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This DECO boardset uses a 6502 driving a YM3812 FM synthesizer, and probably an ADPCM chip for the sound effects.

realaudio music:
Level 1 Theme (396K)
Level 2 Theme (330K)

Dragon Ninja Clone

This scene is one of two levels in which you're walking along the top of a chain of moving objects (the other level has you walking along a long articulated truck). These levels were UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE on the otherwise flawless Commodore-Amiga conversion of this game, because the Amiga version used a single-button joystick. To jump, you had to crouch and press up and fire simultaneously. With two buttons, the arcade game is easy.

Dragon Ninja (USA name: "Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja") is a reasonable side-scrolling ninja beat'em up from Data East.

My board is an Asian pirated clone originally imported to Australia by Leisure and Allied Industries. The original game runs on the same boardset as Robocop. The clone is MUCH larger, uses no surface-mounted devices, and my unit has a lot of patch wires and cut pins; very messy.

The music on this game is quite good, despite the relatively primitive audio hardware. The only audio device I can positively identify is a Yamaha YM3812 OPL2 FM synthesizer (as used in the old PC AdLib card). This device is driven by a dedicated 6502 processor. Although the game does have a test mode, it doesn't let you do a sound test, so in order to record the game music, you need to start a game and halt the main CPU (MC68000) by tying pin 17 to ground.


At the end of the game, you see a walk-by of all the enemies in the game. Karnov here (ex-circus strong man), slightly less wicked-looking, is the hero of his own separate game.
This is the end-game boss. The helicopter floats about the screen and the red boss dude tosses fireballs about. The kidnapped US President is inside the helicopter; once you dispatch the Dragon Ninja, the chopper lands and the President steps out, waving happily.
Is it just me, or does the US President (shown here congratulating and thanking you at the end of the game) look suspiciously like Ronald Reagan? I didn't know dear ol' Ronnie spoke Japanese!

Dragon Ninja uses a horizontal low-res monitor, one or two 8-way joysticks with two buttons, and it has a standard JAMMA pinout. DIP switch settings are as below.

DIP Switch Bank 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Coin/Credit Right Selector 1 coin 1 play 0 0
1 coin 2 plays 1 0
2 coins 1 play 0 1
3 coins 1 play 1 1
Coin/Credit Left Selector 1 coin 1 play 0 0
1 coin 2 plays 1 0
2 coins 1 play 0 1
3 coins 1 play 1 1
Test Mode No 0
Yes 1
Attract mode sound Yes 0
No 1
Screen rotation Normal 0
Reverse 1
Control Panel Cocktail 0
Upright 1

DIP Switch Bank 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lives 3 0 0
4 1 0
2 0 1
- 1 1
Game Difficulty Normal 0 0
Easy 1 0
Hard 0 1
Hardest 1 1
Continue Mode Yes 0
No 1
Reserved 0 0 0

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