vs Super Mario Brothers Arcade Machine

pike1915

New member
Joined
Jan 23, 2012
Messages
36
Reaction score
1
Location
New Mexico
I just bought a VS super mario brothers arcade game and I am having issues with it freezing. I can play the first level but when I get to the flag and slide down the whole screen freezes. Can any one tell me why this is?
 
So, I take it, the game crashes at exactly the same spot, every time? And up until it crashes, it plays perfectly?

Since it's crashing when it gets to a specific point, it would suggest that it has something to do with the program ROMs. Make sure they're all correctly and fully seated in the daughter board, and that the daughter board itself is correctly seated. Reseat everything if you want to be thorough.

Also, while you're in there, inspect for battery damage. The Vs. boards take AA batteries to store the bookkeeping information. They're utterly useless and do NOT save the high scores. Make sure that they are removed from the game - left alone they could leak and corrode the board.

While you're in there, it doesn't hurt to check the power supply voltages, you want to be sure that they're correct - low voltage can cause all kinds of crashing and weird behavior. Nothing will work correctly without clean, proper power, so I usually start by checking that, above all else.

BTW - welcome to KLOV!

-Ian
 
Thank you for the Info, Does the ROM's have a proper order they need to go in or what? I dont know much about this stuff but I am willing to learn.

thank you
 
Yes. The ROMs need to be in exactly the right sockets.

Did you mix some of them up? It won't damage anything (provided they're inserted the correct direction), but it won't work either.

Does this game have a daugher card plugged into the main PCB, or is it just the one board? It's been a while since I worked on a Vs., and I can't remember if SMB is one of the games that used a daughter card.

-Ian
 
I have not taken anything out yet I was just wondering if they had an order cuase I wanted to see if the other owner put them in wrong. No daughter board it is just the single board.
 
oh sorry for got to say that there is no daughter board.

Ah. Heh. You posted that just as I was asking :)

I think that's correct. Some games used daughter cards, others did not. The Vs. system is kind of unique because you can change chips and therefore change the game. Some games were distributed simply as a set of ROMs and a PPU chip, other games had a little daughter card that plugged in as well. So, in order for an operator to swap to say, ExciteBike, all he'd have to do is replace the game ROM chips and the PPU, and he'd have a whole new game - swap out marquee on the cabinet and he's done.

I think Dr. Mario was one that used the daughter card that plugged into the PPU socket. By changing the PPU and later using little plug-in boards, they were able to prevent people from simply copying the ROM chips. ROM chips are cheap and trivial to duplicate, so lets say a new game comes out, and an OP has ten machines out on location. Well, if it were only ROM chips that had to be changed, all the OP has to do is buy one upgrade kit, copy the chips, and have a whole bunch of new games out there.

Not to say that never happened, but by changing the PPU around every time, it really cut down on it, since there aren't very many games that share PPU's.

-Ian
 
post a pic of your board (it's easy to see if the roms are in the correct spots) if they are labeled, they go on the bottom set of of sockets, in: 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 8A, 8B. IF they are in the correct places, it is probable that you have a bad set of roms. I've bought a few sets from a fellow KLOVer and is pretty inexpensive fix. Here is the link to the forum:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=131239

If it is not the roms, then I would guess its the PPU (the one with the heat sink) which is harder to find, and more expensive.
 
So the game was bad? Is there any way to fix it or is it better just to buy new roms
 
Just had this isssue last week actually, All the roms checked out fine but i tried everything else, finally erased all the roms and reburned them all fixed the problem
 
Just had this isssue last week actually, All the roms checked out fine but i tried everything else, finally erased all the roms and reburned them all fixed the problem

I had a DK board with a sound issue last week. I tested the sound roms a couple times and they verified good. I eventually swapped in another set and the sounds were good again. Sometimes a rom will read back the correct checksum but still not operate correctly. I have seen this a few times. They were original roms so it wasnt a speed issue.
 
I found this thread and it is similar to my issue. Game will come up, but is frozen when 1-1 screen comes up. I sent board to Eldorado and they said it checked out. Any ideas? If it is power supply what volts should I look for?
 
Back
Top Bottom