Cinematronics Programming Blog

Outerworld

Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2008
Messages
97
Reaction score
5
Location
Gold Beach, Oregon
I've created a Cinematronics Programming blog, which will contain regular updates & thoughts on my Cinematronics programming activities. I'll continue to post major items of note to klov - this blog will contain more detail for those who might be interested.

For now, I'm hosting it at Blogspot:
http://cinematronicsprogramming.blogspot.com/

I posted some mame screen shots of the Cinematronics Test Rom today...
 

Yes there's some excellent info there. I think all the roms are emulated now by mame.

Cinematronics programming makes the 6502 and 8080 seem luxurious by comparison, but after getting used to the limitations and idiosyncrasies it feels quite workable. I think the later games in '80 and '81 were only beginning to test the limits of the system - there's plenty of room for new expression beyond the 13 original games.
 
not to hijack, but i used your sound board repair info to fix my Star Castle. Thanks.Had 2 blown transistors and a blown speaker.

Making me jealous... I wish I had a Star Castle to repair. So much so that I am still considering buying one from the most disreputable dealer in town. :mad:
 
not to hijack, but i used your sound board repair info to fix my Star Castle. Thanks.Had 2 blown transistors and a blown speaker.

Cool - Glad it helped!

I've got two more SC sound boards to fix - so I'll be referencing it soon myself. I find if I don't take the time to document what I'm doing I can't remember all the details the next go-round.

Feels kind of weird referencing my own articles on how to do something though.
 
GREAT INTERNET PAGE!!

Do you do Armor Attack pcb repair? I might be picking one up and its DEAD. I figure start with the P/S but I may need to send the board out and I don't know if my man does Cinematronics.
 
GREAT INTERNET PAGE!!

Do you do Armor Attack pcb repair? I might be picking one up and its DEAD. I figure start with the P/S but I may need to send the board out and I don't know if my man does Cinematronics.

While a dead Cinematronics game could a board problem there are a number of things to check first - it could be as easy as resetting one of the circuit breakers (don't reset with the game plugged in).

There are good manuals available to help isolate problems and these are very different beasts than other arcade games.

As for Cinematronics PCB repairs: Not yet, but maybe soon...

I've just bought a CinExor from Blltronics and have had a 5004a signature analyzer for awhile now. I've just got to buy & build all the connectors etc to put it all together. I've got a few boards of my own to repair and then may consider other repairs.

Armor Attack boards seem to be around if you need a replacement instead of a repair. Just save those dead boards as I might be interested in them soon...
 
Is this a rule of thumb? Just curious because my Star Castle was dead and I was pushing those with it plugged it, then they needed to be replaced.

It is for me. I fried a perfectly good armor attack pcb resetting the circuit breakers with the game plugged in - it's been sitting in the repair pile ever since.

In any case, since you can't tell which of the two circuit breakers blew and there's no off on switch, it just seems way nicer on everything to always unplug the game first.

When testing Cinematronics code that I am programming, I regularly have to reset the breakers on my test rig. By always following this procedure, I've never had any damage to any of the components (and I've had to do it quite a lot...)
 
Back
Top Bottom