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ARRGH! Battlezone is Dead! — Parallax Forums

ARRGH! Battlezone is Dead!

ercoerco Posts: 20,259
edited 2012-12-14 08:59 in General Discussion
My Atari Battlezone arcade game, a prized showpiece of my man cave, started malfunctioning todayfor the first time. Won't play: fires up, then locks up, likely a PS issue. Been reliable as heck for years. Now, just a day before my Christmas party it gives up the ghost. Probably not a difficult fix. I have the manuals, but I won't be able to get to it (making time & moving it & furniture for rear panel access) until after Christmas. What a party pooper.

It's always something. One more thing added to my lengthy "to-do" list. GRRRR!

I'm hoping my 1977 all-mechanical Gottleib pinball game hangs in there for the party. It will get lots of extra use since BZ is dead for now.

Comments

  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2012-12-13 09:10
    I wasted a fair number of quarters in my local arcade's Battlezone game in the mid-80's.
  • doggiedocdoggiedoc Posts: 2,245
    edited 2012-12-13 09:19
    Awe man! Battlezone ranks very high on my all time favorite arcade game list. Like Martin said, there's no telling how much $$ I poured in to that game in the 80s!

    Sorry to hear yours went belly up. Any chance of diagnosis and repair?

    Paul
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-12-13 10:05
    Oh yeah, I'll get her working after the party.

    That BZ game ranks high on my favorite possessions and acquisitions list. In the time before the Internet (20+ years ago) there were "classified ads" in the newspaper. Yes, printed on paper, how quaint!

    This working BZ game was advertised for $150. When I went to see it, the seller said, "DOH, it WAS working perfectly when you called, but I since moved it out to the garage, and half the screen went dead. Literally, the left side of the screen was perfect and there was nothing on the right. Thus I got a half-working machine at half price, $75. :):):)

    I found a small crack in one of the fiberglass PCBs and a copper trace was broken. One solder blob later, the machine worked perfectly, until now. It will live again. I'm never getting rid of it. They will bury me with my Corvair and Battlezone game.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2012-12-13 10:24
    Hey Erco, I had one of those when I was a teenager. Left it behind when I left home and my parents eventually had it hauled off :-(
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-12-13 10:35
    localroger wrote: »
    Hey Erco, I had one of those when I was a teenager. Left it behind when I left home and my parents eventually had it hauled off :-(

    Your woeful tale just ruined my Christmas. :(:(:(

    Not 'cuz you lost it, but 'cuz whoever hauled it off for free got a better deal than I did! :)
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2012-12-13 14:15
    just a shot-in-the-dark, but did you refresh the EPROMs or are they still on their original writing?
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-12-13 18:29
    I've not replace them, but there's a POST mode which says there is a bad memory chip in slot #10.
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2012-12-13 19:35
    erco wrote: »
    I've not replace them, but there's a POST mode which says there is a bad memory chip in slot #10.

    A quick search mentions that game uses 2114 SRAM chips. Are they in sockets and can you reseat them? If you swap them around does the error clear up or move? Is the error follows the chip then it is probably bad. If the error is the same then it may be some of the decoding logic, etc.

    I looked in my parts bin and I have a few in case it is bad and you need one. If you really want to keep it as original as possible I have a few versions (Intel, Signetics, Motorola, and National)

    Robert
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-12-14 07:22
    Thanks for all the help, Robert & Martin! I didn't expect that, I was just blowing off a little steam. Never heard of bit rot before, Martin. And if I pin it down to a bad 2114 chip (I hadn't even looked that up!) I may take you up.on your offer, Martin. Thanks again and Merry Christmas!
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-12-14 08:59
    I like this guy, even though he bought his "Joust" video game for less than I paid for my BZ. He's a biker and video game repair guy. What's not to lycra?

    http://www.arcadesolution.com/joustnd.html
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