Main > Main Forum
Arkanoid help heeded
(1/3) > >>
Entropy42:
Edit: These problems have all been fixed, but now when I play, starting at the 6th level, 4 blocks appear in the upper left corner of my screen.  They are killable, but the silver one needs to be hit at a certain weird angle to break it (i must've hit it 50+ times).  I think they appear on all subsequent levels as well.  I have a picture of the 4 blocks if anyone needs to see it to know what I'm talking about.  Another thing that happened is that on the level with a circular ball of blocks in the middle, the blocks were all shifted about 4 squares to the right, and the rightmost 2 columns of blocks in teh ball appeared along the left wall instead (as if they wrapped around the screen).

Last year for Christmas, my whole family chipped in and bought me an Arkanoid arcade game (cocktail-style), as my one big present. This was awesome for a number of reasons, but sadly the person they bought it from on Ebay sold them a partially-working machine.

You can only move the paddle to the right.

Spinning either the 1st or 2nd player spinner left or right always causes the paddle to move to the right. Strangely, sometimes this isn't the case, and the 1st player spinner works fine (this is rare though and hasn't happened for months). My first thought was that the left and right connections were touching, so everything was interpreted as a left signal, but the wires seem to be fine.  I've checked the wiring, replaced the PCB, and tested voltages but I just can't figure out what's wrong with it.
If anyone has seen this sort of thing before or has any advice on what to try, please let me know.  I don't really know anything about restoring arcade games, because I didn't intend on having to restore Arkanoid.  :-\
Jabba:
Entropy42,

I have an Arkanoid upright at home. I'm not sure if the same wiring scheme is the same as the cocktail but it might be. A couple of questions for you...

1. Are both spinners not working? Does one work some times and the other doesn't? If both spinners are not working, it probably rules out a bad board on the spinner. I doubt the boards on both spinners would be dead at the same time. Could be a wiring problem. A loose connection, broken wire, etc...

2. A PDF file for the wiring scheme for Arkanoid Upright can be found at http://www.arcadedocs.com/vidmanuals/A/arkanoid.pdf. This might held to make sure wiring is as per factory setup.

I can take a picture of my setup if you think this would help debug the problem.

Grauwulf:
Could be bad optic boards on the spinners, but for both of them to fail in exactly the same way is pretty unlikely. It still sounds to me like a wiring issue.
Entropy42:
Both spinners have exactly the same problem.  The 2nd player spinner has never worked properly, but the 1st player spinner will sometimes work right (although rarely and not for many months).  I'll compare your wiring scheme to the one in my cocktail as soon as I can.  Thanks for the help.

It seems that this table was a conversion from something else, since the wires inside have all been spliced and there is no art.  Then again I've heard that all arkanoid cocktails are "bootleg" cause the game was never meant to have the screen flip.

The other problem I have is that the screen is slightly shifted to the right, and the right edge of the screen slants upward.  
Jabba:
Could be a problem in the splicing. Did you test the wires between the spinner control and the harness connector? May be a broken wire in there that is sometimes touching thus sometimes allowing the spinner to work. 2nd spinner never working could possibly indicate a broken wire or a fried optical board, which you may need to replace. Maybe www.therealbobroberts.com would have one.

As to the slanting problem, do you mean physically (monitor misplaced) or on the screen. There are some dial controls on my Upright behind the monitor on a separate board that are used to control the horizontal and vertial position of the screen (kinda like on older TVs). These are located on a board behind the monitor. You may have them and can be adjusted manually. I've had had to fiddle with these to get it just right.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page

Go to full version