Black Tiger freezes, Monaco GP won't turn right, TRON graphics glitch
Hi folks.
So, it's my first post here. I am sure it won't be the last by any means. First and foremost I am really impressed with some of the restoration work you guys have done. It really inspires me to get better at this. I used to work as an arcade tech almost 20 years ago but my main job was to make sure the machines took money and every button worked -- it didn't much matter how they looked or their overall condition. Now I've returned to the arcade world and I'm amazed at some of the restoration work I am seeing.
I am part owner and the one and only tech at a vintage arcade and hobby game store that just opened in Gilbert, AZ called Desert Sky Games. After an electrical blowout sidelined our Neo Geo, we ended up with 8 working games to open, and two of them are already out of commission and a third is glitching! I'm not feeling like I've done a very good job here. What kills me is that all three were at 100% the day before we opened the doors and I can't even tell what I (or anyone else) did to screw them up. Most of my pro work was on Capcom, SNK, and Midway fighters from the mid-1990s. Doesn't exactly capture the nostalgia of my childhood games of the early '80s golden age, but it paid the rent. So perhaps by no coincidence at all, my fighters are all up and running and the problems are in the other units.
Our five uprights still in working order, there but for the grace go I, are our Star Wars, Gauntlet, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Puzzle Fighter, and X-Men vs SF. The Star Wars monitor is starting to look a little rough so down the road I'll be looking here for suggestions on what to do about that. The other four could stand LCD conversions, but are otherwise doing well. Especially Gauntlet, that thing is burned in beyond anything, but that hard plastic bezel looks like it won't be easy to work around so I might be content to put in a recapped CRT and let it go at that.
So here are the three that I'm at a loss on. I ran searches on all three and found some info but I'm not really sure what to do next.
BLACK TIGER -- I converted this one out of some terrible billiards game that had the right cabinet configuration and I thought I had it really working well. There was flagging in the monitor but it wasn't on part of the screen you really looked at while playing and the colors were extremely rich and bright. But now, out of nowhere, it just locks up and freezes every now and then... intervals between half an hour and several hours, I can't seem to narrow it down. Whether it's being played or not, the entire game just hard locks with a static image on the screen of whatever it was just displaying. The wiring on this one wasn't anything I would write home about when I got it, but every connection seemed to run complete so if it's electrical then I'm not seeing it. Is this a known thing with BT PCBs? Couldn't find anyone else asking about this.
Photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9955691.106517.388614421157680&type=3&theater
MONACO GP -- Exactly as the title says, no matter what you do with the steering wheel, you can't turn right, only left or straight ahead. This doesn't seem like the most challenging thing to fix but after a thorough cleaning I didn't make any headway. Is there something I am failing to look for? It's the upright mini MGP cabinet. I haven't worked on a lot of racing games so maybe this is something really basic I don't know yet.
TRON -- I am having the graphical glitch with lines through the sprites as seen in the bottom pic in is thread here:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=218828
The caption on the pic says it's a corrupt ROM. I'm not sure what to do about that. I bought the TRON off eBay from Tim the Arcade Guy and it worked fine at first, except that some video colors seemed slightly off -- enemy light bikes were blue (but gave yellow trails) and my tank was blue and not red, but there were no lines. In fact, even now when I open up the back, clean everything off, and reboot, it works great for a few minutes and then the glitch shows back up. I even replaced the old ribbon cables with some off eBay in somewhat better shape and still the same result. What do I do about this? Do I have to buy a new TRON PCB?
Photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9955691.106517.388614421157680&type=3&theater
I'll try to post some photos so you guys can see what I am working with. Thanks in advance for any guidance at all you can offer. That one hint might be what leads me to figure it out the rest of the way. Once again thanks so much.
Hi folks.
So, it's my first post here. I am sure it won't be the last by any means. First and foremost I am really impressed with some of the restoration work you guys have done. It really inspires me to get better at this. I used to work as an arcade tech almost 20 years ago but my main job was to make sure the machines took money and every button worked -- it didn't much matter how they looked or their overall condition. Now I've returned to the arcade world and I'm amazed at some of the restoration work I am seeing.
I am part owner and the one and only tech at a vintage arcade and hobby game store that just opened in Gilbert, AZ called Desert Sky Games. After an electrical blowout sidelined our Neo Geo, we ended up with 8 working games to open, and two of them are already out of commission and a third is glitching! I'm not feeling like I've done a very good job here. What kills me is that all three were at 100% the day before we opened the doors and I can't even tell what I (or anyone else) did to screw them up. Most of my pro work was on Capcom, SNK, and Midway fighters from the mid-1990s. Doesn't exactly capture the nostalgia of my childhood games of the early '80s golden age, but it paid the rent. So perhaps by no coincidence at all, my fighters are all up and running and the problems are in the other units.
Our five uprights still in working order, there but for the grace go I, are our Star Wars, Gauntlet, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Puzzle Fighter, and X-Men vs SF. The Star Wars monitor is starting to look a little rough so down the road I'll be looking here for suggestions on what to do about that. The other four could stand LCD conversions, but are otherwise doing well. Especially Gauntlet, that thing is burned in beyond anything, but that hard plastic bezel looks like it won't be easy to work around so I might be content to put in a recapped CRT and let it go at that.
So here are the three that I'm at a loss on. I ran searches on all three and found some info but I'm not really sure what to do next.
BLACK TIGER -- I converted this one out of some terrible billiards game that had the right cabinet configuration and I thought I had it really working well. There was flagging in the monitor but it wasn't on part of the screen you really looked at while playing and the colors were extremely rich and bright. But now, out of nowhere, it just locks up and freezes every now and then... intervals between half an hour and several hours, I can't seem to narrow it down. Whether it's being played or not, the entire game just hard locks with a static image on the screen of whatever it was just displaying. The wiring on this one wasn't anything I would write home about when I got it, but every connection seemed to run complete so if it's electrical then I'm not seeing it. Is this a known thing with BT PCBs? Couldn't find anyone else asking about this.
Photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9955691.106517.388614421157680&type=3&theater
MONACO GP -- Exactly as the title says, no matter what you do with the steering wheel, you can't turn right, only left or straight ahead. This doesn't seem like the most challenging thing to fix but after a thorough cleaning I didn't make any headway. Is there something I am failing to look for? It's the upright mini MGP cabinet. I haven't worked on a lot of racing games so maybe this is something really basic I don't know yet.
TRON -- I am having the graphical glitch with lines through the sprites as seen in the bottom pic in is thread here:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=218828
The caption on the pic says it's a corrupt ROM. I'm not sure what to do about that. I bought the TRON off eBay from Tim the Arcade Guy and it worked fine at first, except that some video colors seemed slightly off -- enemy light bikes were blue (but gave yellow trails) and my tank was blue and not red, but there were no lines. In fact, even now when I open up the back, clean everything off, and reboot, it works great for a few minutes and then the glitch shows back up. I even replaced the old ribbon cables with some off eBay in somewhat better shape and still the same result. What do I do about this? Do I have to buy a new TRON PCB?
Photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...9955691.106517.388614421157680&type=3&theater
I'll try to post some photos so you guys can see what I am working with. Thanks in advance for any guidance at all you can offer. That one hint might be what leads me to figure it out the rest of the way. Once again thanks so much.


