Qbert video issues -character sprites

brokentoken

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I've had a Qbert project sitting in my garage for 2 1/2 years, and finally breathed a little life into it. If I ever meet the Gottleib engineer who was responsible for the brilliant design of the filter board or power board, I think I am going to punch him in the face.

Good news is that think I'm in the home stretch! The board is working, except the character sprites and the word "Qbert" all have big orange blocks behind them. The ones that are supposed to be red or orange are white instead (see pics). I've removed, cleaned and reseated the ICs--anyone have any other advice as to what to try next?

Thanks!
 

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Closer inspection revealed that K7-8, FG3 IC is missing. I'll get a new one burned and post here with the results.
 
As preventative maintenance, clean the legs of all of the socketed ICs and reseat them. You might also consider bridging each of the blue jumpers on the underside of the board with a piece of wire or solder. They tend to oxidize over time and open.

Please don't punch the design engineer - he's an older gentleman now and probably had to work with budget and time constraints and the board was only supposed to last a few years. I'm sure he also wanted to do the design differently as well. Over-designing = cost. It's a miracle that these things are operating at all many years after their intended lifespan.

Bill
 
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Thanks for the extra advice--it's a good recommendation for any board!

Of course I was just kidding about the punching. Anyone responsible for designing a classic-age game is OK in my book.

I am just perplexed by that filter board, though...it had to be harder to design, more expensive to build, and made troubleshooting harder, without any benefit that I can understand. If it did a better job of protecting the sound pcb from a blown diode...maybe....
 
The filter board was not there by choice. It was required by law. The purpose was to help prevent radio interference.
 
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