HOLY CRAP, I may have scored a grail!

Tornadoboy

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Congrats TB! Now find the cabs!:cool::D

All I need is a Targ or Spectar cab, which aren't that rare and are exactly the same, and then to somehow get the bezel and side art repro'd. All that being said though space is really becoming an issue so it might find itself crammed in a custom mini, which would be kind of cute.
 
<RANT>


I will NEVER understand why people are willing to lay a static sensitive PCB onto shag carpeting for the pictures to be taken!! Take a look at PCB auctions on EBAY right now - I guarantee that more than 50% of them took pictures of the board laying on carpeting!

It's especially frustrating when the game board is extremely rare or when the seller claims it to be 100% tested and working. I always wonder, did they test it BEFORE or AFTER they took the pictures?

Why, oh why can't arcade game collectors learn, understand and practice proper ESD (Electro Static Discharge) handling procedures? Anti-static bags are NOT expensive! These are pretty simple concepts people...

Did you know the average static discharge can transfer 10's of thousands of volts into that game board?

OK. Whew ! Thanks for listening.


</RANT>


Hope it's still working when you receive it...
 
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In 1997 a young, first- time collector brought home a large number of games, about 38 - and started without the benefit of this group or any fast communication with other collectors or operators - In other words, he knew nothing at all. One of the games was a Space Duel with "issues." Since there was no workshop yet and he was living alone the games were all over the house and the only flat surface left was the stove so the PCB went on the electric stove coil. Just as he was metering a ground point - BANG! Exploding RAM chip right to the eye.

Carpet is not the worst.
 
Hey that is mine....and the carpet as well.

Not to worry, I de-staticed the carpet before taking the pics.

Good luck on the board....I have no idea about it as it was in a box of boards I bought at the Dallas pinball festival a couple of weeks ago.

Garry
 
Upon some closer comparisons I'm starting to think it's a Targ PCB, which isn't the end of the world actually because what I'm start to see is how close both boardsets are, so adapting it to be Side Trak shouldn't be too difficult. One dead give away is the ribbon cable that supposed to go to a color adaptor board, well being that ST is black and white I don't think it has one. Also I've noticed comparing the positions asigned to the MAME ROMs that one is out of place on the board I bought, at least it would seem to be if it was a Side Trak.

One of the things I was using for comparison was a picture from another PCB auction I lost that supposedly was a Side Trak, "untested" of course, but actually I'm starting to think the picture is of a Targ too, so whomever won that particular auction got screwed for like $80 for a $20 dollar-tops board. Glad I lost that one!

In any case I only paid $25 shipped so it's still a very good deal, I'm happy, and I wanted a board to experiment with converting to ST anyway so it works out. Good news is before I thought ST had a completely different sound board from Targ/Spectar but I appear to have been wrong, in fact they look almost identical. The main PCB board is almost definately the same barring any differences in the placement of components and their values, I know I'm going to have to install at least a couple of new sockets where they're currently empty and probably have to do some very painful studying of the schematics.

The one unanswered question is are there any protection/custom ICs specific to ST? I'm doubtful since it's so old, Spectar and Targ are interchangible with EPROM swaps but I won't know if it'll work for this game until I try.
 
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Did you know the average static discharge can transfer 10's of thousands of volts into that game board?

<RANT>
Volts don't move! No matter how many times Hollywood says so!
</RANT>

Now that that's out of the way .. I agree entirely with the sentiment about ESD practices :D

LeChuck
 
I've since gotten the board now and I'm working it over, ran it through the dish washer, replaced the IC sockets, etc. I've gone through the video output page of the Side Trak schematic and my PCB and the pic I was using as an example for ST are most definately NOT it, as the B&W part of the circuit is not populated, so that really sux for the guy whom paid $80 for the board I got the picture from. Good news is I think it may be as simple as populating some empty parts of the circuit board and reprogramming the EPROMs to get the job done, and I've also noted that Targ uses some of the same sound effects, so we'll see...

For the record the PCB pic KLOV has for the game is the incorrect one, in fact I may be the knucklehead whom submitted it, so don't use it for comparisons.

I hope the ROMs for Kreepy Krawlers turn up some day because no doubt being B&W and from the same general time period that uses the same setup, so that would be a cool oddity to have too. I read an interview with the programmer once and he said it had been completed though never released, I don't think he said what became of any ROMs though.
 

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Ok there's good news and bad news.

Good news is the board works! :D
Bad news is, it's Targ! :(

No loss really, again the price was still good and now that I've confirmed the board works I can start working on converting it over to ST, and if I can figure out if/how it can be done it'll be useful info for other people whom like the game too.
I'm still hopeful that it's more or less just going to be a matter of populating some empty areas of the PCB and reprogramming the EPROMs, and probably changing the jumper configuration. Only hang up at the moment is reprogramming a single 2708 EPROM which my programmer doesn't support, but I might try to substitute it with a 2716 which it does.
 
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DId you really run it through the dishwasher?

Yep, a lot of people do that for exceptionally dirty boards, as long as you don't use detergent, remove anything socketed and blow all the water out of everything with a compressor it seems to do no damage. Keep in mind that most components are designed to take enough heat to have no problem going through a wave soldering machine, which solders all the connections at once from underneath with a molten fountain of solder (I used to work around one), so a dish washer doesn't really use that much heat in comparison.
I also did this with a Blue Print boardset which literally came with mud caked on it! Evening running it through the washer TWICE didn't clean it completely and I ended up scrubbing it with a toothbrush, now you could almost not tell what it's been through.
 
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Yep, a lot of people do that for exceptionally dirty boards, as long as you don't use detergent, remove anything socketed and blow all the water out of everything with a compressor it seems to do no damage. Keep in mind that most components are designed to take enough heat to have no problem going through a wave soldering machine, which solders all the connections at once from underneath with a molten fountain of solder (I used to work around one), so a dish washer doesn't really use that much heat in comparison.
I also did this with a Blue Print boardset which literally came with mud caked on it! Evening running it through the washer TWICE didn't clean it completely and I ended up scrubbing it with a toothbrush, now you could almost not tell what it's been through.

It also helps if you have soft water. Washing with hard water usually leaves a white film all over the board, and it's difficult to get it off...
 
I might have to try that with some of my boards . . . some of them are . . . really bad.

If it has a heat function for drying plates after they're washed take the boards out before then too, also remember that any labels on them will probably get destroyed. Also if you still use the washer for plates for good measure run it empty afterwards to wash out anything that might have come off the boards in it.
 
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Where I worked a long time ago, there was a solder bath conveyor and all the boards that came of it didn't require time in the dishwasher, but every hand-soldered board went through the dishwasher to get the flux off it before conformal coating. The boards would go straight from the dishwasher into the 250-300 degree oven for drying.
 
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