Can't get the Key Chip Menu to stay on the screen

[mark1120]

I recently picked up another board with the Lobstermania software on it so that I can swap out games on one of my existing i-games, but I'm having some trouble with this particular board.  (I do the normal 22 clear chip, etc.).  The color on the monitor alternates like normal as it attempts to initialize the system.....and then it seems like it tries to get to the Key Chip Menu, but fails....I will see the Key Chip Menu for a split second...it will flicker on and off the screen and then revert back to alternating screen colors.  A few minutes will pass and it will again try to display the Key Chip Menu, but fail.  After 20 minutes on two different machines, I finally gave up.  Has anyone experienced something like this before?  Any suggestions?  Thanks for your help!

[CaptainHappy]

I recently picked up another board with the Lobstermania software on it so that I can swap out games on one of my existing i-games, but I'm having some trouble with this particular board.  (I do the normal 22 clear chip, etc.).  The color on the monitor alternates like normal as it attempts to initialize the system.....and then it seems like it tries to get to the Key Chip Menu, but fails....I will see the Key Chip Menu for a split second...it will flicker on and off the screen and then revert back to alternating screen colors.  A few minutes will pass and it will again try to display the Key Chip Menu, but fail.  After 20 minutes on two different machines, I finally gave up.  Has anyone experienced something like this before?  Any suggestions?  Thanks for your help!

That game calls for a KEY00017, so give that a try. Some games that call for KEY00017 will work with a KEY00022, but not always. Maybe that will work for you?

CaptainHappy

[brianfink]

I think I remember having a similar problem with key 2040 it would only work when I did a ram clear first

 or use key 17

[mark1120]

Thanks for the replies.  Is it possible I'm doing any of the steps incorrectly for this particular game switch?  My machine originally had a board (board A) with Benny Big Game on it.  I removed that board (board A).  I then inserted a brand new board (board B) with the 22 clear chip.  This new board (board B) immediate took me to the reboot menu screen:

Clear RAM Before Reboot
Clear E2 and Ram Before Reboot
Perform Key Chip After Reboot
Reboot Machine

I selected "Yes" for all of those options and then removed board B from the machine.  I then replaced the 22 clear chip on board B with a Base 749 chip (that came with the Lobstermania board) and inserted board B back into the machine.  This is when the machine kept trying to go to the Key Chip Menu but would fail and revert back to the alternating colored screens.  The bill acceptor would always make a lot of noise just before the machine tried to display the Key Chip Menu. 

After the above failed attempt, I reinserted board A back into the machine and got Benny Big Game to come back up.

Next, I tried one of the two 17 chips that I have based on your suggestions.  I removed board A from the machine and inserted board B with a 17 chip.  With the 17 chip, the reboot menu screen wouldn't even come up.  Instead, the screen displayed a pink color that did not change.  I then removed board B and replaced my first 17 chip with my second 17 chip just in case there was something wrong with that first chip.  This time, all I received was a fuzzy looking screen.  I could not get the reboot menu screen to appear with a 17 chip in board B.

For what its worth, I've been able to swap out other games in the past, such as Texas Tea for Money Storm, using the approach I described above with a 22 chip.

Thanks for your help!

[CaptainHappy]

You are almost there! The key17 is just that only a key chip, no clear functions. It DOES NOT have a menu screen like the key 22 does! After you get that solid color screen, turn off the power, take the MPU board out and put your base chip in the place of the key chip, return the MPU board to the machine and power up. After it boots it should come up into the KEY menu and you can setup what you need to. Although it takes a while, make sure you stay close to the machine because the key menu will time out and go to the game after some amount of minutes if you don't get to setting it up. As I said before, some games will only work with the KEY00017.

Hopefully this gets you going! You are close! That is one of my favorite games, you will have fun playing it soon!

CaptainHappy

[Foster]

Never mind.
I missed part of Captain Happy's Post.