Tron sounds are slightly off, any ideas?

I'm not noticing any difference in gameplay or difficulty, just different sounds. FWIW, I'm not at all worried about the differences, just want to ensure there isnt a board problem. Its been running smooth otherwise. I am noticing some static once in a great while but I'm not sure if thats a board issue, it could be a bad connection. I need to replace a couple connectors anyway.
 
welove80s said:
I'm not noticing any difference in gameplay or difficulty, just different sounds. FWIW, I'm not at all worried about the differences, just want to ensure there isnt a board problem. Its been running smooth otherwise. I am noticing some static once in a great while but I'm not sure if thats a board issue, it could be a bad connection. I need to replace a couple connectors anyway.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sounds like someone just replaced the, or some of the, audio chips with whatever they grabbed first from MAME dumps. No biggie. Easy "fix" for those if you wanted 'em. As for the thumping and the static... I'd get the entire board setup with 1 set of ROMs before I started doing any more troubleshooting. Make sure that's 100%, then go from there.

From what I've noticed from my Tron boards... they're picky. VERY eff'ng picky... if there was a board issue, I'm sure the machine would be telling you SOMETHING. God knows mine does sometimes. "Sound Board Interface Error"... no sound in game, board DIP sound tests worked fine. Half the errors I get off these boards don't effect game play at all... they're some picky little SOBs.

So with the stuff you're getting... I'd get the boards settled up, see if that does anything to help the sounds. If the game is try'ng to read the sounds from the chips... and they're just a few bytes off in the files on the chips... then you'll get what could sound like they're right (starting a couple of bytes late in the chip), but the end of the sound could be gibberish (since we started a couple of bytes late)... hence the thud... just an idea.

If you still get the thud and random sound boo-boos after you replace the chips. Then I'd suspect harness (bass wiggle'ng something or something along those lines). But... you never know... MCR boards are nightmares. I've had better luck fixing Pole Position boards over my MCR fun times.
 
Scucci said:
I've had better luck fixing Pole Position boards over my MCR fun times.
Click to expand...

Now thats saying something! LOL!

All of the boards have factory burned ROMs with the exception of the FreePlay ROM and maybe one ROM on the video board.

Those random pops can be very annoying and near impossible to get rid of. This time of year the air is getting dry and even the slightest static discharge will make its way to the speakers. You may not fell it but its there.

Listening more and more to the video that was posted I'm pretty sure that my cone sounds like that but the tanks dont make that pop after shooting.
 
gamefixer said:
Now thats saying something! LOL!

All of the boards have factory burned ROMs with the exception of the FreePlay ROM and maybe one ROM on the video board.

Those random pops can be very annoying and near impossible to get rid of. This time of year the air is getting dry and even the slightest static discharge will make its way to the speakers. You may not fell it but its there.

Listening more and more to the video that was posted I'm pretty sure that my cone sounds like that but the tanks dont make that pop after shooting.
Click to expand...

{offtopicagain}{sry}

PP boards are just better documented... even in the manual. Most of the errors are laid out, each circuit has it's own schematic, etc etc. If the engine sounds are screwed up, there's an engine sound circuit schematic in the manual. Missing voices? Yep... that's there too. It goes on and on... Atari just did a MUCH better job on breaking their boards down than Bally/Midway did, that's all there is to it.

Plus the people that fix MCR boards are pretty tight lipped (most of the time i seems) as to what they're doing.
 
Scucci said:
{offtopicagain}{sry}

PP boards are just better documented... even in the manual. Most of the errors are laid out, each circuit has it's own schematic, etc etc. If the engine sounds are screwed up, there's an engine sound circuit schematic in the manual. Missing voices? Yep... that's there too. It goes on and on... Atari just did a MUCH better job on breaking their boards down than Bally/Midway did, that's all there is to it.
Click to expand...

Very true. It would be nice to know where that Tank shot sound comes from because it would be easier to troubleshoot the circuit.

I was going to suggest swapping the sound generators from side to side but didnt want to incase it caused more problems.
 
gamefixer said:
I was going to suggest swapping the sound generators from side to side but didnt want to incase it caused more problems.
Click to expand...

They seem to sound fine in the test mode. No pop or anything on channels 1, 2, or 3 (the lower ones that'd I'd imagine would handle the tank shot).

I have a board here that I'm taking into the arcade with me today... I think I'll go ahead and burn the 6.15 (Set4) sound ROMs and take them with me. If the board is good now (PLEASE, GOD... PLEASE) then I'll swap them over while I have the machine pulled from the wall and see how they react with the 6.25 (Set1?) CPU ROMs.
 
I had something similar, but...

My Tron had a new power supply conversion (before I got it) and I got the boards shopped and they came back working, but the dound was a little off.... similar to what you were describing. I had to adjust the voltage pot on the power supply to get to the "correct" voltage and everything seeems ok to me.

Not sure if this will be your situation, but I figured I'd throw it in here. Just in case it helps.
 
welove80s said:
Anyone have a romset laying around? I could try that out.
Click to expand...

I can send you the ROMs on the board I have after I get the sound generator and verify that one thats on the board is bad.

I'll just burn another set for my game.

Matt
 
When are you getting the static on screen? Tron has some problems on any machine I've seen where if the screen switches quickly, it shows static. This is most evident when you coin up the game with 1 credit, hit 2 player start and the trigger to cycle thru the instructions. It has all sorts of static on the screen if you do it quickly. Doesn't seem to do it in MAME, so either it's not emulated right, or it's a hardware issue that wouldn't show up in MAME.
Oh, and speaking of clearing grid bugs, I've done it once or twice on 500 too. It takes just the right bug multiplying, and very accurate shooting :D
 
Swapped all the roms today. MCP & bonus life sounds are back to normal. Pop after tank fire is still there. Dont notice any problems with the boardset otherwise.
 
Long shot. Have you swapped sound generators to see if the problem stays with the channel or goes to the other side?
 
welove80s said:
Nope, havent tried that, and I probably dont know how.
Click to expand...

they are the two Z80 looking chips that are right next to each other on the bottom of the SSIO board.

I bought two thinking that I had a bad one but I didnt so now I have two extras. :sigh:
 
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