Spy Hunter Behavior

[FrizzleFried]

I'm sure glad I didn't hack in to the harness to add a 2nd switcher for the 12v or anything. Switching over to this PS was plug n play... 2 minutes. I was SO relieved when I fired it up and plugged the coin door lamp in and didn't get the POP...

I'm also relieved I didn't get a bunch of distortion/noise which means my two filter caps on the power brick must be OK.

Whew...

 

[p1899m]

I sure hope I don't have to cough up the $35-$40 for the filter caps... it's one thing to replace a big blue and it not fix the issue... it's a whole other thing to replace those two bad boys and have it fix nothing.

Frizz, if you haven't replaced these yet do it. Yes it costs more cash and it's possible it may not fix the problem but I've now been through a number of spy hunters and it seems that these caps are at the point now where they should be replaced and are starting to cause a variety of issues. If nothing else hopefully replacing these will give the game some more years of life. Although I suspect replacing them may fix your issue. BTW SH is the only game I have heard of where one of these large caps has exploded. Wasn't hooked up wrong just went bad after years and blew up spewing crap all over everything. Luckily wasn't my game.

Oh and if you haven't done a thorough check of the wiring you should do so. I've had a spy hunter that had issues with hum and the lights on the light board due to a wire that was broken and only connecting some of the time.

 

[FrizzleFried]

Frizz, if you haven't replaced these yet do it. Yes it costs more cash and it's possible it may not fix the problem but I've now been through a number of spy hunters and it seems that these caps are at the point now where they should be replaced and are starting to cause a variety of issues. If nothing else hopefully replacing these will give the game some more years of life. Although I suspect replacing them may fix your issue. BTW SH is the only game I have heard of where one of these large caps has exploded. Wasn't hooked up wrong just went bad after years and blew up spewing crap all over everything. Luckily wasn't my game.

Oh and if you haven't done a thorough check of the wiring you should do so. I've had a spy hunter that had issues with hum and the lights on the light board due to a wire that was broken and only connecting some of the time.

As you may have read by now (my guess is you're reading the early part of this thread)... the problem has been solved!

 

[p1899m]

As you may have read by now (my guess is you're reading the early part of this thread)... the problem has been solved!

Yep, glad to hear you got it solved. Although if you plan on keeping this game I would still suggest you replace the 2 large caps on the power brick.

 

[demogo]

Congrats, Friz!

I'm *delighted* that the new linear power board solved your problem. The game really runs much better with one than a switcher anyway.

The slight thumping you're hearing with the lights coming on is the normal behavior that I was describing earlier so you're now good to go!

I'd still recommend tweaking your high end range for the gas pedal pot up to at least 20h (or 21h) because you're not getting max speed at 1F. But 1F is a hell of a lot better than 1A or whatever you were getting before.

 

[FrizzleFried]

Well,

After a MAJOR screw up while attempting to remove the "graphic" side art from Spy Hunter (I, uh, er, um... sort of pulled a huge chunk of vinyl off with it)... I've decided to go all the way and pick up some full side art. So instead of 8/10 sides with new medallion side-art, it's all going to be brand new from top to bottom. This also gives me the opportunity to bondo/sand the rough spots and fill a small hole.

What this also means is that I'm likely going to pick up new T-Molding... all I have on hand is black smooth and red smooth and Spy Hunter uses the leather pattern stuff. Though I wonder what a SH in red T-Molding would look like?

This also means the brand new PrOk medallian side art I just bought and have yet to take delivery on will not be used. I guess that means I will be putting some Spy Hunter medallion side art up for sale shortly (PM me if you need a set!).

Fun fun fun... >sigh<

Oh... this full side art MUST be installed PERFECTLY or it will look like complete ass because of the border... this will be my first "wet" application... may the arcade gods have mercy on my soul.

 

[demogo]

Secret to removing the graphic part of the sideart is to heat it up with a hair dryer and very slowly peel that part. It'll smell like hell but mine came off very easily doing that w/o any damage or stretching to the underlying vinyl.

Before:

After:

 

[whammoed]

Great thread. Got my high scores saving. Adjusted the gas pot. And I even fixed a pinched wire to the missile button that caused erratic firing.

Of interest: I ended up maxing my pot out at 21. If I set it any higher the car would actually slow down at full throttle. Turbo kicks in just fine though. Really makes a difference in game play.

 

[demogo]

21 is a great number for the pot. I think you want at least 20h but 21 is good as well. There really is a noticeable difference in the speed between 21 and 1E or 1F and you can put that speed to use in the game to get you out of jams.

 

[spyhunter]

OK, that makes sense. You don't get turbo until about 1E and full turbo until around 20h (in the user input screen). 1A is going to get you sucky speed.

You can either replace the pot and get back to around 0-22h or you can also try adjusting the current pot to tweak the high end range. By doing that you will lose the low end range though so the car will always creep forward even with your foot off the gas pedal.

There are times when you don't want to move forward or want to do so very slowly (trying to navigate carefully around a wreck right in front of you, or there are spiked wheel guys right in front of you) for example.

You can slightly relax the screws holding the pot in and twist the the pot to adjust the high end range and it's definitely a hack but you may not have to replace your pot that way and you can see results in a couple of minutes.

Just throwing the option out there.

I adjusted my pot today because I wanted to hear that sound that it makes when you are going too fast, it sounds like the boat motor at the top range! And it's a tad bit faster. It registers as 23 nearly 24 in the user input screen...

You said you consider this a hack, do you mean like cheating? I wonder why would they put this sound in there when you can not hear it if you do a calibration, only if you adjust it after calibrating. I can get this sound without the car moving foward with the gas released too...

SH

 

[cdjump]

You said you consider this a hack, do you mean like cheating? I wonder why would they put this sound in there when you can not hear it if you do a calibration, only if you adjust it after calibrating. I can get this sound without the car moving foward with the gas released too...

SH

I wouldn't consider it a hack. It was well known bitd that you could pull the accelerator pedal forward and just step on the rod and get more speed out of the game.
I think part of the difference in getting the sound or not has to do with using a 270° pot to replace one that was originally a 360° pot. Iow, you get more variation in a shorter range of motion with the 270° pot. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[demogo]

I adjusted my pot today because I wanted to hear that sound that it makes when you are going too fast, it sounds like the boat motor at the top range! And it's a tad bit faster. It registers as 23 nearly 24 in the user input screen...

You said you consider this a hack, do you mean like cheating? I wonder why would they put this sound in there when you can not hear it if you do a calibration, only if you adjust it after calibrating. I can get this sound without the car moving foward with the gas released too...

SH

What I meant by 'hack' in that case is that it might be possible to avoid replacing the pot -- at least for a while -- by loosening and twisting it to try and get the higher end readings up to a reasonable level.

I don't think adjusting that pot up to around 22-23h is a hack in a negative sense. BITD all of the games likely returned values of around 20-21 and it was only over time as the pots failed that the numbers started creeping downwards.

I wouldn't regard a pot that returned 22 as cheating in any sense. I think you hit a point of diminishing returns and at about 23+ it's not doing you any good. For what it's worth, my all time high scores have all been set BEFORE I replaced that pot (when the max value was about 1F), although that's likely because I haven't been playing much lately.