Championship Sprint (Atari System II) High Score Not Saving

FrizzleFried

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Championship Sprint (Atari System II) High Score Not Saving

It seems my Championship Sprint (Atari System II hardware) has decided to start not saving high scores. I turned it on last night to discover the high score list had been reset. Knowing that there is a setting to automatically reset the HS list, I played a few games and set a few high scores... Upon power cycle they were gone.

Thanks...
 
Might as well bump this as I'm getting no love anywhere...

I picked up a 2816 and installed it today. Reset the high score table and...


...nothing. Same thing. High scores are lost at power down.

Any suggestions? HELP!
 
Pin 21 will have approx 21v pulses on it for programming and erasing. Check the voltage source for that pin.

For more information, go to http://www.datasheetarchive.com and download the data sheet for the chip.
 
Hows this for strange... it appears that it's saving ACCOUNTING stuff, just not the high scores... doesn't the same chip do both?

Now, that said, I am basing this assessment on the fact that when I went to go clear the accounting info, it showed multiple plays, etc...
 
Then I'm at a loss here... That 2816 takes a 21v programming pulse to save the data... but you are getting data saved there from accounting, but not high scores?

That sounds like a corrupt game code EPROM, but that should've been caught during self tests.

Maybe Spaeth or some other programmer could speak up if they know something about the score save routines vs. Accounting info save routines.
 
Hey,

I just thought of something.... prior to resetting the accounting it showed like 258 plays... after I reset it showed 2000 plays exactly. Now, I know there is a setting to RESET HIGH SCORE after X number of plays...and I want to say that it's set to 2000! Now, if there is a bug that is somehow making the accounting reset to 2000 plays and the RESET HIGH SCORE is set to 2000 plays, perhaps it's resetting the high scores over and over again if it's "stuck" at 2000 plays?

I am going to go turn that "reset after x number of plays" feature off and try again.
 
Frizz,

Is your Paperboy PCB saving scores with that new chip?
 
If that's the case and the accounting info isn't changing then we're back to checking the +21v source...

If it's good, then check the control signals on the chip. (R/W, CE*, etc...)
 
Well... it SOUNDED reasonable. No go. I changed over to not reset HS after 2,000... no save. I then reset the HS table manually... no save. I then reset the accounting so it shows ZERO across the board (not sure why it reset to 2000 before?)... then reset the high score board... still no save.

I'm bummed as the HS table is quite important for this game. :(
 
If that's the case and the accounting info isn't changing then we're back to checking the +21v source...

If it's good, then check the control signals on the chip. (R/W, CE*, etc...)


From my recollection I check the two pins caddy-corner from each other, right? But because the accounting info did reset properly this time, is this still something I need to look at?
 
It was the Championship Sprint that I needed the chip for. Hence this thread.

I realize that, but they are the same board. I figure trying to swap the chip you just got to see if it works with Paperboy would eliminate it from being the chip.
 
Then instead of repeating, please tell us what chip you think we should be talking about!

I'm only going off what was posted earlier in the thread. I haven't checked the schematic to see if he's referring to the correct chip or not.
 
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