TECH: NFL Blitz/NBA Showtime 49-way optical joysticks not ..

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

I have a fully operational NBA Showtime/NFL Blitz machine (not
SuperStation, the dedicated Showtime with the double-loaded
dipswitchable HD) save for one annoying problem: The joysticks don't
work. In the operator switch test, Joystick 4 lights up with all four
directions as "on" with no input. The other sticks do not respond (I
will double-check this.) Everything else works, including the buttons.

Since the buttons work fine, that leads me to believe it's not the harness.

I tried a spare 49-way stick, and it exhibited the same behavior, so the
sticks are fine.

Swapped the fuse in the CP harness assembly with no effect.

I tried a new controller board from another Blitz machine, and that did
not do anything either. I really figured this was the culprit.

Any advice? I am *this close* to getting this thing operational, and
just replaced the monitor, so it sure will be nice when it gets running.
But I'm stumped. Thanks for any help.

Dan
dan at bunnyears dot net

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Dan,

Funny you should mention that. I am currently shopping a blitz gold
game that is doing the EXACT same thing. We pieced together a board
from feepay and a HD that I had to rewrite the software onto.. now
everythings fine, EXCEPT the bug you mentioned. I did a little research
and seen that DIP switch 1 is to be toggled on/off for standard/optical
joysticks. I am thinking the gameboard I got was in a version with the
standard joys.. so when I go back to the shop I'm gonna toggle SW 1 and
see what happens.

- Matt

 

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That should do it for you... the dips usually the culprit (well.. the I40 is
usually the culprite (damn things anyway) but this was ruled out...)

"Matty-t" <matthews@audio-doctors.com> wrote in message
news:1115635912.685675.39700@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> Dan,
>
> Funny you should mention that. I am currently shopping a blitz gold
> game that is doing the EXACT same thing. We pieced together a board
> from feepay and a HD that I had to rewrite the software onto.. now
> everythings fine, EXCEPT the bug you mentioned. I did a little research
> and seen that DIP switch 1 is to be toggled on/off for standard/optical
> joysticks. I am thinking the gameboard I got was in a version with the
> standard joys.. so when I go back to the shop I'm gonna toggle SW 1 and
> see what happens.
>
> - Matt
>

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Steve Muccione wrote:
> That should do it for you... the dips usually the culprit (well.. the I40 is
> usually the culprite (damn things anyway) but this was ruled out...)
>
> "Matty-t" <matthews@audio-doctors.com> wrote in message
> news:1115635912.685675.39700@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
>>Dan,
>>
>>Funny you should mention that. I am currently shopping a blitz gold
>>game that is doing the EXACT same thing. We pieced together a board
>>from feepay and a HD that I had to rewrite the software onto.. now
>>everythings fine, EXCEPT the bug you mentioned. I did a little research
>>and seen that DIP switch 1 is to be toggled on/off for standard/optical
>>joysticks. I am thinking the gameboard I got was in a version with the
>>standard joys.. so when I go back to the shop I'm gonna toggle SW 1 and
>>see what happens.
>>
>>- Matt
>>
>
>
>

I will check that switch, though I thought it was where it was supposed
to be, on optical. I'll make sure and report back--thanks for the
advice. Also, this was the original board in its original cab...

Dan

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

If I remember correctly the version of the doc's that I have is actually
backwards when it came to one of the dip settings (don't remember if it was
for the joys or monitor (sorry.. it's boxed away as I finish my basement)..
I do remember it causing me all kinds of grief until I figured it out (and
wrote some nice comments in the manual ).

steve

"Dan Amrich" <danamrich@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:4281BAF0.2070908@comcast.net...
> Steve Muccione wrote:
>> That should do it for you... the dips usually the culprit (well.. the I40
>> is usually the culprite (damn things anyway) but this was ruled out...)
>>
>> "Matty-t" <matthews@audio-doctors.com> wrote in message
>> news:1115635912.685675.39700@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>>Dan,
>>>
>>>Funny you should mention that. I am currently shopping a blitz gold
>>>game that is doing the EXACT same thing. We pieced together a board
>>>from feepay and a HD that I had to rewrite the software onto.. now
>>>everythings fine, EXCEPT the bug you mentioned. I did a little research
>>>and seen that DIP switch 1 is to be toggled on/off for standard/optical
>>>joysticks. I am thinking the gameboard I got was in a version with the
>>>standard joys.. so when I go back to the shop I'm gonna toggle SW 1 and
>>>see what happens.
>>>
>>>- Matt
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> I will check that switch, though I thought it was where it was supposed to
> be, on optical. I'll make sure and report back--thanks for the advice.
> Also, this was the original board in its original cab...
>
> Dan

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Dan,

one more thing, if I remember correctly, the buttons are not encoded by the
I40 but are run individually to the board, so having the buttons work
doesn't mean that everything is functioning ok with the harness... did you
check voltage to the I40? You said you tried a known working spare... did
you try the one from your cabinet in the working one?

worse comes to worse you can always swap out for 8-ways... they don't
subtract anything from the gameplay (the I40 only encodes 8 of the 49
directions anyway) and the get rid of the troublesome I40 board.

steve

"Dan Amrich" <danamrich@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:4281BAF0.2070908@comcast.net...
> Steve Muccione wrote:
>> That should do it for you... the dips usually the culprit (well.. the I40
>> is usually the culprite (damn things anyway) but this was ruled out...)
>>
>> "Matty-t" <matthews@audio-doctors.com> wrote in message
>> news:1115635912.685675.39700@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>>Dan,
>>>
>>>Funny you should mention that. I am currently shopping a blitz gold
>>>game that is doing the EXACT same thing. We pieced together a board
>>>from feepay and a HD that I had to rewrite the software onto.. now
>>>everythings fine, EXCEPT the bug you mentioned. I did a little research
>>>and seen that DIP switch 1 is to be toggled on/off for standard/optical
>>>joysticks. I am thinking the gameboard I got was in a version with the
>>>standard joys.. so when I go back to the shop I'm gonna toggle SW 1 and
>>>see what happens.
>>>
>>>- Matt
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> I will check that switch, though I thought it was where it was supposed to
> be, on optical. I'll make sure and report back--thanks for the advice.
> Also, this was the original board in its original cab...
>
> Dan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Steve Muccione wrote:
> Dan,
>
> one more thing, if I remember correctly, the buttons are not encoded by the
> I40 but are run individually to the board, so having the buttons work
> doesn't mean that everything is functioning ok with the harness... did you
> check voltage to the I40? You said you tried a known working spare... did
> you try the one from your cabinet in the working one?
>
> worse comes to worse you can always swap out for 8-ways... they don't
> subtract anything from the gameplay (the I40 only encodes 8 of the 49
> directions anyway) and the get rid of the troublesome I40 board.
>
> steve

The extra I40 came from a machine that had other issues and was being
parted out, but it did function before I disassembled it. Now it's gone
so I have no other test bed--but that woulda been a good idea...

Actually, I have access to a Gauntlet Legends; not sure if that uses an
I40 but I know it does have optical 49s.

I hope it's just the dipswitch being labeled incorrectly--that would be
great, and it might even be my fault! So I will try that first; if
that turns up wrong, I will start checking voltages.

Thanks!

Dan

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Okay, I have more detail which may help.

On the switch test, the player 4 stick lights up all four directions at
once. However, it's being triggered by player 2's stick. Moving P2's
stick all the way to the right turns all the directions off and reads a
value of 27. Moving P2's stick all the way to the left turns them all
off but the last one, which is P4 Right. Moving P2's stick up and down
has no effect. All the sticks read 24 (dead center)

I have checked the connections and the colors of the harness cables for
obvious stuff like being plugged in wrong, or one pin off, or into the
wrong mate. I also tried a spare harness from the parted out Blitz
machine, just for the cables that were affected by this problem, and it
remained.

I tried the dipswitch (switch 1 on U12, if I recall) and it did not
affect the problem.

I could have two bad I-40 conrollers...? I thought maybe I had the
player sticks plugged into the I40 wrong (four sticks, five users), but
they're keyed to prevent just such mistakes.

I would really rather not pull the whole darned 49-way system. Those
opticals are nice when they work.

As always, thanks. Seems like it's something simple, right?





> Steve Muccione wrote:
>
>> Dan,
>>
>> one more thing, if I remember correctly, the buttons are not encoded
>> by the I40 but are run individually to the board, so having the
>> buttons work doesn't mean that everything is functioning ok with the
>> harness... did you check voltage to the I40? You said you tried a
>> known working spare... did you try the one from your cabinet in the
>> working one?
>>
>> worse comes to worse you can always swap out for 8-ways... they don't
>> subtract anything from the gameplay (the I40 only encodes 8 of the 49
>> directions anyway) and the get rid of the troublesome I40 board.
>>
>> steve
>
>
> The extra I40 came from a machine that had other issues and was being
> parted out, but it did function before I disassembled it. Now it's gone
> so I have no other test bed--but that woulda been a good idea...
>
> Actually, I have access to a Gauntlet Legends; not sure if that uses an
> I40 but I know it does have optical 49s.
>
> I hope it's just the dipswitch being labeled incorrectly--that would be
> great, and it might even be my fault! So I will try that first; if
> that turns up wrong, I will start checking voltages.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dan

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

humm.... has me stumped (sorry).

one thing that does have me worried though is the fact that nothing changed
when you changed the dip between 49 and 8-way mode. I would have expected
some change and the fact that it doesn't seems to imply that it's a main pcb
issue and not an I40 issue... this is further highlighted by the fact that
p2 and p4's inputs are being confused (which is unlikely as they use
entirely seperate harness's).

Do you have a spare jamma cab you could check this out in... that is
actually plug the pcb into the jamma cabinet, set it to 8-way mode and try
player 1 & 2's sticks in 8-way mode to see if it's not some kind of pcb
level problem?

"Dan Amrich" <danamrich@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:3M6dnXhMNaPKkBnfRVn-1w@comcast.com...
> Okay, I have more detail which may help.
>
> On the switch test, the player 4 stick lights up all four directions at
> once. However, it's being triggered by player 2's stick. Moving P2's stick
> all the way to the right turns all the directions off and reads a value of
> 27. Moving P2's stick all the way to the left turns them all off but the
> last one, which is P4 Right. Moving P2's stick up and down has no effect.
> All the sticks read 24 (dead center)
>
> I have checked the connections and the colors of the harness cables for
> obvious stuff like being plugged in wrong, or one pin off, or into the
> wrong mate. I also tried a spare harness from the parted out Blitz
> machine, just for the cables that were affected by this problem, and it
> remained.
>
> I tried the dipswitch (switch 1 on U12, if I recall) and it did not affect
> the problem.
>
> I could have two bad I-40 conrollers...? I thought maybe I had the player
> sticks plugged into the I40 wrong (four sticks, five users), but they're
> keyed to prevent just such mistakes.
>
> I would really rather not pull the whole darned 49-way system. Those
> opticals are nice when they work.
>
> As always, thanks. Seems like it's something simple, right?
>
>
>
>
>
>> Steve Muccione wrote:
>>
>>> Dan,
>>>
>>> one more thing, if I remember correctly, the buttons are not encoded by
>>> the I40 but are run individually to the board, so having the buttons
>>> work doesn't mean that everything is functioning ok with the harness...
>>> did you check voltage to the I40? You said you tried a known working
>>> spare... did you try the one from your cabinet in the working one?
>>>
>>> worse comes to worse you can always swap out for 8-ways... they don't
>>> subtract anything from the gameplay (the I40 only encodes 8 of the 49
>>> directions anyway) and the get rid of the troublesome I40 board.
>>>
>>> steve
>>
>>
>> The extra I40 came from a machine that had other issues and was being
>> parted out, but it did function before I disassembled it. Now it's gone
>> so I have no other test bed--but that woulda been a good idea...
>>
>> Actually, I have access to a Gauntlet Legends; not sure if that uses an
>> I40 but I know it does have optical 49s.
>>
>> I hope it's just the dipswitch being labeled incorrectly--that would be
>> great, and it might even be my fault! So I will try that first; if
>> that turns up wrong, I will start checking voltages.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Dan

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Steve Muccione wrote:
> humm.... has me stumped (sorry).

Hey, no need to be sorry--I'm stumped too and I appreciate anybody
helping check my logic!

> one thing that does have me worried though is the fact that nothing changed
> when you changed the dip between 49 and 8-way mode. I would have expected
> some change and the fact that it doesn't seems to imply that it's a main pcb
> issue and not an I40 issue... this is further highlighted by the fact that
> p2 and p4's inputs are being confused (which is unlikely as they use
> entirely seperate harness's).
>
> Do you have a spare jamma cab you could check this out in... that is
> actually plug the pcb into the jamma cabinet, set it to 8-way mode and try
> player 1 & 2's sticks in 8-way mode to see if it's not some kind of pcb
> level problem?
>
Mmmmaybe. The problem is the power supply; this is a Vegas board with a
hard drive, and it has a 3x3 Molex Peter Chou PS. I don't think I have
access to other machines with that wiring.

What I do have is an NFL Blitz 99 PCB that I can plug in and see if the
sticks behave the same way...that'll probably be the next step, now that
I think about it.

Also, I have not flipped the dip to go from Showtime to Blitz using the
existing HD, but I figured that would not do anything.

Dan

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

OK, last call before I remove the opticals and repalce them with
8-ways--it's imperative that I get this machine running (it's not mine,
it's my office's, and they're tired of having non-operational machines).

If you're just joining us:

I have a fully operational NBA Showtime/NFL Blitz machine (not
SuperStation, the dedicated Showtime with the double-loaded
dipswitchable HD) save for one annoying problem: The joysticks don't
work. On the switch test, the player 4 stick lights up all four
directions at once. However, it's being triggered by player 2's stick.
Moving P2's stick all the way to the right turns all the directions off
and reads a value of 27. Moving P2's stick all the way to the left
turns them all off but the last one, which is P4 Right. Moving P2's
stick up and down has no effect. All the sticks read 24 (dead center)

I have checked the connections and the colors of the harness cables for
obvious stuff like being plugged in wrong, or one pin off, or into the
wrong mate. I also tried a spare harness from the parted out Blitz
machine, just for the cables that were affected by this problem, and it
remained.

Since the buttons work fine, that leads me to believe it's not the harness.

I tried a spare 49-way stick, and it exhibited the same behavior, so the
sticks are fine.

Swapped the fuse in the CP harness assembly with no effect.

Tried flipping the 8/49 dipswitch on the board (switch 1 on U12, if I
recall) in case it was programmed in reverse. No effect.

I tried an I40 controller board from another Blitz machine, and that did
not do anything either. I really figured this was the culprit.

I tried the NFL Blitz 99 PCB from the aforementioned cab and did not get
any response from the sticks at all. It powered up fine.

I am stumped. I am ready to remove the 49s and put in Competitions or
Ultimates. And that's okay, because I'm being told "Get it playable NOW."

Assuming I swap sticks and nobody else has any better ideas, is there
anything I have to do to make this game recognize 8-ways, other than the
dipswitch? I can use this harness etc? Does it still use the I40 or do I
remove that from the loop altogether?

Thanks...so desperate to get this running. The bosses are tired of waiting!

Dan

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

If you're goign to go to 8-ways you have to roll your own harness...

The I40 comes completly out of the loop (good side is the I40's are rare
enough that you can sell one and pretty much pay for a new set of 8-ways).

As far as player 1-2 go it's standard jamma all the way. If your existing
cabinet does not have these wired into the jamma connector you're going to
have to do so (I've never seen a factory origional blitz/showtime so I don't
know what they've done).

Player 3-4 are a bit tougher.... you're going to need to build a wire-loom
that connects to each stick individually to the player 3-4 connector. It's
pretty simple really... you can get the pinout from the manual (which you
can get download right off of happs if you don't have it). If you have
connectors great, otherwise you can always seperate the connector from the
existing blitz wire loom and re-use the 3 and 4 player board connector
(which is great as they are already keyed...).

let me know if you have any difficulty...

steve

"Dan Amrich" <danamrich@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:KKadnX1JL8pIvgHfRVn-pQ@comcast.com...
> OK, last call before I remove the opticals and repalce them with
> 8-ways--it's imperative that I get this machine running (it's not mine,
> it's my office's, and they're tired of having non-operational machines).
>
> If you're just joining us:
>
> I have a fully operational NBA Showtime/NFL Blitz machine (not
> SuperStation, the dedicated Showtime with the double-loaded dipswitchable
> HD) save for one annoying problem: The joysticks don't work. On the switch
> test, the player 4 stick lights up all four directions at once. However,
> it's being triggered by player 2's stick. Moving P2's stick all the way to
> the right turns all the directions off and reads a value of 27. Moving
> P2's stick all the way to the left turns them all off but the last one,
> which is P4 Right. Moving P2's stick up and down has no effect. All the
> sticks read 24 (dead center)
>
> I have checked the connections and the colors of the harness cables for
> obvious stuff like being plugged in wrong, or one pin off, or into the
> wrong mate. I also tried a spare harness from the parted out Blitz
> machine, just for the cables that were affected by this problem, and it
> remained.
>
> Since the buttons work fine, that leads me to believe it's not the
> harness.
>
> I tried a spare 49-way stick, and it exhibited the same behavior, so the
> sticks are fine.
>
> Swapped the fuse in the CP harness assembly with no effect.
>
> Tried flipping the 8/49 dipswitch on the board (switch 1 on U12, if I
> recall) in case it was programmed in reverse. No effect.
>
> I tried an I40 controller board from another Blitz machine, and that did
> not do anything either. I really figured this was the culprit.
>
> I tried the NFL Blitz 99 PCB from the aforementioned cab and did not get
> any response from the sticks at all. It powered up fine.
>
> I am stumped. I am ready to remove the 49s and put in Competitions or
> Ultimates. And that's okay, because I'm being told "Get it playable NOW."
>
> Assuming I swap sticks and nobody else has any better ideas, is there
> anything I have to do to make this game recognize 8-ways, other than the
> dipswitch? I can use this harness etc? Does it still use the I40 or do I
> remove that from the loop altogether?
>
> Thanks...so desperate to get this running. The bosses are tired of
> waiting!
>
> Dan