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:
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.
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:
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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