Re: Tempest troubleshooting

Hi Jess,

Thanks for the reply.

I ended up pulling out the boards, then reseating the proms on the
mathbox. I plugged it back in, and the game works. For now. I didn't
run it long enough to see if that was a 'permanent' solution or not.

If the problem comes back, I'll check into the information you gave me
below.

Thanks!
Joel-

Jess Askey wrote:
>
> Joel Rosenzweig wrote:
> >
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > My Tempest just developed a problem that I've never come across before,
> > so I was hoping that somone here might have some more insight into it.
> >
> > In attract mode, the "Game Over" text now appears 4 times larger than
> > normal, and it shows up in the wrong location on screen. It flits
> > between where it's supposed to be up top, and the middle of the screen.
> > Some of the other text, is doing this to, but I forget which phrases
> > they are. The high score table is not affected.
> >
> > If I coin up the game, the game plays and displays perfectly.
> >
> > Self test reveals no errors or problems.
> >
> > As soon as the game goes back into attract mode, I get this crazy text
> > problem. When the machine is in self test, I also have the text problem
> > with the game difficulty setting and number of ships per game.
> >
> > Because the game works correctly in game mode, it seems that I can rule
> > out the possibility of a faulty analog output stage. Seems more like a
> > digital problem. As I said, everthing checks out in self test, so if
> > you can believe that information, then the mathbox is OK, and the game
> > code is good, and the rams are good. Aiyee.. still seems like a ram
> > problem to me, but I'd like to believe the self test knows what it's
> > doing!!
> >
> > Anyone have some ideas of what I might be looking for?
> >
> > Thanks for any input. I'll have to check Nick's Tempest troubleshooting
> > page next, but I don't remember reading anything about this type of
> > problem there, but it's been a while.
> >
> > Joel-
>
> Sounds like something with the Scaling circuitry. If the scaling is
> screwed up at one particular setting (in this case the scale commonly
> used by the text), then the invisible line that is drawn from the center
> to the point where the text will start will also be proportionally
> wrong.
> So. If your "game over" text normally would appear like this..
>
> ______________________
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | | "c" denotes center of screen
> | c |
> | |
> | Game Over |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> |_____________________|
>
> Now if the problem is indeed in the Scaling circuit you would get a
> screen that looked like this.
>
> ______________________
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | | "c" denotes center of screen
> | c |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | GAME OVER |
> |_____________________| Where the distance from "c" to the
> "g" (in game over) is proportional to the size of the "game over" text.
>
> I would check the IC at location K8 (LS175) and L8 (LS191).
> jess
>
> --
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Received on Thu Dec 11 13:40:44 1997