Damn Damn Damn....original Tempest got away

I offered someone $750 for theirs. The monitor needed to be rebuilt, control panel replaced and a large chip on the left side of the cabinet was awful. I would have had to rebuild the cabinet as well. He wouln't budge from $950. Oh well. I'll find one eventually.
Now if someone would build a multivector jamma kit, that would be cool.
 
What is (are) the most universally accepted problems with a Tempest....board issues, power supply issues or x-y vector monitor issues?

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What is (are) the most universally accepted problems with a Tempest....board issues, power supply issues or x-y vector monitor issues?

1. Replace the big blue capacitor and clean the fuse holders in the power brick.
2. Recap the ARII and replace the voltage adjustment pot if it is not the sealed type. Check R29 and R30 to be in spec. Maybe replace the LM305 regulator and TIP32 and 2N3055 transistors.
3. Inspect contacts within edge connector and repin if they are tarnished or no longer springy.
4. Clean / repair and polish edge connector on main and Aux PCBs.
5. Reflow solder or replace the inter-board headers on both main and Aux PCBs. Polish pins and install new cable.
6. Replace ROM and CPU sockets on main PCB.
7. Replace sockets for PROMs and mathbox chips pin Aux PCB.
8. Add heat sinks to 2901 bit slice chips on Aux board.
9. Replace adjustment pots in analog section of main PCB.
10. Repair main and Aux PCBs as required.
11. Upgrade to rev 3 of the Tempest code.

A. Install LV2000 on deflection board of 6100.
B. Recap deflection, HV, and neck board.
C. Rebuild remainder of HV and deflection boards.
D. Install input protection board if deflection board is P314.
E. Set HV level to 19.5Kv.
 
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1. Replace the big blue capacitor and clean the fuse holders in the power brick.
2. Recap the ARII and replace the voltage adjustment pot if it is not the sealed type. Check R29 and R30 to be in spec. Maybe replace the LM305 regulator and TIP32 and 2N3055 transistors.
3. Inspect contacts within edge connector and repin if they are tarnished or no longer springy.
4. Clean / repair and polish edge connector on main and Aux PCBs.
5. Reflow solder or replace the inter-board headers on both main and Aux PCBs. Polish pins and install new cable.
6. Replace ROM and CPU sockets on main PCB.
7. Replace sockets for PROMs and mathbox chips pin Aux PCB.
8. Add heat sinks to 2901 bit slice chips on Aux board.
9. Replace adjustment pots in analog section of main PCB.
10. Repair main and Aux PCBs as required.
11. Upgrade to rev 3 of the Tempest code.

A. Install LV2000 on deflection board of 6100.
B. Recap deflection, HV, and neck board.
C. Rebuild remainder of HV and deflection boards.
D. Install input protection board if deflection board is P314.
E. Set HV level to 19.5Kv.

Or do what I do and just avoid this machine like the plague.
 
Despite the bit of bashing in this thread, vectors can actually be extremely reliable games, IF you fix them correctly. I've repaired game and monitor boards for many people on this forum, including several folks who have Tempests and other vectors running in barcades and on location, and they can be reliable.

Many of the issues with vectors are small things, but important things, and if you miss or skimp on any of them, it can take the game down. So you do need to be thorough, and do things 'the right way'. But there isn't anything about vector games that inherently makes them flawed, and much of the bashing they get is unwarranted and a bit exaggerated, IMO.

Douglasgb sums up a lot of the types of things you often need to do to them to get them to that working state, but it's also worth noting that some of those things aren't absolutely necessary IMO, and it's also unlikely that you'd need to do ALL of those things to any single game you pick up. But they are all repairs you *could* need to do on one, and some of them are ones you definitely want to do, especially all of the monitor-related items.

Vectors can be more work than most raster games, but they are also totally worth it, and there are plenty of resources out there (and here) to help you, if you want to try restoring one. Don't let the haters sway you.
 
His last show unveiled a board to add Major Havoc to a Tempest cab as a dual boot option.


That was his video, but he didn't own the cab. That video was shot at his friend Jay's arcade, Freeplay RI, in Rhode Island. (Source: I'm the other guy in the background, when they're discussing the FPGA vector board with Scott, who created it, and Scott is a friend of mine.) See the thread on that board here:


http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=409162
 
Yes, I know. But should be very exciting for Tempest cab owners. I think you might see a surge in value knowing you can put a Major Havok dual system in it.
 
Yes, I know. But should be very exciting for Tempest cab owners. I think you might see a surge in value knowing you can put a Major Havok dual system in it.


Ah, gotcha, sorry. And yes, I agree more Tempests (and even more Space Duels, with the horizontal monitors) will get a little more love now because of Scott's board.
 
Yes, I know. But should be very exciting for Tempest cab owners. I think you might see a surge in value knowing you can put a Major Havok dual system in it.

Not sure about everyone else, but I'd rather play a normally horizontal game on a horizontal monitor and a normally vertical game on a vertical monitor ... in order to maximize the aspect ratios. YMMV

That being said, a VECTOR-XY-H FPGA and a VECTOR-XY-V FPGA might fit those needs. :)

BTW, surprised there is no discussion regarding ANALOG sound recreation in DIGITAL format and the success or failure of this technique for these boards. :vroam:
 
Not sure about everyone else, but I'd rather play a normally horizontal game on a horizontal monitor and a normally vertical game on a vertical monitor ... in order to maximize the aspect ratios. YMMV

That being said, a VECTOR-XY-H FPGA and a VECTOR-XY-V FPGA might fit those needs. :)

BTW, surprised there is no discussion regarding ANALOG sound recreation in DIGITAL format and the success or failure of this technique for these boards. :vroam:



Believe it or not, you'd be surprised how well MH scales on the vertical montor. Yes, it's not perfect, but it is very playable, for the person who owns a vertical (Tempest), and doesn't want to rotate the tube.

All of us the other night (me, John, and Jay) commented on how playable MH was, and Jay actually didn't even notice for a second when we had Tempest running on the horizontal monitor (as one of his Tempests has a horiz monitor, as he was using it as a MH, so he forgot for a minute when I got that monitor up and running, after replacing the deflection board).

Most of the time with Tempests, people don't crank up the size to use the full range of vertical screen (and you sorta don't want to anyway, to decrease stress on the monitor).

Also, Scott's board clips the image digitally inside the FPGA, so you actually can turn up the size to get the image right to the edge of the screen, and it won't overscan and stress the deflection board. So particularly with Tempest, when you run it on a horizontal monitor it's really close to being the same size as a stock vertical setup, with the vertical scaled to the typical size you see on most Tempests.
 
Hey, to each his own but here is why I dig Tempest. First off, back in the day I got decent enough on Tempest that I could actually make a quarter last a few minutes. My recurring arcade nightmare is to have one dollar in my pocket and walk into a room full of Defender cabinets. I would be better served giving my money to a passing vagrant than to suffer the five minutes of pure frustration that it would take to run through four quarters on that game.

Secondly, I think both graphically, and more importantly, conceptually...Tempest is a bit of a one-off among arcade games. So many arcade games are essentially the same gameplay concept with different graphics...Galaga, Galaxian, Phoenix, Satans Hollow....meh, basically same conceptual gameplay. With many other classic games, the graphics just have not aged all that well....Elevator Action comes to mind. I think the color vector graphics and the gameplay of Tempest are unique enough to be somewhat timeless actually. To me, looking at a working Tempest screen is as fresh today as it was a quarter of a century ago.

There is a long list of conceptual one-offs out there ( we could debate that on an entirely new thread )...Tapper, Paperboy, Star Wars, QBert, even DK. The last cool thing about Tempest is that it's an AFFORDABLE member of that class. I actually have a shot at buying one. The day I spend 3 G's on an arcade cabinet is the day I must have won the lottery.
 
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