Altered Beast arcade PCB problem.

M

Mishran

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Been a while since I posted on here, but I got a problem I was hoping someone could help me with. Have had the system 16 board for almost two years now. Worked fine when I got it, but now its giving me distorted sprites. Sound, fonts, static objects, and backgrounds work just fine. I tried pulling and reseating the ROM chips, but gives me the same problem.




I have no way to do any real tests other than visual inspection and multimeter tests. I'm likely in the minority, but I love playing Altered Beast. Any suggestions on what I can try? Thanks in advance guys!
 
Fox1

Fox1

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try a different motherboard
 
Master Tasuke

Master Tasuke

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god, first Genny game i ever played, back in X-mas '89, pack in with my MOD-1 Genny, first VGC my parents ever bought me...
 
BIG BEAR

BIG BEAR

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Looks like cold solder joints going on on one of the chips that handle the sprites...
BB
 
H

hezkezl

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this is most likely going to be a bad rom, or an issue with one of the data lines on your sprite roms. The layout of altered beat boards are different (there are ~8 different versions), if you could post pictures of your rom board (the daughter board), that would be really helpful, as it will allow us to identify the version you have, as well as look the PCB over and see if we can see any obvious problems on it.
 
M

Mishran

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Haven't really had a chance to mess with it the past few days, but I'll do something with it today if I get a chance. Thanks for the replies though guys!


Not my board, but this has the same layout as mine.
alteredbeast.jpg
 
M

Mishran

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Well, got a chance to hook this back up and I think I got an idea of where the problem lies. If I press on the corner of the ROM board, on the side with the sprite Roms, the problem clears up. If I take pressure off the corner, the problem returns. Looking the board over shows no visible signs of a solder joint coming loose and the connectors are nice and tight so that MAY not be the cause. I'll try some solder magic to reflow the joints on the connector and see what happens. Keep you guys posted.
 
M

Mishran

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Well, got around to reflowing the solder on the connector closest to the graphic chips and it seems to fix the issue if left alone, but putting a light amount of pressure on the edge brings back the distortion. Basically the opposite of before. I could let it go as is, but it does bother me that it still has an issue. Any suggestions?
 
BIG BEAR

BIG BEAR

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It's a bad trace in that sprite chip area. dig out the multi-meter and test connections.
BB
 
Xian Xi

Xian Xi

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Mishran said:
Well, got around to reflowing the solder on the connector closest to the graphic chips and it seems to fix the issue if left alone, but putting a light amount of pressure on the edge brings back the distortion. Basically the opposite of before. I could let it go as is, but it does bother me that it still has an issue. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Remove the rom board and reseat it.
 
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