Tempest - FREE PLAY settings monitor blank. Works on regular coin settings.

tparis

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Tempest - FREE PLAY settings monitor blank. Works on regular coin settings.

I am the lucky owner of a Tempest and the monitor is beautiful and the game plays great.

I have had it a few months and wanted to set it up for free play.

From what I have read changing dip Switch 7 Off 8 On = Free Play

When I did this I see the familiar Atari flashing cherry buttons however the monitor is on but I get no picture and no chatter.

When I put it back to 1x credit the game works perfectly again with a beautiful picture.

Any Tempest owners had this issue. Have I just misunderstood the dip-switch settings?

thanks!
 
Try checking test mode and running the self tests, when the monitor is working. Are you getting any Pokey errors? (P or Q errors, see the manual.) Or any other errors, for that matter? (ROM errors, etc)

Even if no errors are flagged in self-test, the first thing I'd check is replacing the Pokeys with known good ones. (Most other Atari boards have at least one. Tempest has two, on the aux board).

You could also try swapping the two Pokeys, and seeing if any behavior changes. Often you'll see one issue disappear, but another one appear (or some sounds disappear, etc), when you swap the two. It's better to replace them with known good ones though, and it's always good to have at least one spare on hand anyway, as Pokeys are a common failure on Atari boards.
 
Also, you should reflow the interconnect header pins if it hasn't been done already. On both boards. Just heat up each solder joint and flow a little bit of fresh solder on to them. Use a quality solder like Kester 44.
 
Definitely hasn't been done so I'll hit that tomorrow and hopefully get things going.

Thanks!
 
I am the lucky owner of a Tempest and the monitor is beautiful and the game plays great.

I have had it a few months and wanted to set it up for free play.

From what I have read changing dip Switch 7 Off 8 On = Free Play

When I did this I see the familiar Atari flashing cherry buttons however the monitor is on but I get no picture and no chatter.

When I put it back to 1x credit the game works perfectly again with a beautiful picture.

Any Tempest owners had this issue. Have I just misunderstood the dip-switch settings?

thanks!

Check to make sure freeze mode is off.
 
Ok stupid question time...

Haven't tested that yet but I may be in freeze mode.

So if I'm reading this correctly 7 Off & 8 On = Free Play however isn't that the same setting as Demonstration-Freeze mode?

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It looks like if you have switch 1 and 2 both off, 7 off, and 8 on, then you get freeze mode.
If you have switch 1on and 2 off, 7 off, and 8 on, then you get demonstration mode.
Looks like you have to have 1 and 2 both on, 7 off and 8 on to have regular game mode with free play.
 
questions ... what are demonstration & freeze modes & what are they used for?

never noticed that they existed
 
questions ... what are demonstration & freeze modes & what are they used for?

never noticed that they existed

Demonstration mode is supposed to let you select your start level at or on the same level as the games high score. Doesnt always work from what I've seen though.

Freeze mode was used to take publicity photos of the game at a particular screen with regular speed film. Otherwise the cameras of the day would pick up the movement and the image would ghost. The idea was to get the game to the screen you wanted to shoot, enable freeze mode, take the pic and then disable freeze.
 
It looks like if you have switch 1 and 2 both off, 7 off, and 8 on, then you get freeze mode.
If you have switch 1on and 2 off, 7 off, and 8 on, then you get demonstration mode.
Looks like you have to have 1 and 2 both on, 7 off and 8 on to have regular game mode with free play.



Thank you again hatrick!

Thats exactly what the issue was. Once I flipped 2 on all was well.

So 1 and 2 both on, 7 off and 8 on is the ticket!

What an interesting feature Feeeze mode...
 
No problem. That dipswitch configuration and chart is a bit confusing. It looks like they half-ass hacked the freeze mode in with the only possible combination of switch settings that was left.
 
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