Anyone have advice for a sluggish DIG DUG machine? HELP!

Wonka

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Anyone have advice for a sluggish DIG DUG machine? HELP!

I have a gorgeous Dig Dug machine that is responding sluggish (more so lately) than ever.

My machine is near mint in all aspects, but has always played a bit off. I figured the first thing it would be is the joystick. I replaced it with a NOS factory new WICO (original), cleaned all the contacts . . . and still...Maybe even more so - it plays sluggish. Sometimes the audio barely cutting out when moving up & down quickly.

The only thing i can liken this to would be a video that plays with the audio track just slightly out of sync but with the physical lag being felt through game play.

Is this a ROM problem? I'm not a full on tech guy with machines. Has anyone else had issues like this with a Dig Dug or any other Atari machine?

I was watching THIS Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEiRP6sgCw

This Ken House fella is killing it on with this machine.

It seems to play flawless. I'm not talking about the upper level/fast pace game play, BUT the response time he gets with his UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT.

It seems to me that THIS is how a Dig Dug should respond with controls.

Can anyone give me some good advice or maybe share a similar experience?

Thanks!
 
I have a gorgeous Dig Dug machine that is responding sluggish (more so lately) than ever.

My machine is near mint in all aspects, but has always played a bit off. I figured the first thing it would be is the joystick. I replaced it with a NOS factory new WICO (original), cleaned all the contacts . . . and still...Maybe even more so - it plays sluggish. Sometimes the audio barely cutting out when moving up & down quickly.

The only thing i can liken this to would be a video that plays with the audio track just slightly out of sync but with the physical lag being felt through game play.

Is this a ROM problem? I'm not a full on tech guy with machines. Has anyone else had issues like this with a Dig Dug or any other Atari machine?

I was watching THIS Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEiRP6sgCw

This Ken House fella is killing it on with this machine.

It seems to play flawless. I'm not talking about the upper level/fast pace game play, BUT the response time he gets with his UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT.

It seems to me that THIS is how a Dig Dug should respond with controls.

Can anyone give me some good advice or maybe share a similar experience?

Thanks!

Can you post a video of the game play?

Any Hacks to the PCB?
 
No hacks whatsoever.

A posted video I highly doubt would show anything as you would have to "Feel" the gameplay....None the less I will try an get a vid up within the next 12 hours. Thanks!
 
Well if it is a "feel" thing I would say maybe start with the caps in the clock / Crystal circuits and see if that helps. It could be a timing issue your noticing.
 
I know you said you put a NOS Wico stick on the game but thats not necessarily a good thing, as a matter of fact it could be worse. The simple act of using the joystick cleans the contacts. A stick that has sat for 30 some years probably has more corrosion on it then you would imagine.

That stutter is indicative of dirty/bad joystick contacts. What can you do about it? Well, that depends on the stick. If you have the sticks with the gold plated tips on the blades clean them carefully with some kind of non abrasive cleaner. If you've use sand paper or a file on them you've already doomed them.

If they have the "X" shaped blades on the ends (the two together make an X) those suck but they can be cleaned.

Deoxit will probably help too.
 
-Thanks for that.

Is ANY of the game play indicative of "Old Roms" going bad......or is what I am saying nonsense in itself? Could it be a board issue of any kind? Wiring cable? (possibilities?)


My perfect situation would be for some Dig-Dug-Aholic that knows the game inside and out to actually play my game and give his two sense. Someone who KNOWS what to expect from the perfect Dig Dug machine :p
 
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There is no in between with ROMs. They are either bad, the game wont boot or they are good.

Could be cabinet wiring/edge connector/boards edge connector. I bet its joystick though.
 
the slowness is weird if it's really happening. does digdug have a difficulty setting that slows down the character? (I don't remember offhand)

There is no in between with ROMs. They are either bad, the game wont boot or they are good.

Could be cabinet wiring/edge connector/boards edge connector. I bet its joystick though.
 
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