Re: Battlezone - no vectors in game

Luke, I think I may be able to help. Did you check or replace the
actual ROM sockets. My
BattleZone cabaret had a similar problem and I traced it back to a lone
PROM socket that
would just get finicky from time to time. You're correct about the game
running though, since
I could also get it in diagnostics mode, hear the tank rumbling, etc,
just no video. Another
thing you may consider after replacing all of the PROM sockets is to
just do the hack that
does away with most of the PROMs. An easier solution is to buy the
BattleZone high score
kit, since it also does away with all of those PROMs and doesn't require
any hacks. I've
also found it is a great diagnostics tool itself (for both BattleZone
and Red Baron).

http://www.brasington.org/arcade/hs/bzone/

Scott C.

lists@arcadeuk.com wrote:
> 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 13:43:24 2007