Weird problem with The Voice and Mr Roboto homebrew...

[CaptainBreakout]

I thought I'd post this here...  I have an original copy of Mr Roboto from Good Deal Games.

 

Love the thing... it's like Archon, but simpler.

 

Anyways, the thing has got great The Voice support, but won't work on my The Voice...

 

It does really weird crashing that seems to be related to how the cartridge is inserted.  Apparently the Video Game Critic has the same problem if you read the details of his review... 

 

https://videogamecritic.com/oddmo.htm?e=73241#rev2144

 

It's just baffling to me.  I've cleaned the pins to a shine on my Odyssey 2, my backup system, and The Voice... but I just don't get why this game won't work right (works fine without The Voice... but no voice effects of course).

 

Looking into the Voice's cart connector... I noticed there's some kind of wire running to one of the pins on the connector.  Maybe something to do with it?

[ozyr]

Never had an issue with this cart. I did have an issue with Acrobats glitching years ago (and just that game), turned out the Voice wasn’t 100% working, and replaced it. Just a thought…
 

that weird wire in the Voice is just a jumper wire.

[ozyr]

Worse comes to worse, I could look at it. Maybe try a replacement (less than a full replacement). - I'm the guy that puts these together still.

[CaptainBreakout]

53 minutes ago, ozyr said:

Worse comes to worse, I could look at it. Maybe try a replacement (less than a full replacement). - I'm the guy that puts these together still.

All this is extreme cool of you.  

 

I'll be in touch with you on this as it unfolds.

 

I just picked up another Odyssey 2 unit out of a storage unit in an unknown state.  I successfully put in a composite mod last week on one. This new one will make three O2 units I've worked on... But I've never cracked open The Voice.

 

Is that jumper wire something I can solder to the board, rather then it leaning up on the pins of the cart connector? It seems kind of weird that it's there.

 

Anyhow, if you are willing to look at it, I'm happy to offer a trade for the service.

 

I only have one Voice unit, so I don't have another to swap for troubleshooting, but like I said I have two O2s... Soon to be three if I'm lucky.  I have two other Voice games besides Mr Roboto... those are Killer Bees and Down (a homebrew) and both of these seem fine on this unit on both O2s.  As far as Mr Roboto, The Voice unit does seem to behave differently depending on which O2 it is attached to. One glitches the game right away, the other glitches at game start or at the select menu.  Any common failure points I should look at?

 

(Thanks again!!!)

[ozyr]

One thing, are you using proper power with voice. I’d have to look at mine, but it requires more juice.

 

That wire by the pins, just leave it. I’m not messing with mine. I’m sure it’s attached in there.

Edited June 24 by ozyr

[CaptainBreakout]

On 6/24/2024 at 1:11 AM, ozyr said:

One thing, are you using proper power with voice. I’d have to look at mine, but it requires more juice.

 

That wire by the pins, just leave it. I’m not messing with mine. I’m sure it’s attached in there.

Just to follow up, I had high hopes that the power supply was the problem, as you implied.

 

I tried a trusty Sega Genesis power supply in the thing... And dang it almost wanted to work at first!

 

At least I thought it did.  Dang.  Same issues tho.

 

I'm since gotten Smithereens.   And something seems ... off... about the voice in this game. It also seems kinda glitchy like it's not responding to the controllers properly.

 

I don't have another Voice module to swap out, however, so I'm limited to trying it with it, or without it.

 

What would you do?  Recap the Voice?  Any common failure points in it?

[ozyr]

Sorry about late reply. If you got two games not working, sounds more like hardware issue. Could be O2 and or Voice. Maybe post in forum, someone may know.