Figuring out an Asteroids Board Revision

[Tony]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Hello All,

I'm tackling my first Asteroids. I am having a wonderful time trying to
figure out which board revision I have. On the board, I see
"A034986"... but no -01 (or whatever) after it. There is a "-05" hand
written in black ink above it next to a "Tested" stamp with 1981 as the
date. I tried troubleshooting the board with rev. 05 schematics, but
the traces definitely don't go to where they're supposed to go.

So, what revision do I have? Any ideas? I do have the Atari copyright
at the bottom of the screen (actually -- that's why I'm troubleshooting
the board. The text (and only the text) is small and shaky.) So...
maybe I have a revision 1 board with greater than revision 1 ROMs?

Thanks for any help!!

Tony

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

>The text (and only the text) is small and shaky.)

Are you sure this is not a monitor problem?

Kirb

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

There should be a small box with a letter inside it etched on the bottom of
the board.
You have software revision 02.


"Tony" <tony@girasoli.spam.org> wrote in message
news:tony-627877.22344019062005@newsclstr01.news.prodigy.com...
> Hello All,
>
> I'm tackling my first Asteroids. I am having a wonderful time trying to
> figure out which board revision I have. On the board, I see
> "A034986"... but no -01 (or whatever) after it. There is a "-05" hand
> written in black ink above it next to a "Tested" stamp with 1981 as the
> date. I tried troubleshooting the board with rev. 05 schematics, but
> the traces definitely don't go to where they're supposed to go.
>
> So, what revision do I have? Any ideas? I do have the Atari copyright
> at the bottom of the screen (actually -- that's why I'm troubleshooting
> the board. The text (and only the text) is small and shaky.) So...
> maybe I have a revision 1 board with greater than revision 1 ROMs?
>
> Thanks for any help!!
>
> Tony

 

[Tony]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

> Are you sure this is not a monitor problem?
>
> Kirb

I'm almost positive. Let me know if you think otherwise after reading
below. I've capped the monitor already. What leads me to believe the
board is at fault are two things:

1. When the game is first powered on after being cold, everything on the
screen shakes like crazy. The "Press Start" text is all distorted.
Then, after a minute of warming up, "Press Start" looks normal and the
asteroids look normal and stop shaking. BUT, the copyright text at the
bottom of the screen continues to shake (and is tiny in size). When I
fly the ship through the shaky copyright text at the bottom of the
screen, the ship doesn't shake with the copyright text. Also, the
smallest asteroids aren't completely drawn, but the other asteroids are.

2. In test mode, the bottom right and upper left quadrants of the screen
are missing the cross hatch pattern. The bottom left and upper right
quadrants display the cross hatch fine. Nothing shakes on the screen
when in test mode.

I want to start with the timer circuitry, but before I can do so, I need
to use the right schematics. At any rate, does anyone know where I can
find the revision number on my main board? And, if there isn't a
revision number, does this means it's rev. 1?

Thanks a mil!

Tony

 

[Andre]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

If you post picture of the board I can tell you which ver the board is.
Just about all Asteroids boards I worked on have a hand written # on it
which usually holds true to the correct ver #. I did find some problems on
the some of the schematics but they are correct for the most part.

Also post a picture of your problem, to me it sounds like a problem in the
vector timing circuitry.

Andre
www.arcadesolution.com


"Tony" <tony@girasoli.spam.org> wrote in message
news:tony-627877.22344019062005@newsclstr01.news.prodigy.com...
> Hello All,
>
> I'm tackling my first Asteroids. I am having a wonderful time trying to
> figure out which board revision I have. On the board, I see
> "A034986"... but no -01 (or whatever) after it. There is a "-05" hand
> written in black ink above it next to a "Tested" stamp with 1981 as the
> date. I tried troubleshooting the board with rev. 05 schematics, but
> the traces definitely don't go to where they're supposed to go.
>
> So, what revision do I have? Any ideas? I do have the Atari copyright
> at the bottom of the screen (actually -- that's why I'm troubleshooting
> the board. The text (and only the text) is small and shaky.) So...
> maybe I have a revision 1 board with greater than revision 1 ROMs?
>
> Thanks for any help!!
>
> Tony