How I dealt with the heartache of missing CAX (Zoo Keeper)

pookdolie

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How I dealt with the heartache of missing CAX (Zoo Keeper)

I knew I was going to miss CAX due to a scheduling conflict. I needed a pacifier.

A couple of weeks ago, I sold some furniture and other stuff to try and make space in my cramped apartment for a new upright. Ater all of that, I still only had room to put one in front of a bunch of cabinets. That meant more re-arranging.

Finished, and bought this machine. It died...right at the same time I found out I'd be missing the event which would be causing me to miss CAX. (&^$*%@!!)

So, I went over the boardset like a madman, and it came up in time to enjoy a bazillion rounds of it on SaturCAXday. Sanity restored. :D

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Congrats on getting it fixed! Looks to be in very nice shape. What was wrong with it?

Sorry you missed Cax. I missed it too. :)
 
One of the greatest games ever. Nice get. Looks beautiful. What's your HS so far? :)
 
Congrats on getting it fixed! Looks to be in very nice shape. What was wrong with it?

It went from working to nothing coming out of the boardset. No action on the diagnostic LEDs, either.

Started pulling and reseating chips. It then came up with a bunch of lines in the graphics, and LEDs which were dancing like crazy, indicating all sorts of errors. At some point, I pulled and reseated an additional RAM chip, and also bent and flexed wires coming off of the remote AA battery pack - which got me a (seemingly) 100% working game.

congrats Pook. Looks great.

Thanks! It had a new CPO (applied very well), some cracking paint on the monitor glass (not bad), but the inside of the glass was dirty. A little tricky to take out those Taito glasses, but I managed to do it, clean it spotless, and not lose any extra paint. Cabinet is now quite clean in and out. Love the cabinet graphics.

One of the greatest games ever. Nice get. Looks beautiful. What's your HS so far? :)

Around 400K. I've never been more thankful for a freeplay chip than the one this thing has...
 
Nice pickup. I love my Zoo Keeper - it's 1 of 2 that I don't know I could ever part with. Yours looks to be in excellent condition. Congrats - Barry
 
Where did you get the free play chip from? I heard Mark had them but does anyone else?
 
What freeplay chip? You can set freeplay in the settings menu. - Barry

Ha, my brain was thinking HS save chip. There was a chip supposedly that you replaced somewhere on the PCB that made the battery not matter (since it sucked and dies all the time). Mark had made those allegedly but I have never seen one?
 
Ha, my brain was thinking HS save chip. There was a chip supposedly that you replaced somewhere on the PCB that made the battery not matter (since it sucked and dies all the time). Mark had made those allegedly but I have never seen one?

Spaeth has them. It's a NVRAM mod for Zoo Keeper. I actually have one. However, I am still sporting the battery (I installed a cordless phone one) and it works - most times.
 
Spaeth has them. It's a NVRAM mod for Zoo Keeper. I actually have one. However, I am still sporting the battery (I installed a cordless phone one) and it works - most times.

Since you are still sporting the battery, care to ship me the NVRAM mod just for test purposes? My battery is toast, and I'm scared shit less to do ANYTHING to that PCB is fear of something happening.
 
Ha, my brain was thinking HS save chip. There was a chip supposedly that you replaced somewhere on the PCB that made the battery not matter (since it sucked and dies all the time). Mark had made those allegedly but I have never seen one?

Ahhh, makes more sense now. I have the cordless battery installed and it's worked great. - Barry
 
Ahhh, makes more sense now. I have the cordless battery installed and it's worked great. - Barry

Maybe I should just stop being a pussy and try it. Man Im nervous to touch that PCB though. Were you able to install it without removing ANYTHING? :D
 
Maybe I should just stop being a pussy and try it. Man Im nervous to touch that PCB though. Were you able to install it without removing ANYTHING? :D

I pulled the board with the battery on it out of the cab and wired the battery to it and reinstalled it. I know what you mean about not wanting to touch it, I was nervous as well.

I thought I had pics of my battery setup, but I can't find them. If you want I could get some pics if it would help. - Barry
 
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