Subelectro Hunch Back. PCB Repair.

[smarty]

Subelectro Hunch Back. PCB Repair.

After nearly a year of being in s pile of boards that needs fixing, I spent some time tonight fixing my Subelectro Hunch Back board. With reference to this thread on the UKVAC forum from when I originally purchased a Subelectro cab with this board in.

I had this board fixed by a repairer when I first got the cab, but on its return it lasted not more than a few hours before having jumpy graphics and eventually not booting correctly with a black screen displaying 'CREDIT 0' and making a constant audio tone.

Failing graphics

Corrupt title screen

Fast forward to having a bit more experience and a few tools, my first port of call was to verify the ROM'S. The board has eight CPU program ROM's and two graphics ROM's. Of those, three of the eight CPU ROM's claimed to be blank or wouldn't verify against the on-line Romident tool. Both of the CPU ROM's also didn't verify correctly, I re-burnt a complete set of new ROM's tonight and upon power up the game booted and played correctly. My test monitor struggled a bit with the video sync on the far edge of the image, but it will display fine on an arcade monitor. Makes a change having an easy fix like this!

Images below of the working game.







The Subelectro Hunch Back board, running on Galaxian hardware.



smarty2015-01-06 07:12:58

 

[jonhughes]

Nice fix, wish mine were like that. I'd love a hunch back board even though my chances are particularly slim, although it is nice to be able to play the game in MAME.

 

[paulcan69]

I have that exact board
Has sound issues too

But please can you pm or email which rom set you used please?
Ta bud

 

[smarty]

...which rom set you used please?

Have pm'd the files over, but for future reference the files in MAME for this board are 'hunchbkg'.

 

[philmurr]

You're getting pretty good at repairing this arcade stuff Smarty

 

[silverfox0786]

he's a right ol Smarty Pants, aint he

nice work buddy

 

[Macro]

The problem with these is usually that the CVS Playpack has died (Signetics S2650 CPU and some logic to make it fit in a Z80 socket!) - I know I have Hunchback Olympics like this, maybe some others (driving force ?)

I think I have one bootleg version though, where the CPU is on a bit of veroboard if anyone wants to be able to reproduce them - is there a market for Hunchback conversion kits ?

I also have several 'proper' CVS boards with hunchback, H.E.R.O * - really need to make a loom up for these, I did program a GAL once long ago to do the matrix decode to jamma bit as well! The games look (and sound) much better on those (the speech chip in mame was a bit of a hack, so may not sound exactly the same - although may have been improved since I did the original driver)

* Hunchback Esmerelda Rescue Operation

 

[guddler]

I would like to see Hunchback on my Galaxian multi-game

Used to really like that game in the arcades. Showing my age I know.

 

[Alpha1]

I would like to see Hunchback on my Galaxian multi-game

Used to really like that game in the arcades. Showing my age I know.

OoooOooOoOooh, good idea!

 

[Equites]

I would like to see Hunchback on my Galaxian multi-game

Used to really like that game in the arcades. Showing my age I know.

OoooOooOoOooh, good idea!

Yes Mike, a good idea (to re-release Galaxian Multi-Game)

 

[Macro]

not going to happen - it uses a different CPU

I did write a static recompiler to convert S2650 code (super invader attack) to z80 code, but it still took ma ages to sort out the problems with it, and the code 'grows' quite a bit, so I don't think it is going to happen with Hunchy

maybe one day if I get REALLY REALLY bored (not likely to happen any time soon)

 

[guddler]

surely someone must be able to re-write it as a project in the home-brew section (not me)

 

[RGP]

I love hunchback, only ever saw it a couple of times in the arcades but played it to death on a mate's speccy.

Well done smarty!

Hmmm, homebrew rewrite you say......