Atari Airborne Avenger Manual - Mame channel

By means of a switch sensing circuit, the player operated switches, playfield switches and operator option switches produce switch data forthe microcomputer. Switch closures occur when a player deposits money in the game, depresses the START pushbutton, operates the ballshooter so the ball goes onto the playfield and interacts with playfield objects, and depresses the flipper buttons. Switch Closures also resultwhen a player tilts the game. Executing the instructions stored in the preprogrammed portion of its memory, the microcumpter then respondsto the switch data by energizing various solenoids, lighting various lamps, and producing sound data for the speaker and display data for theScore, Credit and Ball/Match Displays.B. COMPONENTS OF THE MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEMThe microcomputer system carries out complex tasks of the game by performing a large number of simple tasks. Figure 23 shows a blockdiagram of the microcomputer system and its various interconnecting data, addressing and control buses. The Microprocessing Unit causes thesystem to perform the desired operations by addressing the Program Memory for an instruction (via the Address Bus), reading that instruction(via the bidirectional Data Bus), and then executing the simple task dictated by that instruction. The Microprocessing Unit uses the DataMemory for temporary storage of data necessary for the execution of future instructions, such as arithmetic operations. The MicroprocessingUnit uses the Memory Output Latches for storing the data that is used for producing game sounds energizing solenoids and lighting lamps.