Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)
Within the last 24 hours, my two favorite games died of different
causes. Here's the run down.
Crystal Castles was running great for about an hour straight, then
froze up on the "enter your initials" screen. I powered it down, then
booted it back up. I now just get a solid green screen, with some
"chunky" sprites near the left and bottom of the screen. The game never
boots, the test switch does nothing, the trakball doesn't light up.
However... I have a spare Crystal Castles PCB. When plugged in, that
game boots up okay, but it does not recognize the inputs (buttons or
trakball). It just draws the first castle, and the trakball blinks to
indicate that it's waiting for a start button to be pressed (It's also
stuck in free play mode), but I can't seem to get it to recognize when
the start buttons are pressed!
I'm assuming that since both boards have different problems, that
working chips can be swapped between the two, and I'll end up with one
100% working board again. Any idea which would be easier to start with?
And what chips should be swapped?
The Ms.PacMan is a different story. It had the speed up chip, and I
just got the normal 1981 speed chip, to restore it to "the way it
should be". Long story short, to swap the speed chips, you need to
remove the Z80 Sync Buss chip. And... despite my best efforts, and even
thinking it over before reinstalling it... I STILL plugged the Buss
chip in upside down.
Now, the game doesn't boot at all. Only the marquee lights up, and you
can hear power getting to the monitor. That's it.
A local friend let me use a spare repro Z80 Sync Buss chip (Clay
Cowgill 1998 style) to replace my fried one. He also gave me a Z80
chip.
So, I get home, plug the Clay Cowgill repro Z80 Buss in (I'm 200%
certain it was facing in the right direction), and... no change.
According to the Ms.PacMan owner's manual, the Z80 is supposed to be at
6B on the mother board... but that's where the daughter board's ribbon
connector goes. So, I try removing the ribbon connector, and plug the
Z80 (notch facing down) in at 6B. Still... nothing.
I recognize that Ms.PacMan PCBs are really PacMans with daughter
boards, and that I imagine that 6B on a PacMan PCB is a Z80. (I don't
own a PacMan PCB to verify this though)
So... any suggestion where to go from here?
*sighhhh* sometimes this hobby is the best... but right now, it seems
like the worst. :^(
Kyle S.
Within the last 24 hours, my two favorite games died of different
causes. Here's the run down.
Crystal Castles was running great for about an hour straight, then
froze up on the "enter your initials" screen. I powered it down, then
booted it back up. I now just get a solid green screen, with some
"chunky" sprites near the left and bottom of the screen. The game never
boots, the test switch does nothing, the trakball doesn't light up.
However... I have a spare Crystal Castles PCB. When plugged in, that
game boots up okay, but it does not recognize the inputs (buttons or
trakball). It just draws the first castle, and the trakball blinks to
indicate that it's waiting for a start button to be pressed (It's also
stuck in free play mode), but I can't seem to get it to recognize when
the start buttons are pressed!
I'm assuming that since both boards have different problems, that
working chips can be swapped between the two, and I'll end up with one
100% working board again. Any idea which would be easier to start with?
And what chips should be swapped?
The Ms.PacMan is a different story. It had the speed up chip, and I
just got the normal 1981 speed chip, to restore it to "the way it
should be". Long story short, to swap the speed chips, you need to
remove the Z80 Sync Buss chip. And... despite my best efforts, and even
thinking it over before reinstalling it... I STILL plugged the Buss
chip in upside down.
Now, the game doesn't boot at all. Only the marquee lights up, and you
can hear power getting to the monitor. That's it.
A local friend let me use a spare repro Z80 Sync Buss chip (Clay
Cowgill 1998 style) to replace my fried one. He also gave me a Z80
chip.
So, I get home, plug the Clay Cowgill repro Z80 Buss in (I'm 200%
certain it was facing in the right direction), and... no change.
According to the Ms.PacMan owner's manual, the Z80 is supposed to be at
6B on the mother board... but that's where the daughter board's ribbon
connector goes. So, I try removing the ribbon connector, and plug the
Z80 (notch facing down) in at 6B. Still... nothing.
I recognize that Ms.PacMan PCBs are really PacMans with daughter
boards, and that I imagine that 6B on a PacMan PCB is a Z80. (I don't
own a PacMan PCB to verify this though)
So... any suggestion where to go from here?
*sighhhh* sometimes this hobby is the best... but right now, it seems
like the worst. :^(
Kyle S.
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