Strange California Games Behavior

[Bstar]

When I fire up California Games on my Lynx II, the game freezes when I exit the rotating license plate screen.  The music continues to play, but all functionality is frozen.  To my knowledge, this only happens with California Games... I've not experienced any other crashes on other titles.  This issue happens regardless of whether I use my original California Games cart or one of my rom carts.  I have the BennVenn screen installed, but this issue has existed long before I installed the new screen.  I have never taken this Lynx apart (going back to my childhood) prior to the screen replacement.

 

Curious if anyone has some ideas on what might be the issue here.  This is one of the most bizarre issues I've ever seen with retro hardware.

 

Youtube link of issue

 

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by Bstar

[Ben M]

I'm experiencing something similar with a lynx 1. I purchased a working motherboard with damaged screen, recapped it and installed a bennvenn lcd.

All games work perfectly except California games on cart or sd cart. The screen freezes on the spinning sign and goes pink or yellow then fades. You can hear the game still playing but no image. If I keep turning it on and off it will eventually work. Keep thinking its something I've done wrong in the install of the lcd, but every other game works great. Very odd.

[+jgkspsx]

I only play California Games while wearing a backwards helicopter beanie and baggy cargo pants, listening to “Regulate” by Nate Dogg and Warren G, and sipping on Mello Yello.

 

Oh. This thread is not about what I thought it was about. Carry on. *slinks away*

[+jgkspsx]

In all seriousness, or as much as I can muster, my copy of Ballistix for the Turbografx 16 did something like this. I think that prom was zapped. The fact that this is happening to multiple people with BennVenn screens suggests it’s a different issue, but California Games is cheap enough you could buy an extra copy and see if it’s better...