Selling some games

I'm downsizing my collection a bit. Partly because I realize that I've been a hoarder and I will never have the time to restore it all, but also because the games take up a lot of space.
So far this year I have gotten rid of:

• Judge Dredd:
  Sold (cheap) to a friend, who fixed the front with new wood and a decal. It's up and running now, and it looks great.
• Robotron 2084 (US version):
  After I got the UK version I realized that I don't need two Robotrons. And this one needed a lot of work. I sold it to a friend who is currently restoring it. I'm looking forward to playing it, hopefully at his annual retro party in January.
• Star Wars Trilogy:
  Although I'm a Star Wars fan, the music in this one felt a bit too repetitive. And I need to downscale my pinball collection. I still feel a bit sad to let this go, but I sold it on the open market.
• Super Offroad:
  A game that I would love to keep, but I just have too many. I sold it to a friend who is already restoring it. He always does a great job, so I'm really looking forward to seeing the result.
• Turbo:
  I gave this to the same friend who got the Super Offroad. This one was actually converted to Pole Position, but I purchased all of the needed parts from The Arcade Boneyard. I hope it can be brought back to life.
• Foosball:
  I gave this away, after realizing it just took up way too much space. I'll just buy another one when I get a bigger house. They don't cost much.
  

A very short road trip, with a great outcome!

As the title says, I've been on a very short road trip, but the outcome was great! I've picked up several classic cabinets just minutes from home!
But first, let me take you to the beginning of this story. It actually started some years ago. It was common knowledge in the pinball community in my town that an ex operator had some old arcade cabinets stored in his garage. Luckily the pinball fans are just that: pinball fans. They were not very interested in these video games, and so the games stayed untouched for years.

Continue reading »

Replacing robotron sockets

While I was repairing my Terminator 2, a friend helped me remove faulty ram sockets from my Robotron. The battery had leaked all over them, and they need to be replaced.

When all of them have been removed, 5 in total, I will clean the area with vinegar and alcohol, and hopefully Robotron will be as good as new!

New highscore!

I achieved a new personal high score playing Robotron yesterday. First I got 88175, and minutes later I achieved 88375!

I'll admit that I spent about 30 credits, with very variable results..

Playing!

Nothing much to say, as I have been too busy playing Robotron!

My highest score so far is 73,375. Ridiculously much, I know. But given time and the proper training, you too can achieve such a magnificent score. ;-)

I connected the sound board's -12V input to the switcher's -5V, and the sound worked perfectly.

Now I need to hook up the coin door and its control panel, and also to tidy up the rest of the wiring. It's all a bit messy at the moment..

 

Playing Robotron

Just a quick update, as I couldn't stay away from the game room..

The Robotron cabinet was JAMMAtized and the control panel butchered when I bought it. I decided to hook up the existing joysticks to have a go at the game, just temporarily. 

Everything is working fine! It was a great (albeit difficult, I'll admit) experience to finally play some Robotron after all these years.

There were a couple of things which left me wondering, though. I'm quite sure I marked 1P START and 2P START correctly, but pressing the 1P button started the two player mode Maybe there was a misprint in the manual?

Also, 4 of the orange wires in the controls harness didn't lead to anything at all. I wonder if they are supposed to be extra ground wires, but they weren't connected to GND. I'll have a closer look next week.

The sound is still not working, as I haven't connected the wires to the PSU.

Tidying up the wires

I've been working too much lately, and game room day was sadly no exception. I had planned to work a lot on Robotron, but the phone kept ringing.

I ripped out the old JAMMA harness and connected the speaker to the boards. However, I didn't hear any sounds. Maybe because I didn't connect the -12V (which I will need to connect to -5V, as I am using a switcher without -12V).

Shorting the center coin pin gave me credits!

I started extending the wires for the controls, but I didn't have time to hook up the actual joysticks. However, shorting the cables let me start a game!

It's tearing me up that I need to work the coming evenings. I would love to start playing, but now I have to wait until next week.

New Robotron sticks

Larry sent me a pair of joysticks for Robotron, perfect timing! 

I already had standard length shafts from an earlier deal, but these will make it.. well.. perfect!

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.

More Robotron problems

I've had a long Christmas holiday, and as we had visitors, arcade related activites had to wait.

I was eager to get back into the game room, and especially to test Robotron with the newly acquired 4164 ram chips. I inserted them just before the holiday, but I still got an error on chip 3 in bank 2. A couple of days later, I realized I should have measured the voltages on the pins of that particular chip, but Christmas came and went before I had the chance,

While measuring, the 1-2-3 error suddenly went away, and the graphics on the monitor changed dramatically. Everything from a uniform light purple color to what looked like changing graphics/logos with heavy disturbances. I can't say that I recognized the Robotron graphics, but it was still nice to see something else for a change.

I turned off the cabinet and turned it back on, and disaster struck! The  numerical error display was suddenly just flashing, not really displaying anything else than a 0. The monitor went back to the pre-boot garbage, but with some extra disturbances added.

What worries me is that the 1-2-3 display comes back if I press lightly on any of the ram chips in the lower right corner.

Video (sorry about the terrible quality):

You may not see it, but the display changes back to 1-2-3 when I press the ram chips lightly. The monitor picture is not as bad as it looks. The diagonal lines aren't there, and it's basically more or less the same garbage as Robotron has before it starts. 

I am desperately trying to find the source of this error, but I don't really know where to start. It looks like there is a bad contact somewhere, but it's difficult to pin-point it.

Any hints or tips will be greatly appreciated.

Robotron garbage

Wednesday is game room night, and I had some time to continue work on the Robotron. Hooking up the monitor gave me only garbage, but at least the picture was changing. Now and then something wiped horizontally, to what looked like a different screen.

Testing the old 4116 ram was a pain. I started swapping chips from bank 1 to bank 3, and the error messages went something like this:

1-3-2

1-3-3

1-3-4

1-3-5

1-3-7

1-3-8

1-3-7

1-3-8

1-3-8

1-3-8

1-3-1

1-3-8

That is, whenever I replaced a chip, the next in line was broken. And even after replacing some (like 1 and 8) with chips which seemed ok for a moment, it gave an error when replacing a chip in a different location.

I decided that 4116s are indeed troublesome, and ordered a batch of 4164s today.

I wonder if the garbage on the monitor is caused only by the ram error, or if there's more to this. Booting Robotron in MAME actually gives exactly the same garbage pattern, but only for two seconds or so. After that it continues with diagnostics.

I am slightly worried, but mostly excited.

Robotron RAM update

I tried swapping chip 1 and 2 in RAM bank 3, and that gave me an 1-3-2 error.
Good news, the chip is actually broken!
I think I'll just buy 4116s, to make it as easy on myself as possible.

Robotron RAM error

I finally fired up Robotron yesterday. The US wiring harness I have was modified to use an AT/ATX power supply, so I connected it to a switching arcade psu.

I still haven't gotten around to hooking up the monitor or joysticks, but the Robotron boards luckily have a little display to indicate errors.

It didn't light up immediately on the first attempt, but after a couple of seconds it blinked 1-3-1 repeatedly. After that initial boot, it showed 1-3-1 almost instantly after turning on the power.

The manual says that 1 means RAM failure, and the two next numbers indicate which bank and chip has the problem. From what I could tell, this means that the chip in the upper left corner of this picture is the faulty one:

The manual says to check for normal voltages on the chip: -5V/pin 1, +12V/pin 8, +5V pin 9. They were all correct in my case, and I'm not exactly sure what that means. The manual doesn't really explain if wrong values means a bad chip, or if it indicates a different problem altogether.

I'm hoping for the last one, meaning that I should just replace the RAM chip. I tried reseating it, but that didn't help. I guess the next step would be switching it with another chip in the same bank, and see if the error message remains the same, but I didn't think of that yesterday.

It may be pretty obvious from my postings, but I'm not very familiar with troubleshooting and modifying arcade PCBs. As far as I can tell these ram chips are 4116, and they seem to be somewhat rare nowadays, but I found them online.

I also found an article describing how to replace them with 4164 DRAM, but I'm not sure if I'll go that route. Any tips?

Robotron wiring continued

Once again I got some help from Larry, who has restored many a Robotron cab.

[...] The best way to do this is to leave all the original PS equipment in the cab. Tap the AC for the Switching PS from the AC wiring going to the monitor. This way the Switching PS will go on and off with the cabinet power switch. [...] Leave the power for the coin door lights connected to the original linear power pcb also. 

You'll also want to tie the GND pin in the DC section of the Switching PS to one of the existing Ground wires in the cabinet otherwise the controls won't work (need to share a common ground). 

I'm hoping I will have time to test it this weekend. 

Robotron boards and wiring

Wednesday is gameroom day, and four of us showed up. I checked the almost finished Turtles overlay, but I focused mainly on the Robotron. I attached the boards to the new mounting plates from Larry, and everything fits perfectly in my cab!

I had more trouble getting the wiring right. All I had to help me was a black and white print of the manual, downloaded from Robotron-2084.co.uk. The big pcb was easy enough, but finding the right connectors for the smaller pcb proved quite a job. I decided to let it rest, and Google for some hires colour pictures later.

That brought me to this great resource. I have colour printed all their pictures, so I think I'm more ready for the wiring at this point.

As you may remember from an earlier post, I bought the wiring harness off eBay some time ago. The power supplies were removed to save shipping costs, but the seller was very helpful and took some pictures of the wiring before cutting.

I'm quite confident that I can connect it all back together again, but I'm a bit confused as to what part the old (original) power supply will play in all of this. My cab has been fitted with a newer style switching psu, so I will try to use that one first.

Progress is slow, but that's just me sticking to the blog theme. Or so I tell myself.

(Not so) shocking news!

For a long time, I thought my Robotron cab was something special. It didn't look like the US version with all silver sides, and it sure didn't look like the UK Robotrons.

Still, there was this feeling in the back of my head that everything wasn't like it was supposed to. And now I got it confirmed. My cab is indeed a standard US model, and the operator has just sprayed the sides black!

He even took the time to mask out the areas which he wanted to keep (2084), but there are traces of his somewhat sloppy job all over the cabinet.

I started removing some of the black paint on the sides, and found the common silver underneath.

I guess that means I will strip the whole cabinet and repaint it, with stencils and all. But how glossy are the black parts supposed to be? And what is the colour code of the silver?

I guess I'll get to that later. First of all, I want to get this baby up and running!

Robotron parts have arrived!

Things were starting to look sad for my Robotron. It's not easy finding classic dedicated cabs in Norway, so I just had to buy it when I found it three years ago. However, it was really beaten up! The butchered control panel has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, and all the boards and wiring are long gone. It had been fitted with a bootleg Street Fighter 2 and Jammatized.

The Robotron's condition hasn't changed much since then. I got a complete board set with wiring harness last year, but it turned out the mounting plates were wrong. The ones I got were evidently made for the smaller UK model, not the US one that I got.

I started checking resellers for parts, but I soon found out that buying from separate dealers would become very expensive. Especially the shipping, and some wouldn't even ship outside the States. Having just bought a US wiring harness off eBay for more money than many would spend on an entire cab, I started whining about it on the Klov forums. 

Larry to the rescue! He volunteered to collect all the parts I needed, pack them up and ship them to me. That way, I not only saved a fortune on shipping, but I could even order things not available to international customers. To top it all off, Larry had a control panel, NOS buttons and US mounting plates for sale at a very fair price. When this Robotron restoration is finally over, I owe a lot to him. So thank you again Larry! The world needs more people like you.

The parts arrived last week, and it was like my birthday and Christmas combined!

A much better control panel from Larry

Two new joysticks (I just need to get the longer shafts)

NOS buttons

Larry even threw in a very nice keychain!

Great CPO

New plexiglass bezel

One of two mounting plates - they fit my cab perfectly!

I guess I don't have an excuse anymore. I really want to see the Robotron up and playing!