Robotron lives!

I was out of town on business last Wednesday, and my fingers were literally itching to get something done arcade-wise this week. I arrived at the game room just after six, and much to my surprise, two of my friends were already there.

I have had a lot of time to think about what could be the problem with Robotron, and I had frankly started contemplating shipping the boards stateside for repair. However, I decided to at least check what I could. The board set I got from Morgan a couple of years ago had some battery leakage, which I tried cleaning up with a toothbrush, vinegar and alcohol some time in 2007. 

The strange contact problem which I saw last time led me to believe that the leak caused some problems with the RAM sockets. I got a friend to help me with the DMM, and it turned out that the board had contact problems on 5 of 24 sockets! I was able to clean some of them, but for testing purposes we ended up soldering jumper wires from each "faulty" leg on the chips to the corresponding solder point on the back of the board.

The first test was a moderate success. The monitor showed the usual pre-boot garbage, but it flashed black for just some microseconds, displaying a faint error message about system check failure. I don't remember the exact words, but it was encouraging to see some actual letters on the screen for a change!

A couple of more jumper wires later, and Robotron actually booted!

It went back to the usual pre-boot garbage after some seconds, and this process repeated for quite some time. Until, like a bear coming out of its long winter sleep, Robotron lived again!

In the end, it remained stable for several minutes, seemingly just waiting for quarters and eager players. The display was eventually perfect, without graphical glitches of any sort.



Sadly, it was getting late and we all headed home. 

But I almost need to pinch myself, it's like a dream! Robotron is alive!

I still haven't hooked up the sound, coin door, joysticks and buttons. I'm not sure if I can wait a whole week. Even while writing this, I feel the urge to just spend the night in the game room and get everything sorted.

I will eventually replace the five faulty RAM sockets, but I just need to play some rounds of Robotron first. Not only for myself, but I almost feel like I owe it to the other guys. They have accepted the presence of this lifeless, ancient beast in our game room all these years, and it's time they get to see what it's all about.