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  • Joined: 05 Nov 2014
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Mark III Link Cable
Post Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2019 7:25 am
Does any one have a pinout for the mark iii link cable thats used for f16 fighting falcon? Im not seeming to find much info on it. Thanks.
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2019 10:32 am
There's probably not enough details in there but FYI here's the manual page:

http://www.smspower.org/Scans/F16FightingFalcon-SMS-JP-Manual?gallerypage=6%2F7

You can also see it here:
http://www.smspower.org/sites/SegaMarkIIIWebpageTera-20000523/991127_01.htm

Not that this wasn't a sold accessory, I think it's a regular din to din cable.
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Post Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:32 pm
Interesting.. i would have thought it might have been crossed like a null modem cable. Maybe ill get some connectors and try make some cables up and see if i can get it to work.
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Post Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 12:34 am
This page should help..

(can't post a link because I'm new, but the site specifically mentioned F-16 Fighting Falcon)

Here's a pic instead

A Japanese person made their own cable... disclaimer... they also state to use at your own risk.

Need to map the pins like this:
1 to 1
2 to 6
3 to 3
4 to 5
5 to 4
6 to 2
7 to 7
MarkIII Link Cable.jpg (183.51 KB)
MarkIII Link Cable.jpg

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Post Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 6:57 pm
Oh wicked, thanks a heap for that! I never actually got around to trying as work got in the way but i will revisit this soon hopefully!
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Post Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:23 pm
I hope it works. You're probably one of a handful of people who has access to 2 Mark IIIs with F-16 and the desire to do this.

BTW: I've been here long enough now. This is the link I found it from:
http://st-2.la.coocan.jp/f16vs1.html

The top choice basically says you agree, the bottom link says you dont.

If you agree, it'll take you to that page I took a screenshot of, if you disagree it goes back to his homepage (which looks like something made back in 1995).
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Post Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2020 11:28 pm
Tha_Ape wrote
I hope it works. You're probably one of a handful of people who has access to 2 Mark IIIs with F-16 and the desire to do this.


I dont actually have a mkIII but do have the sega keyboard which i built an adapter for to get it working on a master system. Ive also build my own keyboard adapter which i wanted to test this with.

I guess it was probably not a popular thing back in the day hence why ive struggled to find much about the cable.

I have ordered some plugs and cable so once that arrives ill see what happens.
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Post Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 2:28 am
I wonder if someone could mimic that cable within an emulator and either allow 2 instances of F-16 to run and play with each other, or (even cooler) make it work over the internet?

Definitely beyond my ability.
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Post Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:32 am
Definitely intrigued to see any firsthand reports of playing F-16 Fighting Falcon in 2-player mode. Did anything come of it?

And by the way, this game has some kind of an ending after 10 levels, right? Is there a screenshot of the ending? Or does it just dump you to a "GAME OVER" screen, or loop?
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2022 10:17 am
Did someone ever verified the above cable pinout/ had access to an official cable?

According to the service manual , section 2.5, with the (non-standard) numbering of the the cable page , the connection 3<->3 would be connecting feed to feed.
This is an output to output connection, which is clearly a no go.
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2022 11:27 am
I never got it working but as i was playing about with an sk1100 and a mastersystem interface i built i wasnt sure if that was actually the issue.

Looking at it, gnd to gnd makes sense. Fault and data are pulled high, so they would be inputs. And data and reset are outputs which would be used to drive the inputs. Thats gives us transmit and receive, so the feed pin shouldnt be required. The NC pin is obviously not used but is still connected, so maybe they did the same with the feed pin given it was a home made cable?
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2022 1:32 pm
I was thinking they had it "home made" but copied from the original. If so, while the NC-NC brings no problems, the feed-feed would do (both are probably in the same state, so no big current rush, but still, it's pretty dangerous, and I doubt the official one would be wired like that).
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2022 8:51 pm
Is the link cable used for f16 the same pinout as the cable used for the sp-400 printer? If they are, then possibly it has a resistor on one end to current limit, as the printer will use that pin.
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Post Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:49 am
The SC-3000 service manual seems to indicate that the FEED pin is directly connected to PC7 of the 8255.
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Post Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:08 am
Oh.. i meant it could be inside the connector on one end of the cable, assuming there is one and that the pinout is also correct.

Looking at the schematic for the sk-1100, its directly connected there aswell.

http://www43.tok2.com/home/cmpslv/Mark3/Sk1100.htm

F16 is mentioned but its a pitty the cable pinout isnt there to compare it against
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