Follow up to RE: Any Cliff Hanger experts?

Okay, a *brief* summary of what I found (in the interest of sharing
information):

(1) The newer NTSC card I was using is different that what was
originally released for DL. These are newer cards that until recently,
Wells Gardner was still producing. The output is negative sync and in
theory if you hook it up after creating a short inverter circuit, it
should work. I found a better solution (below) so I moved on.

(2) The original NTSC card that I had (with snipped wires) does have its
own iso transformer, and can be plugged in to the AC line right where
the monitor plugs in. My card would not do color, just mono and it
wasn't the color burst crystal. I needed to find a replacement.

(3) You can use the original DL Electrohome version of the NTSC card.
The great news here is (a) the output is positive composite sync, which
you need as input to the VMB card and (b) even though power in is
supposed to be 16V, I had no problem getting it to work off the 12V
line.

(4) Very important: I could not figure out why I could pump in the
output from the NTSC card into the monitor and it would work. Then, when
I connected to the VMB, I'd never get picture from the player. The
reason is the pot on the GSI board. I suspect that by adjusting that,
you're adjusting the potential difference between the video signals from
the GSI and the NTSC card. This is probably how the VMB knows which
signal to select to feed into the monitor. (I didn't care to really
examine the circuit to confirm this but it wouldn't surprise me if that
is why it works). So, if you are not getting any video from the player
(but sound), try to adjust the GSI control.

So the good news is that I have a functional Cliff Hanger ... (and
almost enough parts for a second). It was a bit frustrating because we
seem to be missing some schematics -- most importantly the ones for the
original NTSC card that was in the cabinet. Thanks for people that
offered help. I've been working on and off for a year to get this up and
running :)

--James Bright
www.QuarterArcade.com
Restored Arcade Games for your Home

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-techtoolslist@flippers.com [mailto:owner-
> techtoolslist@flippers.com] On Behalf Of James Bright
> Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 9:46 PM
> To: TechToolsList@flippers.com
> Subject: Any Cliff Hanger experts?
>
>
> Yes, I'm a laser guy. Purely for my collection. I've got a few neat
> laser games ... besides my son likes them.
>
> I'm having an issue with getting my Cliff Hanger finished.
>
> Has anyone tried using a different NTSC card inside of the card that
> came with the game? I am attempting to use a WG card... this card
would
> work in a DL game for example and it is what we used to install in our
> games that we retailed (they're not made any more). I already found
that
> it outputs neg sync and the VMB expects pos sync (no big deal, I can
fix
> that with an inverter). I'm getting horribly distorted pictures from
the
> player/NTSC, while the direct output from the GSI is fine. If I run
the
> player/NTSC directly to the monitor, it looks great as well so I do
know
> that the NTSC card actually works. Worse case I could use that and
> ignore the added graphics. Being the "purist" (snob) I am, I'd really
> like to get it working 100%.
>
> The card that came with the game has two problems. One, wires were cut
> so I'm not 100% sure what goes where. The best schema I have is hand
> written and has a wire that I'm not sure about (just labeled "B" and
was
> hard wired to a Sanyo? Monitor for blanking...). Two, I don't even
know
> if it is working. Aside from the "B" line, I hooked it up how I
thought
> it would work but I didn't get anything. I'm going to play around with
> it a little more but I would think that any old NTSC should work. It
> looks like the output signal is just not strong enough to drive the
VMB
> and so it looks very bad
>
> --James Bright
> www.QuarterArcade.com
> Restored Arcade Games for your Home
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Mar 23 21:41:39 2004