Flare One Technical Reference Manual Found!

January 11th, 2025:

In an attempt to learn more about the Bell fruit Pub Quiz machines based on the Flare One chipset, I was lucky enough to talk to a former Bell fruit programmer (after several attempts to reach out to other Bell fruit employees fell flat).

Paul Arnold has been incredibly helpful, and together we have been able to help improve the emulation of one of the Bell Fruit games, provided a better ROM dump for that game, AND Paul informed me that he had a Flare One Reference guide - something that we've not previously been able to find.

I'm incredibly grateful to Paul and I sense there might be more improvements coming to the MAME based Bell Fruit Flare One game collection!

Where are they Now? - Konix

January 8th, 2025:

Chris Arnsby has done some fantastic research into Konix and has produced a great article in his website that explores Britians video game houses and companies.

I highly recommend checking it out - it makes my light research over the years look thoroughly amateur!

Konix Emulator Open-Sourced

January 8th, 2025:

Pretty Huge News!

@Savourysnax has open-sourced the Konix Multi-system and Flare One Slipstream emulator as well as the MiSTer FPGA Konix core amongst other related tools and info.

https://github.com/Konix-Multisystem

I hope it might lead to a few more hands helping out.

Please note - this includes emulation of Flare One - where it all started... Konix Multi-system Emulator covering the different CPU architectures (8088 and 8086) And the MSU Era which had a later revision of the Slipstream ASIC and a 386 CPU.

Multi-system PCB Reproduction by COSAM the Great

January 8th, 2025:

Amazing news - We had an unpopulated PCB for the final production version of the KMS that would be the same as the one you'd have had in your KMS (if you were able to buy one!)

We only had a barely readable Bill of Materials (a list of the parts required to make a system) from the KMS Business Plan, and no circuit diagram (AKA Schematic).

This is nothing for COSAM The Great! though, who has produced working reproductions of other rare machines such as the Sega Neptune and the Nintendo PlayStation.

He not only reproduced the PCB, but has created a circuit diagram that we haven't been able to find elsewhere. The circuit diagram has a LOT of assumptions, but it's a great starting point.

This is major news, COSAM is a big deal in the Retro games preservation scene, having done some amazing work to preserve PCBs that are prone to damage from leaking capacitors and transforming prototypes into something you can actually finally experience.

While this is still a Work In Progress, we're not releasing the Gerbers (instructions for manufacturing the PCB) publicly. I have had some made so that I can help spot any obvious problems. We'll let you know when they are public.

What's the point you ask? Well - because it's possible to replicate the ASIC with an FPGA, there is a chance that if the rest of the system is in place, then we might be able to shoehorn a FPGA into this PCB, and then you can put this into a MSC case. This is the first step on a VERY long road towards (possibly) making a Konix Multi-system reproduction

Huge thanks to COSAM!

3D PowerChair model available for printing

January 8th, 2025:

Do you want to have your own Powerchair?

We have a first pass model for you - it's not been refined, there's a bunch of tweaks and features I'd like to see, but if you fancy a fairly simple approximation to sit of your desk, please feel free to download and print this - I'd LOVE to see your printed models!

When we get a chance to update it, I'll post a note here.

We don't have a model for the Console or light-gun yet (I'm slowly working on making those happen).

BSkyB Games World MSU Video

January 8th, 2025:

Neil Miles found a batch of Video Tapes on Ebay which contained a few editions of BSkyB's Games World - he's uploaded them to his YouTube channel. One of them is interesting for us.

I was searching for a very long time to try to track down this video - I'd heard it casually mentioned that the Multi-system was shown on a BSkyB Broadcasting (UK) Games show, but finally it's resurfaced.

What's interesting in this video is that this is clearly MSU still promoting the Multi-system with the 3 modes controller, but of course as a 32bit (386) CDROM based system (I had believed it was going to be a VCR style home entertainment box).

They show a work in progress version of Magician's Apprentice - which later got released on PC. When I get time I'll write more about this game in the games section - it's already been mentioned in our news section how to get hold of the rare PC version

I find it fascinating to watch both Wyn Holloway and Michael Baxter. It could be their nerves of being filmed for a TV show (Wyn especially looks and sounds like a heavily sedated rabbit caught in the headlights), but Michael seems to be lacking the energy he once had to promote the Multi-system, perhaps understandably by that stage!

Take a look - it's at 20:00