Stern Moon War help (pics inside)

TOK

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Donor 2011
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I bought this machine with a ROM error. I found the correct ROM and got a replacement from Hobbyroms. The machine now powers on without an error to the high score screen. It stays at that spot and the game won't coin up, and can't even be played in free play mode. It exhibits some odd behavior depending on what buttons are hit, here are some pics and a brief rundown.

Boots to the high score screen with the proper starfield twinkle (I'm comparing to MAME).
One of the oddities is that white number 10 under the high score. Its not there when run in MAME, but everything else is the same. At this point the game will not coin up. Looking at the game in MAME, the attract/enemy screen shows up after about 10 seconds.
mwhiscorescreen.jpg


If I set the dips for Free Play, the machine boots to the same screen with 99 credits displayed. Again, I verified this as normal compared to MAME set to freeplay. Here is where it gets kind of weird. If I hit Player 1 at this point, it takes me to a diagnostic screen. This screen maps all the buttons and roller and I can actually verify all of that is working by the way the numbers respond when controls are moved/pushed.
The light you see behind the monitor in this pic is just ambient light getting past the bezel with the back door off.
mwdiagnostics.jpg


If I hit the Player 2 start button at the high score screen, the game runs through a really fast ROM test (too fast to really read, in fact... like 1.5 seconds) and dumps me back to the high score screen.

Some other info... The safety switches are all taped down so the machine can run with the back off and coin door open. The Service mode switch doesn't seem to have any impact on the games behavior at all.

I have been unable to obtain a manual. Reading up on it, I found the hardware is similar to Super Cobra and Scramble. I've been using them as a basis for dipswitch settings, but I've also tried other various things.

Its possible (I'm hoping!) that I just overlooked something regarding the dips or there is an issue with the Service mode switch. The other thing I'm still wondering is if there is another ROM issue not caught in the self-test that is causing the machine not to go into the normal attract mode or coin up.

I did check the basic stuff when I first got the machine. Made sure chips were seated, cleaned edge connector, checked ribbon cable and verified voltage at the board. That was initially at 4.7, I adjusted them up to a little over 5 when I first got the machine, then set back to 5 on the dot when it didn't change the original boot error message. The power supply is a newer switcher.

Any info just to get me pointed in the right direction would be appreciated. I'm kind of kicking myself in the ass for not just buying the full set of ROMs when I bought the first replacement.
 
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