Thief Issues (Pacific Novelty) *FIXED

Oh, I misunderstood what you meant, my bad. Ill play around with the other tests and try the ribbon cable reverse. Thanks!
 
Dang, ribbon cable! good call. Game booted right up and coined up. I did throw it in a couple tests modes quick and still getting some unexpected results. The I/O Test showed that same text screen, but was also running through the sounds as if it was the sound test. The Video Ram test showed a mostly black screen with some yellow dots
 
Great that you found the issue! So, I assume the normal recommendation would be to replace the cable. But can these be refurbed? It might be easier to do that with items on hand as opposed to finding the right replacement.

If it were me, I'd dunk it in TarnX, then wash that all out, add some DeOxit and squeeze it down in a vice lightly.

Or is that just a waste of time and once they go bad they are done for?
 
Sweet.

If the cable works this way, you can probably leave it and be fine. But DeOxit the cable and cable connectors. I don't know if some of the cables are directional or not, as I've never troubleshot it further. But I have seen some work in one direction but not both, where others work in both. I'll have to look into that one the next time I see it.

The cables on these are just SCSI disk drive cables, you can buy new ones on ebay. Search for '24" 3-device 50-pin SCSI cable'. I've bought these exact ones from this seller:


The only catch is on some of them you have to grind the key tab off of the cable connectors, if the connectors on your game boards don't have the key slot. (But that's easy to do with an exacto or file.) I think some boardsets have the key slots and others don't. (And a lot of them just have the connector housings partly broken off.)

Also, each of the self-tests is useful. Get to know them. The most useful is the one with the ROM self-tests, as it also tests the coprocessor board, and the video RAM, and it has indicators for all of the inputs, all on that one screen. (Each of the 'dots' on the right side of the screen turns to an asterisk when you close the input switch or button it corresponds to.) But each of the other self-tests does other useful stuff too.

These boardsets are pretty interesting hardware, between what's on all 3 boards. It's a little strange that for such a simple game, the hardware has a lot going on. (Probably because it's just inefficiently designed.) Aside from the 4-channel audio, the game is basically Pac Man, which runs on a single simple board. But they're fun to work on.

I just picked up a Nato Defense boardset on ebay for $80. Complete and all original, even the paper stickers are untouched. Nato Defense uses the same three boards as Thief, but they are heavily modified for ND, with a lot of blue wire mods. (And the ROMs are different, and there are more of them.) I've never repaired a set though, so I'm looking forward to digging into them.
 
Great that you found the issue! So, I assume the normal recommendation would be to replace the cable. But can these be refurbed? It might be easier to do that with items on hand as opposed to finding the right replacement.

If it were me, I'd dunk it in TarnX, then wash that all out, add some DeOxit and squeeze it down in a vice lightly.


I just wash them. (I'm actually about to do it on this Nato Defense cable, which is filthy.)

Just spray down with your favorite cleaner, rinse well (getting water in the pin holes and knocking it out, then repeating several times.) Then stick in front of a fan overnight to dry. You could probably blow out the holes beforehand with canned air, but I don't bother. If it's in front of a fan overnight, moving air will get inside any crevice and dry it out. Then DeOxit the pins on the board connector. (I prefer to paint the DeOxit on the pins before installing the cable, because it uses less DeOxit, and makes less of a mess.)

I have yet to see a cable that is actually bad (aside from the directionality issue, which I suspect might just be how some of them are intentionally made, but now I want to check). The only reason I've bought new cables is for boardsets I've put together that were missing them. I now have four complete Thief sets, and can't get rid of them, because nobody really wants them. But I can't help saving them when I run across them, because they're interesting. :)
 
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