Ok so i found this is a pile and didnt even know I had one ! Although its not my favorite game I do enjoy it. So first thing first we do a quick visual inspection :-
So its looks ok , Very dirty and there has been a repair attempt (Didnt get a picture of that , Who ever attempted it lost some tracks and had to use link wire , Not a bad job though). Other things we can see is missing / broken caps. A few Roms missing from the graphics board as well.
So i fired it up and got no sound but did get an initial screen , Then is started resetting and going a little nuts. I touched the filter cap and it was loose. At this point i decided to replaced the faulty / broken caps (I do this and if successful I replace them all).
Fired this up and we now had audio !!! Sadly it was still resetting , Not as bad as it had been though. I pulled all of the program roms ( 4 in total ) and it was as if they were glued in the sockets !! Not easy to get out and then looking at the sockets they were very dull and the some pins had pulled out. I cleaned and refitted but this didnt fix it but was better so I knew I was on the right track. There was 1 rom that had a broken leg as well. It did crash sometimes when i wobbled the rom sockets so I decided to replace. Only other observation was we were missing graphics , This again sometimes returned when i pressed the sockets.
At this point i reburned rom @ IC45, IC46, IC47 with the Redux version and also replaced the IC30 as this had the broken leg and not worth messing for the cost. While I was at it I replaced the rest of the Cpas.
Now when I powered it on we were all good no resetting !!! Wobbling the roms had no effect now and graphics were stable - super.
Now i coin up and press play and ................ Nothing !!! Arghhhh !! FFS !!
So i started probing and a long long time tracing the inputs through the circuit. I could not work it out , who had had the board before must have had this same problem as the main LS253 that controlled the inputs had been replaced (Not socketed though !). The input was being pulled low as expected , The LS253 is a fairly complex chip and not easy to work out what was doing what. I figured the last person had replaced this main control chip for this reason and it had not worked. I sat scratching my head and all of a sudden it started working ?? Now I was totally confused. So i did some power on / off tests and seemed to be working. Then after messing with the board it seemed to stop again. The only other thing I could think of was the LS245 , I decided to pull this and test :-
Tested and the 245 tested fine , I socketed and placed my test 245 in. On power up I was able to coin up and play no problem. I replaced the old one and it worked then stopped again !!!
So currently testing with my test LS245 and seems to be ok , Not 100% if it will stop again but will see. So I labeled it all up and give it a general clean, To be fair it could benefit from a proper clean as there is lots of tobacco damage and its sticky in placed.
Only slight thing with this is the dip switches , I am unsure if the bootleg dips work orrectly ?? If I switched the second dip switch pin 1 to 'On' i get a garbled screen on startup. I may look into this at some point. I know a lot of boots did not incorporate all feutures.
Anyway another one has been saved , I rushed a little with this as I am trying to clear my repair room as its full of boards and more coming.
Hopefully you enjoyed this and may be useful to other in the future , Feel free to comment as this spurs me on to write up more,
Dave.
So its looks ok , Very dirty and there has been a repair attempt (Didnt get a picture of that , Who ever attempted it lost some tracks and had to use link wire , Not a bad job though). Other things we can see is missing / broken caps. A few Roms missing from the graphics board as well.
So i fired it up and got no sound but did get an initial screen , Then is started resetting and going a little nuts. I touched the filter cap and it was loose. At this point i decided to replaced the faulty / broken caps (I do this and if successful I replace them all).
Fired this up and we now had audio !!! Sadly it was still resetting , Not as bad as it had been though. I pulled all of the program roms ( 4 in total ) and it was as if they were glued in the sockets !! Not easy to get out and then looking at the sockets they were very dull and the some pins had pulled out. I cleaned and refitted but this didnt fix it but was better so I knew I was on the right track. There was 1 rom that had a broken leg as well. It did crash sometimes when i wobbled the rom sockets so I decided to replace. Only other observation was we were missing graphics , This again sometimes returned when i pressed the sockets.
At this point i reburned rom @ IC45, IC46, IC47 with the Redux version and also replaced the IC30 as this had the broken leg and not worth messing for the cost. While I was at it I replaced the rest of the Cpas.
Now when I powered it on we were all good no resetting !!! Wobbling the roms had no effect now and graphics were stable - super.
Now i coin up and press play and ................ Nothing !!! Arghhhh !! FFS !!
So i started probing and a long long time tracing the inputs through the circuit. I could not work it out , who had had the board before must have had this same problem as the main LS253 that controlled the inputs had been replaced (Not socketed though !). The input was being pulled low as expected , The LS253 is a fairly complex chip and not easy to work out what was doing what. I figured the last person had replaced this main control chip for this reason and it had not worked. I sat scratching my head and all of a sudden it started working ?? Now I was totally confused. So i did some power on / off tests and seemed to be working. Then after messing with the board it seemed to stop again. The only other thing I could think of was the LS245 , I decided to pull this and test :-
Tested and the 245 tested fine , I socketed and placed my test 245 in. On power up I was able to coin up and play no problem. I replaced the old one and it worked then stopped again !!!
So currently testing with my test LS245 and seems to be ok , Not 100% if it will stop again but will see. So I labeled it all up and give it a general clean, To be fair it could benefit from a proper clean as there is lots of tobacco damage and its sticky in placed.
Only slight thing with this is the dip switches , I am unsure if the bootleg dips work orrectly ?? If I switched the second dip switch pin 1 to 'On' i get a garbled screen on startup. I may look into this at some point. I know a lot of boots did not incorporate all feutures.
Anyway another one has been saved , I rushed a little with this as I am trying to clear my repair room as its full of boards and more coming.
Hopefully you enjoyed this and may be useful to other in the future , Feel free to comment as this spurs me on to write up more,
Dave.
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, worth saving a bubble bobble booty and there's no custom chips to worry about 😁
