[Mar/09/96]

Berserk/Frenzy ROM checksums
Stern 1980, 1982

The ROMs for these two games are located on the ZPU-1000 (Berserk),
ZPU-1001 (Frenzy), and the VSU-1000 (both).

Berserk has a socket location for ROM6, but it is empty.

Frenzy's ZPU-1001 board does not have a ROM0 at location 1C-0.

Both games share the same voice ROMs on the VSU-1000.

The games use a Z-80 microprocessor.

One Berserk boardset that I have has original "MB8516" EPROM
chips, which I assume are still 2716s.

Chip   Other
Loc    ID       Checksum       Chip Type        Board
-----  -----    --------       ---------        -----
1C-0   ROM0       4AFF           2716          ZPU-1000
1D-1   ROM1       B1FF           2716          ZPU-1000
3D-2   ROM2       1EFF           2716          ZPU-1000
5D-3   ROM3       1DFF           2716          ZPU-1000
6D-4   ROM4       F3FF           2716          ZPU-1000
5C-5   ROM5       E6FF           2716          ZPU-1000
1D-1   ROM1       0426           2716          ZPU-1001
3D-2   ROM2       4A0C           2716          ZPU-1001
5D-3   ROM3       FE55           2716          ZPU-1001
6D-4   ROM4       4CEC           2716          ZPU-1001
5C-5   ROM5       F6C7           2716          ZPU-1001
1C                C745           2716          VSU-1000
2C                F98C           2716          VSU-1000





[Jan/28/98] - Rules.txt

Berzerk for Mame/p notes
- if you hit the tab key when the
Berzerk rom is loaded, you may select dipswitches and
turn the voice frequency modulation ON or OFF.
  ON will result in the robot's speech fluctuating from
     lower to higher pitches in a random fashion
  OFF will result in the standard robot low pitch speech

Sound- Soundblaster setting (soundcard 1) will
   provide optimal speech simulation.
********************************************************

Berzerk Rules and Playing Tips

by Tom Hirschfeld (1981)


Controls 

a. Eight directional joystick

b. FIRE button


Scoring

a. Robot 50 points

b. Bonus for shooting all Robots in a maze: 10 points per robot

c. Extra humanoid at 5,000 points

Dangers

a. All walls are death to touch

b. Robots shoot bullets; if the humanoid is hit, he dies

c. If the humanoid collides with a robot or Evil Otto, he dies

Observations

a. The game consists of one maze after another, each of which can be completed only by
the
humanoid`s death or escape. Sixty-four thousand different mazes are possible, so the
chances of
repitition are low<.p> 

b. The humanoid`s motion and aim are controlled by the same joystick so he cannot run
and fire in
different directions simultaneously

c. At the beginning of each maze, the humanoid appears at the middle of one of the four
edges and
can escape only through the middle of another side. In the next maze, he appears on the
side
opposite his last exit. In the meantime, he can fire about two bullets a second.

d. From 4 to 12 robots appear soon after the humanoid. They are his enemies. Like him,
they can
shoot in eight directions. They shoot whenever he is in their sights and move so that he will
be. If the
humanoid and a robot are separated by a wall segment, for example, and the humanoid
walks to one
end of the segment and past it, the robot will follow him step by step, shooting at him all the
while.

e. The robots are not too smart. They are often destroyed not by the humanoid`s bullets
but by
walking into walls, walking into each other, or being zapped by Evil Otto. No matter how
they die,
the player gets the credit.

f. Evil Otto is a smiling ball that bounces out from whenever the humanoid began that
maze. He
appears after about ten seconds and immediately pursues the humanoid, bouncing along
horizontally
or vertically towards his prey. The bounces are about two inches high, slow while the robots
remain
on the screen and faster once all the robots all die. If the humanoid moves, Otto shifts
course
accordingly. 

g. Diagonal bullets are the hardest to dodge.

h. When a robot dies, it disappears by explosion. If the humanoid shoots a robot pointblank
and
then walks into the explosion, he dies as well.

i. When the robots appear, the player has one second or less before the start shooting at
him.

j. Occassionally, a player must dodge a bullet at the beginning of the maze and accidently
backs into
the side from which he emerged, now a deadly wall. Blind reflex does not always produce
the best
results.

k. There are two models of BERZERK out, each with a different way of getting harder.
The old
model has:
1. Yellow robots without bullets.
2. Red robots shooting one at a time
3. White robots shooting two at a time

After 5,000 points, Otto travels twice as fast. In the new version there are:
1. Yellow Robots without bullets
2. Red robots shooting one at a time
3. White robots shooting two at a time
4. Purple robots shooting three at a time
5. Yellow robots shooting four at a time
6. Purple robots shooting give at a time
7. White robots shooting one superfast bullet at a time
and so on up to five superfast bullets at a time, but Otto always moves slowly.

Strategies

a. When you complete one maze, start getting ready for the next.

b. Learn to use the controls; if your hands do not react instantly to your thoughts, you will
have
trouble staying alive.

c. Becasue of the time pressure and for purposes of self-defense, shoot whenever you have
a target.

d. Once you realise how the robots move and shoot, it should not be difficult to deal with
them
singly. Try to stay cleat of gangs, though, since you can`t cover yourself in more than one
direction at
a time. If you do end up surrounded- at the beginning of a maze, for instance- shoot your
way out
and run. The farther you are from your enemies, the more time you have to dodge their
shots.

If you want to demolish a large group of robots in a short time, either shoot at them from
far away or
put a wall between yourself and them. As you pass the end of the wall, they will follow you
from
cover. Pick them off one by one as they emerge, being sure to dodge any shots they have a
chance
to fire

e. Keep in mind that you need not kill all the robots with your own bullets. Here are a few
ways to
have them meet other deaths:

1. If you are between two distant robots and both shoot at you, step out of the way for a
moment
while the bullets go by. Since the robots will follow you, you must then step back into the
line of fire.
They will do the same and be destroyed without your firing a shot.

2. If you are near a lone robot, you can influence him by your movements to walk into a
wall. It
doesn`t take long.

3. If two robots are near each other on the other side of a wall from you, move back and
forth
rapidly, trying to draw each in the direction of the other. They will probably collide and both
be
destroyed.

4. If you are running out of time and must choose between shooting robots in one corner of
the maze
and shooting robots in the center, go to the corner. Then, when Otto appears, your
presence will
draw him across the center so the survivors will die before you can escape.

If the only robots left are not in the center but out of your range when Otto appears, do
what you
can to make him zap them. It can be done if you pick the right place to wait.

f. Otto is the timer, making a leisurely pace unwise. If you use him as outlined above, wait
just inside
the maze and exit as soon as there is nothing more to be gained. At his fasters, he can
easily outrun
you.

g. When you have a choice of robots to shoot, start with diagonal shots. You will,thus, avoid
being
the target of diagonal fire, the most dangerous of all.

If a robot does manage to get the drop on you and shoot diagonally, the best dodge is
another
diagonal move, but perpendicular to the course of the bullet. A vertical or horizontal
evasion would
require you to travel a longer distance before you were safe.

h. Do not assume that you can walk through a robot with impunity if you have just shot it.
The
explosion could kill you.

i. At the beginning of each maze, especially later in the game, know where you will appear
and be
prepared for shots from any distance and direction. Good players lose more humanoids at
the
beginning than any other point in the maze.

j. Start shooting right away; if you must dodge, resist the natural tendancy to retreat into
the wall you
just emerged from.

k. Recognise any change in the color of your enemies; before they shoot a single bullet,
you will
know that their firepower has increased.



BERZERK- video firsts!

Berzerk, Universal Research Laboratories/Stern Inc., 1980. Just
         passing a Berzerk machine was a new experience for most people. The
         machine actually spoke! Few people had experienced voice-synthesis at the
         time, and it made quite an impression. Because digitization was so
         expensive, the sentences spoken by Berzerk shared a vocabulary of only 30
         words. 






[Jan/27/98]

Berzerk Information

Following the Berzerk thread got me to remeniscing, in case anyone is interested.

The speech was done using LPC coding that
I believe was invented by T.I., although I remember we used a National Speech chip
in it. This was when speech and memory was expensive, so we didn't just digitize 
sounds and dump them out through a DAC. I remember it cost something like $1000
per word to have the compression done, so we tried to come up with a limited 
vocabulary which could be rearranged and reused as much as possible. There was 
some guy up in Silicon Gulch who did this stuff for a living - so it is possible
to make money while talking in a monotone.

The original hardware design used a 6809 CPU, until we found out that the externally 
clocked version (6809E) didn't work properly. We had to hustle to redo the board to
run a Z80. The local Mot rep said he was going to have the 6809E's designer shot for
 that, but I don't think that ever really happened.

Stern's management (in their infinite wisdom) did not foresee that color video games 
would take off, so we were 'directed' to develop a monochrome hardware system. Then 
suddenly Defender happened from Williams and we had to hustle again. What we did was 
to come up with a color overlay board which would map the screen into 4 x 4 or 8 x 8 
(I don't remember anymore) pixel blocks. If the monochrome frame buffer output was a 
'1', the color in the overlay RAM was used. Otherwise it was black. This is why when 
the rooms move the walls change color. We called this board the BSC (Bullsh*t color), 
but the real name was Buffer System, Color.

The frame buffer used refresh spec fallout 4K x 1 DRAMs. These were cheap and easy to 
get at the time because all the manufacturers had problems meeting the refresh specs. 
Since we read out data during all lines, refresh was no problem. This idea was originated 
on the original Midway monochrome 8080 based games - Gunfight, Seawolf, etc.

There was no object to the game other than to survive and kill as many robots as possible. 
As the game progressed, the rooms got more intricate and more any more robots showed up. 
You had to kill all the robots before the exit doors would open. Evil Otto came out faster 
as the game progressed.

The game was named after the Sci-Fi novel 'Berzerkers' by I believe Fred Saberhagen. It's 
a novel about robots which go Berzerk and kill everybody. I remember we came up with the 
name while caught in a traffic jam on Chicago's Kennedy expressway.

Evil Otto was invented to convince you to leave the room after you killed all the robots. 
Otherwise, people would have a tendency to hang around. We wanted to kill you off ASAP so 
as to get the replay. By the way, Evil Otto was named after a guy by the name of Dave Otto, 
who worked for the company all of us worked for before joining Stern/URL. This company did 
R&D for Midway, and was respnsible for the first Midway processor-based games. We also worked 
on the aborted Bally Professional Arcade, one of the first home vid systems. Otto was the 
co-owner's gopher. We used to call him the sherrif, since he was an ex rent-a-cop and was 
responsible for security, toilet paper, coffee, etc.

Berzerk was the most popular American-designed video game done by Stern. I think we built 
somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000. We would have built more but we had serious problems 
with the original joystick - which used opto-reflector devices. The joystick was designed 
to pass the baseball bat test - smack it with a baseball bat and if it survived we figured 
that it would last on location - how wrong we were. What happened was that the rubber piece 
that formed a liquid seal (barf, beer, etc) was gorund down by the action of the joystick rubbing 
against the mounting plates, and the rubber glop coated the reflective surface. Another problem 
was that the surface did not reflect directly into to optics, it went off at an angle, so the 
phototransistor didn't see all the light. It was eventually replaced by a Wico joystick. The 
numbers built were short of what Williams did with Defender which was out at the same time. 
Defender was definitely a better game.

Frenzy happened because we had some board inventory left over. We were running Astro-invaders 
(a ripoff of Invaders which we lisenced from a little known Japanese company - Konami) and it 
used a different hardware system. As I recall, the object was to nuke the nuclear reactor - then 
all the  robots would go nuts and just walk around instead of going after you - for a while.

That's all I can remember for now, if anyone is interested I'll talk to some of the guys who were 
around at the time (some of us still keep in touch) and see if there are any other things which 
might be of interest.

The only reason I remembered the phrases so well is because I have a copy of Pac-Man Fever to keep 
them in mind. Also, note that the e-mail address quoted for me is no longer valid.

-

