08250: r2dtank: Bonus Life DIP

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
08250	DIP/Input	Minor	Always	Mar 16, 2022, 01:45	Apr 16, 2022, 11:10

Tester	chaneman	View Status	Public	Platform	MAME (Official Binary)
Assigned To	Steve Coomber	Resolution	Fixed	OS	Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
Status [?]	Resolved			Driver	sigma/r2dtank.cpp
Version	0.241	Fixed in Version	0.242	Build	64-bit
		Fixed in Git Commit	cb3f529	Github Pull Request #	#9424

Summary	08250: r2dtank: Bonus Life DIP
Description	R2D Tank Bonus Life DIP: Allows operator to select if the player is awarded a Bonus Life at 5000 pts or not. Enclosed is a screen shot of the DIP that affects Bonus Life awarded or not. It is the highlighted Unknown DIP above the "Lives" DIP. OFF=None On=5K Also a flyer from TAFA for the game "RED TANK" - same game/different name undumped, which mentions the "adjustable" added player tank at 5000 pts. (Highlighted in Red Box)
Steps To Reproduce	Load and run game. Play game with noted DIP off and score 5000 points taking notice that no extra tank is awarded. (Left Bottom of Screen) Turn on noted DIP and reset game. Play again to 5000 points and notice an extra tank is awarded. Game presents a challenge to new players so enable "Infinite Ammo" and "Invincibility" cheats to reach the 5000 points easier.
Additional Information
Github Commit

Flags
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems	r2dtank

Attached Files	R2D Tank Bonus Life DIP.jpg (575,900 bytes) Mar 16, 2022, 01:45 Uploaded by chaneman

No.19917 Steve Coomber Tester Mar 16, 2022, 11:25	Another good find chaneman. I have tested and confirmed the behaviour as you have advised. I will put in a small fix to correct this. Thanks
No.20004 jkburks Tester Apr 4, 2022, 06:30	The R2D Tank bonus tank switch should be: OFF 10,000 ON 5,000 The default is 10,000. This is documented on the sales flyer. If you set the DIP to None in current MAME, you will get a bonus tank when you exceed 10k points. I have confirmed this. https://www.flyerfever.com/red-tank-part-ii/ And the Japanese instruction card (table) https://twitter.com/morian/status/1126813495096274944 Notice how the Japanese flyer and card refer to the game as Red Tank Part II. R2D Tank is Sigma’s updated version Red Tank (undumped) which was intended for advanced players. They are not the same game. In Red Tank the player gets a new shot each time the tank erases a green diamond from the screen, and the player tank can carry up to 3 shots at a time. (The advertisement for Red Tank shows 5 shot icons on the screen, so it may have been switchable.) R2D Tank is supposed to limit the player tank to a single shot by default (switchable). This was intended to increase the difficulty. MAME currently allows the player tank to hold 4 shots. It is possible that this setting is controlled by 2 switches with steps, but I was unable to get this to change in the little time I spent on it. Screen shots from a surviving table show the single shot icon. https://twitter.com/garubo_jick/status/1124206213573500928 Perhaps one of you is motivated to figure out which DIP settings control the maximum number of shots?
No.20005 jkburks Tester Apr 4, 2022, 06:35	https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19800415p/page/n5/mode/1up Game Machine No. 140 – Apr. 15, 1980 (page 10) Sigma's New TV Game Red Tank 　Sigma Co., Ltd. (Headquarters = 13-11 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, ☎ 496-5221, President: Katsunori Manabe) will release the TV game machine Red Tank on April 21st. 　This is a TV game using a color monitor, in which the player advances his tank on the screen by operating the 4-way lever and the projectile button. 　There are dots on the screen, which are erased by treading on them with the tank (score from 10 points). Each time a dot is erased, the tank gets a shell (up to three shells at a time), and by firing the shell, the player can defeat the enemy tank (red) that is attacking from the other side (mystery score from 100 to 600 points). Enemy tanks appear one after another, but the pattern ends when all the dots have been erased, and bonus points are awarded (from 1,000 points). 　The game is over after the player’s three tanks (switchable). One additional tank is added at 5,000 points (switchable). The number of red tanks increases as the pattern progresses, and land mines also appear. The red tanks will attack, and if you touch a land mine you will be out. 　One of the game's features is the sound effects, such as the melody of the movie Hell's Revelation at the start of the game and the melody of the U.S. national anthem at the pattern change. 　The upright type list price is 620,000 yen, and the table type is scheduled to have a list price of 550,000 yen. *Apocalypse Now was released in Japan as 地獄の黙示録 (Hell’s Revelation).
No.20006 jkburks Tester Apr 4, 2022, 06:36	https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19811015p/page/n18/mode/1up Game Machine No. 175 – Oct. 15, 1981 (page 36) Introduced for Pros Following Red Tank R2D Tank from Sigma 　Sigma Shoji Co., Ltd. (Headquarters Tokyo, President Katsunori Manabe) will release a new TV game machine, R2D Tank, following the company's Red Tank. 　In Red Tank, players use a 4-way lever and a fire button to advance the tank while intercepting enemy tanks and erasing dots. R2D Tank is an extension of Red Tank with the following differences. 　(1) The speed of enemy tanks increases with the passage of time within the same pattern, (2) for every eight red tanks you defeat in the same pattern, one more tank is added (up to three), (3) the number of land mines increases as the pattern progresses, and (4) you can only hold one shell (previously three). ——The content of the game has become even more difficult. It can be said that it is for professionals. 　List prices: upright 580,000 yen, mini-upright 390,000 yen, 20-inch table 480,000 yen, 14-inch table 440,000 yen, board set 120,000 yen.
No.20007 jkburks Tester Apr 4, 2022, 06:45	Also, the date in MAME is technically incorrect for R2D Tank. The screen does show a 1980 copyright date, however this game was released in late October 1981. Red Tank was released on April 21st 1980. In early 1981 Video Games GmbH of West Germany released the game Super Tank, which uses different software and hardware than the Sigma game, but copied the design of Red Tank as the core gameplay with added improvements. This was not illegal at the time in West Germany, and Video Games GmbH denied Sigma’s request for royalties on the design. Later in 1981 Super Tank was licensed to SNK for sale in Japan. While Red Tank is undumped, there are title screen shots from the advertisements, which show no copyright year. The Title screen was redesigned for R2D Tank, and for whatever reason Sigma decided to add the 1980 date. It could be because the bulk of the game code was reused from the 1980 game, or it could be to reinforce the idea that their game came before Super Tank. The dispute between Sigma and Video Games GmbH created a lot of press coverage. One of the articles received a rough translation for the Overseas Readers column in Game Machine. You can read it here. It spans multiple pages. https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19820401p/page/n15/mode/1up
No.20008 Steve Coomber Tester Apr 4, 2022, 09:44	Many thanks for the detailed information jkburks. We will indeed take another look at this over the next few days
No.20045 Steve Coomber Tester Apr 9, 2022, 18:33	I have confirmed that a bonus life is added at 10,000 points when bonus life DIP switch is set to none. However, I haven't been able to find DIP switches that affects the maximum stored number of shots. No matter what the DIP switch settings are, it is always 4. There doesn't appear to be any hidden/unused DIP switches in the driver either.
No.20046 Steve Coomber Tester Apr 9, 2022, 18:45	I have found a photo of the R2DTank PCB and it shows 3 x bank of 8 DIP switches. The R2DTank MAME driver is currently showing just 2 banks of DIP switches. I am looking into this now
No.20047 Steve Coomber Tester Apr 10, 2022, 08:40	I have found the missing bank of DIP switches and I have so far discovered a flip screen function and the missing configurable number of shots
No.20069 Steve Coomber Tester Apr 16, 2022, 11:10	The missing DIP switches behaviour is making any sense at the moment. I will put in a small fix for the bonus life for now.