Sea Wolf Repair Needed -- St Louis Area

HomieDaChief

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Donor 2017, 2021
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Mascoutah, Illinois
I've not been able to get my 1974 Sea Wolf video arcade game repaired. My normal repair person is no longer available. No luck using common search methods for other qualified repair persons. I'm stuck, perhaps there's a VAPS member with the expertise in my local area.

The game will power up, monitor works, and the sound is scratchy. However, no game graphics or play. Was told the ROMs needed to be reprogrammed, but the repair person wasn't sure.

Appreciate any advice.

Jim
 
If you can't find anyone local to help you, and you feel comfortable removing the boards, I can repair them for you as a somewhat last resort (see my sig below).

However, be advised that Sea Wolves can be a bit tricky, and you could have issues with your cabinet wiring/connectors, power supply, monitor, etc. So it would be much better if you can find someone local, to troubleshoot everything on-site. Not sure if anyone else here can recommend someone, as I don't know how far anything is from anything in that part of the country, lol. (States are much smaller in my neck of the woods.) ;)

I restored mine, and once you get all of the bugs worked out, they can be very solid. But it can take some time and patience to get there. Well worth it though, as it's truly a great game, that anyone can enjoy.

You might also try searching the forum for 'Sea Wolf', and looking at the different threads, as I know there are several repair/restoration threads going back a bit, and you might find someone near you that way.
 
I've not had much luck since my last/original post. I don't plan to quit or sell the game. Trying to move forward, I've read every related thread I could find. That said, I did purchase new programmed EPROMs but have not installed them. I'm concerned I will permanently damage the game. There's a new power supply as well. I'm not sure what's next...check boards?

No change.

Jim
 
remove roms and power up the game. what do you see? please explain what you mean by new power suplly. original or switcher? I f switcher does it have the midway reset circuit add on?
 
look for the pdf midway 8080 test go to page 32 and follow directions to test for power and clock cycles.
 
I'm only about 15 minutes away from you, just sell me the game and your problems are solved. :D

But seriously, I hope you do get it fixed. And if you do ever decide to sell it, please consider me as I have been trying to get one of these for a long time and you couldn't be any more convenient in terms of distance.
 
Thank you. I've removed all the ROMs and turn the machine on. No game play. Then I reinstalled all but H ROM and installed test ROM in its place. No test results. However, I did not perform the "jumper" mods to the mother board.

I have a Suzo Happ Pro power supply. Yes, it appears to have the midway reset circuit attached to the top of the power supply.
 
wondering if you have clock cycles or any activity on cpu data or adress lines. game sounds very dead and hould be putting out something if cpu and clock are working
 
Followed your guidance. Got Sea Wolf up and running yesterday. Played it for hours. Now I'm doing the easy stuff like replacing bulbs and adjusting the sound board. Many thanks for your guidance.
 
It is good that you got it repaired. I do not have one of these, but could you post what you did to repair it? This will help the next guy trying to fix one of these.
 
glad to hear that. remember use the test jack connection to light all the explosion lights up at onw time to see what is burned out and what sockets are dead. then adjust mirror to position explosion over paths of ships so they align. take your time doing this then test to make sure when you hit a ship only one light comes on at a time on a hit and that your torpedo and ready and reload lights work properly. my lights had a lot of problems because most of my drive transistors for them were blown out. how well does your ships and mines move no anmolies or twitching tails on the mines? anything that moves sideways is usually handled by daughter board.
 
I am trying to repair mine. What did you do?

Please remember I'm an absolute notice at video arcade repair and it's been over 40 years since I took "Electric Shop" in high school. But, I will do my best to share/explain my experience.

Short answer: Discovered and repaired a bad connection in the original power supply wire harness that connects to a power supply "board." Cleaned and re-seated mother/daughter board connection, and flipped all dip switches to "on."

Long answer: Let me preface this by saying I read every Sea Wolf post I could find and those forwarded to me (Wugly), watched hours and hours of arcade repair videos (especially ArcadeRepairTips.com and LyonsArcade.com). With notes in hand and videos playing on my iPad, I started the repair process over. In other words, I undid everything my paid repair person did.

I started with the wall outlet and worked forward. Power plug was missing ground prong--replaced plug. Fuses were OK and correct amp. Checked switcher. No power at switcher, why? Noted, moved on. Checked continuity on switcher, transformer, and power converter board--had continuity, but no power. Checked continuity on games boards...had it. I couldn't figure it out. Did I have a bad switcher (it's brand new). What am I missing! Re-read Wugly's posts, re-watched ArcadeRepairTips and LyonsArcade videos. Replaced brand new switcher and circuit reset module, still no power. Still no power to game boards either (wasn't expecting any). Now I'm completely lost and frustrated. So, I took a break.
 
LONG ANSWER (Cont.):

A couple of hours later my son came over and we worked the Sea Wolf problem together. I explained what I had done and he checked my work. You see he's had to repair PCBs on an actual submarine (USS Chicago).

We reexamined the wiring harness and found what may have been a loose connection--we repaired it.

Removed the new switcher/circuit reset and plugged the wire harness plug back into the original board. Did not power on the machine.

Removed, cleaned, re-seated, tested the original ROMS (with a logic probe). Did not power on the machine.

Disconnected mother from daughter board. Cleaned and re-seated connection.

Now comes the interesting part. We're re-watching the Lyon's Arcade video (Sea Wolf repair) and my son notices that the dip switch settings are different in the video. Upon closer look, my Sea Wolf's are all in the "off" position! How and why would that be! So, I flipped them all to the "on" position. Took a deep breath and turn on the machine. It worked!

Unfortunately, I do not know which of the last 3 actions worked or whether it was a combination of them.

I wish you the best in getting your's repaired.
 
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I'm only about 15 minutes away from you, just sell me the game and your problems are solved. :D

But seriously, I hope you do get it fixed. And if you do ever decide to sell it, please consider me as I have been trying to get one of these for a long time and you couldn't be any more convenient in terms of distance.

Should I ever decide to sell it, I'll give you first right of refusal. That said, it's probably going to be awhile, a long while. You see, I bought the game for my son (over 4 yrs ago) while he served out his tour in the Navy. He was assigned to the USS Chicago (SSN-721), a Los Angeles-class submarine in Guam. The plan was to have the Sea Wolf completed before he completed his tour of duty. I failed to get that done. However, a few days ago we worked on it together and with the help and experience of members of KLOV/VAPS we were able to get it working.
 
ea Wolf Midway, 1976
---------------------
Option Switch Settings
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIP Switch Settings
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Option
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time:
-----
On On 60
Off On 70
On Off 80
Off Off 90

Credits Per Coin
----------------
On On 1 Coin 1 Credit
On Off 1 Coin 2 Credits
Off On 2 Coins 1 Credit
Off Off 2 Coins 3 Credits

High Score Reset
----------------
On High score may be reset
Off High score may not be reset

Note: High score reset button is located on
the upper left cabinet front. High score
may only be reset when game not in progress.

Extended Play
-------------
On On On No extended play
Off On On 2000
On Off On 3000
Off Off On 4000
On On Off 5000
Off On Off 6000
On Off Off 7000
Off Off Off 8000
 
just for your info a good way to rig the game for free play is to disconnect the wire from the start button and connect the credit switch wire to the start button. it seems the game starts at least mine does whenever you put a credit in the game.
 
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