Are Pole Positions more problem prone?

gooze

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I'm going to go pick up a Pole Position tomorrow that turns on, but won't boot into the game. One of my buddies is telling me that repairing a Pole Position will be hell, keep breaking down, and make me loose the rest of my hair. Are they more problem prone than the average arcade game?
 
Yes, very problematic... I've seen alot of collectors that I would consider experts give up on them after months of messing around. Dick Millikan repairs the boardsets, so thats a big plus...
Basically out of dozens of people I know with them maybe one of those guys hasn't had a problem... everyone else was pulling their hair out.
 
From what i've read they are very hard too get working and keep them that way.
Although Pole Position is a great game, same for PPII, the hardware was just not designed to be very "repairable". Namco overdesigned it with custom chips and the like, so there are lots of issues there. Further, the boards themselves aren't that easy to repair, at least to me.

If anyone were to ever design a plug-in replacement for this game would sell a ton, since there are so many PPs out there with bad boards.

Scott C.
 
Although Pole Position is a great game, same for PPII, the hardware was just not designed to be very "repairable". Namco overdesigned it with custom chips and the like, so there are lots of issues there. Further, the boards themselves aren't that easy to repair, at least to me.

If anyone were to ever design a plug-in replacement for this game would sell a ton, since there are so many PPs out there with bad boards.

Scott C.

+1 on that, I have dropped hints to jrok to give it a go, that guy has the skills to pull off such a job. How sweet would a multi-PP be.....the answer is very.
 
Multi PP would be very nice.

For the most part if it doesn't work don't pay for it, seriously, they really can be a pain. Start with a working one and just wait for that one to break eventually.
 
I'm one of the few that hasn't had any problems with my PP; knock on wood. I've had it for 7 years now, gets played alot, and no problems. But I think I'm very lucky in saying that.
 
i got mine non working and it was a pretty straight foward fix first with a ram error 7 then later a ram error 8 due to no cooling fan

go look at the machine if it turns on and gives you a ram or rom error then grab it (with the manual thoes errors are pretty straight forward on the repair side )
another thing is be shure the board set fan is working (a non working fan is what killed my pp to begin with and then killed another ram chip after i repaird mine the first time )
if it boots to garbage or nothing at all good luck lol

last inspect the board set arounf the bat for any corosion form a leaking bat

after i fixed mine it has ran like a champ with no signs of problems (tho i probaly just jinxed myself saying that lol)

ps if you end up getting it and its a ram or rom error i have a spare board set i can send you the chips you need
 
There is hope if it at least boots to an error but otherwise unless you have experience a PP is not a project to take on lightly. If it truly doesn't work you either need to be willing to spend some cash or need to have some skills.
 
notoruous for bad edge connectors and fried board edges, power supply issues(fried resistors, loss of +5v), ram problams, corrosion problems,you name it...


start with the basics...

my rule of thumb with pp's is get them working, then GET RID OF THEM QUICKLY
 
+1 on that, I have dropped hints to jrok to give it a go, that guy has the skills to pull off such a job. How sweet would a multi-PP be.....the answer is very.

I see these boards fetch $200 when working on ebay.
If he could get 20 guys paying $200. Let alone 200 guys paying $200 at somepoint.
 
I see these boards fetch $200 when working on ebay.
If he could get 20 guys paying $200. Let alone 200 guys paying $200 at somepoint.

I would be willing to put my money where my mouth is and prepay 200 anytime for a multi-PP, prolly best to make it jamma like the MW was done. I don't even own a PP right now. I know where I can get one though easy enough though.
 
I would be willing to put my money where my mouth is and prepay 200 anytime for a multi-PP, prolly best to make it jamma like the MW was done. I don't even own a PP right now. I know where I can get one though easy enough though.

http://ppclone.blogspot.com/

Already in the works...Actually, Adam is a forum member, not sure if he's done anything on this recently or if he has any updates since april...
 
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