What is wrong with my Bonq, Space Dual, Asteroids Deluxe, and PacMan Collec

[Atarifever]

Can anyone give me a simple explanation of what it is that is wrong with my homebrews? They all work, given enough time. However, the system needs to warm up before any of them work. I don't understand it because:

 

1) They all "don't work" in different ways. For example, when Space Dual is "not working" I get only a black screen and nothing else. When PacMan Collection doesn't work, the Atari logo screen goes funny and then a black screen. When Bonq and Asteroids don't work, they're glitchy looking, but are actually playable with the glitches disappearing the more I play.

 

2) Other protos and homebrews work just fine. Missing in Action, Klax, Beef Drop (pokey version), PacMan (direct from Bob) etc all work fine.

 

 

By the way, while I'm on this topic, anyone know what could go wrong for a copy of Ballblazer to have no sound? I am assuming it's something pokey related, as the sound has never worked in that cart, but works fine in all my other games, including Beef Drop.

Edited October 10, 2008 by Atarifever

[+Mitch]

Can anyone give me a simple explanation of what it is that is wrong with my homebrews? They all work, given enough time. However, the system needs to warm up before any of them work. I don't understand it because:

 

1) They all "don't work" in different ways. For example, when Space Dual is "not working" I get only a black screen and nothing else. When PacMan Collection doesn't work, the Atari logo screen goes funny and then a black screen. When Bonq and Asteroids don't work, they're glitchy looking, but are actually playable with the glitches disappearing the more I play.

 

2) Other protos and homebrews work just fine. Missing in Action, Klax, Beef Drop (pokey version), PacMan (direct from Bob) etc all work fine.

 

 

By the way, while I'm on this topic, anyone know what could go wrong for a copy of Ballblazer to have no sound? I am assuming it's something pokey related, as the sound has never worked in that cart, but works fine in all my other games, including Beef Drop.

 

I'm guessing that it has to do with the timing on the PROMs. I know when I was working on MIA I had a lot of problems with timing between the PAL chip and PROM. I had to do a lot of extra testing to make sure they were working properly.

 

On your Ballblazer cart it sounds like your Pokey chip may be dead. Pretty uncommon for that to happen but not impossible.

 

Mitch

[mimo]

Do you have another 7800 to try them on, maybe the fault is with the console not the carts?

[kenfused]

On your Ballblazer cart it sounds like your Pokey chip may be dead. Pretty uncommon for that to happen but not impossible.

 

Mitch

 

When making the Pokey Beef Drops I ran into a couple of carts where Pokey did not work. The cart would only have TIA sound and I found no problems with damaged board traces, so I swapped out the pokey chips and then pokey sounds worked afterwards (yes, I didn't test them before cannibalizing and converting them). I also have seen a cart or two that had really badly installed pokey chips (one end would be virtually soldered on top of the board and not even in the holes, all though they were soldered and did work. Also on a few, the boards were dirty and sometimes the cap at the pokey was completely corroded off and falling apart (these were brand new sealed carts and the the carts and labels were clean, so god knows where the boards were stored before assembly). So yes, I would say it is possible to get a bum one.

[Rik]

Yeah,carts can go bad even if new sealed from just sitting in the box for decades,this is especially true for the 7800 games.I gather sealed games are not all that perfect.Years of humidity collects in the boxes,and cant escape because of shrink wrap.I wonder how many of my 7800 sealed games are rotted out.Theres always a BAD batch in anything