Disappointing

Zinfer

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
4,497
Reaction score
32
Location
Lima, Ohio
Well yesterday was having the house powerwashed and getting the deck ready to seal. Had the nephews over as they wanted to stay and play in the arcade.
Probably the first time in a long time nearly all games have been powered up.
Right off, Berzerk came up with just the high scores screen and was locked up.
After the cabinets had been on for a while, Star Wars started having graphics glitches. My newly repaired Donkey Kong board, started emitting all kind of nonsensical sounds after the cabinet warmed up.
Tron comes up with some kind of yellow screen. Space Invaders fingerboard connector's loose connection strikes again. Stargate has a Ram error.
I think the Star Wars was the worst. But my heart really did sink when Tron died. I'd worked so hard and long on that WG6100 to see it act like that. So, I've got alot of work to do getting these stable.
 
I hear ya. One of my coworkers has finally given a date they want to come up to the house and play some games. Of course now my TRON is experiencing technical difficulties as well. Meh.
 
that sucks dude! Take your mind off things.. make a road trip up here and fix the stargate i just bought LOL
 
you guys that are having problems, let me ask you, do you power the games on by its own switch 9like one at a time) or do you leave the switch on all your machines and throw a power bar switch to turn them on? just wondering
 
Ebeers for you sir! I always having. One good. Solid as a brick. Pinball machine around. For. These types of. Times. Myself.
 
Sounds like you guys need some dehumidifiers in your basements.
 
you guys that are having problems, let me ask you, do you power the games on by its own switch 9like one at a time) or do you leave the switch on all your machines and throw a power bar switch to turn them on? just wondering

I haven't had too many games going down on me lately, but I do get stuff that dies once in awhile. I turn my games on through the flip of some breakers.


That almost sounds dirty... :D

I had to go back and check if the OP had those 2 words in quotes....
 
Well today was fix the problems day. First off, Tron. Checked connections. Ended up pulling board set out. Removed the 4 screws seperating the 2 pcbs. Didn't see a darn thing wrong. Folded back up, resecured the pcb's and placed pcb stack back in cabinet and powered up - Tron is running fine.

Next Stargate Ram Error 12. Pulled cabinet out, opened rear door. 0 on LED display. Checked all Ram voltages. Closed door pushed back in place powered up, Stargate is fine.

Well, now for Space Invaders, pulled cabinet out. pulled main connector. Not making good contact. Used a screwdriver to pinch the connectors together more. Plugged in unit, secured back door -pushed back into place-Space Invaders is now fine.

Star Wars pcb stack pulled placed on Pat - boards A 0k. Back to cabinet, toggled wires leading to one side of deflection. Loose connector/wire. Pulled connector, nail sander used on deflection pins. Plugged back in. Put boardset back in unit, readjusted display as I tinkered with BIP and image adjustments while it was hooked to the PAT. Star Wars now ok, but may need to replace the connector if it does it again.

On to Berzerk, powered unit up - heard the tones upon power up, unit comes up fine. Pulled the Control panel, if you don't use the batstick in a long time, it's not as responsive. Checked wires, used a small screwdriver to seat the wires to connector at stick better. Played a game and decided I wanted to replace the spring if I can find one. The one I have on there now wears you out as there's too much tension.

Lastly, Donkey Kong - I have no idea why during attract, after the unit is running a while, it suddenly starts emitting mario death sounds or the end of the death where it plays the dum-da-dum-da-duh...end of death song over and over. Game still in attract, it just starts emitting noises, sometimes a high pitch whine that hurts your ears.

So all in all - just WEIRD stuff. But it seems the worst problem is the Donkey Kong. I noticed it did this when I first got the board back from repair, but I didn't say anything as it didn't do it again. I suppose if I had it on for a long period of time it'd probably do it every time it was warmed up. No action taken yet. May be the sound board.
 
Yea I suppose it was a good test of practically everything being on at once. I don't do it that often, at least not until I get an arcade built for them. I was worried sick about my Tron and Star Wars. Just glad there wasn't anything to be worried about.
But yea - no reason for that stuff to be happening at all.
I think the only other thing that got a little on my nerves was some of the machines have locks and others I just haven't gotten around to it. So rather than run around with a bunch of keys to give free games for the kids, I just break into my piggy bank and give them each some quarters.
Well, the smallest one likes to then pocket the quarters. He's also now found where the coin-boxes are and begins going around pulling all the doors open to take all the quarters out of the coin-boxes. He then proceeded to raid my tumbler where I am tumbling/polishing 30 year old 'Fun-N-Games' tokens. I told him to put them back. Well he really wanted one so I told him to just keep one.
Now that I'm actually able to host arcade parties looks like I'm going to have to now get serious about getting locks on the front doors. The end goal is to get it down to tokens, but I certainly wouldn't want them walking out the door either as hard as it is to find them, buy them at an average 10 cent value each. Then get them polished back to looking new again.
 
Game still in attract, it just starts emitting noises, sometimes a high pitch whine that hurts your ears.

I have this same problem with a totally different game, Raiden II. I have NO CLUE why. Everything is solid.

Anyway- I got a chuckle out of your story about everything breaking at once. I had my birthday party back in December and I had everything up and working great just for the party. As guests arrived, games started flaking out one by one. Even the ever popular daytona usa went out on me! I guess that's how it goes. I'm taking 16 of my "recently refreshed/restored" games to a convention next week, i'm fully counting on loosing half as soon as I plug them in!
 
Back
Top Bottom