TMNT question (probably easy)

Keeslercade

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Just set up my first cabinet (NFL Blitz 99 - 4 player). Blitz was working fine, played a couple games without a problem. Since I immediately wanted to try out my other pcbs that I bought along with it, I hooked up my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PCB. Since I'm new to this, I obviously overlooked something. I hooked up the main jamma harness and 2 smaller harness (I believe player 3 and 4), and the game fired up fine, sounds perfect, no problems with the screen, and the A and B buttons on P1 and P2 worked fine. The joysticks aren't working though. Couldn't move in any direction.

There are more connections on the blitz PCB than the TMNT PCB, so I don't know if any of them need to be connected, but the harnesses I did connect were labeled Player 3 and Player 4. There don't seem to be any additional places to connect the other harnesses on the TMNT PCB. (I know Blitz has a hard drive and may have an additional sound component). There were 2 small harnesses and another one that looked the same size as the P3 and P4 harnesses (the small ones had 6 wires and 3 wires, the larger had 6 wires)

If anyone has any troubleshooting tips, they would be greatly appreciated. Also, if there is a website to check for the specific connections for various games, that would be great too. I'm sure its just a quick fix or something. Thanks a bunch.
 
I think its a 49-way joystick (KLOV and the manual that was with it say 49-way). That's probably the problem right? Any way to get a game that doesn't ordinarily use a 49-way joystick to work on this cab?
 
Also appears to have been converted from an NBA Jam Cabinet. If that helps in any way.
 
I think its a 49-way joystick (KLOV and the manual that was with it say 49-way). That's probably the problem right? Any way to get a game that doesn't ordinarily use a 49-way joystick to work on this cab?


The Blitz game will work with an 8 way joystick. If you intend to play all of these games in the one cab then your best bet is to swap in 8 way joysticks. Happ and Bob Roberts both carry the 8 way sticks.
 
Cool, how difficult/easy would it be to swap out for the 8-way sticks? I took a look at the jamma harness and it appears there are wires coming out of the harness in the spots that would control the directional positions for the 8-way joysticks (I took a look at the wiring in the TMNT manual and 18-23/V-Y are the directional controls, whereas these are all unused for Blitz). The Harness in the cab has the wires coming out of it, but I havent tracked down where they go. There are a number of connections (4) before the controls. Is it usually easy to rewire the joysticks to 8-way?
 
Would anything then need to be done with the Blitz Board to make it work with the 8-way? I apologize, I'm new to this haha. I'll get the hang of it soon enough though I'm sure.
 
the 49 way joysticks use a separate interface board, this is to allot for the analog movement (as opposed to just the 4 switches you would find on an 8 way stick). I don't know anything about how the wiring going in to this interface works, or how it comes out, but in my 2 Blitzes it's on the rightmost part of the control panel box, right next to the right latch.

I imagine all the regular wiring for an 8 way goes into this from the JAMMA harness to players 1 and 2 (I think on the board it starts with the number 0, so player 1 and 2 would actually be 0 and 1 respectively) ... I say this, because the player 3 and player 4 auxiliary harnesses use the same amount of wires as what you'd find on NBA Jam or an equivalent Midway 4 player game.

I think the only thing you can do then is trace the wires from the 1 and 2 going into the 49 way interface and following where they come off the JAMMA harness to decipher which directions are which for an 8 way. (you know, the JAMMA P1/2 up, down, left right) ... you only really need to do it for one player though, the rest you could just touch each wire together with a black ground wire in a Switch test like in NBA Jam and it'll light up on the screen what's what. :)

check all of the above first though, and one of us can help you go from there.

refresh edit: if you don't have a manual handy (if I recall the friggin dipswitch settings weren't even right in the Blitz manual anyway) you can just go into Test mode and there's a Dipswitch setting section on there that will have a picture on-screen of the 2 dipswitch banks and tells what their functions are. be aware though, that once you change that on the Blitz board, your 49 way joysticks will no longer work, you will need 8 ways hooked up.
 
Ok, thanks guys. I think I know what your saying about the interface board. I can see if from the back of the cab. I have to get a security torx screwdriver tomorrow to open up the control panel though so I can see what it looks like in there. I appreciate the help and I'll let you know how it turns out. I will probably have another question or two about it when I get to the re-wiring. Are there special crimp-on connectors to use, or just basic electrical crimp-on connectors (like butt-connectors?).

One more quick question though, how much will the Blitz gameplay be affected by changing to an 8-way. Is it going to make it difficult to play? Just wondering if playing Blitz is going to be difficult/annoying with the 8-ways. Thanks again for the help.
 
You should be able to open the control panel by reaching up through the coin door and releasing two or three clamps. The torx bits are usually only holding down the plexiglass cover.
 
Ok, thanks guys. I think I know what your saying about the interface board. I can see if from the back of the cab. I have to get a security torx screwdriver tomorrow to open up the control panel though so I can see what it looks like in there. I appreciate the help and I'll let you know how it turns out. I will probably have another question or two about it when I get to the re-wiring. Are there special crimp-on connectors to use, or just basic electrical crimp-on connectors (like butt-connectors?).

One more quick question though, how much will the Blitz gameplay be affected by changing to an 8-way. Is it going to make it difficult to play? Just wondering if playing Blitz is going to be difficult/annoying with the 8-ways. Thanks again for the help.

1.) the security torx screws only hold the plexiglass down. you need to get in through the coin door and reach your hand through the opening of the base of the control panel box, there will be 2 latches holding the control panel shut, one on each side (the left and right sides of the box, that is). you might be able to get a look at the general area through the back, but you'll really have to stick your head in and look around. lol

2.) you want the electrical connectors much like the ones that are on your buttons now. they're 1/4" crimp electrical connectors, you can get them in an electrical end kit at any hardware store. next...

3.) as far as rewiring, note the all black wires inside the control panel, those are the ground wires, they connect to the COM (common ground) on the microswitches, and then the actual wires go onto the NO (normally open) terminal on the microswitches. I think Bob Roberts actually has a full tutorial on how to do this.

4.) Blitz with 8 way controls should probably effectively suck, because you can only move north/south and east/west and the diagonal directions between those as opposed to doing the real smooth circular motions that you could with a 49 way. I'd say that if you were playing against the CPU, you would be at a disadvantage, but if everyone that's playing with you has the same disadvantage, you will all equally suck. :)
 
Yeah that's what I figured about the gameplay. Before I rush to change it out i'm going to see if I can find a cheap working 4-player cab w/ 8-way joysticks to use with my other PCB's. Thanks for the heads up about the latches.
 
Awww I read the OP's post and was like I know this one! But you two took all of the words out of my mouth.
 
Yeah that's what I figured about the gameplay. Before I rush to change it out i'm going to see if I can find a cheap working 4-player cab w/ 8-way joysticks to use with my other PCB's. Thanks for the heads up about the latches.

you posted this after I left from work I guess. lol I suggested the same thing in a PM, because I don't know what kind of monitor you're running if it's medium res or standard, which would be problematic for your beat-em-up or NBA Jam games. you did mention it was an NBA Jam conversion though, so I'm going to assume that your Blitz is set for standard??

maybe I just can't even remember the original problem anymore. LOL I was huffing bondo and doing all kinds of sanding, so that's very likely. :)
 
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