After months of trying I have managed to fix my Space Ace. It now works with the original player and everything! At the same time I also have my Dragon’s Lair Working! Them both working together is a first for Ramcade. I guess only one person on Earth knows how significant this moment is to me. They both work. I can’t believe it!
Yes, they both still need a bit of work but that’s not the point!! I am so chuffed!
Gabber on!
Get the smart Christmas present out!
Now to find out what’s wrong with the Space Ace!
I’ve spent all day following the basic principle of swapping individual parts out of my non-working Space Ace into my working Dragon’s Lair. That way I can work out exactly which bits of it are broken.
The final result is:
– The PSU makes a loud buzzing noise but works perfectly.
– The monitor fires up but doesn’t display a picture.
– The CPU board fires up but won;t accept coin inputs and gives a “3” in the leds. It plays the laserdisc linearly from beginning to end.
Other than that it is fine. I reckon £50 to fix the monitor but I don’t know about the CPU board. I am going to re-cap it and see if I can find someone that can repair it if that doesn’t work.
So a bit of a mixed result, the biggest plus being that I didn’t electrocute myself!
Let the electrocutions begin. I worked out how to get the PSU out. You have to drop the control panel and then you can get at it.
So I have taken the PSU out and am ready to start trying to fix it. First stop will be to replace that big green capacitor which should be an easy job because it’s screwed in and doesn’t require any soldering.
Before that though I am going to take the PSU out of my Dragon’s Lair and put that in the Space Ace to see if it works. If it does it means there is definitely a problem with the PSU. If it doesn’t it’s something else.
Bloody Shoes. If it wasn’t for the bloody shoes… And the coats… If the shoes and coats weren’t in Mission Control I wouldn’t have to do this… Damn them to hell!
A new Dragon’s Lair arriving means that I need some drastic alterations! So here goes
First off, move the Dragon’s Lair 2 from the back of the room:
Then shorten the shelves and desks and move stuff along (not forgetting to move the Goliath cabinet out of the way!)
Desks and shelves finished, all the wiring re-done and the crappy old stereo left for the bin-man. Now my machines are nice and snug!
Well, not quite. It still spins up the laserdisc, shows the initialisation screen and plays a couple of scenes. But after that it goes all bonkers… I suspect that I have me some fixin’ to do! I am about to find out why I should have got a Cinematronics Space Ace and not an Atari one!
I’ve been busily sorting out a JAMMA headphone socket and an autofire adapter for my Egret 2.
The headphones work a treat and I have mocked up the auto-fire too. Here’s a glimpse of them. I’ll put up a full article when I finish.
Headphones: I did this video for a friend, when I say microphone I mean headphones!
AutoFire: Video also done for the same friend
The start of a new layout for mission control. I’ve moved a few things around and got my arcade machines in. Turned them all on for the first time together. Thought you might like to see the results!
