Slipstream: Blog

It's been a busy period this past month or so, after a long spell of not doing much with the website (but still with the idea of working on a book boiling away in the background), I've suddenly found myself re-energised to try to do a bunch of things. Mostly find out new stuff, make things, talk to new people, follow up on old leads and promises and generally push it all a bit further forward.

So, to kick off this new Blog - let's talk about Bell-fruit. I think it's fair to say that because Gambling machines aren't my passion, it's never been the top of my attention. This was honestly a mistake.

Because in reality, what Bell-fruit Machines brings to the Konix multi-system story is a tangible physical realisation of the Flare One computer - with 8 actually playable games that you could have been playing since 1989. Yes, they are video interactive pub quiz machines, but nether the less, they existed, and I don't think that while they co-existed for a while during the hype of the Konix Multi-system that a lot of people knew or realised or even cared that the machine they were longing for, the Konix Multi-system home console was mostly sitting in their local pub in a slightly different form.

Because, in reality, the Slipstream ASIC is mostly just the 4 custom chips smashed into one, and the choice of processor is all but irrelevant (hot take!). The reason I say this is because the characteristic look and feel of the Multi-system has always been about the graphics and sound capability of the Flare ASIC(s). From Flare One Z80, 8088 and later 8086 in the Konix-Multisystem and the 386 in the MSU box, the software all looked and felt basically the same - so CPU = irrelevant.

Now, the really cool thing about all of this that's just dawned on me recently, is that these Bell-fruit machines have parts that you can buy - maybe not easily, but you CAN buy the PCBs from these machines on EBay occasionally. I currently have 3.

Additionally, due to me reaching out recently for help, I managed to get in touch with a former Bell-fruit programmer who's provided me with great info AND circuit diagrams. Circuit Diagrams means we can produce PCBs, and having the custom components to populate those PCBs with means that we can have a working Flare One system. It's genuinely not a totally idiotic or especially challenging thing to do if you are knowledgable enough.

So - if we were to make this, what do we call this machine?. If it's created in the form factor of a Konix Multi-System, then it seems logical to call it a Flare Multi-System because it uses the Flare Chipset and it's to be shoe-horned into the Konix Multi-system case (an MSU controller - also pretty easily available on EBay), and is aiming to provide similar functionality.

I'd also like to see it augmented with an IDE interface and a JAMMA bus for easy arcade connection. What are your thoughts?

I've kind of got a bit of a bee in my bonnet to start producing Multi-system related stuff, so to that end, I've enlisted some help to get a 3D printable reproduction of the PowerChair reproduced for everyone to freely download.

I initially paid someone of Fiver to knock together a 3D model from reference photos, and they did a reasonable job, I had no complaints, but to refine it much more and start adding in specific features as well as ensuring it could 3D print properly (a very important skill in it's own right that requires a lot of experience), then it could have started being a very costly business.

Luckily, I have a good friend who has these kind of skills, but as well as being just the coolest dude on the planet, also has all these skills, and cares to make as good a job as possible. I didn't try to enlist him immediately because I knew just how busy he is - but I did alway want him to cast his eye over the model and refine it.

Well, he's done far better than that and is just finishing of a completely from scratch version of the chair that 100% prints properly, and has as many of the details as possible from the reference images we have available to us. I'm excited - I hope you are too!