News Update History
Welcome to the site news update history page, any updates to the site or its content will be posted here.
The site started from humble beginnings and launched on 13th Feb 2000.
Highlights from the site history:
13 Feb 2000: Site v1.0 launched (remember Netscape?!)
18 Nov 2001: Site v2.0 launched with improved navigation.
30 Jun 2005: Site v3.0 launched with new layout.
13 Oct 2024: Site v4.0 launched, an all new site with high resolution manual scans and expanded hardware identification section.
Feel free to search, filter or just browse the history, sometimes there were long periods between updates and I cannot promise that will not happen again!
(Note: Not all previous site history has been migrated)
News Update History
Added images of a prototype/sample game Defender boardset that I recently fixed. There are some differences between this and production games:
The CPU board has no green solder mask and the decoder PROM was previously undumped.
The ROM board has wire modifications that are incorporated into the production version
The Interface board has the normally omitted 4-pin molex connector populated.
High Resolution Williams Schematics
I recently found out that my wife had access to an A0 scanner at work, so on a day off we went in armed with all my Williams original schematics and have rescanned them at 300dpi. I then re-touched them by hand, fixed any known errors and bundled them into a new PDF. The file sizes average about 15Mb, but they are so much better than the files that were previously available. I have more documents scanned but they have not been processed yet and so will be uploaded in due course.
If you have any unscanned manuals that you would be prepared to lend me for scanning, please get in touch via my Contact page.
You can find the new documents on the Williams Documents page, there is also a filter available to view only high resolution documents.
I have uploaded a development version of the updated Williams Hardware Identification page, though many of the images still need to be done so it is very much a work in progress.
There are also two new pages; a Sound board Jumpering Guide and the R8731 CPU board page which lists the four different revisions of the Robotron type CPU boards.
Email me with any feedback you may have on the new pages.
I have added a Robotron Cocktail Owners List page, if you have a Robotron Cocktail or know of the whereabouts of one, why not Email me with details of the game!