Starting work on the Konami 007121 (Patreon)

EDIT: The last one was the Konami 007232. It's now done, files are available here:  https://github.com/furrtek/VGChips/tree/master/Konami/007232 

I've finally decided on a new Patreon-supported project: to fully reverse-engineer the Konami 007121 video chip.

It has been suggested by Jotego because of the many secrets it still hides. Extracting the schematics will help improving the accuracy of software and hardware emulation of the following games: Flak Attack, Contra, Labyrinth Runner, Haunted Castle, Fast Lane and Combat School.

Despite the chip's age, it's a rather large and complex one. It came from the top line of what the manufacturer (Oki Semiconductor) could offer at the time.

As a rough comparison, it's about 15% larger than the NeoGeo's video controller. This doesn't mean that it's 15% more complex, but it definitely is going to take at least 15% more time to trace !

I'm still not comfortable switching to a monthly payout on Patreon so this new project will remain based on "milestones". Since this will probably take several months to complete, I'm planning on 2 or 3 paid posts, with free update posts in between.

Just for the sake of honesty, the major change in this new project is that not 100% of what I'll get from Patreon will go into tools. I'm at a point in life where I can't continue putting hundreds of hours in such projects without earning a lil' something. Of course I'm still planning on buying hardware to improve my setup (like real positionning and tilt stages for the microscope).

As before, schematics, notes and all SVG traces will be made public.