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Expert: Octane - 11/3/2009
Question
QUESTION: Hello, I just picked up an arcade video game from 1989 called "Hippodrome". It is a sword fighting game. The manufacturer is DataEast. It worked well when I played it at the house I picked it up from. After I got it home and played it a few times only player 1 would intermittently go to the insert coin screen and the game would be lost. This would only happen with using the joystick for player one. I checked for loose connections but didn't find any. I thought this could be the problem being I transported the machine. The wires on the joysticks are soldered and not loose. Any ideas? Thanks, Bill
ANSWER: Gday Bill,
Nice score on the Hippodrome video game, is one of my personal favorites. (The wizard is a complete bastard)
Manual..
http://www.crazykong.com/manuals/Hippodrome.man.pdf
Like most older machines they really don't like being moved. As soon as you move them something acts up. Sounds like it could be with 2 things a loose connection or possible the transformer you have in it has gone bad. Hopefully it just a loose connection.
The first thing I would do is disconnect the main wiring harness from the PCB then Reconnect it. This might have partially worked loose. (I would expect if the machine is loosing total power and resetting they you would get the RAM test/Rug screen then go to Insert Coin and not just go to insert coin. Probably something is shorting rather than loosing total power. Which usually means the main connector is loose or not on correctly. I would also disconnect and reconnect any Molex plugs (White connectors) and check the cables going down to the power supply.
Unfortunately if this does not fix the problem you need to then get a multimeter and check the power coming off the transformer going to the game board making sure it is outputting the proper 5 %26 12 volts and it is not majorly off. (Causing the PCB to short and partially reset.) If it is off you might have to replace to a newer power supply going to the main PCB which will cost you around 30USD or if you are handy can use a PC power supply. (You need to do some wiring to make this power on and use a 5, 12 and Ground wires to power the PCB.)
Hopefully you can get this working again.
Octane
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hello Octane, Thanks for the quick response. I checked the voltage on the the game and the 5V was almost 6V. There was a pot for adjusting the 5V and I brought it down to 5V. The problem was still occurring. I followed your advice and removed the plugs, including the one on the main board, cleaned the contacts and everything seems to be working fine. Thanks again. Is there any way I could make this game a free play game? There doesn't appear to be a way to do that with the dip switches. Can I put in a pushbutton switch paralleling the coin counter switch? Thanks again, Bill
Answer
Gday Bill,
Excellent news bill, glad it is working again.
Unfortunately you are right there is no free play available via the dip switches, I have no idea why Data East did not put this in there. But you idea of putting in a push button parallel to the coin switch is a great idea. Depending on the type of cabinet you have you can hide it on top of the machine or if you have a CPO that juts out under that.
Glad it is working again.
Octane
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