Re: Tempest vector distortion

Really? They shipped the game with that error in the attract sequence? Or
does it only happen on monitors that are marginal?

I did notice what I thought was an odd EPROM configuration. There are only
3 EPROMs on the board. 2 are over by themselves, away from the CPU. Then
there is an EPROM in a socket near the CPU with some wires running from it
to various points on the board, and written on the label it says something
like "Tempest 256K ROM". Is this a known hack to put most of the game in
a single ROM? Should I just burn a new set of ROMs of the final version of
the code?

I'll get video of the curved vector lines and also of the EPROMs on
the board and post them. Probably sometime tomorrow.

___
Ken

On 08/09/11 15:30, Malcolm Mackenzie wrote:
> The foldover at the end of the attract sequence is a code error in early
> revisions of the game.
>
> The faint lines you're seeing are indeed retrace lines. Adjusting the brightness
> should fix that. If not, you may have a problem in the z amp section of the
> monitor or board.
>
> The curving lines are a bit of a mystery...
>
> --- On *Tue, 8/9/11, Ken Sumrall /<k_lists@scrapheap.net>/* wrote:
>
>
> From: Ken Sumrall <k_lists@scrapheap.net>
> Subject: VECTOR: Tempest vector distortion
> To: "vectorlist@vectorlist.org" <vectorlist@vectorlist.org>
> Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 3:14 PM
>
> Hello,
>
> We have a small arcade at work, and I recently got the cabaret Tempest machine
> there to work again. Basically I just pulled the logic board and reseated all
> the socketed chips and the interboard connector cable.
>
> It now comes up, stays up, and shaking the cabinet doesn't cause the game to
> crash. However, I'm seeing some vector distortion. When it displays the
> TEMPEST logo in the attract mode mode, near the end of the animation, the
> vectors foldover, and then (mostly) return to normal. You can see a video
> of it here:
>
> http://www.scrapheap.net/tempest/
>
> Also, on some levels (in particular, the one I call the staircase level)
> straight lines get drawn with a definite curve in them, and the screen tends
> to pulsate a bit with the size of the image growing larger and smaller. My
> first reaction is I need to work on the monitor, but then I thought maybe I
> need to adjust the X and Y size and position pots on the logic board.
>
> I also see some faint lines which I assume are the beam location being moved
> with the beam turned off. I assume I fix this by adjusting the screen
> brightness.
>
> Suggestions anyone?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!
>
> ___
> Ken
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Received on Tue Aug 9 18:53:55 2011