New Life Games Tech Forums

Model: Rally Bike
Symptom: Garbage video - dead

The screen was black with a small section of garbage characters on it. Board would make the coin up sounds when the coin mechs were triggered. Looked at the board carefully and found a corroded pin on a capacitor. This corrosion went down into the PC board and ate an internal trace. This disconnected power from 2 ROMs. Removed the cap, cleaned up as much of the damage as possible, and ran 2 jumper wires to fix the game.

Model: Renegade
Symptom: Dead

Board was dead - garbage on screen. Replaced the 68A09 CPU and the game would run but glitch and lock up. Replaced the 6502A CPU and the game would play but had no music. Voice worked fine. Replaced a bad op-amp in the audio amplifier section and played a game to test it.

Model: Hishou Zame (Japanese Sky Shark)
Symptom: Player shadow, enemy plane shadow, and explosion graphics are corrupt

Replaced a bad ROM at location B02-04 and tested.

Model: F3 main board
Symptom: Makes a loud noise

Replaced bad fan and tested

Model: F3 - Bubble Memories
Symptoms: Locks up and resets. Audio is not correct.

Cartridge was a converted cartridge. Replaced 4 slow EPROMs and 2 bad EPROMs. Replaced 1 incorrect PAL chip and tested.

Model: F3 - Bubble Symphony
Symptom: Convert from Japan region to USA

Erased and reprogrammed the rightmost EPROM to change the region and tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Constantly resets

Replaced bad EPROM at A78-08. Added jumpers at JPA and JPB and tested.

Model: F3 - Bust-a-Move Again / Puzzle Bobble 2
Symptom: Garbled graphics

Background and text graphics were good. The motion graphics were corrupt. ROM E10-01 had a hole in the top and E10-02 was bubbled up. Replaced them with 27C800 EPROMs programmed with the code from the MAME dumps. Reprogrammed E10-09 to convert the game from Japan region (Puzzle Bobble 2) to the US region (Bust-a-Move Again) and tested.

Model: F3
Tip: Convert games to different regions

The F3 system uses keyed cartridge connectors for different regions. To change regions on the game requires either the modification of the connectors, removing the keys, or reprogramming of the EPROMs.

To reprogram the EPROMs, simply change the last byte of the last Program EPROM on the right: 01 = Japan, 02 = USA, and 03 = Europe

Model: F3
Tip: Making a multi-region cart

CAUTION: Be careful wiring the switch! If you miswire it you could create a dead short between +5v and ground which could damage the cartridge and/or game board. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Some carts look MUCH better in Japan region than they do in the US region: Puzzle Bobble 2 is an example of one. To change the region one must change the last byte of the right most EPROM so to make a dual region cart, simply use an EPROM that is 2x the size and copy/edit the code.

The Puzzle Bobble 2 cart uses a 27C020-12 EPROM. Read the right most EPROM into your programmer. Copy the code region from 00000 to 3FFFF and paste it into region 40000 to 7FFFF. Next edit the byte at 7FFFF and change it to 02 for the US region. Program it into a 27C040-12 EPROM and verify it. Next, mount a SPDT switch to the top case of the cartridge. Wire one outside contact to +5v and the other to ground. Take the EPROM, bend pin 31 out straight from the body of the chip and trim the skinny part of the leg off. Solder a wire from the uppermost address line which, in the case of the 27C040, is pin 31 to the center contact of the switch.

To run one region, flip the switch then power up the unit. To change regions, turn the game off then move the switch to the other position and power it back up.

DO NOT flip the switch while power is on. It could crash the game - but won't cause damage. You WILL need to reset the backup data when changing regions, just like you would if you switched carts on the F3 system.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Stuck in reset

Replaced bad EPROM at A78-8 and bad Z80 CPU at location 36. Installed jumpers at JPA and JPB to change coin up functions. Board now works but has missing audio. Replaced physically damaged caps in the sound section and tested.

Model: F3
Symptom: Missing Video RAM chip

Board was missing a surface mount IC and had attempted repair damage. Rebuilt 4 pulled pads, soldered in a replacement video RAM IC at location IC8, and soldered one jumper wire. Replaced dead cooling fan and tested.

Model: F3
Symptom: Up control doesn't work

Game does not register an up motion on the joystick. Checked the pin on the JAMMA edge and found it was not tied high, but was grounding properly when the stick was pushed up. Replaced a bad 390 ohm resistor pack at location RB17 and tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Sound intermittant and graphic corruption

Text characters were wrong color and some were replaced by colored blocks. The Bubble Bobble title screen was corrupt. Replaced bad EPROM at A78-15 and 3 bad capacitors and tested.

Model: Battle Shark
Symptom: Corrupt graphics

Fixed bent pin on IC29. Reflowed IC29 to fix smeared solder issue. Replaced a cracked RAM at IC120 and tested.

Model: Twin Cobra
Symptom: Stuck on self test screen

Board would not boot past self test screen. Custom protection chip "GXC-03" was bad. Swapped out the USA ROMs and the matching "GXC-04" protection chip from a parts board and tested game.

Model: Light Bringer
Symptom: Flickering graphics with horizontal lines on the screen

Repaired broken ground pin on the PAL chip at IC62. Tested.

Model: Renegade
Symptom: Dead. Garbage on screen

Replaced defective ribbon cables between the 2 boards. Tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Dead. Stuck in reset.

Replaced bad PAL at location IC43. Tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Dead. Stuck in reset.

Replaced bad ROM at IC50 and IC51. Replaced bad PAL. Replaced bad 74LS157 at location IC40 and IC13. Replaced bad 74LS245 at location IC54. Tested. Board booted with an I/O Error. Replaced cracked PC030CM hybrid module. Tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Dead. Stuck in reset.

Replaced bad CPU socket. Replaced bad 74LS245 ICs at IC28, IC29, IC54, and IC18. Replaced bad 74HC245 at location IC59. Installed jumpers at JPA, JPB, and JP6. Tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Plays blind

Board had nothing on screen except some random splashes of color. Replaced a bad 7LS374 at IC58 on the video board to return the background and text. There were no characters and no blue colors. Replaced bad 74LS163 at IC25 to fix character problem. Replaced bad PC040DA hybrid at IC85 to fix the lack of blue output. Tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Distorted music

Sound effects were normal, but music was distorted. Recapped audio section and replaced 1 bad TL074 Op Amp. Tested.

Model: Cadash
Symptom: Dead

Replaced missing TC0070 hybrid. Board reported bad Work RAM. Replaced IC16 and tested.

Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Dead. Stuck in Reset

Replaced bad ROM at IC52. CPU 1 would continuously reset when trying to read the Work RAM. Replaced bad 74LS245 at IC52 and the board booted to an IO ERROR message. Replaced cracked PC030CM hybrid module and installed PC style jumpers at JPA and JPB. Tested. Player 1 would not move left. Cleaned edge connector and retested successfuly.

Model: Final Blow
Symptom: No sync and corrupt graphics.

Cleaned board and edge connector. Resoldered the TC0070 SIP and fixed 2 bent pins on the SMD custom ICs. Tested.