New Life Games Tech Forums

Fixed: 1943:
Symptom: Garbled player/enemy sprites

Problem would come and go with tapping/flexing of the board set. Flipped set over and isolated the problem down (by light tapping) to a custom surface mount chip on the ROM board. A closer inspection revealed 3 pins on the chip that were barely soldered at the factory. The connection broke loose resulting in the corruption. Repaired 3 bad solder connections on surface mount chip to fix the game.

Game: Super Buster Bros
Symptom: Dead. Solid white screen

This board uses the Kabuki CPU, a modified Z80 with a decode table kept in internal RAM. If the battery dies, the board will suicide.

Revived the board by removing R33 and jumpering the right side pad from R33 to ground to make the Kabuki act like a standard Z80. Replaced the ROMs at 11H, 13H, and 14H with ones programmed with suicide free code. Jumpered pin 30 on each 27C020 and pin 1 on the 27C512 replacement ROMs to pin 27 of the Kabuki CPU to finish the repair.

Suicide free code and instructions are both available off the Dead Battery Society website (http://www.arcadecollecting.com/dead/dead.html).

Game: Super Pang
Symptom: Dead. Solid white screen

Like Super Buster Bros., this board uses the Kabuki CPU, a modified Z80 with a decode table kept in internal RAM. If the battery dies, the board will suicide.

Revived the board by removing R33 and jumpering the right side pad from R33 to ground to make the Kabuki act like a standard Z80. Replaced the ROMs at 11H, 13H, and 14H with ones programmed with suicide free code. Jumpered pin 30 on each 27C020 and pin 1 on the 27C512 replacement ROMs to pin 27 of the Kabuki CPU. Removed the battery to finish the repair.

Suicide free code and instructions are both available off the Dead Battery Society website (http://www.arcadecollecting.com/dead/dead.html).

Game: Super Buster Bros
Symptom: Dead

This game had the same problem of a dead suicide battery. It needed new ROMs programmed and a slight reconfiguration to make the Kabuki CPU act like a normal Z80.

On these games, the first thing to test is the NiCD battery. If it's low then the game will have suicided. There's no way to reprogram the codes into the Kabuki so using the "Phoenix" code and board modifications listed at the Dead Battery Society website is the only way to bring these pre-CPS1 suicided games back to life.

Be sure to remove the battery to keep it from leaking on the board. Many of these old batteries will have started leaking. This is evidenced by a blue or blue-green crystalline growth on the ends of the battery. In bad cases it will creep along the traces and corrode them and any components it comes into contact with.

Model: Super Buster Bros
Symptom: Dead - Suicided

Removed 1 resistor and jumpered one pin to ground on the Kabuki CPU. Programmed 2 2Mb EPROMs and 1 512K EPROM with Phoenixed code. Jumpered pin 1 of the 512K EPROM to pin 30 on both 2Mb EPROMs and to pin 27 of the Kabuki CPU. Tested board.

Model: Super Buster Bros.
Symptom: Dead

Someone attempted to phoenix the board incorrectly. It had a Z80B Processor instead of the Kabuki, but they did not remove R33. Removed R33, installed missing EPROMs for 11H, 13H, and 14H with ones programmed with the phoenix code. Jumpered one bad trace, reset the NVRAM, and tested.

Model: Super Buster Bros.
Symptom: Dead

Someone attempted to phoenix the board incorrectly. It was missing the Kabuki CPU, they did not remove R33, and they installed 27C040 EPROMs with pin 31 removed instead of the 27C020 EPROMs for 13H and 14H. Removed R33, installed the correct 27C020 EPROMs for 11H and 13H. Erased and reprogrammed the 27C512 at 14H with the phoenix code. Reset the NVRAM and tested.

When using 27C040 EPROMs instead of the 27C020 the code must be loaded into the upper half of the EPROM as pin 31 (A18) is tied high by the game board. Leaving it floating leads to game crashing as the state of the pin cannot be guaranteed. To use the lower half of the EPROM pin 31 must be lifted out of the socket and tied to ground with a jumper wire.

Model: Buster Bros
Symptom: Dead - Suicided

Removed 1 resistor and jumpered pin 28 to ground on the Kabuki CPU. Programmed 1 2Mb EPROMs and 1 512K EPROM with Phoenixed code. Jumpered pin 1 of the 512K EPROM to pin 30 on the 2Mb EPROM and to pin 27 of the Kabuki CPU. Tested board.

Model: Poker Ladies
Symptom: Dead

Board had suicided. Removed 1 resistor and jumpered pin 28 to ground the Kabuki CPU. Programmed 1 2Mb EPROMs and 1 512K EPROM with Phoenixed code. Jumpered pin 1 of the 512K EPROM to pin 30 on the 2Mb EPROM and to pin 27 of the Kabuki CPU.

Board uses a unique pinout and not "Capcom Classic" or JAMMA. Built an adapter and tested board.

Model: Buster Bros
Symptom: Dead. White screen.

Board was sent in with the description of "phoenixed, but failed. white screen."

Fixed a shorted connection between pin 1 of the 27512 and pin 30 of the 27020 with the socket for the 27020. These pins are supposed to be lifted from their sockets and tied back to pin 27 of the Kabuki CPU. Board would then play blind but with a white screen. Replaced 2 bad color RAMs and tested.

Model: Super Buster Bros
Symptom: Locks up

Board was sent in with the description of "phoenixed, but locks up"

Replaced the 27020 at 13H and fixed a shorted connection between pin 1 of the 27512 and pin 30 of the 27020 chips at 13H and 14H with the socket for the 27020 at 14H. These pins are supposed to be lifted from their sockets and tied back to pin 27 of the Kabuki CPU. Board would then play but had graphic corruption. There were pins on 3 sides of the PLCC surface mount chip at 3K that were not soldered at the factory. Resoldered those pins and tested.