Joomla! site syndication http://arcaderescue.com 2010-09-06T07:12:16+01:00 http://arcaderescue.com http://arcaderescue.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2007-09-02T22:00:41+01:00 http://arcaderescue.com http://arcaderescue.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=9 ProblemDead as a doornail. No garbage, no sound.Purchased a Punch-Out in dead condition. Got it home, still dead. Rocking the game and/or whacking the sides a bit got a brief flash of light on it so I went in and reconnected all connectors. Game then came up right after that.A little adjustment to the micro-switch arms and the game is playing nicely. Still need to rebuild the joystick as it is stiff and sticks a bit. That one is going to be fun... Anyone have any information on rebuilding Nintendo-style joysticks? I would love to hear about it!SolutionRe-tighten/reattach all (power?) connectors text/html 2007-05-22T20:00:00+01:00 http://arcaderescue.com http://arcaderescue.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=9 ProblemStiff spinning steering modules and hard shifting between gears(Quick little story - while bringing this beast into its location by myself, I fell and got pinned under it for a few minutes. It is amazing how much having your chest compressed affects your ability to call out for help!)OK - onto the next issue… Its steering wheels were pretty stiff, and if you tried to give them a good hard spin they would come to a halt within a couple of turns. Removing and disassembling them was easy. Turns out the problem was that the old grease in them had coagulated/thickened so that it was less viscous and more sticky than cold honey! Getting the grease out of the barrel and off the shaft and sleeves literally took ~10 minutes (for each module) with some rubbing alcohol, elbow grease and rags. After getting that old gunk out, a quick application of some light lithium grease on everything solves that problem - the wheels will now spin for at least 10 turns easily.For the shifter modules, I just applied some powered graphite to the shifter “ball” at the opening of the shifter and after a few shifts to get it all around; the shifts are much easier now. SolutionCleaned and lubricated the steering modules, lubricated the shifter modules. NotesOne of the steering modules has a broken shaft/cone, which caused the wheel to be off-center, and it was being held in place strictly by the force of the retaining bolt that goes through the entire assembly. I managed to get it a bit straighter than it was before, but it still is broken internally. Not sure if I want to go through sanding down the two halves to try to get them melded or epoxied together - I am afraid of shortening the cone too much and causing problems. The wheel works and the game is playable, so I might just leave it as it is. text/html 2007-09-02T21:57:15+01:00 http://arcaderescue.com http://arcaderescue.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=9 ProblemStatic garbage on screen.Purchased a Sprint 2 in non-working condition Saw a picture of it, monitor worked - it showing what appeared to be static garbage on it. Got it home and confirmed that yes, it is showing static garbage (first image below). Turning it off for a couple of seconds and then back on again keeps pretty much the same garbage display, but sometimes gets some sounds out of it (engine and/or screeching sounds). Moving the self-test switch does nothing First suspect that CPU is not running, because the screen is static (i.e. not changing while the game is on).After checking the usual suspects (voltages, loose wires, harness/wire burns because this is an older Atari game…), I yank the CPU to see if I get the same results (to narrow it down to the CPU). This causes a different effect, a screen filled with a single character and I get sound, so I presume for now that the CPU is working and the problem lies elsewhere. Doing some research, I find that the game will not come out of reset if any of the coin switches are stuck Opening the coin door, I see that one of the switches is disconnected completely (broken QD connectors). It has connectors for all three switch connectors (Common, NO, and NC), so I put new QD connectors on them and reconnect but this does not change anything.Sticking with the coin switch issue, I try tripping each switch manually and discover that one of the coin switches’ arm wire is bent such that it never springs back high enough to open the switch Pushing the wire up by hand I hear the click of the switch and she came right up! All controls work and all expected images sounds are there. The steering is a bit stiff of both sides - if you spin the wheels (hard) they come to a stop pretty quickly, within 2 full revolutions. I guess I might have to crack open up one of the steering modules to see what’s what.SolutionStuck coin switch was causing the game to stay stuck in reset.UpdatesAfter some additional work on the cabinet, I reattached the filter board and started to see some strange effects. Cars would get horizontal streaks on them which other cars could crash into like obstacles. I thought I had messed up the cabinet wiring (ground issue). Took a few days to realize that the EMI filter board was the culprit. It is not attached right now - maybe I will fix it later.