pseeds
Active member
Why is everything flipped right to left in the pic of the monitor output? Just curious.
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Please post all monitor technical topics in the Technical - Videogames - Monitors section, not in the General Help section.
Moonwalker PCB: All socketed chips removed. What to do?
- Thread starter ifkz
- Start date
Womble
Well-known member
Nice work, am pretty sure there was a Moonwalker set that didnt need the MCU chip. If you are careful you can use a length of wire to short the relevant pin to ground to trigger the service mode.
OP
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ifkz
Well-known member
The screen image was actually taken from a mirror I was using to adjust the monitor. I have nothing to compare against, but this board seems pretty sensitive to sync. Nice eye for detail there!
I figure the service pin should be standard JAMMA, I just never wired it up to my connector. I have never seen it actually used for anything other than a credit switch.
I will be searching for a complete working Moonwalker PCB in the future once this one is rebuilt.
I figure the service pin should be standard JAMMA, I just never wired it up to my connector. I have never seen it actually used for anything other than a credit switch.
I will be searching for a complete working Moonwalker PCB in the future once this one is rebuilt.
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pseeds
Active member
I thought a mirror might be involved but wasn't sure.
I have done board swaps where I had to adjust the monitor for each board due to sync issues. I don't know which to blame - monitor or board. I always blamed the monitor since it had to be adjusted but maybe the signal from the board isn't totally in spec either.
Womble
Well-known member
Sega system 16/18 boards use both the test and service switches, one to select the mode and the other to step through the test menu.
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ifkz
Well-known member
So I wired up a service switch and the corruption was so bad I could not even step through it properly. I also don't think this is a 100% JAMMA pinout as I can only user player 2 in the game. During this I noticed the screen changed ever so slightly when I was moving the board around. Uh oh. After tapping around the board I isolated and found my connection issue, a big fat surface mounted custom chip. Surface mount soldering is not the most fun soldering work for me.
I went through several rounds of work and the board improved a bit each time. A work in progress picture:
I really wish SEGA would have stuck to sockets like their System 16B hardware but I guess surface mount was the low cost future for manufacturing.
After five rounds of adding solder to pins I had lost a pad but everything metered out okay. I had an almost perfect game aside from some slight corruption. After my final round, all appears to be be okay! The only thing this board needs now are the missing socketed PALS!!!!!
I went through several rounds of work and the board improved a bit each time. A work in progress picture:
I really wish SEGA would have stuck to sockets like their System 16B hardware but I guess surface mount was the low cost future for manufacturing.
After five rounds of adding solder to pins I had lost a pad but everything metered out okay. I had an almost perfect game aside from some slight corruption. After my final round, all appears to be be okay! The only thing this board needs now are the missing socketed PALS!!!!!
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ifkz
Well-known member
I wanted to close out this thread with the recent arrival of a scrap bottom Clutch Hitter board that had the necessary parts to make this run on it's own (I had been stealing parts from my Shadow Dancer PCB). Thanks channelmanic! I also loaded up a set of standard 2 player Japan EPROMS that make this function properly in any vanilla 2 player, 8-way, 3 button cab. Fun game from the same dev team that did Shinobi, Altered Beast, and Golden Axe; classic Sega stuff.
All in all, a much better fate than the trash bin, a parts board, or wall art. Now I just need to invite some folks over to play it through!
All in all, a much better fate than the trash bin, a parts board, or wall art. Now I just need to invite some folks over to play it through!
dbstallman
Member
Great Job! Congratulations on finding the parts board.
Brian.
Brian.
Glad the board found a good home.
kb0jjn
New member
Any chance at getting some of these boards before they are stripped for a few dollars in parts?
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ifkz
Well-known member
Now, to finally give a satisfactory close to this repair thread.
Some of the younger KLOV members might remember when this game debuted in the arcades. In my personal Austin, TX arcade (Laser One in Westgate mall), this game was an event. From the day it was released, it occupied the front entrance spot for all to see and experience. The booming title announcement of "MOONWALKER" is forever burned into my brain. I played it, the music was good, the game was fully fleshed out, but also, very weird. Still, it never ceased to be entertaining and left an impression on me. I was sad to see it go when SFII conqured the arcades not long after.
Now, today, I got to enjoy the arcade game again on original hardware.
The Alien Storm set I burned was proof that the board was finally repaired and operational. Thanks to forum member dbstallman who was able to answer a part number question that was the final piece of the puzzle here. My stumbling block was the Intel D8751H copy protection CPU at location IC4. Without this chip the game will not run at all, even with the correct de-suicided code. After I got the part number, I did some research and found my chip burner could actually write the chip! A quick BIN on ebay and a few days later, and I now have a working game.
In the spirit of Sega's and other arcade games, here is a CREDITS rollcall of everyone I can think of that helped me complete this project.
modessitt - for the donation of the original stripped board.
channelmanic - for providing every unique socketed part this board needed
dbstallman - for providing part numbers from original Moonwalker PCBs
atariscott - for selling me the chip programmer that can handle odd chips like the MCU
Special thanks:
Anyone that has sold me other system18 game pcbs - having working boards assisted me greatly and troubleshooting (here's to you Brentradio)
All of the members in this thread and others for the warm KLOV support!
Sega for making such thrilling, great arcade and console games. I would not be a gamer without them.
A final thank you to the late Mr. Jackson for the concepts behind the game and some great music from my childhood.
So concludes the longest and most involved PCB rebuild I have ever accomplished! (EDIT: Wow, almost two years it took to repair fully!)
Fin
!!!!
Some of the younger KLOV members might remember when this game debuted in the arcades. In my personal Austin, TX arcade (Laser One in Westgate mall), this game was an event. From the day it was released, it occupied the front entrance spot for all to see and experience. The booming title announcement of "MOONWALKER" is forever burned into my brain. I played it, the music was good, the game was fully fleshed out, but also, very weird. Still, it never ceased to be entertaining and left an impression on me. I was sad to see it go when SFII conqured the arcades not long after.
Now, today, I got to enjoy the arcade game again on original hardware.
The Alien Storm set I burned was proof that the board was finally repaired and operational. Thanks to forum member dbstallman who was able to answer a part number question that was the final piece of the puzzle here. My stumbling block was the Intel D8751H copy protection CPU at location IC4. Without this chip the game will not run at all, even with the correct de-suicided code. After I got the part number, I did some research and found my chip burner could actually write the chip! A quick BIN on ebay and a few days later, and I now have a working game.
In the spirit of Sega's and other arcade games, here is a CREDITS rollcall of everyone I can think of that helped me complete this project.
modessitt - for the donation of the original stripped board.
channelmanic - for providing every unique socketed part this board needed
dbstallman - for providing part numbers from original Moonwalker PCBs
atariscott - for selling me the chip programmer that can handle odd chips like the MCU
Special thanks:
Anyone that has sold me other system18 game pcbs - having working boards assisted me greatly and troubleshooting (here's to you Brentradio)
All of the members in this thread and others for the warm KLOV support!
Sega for making such thrilling, great arcade and console games. I would not be a gamer without them.
A final thank you to the late Mr. Jackson for the concepts behind the game and some great music from my childhood.
So concludes the longest and most involved PCB rebuild I have ever accomplished! (EDIT: Wow, almost two years it took to repair fully!)
Fin
!!!!
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