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Broken Astrocade, fixed in front of my eyes


fiddlepaddle

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I went to a small game show yesterday (8 tables). One guy had a mint-looking Astrocade which seemed to work, except the knob on the controller was giving random looking inputs. I just thought it was dirty and a good cleaning would solve the problem, so I paid the guy. As I was about to pack it back up, another vendor ("Larry") sat down and started looking at it. It turns out Larry was one of the other vendors with a table across the room who had a bunch of Astrocade stuff, a pretty complete collection with schematics, lots of games, spare parts, except his console was NOT functioning (my bright idea: 2+2=fun). Larry was once a hardware engineer who worked for Astrocade, Inc.

 

Anyway, once he started swapping controllers to get it working, and decided there might be a problem with one of the chips inside, I told him I just bought it and I wouldn't mind if he opened it up, so he did. In the next half hour, he had replaced a proprietary D/A chip and got it working and put back together, explaining lots of interesting and useful information about the hardware in the process. I eventually bought all the stuff he brought. The 32 cartridges include the BASIC programming cart and a bunch of cassette games, PACMAN (which he said was unreleased, identified as "PACMAN" in the start up menu, not "MUNCHER" as specified in Wikipedia), and some others I hadn't seen before: "Machine Language Manager", "Artillery Duel V.2.0", "Music Maker", "Sea Devil", "Ms. Candyman". I'm gonna be having some fun this week.

 

It sure was nice to spend time with people who are genuinely interested in playing the games and finding a good home for a neglected video game system, and not just going for maximum profit. Thank you, Larry!

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Hey! I'm the guy that sold the Astrocade and Larry was the coolest! I actually gave him half of what you paid me for the system since he was so cool to come over and fix the machine with his parts. So big thanks to Larry! That had to be the coolest thing I've been witness to since getting into retro gaming.

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That's an awesome story! I've had my first Astrocade since April, while I haven't gotten a chance to spend as much time on it as I'd like, it is a very interesting machine. The controllers are very unique and functional, it's nice to have both joystick and paddle features in one. The system has great sound and graphics. And I think the idea of having a storage area on the unit for the cartridges is neat, definitely helps keep my collections organized since I'm running out of room.

 

Thank you for this story now I'm going to show the Astrocade some attention. ;)

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I've played around with it a little, and I'm pretty impressed with it's apparent capabilities, especially since it was such an early system (some of the games are dated 1977). It does get hot fast, though, and after reading about how it overheats easily, I'm going to see if I can install a fan before I spend much time with it...

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I've played around with it a little, and I'm pretty impressed with it's apparent capabilities, especially since it was such an early system (some of the games are dated 1977). It does get hot fast, though, and after reading about how it overheats easily, I'm going to see if I can install a fan before I spend much time with it...

 

Yeah, mine had that problem too, fairly common as you've heard. My unit would start to go crazy after 5 minutes. The colors on the screen would start to get distorted and I'd have to shut it off. Most people remove the aluminum shielding around the motherboard that was installed to prevent interference and comply with FCC standards. But removing the shield won't affect the video quality any and prevents the overheating. I'm not handy with a soldering iron so I just shipped mine to a store to have them do it for me and it works perfectly. Haven't had any issues since. I played it for an hour one time which would've been impossible beforehand. However it's a very interesting machine, their Space Invaders clone while not perfect, is very impressive for 1977!

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their Space Invaders clone while not perfect, is very impressive for 1977!

...too easy, though.

 

I actually think it's too hard since by level 4 or 5 the aliens have already landed and the game is over. It doesn't give you much to work towards.

 

Their Galaxian clone - Galactic Invasion - is much better and has different levels of difficulty. ;)

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That is a neat story. The Astrocade is a personal favorite of mine. Be sure to try out The Incredible Wizard. Some of the carts mentioned are fairly rare. Pac-man was in fact first sold as Muncher (through the Arcadian newsletter), but later someone hacked it to read Pac-man. I'm particularly curious about Artillery Duel V.2.0, however. I'm only aware of one cartridge versions of this game (it was originally a tape game). Is this a prototype?

 

What are the cassette games? I've archived a bunch of the tapes on www.ballyalley.com. You might want to download some and check them out. Tapes for the newer BASIC cart (with the built-in audio jack) usually won't work now, but we've got a program that can clean up recordings and often get them working again.

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What show was this at? Very cool story by the way. When you get bored "playing" Machine Language Manager let me know, I've been looking for that one for a long time. I wonder if "Larry" had a memory expansion for his Astrocade system. If you run in to Larry again send him here or to the Bally Alley site. Lots of people there would be interested to hear from him.

 

y-bot

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...Pac-man was in fact first sold as Muncher (through the Arcadian newsletter), but later someone hacked it to read Pac-man. I'm particularly curious about Artillery Duel V.2.0, however. I'm only aware of one cartridge versions of this game (it was originally a tape game). Is this a prototype?
He said they weren't prototypes, but he did say the Pacman was unreleased. The label says "MERRY 1982 CHRISTMAS !!! FROM THE ENGINEERING DEPT." The menu says "PACMAN" not "PAC-MAN".

astrocade pacman artillery duel DSCN1380.JPG(Gosh...I can't figure out how to insert a photo)

 

...If you run in to Larry again send him here or to the Bally Alley site. Lots of people there would be interested to hear from him.

I'll tell Larry about www.ballyalley.com

Edited by fiddlepaddle
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I wish my Astrocade still worked. :sad:

 

It worked fine, and then one day, after several months of non-use, it just wouldn't have it. It powers up fine, but I just get a garbled screen. I had just gotten the complete set of controllers for it, too (#1, #2, #3, and #4)!

 

So, yeah...I'm once again in the market for an Astrocade.

 

Astrocade cassette games are interesting. Were they mostly homebrews?

 

RE: Astro Battle ("Space Invaders")...this game wasn't released in 1977. A lot of sources say it is (even the copyright on the label says 1977...maybe this references the hardware?), but it couldn't have been, being that it's a clone of a game that came out a couple years later. In catalogs, it's got a copyright date of 1981, which makes more sense. Besides...multi-color hi-res (relatively) sprites in 1977? I don't think so. Even the Astrocade's earliest titles looked like suped-up Channel F games.

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The FAQ says 1979 for Space Invaders, which as far as I know is correct.

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/faqs/astrocade_cart_and_hardware_faq.txt

 

The tape program were mostly from individuals or small companies, and sold mainly through newsletters. Some of the companies, like WaveMakers and Esoterica, got pretty successful. Esoterica even ended up making some cartridges.

 

fiddlepaddle, would you mind listing the tape games you found? I'm wondering if there's anything we're looking for.

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Published tape games:

Wavemakers: Tape 2/side1: Clue, side2: Flying Ace (82)

Wavemakers: Tape 14/side1&2: Collision Course

Wavemakers: Tape 13/side1&2: Monkey Jump

Wavemakers: Tape 16/side1&2: Dungeons of Dracula

Esoterica Ltd: Side1: Bomb Squad, Side2: Wildcatter

 

Handwritten tapes:

sound port study

Sideswipe

Analog Clock

11/15/83 Sales Demo

(some unmarked tapes)

 

Also, I took the RF shielding off (both top and bottom) and have been running it without the case. Without the shielding, I do, in fact, see some irritating interference on the TV, so maybe I'll put the bottom part back.

 

One chip (right under the ribbon cable going between the main board and the keyboard assembly) gets really hot. The shielding I removed also included a metal bar that I think acted as a heat sink, so maybe I'll put that back as well.

 

I got a small 12v fan at Microcenter, which I'm planning to attach to the left side of the case to suck the heat out. I bought a new soldering iron and solder. I have an old multimeter in a box somewhere, so I'll see if I can figure out where to pick up 12v and ground. I haven't yet cut a hole in the case for the fan (I hate to modify original equipment, since you can't go back... at least I have an extra, non-working unit). Anybody have a good suggestion on how to cut the hole? I thought I might just use a drill and drill a bunch of holes in a big circle to fit the size of the fan...

 

This is the most hardware oriented project I've done in 30 years, so I'm going really slow.

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Thanks for the list. The published games we've already got on-line. I'd recommend using those recordings if you want to play them, as they've been cleaned up and tested as working. The others you list sound like programs from the newsletters, except for "11/15/83 Sales Demo." That might be something interesting. As for the unmarked tapes, who knows? If you want to get any of those running, I can help you out.

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The FAQ says 1979 for Space Invaders, which as far as I know is correct.

 

1979 is correct. I still have the receipts for many of our bally games and that is one of them. We purchased it in November of 1979.

 

1979 makes more sense, I got thrown off by the '77 date on the cartridge label. Still an impressive clone for that time nonetheless.

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(finally) here's a photo of the pacman and artillery duel carts:

post-19903-125347562413_thumb.jpg

 

Hmmm, those look like they could have been made while the games were still in development. One possible way to tell would be to play the released version and compare. If you don't have an official Artillery Duel cart, you could try emulating it in MESS. There are also dumps for Muncher and Pac-Man.

 

Here's a ROM collection:

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/emulation/bally.zip

 

You can get MESS here, if you haven't already:

 

http://www.mess.org/download.php

 

Or if you have the ability to dump them easily, we could directly compare the ROM contents.

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[...] possible way to tell would be to play the released version and compare [...] if you have the ability to dump them easily, we could directly compare the ROM contents.

Yeah, I'm interested; I'll put this investigation on my list of things to do, but realize my list is VERY long (and generally does not include loading and configuring emulation software. Too much tweaking...one reason I prefer carts)

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[...] possible way to tell would be to play the released version and compare [...] if you have the ability to dump them easily, we could directly compare the ROM contents.

Yeah, I'm interested; I'll put this investigation on my list of things to do, but realize my list is VERY long (and generally does not include loading and configuring emulation software. Too much tweaking...one reason I prefer carts)

 

That's cool. Let me know if you have any questions about how to get it running.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I got a small 12v fan at Microcenter, which I'm planning to attach to the left side of the case to suck the heat out. I bought a new soldering iron and solder. I have an old multimeter in a box somewhere, so I'll see if I can figure out where to pick up 12v and ground. I haven't yet cut a hole in the case for the fan (I hate to modify original equipment, since you can't go back... at least I have an extra, non-working unit). Anybody have a good suggestion on how to cut the hole? I thought I might just use a drill and drill a bunch of holes in a big circle to fit the size of the fan...

 

This is the most hardware oriented project I've done in 30 years, so I'm going really slow.

 

Getting rid of the RF shielding is the right way to go and *should* have resolved any overheating problems. I don't think a fan is really needed, and please, don't cut a hole in the case! These machines (working ones, anyway) are pretty rare to begin with. The stock ventilation from the case as it was originally designed (the RF shield was an afterthought, or more correctly an FCC requirement) should be more than enough to keep it cool.

 

I run my BCS (Bally Computer System) without one and it runs fine, even without the old-school heatsink. If you really want to, you could just add some stick on heatsinks, like the type they sell for video card RAM. Something along these lines:

 

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0253133

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I went to a small game show yesterday (8 tables). One guy had a mint-looking Astrocade which seemed to work, except the knob on the controller was giving random looking inputs. I just thought it was dirty and a good cleaning would solve the problem, so I paid the guy. As I was about to pack it back up, another vendor ("Larry") sat down and started looking at it. It turns out Larry was one of the other vendors with a table across the room who had a bunch of Astrocade stuff, a pretty complete collection with schematics, lots of games, spare parts, except his console was NOT functioning (my bright idea: 2+2=fun). Larry was once a hardware engineer who worked for Astrocade, Inc.

 

Anyway, once he started swapping controllers to get it working, and decided there might be a problem with one of the chips inside, I told him I just bought it and I wouldn't mind if he opened it up, so he did. In the next half hour, he had replaced a proprietary D/A chip and got it working and put back together, explaining lots of interesting and useful information about the hardware in the process. I eventually bought all the stuff he brought. The 32 cartridges include the BASIC programming cart and a bunch of cassette games, PACMAN (which he said was unreleased, identified as "PACMAN" in the start up menu, not "MUNCHER" as specified in Wikipedia), and some others I hadn't seen before: "Machine Language Manager", "Artillery Duel V.2.0", "Music Maker", "Sea Devil", "Ms. Candyman". I'm gonna be having some fun this week.

 

It sure was nice to spend time with people who are genuinely interested in playing the games and finding a good home for a neglected video game system, and not just going for maximum profit. Thank you, Larry!

 

 

Do you have a contact for Lary?

 

Do you think he would be interested is re-viving my Astrocade :-)

 

-Lee

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  • 9 months later...

Well, here's an update on the installation of the fan in my Astrocade: I bought the parts and never did anything with them. Instead, I took some friendly advice and just bought a "laptop cooler" for ten bucks at Microcenter and put the Astrocade on top:

 

post-19903-128002868927_thumb.jpg

 

I had to find an appropriate AC adapter since it's supposed to be used with a USB port, but it works like a charm...I didn't even have to take the soldering iron out of the blister pack!

 

Also, I know it took awhile, but I finally dug up Larry's phone number and called him to let him know that there are some people interested in hearing from him. When I'm done with this post, I'll be sending him an email with links to this thread so he can read this. If he wants to post anything or contact anybody who's interested, he can. I didn't think it appropriate for me to post his email address here.

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