New Acquisition: SPACE ZAP - Info please??

smello

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So I picked up the Space Zap machine that was for sale locally that you may have read about in my other thread a while back. It's a cabaret.

The cab was in really nice shape for being 30. I probably would not have purchased it otherwise, but the condition was so nice I made a deal with the guy.
The guy actually had the keys and schematics for the thing too.

It's not without problems though. It would appear that the sound amp is missing. From what I guess, it is supposed to mount on the back of the coin box??? Can someone help me out with this, maybe let me know, or take a picture of theirs? Is there anywhere to even get a replacement amp for this machine???

Also the game itself has issues. It will sometimes kind of reset. Also sometimes it will just stop playing and display crazy corruption on the screen. I have no idea where to start with that issue. I tried to reseat the cards, but did not help. Anyone have a tip?

Anyway, what do you think? I didn't pay very much for it, but then again, I have no idea how much this is going to cost to fix, or if I can even get parts. Could possibly turn into a money pit.

Fellow owners:
Are the PCBs the same for the full upright and the cabaret? (In case I have to replace the PCB)

Can someone assist in pointing out where the audo amp goes, and if it's possible to replace? No idea which one it even is.


Going to upload them to my website, stay tuned for a link to more pics.
EDIT. PICS HERE
http://heinet.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=22



You tube vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FE5eD5Y-vU
 

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Congrats! As to your questions, I would start by getting one of those pink pencil erasers (the little brick looking ones you used in school) and use it to clean up both sides of the edge connectors on all the PCBs, then reseat them.

Next, you may want to look over the power supply PCB to see if it needs any solder points fixed up and see if there's any burned components. I haven't looked in mine for a while so I forget what it looks like, but I believe its a fairly standard Midway Power Supply.

The sound amp I'm not sure about, mine is mounted next to the power supply I think but mine is a full upright.

As a tidbit of information - Space Zap shares a lot of common parts with Gorf, I think most of the boards except for the actual game PCB are all the same, so if you had to find a sound board, a Gorf one would work. Even the cabinet is similiar.
 
Thanks, I put up a WTB. Still if anyone can confirm the location of the audio board on their Space Zap mini, I would really appreciate it.
 
If you decide to unload it, LMK, I've been looking for one locally and WI is close enough.
 
My 2 cents on the failure displayed- either of the 2 smaller RAM boards in the cage may have a single chip that's flaking out, usually this type of failure is thermal and will worsen as the game warms up.

The other cause of the display issue aside from power problems could be the pattern generator board. Hard to tell without spending a little time observing, but those are two failures I've seen with similar symptoms to what you've pictured.
 
What a cool little machine. Never seen one before.

The fonts look like Gorf and Wizard of Wor fonts, though.
 
My 2 cents on the failure displayed- either of the 2 smaller RAM boards in the cage may have a single chip that's flaking out, usually this type of failure is thermal and will worsen as the game warms up.

The other cause of the display issue aside from power problems could be the pattern generator board. Hard to tell without spending a little time observing, but those are two failures I've seen with similar symptoms to what you've pictured.

That's what I was thinking, there was a bad ram.... Seems like it tries to access ram, and just flakes out.
Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FE5eD5Y-vU
 
Thanks for the tips to the manual to the manual for this game.


Apparently you can perform a RAM ROM test, but you need the damn Audio board to do it!!!!!!!
 
Ok, I got a GORF audio board but still no audio???? Not sure what that's all about, was supposed to be tested and working.

Anyway I hit the test switch on the audio board, and pretty much every time it tells me different numbers. Usually it's one or more numbers, sometimes the same ones, sometimes not. Apparently, the manual states the test is telling me I have bad ROMS.

I reseated them all. They all looked OK on the contacts.

What do you guys think, could a RAM only issue cause this, or am I mostly looking at ROM errors? Who could burn me some new ROMS?
 
Congrats! As to your questions, I would start by getting one of those pink pencil erasers (the little brick looking ones you used in school) and use it to clean up both sides of the edge connectors on all the PCBs, then reseat them.

Go easy using the eraser, it'll actually wear the plating off if you're too aggressive with it.
 
I managed to tweak the voltage, and now the game itself seems stable...

I got a score of 184,000, left it on for another 15mins and then played a couple more games without it resetting or anything, so I think I'm making some progress. Usually it would have f'ed up by then.

Still don't have sound though. I bought a sound board off someone off a Gorf machine. The test switch appears to work. I hooked up a different speaker to test, and still no sound.
I wonder if the connector or something for the audio has different pinouts than the Gorf audio board????

The marquee lights also appear to have no power.

All the fuses are good.

Anyone have any advice? I will see if I can make sense of the Space Zap and Gorf schematics and see if the audio pinout is different or something.
 
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