Johnny Rock? were the first games to be developed. They were designed as single-player games only. The two-player games require more ROM space because of the amount of software, so a Rev. B of the RAM/ROM board with larger-sized EPROMs was produced.

PAL Chip Workarounds - Some of the PAL chips mentioned above are more rare than others, which can make it difficult to swap/share the same RAM/ROM board between different games.  The following ROM modifications: Space Pirates 1.4b and Who Shot Johnny Rock? 1.6a and 1.6b (available in the ROM table above) were made to alleviate this problem and make these games compatible with the more common PAL chips.

Aftermarket ROM Board - The LaserCon ALG MultiROM replaces the original American Laser Games RAM/ROM board and adds a dial for game selection. [OFF-SITE]

Manufacturers:
American Laser Games (USA)
Atari (Europe)
Years released: 1990 - 1995

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