Atari System 1 Issue

FrizzleFried

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First thing I thought was strange when I fired up Marble Madness this evening was that my high scores were gone and the machine was off FREE PLAY. I figured there must be a battery or a chip that would need to be replaced soon.

I played a few games and all was well...

Then suddenly i get an error message that read SOFTWARE EXCEPTION ERROR... everything locks up...then it reboots back to attract. I attempt to play a game and as soon as I press the button the screen flashes and a bunch of crap just flashes and scroll from top to bottom. (i've attached a photo below).

Freaking out a bit I check voltages... all was OK at 4.97. I remove then re-insert the Marble Madness "board"... same thing.

I go grab my Roadblasters kit and install it... hoping beyond hope it's a mainboard issue and not a Marble Madness board issue...

Sure enough... it's different scrambled crap, but scrambled crap none-the-less.

So now what do I do aside from just finding another System 1 mainboard? Anything a newb can try?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
There's a 2804 EEPROM at 1D on the CPU board. It's probably gone south.

Since the first issue was no high scores, I'd start by replacing it.
 
UPDATE: I removed the motherboard, re-seated all socketed chips and it appears to be working again.
 
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