Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1991-March - Vol 13 Issue 1

The World According to Beck
Part II
James Beck
Greater Southern Distributing
Atlanta. Georgia
A few more observations from the top, bottom. and sides of the Coin-Op Industry.
SNK
WILLIAMS
The Neo-Geo kit is a bitch to install and only runs
one cartridge the home system is OVER priced
for the market it is aimed at, and so
far the games have been only OK at best.
CAPCOM
The system used by Capcom for everything from
UN Squadron on up has been extremely unreli-
able. almost impossible to repair in house. VERY
expensive to get repaired at the factory. and an
all around pain in the butt.
The new Williams WPC system, kinda' neat if not
completely field tested ... A nice little(?) ASIC that
handles the tasks of MMU (memory manage-
ment unit). decoding. clock conditioning, bat-
tery power handler. and general purpose system
housekeeper. Each board is more of a self con-
tained unit that offloads a lot of the latching and
signal buffering and conditioning from the CPU
board.
('
A self-test/diagnostic/bookkeeping system that could only be the product
of a programmer with too much time on his/her hands ...
Come on guys. lousy placement of critical parts,
a 68000 that is not a DIP and is soldered to the
PCB. no extender cables offered for the ROM
board so at least we techs have a fighting chance.
Poorly documented. low quality work. so-so soft-
ware. and an unwillingness by the US distribu-
tor (or is that the manufacturer?) to acknowl-
edge the problem.
I suggest any operator who is not locked into the
purchasing of one of these "pieces" (if you get my
drift) avoid them. A $125 to $175 cost on an
unmolested PCB repair is TOO steep. We need to
bitch a little.
No more "woops" I accidentally touched the EOS
when adjusting the lane change switch thanks
to an opto-isolation system. the switch matrix is
Op amp buffered in such a manner as to be more
noise AND voltage tolerant, there are even
"normal" everyday active low inputs.
The general illumination is switched through
triacs instead of a relay 5 channels deep, the
lamp matrix is a dream come true (no heavy
power resistors that unsolder themselves), cut~,
trick with the current limiting, too.
Solenoid spike protection on board, heavier driv-
ers for the really big loads that have been prob-
lems in the past (like drop target reset).
A self-test/ diagnostic/bookkeeping system that
could only be the product of a programmer with
too much time on his/her hands and even a real
time clock so you can set your watch on location.
A deal at twice the price. Oh, I almost forgot, an
optional printer interface to dump the coin info.
Toe sound board is neat too. It uses a digital pot
that Xicor has been making lately (any one else
out there read Radio Electronics?) so you don't
even need a knob to adjust the volume, just
press a button.
~ e menu system is a sight to behold ... there has
to be at least three times the goodies to step
through as there was before. I doubt most opera-
tors ever get past the balls/play page in the
manual, but there's tons of junk there now for
your reading.
I mean there is a system in there now that would
make your average computer nut faint from
orgasmic anticipation! You can do everything
from adjust the volume to set the date and time.
I like it, but then again I'm a little more than the
average computer nut. Is this the wave of the
future, or just the product of a bunch of guys/
gals with little or no sex life? I guess it's up to you
to decide. "Oh, honey, I need to have a little talk
with you."
Nore
I'd like to clear up a mistake I made in the last
World.According to Beck. Toe problem I reported
with the Wells-Gardner Medium res 7000
r"""'..monitor eating up horizontal drive transformers
was wrong. Toe medium res version I was talking
about was apparently the 5000 family. I'm sony
for any problems this may have caused.
JUST DO IT!
Don't Let Those Time & Money Saving
Mod's, Fixes & Technical Tips
Gather Dust In Your Service Files ...
Mail or fax them to STAR*1ECH Journal & keep your
name (and your company's) out in front with the most
progressive technicians in the Coin-op Industry. Share the
knowledge!
STARid'ECH Journal, PO Box 1065,
18 Norlh Centre Street, Merchantville, NJ 081()(}
Phone: 609/662-1080 0 Fax: 609/662-0537
1991 brings new ways to save on STAR-KI'ECH Journal's
JAMMA Test Card, the M$44 Insurance Policy" that
checks out the entire game system BEFORE you plug in
that $1000 logic board.
Hr Nowyou can buyoneJAMMA Test Card at the regular
price of $44, second at 1 /2 price. That's two for $661
Hr ... Or, buy two and receive a third.card FREEi
Hr ... Or, buyanythreeS:JtTJServiceManualsandreceive
a JAMMA Test Card at the low, low price of $101
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Name: ______________ _
Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
City, State, Zip _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
O Send two JAMMA Test cards only $66!
O Send three JAMMA Test cards only $88!
0 Send one JAMMA Test card (with my order
for three service manuals) for only $10.
Include $4.50 s/h and insurance per order. NJ add 7%.
Mail to: STARnECH Journal, PO Boz 1065,
Merchantville, NJ 08109. Phone: 609/662-1080.

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