Braze Asteroids Multi-Game Kit Install

aeroflott

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Now that these have started shipping out, I thought I'd share a few experiences I've had installing this kit.

My Asteroids board had two issues that I never really addressed over the years:

1. It had a speed up hack done at some point, involving pins 3,4 and 5 at C5.
2. Test mode never worked.

But the game always played fine. The multigame instructions suggest that it should only be installed on a working, non-hacked board. (So of course like any good KLOVer, I went ahead and installed it on my partially-working and hacked board).

On installing the kit, it refused to work, reporting bad ram at D2 and N4. My concern was that the speed up hack meant I could never run the kit on the board.

Replaced D2 and N4 with good 2114, (which fixed test mode on the PCB) and the multigame ran fine, but everything was running faster than it should (sped up Asteroids Deluxe is fun).

So I decided to deconvert the speed up hack, desoldered the tied pins at C5, bent pin 4 back down, added a dab of solder, and now everything is working as it should. My repair isn't particularly pretty so at some point I'll replace the chip at C5 altogether.

Anyway, my point being, your Asteroids might be working OK, but the kit does seem sensitive to ram that has failed, or is about to fail. This is almost certainly an issue with your Asteroids PCB rather than a fault with the kit.

I have another Asteroids board, which has been modded with a single 6116 ram chip to replace the traditional 2114 ram at locations M4, N4, P4 and R4. Here, the kit ran, and reported no faults, but Asteroids Deluxe and Lunar Lander were both very glitchy - LL so much so, that it crashed and locked up. I'm waiting on some 2114 chips to arrive so I can remove the mod and put the orginal chips back in - will report back on this one, but at this point, it seems the kit doesn't like an Asteroids with a 6116 ram mod.

So to summarise:

1. The multigame kit seems OK with a speed up Asteroids board, if that's your thing.
2. The multigame kit doesn't appear to like any ram modifications, and will call out your ram if it is failing or failed.

Thanks to Scott Brasington for helping me out via email with my thinking as I worked through these issues to get the kit to work. The multigame is fantastic - highly recommended!

Hope this info helps someone.

Cheers.
 
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And THIS^ is why we can't have nice things.

The whole reason for the delay in releasing this product was specifically to avoid people like you - screwing it up for the rest of us.

I mean, you deliberately went against the install instructions, and then you contacted Scott for tech help?! What the hell is wrong with you?!?! Like he really needs to be bothered with people doing things the wrong way - when you are specifically instructed on the right way.

He's real likely to invest time in another project in the future with all the stupidity surrounding this project. Way to fuck it up for everybody :D
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WANTED!!! : DECO Cassette System Cages/PCB's - Amplifone M48AAW00X Tubes - Robotron Cabaret - NeoSaveMasta - PuLiRuLa PCB - Sailor Moon PCB
 
I'll be interested to see if undoing the RAM mod changes things.

Did you try changing the 6116? Maybe it's just marginal. It's a pretty simple mod, so I'm curious to see.
 
And THIS^ is why we can't have nice things.

The whole reason for the delay in releasing this product was specifically to avoid people like you - screwing it up for the rest of us.

I mean, you deliberately went against the install instructions, and then you contacted Scott for tech help?! What the hell is wrong with you?!?! Like he really needs to be bothered with people doing things the wrong way - when you are specifically instructed on the right way.

He's real likely to invest time in another project in the future with all the stupidity surrounding this project. Way to fuck it up for everybody :D
.

WANTED!!! : DECO Cassette System Cages/PCB's - Amplifone M48AAW00X Tubes - Robotron Cabaret - NeoSaveMasta - PuLiRuLa PCB - Sailor Moon PCB

Jesus.

I'm sure Scott thanks you for getting your knickers in a twist on his behalf, as I guess he forgot to get angry during his dialogue with me. As it happens, he was curious to see the result.

I figured posting my experience on here might help someone figure out similar issues without reverting back to him.

But I guess you know better. :D
 
Good job Aeroflott,

Innovation and progress does not happen unless real-world use-cases are tried and documented. I found your post helpful and informative.

I work in a tech company around dev's all the time and they love knowing how their products work in the field.

Ignore the writings in post #2 on this thread. If I could have it deleted, I would.
That post is counter to what this forum is all about.
 
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