Battlezone - no vectors in game

From: <lists_at_arcadeuk.com>
Date: Sat Aug 18 2007 - 14:22:24 EDT

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, been collecting/repairing raster games for 8 years, new
to vectors.

I have a nightmare of a Battlezone cabaret to sort out.

1) Game arrived dead. - Fixed a clock problem, rebuilt AR2 and changed
some bad sockets to turned pin and the game sprang to life, though
none of the inputs would work (in test mode or game) - traced the
problem to a bad pokey and latch

2) Game completly died - no vectors in test mode or game, also the
monitor died during the no-vector problem so now I have a scope hooked
up in the cab for display - I will come back to the monitor later -
but I want to get the game board working 100% first.

3) Moved the game board to the test bench - resoldered some dry
joints, also resoldered the pin strips for the aux board, and made a
new aux board cable. With the game on the bench I got the game to fire
back up again (could see attract mode and highscore table etc) so I
moved the game boards back down to the cab, so I could test the
controls see (as I have no controls wired up on the test bench) When I
fired up the game, the screen (scope) was blank, stuck the game into
test mode and the game now bleeps when I press any controls, so the
controls are working, also if I stick it into game mode, the start
button flashes, and if I press the start button, I get a rumbling
noise for about 10 seconds, then it stops, and the start button is
flashing again, and you can press it again .. etc etc. The screen
(scope) is completly blank in both test and game mode still...

4) Moved back to the test bench, I can now get the test mode screen up
again on the scope, but there is no vectors in game mode. I have
noticed that if I switch from test mode to game mode, the vector
generator section of the AVG pcb completely stops (i.e. there is no
activity at the vector rams and roms) but if I switch on test mode
then there is activity.

Things I have checked :-

Voltages are correct on all the test points both on the test bench and
in the cab (+5, +5DAC, -5, +12, +15, -15 etc)

I have a fluke 9010A and both the program ram and vector ram check out
ok (eash tested at least 5 times in a row!)

All roms produce the correct signature in the pcb (using the fluke)
and also all check out ok in my eprom programmer)

When in game mode (screen blank) the cpu is running, not watchdoggins,
and the cpu rams and rom have activity, but the vector rams and roms
do not.

Anyone got any ideas what might be causing the game to have a blank
screen (no vector generator activity) when I switch to game mode, but
it is ok for the test screen?

Thanks in advance for your help

Luke
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Received on Sat Aug 18 13:20:43 2007

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