Killer Instinct 1 - Really Dark

muggsy

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Hi,

Got a working Killer Instinct 1 board. It works great, except that it's really dark, to the point I can barely make out the background. It's currently running in a Exceleena Blue, and all other boards are fine. Turning the brightness up full makes little to no difference. I've checked it running MAME and the backgrounds appear fine. Is this a known fault, or possible something wrong with the board?
 
Have you tried looking at the color balance bars in test mode?

Hmm.. come to think of it, I might not have done. Are colour settings adjustable in test mode, or are they just there as a reference for when I adjust using the monitor controls?
 
Yeah, so I've been through and done that. I'll do it again tonight to be sure.
The cab I'm testing it in is perfect for every other board I've got, Jamma, CPS2 and neo geo... which is why it's weird...
 
Maybe I'm just being silly.. it looks super detailed on my mame setup, but on the really hardware it looks dark. The colour test etc look fine. I've attempted to tweak but not making a huge difference. However it does look better than I recall.
 
it's either a combination of your monitor brightness and contrast being too low, or your tube is junk.

brightness you want turned up high enough to where you don't see pixels in black backgrounds. contrast you want turned up high enough to where there's no bleeding or smearing off text. if your brightness knob doesn't go up high enough, you will want to give the Screen knob on the monitor flyback a slight turn until you can get the brightness high enough.

in the color bar test you want the red, green and blue bars to be equal. if they're not equal, you have to slightly turn the color bias knobs on the monitor neckboard until they're all even.

if none of the above steps help your cause, your tube is weak. you can either attempt to have it rejuvenated at that point or you replace the monitor.

there, my monitors 101.

although pictures do help. you will want to ensure your monitor glass and the CRT are all squeaky clean before attempting any of the things I just mentioned.

or as per what you've said, and other games look fine in this cab, it's probably a bad board.
 
great info mecha, and mitsurugi-w.

This is going to sound really funny but make sure your plexi is clear and not smoked lol (i just got a NBA Jam cab that was converted to golden tee3d and it has smoked plexi for some unknown reason. maybe to keep the glare/light down in a bar or something).

tho you said it looks clear and bright on your mame setup (is this a different cabinet?). or you run your mame setup in the same cab?

Pics are #Winning.
 
Make sure the video ground is connected on the harness. Some games have the video ground tied to regular ground on the pcb, some dont. Run a jumper from ground to your video ground on the jamma harness and see what it does.
 
Mame Cabinet is hooked up to an LCD monitor, so different setups.
Glass is clear and as mentioned all the other games look awesome.
Took some pics last night, and will post later....
Will also check video ground (when I figure out how to do that)

thanks for the help guys
 
Will also check video ground (when I figure out how to do that)

Use a wire with gator clips to connect pin 14 on your jamma harness to any of these pins (A,B,1,2,E,F,27,28). i'd use A,B,1,2 if it was me, with the game on.
 
Use a wire with gator clips to connect pin 14 on your jamma harness to any of these pins (A,B,1,2,E,F,27,28). i'd use A,B,1,2 if it was me, with the game on.

Wicked, if you don't hear from me in a day... check the emergency ward coz I electrocuted myself :)
 
T-Pins are your friend, you can get them at wally world in the sewing department, those w/ the gator clips and you can probe/jumper anything.

66901-0000-3ww-l.jpg



btw if you get zapped i doubt it will be bad the monitor main power and ground is what would really send you fly'n.
 
T-Pins are your friend, you can get them at wally world in the sewing department, those w/ the gator clips and you can probe/jumper anything.

66901-0000-3ww-l.jpg



btw if you get zapped i doubt it will be bad the monitor main power and ground is what would really send you fly'n.

dude that is fucking awesome, I'm going to get some of those if I ever make it there again lol. I work every single day. :/
 
dude that is fucking awesome, I'm going to get some of those if I ever make it there again lol. I work every single day. :/

craft supply stores should have them also (like michaels), i first learned about these in college during an automotive electrical class. they are cheap and you get a bunch in a nice lil plastic snap closed case. you can bend them and do just about anything you want with them, they also work for removing pins from jamma harnesses :D, so cheap just throw them away when they get to bent up.
 
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