Could I need new buttons?

[Shredder]

I have TMNT 1/2 and Simpsons boards.  However, unlike in the arcade, it's tougher to do the special double attack by pressing both buttons simultaniously.   Anyone have any idea why this could be?  I just played a dedicated cab of these games in the arcade over the weekend, and it worked everytime.  on my machine, it worked 1 out of 7 times...

[SirPeale]

You said you have the boards and it's not working?

Check the DIP switch settings, all I can think of.

[AmericanDemon]

Check to see if the buttons are leaf switches.  If they are, you may need to adjust the leaves.  The special moves need to be hit at the same moment in time, so if the leaves are too far apart, then the timing would be off and the move wouldn't work.

[Shredder]

Could you post a picture of this type of button so I can see what I have?

Thanks

[FractalWalk]

Could you post a picture of this type of button so I can see what I have?

Check the controls section: there is plenty of info there. http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade_definitions.htm#LEAF

[Shredder]

Nope, that's not mine.    Mine has a white plastic holder with the word Cherry written on it... not much of a description.  I'll have to try and find a picture of it..

[AmericanDemon]

You have a microswitch based button.  Its normal as far as if you need new ones....  have you tried the other player buttons?

[OSCAR]

If it says Cherry, it is almost certainly a microswitch button.

However, the description of your problem sounds a lot like what I see very often with the old style IL buttons with an integrated switch.  A lot of the old games I pick up usually either have these buttons or leafswitch buttons in them.  These old style IL buttons have vertical tabs sticking out the bottom of the button and use an internal disc that makes contact with the tabs when the button is pushed down.

When the disc and contacts get oxidized, it takes either a lot of pressure or multiple presses on the button to make it register.  When they are really bad, it may only register a press 1 out of 5 hits or so.  They are pretty easy to fix, though.  You can pull the end right off and then buff the disc and contacts to remove the oxidation, then it is like new again.  People complain that leafswitch buttons are a lot of maintenance, but I have see more trouble with these style of buttons that I ever have with leaf buttons.