John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

Hey everyone. Just picked up a Mario bros this past Sunday. It was out on location at a bowling alley for a few years. The guy I bought it from replaced the board set, rebuilt the monitor, and did a few other things to the machine, body work ect. The game was working fine until last night when the pipes that the creatures come out of started looking weird. Kinda like when you put an nes game in but it's dusty. It's still playable but the pipes look really weird and have like black lines in them. Also on the title screen before Mario and luigi flip over the title there are black lines running through it. What could the problem be and is it easy to fix? I've wanted this machine for quite a while now and I hope this doesn't lead to further problems. Any help would be great. I can send pictures to anyone with an email or phone if you need to see exactly what it is. Thanks

If the black lines are there regardless of whats on screen, its a RAM issue. If the black lines are only visible on certain sprites then you have eprom problems.

Try reseating or pushing on all the socket chips. Do the simple things first. Reseat your connections.

Also, check the voltages. I have had issues like this on games and have often fixed them by pushing on chips or reseating the edge connector.

Well I pushed and wiggled the chips and reconnected everything and still have the problem. Is there anyone that replaces roms and would be willing to do it for me? I have the money right now for anyone that can fix it

I can do eproms replacemen's but you have to tell me which you want. I recommend figuring out if it's ram or rom issues and which chip is bad. You can do that by removing a single chip at a time and turning the game on until the issuend literally disappears

So it's ok to pull one out at a time? I just don't wanna ruin anything else by doing it

Only have one removed at a time. Turn the game off before you remove or put anything back. What you are trying to figure out is if the lines show up even when the sprites are missing or if the sprite rom is no good. Personally My guess is the eprom has a bad pin, might even be broke off.

How much would it be just for a new set?

That seems really unnecessary, you're not gonna kill the board by having a chip out if that is what you're worried about and it's likely only one chip has gone bad. Just make sure the game is off and that the chip is fully removed from the board (obviously) and you could probably do it with your eyes closed. :P (Figure of speech)

Ok. Ill try doing that today since I have some free time.