Crystal Castles Audio Wiring

kingofpain79

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Hello everyone! So I purchased a Crystal Castles last weekend (One of my must-haves for my collection!), and trust me, I saved this one from its fate. It was owned by an operator, and was selling because Bentley was moving around the board erratically.

So I went into this purchase kinda impulsively, and while the cabinet is in pretty good shape, the inside is another story. The only thing original inside is the PCB and MAYBE the monitor tube. It's missing speakers, the trackball is white, it's definitely been pieced together.

I replaced both POKEYS and that fixed the trackball issue. Game plays correctly now. I ordered speakers and a utility panel switch assembly, and want to hook the audio. Here's where my confusion lies. Do I need an AR II for this? I've read here and there that you can run the audio directly from the PCB. Is this the case? Please help me clear up my confusion about this. I have no clue where to start here. Thanks in advance!
 
Welcome to Crystal Castles ownership! These are fun cabs to own, but can be a real dog to take care of if the wrong parts eat the pavement.

For starters, you don't technically need the AR II. The game requires +5v and +10.3v on the PCB, but it will take +12v in lieu of +10.3; it's handy if your AR II is damaged beyond a rebuild or you never had one (like mine). You run into two issues when you remove an AR II from the equation, though:
  1. No audio amplification, and
  2. No high-score saving.
Issue number one is easily fixed - the line out from the PCB can be fed into an external audio amp and controlled that way. I used a $10 hobby audio amp kit from Fry's with mine (it pulls +12v from the power supply) and it works excellently.

Issue number two I'm not so sure about; the 2212s where the top three high scores get written to (along with all the game's settings and bookkeeping info) require something like -30v to drive. I highly doubt it's as simple as swapping them for NVRAM that take a more common rail voltage and doing some wiring tweaks, but Matt Osborn or Mark Spaeth should be able to answer that infinitely better than I can.

Things to consider that may give you issues in the future:
  1. The LETA chip, which serves as the trackball controller; they are getting a little long in the tooth now, so one of Vector Labs' LETA replacement chips might be something to consider investing $40 in. High Score Saves stocks them now and ships insanely fast.
  2. The POTATO chip (position 3K), which does some odd scrolling playfield memory magic; nobody appears to reproduce these, so you'll need to get one off of an existing CC parts board if yours goes bad.
In any case, I hope your CC brings you as much enjoyment as it has for me (and my wife, who thinks it's adorable). :)
 
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Thanks for the reply. I was considering taking the cabinet back to all original inside, but considering the mess that it is, I may just put newer stuff in it.

The PSU that's currently powering it looks like it's out of a computer, and it really needs an isolation transformer for the monitor. I know that the monitor chassis is one of those universal chassis. And the cab desperately needs feet. It was on four casters when I got it, and immediately took them off when I got it home! Needless to say, I won't be buying anything else from the seller.

So I'm assuming you run the PCB audio into the amp, and then run the speakers from the audio out lines? I know this is pretty basic, but I've not had to do much audio work in any of my cabs, and I ask lots of questions to make sure I understand.

As for the high score saves, it's not a big deal for me if that happens. I consider myself a purist of the hobby, but sometimes you just need to work with what you have.

I actually have a CC board that I'm going to keep for parts, so I have an extra of everything you mentioned. I'm definitely planning on ordering a few more POKEYS since these seem to have issues in Atari games more so than other chips.
 
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