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NLG Users Repair Logs and Other Ramblings. Request your very own topic. Just ask any site staff. => Channelmaniac's Arcadecomponents' Old School Repair Logs => Topic started by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:51:18 PM

Title: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:51:18 PM
What is a boot?

Simple, it's a bootleg game. There have been hundreds of different kinds made over the years and this thread is dedicated to them.

Enjoy!

RJ
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:51:30 PM
Game: Galaga
Maker: Seoul ? (says "SEOUL 2002" on the splash screen)
Symptom: Intermittently locks up or loses sound

This appears to be 100% a factory screw up. There was a solder blob on the bottom of the board on traces connecting to pins 14 and 15 of the sound CPU. Removed the solder blob and a chunk of the green trace coating on both traces came up with it. Checked traces to make sure the continuity was OK for each and that the short between them was removed.

Replaced 1 leaking and 1 bloated cap along with 4 more for good measure in the sound circuit. Resoldered the amplifier chip to finish repairing the audio issue.

RJ
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:51:40 PM
Model: Pac-1 / Pac-2 Pac Man board set
Symptom: Dead. Audio amp chip gets VERY hot.

Board has 2 edge connectors. The smaller one had a homebrew JAMMA adapter connected to it.

Board had activity on the EPROMs but no video out. Checked the pinout of the board on the large connector, traced it over to the small connector, and found that the board did not have the video pinned out correctly to the adapter. Checked the pinout and found the adapter to be totally wired wrong.

Rewired the adapter and when pinning out the small connector I found that there was no Coin 1 input on it. Used an unused pin and wired it to the Coin 1 pin on the large connector. Tested the board when finished.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:51:56 PM
Model: Pac-1 / Pac-2 Pac Man board set
Tip: Pinout for small connector

1: Gnd
2: Gnd
3: Gnd
4: Speaker +
5: +12v
6: N/C
7: N/C
8: N/C
9: +5v
10: Player 1 Down
11: Player 2 Down
12: Player 2 Start
13: Player 1 Start
14: Player 1 Right
15: Player 1 Left
16: Blue
17: Green
18: Sync

A: Gnd
B: Gnd
C: Gnd
D: Speaker Gnd
E: +12v
F:
H:
I:
K: +5v
L:
M:
N: Coin 1 (Must be added! Connect to pin I on the large connector - across from pin 8)
P: Coin 2
R: Player 1 Up
S: Red
T: Player 2 Right
U: Player 2 Left
V: Player 2 Up

Coin 1 input is NOT available on the small connector. Use the unused pad at location N to add it. Run a jumper wire from Pin I on the large connector to the pad at location N.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:52:13 PM
Model: Pac-1 / Pac-2
Tip: Software ROMs

The ROMs aren't readily available for this board but, the Namco Pac Man code is what it uses. It's just divided into 2716 EPROMs instead of 2732.

I didn't test all of them, but the EPROMs I did check are coded as this:

Pac-1 CPU board:
6E: Lower half of namcopac.6e
6F: Lower half of namcopac.6f
6H: Not checked
6J: Not checked
6K: Upper half of namcopac.6e
6M: Upper half of namcopac.6f
6N: Not checked
6P: Not checked

I would assume the rest would follow suit as would the video EPROMs on the Pac-2 video board.

The ROM code was found in the puckman.zip file used for MAME.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:52:31 PM
Model: Pac-1 / Pac-2 Pac Man board set
Tip: Pinout for large connector

1: Gnd
2: Gnd
3: +5v
4: +5v
5: +7.5v Unregulated
6: 2 Player Start Lamp
7: Coin Counter
8: Coins 2 Switch
9: Service Switch
10: 2 Player Start
11: 1 Player Right
12: 2 Player Up
13: 2 Player Right
14: 1 Player Down
15: Gnd (Use for Speaker -)
16: Video Green
17: Video Sync
18: Speaker +
19: +12v
20: +12v
21: Gnd
22: Gnd

A: Gnd
B: Gnd
C: +5v
D: +5v
E: +7.5 Unregulated
F: 1 Player Start Lamp
H: Lock Out Solenoid
I: Coin 1 Switch
K: Test Switch
L: 1 Player Start
M: 1 Player Left
N: 1 Player Up
P: 2 Player Left
R: Gnd for Table Mode (Unconnected for upright)
S: Gnd
T: Video Red
U: Video Blue
V: 2 Player Down
W: +12v
X: +12v
Y: Gnd
Z: Gnd

Pinout courtesy of the Mowerman website. His site was down at the time I needed this but the Internet Archive had a copy.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:52:46 PM
Model: Street Fighter 2 bootleg (One large single board)
Symptom: Garbage on screen

Board had some strange RAM chips on it. They were surface mount 62256 chips on DIP carriers. Replaced 2 bad video RAM chips and tested board. Board had graphic glitches - it did not like the replacement SRAM chips for video. Swapped the video SRAM chips for the main CPU SRAM and played several games. The replacement SRAM chips functioned fine as CPU RAM.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:53:04 PM
Model: Shinobi
Symptom: No fire, jump, or audio

Cleaned the edge connector to fix the fire and jump issue. Replaced the audio output IC to fix the missing audio issue. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:53:14 PM
Model: King and Balloon (Galaxian Hardware)
Symptom: Dead. Garbage on screen.

Board had corrosion damage.

Cleaned board and replaced 2 2114 SRAMs and their sockets. Replaced a socket on one of the 2102 SRAMs, cleaned the pins on the SRAM, and reinstalled it. Recapped audio section of board and jumpered one edge connector contact to ground for the audio to work on a Galaxian pinout cab/JAMMA adapter. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:53:26 PM
Model: Ghosts 'n Goblins (bootleg)
Symptom: Dead. Garbage on screen.

2nd board was hooked up backwards.

Replaced 2 EPROMs, 1 LS273, 1 LS74, 6 2114 RAMs, 1 2116 SRAM, 2 6148 RAMs, 5 LS245s, 1 LS00, and 10 LS194 ICs on the 2nd board. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:53:37 PM
Model: Pac Man (Bootleg running on Galaxian hardware)
Symptom: Dead.

Board was missing a CPU. Installed CPU and board was still dead. Installed Galaxian character ROMs and the Galaxian test ROM. All tests passed, but there were numbers across the whole screen. Replaced 74LS245 at 9B to fix the numbers issue. Board would still not boot with the ROM daughter board installed. Installed missing jumper wire from the daughter board 74LS42 pin 14 to IC 7D, pin 7, on the main board, and the game booted but had no sound. Installed missing jumper wire from the solder pad for IC 8E, pin 14, to pin 2 of IC 8K and 9K to restore sound.

While the jumpers were missing, the stubs of the wire and the solder blobs remained behind. This allow for finding where the jumper wire points were through careful examination of the board.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:53:54 PM
Model: Ms Pac Man
Symptom: No sync, no sound.

Board was a bootleg Pac Man board without the built-in power supply section. It only ran on DC, but had a slightly different pinout from the real Pac board.

Jumpered a trace for a missing video ground connection. Cut 3 traces and jumpered 2 to move the speaker leads to the correct pins for a Pac/Ms Pac Man harness. Tested game.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:54:05 PM
Model: Pleiades (Labeled PRE-3)
Symptom: Will not reboot when warm

Reset signal was not rising to a logic high level. Traced down reset circuit and compared it to the original board schematics. The 10uf tantalum capacitor in the reset circuit was installed according to the silkscreen on the board but backwards when compared to the original board schematics. Reversed the cap and board would reset properly when power cycling the warm board.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 07:54:14 PM
Model: Monster Invasion (by Games, Ltd)
Symptom: Graphics corruption

Galaxian Bootleg boardset.

Player graphics were striped, missing rows. Cleaned corrosion spot on the board, installed new socket on the fast RAM, and jumpered a bad trace. Replaced 3 physically broken capacitors and jumpered the audio return line to ground so the boardset would work in a Galaxian cabinet.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on May 07, 2014, 09:13:08 PM
Model: Pac Man (Bootleg running on Galaxian hardware)
Symptom: Dead.

Reinstalled a pulled wire from between the ROM board and the main board, and the game booted but had graphical corruption. Two data bus lines in the motion and object RAM areas had incorrect signals. This could be any chip that controls or manipulates those lines. Replaced a bad 74C245 next to the CPU and tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on December 30, 2014, 05:42:18 PM
Model: Pengo
Symptom: Dead

Replaced bad 18.432MHz crystal and resoldered axial cap. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on November 14, 2015, 08:27:14 PM
Model: Ms Pac Man Boot
Symptom: No sound

Replaced missing PROM chip and tested. Board died during extended testing. Replaced CPU and retested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on January 17, 2017, 11:59:20 PM
Model: Tetris
Symptom: Missing audio amp IC

Board worked, but the audio AMP IC was hacked onto the board and broken off, leaving resistors and pins sticking up out of the board.

Removed the extra resistors, cap, and broken pins from the board. Traced out the power, ground, input and output pins on the 7 and 8 pin spots on the board for the AMP IC and looked for possible matches in the NTE cross reference guide. The 2 options were an NTE1285/1286 or NTE7101.

Digging in the scrap audio amp IC bin for 7 pin chips, an NEC C1181H was found and was a cross to the NTE1285. Installed the IC and tested. It worked but only when the volume pot was set at 1/2 volume or higher. Replaced the bad 1K volume pot and re-tested successfully.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on January 06, 2019, 12:54:47 AM
Model: Bubble Bobble
Symptom: Garbage on screen during game intro.

Replaced 2 bad ROM sockets on the video board. The sockets were sticking up off the board and were barely touching some of the holes in the board causing some signals to not be present. Tested the game.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on June 15, 2020, 10:07:37 PM
Model: Double Dragon
Symptom: Missing player characters and dragon on title screen

Object RAM at IC120 on the video board was good, but if you shorted two data lines the characters would appear on the screen. Traced back 3 layers through the circuitry to find a dead trace between IC26, pin 4, and the Obj Data 0 and 1 buses on IC45 and IC46, Pin 7. Patched trace and tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on December 27, 2020, 12:51:41 AM
Model: Terra Cresta
Symptom: ROM NG on screen

2 of the Program ROM had weak bits so I reprogrammed all the Program ROMs and the 2 background ROMs on the CPU board. ROM NG. Replaced all the ROM sockets to find ROM 4's socket had a broken pin under the socket for the D4 (Data 4) pin. Cleaned the ROM legs on the Program ROMs and background ROMs. Tested. Board booted but had bad sprite and text layer corruption and no sound. Replaced the ROM and RAM sockets on the video board and cleaned the ROM legs. Replaced 2 74LS157 and reprogrammed all 4 sprite ROMs and the text layer ROM. Sprites were fixed, but the text layer was still corrupt. Replaced the Fujitsu 74LS273 next to the text layer ROM to fix that issue, but that layer had sparkling issues. Replaced the text layer ROM to fix that. Reprogrammed the sound ROMs to fix the sound issues. Game would play but player could not shoot. Replaced partially shorted ceramic capacitor in the Player 1 fire input circuit. It was reading 820 ohms across it. Tested game.

Reprogrammed 3 new ROMs to replace the 2 existing ones and replaced the YM2203C sound chip with a YM3526 sound chip to upgrade the game's sound. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on January 13, 2021, 11:38:38 AM
Model: Gallag (Green PCB)
Symptom: Fails to boot

PCB would boot through self tests and lock up after the explosion which means one of the sub-CPUs are not running properly. Discovered the PCB had some kind of hand made module installed in ROM 5's socket. Removed it to find severe corrosion under it. It appeared to be some sort of NiCd battery backed score save module.  Removed the socket, cleaned the PCB, and installed a socket and newly programmed replacement ROM. Removed the extra wire wrap socket from the daughterboard used to raise it up above the custom module. Cleaned the daughterboard pins and straightened them before plugging it back in. Tested PCB - missing colors and no sound, except for the explosion. Replaced the output color PROM which had pin 9 missing to restore the proper color outputs. The 74LS273 latch in the sound circuit had pin 11 stuck high, which is the clock pin for moving data across the chip. Traced that back to a bipolar PROM chip. Cleaned pin 10 of the PROM and reinstalled it in its socket to finish the repair.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on January 18, 2021, 09:14:58 PM
Model: Double Dragon boot
Symptom: No sprites

Replaced a 74LS244, 74LS245, and 2018 SRAM at IC7 and tested. Installed missing standoffs and retested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on January 26, 2021, 02:51:36 AM
Model: Time Pilot Bootleg
Symptom: Graphic corruption and crashing

Replaced dead 74LS04 at H11. It was used in multiple places around the PCB, including inverting one of the enable lines to RAM causing the corruption. Patched a cut trace to fix an orange text background color problem. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on February 22, 2021, 11:54:01 PM
Model: JY-PAC (JAMMA bootleg Ms. Pac Man)
Symptom: No audio

Recapped the audio section and resoldered the audio amplifier IC. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on July 11, 2021, 10:04:49 PM
Model: Green Beret
Symptom: No sync. No sound

Board had a JAMMA adapter soldered to the edge connector.

Traced connections and found the Red and Sync signals swapped. Fixed that and found colors were off and the audio amp IC let out its smoke. Found the Blue and Green signals swapped and -5v connected where +12 should've been. Removed all the wires and solder from the edge connector and rewired the JAMMA adapter using a proper 36 pin edge connector. All the player and coin connections were swapped around. Finished fixing the adapter and tested. Replaced blown audio amp and the 4 capacitors in the sound section. Tested. Reset DIP switches and retested. Coin settings could not be set to 1 Coin 1 Credit for Player 1. Found a factory solder short on Bank 1 DIP switch 1 between the switch and a via. Removed the short and was able to get the board set to 1 Coin 1 Credit. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on September 22, 2022, 01:55:18 PM
Model: Strikers 1945
Symptom: Missing input on Player 2

Replaced shorted 74LS245 in the input circuitry and tested the associated resistor pack. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on December 30, 2022, 01:22:12 AM
Model: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (single PCB boot)
Symptom: Graphics corruption

Replaced bad 84 pin PLCC socket. Tested.
Title: Re: Misc Bootleg Games
Post by: channelmaniac on October 08, 2023, 03:42:05 AM
Model: Double Dragon Bootleg
Symptom: Dead

Reseated loose ribbon cables. Tested. Board missing FM music. Replaced 3 1458 OpAmps and fixed an incorrect jumper wire. Replaced 1x .1uf, 5x 10uf, 2x 47uf, 2x 100uf, and 2x 220uf caps in the audio circuit. Reattached audio amplifier as it had multiple broken legs causing audio to come and go as the board was tapped.
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