Space Invaders Deluxe Arcade Finally Fixed!!!

[tholly]

right now i have 2 project machines...a Space Invaders Deluxe cabinet and a Bally Wizard electromechanical pinball machine.....both were under $80, so if i cant fix them, its not a big loss

Space Invaders Deluxe cabinet problem:

I believe it is a RAM problem (since what is occuring seems to be what is mentioned on http://www.ionpool.net/arcade/midway..._8080_tech.txt )

Would it be a possible option to just order new RAM chips and throw them on the board, or is there a lot more to it than that. My dad can put the chips on if he gets them, so if that would help, anyone know a good place to order them from.

Wizard pinball machine problem:

The machine gets power, but seems like it does not want to reset and then shot the ball into the launching area to start the game. If makes clicking noises and all that fun stuff, but the game just doesn't seem to want to start. We never had an electromechanical pinball machine before, so we really would love some advice as to where to start. Any questions that would help you answer my question....feel free to ask.

[chadtower]

Would it be a possible option to just order new RAM chips and throw them on the board, or is there a lot more to it than that. My dad can put the chips on if he gets them, so if that would help, anyone know a good place to order them from.

Yes, that's exactly how you would replace them. If they are not socketed, you would first want to install a socket, then slide the chip into that so that future replacements are plug and play. Go to RGVAC and ask for the RAM there, that is the best place to find it.

The machine gets power, but seems like it does not want to reset and then shot the ball into the launching area to start the game. If makes clicking noises and all that fun stuff, but the game just doesn't seem to want to start. We never had an electromechanical pinball machine before, so we really would love some advice as to where to start. Any questions that would help you answer my question....feel free to ask.

Where to start is to to go marvin3m.com and read up on pinball concepts, then move straight into the EM pinball section. If you're able to understand all that, and it is very well written and displayed, you will be able to fix the machine.

[DogP]

Yeah, like I PM'd you, you can replace them all, but there's 16 of them, and they're not socketed (unless they've already been replaced). I bought the multigame from http://www.brasington.org/arcade/sim/ ($49), and that has a good self test which tells you which RAMs are bad, and he also had some RAM, so if you ask, he'll probably sell you some too. I think http://www.arcadechips.com/ has them also.

And yeah, marvin3m is a good resource for fixing the EM pinball. Also, if it's labeled on the inside, try manually hitting some of the switches for game start, reset, etc.

DogP

[tholly]

Yeah, like I PM'd you, you can replace them all, but there's 16 of them, and they're not socketed (unless they've already been replaced). I bought the multigame from http://www.brasington.org/arcade/sim/ ($49), and that has a good self test which tells you which RAMs are bad, and he also had some RAM, so if you ask, he'll probably sell you some too. I think http://www.arcadechips.com/ has them also.

And yeah, marvin3m is a good resource for fixing the EM pinball. Also, if it's labeled on the inside, try manually hitting some of the switches for game start, reset, etc.

DogP

would getting the multigame add-on help if i need to hear beeps and i dont hear game sounds now, or as long as the speaker is hooked up should it be fine

[DogP]

The sound circuitry must be working to get anything out of the self test that comes with the multigame. With the regular ROMs, you probably won't hear anything since there's no self test built in. I guess the only way to find out if your sound is working is to listen when the multigame boots up :P .

DogP

[tholly]

The sound circuitry must be working to get anything out of the self test that comes with the multigame. With the regular ROMs, you probably won't hear anything since there's no self test built in. I guess the only way to find out if your sound is working is to listen when the multigame boots up :P .

DogP

looks like short of getting 16 chips, the multigame is what im gonna have to do.....i think im probably gonna end up ordering that today....id love to get one of these 2 machines fixed

[DogP]

Yeah, hopefully you'll have better luck than me and not have very many bad RAMs. I'm ordering the rest of the RAM and some other chips today, so hopefully by the end of the week I can have this game up and running .

DogP

[tholly]

Yeah, hopefully you'll have better luck than me and not have very many bad RAMs. I'm ordering the rest of the RAM and some other chips today, so hopefully by the end of the week I can have this game up and running .

DogP

i ordered my multigame and 8 RAM chips today....hopefully 8 is more than enough....id be happy if i wasted my money on 7 and only had to change 1, but id rather have a bunch on hand, plus extras if i dont need them all

i guess with priority shipping ill get the set up tomorrow or wednesday (its only from i think GA and it was shipped today) so hopefully i also have this working by the end of the week

[DogP]

Cool... yeah, my board has at least 7 bad, possibly 8, and he said that's more than usual, so hopefully ordering 8 is safe. I did read that if the game is run missing the -5V for long enough ALL RAMs will go bad, so I guess that's always a danger, although I don't know how long "long enough" is, and whether anyone is stupid enough to leave an obviously non-working game on for days if that's how long "long enough" is.

And if you do have some extras, there's a few other people I know of with RAM problems on their SI's, so you could probably unload the chips on them.

DogP

[tholly]

well, i got the package in today and put in the multigame, turned it on....and.....heard no beeps...i just had the bar pattern on the monitor that i had before

any ideas??

[DogP]

I got my extra RAM chips and stuff today too . Anyway, did you install it correctly? Pull all of the EPROMs out, pull the CPU out, put the new board in the CPU socket (correct direction), then put the CPU into the socket on that board?

Do you have any pics of it? When it starts up and every time it resets, I see a full screen of lines sweep across the screen (and with the bad RAM, some lines don't disappear).

DogP

[tholly]

I got my extra RAM chips and stuff today too . Anyway, did you install it correctly? Pull all of the EPROMs out, pull the CPU out, put the new board in the CPU socket (correct direction), then put the CPU into the socket on that board?

Do you have any pics of it? When it starts up and every time it resets, I see a full screen of lines sweep across the screen (and with the bad RAM, some lines don't disappear).

DogP

cpu and the new board look correctly installed
when it starts up, there is a sweep of lines across the screen

[tholly]

we just checked across the 1000uF capacitor for the sound and we arent getting anywhere close to +18V...so, we are getting a replacement tomorrow or friday....hopefully that fixes the problem

thanks so far for the help...i post after that gets changed....time to work on wizard until we get the SI part

[DogP]

You're getting a replacement cap? If you don't have the voltage, replacing the cap more than likely won't help... there's probably a problem on the power board.

Oh... and do all of the lines disappear after the sweep goes across? Do you ever see any sort of random looking graphics on the screen?

DogP

[DogP]

How is this project going? Did you get your power supply fixed? I ordered a bunch of new caps and got them yesterday, so I messed with it, when I replaced them, I still had a problem, then just for fun I decided to swap the 12V regulator with another PS I had... that stopped my chip that was getting REALLY hot from heating up... but I still had RAM problems, so I resoldered all of my sockets, and it told me that RAM 12 was bad instead of RAM 2 like it has been, and RAM 12 was still an original, so I replaced it, and it told me RAM 16 was bad (another original), so I replaced that and IT WORKED!!!

So, I'm guessing that one of the through holes got ripped when I removed the old RAM, and when I resoldered it, the solder used the socket to connect both sides of the through hole and fixed it... so I guess you should be more careful than me when replacing the chips and installing the socket. Now the only thing I need to get fixed that I know of is the missile sound is pretty weak compared to the others, so I'm going to try replacing the LM3900's.

DogP

[tholly]

Ok....I traded my broken Bally Wizard for a fully working Bally Special Forces....so I went from an Electro Mechanical to a Solid State.....pretty good deal.

Now, I have my Space Invaders Deluxe as my only broken machine......right now I have Scott Brasington's multigame kit on it and the games are all working, I just don't have any sound......

I'm not getting the correct voltage across the capacitor on the power board for the sound.......any ideas on how to fix my problem???

Tony

[tholly]

well, im gonna bring this back up to the top after a while since i will be home this weekend for winter break i want to start working on this machine while i have a month at home off of school

the only problem it has right now is that i dont have sound, the picture works, the control works, the multigame kit is fine ... i just dont have sound....

my dad took the power supply to his buddy and his buddy checked all the caps and what not on it and changed out anything that wasnt at the proper values, so that should be fine.....

what should i try next?

[Arcade Antics]

No sound at all? Is power getting to the speaker(s)? Can you hear the "hiss" of the speaker getting any signal at all?

[tholly]

No sound at all? Is power getting to the speaker(s)? Can you hear the "hiss" of the speaker getting any signal at all?

i don't think i hear a hiss

the speaker does work though (i hooked it up at a low volume to a home stereo system)

[DogP]

I think the audio is actually an 18V coming from the power supply (+12 is for the RAM, along with -5)... just because the PS components were checked doesn't mean it works. I'd check all of the voltages first, and then try troubleshooting the board.

DogP