My new Spy Hunter (and some tech questions)

pipcade

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I've been collecting for over 10 years and have wanted a Spy Hunter since Day 1. I finally got one this past week for a measly $200 and it was within driving distance. It's in great shape, just needs the typical cleaning, bolt cleaning, etc. but the cabinet is great, no water damage, the CP has no cig burns or rips, and all the controls work. The low->high shift doesn't work all the time (have to upshift a few times for it to take), but should be an easy fix).

Here are some pics:
http://thebrokenjoystick.com/pictures/spy-hunter
and here's a video I took:


Full story:
On the way to pick it up, he calls and said it's coming up with garbage on the screen (but it did work when I agreed to buy it). I said no problem, get there and sure enough garbage onscreen. I took it anyway, figuring if it did work and the cab was in good shape, I could get it working.

get it home and it has garbage onscreen still. Check some connections, check some chips to be sure they're seated, still garbage. Start cleaning the cabinet outsides so she looks good at least for her pictures, try a few more times and BAM - it starts working (for no apparent reason). Works great for about an hour - played a bunch of games on it. I then moved it to it's permanent spot in my gameroom, checked again and it still worked. Played it for another hour maybe.

I go back and try again a few hours later and the garbage is back. here is what the garbage looks like:
spy_hunter_fubar.sized.jpg


Before I poke around some more, does anyone recognize this or can anyone give me some hints on what to check/what to look for given that it seems to work sometimes and not work at other times?

UPDATE: I just remembered one other data point.... when it first started working, the sprites seems to jitter a lot - I wasn't sure if it was the monitor do the game/pcb but I think it was the PCB - it fixed itself after 10-15 minutes and become 100% smooth and correct.

UPDATE2: I just read another post about the high score battery on the Spy Hunter. Mine wasn't saving high scores between power cycles. Could I possibly have some battery corrosion issues causing this? I
ll check out the PCB tomorrow to see what's up.
 
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I'd start by replacing the MCR interconnect cables which are known to be flaky. Bob Roberts has them for about $15.

Have you checked the voltages to ensure that the boards are getting the right numbers?

And I'd replace the microswitch in your shifter. Mine was doing the same thing when I first got it but all it took was a new $1 microswitch and it's been great ever since.
 
I'd start by replacing the MCR interconnect cables which are known to be flaky. Bob Roberts has them for about $15.
Yeah - that was my first thought too - i need to get them for my Tapper and Discs of Tron too.
Have you checked the voltages to ensure that the boards are getting the right numbers?
nope- haven't checked any voltages yet. I will though :)
And I'd replace the microswitch in your shifter. Mine was doing the same thing when I first got it but all it took was a new $1 microswitch and it's been great ever since.
Yeah - I looked at it and that's all it looked like it would need to fix it - I have a bunch of those lying around - will swap one in once I get it working again :)

Thanks!
 
I've seen that. I'll have to look at my spy hunter post from a year ago or so
when the game has that pattern is there any sound that goes with it??
(like thump, thump, thump noise)
It the led flashing on the cheap squeak card???

clean the fuses and fuse holders with a bit of sandpaper.
 
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I've seen that. I'll have to look at my spy hunter post from a year ago or so
when the game has that pattern is there any sound that goes with it??
(like thump, thump, thump noise)
It the led flashing on the cheap squeak card???

clean the fuses and fuse holders with a bit of sandpaper.

No sound except just a hum. Nothing recognizable.
LED not lit at all. (assuming the cheap squeak is on the left wall when looking in from the back)
Will try fuses/holders too - thanks!
 
I would make sure the voltage at one of the roms measures 5.1V. Mine would randomly reset before I figured this out (along with a garbage pattern).
 
I had that on one of my machines. In my case the big caps on the power brick had gone bad and it was not getting clean power. I also rebuilt the linear power supply board even though I had a few tested working originals. Mine has worked very well ever since.
 
Everything said so far sounds reasonable to me. I sure would love to have a Spy Hunter, though they are heavy beasts. I remember playing the cockpit version back in the day. Haven't seen one since but I have played a couple of uprights in the many years since. Not quite the same but still fun.
 
I sold a Spy Hunter and it did the same thing. Took me forever to figure out. Turns out one of the big caps on the suitcase power supply was bad. I didn't need any tools to test it. I unscrewed the power supply from the bottom of the cab and looked at the insulation paper under the caps. There was a "coffee" stain under one of the caps from a leak. Replaced that cap and it fixed the garbage and hum...
 
So, it def sounds like it may be the power now (thanks all). Opinions - replace the big cap or go with the switching power supply adapter?
http://www.arcadeshop.com/mcr/mcr.htm
I'm leaning towards the switching power supply adapter for reliability and easy fixes later. Thoughts?
 
Yeah -- don't go with the switcher unless you're a big fan of having an obnoxious hum in your audio.

Fix what you have and you'll be much, much happier -- trust me.
 
Yeah -- don't go with the switcher unless you're a big fan of having an obnoxious hum in your audio.

Fix what you have and you'll be much, much happier -- trust me.

Yeah - that's the conclusion i have come to. So, can anyone answer this...
I have a Tapper, Spy Hunter, and DoT. Are all the power PCBs and hame PCBs swappable? My Tapper isn't working (died with random color bars on the screen a while back), the Spy hunter isn't working, but the DoT does work. Can I swap the game boards and the working power PCB from the DoT around to help determine where the problems are? Seems like I could.

I'm thinking i could try the DoT power PCB in the SH and see if it works and try the SH PCB in the DoT and see if it works there.
 
I'm thinking i could try the DoT power PCB in the SH and see if it works and try the SH PCB in the DoT and see if it works there.

I think you are likely correct that DOT and SH use the same linear power board although I'm not 100% sure. Keep in mind though that SH's can be picky when it comes to power. I once tested 4 of these power boards in my tron and every one worked. Tried the same boards in my SH and couldn't get the game to boot. Often times SH needs a little more voltage than the other games for some reason. I think bumping up the 5v a bit usually did it on my SH.
 
I think you are likely correct that DOT and SH use the same linear power board although I'm not 100% sure. Keep in mind though that SH's can be picky when it comes to power. I once tested 4 of these power boards in my tron and every one worked. Tried the same boards in my SH and couldn't get the game to boot. Often times SH needs a little more voltage than the other games for some reason. I think bumping up the 5v a bit usually did it on my SH.

thanks for the info!
 
You should be able to look at the numbers on the linear power boards on all of the games and definitively answer your question as to whether they can be swapped.
 
Great score and it looks like you now know what the fix is for your machine... Awesome!

I can't say it enough, the people on this forum are above and beyond most forums I get on, the help I've got personally from here has been priceless.. and I plan to pay it forward at every chance I get...
 
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