Last updated: July 2, 2002: Joust 2 progress
updated
Joust 2 (Williams,
1986)
(Page 2)
Cleaning and Repair
(or,
I learn component-level electronics stuff)
I am of course still in the
process of doing all this. More accurately, my co-worker is in
the process of
doing all this, while I occasionally stop by to watch and take notes.
Here's
the story so far: We got the game home and powered it up. The speakers
made
a terrible ground-hum sound, while the screen flickered in a white bar
pattern
off to the right side of the screen. We checked the voltages coming out
of
the power supply, and discovered the 5v feed to the logic board was
only
pulling 2.6v, but would pull the full 5v with the logic board
disconnected.
Many of the ICs had silver leads which had tarnished over time, so we
surmised
this was causing the board to pull more power than the power supply
could
give. Cleaning up the ICs using Tarnix, then replacing the sockets
helped
greatly, and we were able (with the help of a second power supply) able
to
get the game playing.
After I got the game home I started playing around
with
a few of the connectors and found two things: 1. Not all the wires were
in
the connectors properly and 2. Never, ever, bridge 2 contacts by
accident
with a multi-meter probe when the power is turned on. Ended up frying
part
of the power supply, so I bought a Joust adapter for a switching power
supply
from Bob Roberts, plugged it in and got it going again. The loose
connectors
were fun too. Bought a crimping tool (Bob Roberts again) and set about
to
re-do the offending wires. Once I puzzled out how to work the crimper,
it
wasn't hard at all and the game was up and running again within a
couple
of hours.
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