2 Arkanoid questions

Hi guys, picked up a Tournament Arkanoid today. First of all it had the dreaded IO Error on startup, but the coin switch had internally collapsed, so just removing that switch fixed it.

Next I noticed the spinner encoder wheel was broken, but it wasn't a big deal, I just downloaded that spinner printer and made one up, printed on a transparency and now it's perfect.

Thirdly, there were GFX errors and audio errors.. reseated all the ROMs and that seemed to get rid of it.. then it came back. Upon some inspection there was a 1K resistor that was chipped and reading as about 462 Ohm, so I replaced that.. now everything seems good!

My questions:

-Could replacing that resistor really fix everything? The resistor was located on one of the feet of the volume control.
-The monitor has "jail bars" I think its called.. a few diagonal lines that are only visible with black, and they don't move. Is this correctable at all by adjusting the monitor controls?
-The monitor also has a "tail" I think its called (again), at the right side of the screen it curls up. fixable?

Nice cab, where you get it at?

Picked it up at a flea. Check my site below for more info. No pictures yet, though.

Definatly needs a cap-kit, that'll take the jailbars and the curl out of it.

The tail you refer to is a common monitor issue, my arkanoid has it too, because of it's age, sometimes it drifts way up or down and needs an adjustment to get it looking right again.

I'm pretty proficient with basic electronics repair but the whole cap kit idea scares me, what with the tons of voltage and stuff in the monitor. I'd almost rather suffer with the barely-noticeable jailbars and nearly-off-playfield curling than risk breaking the monitor or myself. Once the monitor is gone it's a huuuge hassle.

On another note, anyone want to trade their Arkanoid pcb for my Tournament Arkanoid? Its too hard for my house (we're at university here) and as I recall regular Arkanoid is a lot easier.

After you get used to the speed it's golden.

but i remember as soon as i got mine i played it for a solid 2 weeks before getting good at Arkanoid.

chalanging game

The Webmiester said:

I'm pretty proficient with basic electronics repair but the whole cap kit idea scares me, what with the tons of voltage and stuff in the monitor. I'd almost rather suffer with the barely-noticeable jailbars and nearly-off-playfield curling than risk breaking the monitor or myself. Once the monitor is gone it's a huuuge hassle.

On another note, anyone want to trade their Arkanoid pcb for my Tournament Arkanoid? Its too hard for my house (we're at university here) and as I recall regular Arkanoid is a lot easier.

Click to expand...

Hey Webmiester, I just did my first cap kit the other day and it was a lot easier than I thought it was. I'm used to the ol' soldering iron, but this was the first time soldering caps for me. The most important part when working with the monitor is, of course, discharging the flyback transformer. Do a little search for the procedure on google. Also, I recommend washing the chassis in the sink if it's really dirty when you disconnect it from the tube. I don't do any scrubbing, just rinse it off thoroughly and then let it dry in the sun for a couple of hours. Just make sure it's dry when you plug it back in. Believe me, if you can solder in a little resistor, you'll be fine with capacitors.

thanks Gunbu,

I just ordered a cap kit from lizardlick, I think I'm going to attempt it.

PS have you guys used lizardlick much? I ordered from them because they helped so much with the GO7 documents they have 'hidden' on the site. Also shipping up here (ontario) was only $3, ie REAL shipping cost (in an envelope). props to them.