Newb Battery Question

Steve W

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Very green but trying to learn. I've sifted through a lot of threads and the consensus is the first thing to do is remove the original battery off the main PCB and replace it as it will eventually leak. My questions are:

1. How difficult is it to remove the battery off the board if you have never really worked on games at all before? Are they normally soldered to the board?

2. Will the game still function properly without a battery backup or is that trait game-specific? I don't care about saving high scores per se.

3. How can I tell if the battery is the original one? Would it have leaked by now, generally speaking, if it is from the early 80's?

Thank you for your patience.
 
1. How difficult is it to remove the battery off the board if you have never really worked on games at all before? Are they normally soldered to the board?

Extremely simple. Some batteries (Wiliams games) are just AA's in holders. Those pop right out. Some are soldered to the board - you can simply clip the leads on the battery and remove it, no need to desolder anything.

2. Will the game still function properly without a battery backup or is that trait game-specific? I don't care about saving high scores per se.
It's game specific. What game are you talking about here? Wiliams games will complain every time they are turned on if the battery is flat - requiring you to manually advance it with a switch inside the coin door. Other games simply won't save high scores or settings. Some games (like Nintendo VS games) only use the batteries for bookkeeping information, and you'll never even notice.

3. How can I tell if the battery is the original one? Would it have leaked by now, generally speaking, if it is from the early 80's?

It'll be pretty obvious most of the time, you can tell if it's old and nasty looking, or if it's covered by the same dust as the rest of the board. Generally, it's original, these things rarely got changed. Wiliams games use AA's, and if you find batteries with the old-style Energizer logo or something, you'll know. Never hurts to be sure. Even if it was replaced five years ago, it's still a good idea to put in a fresh battery, or remove it. A new battery only costs a few bucks, but a leaking battery can cause tons of damage to your boards.


-Ian
 
Berzerk. Do all Stern game behave the same way in terms of the battery regardless if it's from Berzerk/Frenzy all the way up to Cliff Hanger-era and beyond?

Is the battery located in the same spot on all their ZPU's or does that change for each game from that manufacturer out of curiousity? This is in case I ever pick up any future games.
 
dont forget the capcom CPS 2 PCB's have a lithium battery that holds the encryption from corrupting the ROM's. in other words the battery goes dead and the encryption is lost corrupting the ROM's so the game is unplayable. when replacing batteries you have about an hour before the encryption is lost. new ROM's can be burned but anyway, more info can be found here:
http://cps2shock.retrogames.com/suicide.html
 
DO NOT REMOVE ANY BATTERIES UNTIL YOU ARE SURE WHAT GAME IT IS!

There are MANY games with batteries that will suicide when the battery dies.

Capcom has CPS-1, CPS-2, and CPS-3 systems with those. Old Sega systems may have them, some variants of Raiden Jet Fighters, and many more.

Some of those systems can be revived after dying but others still cannot.

But, since you have a Berzerk game, you can remove the batteries off of it just fine.

If you want to use batteries you should get a remote pack and mount it off board. Be sure to change out the batteries periodically as if they leak, even with a remote pack, they could still damage the board. That nasty corrosion has a tendancy to follow wires, even under the plastic covering, until it reaches the board and spreads.

RJ
 
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Thanks for all the tips.

Speaking of Stern, my buddy has had a Cliff Hanger for awhile. I was chatting with him today telling him about this post and he had a few questions in a similar vein about his machine:

1. Can he safely take the battery off of his Cliff Hanger (though I don't think he knows where it is located at this point) and I'll be damned if I'm any help with this stuff.

2. Sometimes when I've gone over to play, the graphics over the LD on screen (commands, score, etc) sometimes get some slight jitters in the video, nothing major but is that a major concern? Chips unclean or unseated?

Thanks this site is all kinds of awesome.
 
Thanks for all the tips.

Speaking of Stern, my buddy has had a Cliff Hanger for awhile. I was chatting with him today telling him about this post and he had a few questions in a similar vein about his machine:

1. Can he safely take the battery off of his Cliff Hanger (though I don't think he knows where it is located at this point) and I'll be damned if I'm any help with this stuff.

2. Sometimes when I've gone over to play, the graphics over the LD on screen (commands, score, etc) sometimes get some slight jitters in the video, nothing major but is that a major concern? Chips unclean or unseated?

Thanks this site is all kinds of awesome.

Take the battery off Cliffy 20 years ago, if possible! :)
 
Take the battery off Cliffy 20 years ago, if possible! :)

LOL thanks. Anyone know where it is located? I was looking for the manual online but the one on the DL project site is mostly just the schematics and I'm no good at this stuff but would like to save my buddy's machine for as long as possible...especially since I want to obtain it from him one day :)
 
It's weird seeing a member called "Steve W" as I'm a "Steve W", too..
 
Woooo thread necromancy!

Anyone know if my Raiden II PCB is not saving high scores because it needs a new battery? Can I just replace it with another 3.6v battery or does it need to be a special kind?
 
Probably. Looks like a Lithium and looks to be soldered. Pull it off, take it with you to a Batteries plus or something like it, and get a new one...

Raiden2pcb.jpg
 
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