"Bombs Away" 1976. Info, anyone?

[BigO]

Does anyone:

Have any recollections of this game?

Describe how the game play?

Know anything about it at all?

Have any documentation or references to the game?

 

Edited October 11, 2007 by BigO

[Blackjack]

I have no recollection...... but I found

 

It's a scrolling shooter made by Meadows, and was a forerunner to "depth charge"..... but that's all I found really.

 

1976 games were pretty basic "night driver" and "sea wolf".

 

 

 

One with the same name made by Jaleco became supported in Mame with release 106, but the driver status is listed as preliminary (read: doesn't play yet), and I doubt it's the same.

 

Maws has a page on it http://www.mameworld.net/maws/

 

 

Sorry, that's all I got.

[Cassidy Nolen]

I would imagine its a TTL board without a processor. Probably has a graphics ROM but otherwise the chips should be standard 74XX with a series of onboard power supply circuits (5, 12 for audio and maybe -5 for random chips).

 

Did you find this machine or are they just online pics? Neat cabinet, easy enough to refinish and make beautiful. The plexi looks great and I am sure you could have it working with some effort. Even if the harness is missing it would not be impossible to rewire from scratch....you have what looks like a coin mech, a start button and a fire button....about as simple as it gets!

 

 

C

[wrenchien]

I would imagine its a TTL board without a processor. Probably has a graphics ROM but otherwise the chips should be standard 74XX with a series of onboard power supply circuits (5, 12 for audio and maybe -5 for random chips).

 

Did you find this machine or are they just online pics? Neat cabinet, easy enough to refinish and make beautiful. The plexi looks great and I am sure you could have it working with some effort. Even if the harness is missing it would not be impossible to rewire from scratch....you have what looks like a coin mech, a start button and a fire button....about as simple as it gets!

 

 

C

 

it's a rare find... any more of them out there?

[Artlover]

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7184

 

Yeah, it's rare. Help KLOV out and send him some pictures.

[BigO]

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7184

 

Yeah, it's rare. Help KLOV out and send him some pictures.

I thought I would. Do they care if it's a picture of a battered and abused, currently non-working machine?

 

(It was actually discovering the rarity via sites like that that convinced me to attempt this rescue and refurb.)

 

Did you find this machine or are they just online pics? Neat cabinet, easy enough to refinish and make beautiful. The plexi looks great and I am sure you could have it working with some effort. Even if the harness is missing it would not be impossible to rewire from scratch....you have what looks like a coin mech, a start button and a fire button....about as simple as it gets!

It's mine. The logic board is missing, but on the way. What convinced me to buy it was that it just so happened that somebody was selling a board on eBay at the time this became available. Comes with the technical manual, too. Given the noted simplicity, I should be able to get it going eventually.

 

I think the harness is actually there. There's an edge connector with some wires on it that go to the coin mech and to the video section. The wire to the button is attached to the button end. The button doesn't feel right. I'm not positive if the low voltage power supply for the logic board is there, but I can cook up something for that if need be. I haven't spent much time mapping it out in my head to see what's missing yet.

 

The acrylic is a bit nastier than appears in pictures. There are some heavy scratches bottom-center and to the right, somebody scratched off the paint from the backside. I've got my eye on Novus' three step polish for the front side gouging. I have an original sales flyer ordered so should be able to reproduce and repair the scratched off graphics on the back side of the acrylic. A graphic artist friend of mine owes me a bit of a favor so I should be able to address that.

 

The color overlay on the monitor is thankfully in good condition.

 

The cabinet is really rough. I probably should replace some of the particle board, but I'll try to repair it where possible. I've used Bondo to effect some pretty nice non-structural wood repairs. Beyond that, I think I can shave down some of the water damaged stuff at the bottom and rebuild it with some epoxy. Maybe a sawdust/epoxy mix or something. I'll have to experiment. Worst case, it won't work and I'll have to replace some of the particle board before I re-laminate it. My brother-in-law is a custom furniture builder and has considerable experience with particle board from insurance work he did to repair moving company furniture damage. (Always knock down your knock-down, particle board furniture before moving.)

 

I think it'll be a chicken vs. egg scenario at first to figure out what does and doesn't work. I'm fairly confident that I can get the logic working if it doesn't work. I can probably fix any problems with the video section, but if I can't, I know people who can tell me how. I may even work in an excuse to buy some test equipment.

 

Unfortunately, my wife seems to be expecting me to follow through with my plans to re-roof the house sometime in the next month or so. After that, I've got a couple more major projects at home and a bunch of little video game projects to distract me from this. I may have to build some of those Atari related mods that I have planned and sell them to raise money for the aforementioned test equipment.

 

I'll at least be able to identify any major missing Bombs Away parts in the next couple of weeks once I have the logic board in hand and do some trial fitting.

 

I posted a little about this on my AtariAge blog. Didn't want to clog up the forum pages with all the pictures. I'll post quickie updates here with more detail there. Though, admittedly, I'm not a detailed documentation kinda guy so don't hold your breath for that. I will, however, be happy to elaborate on anything specifically requested or answer any questions to the best of my ability.

Edited October 12, 2007 by BigO

[BigO]

A few more pictures here:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...;showentry=4006

[BigO]

I guess it's okay if I borrow the picture of the board until I receive the board and can take my own pictures:

 

 

Eek! That's a lot of chips to troubleshoot.

Edited October 13, 2007 by BigO

[supercat]

Eek! That's a lot of chips to troubleshoot.

 

Probably wouldn't be too bad with a schematic. Not sure how well one could do without one, though.

[wrenchien]

I guess it's okay if I borrow the picture of the board until I receive the board and can take my own pictures:

 

 

Eek! That's a lot of chips to troubleshoot.

 

hard to believe a period sized chip would be way too much to be able to handle the cpu power that game had?

 

... i'm just saying...

[Prodos8]

Cool find! Those old descrete logic games have always intrigued me.

 

Anyway here's a good scan of the arcade flyer that describes the game play, along with a sales pitch of course.

 

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&a...odb&id=1747

[BigO]

hard to believe a period sized chip would be way too much to be able to handle the cpu power that game had?

 

... i'm just saying...

 

Sorry, I'm not sure what you're saying. Are you saying that a 1976 era CPU should have been able to handle running this game instead of discrete logic chips?

[BigO]

Cool find! Those old descrete logic games have always intrigued me.

 

Anyway here's a good scan of the arcade flyer that describes the game play, along with a sales pitch of course.

 

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&a...odb&id=1747

 

Cool. Thanks. I had not found that site. I have one of those flyers on order that I found somewhere else, but could not see it in as much detail from his scans.

 

Ha, "Multi-colored TV display stands out".

 

Though I'm sure I'll never find out, I'm wondering if the black cabinet base on mine was the normal production style. I noticed that the style shown on a flyer for a cocktail pinball machine I have doesn't match any of the actual machines I've found, so assume that the pictures were of a non-production prototype.

 

I guess the picture gives me latitude to change the base to woodgrain, but I think the black will look better.

Edited October 13, 2007 by BigO

[Foxsolo2000]

Thats a new one on me. Would love to see a working screen shot of the game

[BigO]

Eek! That's a lot of chips to troubleshoot.

 

Probably wouldn't be too bad with a schematic. Not sure how well one could do without one, though.

 

I expect there will be techincal information in the manual that is being shipped with the board. Though it's called an "operator's manual", in my one other experience with coin-op games, that would include pretty detailed technical information including the schematics.

 

Without schematics, it will be a tedious trick to find out what's wrong with the board (if anything, I don't yet know). I might be reduced to injecting signals where possible and checking the operation of each chip individually. Not an appealing prospect at all.

[BigO]

Thats a new one on me. Would love to see a working screen shot of the game

 

Me too. Given that the only people I'm acquainted with who'd care are here, I'll post here if I get it going. Probably will post a picture of any little blip I manage to get on the screen.

 

If I get it all going properly, I'll probably try do a quick video so people can see the actual gameplay...boring as it might be.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Amazing you just "happened" on the machine and the board at the same time. Thats great.

 

The only chips that you can't find readily will be any custom IC's (from Meadows I doubt it, Maybe from Midway but not Meadows. They were too small a company) or graphic ROM chips (this IS a possibility as most of the "detailed" graphics were stored on these chips, be sure you have correct voltage before you fire things up for this reason alone). Those you'll have to salvage. Basically those boards are all made from off the shelf IC's all still available (even if in small quantities).

 

Make sure you're voltages are straight before you do much of anything. I would even suggest swapping EVERY electrolytic capacitor in the system.....board, isolation area, monitor, etc. Up to you if you just want to go standard kit on the monitor. Zanen electronics in Texas has the cap kit for that monitor. They are fairly reliable and the schematics for them are online. LMK if you can't find that one.

 

As for the machine, go with what you would like to have...color correct or not. Heck, its yours. Gameplay appears to be like an Atari Air-Sea shooter. Can't recall the Atari name...I know somebody here will find it in a second of looking.

 

C

[BigO]

Amazing you just "happened" on the machine and the board at the same time. Thats great.

 

The only chips that you can't find readily will be any custom IC's (from Meadows I doubt it, Maybe from Midway but not Meadows. They were too small a company) or graphic ROM chips (this IS a possibility as most of the "detailed" graphics were stored on these chips, be sure you have correct voltage before you fire things up for this reason alone). Those you'll have to salvage. Basically those boards are all made from off the shelf IC's all still available (even if in small quantities).

 

Make sure you're voltages are straight before you do much of anything. I would even suggest swapping EVERY electrolytic capacitor in the system.....board, isolation area, monitor, etc. Up to you if you just want to go standard kit on the monitor. Zanen electronics in Texas has the cap kit for that monitor. They are fairly reliable and the schematics for them are online. LMK if you can't find that one.

 

As for the machine, go with what you would like to have...color correct or not. Heck, its yours. Gameplay appears to be like an Atari Air-Sea shooter. Can't recall the Atari name...I know somebody here will find it in a second of looking.

 

C

 

Yeah, finding the board the same time as the machine is about half of what convinced me I should do the project.

 

I suspect and hope that it will be all relatively common, off-the-shelf IC's in this machine. I hope even more that it will work and I won't have to care what chips are in it.

 

Thanks for that advice about the caps. I'll certainly look into that. I was completely unaware of Zanen and had not even a thought that anybody would carry parts specifically for that monitor. That's great information. I will let you know if I have trouble finding it.

 

I think this game will play similarly to "Canyon Bomber" for the 2600. It didn't occur to me until you said that, but that 2600 game also is played with only a single button.

 

The assistance is much appreciated.

[BigO]

After a little research, I find that the monitor is a Motorola XM501-10.

 

I didn't see anything listed with Zanen, but I was able to find some pretty thorough OEM documentation ("Service Manual") on that monitor and the "Technical Repair Manual" for the XM series.

 

I didn't see any evidence of a low voltage power supply ever having existed in the cabinet of the machine. I wondered if they might have been picking that up from the monitor somehow. I just confirmed via the repair manual that some monitors offered that option. They also have optional TTL or composite video input. I've got to do a bit of studying on the monitor circuitry installed to figure out what I'm dealing with.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Great, that monitor kit is an easy one to do. Call Zanen electronics,

888-449-2636 and get free shipping on the kit. You need the X501/701 capacitor kit. I don't have a complete one here or I'd give it to you for free (I always seem to scavenge parts from my cap kits).

 

I would hazard you against using the shoddy onboard power supply from that monitor to power your mainboard. Most games of that vintage took 16-25 V AC from the primary windings on the isolation transformer and then regulated it down to 5V DC -5V DC and 12V DC on the main PCB. I am sure you will have 7805, 7905 and 7812 voltage regulators on the PCB when it arrives.

 

Assuming it DID use the power supply on the monitor, you could easily bypass that and go right onto the traces of the board or tap the harness based on the pinout of some known chips. For example, all 74XX (7400, 7401, 74ls01, etc) all use pin 7 for ground and pin 14 for 5V. All you have to do is figure out which traces go where, etc, for each power supply and wire in a modern type unit. The bronze age classics did not use a separate power supply (ironically, Computer Space did).

 

HTH, hunt down a monitor manual or let me know and I can dig around here this week if you cant find one on line.

 

C

[BigO]

You obviously have been around the block a time or two with these old machines. I appreciate getting the benefit of your experience.

 

I am kinda kicking around the idea of using a different power supply with the thought of how much cleaner power probably is available with an up-to-date supply for next to nothing. Should help protect the circuitry a little better.

 

I suppose there's no reason to try to be 100% authentic anyway considering that:

A) there's likely zero market for this thing so it won't hurt the value

B) such a modification is not unlike like what would have been done by an operator if the machine had chronic problems.

 

 

It shouldn't be much of a chore to figure out where the power hooks up. I expect the manual that's coming with the board will probably supply that detail. Tying into the harness would be a non-event and certainly would be a clean way to go. If not, I can figure out from the monitor data sheets what the power was. The harness is still in place in the machine, so that will help a lot.

 

I downloaded and printed the two OEM manuals that I mentioned earlier. They appear to give me everything I should need to troubleshoot the monitor. It gives waveforms at the testpoints and such. I've tinkered with TV's here and there and have somewhat ready access to a guy with about 40 years experience in electronics repair. Short of losing interest, I should be able to get the video going.

 

If the CRT happens to be bad, what are the chances of finding a replacement? I've already primed my graphics guy for the possibility of having to create a new overlay for the screen. "No problem", he says...

 

I'll give Zanen a call to order up those parts. Maybe after I get the logic board. Not yet sure when that will be here.

Edited October 16, 2007 by BigO

[Cassidy Nolen]

At this point, finding a "new" monitor is just short of impossible. There might be one in a warehouse somewhere but I would say that is about the only way one is flopping around. I have seen dead tubes, flybacks and deflection yokes on those monitors but never all 3 on one Luckily there are TONS of dead black and white games around to scavenge parts from. Even Lloyd occasionally sells a dead machine but with a good monitor. My Night Driver cockpit monitor was out of a 280ZZap that was dead, my first ND monitor was from Laguna Racer, my Breakout monitor was from a Princess Pong, My Anti-Aircraft was from somwhere, etc....you get the idea. Scavenging parts from machines that nobody would ever fix is not a crime IMHO. I would rather see the hobby perpetuated by one clean working game than by two dead ones. I will also assure you value will not be diminished as it is next to impossible to value these anyway. Anything you spend time doing correctly is bette than what an operator would do. Seriously. The goal of an operator is to keep making money. The machine is disposable. I have been on both sides of that coin and can tell you it is a very different goal, you are doing 10 times what an operator would do (I have actually cut wiring out of the harness to rewire other areas because the piece was missing/broken and I had to get it working or I would lose the game location...no wire nuts, tape etc. just bare wire).

 

Sorry I did not note the manual find, good. Glad they are still out there. A few years back there was a spies.archives site that had TONS of manuals online. Mind you this was the early internet days of game repair so one place was really a gold mine to find (heck, even MAME sites had all the roms you would ever need right online. Great for reburning chips you needed). You'll get that game going, no doubts in my mind. As for originality, I am all about keeping it on real hardware but thats the end of my authentic. In other words, if you run a modern power supply you are most likely extending the game life for many years to come. My Computer Space is running a modern supply and the graphics are bright and clear. With the original linear supply they are muted and the boards tend to glitch more (I have one horizontal index that just does not want to stay working).

 

Let us know when you get the board...we're rooting for you!

 

Cassidy

[BigO]

Scavenging parts from machines that nobody would ever fix is not a crime IMHO.

You mean machines like, say, "Bombs Away"?

 

Edited October 16, 2007 by BigO

[BigO]

Got the board today. It's in decent shape. There's a light layer of oxidation on a lot of it. The crystal can is a little corroded. No cracks or burns or hacked off components. Shows signs of having replaced one chip at some point.

 

The manual is almost not worth having. No schematic to help with troubleshooting . . . . thassa lotsa chips . . . lotsa chips . . . no sockets . . .

It does have the pinout of the edge connector, though. That'll be helpful.

 

Also got a mint condition original promotional flyer today.

Edited October 20, 2007 by BigO

[BigO]

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7184

 

Yeah, it's rare. Help KLOV out and send him some pictures.

 

Did that. Does it ordinarily take a week or more for the pictures to post once they're uploaded?

 

I'm now the one known instance of this game on VAPS.