This boardset is strong with the Dark Side of the Force... :/

        Still trying to sort out this flippin' STAR WARS board...

Symptoms:

        Objects such as the TIE Fighters and fireballs are deformed --
"vertically squished" is the best description I can think of. This only
happens when they are "distant"; as they get "closer" (i.e. scaled up
larger), they straighten out.

        The start and endpoints of the Death Star and the circular explosion
rings do not join up into a circle. Also, on the Death Star, the detailed
features (such as the weapon dish, "equator" band, and so on) are shifted
about a half-inch to the right of the circle. This, too, straightens out
as the object zooms in closer. The "straightening" isn't a smooth, linear
effect, though; there's a visible "snap" that occurs.

        During the self-test mode, the Linear Scaling test is smooth; the box
scales from large to tiny with no visible deformation. In the Linear +
Binary Scaling test, though, the box exhibits increasing deformation during
the last three steps of the test (i.e. when the box is the smallest, which
is at least consistent with the gameplay observations).

What has been done so far:

        The BIP, LIN, SIZE, and CENTER pots have all been adjusted until the
self-test patterns are as good as they're going to get. (Which is actualy
pretty good, but since this cabinet has a WG19K6102 in it instead of an
Ampliphone, one probably can't expect perfection here. :) )

        Initially, I was getting Mathbox errors in the divider section, as
follows:

DIVIDER ERRORS:
NNNN FFFF 4000 4000 4000 4018
NNNN FFFN 5555 4000 5555 555F
NNNN FFNF 2AAA 4000 2AAA 2ABF
NNNN FFNN 2AAA 2AAA 4000 4024
NNNN FNFF 5555 5555 4000 4006

NO MATRIX ERRORS

        After replacing... well, most of the chips in the divider section,
really, one at a time until the errors went away, I no longer have Mathbox
errors -- but I still have deformed objects.

        Someone suggested that the Mathbox PROMs might be to blame, but
wouldn't that cause Matrix errors? Or is the Matrix test not that
comprehensive? Is there anything else anyone can think of to try _other_
than the PROMs? (I don't currently have a programmer, so testing the PROMs
would present certain difficulties...)

        If the PROMs _are_ the most likely suspect, then what model of
PROM/EPROM programmer do you guys recommend? (I need to persuade the
powers-that-be to get me a programmer for the lab anyway, so I may as well
get one that can handle mathbox PROMs and such as well as game EPROMs...)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In ancient times, they believed that there were only four kinds of matter:
Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Nowadays, of course, we know that there are
actually four states of matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas, and Plasma. Thank God
for progress!" ---(Kelvin Throop III)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
solarfox@DON'TMESSWITHtexas.net (Gary Akins jr.)
http://lonestar.texas.net/~solarfox
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Received on Thu Nov 27 00:21:10 2003