mrjason
New member
Blitz original, 99, 2000 3 boards, differing problems, jumpers, etc.
I bought a couple "untested" boards and hard drives, thinking I'd either get lucky or not.
From other threads I understand I can simply switch the three roms (boot, sound, security) from one board to the next, and the game will work.
Now, I have a working '99 board, and when I switch the 2000 ROMS in there, I can get through POST (greeen/pass all the way down, including HD checks), then a long pause on a black screen and reset. Both of the new hard drives for original and 2K are unlabeled so I tried both, same problem both drives. I presume the 2K one is dead, if I could only figure out which one was the 2K one.
Question 1: Is there some way to tell which HD is for blitz 2k, is the hard drive formated fat 32 or some linux varient I could possibly mount on my os X box through a usb IDE harness?
Question 2: If I find a CHD for blitz 2k, does the version of my boot rom matter or can I just put any old blitz 2k version contents on the disk (are HD contents updated/upgraded as successive versions of boot roms are installed)?
However, when I switch the blitz original chips into the work '99 board, nothing, no POST, nothing. Didn't put chips in backwards or anything (can't speak for previous owners though)..
I've seen threads saying the seattle board dip switch settings are the same for all 3 versions of the game, but are the jumpers? In particular the original blitz manual mentions a couple jumpers being set to make the board know its a 4MB boot rom.
Question 3: Are we certain blitz original and blitz 99 dip switch and jumper settings are identical? Or do I need to change some of the jumpers.
Naturally, the blitz original and blitz 2k roms/hard drives came with a couple of seattle boards. The board the blitz original was in has no jumpers set on it at all (where as my working '99 has just jumper 11 with 2/3 bridged (i think, could be 1/2)), and no HD plugged in. All three red power leds on that board with the original blitz in it are on, but (again with blitz original chips that don't POST at all in the working '99 board), no POST, just black screen on this board.
I'm thinking next I'll try fixing J11 and put my 99 chips in there and see what I get.
Update I tried this with the 2K rom chips on the board, this board works great with the J11 jumper set properly, just not with that Blitz original chipset.
The third board, the one with 2K chips orginally, had some j6 jumper setting, and nothing on any other jumpers. Putting J11 identical to the working '99 board, no hard drive connected, powering up, and the middle +5 or +5 of the three red power leds is off. Note that I can boot my '99 good board all day long before and after plugging this 2K "untested" board in.
I've seen threads saying *it does not matter* that another board works ok. So, possibly this 2K board has a bit more power requirements. I've seen several threads saying give it 5.2.
Question #4: Where do I put my multimeter on the seattle board (or jamma harness?, no idea what to do here..) to see if I'm pushing 5.0, 5.2, higher, etc?
Answer: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=215552
Update: I cleaned the contacts a bit and gave it 5.2v, now all three power leds come on, but the POST screen doesn't come up with the 2k chips in this third board. I think its a not-great sign that the back side of the jamma power connectors on this PCB appear to have some sauder added to them by previous owners.. I don't see any obvious broken or burnt out pieces on the board.
Update: According to this thread, something's wrong with the PCB, b/c the ROMS are known good.. http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=246739&page=2
Question #5: Suppose 5.2 is the magic trick, is that going to hurt other boards I have such as Jam, a 19 in 1, and Open Ice when I plug them in? What should I leave the voltage at for "normal" games, 5.1? 5.0?
Answer: 5 to 5.1 is good for most boards.
I've also, by chance, happened across several threads saying the original blitz had a number of fans blowing directly at heat sinks on the board. This is disconcerting.. as I've been running my 99 from time to time with no problem at all. The 99 board, and the power-problem 2k board have a seattle board model number ending in 06, whereas the original blitz board has a model number ending in 05. I noticed by accident when pulling the original blitz board out that the area behind those heatsinks on the right was HOT to the touch after powering it a couple minutes.
Question #6: Should I be installing a fan for my blitz 99 board to blow over those heat sinks, or is it just an original blitz board (05 model) an overheater?
To summarize my research here on klov for future readers:
Blitz original manual (seattle board), this manual is supposedly the same for 99 and 2K dipswitch jumper info on a seattle board: http://www.crazykong.com/manuals/NFLBlitz.man.pdf
Blits 2k Gold manual (vegas board): http://www.crazykong.com/manuals/NFLBlitz2KGold.man.pdf
Info on games that work w/ seattle board:
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=618
Info on games that work w/ vegas board:
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=619
Dip switches for standard resolution on these games is U8 2ON 3OFF, medium is something else for those two switches (see the blitz manual above), another dip controls 8way vs 49way joysticks.
Game failing to boot or resetting could indicate overheating or bad hard drive. There are compact flash replacements out there for the hard drive, or replacement roms/hard drives from here: http://www.summittarcade.com/MidwayAtari.html
A good way to test the basics of the game is to try and boot it first without the hd, then plug in HD on another boot.
High score saving problem probably indicates dead battery or no battery on the board.
If you have a standard res monitor, you'll need to adjust the h/v/etc knobs for your monitor between blitz and jam or hangtime etc.
Thats about the summary of various threads I found here.
I bought a couple "untested" boards and hard drives, thinking I'd either get lucky or not.
From other threads I understand I can simply switch the three roms (boot, sound, security) from one board to the next, and the game will work.
Now, I have a working '99 board, and when I switch the 2000 ROMS in there, I can get through POST (greeen/pass all the way down, including HD checks), then a long pause on a black screen and reset. Both of the new hard drives for original and 2K are unlabeled so I tried both, same problem both drives. I presume the 2K one is dead, if I could only figure out which one was the 2K one.
Question 1: Is there some way to tell which HD is for blitz 2k, is the hard drive formated fat 32 or some linux varient I could possibly mount on my os X box through a usb IDE harness?
Question 2: If I find a CHD for blitz 2k, does the version of my boot rom matter or can I just put any old blitz 2k version contents on the disk (are HD contents updated/upgraded as successive versions of boot roms are installed)?
However, when I switch the blitz original chips into the work '99 board, nothing, no POST, nothing. Didn't put chips in backwards or anything (can't speak for previous owners though)..
I've seen threads saying the seattle board dip switch settings are the same for all 3 versions of the game, but are the jumpers? In particular the original blitz manual mentions a couple jumpers being set to make the board know its a 4MB boot rom.
Question 3: Are we certain blitz original and blitz 99 dip switch and jumper settings are identical? Or do I need to change some of the jumpers.
Naturally, the blitz original and blitz 2k roms/hard drives came with a couple of seattle boards. The board the blitz original was in has no jumpers set on it at all (where as my working '99 has just jumper 11 with 2/3 bridged (i think, could be 1/2)), and no HD plugged in. All three red power leds on that board with the original blitz in it are on, but (again with blitz original chips that don't POST at all in the working '99 board), no POST, just black screen on this board.
I'm thinking next I'll try fixing J11 and put my 99 chips in there and see what I get.
Update I tried this with the 2K rom chips on the board, this board works great with the J11 jumper set properly, just not with that Blitz original chipset.
The third board, the one with 2K chips orginally, had some j6 jumper setting, and nothing on any other jumpers. Putting J11 identical to the working '99 board, no hard drive connected, powering up, and the middle +5 or +5 of the three red power leds is off. Note that I can boot my '99 good board all day long before and after plugging this 2K "untested" board in.
I've seen threads saying *it does not matter* that another board works ok. So, possibly this 2K board has a bit more power requirements. I've seen several threads saying give it 5.2.
Question #4: Where do I put my multimeter on the seattle board (or jamma harness?, no idea what to do here..) to see if I'm pushing 5.0, 5.2, higher, etc?
Answer: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=215552
Update: I cleaned the contacts a bit and gave it 5.2v, now all three power leds come on, but the POST screen doesn't come up with the 2k chips in this third board. I think its a not-great sign that the back side of the jamma power connectors on this PCB appear to have some sauder added to them by previous owners.. I don't see any obvious broken or burnt out pieces on the board.
Update: According to this thread, something's wrong with the PCB, b/c the ROMS are known good.. http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=246739&page=2
Question #5: Suppose 5.2 is the magic trick, is that going to hurt other boards I have such as Jam, a 19 in 1, and Open Ice when I plug them in? What should I leave the voltage at for "normal" games, 5.1? 5.0?
Answer: 5 to 5.1 is good for most boards.
I've also, by chance, happened across several threads saying the original blitz had a number of fans blowing directly at heat sinks on the board. This is disconcerting.. as I've been running my 99 from time to time with no problem at all. The 99 board, and the power-problem 2k board have a seattle board model number ending in 06, whereas the original blitz board has a model number ending in 05. I noticed by accident when pulling the original blitz board out that the area behind those heatsinks on the right was HOT to the touch after powering it a couple minutes.
Question #6: Should I be installing a fan for my blitz 99 board to blow over those heat sinks, or is it just an original blitz board (05 model) an overheater?
To summarize my research here on klov for future readers:
Blitz original manual (seattle board), this manual is supposedly the same for 99 and 2K dipswitch jumper info on a seattle board: http://www.crazykong.com/manuals/NFLBlitz.man.pdf
Blits 2k Gold manual (vegas board): http://www.crazykong.com/manuals/NFLBlitz2KGold.man.pdf
Info on games that work w/ seattle board:
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=618
Info on games that work w/ vegas board:
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=619
Dip switches for standard resolution on these games is U8 2ON 3OFF, medium is something else for those two switches (see the blitz manual above), another dip controls 8way vs 49way joysticks.
Game failing to boot or resetting could indicate overheating or bad hard drive. There are compact flash replacements out there for the hard drive, or replacement roms/hard drives from here: http://www.summittarcade.com/MidwayAtari.html
A good way to test the basics of the game is to try and boot it first without the hd, then plug in HD on another boot.
High score saving problem probably indicates dead battery or no battery on the board.
If you have a standard res monitor, you'll need to adjust the h/v/etc knobs for your monitor between blitz and jam or hangtime etc.
Thats about the summary of various threads I found here.
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