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

Hello everyone.
I just got my first arcade machine today, vs hogans alley. Currently I'm having some problems with the monitor. The guy that had it before me said it was working when he first got it. Then the monitor decided to turn all blue and now it's black and there's no picture. When the machine is turned off the monitor flashes green and that's the only color I get from it. I've heard from some people on nintendoage it could be the power supply. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks everyone

We need to figure out if the issue is a PCB, Power, or Monitor issue.

When you turn the game on, what happens? Does the monitor appear to be on? Can you coin up the game and hear it playing but not see it? Can you see monitor neck glow or hear the monitor's staticy sound when it starts?

Can you post a picture of your game and the inside of the cabinet? I want to make sure we are dealing with original Nintendo stuff. Also, DO NOT plug that monitor in anywhere but the bottom of that cabinet. That's a 100V monitor if it's a SANYO.

I checked it for neck glow and it glows. The game doesn't coin up and there's no sound when it gets turned on.i checked the pcb board and I pulled off the connectors and there's 1 wire from the harness soldered onto the pcb. Could this mean there is a problem with the pcb board? I have a vs super Mario bros with the wiring harness for it so I could try swapping it out. I'm just concerned about the solder on the game pcb. Thanks

Sounds like there is a problem with the harness or the edge connector and someone installed a jumper wire. Can you please post a picture of what you have inside your cabinet? I just want to see what has been done and what is there.

Since the monitor appears to be on we should worry about that later. First things first, let's check those voltages and see if the board is getting 5V.

Look here:

http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spies.cgi?action=url&type=pinout&page=VS_Unisystem.html

that's a diagram of the edge connector. With the PCB plugged in, and the game on, we want to check our +5V. Do you have a multimeter? Looking at the diagram you'll see that pin #3 and #C on the large P1 connector are 5V. Pins #1,2,A,B are ground. So, if you take your multimeter probes and put BLACK on Pin #1 and RED on Pin #3 you should get +5V DC or something very close.

you need to get in there with your probes and try to touch the blades of the edge connector to get this measurement. Let me know if you need help. If you look on the PCB you should  "1" silk-screened on one side of the edge connector and "22" on the other side of the edge connector on the PCB. On the reverse side of the board you will see "A" on one side and "Z" on the other. This will tell you where to probe.

Yes we do have a multimeter so I will get out and check for 5 volts. How do you post pictures? I'm using an iPad for my computer and I always seem to have problems with uploading pics

When you post you can do "additional options" and attach a picture. or, host the pictures somewhere else and post a link here.

Ok I'll get a few pics of the inside and get them uploaded. Thanks

It's not giving me the option to upload the pics. Is there another way I can get you some pics? Txt or email maybe?

blkdog7 at gmail dot com

Just sent some pics to you. Let me know if you get them. If not we can resend them. Thanks

Just tested it with the multimeter and it read 5 volts. I switched the hogans alley with super Mario bros and switched the wiring harness and its working now!!! Thank you for your help with this!

Dude that's awesome!

I got your pictures and it looks like that's a dedicated unisystem? I saw all that wafer board in there and those are usually on those cabinets. Is it a gray cab?

Yeah it's in a greyish cabinet. The front under the 1st player joystick was repaired with like a blue filler of some sort. Otherwise it's in pretty decent shape. Do you know where I could get the paint code for the grey cause the front really bothers me. Also when you put 2 coins in and hit the 2 player button, the 2nd player joystick becomes the first player and the first player joystick turns into second player. Is there a way to fix that?

For the paint I'd see if you can take a piece of the cabinet to the hardware store to match.

I know the Vs. System does weird stuff like that with 1 and 2p joysticks. I think Mario does that by default.

Yeah I have vs smb in it right now. I have some spare games for it that we're included with it if your interested in them. I have to sets of roms for vs baseball and I have a set of chips for hogans alley with 2 guns

You should find some more PCBs so you can swap games easily. Hogan's Alley would be fun. :)

Yeah I need to get a few more pcb boards. Do you know where I could buy some? I need 3 more for all the sets of roms I have

I got a lot of mine on ebay I think. You can find them on there (with no games in them) for not too much.

Ill take a look and see if I can find them. I'm trying to adjust the monitor colors because the sky in mario is red. How do you adjust the colors? I know where the knobs are on it to change them but I can't seem to get the colors right. Also on the top of the monitor you can't read the score or how many coins you have. Does it need a cap kit and how much would one cost if that's what it needs

Are you missing a color? On the neck board there are RGB pots. You could have a monitor chassis or tube issue if you are missing blue.

Capping the monitor is always a good place to start.


You can get a cap kit from Bob Roberts or go here:

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=136_144&products_id=836

Yeah I have all 3 pots on the monitor. I may just have to mess around with it until I get it the way i want. I still have a spare monitor I could put in there that doesn't need recapped.