Plays Blind Question

GTBoom

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
78
Reaction score
0
Location
South Carolina
I see "plays blind" a lot on these forums and when I look at games for sale on CL. Based on what I have read, I thought plays blind means that you hear the game playing but you just can't see it on the screen.

Does plays blind mean the problem is always the monitor?
Could plays blind mean a problem with the PCB?
Or potential for both to be causing th problem?
 
usually with raster games, if it "plays blind" you can be fairly certainly it's a monitor issue and that chances are good the main PCB is ok, though there is no guarantee that there aren't graphics issues there too.

with vector games it's a crapshoot since there are more often problems with the graphics generation on the board(s) than with raster games.
 
Definitely have to agree here. "Most" of the time, if you hear game sounds on a raster game but don't see a picture, its a monitor problem. There aren't a lot of PCB problems that will cause a complete loss of video signal but still produce sound. Though, there could be wiring issues between the PCB and the monitor.

X/Y game monitors usually won't light up at all if there is no signal to them. Raster monitors light up but will have a black or barely illuminated screen. If the PCB of an X/Y game has no power the monitor will have jack squat on the screen. If there is a problem in the video section, there is likely to be nothing on the screen, or at least, nothing recognizeable. There may still be sound, though. However, an oscilliscope and diagrams will likely be required to troubleshoot the problem. Atari games will often beep several times to indicate the likely problem.
 
Back
Top Bottom