Why must life be so hard? dead games

kstillin

Well-known member

Donor 2018
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
4,698
Reaction score
130
Location
Columbia, South Carolina
Damn it!
The monitor went out in Marble Madness, so I found another G07 chassis that looked pretty good other than a broken neck board. Fix a few traces, it fires up, install it in the MM, pretty dim, adjust B+ up, nice and bright-- what? GARBAGE on the screen?


DOH!

Swap in a Road Blasters board, same thing, so I guess the System I main board is not happy. Voltages are fine.

Why must it be one damned game failure after another? I just want to play some games. I don't want to babysit dozens of failing machines.

I feel like Homer Simpson.
 
I'm serious- I look at these 30y old boards and think- it only takes one of these chips to fail to bring the whole thing down.

Then I multiply that feeling by the number of games I have. I'm ready to slap a PC/MAME into the next game that fails.

Dedicated MAME. I can live with that.

K
 
I feel your pain. I had an arcade party last week, 8 games up and running for 6 hours, and at the very end Gorf freaked out with rom errors. Everyone here loves Gorf, and it is my 2nd favorite game. Looks fixable, but the 'fun vs. hassle' equation is depressing!
 
All is right with the world

OK. I feel better now.

I never could figure out what the problem was. The System I main board would flake out after a few minutes; almost long enough to get a game of Marble Madness in.

Then it would say SOFTWARE EXCEPTION, sometimes reboot, sometimes to garbage, and do it again. Powering it off and back on didn't help unless you left it off 10 minutes or so.

All the voltages look fine- no ripple at all.
Couldn't really detect any hot chips.
Swapped in a Road Blasters board with the same result.
Cleaned up a few socketed chips. Even replaced some 74S163 chips that were socketed. No difference.

Pulled another main board out of a box of System I stuff- kbam!
Had to adjust the vertical hold- (strange), but no resets.

This one has some small graphics glitch on the motion objects, but it is QUITE PLAYABLE. Good enough for now.

Just thought I'd share.

Kerry
 
If you don't want to be dealing with stuff that is always falling over then 30 year old electronics that were only designed to last 6 months is a poor choice of hobby. I have no idea how people who cant do their own board repair put up with it.
 
say it with me.....


"old game, new problem"

there. feel better? Its always something, thats part of the fun is trying to keep these damn wood boxes that were only supposed to last a year ot two running after 25+ years.
 
I've had a couple of my games freak out on me. I'm still fairly new to this so I tend to panic a little too much when it does. I take the time to check and reseat all the connections and they've all started working fine again. My T2 would work for like 5 min, the screen would scramble then it would reset. I removed and reconnected the main harness to the PCB and the game hasn't given me a problem since. I know something serious will eventually happen but I'll fix it one way or another.
 
If you don't want to be dealing with stuff that is always falling over then 30 year old electronics that were only designed to last 6 months is a poor choice of hobby. I have no idea how people who cant do their own board repair put up with it.

We ask for help here troubleshooting and then send it to people like you and pay you big bucks to fix our boards. :)
 
If you don't want to be dealing with stuff that is always falling over then 30 year old electronics that were only designed to last 6 months is a poor choice of hobby. I have no idea how people who cant do their own board repair put up with it.

Got money and no time? We pay an expert. Got no money and patience? You figure it out. Honestly I equate this hobby with collecting classic cars; you have to pay to play if you don't have the time/experience. I used to own a '73 Triumph TR-6, this hobby is MUCH less frustrating!
 
I've been monkeying with this crap for over 20 years now.

I have a LOT more time than money (that I'm willing to part with), so I usually piddle with something way too long. I used to repair monitor chassis, but I consider those a pain in the a** now.

I don't know why I don't put more effort/time into repairing boards. Maybe because it seems too much like work. One thing I DO know- it's a real good feeling when you can fix something yourself.

K
 
I've had a couple of my games freak out on me. I'm still fairly new to this so I tend to panic a little too much when it does. I take the time to check and reseat all the connections and they've all started working fine again. My T2 would work for like 5 min, the screen would scramble then it would reset. I removed and reconnected the main harness to the PCB and the game hasn't given me a problem since. I know something serious will eventually happen but I'll fix it one way or another.

I had the same problem with my T2. The game would reset every now and then. Measured the voltages and they looked good at the board, at least while it was running. I put in another power supply in case the old one was dropping its voltage for a half second or something. My T2 has been running rock steady ever since. Just something to consider.
 
Back
Top Bottom