Donkey Kong Z80 Broken Leg

paulliadis

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So one of the legs broke off when I was trying to install it into my Donkey Kong 2k/ high score save kit. I cannot express how angry this makes me as I wasn't rough with it at all.

Anyhow just the skinnier part broke off one of the legs. The part attached to the chip is still there.

Will I do more damage if I try this thing to see if it works?

If it is unsafe can it be repaired? If not, anybody have a z80a chip for donkey kong?
 
It will not damage anything with the leg being broken off. You can solder a short piece of wire from that broken pin to the solder side of your high score kit if you don't want to buy a new Z80.
 
It happens. Just solder a leg back on. Clip one off a junk IC real close to the body, and overlay/solder it onto the broken stub. You can also use a stiff piece of wire, like a resistor leg.

Or, replace the chip. It's cheap and common. The Z80A was used in thousands of devices - not just Donkey Kong.

-Ian
 
It was a10. I guess I'll try it and if it doesn't work I'll order one from Mikes.

It won't work. A10 is an address line. It won't hurt anything if you try it though, might get some interesting errors though - let us know what it does. Inquiring minds want to know :D

But seriously, you can just solder something onto that stub to make up for the missing leg. Or, you might even have another Z80 you can borrow from a spare board and get it going again.

-Ian
 
Well I tried it and it worked. I tried both D2K and Donkey Kong and both work fine. I hadn't played DK in a month and was happy to set a base high score of 56k on my one and only quarter for the night. Not great but not bad for one try.

Perhaps it still worked because I took a pin and tried to make sure what remained of the busted leg was in contact with the socket. We'll see what happens if I move the game around.

Thanks everybody for the advice. It was nice to know nothing would fry if I tried it out
 
Not that I know a damn thing about Z80s but didn't they change DK to use Z80Cs? Twin Galaxies won't even accept you score unless the chip says "Z80C" or just "Z80".
 
Not that I know a damn thing about Z80s but didn't they change DK to use Z80Cs? Twin Galaxies won't even accept you score unless the chip says "Z80C" or just "Z80".

Twin Galaxies also won't accept your score if you have the D2K kit installed. Or if you've got replaced parts or ROMs on the board. Or if there is a little bit of some gummy substance on a chip. Or if there is dust in some places but not others. Or if you've got a switcher instead of the old original power supply. Or if the shipping box the board came in has a return address of someone they don't like. Or a thousand other reasons.

-Ian
 
Twin Galaxies also won't accept your score if you have the D2K kit installed. Or if you've got replaced parts or ROMs on the board. Or if there is a little bit of some gummy substance on a chip. Or if there is dust in some places but not others. Or if you've got a switcher instead of the old original power supply. Or if the shipping box the board came in has a return address of someone they don't like. Or a thousand other reasons.

-Ian

Mine says z80a. Made by Sanyo, I think. I'll have to remember this though, once I get my first kill screen. :)
 
Twin Galaxies also won't accept your score if you have the D2K kit installed. Or if you've got replaced parts or ROMs on the board. Or if there is a little bit of some gummy substance on a chip. Or if there is dust in some places but not others. Or if you've got a switcher instead of the old original power supply. Or if the shipping box the board came in has a return address of someone they don't like. Or a thousand other reasons.

-Ian

I know it's crazy. Is there some difference between how the game plays with a Z80c as opposed to a Z80a? My old 4-board set has a Z80A (soldered) but the 2-board set I play on has a z80c.
 
Honestly that's just nuts, the parts really make no difference at all in the long run of things. I guess it's just the fact that they want everything to be the exact same for everyone.
 
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