WTD: Video Action (URL) schematics

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

Does anyone have a manual / schematics / pics / any info on Video Action by URL?
I've got a board that I think is Video Action (which I stripped a whole bunch
of parts off of to fix a Pong), but now I'm starting to feel guilty about
harvesting chips off a rare (though probably worthless) board.

Thanks for any info...

--
Mark Spaeth mspaeth@mtl.mit.edu
50 Vassar St., #38.265 mspaeth@mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth

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

Chuk,

Video action *IS* a pong variant as well.

And it is manufactured by UPL not URL

- Matt

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

Matt Osborn <osborn@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
:
: I believe this board is the one I gave to Mark recently, and it has a funny story to go along with it.
: I ripped the PCB out of what looked to be a complete 4-player pong-type cocktail table (with a round top) literally seconds before
: it was bulldozed at the dump. It was pouring rain and the thing was about 10 feet away from the sign that says "NO DUMP PICKING".
: It's too bad someone didn't find it before the bad weather (and the dozer)... it appeared to be in decent shape, and would have been
: nice to restore. Very unique table.
:
: Anyway, I'm glad to hear something from it went to good use....

After a few hours of playing with it and replacing about half a dozen chips,
it's almost working, but since I've never seen the game, I don't know how it's
supposed to act

Right now, if I coin up once, I get 1 pair of paddles, twice, I get 2 pairs, but
it never serves (there might be a start or serve button), but there's horizontal
lines that look like paddles going across the screen, and one of P1 paddles never
gets drawn...

--
Mark Spaeth mspaeth@mtl.mit.edu
50 Vassar St., #38.265 mspaeth@mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth

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

Andy Welburn <warlords@punkass.com> wrote:
: "Matty-t" wrote:
:>Chuk,
:>
:> Video action *IS* a pong variant as well.
:
: TENNIS . SOCCER . HOCKEY - 2 speeds..
:
:> And it is manufactured by UPL not URL
:
: Nope.. UPL wasn't formed until much later i thought..?
:
: Universal Research Laboratories Inc, Elk Grove IL.

Aha... it certainly did look like a URL board... both KLOV and the old spies
listed it as UPL, but I'm also pretty sure UPL didn't pop up until the
mid 80's... This obviously isn't the first time good old Matty-T was
dead wrong.

URL had a hand in a lot of the early sterns/konamis too... A lot of the
games based on scramble / supercobra hardware have URL on the boards.

I guess the game select is why the game never starts... unfortunately
most of the wiring is connected to the bottom side pins only. so it's hard(er)
to probe around...

I need to order some chips before I play with it again anyway... I had to
pull all the chips I'd socketed back off to go with the real pong

--
Mark Spaeth mspaeth@mtl.mit.edu
50 Vassar St., #38.265 mspaeth@mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth

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

I saw that flyer when I was trying to find info on the game.
The cocktail I pulled that PCB out of looked different though...
the tabletop was perfectly round (not hexagonal) and the body
was a round tub on a pedestal. And I think the control pots
were mounted on top (bad idea!). The "monitor" was a little
TV, just like Pong. Anyone seen one like that before?

IIRC (and Mark can correct me), the only marking on the
PCB was "Video Action Corp." (or something like that),
which implied that Video Action was the name of the
manufacturer and not the game. Very odd....

Matt

"Andy Welburn" <warlords@punkass.com> wrote in message news:_MvFe.43$Qk.16227@news.uswest.net...
> "Matty-t" wrote:
>>Chuk,
>>
>> Video action *IS* a pong variant as well.
>
> TENNIS . SOCCER . HOCKEY - 2 speeds..
>
>> And it is manufactured by UPL not URL
>
> Nope.. UPL wasn't formed until much later i thought..?
>
> Universal Research Laboratories Inc, Elk Grove IL.
>
>> - Matt
>
> I have the flyer which can be seen here:-
> http://www.arcadeflyers.net/?page= [...] bs&id=2635
>
> And i think i have the manual too.. but i'd have to double check
> tomorrow for it in the cabinet
>
> Andy Welburn
> www.andysarcade.net

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

"Mark C. Spaeth" wrote:
>
>: And i think i have the manual too.. but i'd have to double check
>: tomorrow for it in the cabinet
>
>Andy:
>
>I've you've got a manual/schems for quadrapong / elimination, I'd
>be interested in them too... heh.
>
>
>--
>Mark Spaeth mspaeth@mtl.mit.edu

heh i have those too, but but they're not copyable tho, they're low
quality...

I'd reccomend finding the Atari - Kurz-kasch manual.. there's 2 types,
the early one has the yellow-ish cover and has the schems from atari's
first 10 games inside it, and an internal reproduction of the helpful
gran trak 10 technical guide which ahs a lot of theory in it (not that
you'll need it Mark Dunno if its been scanned already, but originals
aren't very well printed in the first place, and i can imagine a scan
would be even worse. They did after all, squeeze a whole game schematic
onto a single page, useable in the original form, but i'm guessing
illegible if scanned.

To answer the question about who made this board, can you take any
pictures of it? I have, and have seen lots of pong variant pcbs...

I'd agree that while it might be rare and one of a kind, its also
equally worthless hehhe. Nice that you fixed it tho (sortof). Like most
TTL games, they often look like they 'work' and most operators or
sellers will say a game works, when they see a picture with something
that looks like the game playing, when actually its barely working at
all.

Some games it could possible have come from, if not the previosuly
mentioned Video Action ?
- Aztec cocktail (PMC Electronics)
- 'Challenge' cocktail (Mirco games - not a typo)
- Fun Four (Bailey international)
- tennis, spike-it, hockey - C.G.I - Computer games Inc..

or a Video Action (URL) pcb put into another generic cabinet?

Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but Allied Paddle Battle (4 player
version) 040 pcbs have 'Universal Research Laboratories' etched onto the
underside near the edge connector... however, these pcbs are quite
common (to my mind) and i would assuem you've seen these before, and its
not just one of these is it? The reason for the weird etch, i was told
somethign to do with having them made in the far east, and when they
were imported, they were imported as Medical Equipment and not as
coin-op stuff, and therefore avoiding import tariffs?? sounds about
right, especially knowing what bootleggers Allied were like hehe..

Andy Welburn
www.andysarcade.net


--
Sent via Gamer Newsgroups
http://www.gamernewsgroups.com

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

Change chip Mpt311124L with a nuron decoder chip and that will solve your
problem.
"Mark C. Spaeth" <mspaeth@plancherel.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:42e64c30$0$579$b45e6eb0@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu...
> Matt Osborn <osborn@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> :
> : I believe this board is the one I gave to Mark recently, and it has a
> funny story to go along with it.
> : I ripped the PCB out of what looked to be a complete 4-player pong-type
> cocktail table (with a round top) literally seconds before
> : it was bulldozed at the dump. It was pouring rain and the thing was
> about 10 feet away from the sign that says "NO DUMP PICKING".
> : It's too bad someone didn't find it before the bad weather (and the
> dozer)... it appeared to be in decent shape, and would have been
> : nice to restore. Very unique table.
> :
> : Anyway, I'm glad to hear something from it went to good use....
>
> After a few hours of playing with it and replacing about half a dozen
> chips,
> it's almost working, but since I've never seen the game, I don't know how
> it's
> supposed to act
>
> Right now, if I coin up once, I get 1 pair of paddles, twice, I get 2
> pairs, but
> it never serves (there might be a start or serve button), but there's
> horizontal
> lines that look like paddles going across the screen, and one of P1
> paddles never
> gets drawn...
>
> --
> Mark Spaeth mspaeth@mtl.mit.edu
> 50 Vassar St., #38.265 mspaeth@mit.edu
> Cambridge, MA 02139
> (617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth
>

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

Andy Welburn <c.u@the.pub> wrote:
: Mark...
:
: the manual at least exists, but there's no schematics in it this
: manual is full of the usual simpleton troubleshooting ie case 1 - no
: picture - bad pcb, replace... heh

Well, at least it might tell me if my problem is a bad PCB...

That way I can just order a new one to fix the game!

--
Mark Spaeth mspaeth@mtl.mit.edu
50 Vassar St., #38.265 mspaeth@mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth

Hello, I seem to have a Indy 500 pong and car game by Video Action. I found it in the attic but it had battery leakage. It played for a bit but it seems to have stopped. The white chip with the 2 ics on it seems to be the problem because it worked for a while if you pressed on the rubber sealer on top of the chips. I cleaned off the rubber but now it wont do anything. Any ideas? Do you still have your white chip???

John

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