Aztarac

Centuri · 1983

by Daniel Ferrer

Details

Original hardware

Centuri 68000 + Z80, vector

Romset

roms/aztarac.zip

Controls

The stick drives the tank; button 1 fires; buttons 2 and 3 held turn the turret one way and the other (the cabinet's dial); button 4 is the cabinet's second button. Buttons 2 and 3 together insert a coin and start. On the web: Z fires, X and C turn the turret, V, and the arrow keys.

Analog controls

✓

Orientation

Horizontal game: drawn rotated 90°

Last update

2026-11-08

Changelog

1. v1.22026-11-08
   • The romset can live in any folder of the card. The game looks in .roms/, then roms/, then searches the whole card, and remembers where it found it (.conf/<romset>.loc), so the next start goes straight there; if it is moved, it is searched for again.
   • Settings go in .conf/ and romsets in .roms/: the UVMC2's menu hides folders whose name starts with a dot, so the card shows only the games. A card set up before keeps everything: the old config/ and roms/ are still read, and nothing is written to them any more.
   • Without the romset on the card the screen says ROM FILE NOT FOUND and the name of the zip it wants.
2. v1.12026-11-06
   • Smoother: the cartridge at 300 MHz and built with uvmc2-sdk v1.4.12. At 150 MHz the 68000's emulation did not fit a 40 Hz frame in busy play (20.7-24.3 fps, measured on the console), and the older SDK's frame filler overran every frame; now 35.7-39.7 fps with 360-410 strokes on screen.
3. v1.02026-11-04
   • First release.
   • The turret turns. On the cabinet it is aimed with a dial on top of the stick; the game reads that dial once a frame as the turret's angle, and the port answered a fixed value, so the turret never moved. On the Vectrex pad, buttons 2 and 3 held turn it one way and the other, about a full turn a second.
   • Buttons: 1 fires, 2 and 3 turn the turret, 4 is the cabinet's second button. Buttons 2 and 3 together insert a coin and start the game.
   • Buttons can be remapped from the options screen (CONTROLS), and the choice is saved.
   • Sound through the jack: the sound board's Z80 and its four AY-3-8910s, emulated. In the browser too.
   • Coloured vectors as bright as white ones: the green enemies were drawn at a third of the brightness and could hardly be seen.
   • The picture keeps the cabinet's 4:3 shape and fills the screen, upright and with the console on its side; it used to be drawn square and looked like a vertical game.
   • Runs at the arcade's own 40 Hz.
   • An options screen at start, after the Vectrex Studio intro: screen vertical or horizontal, sound, refresh, brightness, controls and calibration.