Millipede Cabinet doing weird things

[Hildy_42]

I am going this Thursday to pick up a Millipede cabinet.  The cabinet is in pretty good shape.  But the seller told me about the problem it is having and I have never seen this before.  Everything looks great put after you play the first level the game resets itself.  So you can only play the first level and that is it.  Anybody ever see this before?  I don't have it at home yet to take a closer look at it but I was wondering if this might be a dip switch setting or something?  Any help is greatly appreciated.  I will post some pics once I get it home.

[Kevin Mullins]

Start with the basics as usual for any machine.
Clean and re-seat all pcb connections and ROMs, socketed chips, etc.
Check voltages on the power supply.

[Hildy_42]

That is what I plan on doing once I get it in my garage.  The previous owner said he had messed around with the dip switch settings so I was just thinking maybe that is why it was resetting.  Thought maybe it had a demo mode or something.  Once I get it home I will send more information.

[ChadTower]

After you try the basics, check to make sure he didn't crack a solder joint on the dips.  That happens a lot when people start bigfooting around them.

[shardian]

A dip switch "setting" sounds very unlikely. Never trust sellers opinions on a problem anyway. They are trying to sell you and the more appealing and or easy they make it sound, the more likely you are to buy.

[Hildy_42]

I agree 100% with you on not trusting the seller on what is wrong.  I just had never seen a game reset after level one was completed.  Plus the seller couldn't get into the back of the cabinet because he doesn't have the keys.  So hard telling how they set the dip switches and even harder to tell what damage might have been caused working through the coin door.  I will know more once I get it home.  Just thought someone might have had the same problem before and knew what the cause was.

[D_Zoot]

If the game resets at the same point every time the cpu is probably crashing due to corrupt code in one of the roms.

First step would be to verify the rom contents and check the rom chip legs and chip sockets.


It's possible it's a logic problem, seems unlikely. If the game writes to the eeprom between levels could be something there too. I've never looked at the code, so I don't know, that seems pretty unlikely too.    I'd still start by checking the roms.


D

[Level42]

Exactly what D_Zoot says. I've had this happening when I had a bad RAM on my Star Wars. Game played fine going into the Deatstar sequence for the 2nd time. First time was fine, 2nd time it crashed.
So bedides ROM, it can also be RAM, but I'd start with the rom as well.

Of course you should first run the test-mode, that will tell you more about the Ram and Rom situation.

Did milipede use that protection chip already ? Forgot what it was called ? That might be it too maybe ?

[D_Zoot]

Did milipede use that protection chip already ? Forgot what it was called ? That might be it too maybe ?

Going from memory, no slapstick.  I know Centiped didn't use a slapstick, both ped's ran basically the same hardware, so there shouldn't be a slapstick on a Milliped either.

If I recall the first Atari security chips (slapsticks) didn't appear for another year or two.




D