13 replies to this topic

[LinkoVitch]

Hiya
I have a JAMMA of Primal Rage. Only problem is the player gfx are all corrupted completely. I have run the tests and they say that every single ROM on the MOB board is corrupt. I am unsure if this is the case or there is another problem as if I disconnect the power from that board I get exactly the same checksums.

Also I noticed that the ROM's on the MOB and sound boards are Atari Games ROM's but the Primal Rage ROM's on the mainboard are EPROMS!

DOes anyone have any idea what could cause this problem? The rest of the game works perfectly, sound and energy meters, even background gfx. just the forground moving objects that don't seem to work. I have a feeling there is a fault elsewhere?

Perhaps the issue is related to power? if the 12V wasn't connected could this cause this problem?

Hope someone on here has an idea! I'd love to see this game running.

[dbpbandit]

Has the game ever worked? It sounds like a power issue, you might want to re-seat the board sets, make sure your not missing any pins. I have had tests show bad ROM but so far re-seating them has corrected the problems. When I get home I will take a look at my board set and see if I can come up with anymore suggestions.
Good Luck...
Dave...

David Pasquinelli
dave@pasquinellifamily.com
WebMaster, PasquinelliFamily.com
Visit us on the web at
www.pasquinellifamily.com

[LinkoVitch]

dbpbandit said:

Has the game ever worked? It sounds like a power issue, you might want to re-seat the board sets, make sure your not missing any pins. I have had tests show bad ROM but so far re-seating them has corrected the problems. When I get home I will take a look at my board set and see if I can come up with anymore suggestions.
Good Luck...
Dave...

I bought it of ebay as working, when I went to collect the seller showed me the board to prove it worked, however it exhibited the current problem. The chap was decent enough to not ask for any money and just gave me the board.

He did say that he had played it loads and it had always worked fine.

I ask about the power because in the back of my cab there is a spade connector near the switcher which is not connected. I traced the cable back to the original connector and JAMMA adapter (it's an old Silverline 26 cab) and the wire was connected to a pin marked as spare voltage. I was just wondering if this could be the problem, it seems strange that if it were the board otherwise seems to function fine, including sound.

Thanks in advance for any ideas you may come up with. I will try removing and reseating all the chips on the board.

[dbpbandit]

I can't remember off hand if mine uses the spare output or not, I'll have to check. You might try searching the web for the proper JAMMA connections, you may just be missing a ground. Mine is a Pre-Prod version so it may be different than the actual production version. If I remember correctly, there is a gray ribbon cable that connects the board sets, make sure it is connected correctly and not pinched or broken.

Dave...

David Pasquinelli
dave@pasquinellifamily.com
WebMaster, PasquinelliFamily.com
Visit us on the web at
www.pasquinellifamily.com

[LinkoVitch]

dbpbandit said:

I can't remember off hand if mine uses the spare output or not, I'll have to check. You might try searching the web for the proper JAMMA connections, you may just be missing a ground. Mine is a Pre-Prod version so it may be different than the actual production version. If I remember correctly, there is a gray ribbon cable that connects the board sets, make sure it is connected correctly and not pinched or broken.  

There is no ribbon cable, the boards connect with the main via a rather substantial plug (with many many pins).. perhaps there are diff models, some with ribbon cables and some with these connectors. (this is as well as the power connector too)

[dbpbandit]

Could very well be different, like I said mine is a pre production model, a lot of things change prior to final release and production. It still sounds like a power issue as opposed to bad ROM's/EPROM'S. I'll check mine and let you know if I think of anything else.

Dave...

David Pasquinelli
dave@pasquinellifamily.com
WebMaster, PasquinelliFamily.com
Visit us on the web at
www.pasquinellifamily.com

[dbpbandit]

Did you have any luck getting your Primal RAGE to work?

Dave...

David Pasquinelli
dave@pasquinellifamily.com
WebMaster, PasquinelliFamily.com
Visit us on the web at
www.pasquinellifamily.com

[dbpbandit]

I picked this up from another group, this person is having a similar problem with there RAGE game.

"Try unplugging the daughter boards (audio and ROM) and cleaning the pins
with rubbing alcohol. Maybe there is a weak connection. If that doesn't
work, carefully remove *all* the suspect ROMs (related to the character
objects) and clean the legs with rubbing alcohol and reinsert them. Make
SURE you insert them the right way and, if the sockets are longer than the
chip (more socket holes than chip pins), make sure you place the chip on the
correct end of the socket. Don't pull all the chips at once, just one at a
time, so you don't forget placement/position. Use the others as reference."

Good Luck.

Dave...


David Pasquinelli
dave@pasquinellifamily.com
WebMaster, PasquinelliFamily.com
Visit us on the web at
www.pasquinellifamily.com
/position. Use the others as reference.

[LinkoVitch]

I was thinking there may be a problem there as the chip legs look quite tarnished. however on my board the MOB chips are the same size as the sockets, there are other chips which are shorter than the sockets I think this are the character set chips and they work fine ..

I shall try what you suggested. Thanks for your help

[dbpbandit]

So, did you get it working yet?

Dave...

[LinkoVitch]

dbpbandit said:

So, did you get it working yet?  

Dave...

Not had chance to try yet.. been a bit hecktic.. I haven't forgotten it.. I will let you know. hopefully this week

Thanks

[LinkoVitch]

update (finally)

I reseated every ROM on the character board, I also tested the ROM's with my EPROM burner against images I found on the net, and all matched 100%, so the ROM's are good.

However the same problem persists. I did notice on the character board 3 jumper pins that have no jumper on them, so I experimented with them. In some combinations I get the corrupt graphics being replaced by a solid block of colour, other combinations do various other things. None seem to give the correct output.

Does anyone have a working board that they could tell me which jumpers should be shorted on the character board and also the main board. I suspect someone has stupidly removed jumpers from the board and not put them back for some reason :/

[sebastius]

I think you have a bad adress or data line somewhere. So that means that one chip of the 'glue logic' or a cable/track/trace/socket is faulty. A logic analyser or even a oscilloscope would help greatly.

Some minor tips and tricks:

Player graphics are usually in a seperate piece of RAM/ROM/adress logic. Since your game claims all roms are corrupt, but the background etc checks out, it will be important to find the ROM. You can try by removing one rom at the time (switch the game off first). If you find one special culprit, then check adress logic and data buffers.

[LinkoVitch]

The game board is split into several boards sections. I know which bank of ROM's hold the player data, they are on the player data board convientiently

All other ROM checksum out OK within the game, just the character roms that fail their checksums.