Space Fury Troubleshooting

And someday, I will learn not to work on games late at night.

I found the -real- U30 on the XY control board (socketed), replaced it,
and...screwed up when reconnecting the two molexes to the XY pair. I
don't know if I transposed them, put them backward, or both. And of
course I powered it on this way.

Once I fixed that mistake ,the game comes up but the vectors are now
worse than ever. I've replaced all the rams on the XY control board
now and it's still very screwed.

This has to be a common mistake...hopefully there's a common and simple fix?
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No that will be bad video RAM on the Vector board, there are 8 x 2114 rams
on there. It is one of the boards that is joined with a small ribbon cable
"Derek Stutsman" <derekstutsman.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:2006030602031475249-derekstutsman@gmailcom...
> Update...
>
> I found the "test" plunger on the CPU and boy do I feel like a chump. As
> soon as I pressed it, I got (clear as day)
>
> BAD VIDEO RAM CHIP AT U 30.
>
> I'm assuming this is the U30 on the CPU board...looks like a 74LS138?
>
> Before I go replacing this non-socketed part, are there any secondary
> failures that can cause false RAM errors on these pigs?
>
> Thanks!
>
> D
>
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Check the cable that connects the vector timing board to the vector control
board, it's very easy to get a pin bent under when connecting the boards
back together
"Derek Stutsman" <derekstutsman.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:2006030602515650073-derekstutsman@gmailcom...
> And someday, I will learn not to work on games late at night.
>
> I found the -real- U30 on the XY control board (socketed), replaced it,
> and...screwed up when reconnecting the two molexes to the XY pair. I
> don't know if I transposed them, put them backward, or both. And of
> course I powered it on this way.
>
> Once I fixed that mistake ,the game comes up but the vectors are now worse
> than ever. I've replaced all the rams on the XY control board now and
> it's still very screwed.
>
> This has to be a common mistake...hopefully there's a common and simple
> fix?
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Space Fury Troubleshooting 

I actually didn't disconnect that ribbon cable, but thanks for the suggestion.

I hurt something on there real bad.
 >> Stay informed about: Space Fury Troubleshooting 

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your input!

The good news is, things are improving. It's amazing what a difference
a night's sleep makes...

I found that the ribbon between the two boards had a soldered-on jumper
wire repair, and it had broken loose last night.

I reattached the wire and...YEAH! Space Fury!

I only have two problems now:

1. The white square in the self test is slanted/twisted off the screen
- not sure how to fix XLIN/YLIN issues on this setup.

2. As it plays for a while, the character set starts getting messed
up. That is, letters start to move up vertically compared to other
letters, or they will disappear entirely. For example, all the letter
Es were located an inch too high. This does not appear to be a
heat-related issue, as resetting the game clears it up immediately.

Thanks for your suggestions and input!

D
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I have all the boards,monitors and parts from two Space Fury's that I parted
if you find you need anything else for your project.

Scott
(Maryland)

"Derek Stutsman" <derekstutsman.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:2006030600375516807-derekstutsman@gmailcom...
> I'm making some progress on my Space Fury project...
>
> I got a nice working G08 this weekend and installed it. I was delighted
> to see the game come up and display a picture!
>
> Kinda.
>
> The text is all fine, and *most* of the vectors are fine, but there is
> also random "lightning" shooting around everywhere.
>
> For example, when the alien's head is being displayed, his facial features
> are all perfect, but the outside outline is missing and instead shoots
> randomly around.
>
> I'll have to take some pics of this, but are there any
> troubleshooting/diagnostics steps for these boards?
>
> It would be great if I just had a bad ram, or something...
>
> D
>
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