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Konami — 68000 beat'em ups (TMNT, Simpsons, X-Men)

Konami's beat'em up golden age (1989-1994): a 68000 + K052109 (tiles) / K051960 (sprites) customs hardware that ran TMNT, The Simpsons, X-Men (up to 6 players!), Sunset Riders… Big sprites, multiplayer, strong licenses.

PCB Konami (TMNT)

PCB Konami (TMNT) — photo by Robivy64, domaine public (Wikimedia Commons).

Identification

Field Value
Manufacturer Konami
Years 1989-1994
CPU Motorola 68000 (+ Z80 sound on some)
Players 2 to 6 (X-Men, Simpsons)
Settings DIP

Architecture

Block Chip Role
CPU Motorola 68000 game logic
Video K052109 (tilemaps) + K051960/K053245 (sprites) customs big sprites, multiple layers
Sound Z80 / 68000 + K053260 / YM2151 / K007232 FM + samples

This set of Konami customs (K052109/K051960…) is reused across the beat'em up range. Some cabinets (X-Men, Simpsons) support 4 to 6 simultaneous players (even 2 monitors for the 6-player X-Men). Emulated in MAME (tmnt.cpp, simpsons.cpp, xmen.cpp).

Notable games

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989), TMNT: Turtles in Time (1991), The Simpsons (1991), X-Men (1992), Sunset Riders, Vendetta, Bucky O'Hare, Asterix, Metamorphic Force, Violent Storm, Mystic Warriors, Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, Premier Soccer…

What the Konami manuals say about the board and the cabinet ✅

✅ Nine manufacturer manuals archived, and a template that repeats

ⓘ This page described the platform with no original document for its games. Nine Konami manuals are now archived here, and they share the same TECHNICAL INFORMATION box — word for word from one game to the next:

"(1) Required power capacity — GND-Vcc 5V … A or more — GND-(+12V) · (2) Output R (red) analog, positive, G (green) analog, positive, B (blue) analog, positive, SYNC. H-V complexed, negative · (3) The monitor should be … installed · (4) Use the volume knob on the PCB to adjust sound level."

ⓘ Three things follow: the sound is set on the board, not in the cabinet; the sync is composite negative over analogue positive RGB; and the game dictates the monitor's orientation.

Game +5 V required Monitor Players
Sunset Riders 4 A or more horizontal 1 to 4
Vendetta 4 A or more horizontal 1 to 4
Turtles in Time 4 A or more horizontal 1 to 4
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — (not stated in this manual) — 4
Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa 4 A or more horizontal —
Martial Champion 4 A or more horizontal —
Bells & Whistles 4 A or more ⚠️ vertical 1 or 2
Bottom of the 9th ⚠️ 5 A or more horizontal —
Open Golf Championship ⚠️ 5 A or more horizontal —

ⓘ Values re-read from the scan image for Sunset Riders, Vendetta, Turtles in Time, Bells & Whistles, Bottom of the 9th and Open Golf — the text layer rendered "GNOVcc" or "GNX + 12V" in places. → Power supplies

⚠️ Four players over JAMMA: what the 56-pin edge cannot carry

JAMMA wires two players only. For four, Konami adds an extra harness, described in the T.M.N.T. and Vendetta manuals:

Connector What it carries
1P / 2P 56-pin JAMMA edge, 5/32 inch pitch power, video, sound, coins 1 and 2, 1P and 2P controls
3P CN3, 15-pin JST B15P-SHF-1AA coin 3, four directions, jump, attack, ground
4P CN4, 15-pin, same part coin 4, four directions, jump, attack, ground

⚠️ The extensions carry neither +5 V nor video: switches and a ground, nothing else. ⓘ So a Konami four-player cabinet is not "JAMMA with more wires" — it is JAMMA plus two proprietary connectors, and that is where the two extra coin slots run.

ⓘ The manual demands the matching cabinet: "Use a multi-control upright cabinet with four sets of an 8-way joystick and two function buttons", and "four independent coin slots are necessary". ⚠️ There is no start button: "Start buttons are substituted by the function buttons for each player" — you join the game with the action buttons.

ⓘ The colour code, and why it helps troubleshooting

The T.M.N.T. parts list assigns one colour per player, stick and buttons alike: red, blue, yellow, violet (parts 30304, 30305, 30307, 30321 for the sticks). ⓘ The harness follows the same logic — 3P wires are white/something (white/red, white/yellow, white/black…), 4P wires yellow/something.

✅ A whole player gone silent therefore reads off the colour code: one dead direction points at a switch, a whole player points at its extension connector or its ground.

ⓘ The manual also notes that the coin counter surge-killer diodes are on the board — "surge killer diodes for coin counter installed on the P.C.B.".

ⓘ DIP settings — the Konami convention of those years

On T.M.N.T., three banks share the work: DIP 1 for the coin slots (up to 5 coins for 1 play, or 1 coin for 7), DIP 2 for the game — 1, 2, 3 or 5 lives, four difficulty levels, attract sound —, DIP 3 for picture and service: screen flip (SW1) and test mode (SW3).

⚠️ Unused switches are named as such — "SW5 thru SW8 are not used", "SW2 and SW4 … should be kept OFF" —, and the manual rings the recommended settings. ⓘ A half-empty DIP bank is not missing information: it is the information.

Common faults

Symptom Likely cause Lead
Corrupt sprites/planes K052109/K051960 customs / RAM RAM test, contacts; rare customs
No/partial sound K053260 / YM2151 / Z80 Sound-stage diagnosis
One player unresponsive multiplayer I/O / harness Check player wiring
Lost settings DIP Check the DIP bank
No image Power, 68000, harness Base diagnosis

Modernisation & mods

The common ground for every JAMMA board

Video, power, control panel and upscalers depend on the cabinet rather than the board: everything is centralised in Modernising a cabinet. To run the board outside a cabinet (at home, on a display): supergun.

  • Storage 🟡: the game lives in EPROM/mask ROM on the board. Changing or restoring a game means reprogramming the EPROMs (and, for a mask ROM, using a pinout adapter) → EPROM method.
  • Media preservation: replacing the original storage, multicarts, ODEs and modern options by family → PCB preservation hub.
  • Scan rate 📺: ~15.62 kHz / 59.2 Hz — standard resolution, a classic 15 kHz chassis is fine — the most common JAMMA case → tri-sync and upscalers. (Computed from the MAME sources — konami/tmnt.cpp — pixel clock ÷ htotal.)
  • FPGA / emulation: see the Emulation & FPGA section below.

Repair (technician)

  • Konami customs (K052109 tilemaps, K051960/K053245 sprites, K053260 sound): unobtainable new → corrupt sprites/planes = video RAM + buffers first, the custom last (donor). This custom set is shared across the range (cross-part swaps possible).
  • Sound: Z80/68000 + K053260 / YM2151 / K007232 — diagnose the sound stage.
  • Capacitors: recap sound + PSU filtering.
  • Oxidised EPROM sockets: re-tin / turned-pin socket.

→ Methods: PCB fault-finding · Recap · EPROM · Traces & vias

Expected clocks — measurement table ✅

Values extracted from the MAME sources for this platform. On a scope or frequency counter, a clock that is missing or off-value points straight at the crystal, the divider or the chip at fault — the fastest starting point on a dead board.

Component Expected clock Role
K007232 3.579545 MHz Konami PCM
M68000 8 MHz main CPU
MSM5205 384 kHz ADPCM
YM2151 3.579545 MHz FM (sound)
Z80 3.579545 MHz sound CPU (usually)

How to read this table

Several values for one component = several board variants in this family (or several instances of the chip clocked differently). These frequencies are those of the clock signal at the component's input, not of its original crystal — on many boards the clock is divided down from a single master crystal.

Original manuals for games on this platform ✅

Manufacturer manuals for games running on this board. Beyond the instructions, they very often carry the full DIP settings, the connector pinout, the test procedure, the parts list and the expected voltages.

→ Full catalogue: service manuals, wiring & game manuals

DIP settings ✅

4 games on this platform, settings extracted from the MAME sources (INPUT_PORTS_START blocks). The Position column gives the switch's physical reference on the board (SW2:!3,!4 = bank SW2, levers 3 and 4) — which is what lets you set it up without the paper manual. Games are sorted by MAME set name.

DIP settings — MAME set cuebrick
Setting Position Options (default in bold)
Cabinet SW2:3 Upright · Cocktail
Machine Name SW2:4,5 None · Lewis · Johnson · George
Difficulty SW2:6,7 Easy · Normal · Difficult · Very Difficult
Demo Sounds SW2:8 Off · On
Flip Screen SW3:1 Off · On
Upright Controls SW3:2 Single · Dual
DIP settings — MAME set mia
Setting Position Options (default in bold)
Lives SW2:1,2 2 · 3 · 5 · 7
Bonus Life SW2:4,5 30K, Every 80K · 50K, Every 100K · 50K Only · 100K Only
Difficulty SW2:6,7 Easy · Normal · Difficult · Very Difficult
Demo Sounds SW2:8 Off · On
Flip Screen SW3:1 Off · On
VRAM Character Check SW3:2 Off · On
DIP settings — MAME set tmnt
Setting Position Options (default in bold)
Coinage SW1:1,2,3,4 5C 1C · 4C 1C · 3C 1C · 2C 1C · 3C 2C · 4C 3C · 1C 1C · 3C 4C · 2C 3C · 1C 2C …
Lives SW2:1,2 1 · 2 · 3 · 5
Difficulty SW2:6,7 Easy · Normal · Difficult · Very Difficult
Demo Sounds SW2:8 Off · On
Flip Screen SW3:1 Off · On
DIP settings — MAME set tmnt2p
Setting Position Options (default in bold)
Lives SW2:1,2 1 · 2 · 3 · 5
Difficulty SW2:6,7 Easy · Normal · Difficult · Very Difficult
Demo Sounds SW2:8 Off · On
Flip Screen SW3:1 Off · On

Check against your own board

These settings apply to the game and revision described by MAME. One title may have several DIP sets depending on region or revision, and some systems use soft-dips (settings in memory, via the test menu) rather than physical switches. In case of a discrepancy, the board's silkscreen and the test menu are authoritative.

See also: DIP reference · game manuals

Procedure — a dead board, step by step ✅

What this adds

The general method lives in PCB diagnosis. This is its application to this platform: the same order, but with the values actually expected here, so you do not have to go back and forth.

Tools: multimeter, oscilloscope (or frequency counter), current-limited bench supply, desoldering braid. → Tooling

If the board is still in a cabinet

A CRT holds its charge with the machine unplugged. → CRT safety

1. Inspection, power off. Corrosion, cut tracks, oxidised EPROM legs, leaking SMD capacitors, dubious earlier repairs.

2. The connector, before anything else. A large share of "dead boards" are a contact problem, not a fault. Clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and reseat — not with an abrasive eraser on a gold edge, which takes the plating off and brings the problem back worse. It costs two minutes and settles the question.

3. Power, measured on the board. Aim for +5.0 V measured as close as possible to where power reaches the board — not at the PSU output: the drop is in the loom, and that is exactly what makes a board boot on the bench and not in the cabinet. Where you probe depends on this board's connector — JAMMA edge, JVS loom or a proprietary harness — plenty of makers kept one long after JAMMA arrived — see Identification above. → Wiring Check −5 V and +12 V too if the sound stage uses them. Suspected short: bring it up current-limited and find the hot spot.

4. /RESET. It must release after power-up. Held low = the CPU never starts. A 1–2 Hz loop is not the reset circuit, it is the watchdog: the CPU is crashing at boot, so look at the bus, not at the reset.

5. Clocks — the values expected on this platform.

  • K007232 → 3.579545 MHz (Konami PCM)
  • M68000 → 8 MHz (Main CPU)
  • MSM5205 → 384 kHz (ADPCM)
  • YM2151 → 3.579545 MHz (FM (sound))
  • Z80 → 3.579545 MHz (Sound CPU (usually))

No clock on the M68000 (8 MHz) and there is no point measuring anything else: the fault is the crystal, the divider, or the chip itself. That single measurement splits a dead board in two.

6. Bus. Activity on the main CPU's address lines tells you whether it is running or frozen. Frozen with good clocks and good reset → work RAM, bus buffers, ROMs.

7. It boots but the picture or the sound is wrong — that is another job: see Common faults on this page, then signal tracing.

Emulation & FPGA

  • Emulation: MAME (konami/tmnt.cpp, simpsons.cpp, xmen.cpp).
  • FPGA / MiSTer: cores available for several titles (TMNT, Simpsons…).

EPROM repair

68000 program in 27C512 / 27C010. Examples (MAME konami/tmnt.cpp): TMNT = 2× 27C010 + 2× 27C512 · M.I.A. = 2× 27C010 · Cue Brick = 2× 27C512. The graphics (051960/052109 customs) are mask ROMs. Some games add an MCU/custom protection.

Lineage

Contemporary with the Gradius/Twin16; the customs evolve into the GX (1994, 68EC020).

Photos / assets

(To add: TMNT/X-Men board, K052109/K051960 customs.)

Sources & attribution

Review & corrections

How this space is used

Spotted a wrong value, an outdated procedure, a chip reference that does not match your board? Say so here, with what you observed (model, board revision, serial number, measurement). Every report is cross-checked against a source before anything changes — an unverifiable correction is published as “reported by …, not cross-checked” rather than silently applied.

Reading is open to everyone; posting requires signing in with Discord. Reports from the wiki's declared reviewers are handled first; anyone else's are read too, but go through a human before anything is changed.