Namco Starblade

Those extension cables really give you access to the logic board as it's working. Great work!
Really enjoying this restore.
 
Yeah I couldn't think of any other way to be able to work on an individual layer, maybe it's why there is no history of anyone repairing these boards.
Though it took many hours to make, I feel it was worth the effort.
Over 300ft of cable went into it and about 15ft of heatshrink.

I'd like to look at some dead Starblade CPU boards to see if it's the same component failing.
Hey KLOVers, bring out your dead, surely there's got to be a few of these faulty boards stashed somewhere...
 
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I changed the Custom '139' and still have the same issue. :(

After tracing all the tracks from the unlabeled pins on the 139 I've narrowed it down to a couple of suspects.
Either the Custom '148' at 4F or the PAL at 6J.

From Namco C148 Driver:

Namco C148 - CPU Bus Manager
Starblade relies on this for showing large polygons
Does some Memory Decode, Interrupt Handling, 3 bit PIO port, Bus Controller


Is there anyone who has a Starblade PCB that has the ability to dump the PAL at 6J on the CPU board for me?

I'd like to rule it out as a possible suspect, output pins 18 & 19 (which are connected to pins 54 & 57 on the Custom '139' respectively) are stuck high and I have a feeling they should have data coming out of them.

On Starblade this is a PAL20L8ACNS, image below is from a System 22 schematic but but both Systems are very similar.
Can anyone guess from experience whether they feel these outputs should have data?

4uy9k0fl.jpg
 
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How cool! Awesome cabinet! I never saw this game BITD but this thread makes me wanna play this in MAME! Keep up the great work!
 
So it seems I've been barking up the wrong tree.
A member on another forum posted this which makes sense...

"CUS139 is the cross-comms handler for games that link up.
Get the schematics for Assault - that'll show you what does what on the main PCB."

https://www.arcade-museum.com/manuals-videogames/A/Assault.pdf

There should be no activity on the RAM connected to the custom unless it's connected to another cab (like in Cyber Sled).
Everything else seemed okay on the CPU board so I'm going to have a look at the PGN board tonight and see if there's anything happening there that doesn't look right.
 
Starblade no objects

I am having the exact same problem on a starblade I just picked up. Game is up and running but none of the 3d objects show up.

Lookin at the board stack running I am seeing there are a bank of LED's above each of the 4 socketed customs. Two of which have "activity" flashing leds and two just have solid.

Looking at your extension cables, I think I am going to have to make something also. But I think a PCB that I can put the socket onto that then has a pair of IDE cable headers running over to another pcb that I can then plug into the back plane is going to be a more straight forward solution for me.


It's either that or build a "cage" which has only the side rails and back support so I can just work on the stack directly. Short of just cutting a big ass hole in the cage now.
 
I've had someone with better skills than me go over the board and he is sure the issue is on the 'PGN' board/layer and possibly RAM.
He'll give me a rough idea where to start looking when I pick the boards up from him.
 
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