Gyruss - no sprites

[jaffo]

Hey everyone,

I finally got off my duff and ordered a new power supply for my Gyruss cabinet.  The new power supply seemed to fix some things.  I used to get garbage on the screen when I'd power it on and sometimes it wouldn't boot.  When it did boot, there were no sprites.

Well now, with the new power supply it boots clean every time.  However, still no sprites.  Here's a youtube video I made of how it is acting:
http://youtu.be/BP5UEpFTHVk

Previously, I had pulled and re-seated all the socketed chips - didn't appear any pins were bent or missing.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I did find this: http://wiki.aussiearcade.com.au/index.php/PCB_Repair_Logs_Gyruss where the guy talks about replacing the RAM chips and it fixed his problem.

[iankellogg]

The sprites mostly look fine, but it isn't running the attract mode correctly at all. I sadly don't know enough about that game to say for certain but maybe its ram, it would probably be more around the CPU than the graphics stuff.

If you had missing sprites, usually there is a black box or another color box in place of the sprite but it would still be trying to load something. It doesn't look like its loading anything at all because it is never making it to attract mode.

[jaffo]

What is interesting is that the game seems to cycle through all the screens just fine - it *seems* to go in to attract mode - you can hear it start playing the music but the screen is mostly black - you can hear the sound effects of the ship and enemies, and you can hear the ship explode, then it goes back to the title screen.

If you start a game, all you get are the scores and other text on the screen.  You CAN hear the music and sound effects and if you are lucky enough, you can even pass stage 1 (blind).  There's just no game characters on the screen.

I was thinking of sending this board off to El Dorado games - they offer a flat rate repair of $169 for a Gyruss board, but I'm wondering if I can buy a replacement board for less than that...

[iankellogg]

holy piss $170 repair? I am certain you could buy a replacement board for less than half that.

[jaffo]

holy piss $170 repair? I am certain you could buy a replacement board for less than half that.

yeah, I haven't even started looking in to it yet.  Glad to hear it might not be horribly expensive.  Heck, when I heard that price, I realized I could buy a Gyruss to Jamma adapter for $35 and a 60-in-1 (which includes Gyruss) for significantly less than that.

[VertexGuy]

What is interesting is that the game seems to cycle through all the screens just fine - it *seems* to go in to attract mode - you can hear it start playing the music but the screen is mostly black - you can hear the sound effects of the ship and enemies, and you can hear the ship explode, then it goes back to the title screen.

If you start a game, all you get are the scores and other text on the screen.  You CAN hear the music and sound effects and if you are lucky enough, you can even pass stage 1 (blind).  There's just no game characters on the screen.

I was thinking of sending this board off to El Dorado games - they offer a flat rate repair of $169 for a Gyruss board, but I'm wondering if I can buy a replacement board for less than that...

Yeah,, they charge a lot because gyruss boards are a whore to replair.
did you check your interconnect cable on the board?  you can swap an EIDE cable in its place .

Eldorado bill for me this month was $559
for stargate boards and battlezone.

[iankellogg]

holy piss $170 repair? I am certain you could buy a replacement board for less than half that.

yeah, I haven't even started looking in to it yet.  Glad to hear it might not be horribly expensive.  Heck, when I heard that price, I realized I could buy a Gyruss to Jamma adapter for $35 and a 60-in-1 (which includes Gyruss) for significantly less than that.

Just to correct you, the Gyruss to jamma adapter is for plugging a gyruss board into a jamma cabinet and not for putting a 60-1 in a gyruss cab.

But DONT DO THAT to a really good game and a really cool looking cab. If you are interested in getting this up and running quickly maybe we can work a trade out and i can send you a working board for your not working one.

[jaffo]

Yeah,, they charge a lot because gyruss boards are a whore to replair.
did you check your interconnect cable on the board?  you can swap an EIDE cable in its place .

Eldorado bill for me this month was $559
for stargate boards and battlezone.

I was going to try your suggestion on using an EIDE ribbon cable (I have a ton of them), but the connector isn't as wide as the existing one.  It looks to be the same as a SCSI ribbon cable, though.  I know I used to have some of those sitting around....

[jaffo]

Just to correct you, the Gyruss to jamma adapter is for plugging a gyruss board into a jamma cabinet and not for putting a 60-1 in a gyruss cab.

But DONT DO THAT to a really good game and a really cool looking cab. If you are interested in getting this up and running quickly maybe we can work a trade out and i can send you a working board for your not working one.

Yeah, i don't want to put a 60-in-one in this cabinet - I'd much rather keep it as pure as possible.

I am HIGHLY interested in that trade you mentioned!  I'm more than happy to make my existing board part of the !  I'd like to get this game up & running by April so I can bring it to ZapCon here in AZ.  Thanks!