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Vic-20 runs too fast?


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Hi all

 

I'm new to AA and have a question for those more experienced in Commodore than myself. Just bought a Vic-20 and it seems to work fine, but when playing the game Avenger (aka Space Invaders) it consistently runs about 10x normal speed. The ram is factory standard (5k) so I doubt it has been upgraded. Any ideas how to solve this problem?

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Ten times as fast? Hm, perhaps a damaged 6522 VIA chip could cause this, in case the game utilizes the timers in the chip instead of waiting for the raster beam. How about the BASIC cursor, does it also blink very fast? I'm sure the functionality of the VIA chips could be tested.

 

If your chips are in sockets, you could carefully lift them with a dedicated chip lifter or gently prying with a screwdriver, then swap them around and test. There are two 6522 chips inside, same type of chip but depending on location they serve different purposes. Make sure you don't bend or break any legs on the chips.

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PAL/NTSC might differ a few percent but not 10 times. If the game relies on raster line count (which I'm fairly certain that Avenger doesn't), it would blink and roll, not just run faster. I tried to look up some example on how to use the timers for testing but haven't come up with something good yet. However it strikes me that the tape recorder uses one of the timers, the floppy drive and other items use other timers. If that really turns out to be the issue, more faults would show up.

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