Earthshaker Questions
peter van os
Last week I bought an Earthshaker that needs some repair and a lot of cleaning.
It's my first system 11 game and I don't have the manual yet (just the
preliminary mamual), so I have some questions.
1. The software is LU-1; I know there is L, LX, LA software; but LU ???
BTW, I live in The Netherlands (Europe), so maybe that has something to do
with it.
2. Replay levels and specials are set to give extra balls instead of replays.
When you get a special, the game will indeed give you 1 extra ball; when
you reach a replay level, it gives you a random number of extra balls
(usually 1-4). Is this a known bug, or what ?
3. When you power up, a solenoid fires once (I think it's the drop-target
reset). The same solenoid (I think) fires after a new ball is served
in the plunger lane and again just after the game ends.
Is this normal behaviour ?
BTW, the serial # is 568I216379.
TIA,
Peter.
Bill Ung
|Last week I bought an Earthshaker that needs some repair and a lot of
|cleaning. It's my first system 11 game and I don't have the manual yet
|(just the preliminary mamual), so I have some questions.
What is a "preliminary" manual?
|1. The software is LU-1; I know there is L, LX, LA software; but LU ???
| BTW, I live in The Netherlands (Europe), so maybe that has something to do
| with it.
Perhaps, I have LA-3 which you'll probably want, it fixes a lot of bugs.
Your game doesn't reboot on occasion during Quick Multi-Ball, does it?
|2. Replay levels and specials are set to give extra balls instead of replays.
| When you get a special, the game will indeed give you 1 extra ball; when
| you reach a replay level, it gives you a random number of extra balls
| (usually 1-4). Is this a known bug, or what ?
This *does* sound rather odd. My game, to the best of my knowledge,
never did this. I've never heard of a prior occurance of this "bug"
before...
|3. When you power up, a solenoid fires once (I think it's the drop-target
| reset). The same solenoid (I think) fires after a new ball is served
| in the plunger lane and again just after the game ends.
| Is this normal behaviour ?
Yup, mine does too. It's just resetting the drop-targets, that's all.
|BTW, the serial # is 568I216379.
Cool, thanks. Judging by the serial number, it's pretty far down the
line, but just in case: Does your building move up and down during
power-up, ball-lock or Multi-Ball?
--
Bill Ung
u...@filenet.com
HIGH SPEED: "Dispatch this is 504, suspect got away."
EARTHSHAKER: "Ooohhh, bitchin!!"
WHITEWATER: "Dang, lost another one!"
Jonathan N. Deitch
>U01...@netnews.uci.kun.nl (peter van os) writes:
>|Last week I bought an Earthshaker that needs some repair and a lot of
>|cleaning. It's my first system 11 game and I don't have the manual yet
>|(just the preliminary mamual), so I have some questions.
>What is a "preliminary" manual?
Prototype manuals are "preliminary" and have plain white covers with the
game name on them ... they are infamous for having innacurate and/or
missing information. The Galleria's TZ manual has the solenoid chart, but
no information on the chart. Very useful. Indy has an elaborate diagram and
schematic for a "tri-level" drop target that doesn't exist in the game (it's
supposed to be the top drop, which is a standard target). Etc. Etc.
You can distinguish them by part # --
Prototype manuals : 16-xxxxx-101A
Production Manuals : 16-xxxxx-101
xxxxx = game #
>|1. The software is LU-1; I know there is L, LX, LA software; but LU ???
>| BTW, I live in The Netherlands (Europe), so maybe that has something to do
>| with it.
>
>Perhaps, I have LA-3 which you'll probably want, it fixes a lot of bugs.
>Your game doesn't reboot on occasion during Quick Multi-Ball, does it?
Bill, you have "L-3" .... they didn't distinguish between LA and LX back
then ...
>|2. Replay levels and specials are set to give extra balls instead of replays.
>| When you get a special, the game will indeed give you 1 extra ball; when
>| you reach a replay level, it gives you a random number of extra balls
>| (usually 1-4). Is this a known bug, or what ?
>This *does* sound rather odd. My game, to the best of my knowledge,
>never did this. I've never heard of a prior occurance of this "bug"
>before...
Could this be some kind of weird "novelty" setting ?
>|3. When you power up, a solenoid fires once (I think it's the drop-target
>| reset). The same solenoid (I think) fires after a new ball is served
>| in the plunger lane and again just after the game ends.
>| Is this normal behaviour ?
>Yup, mine does too. It's just resetting the drop-targets, that's all.
Standard stuff .... Whirlwind will occasionaly fire random coils upon
powerup ... it's really disconcerting to turn the game on and then try
not to jump through the roof as the knocker *immediately* fires ...
It's not trying to "knock" upon an error at startup time ... first, there
are *no* problems with this game (and if there were, they'd be fixed
*immediately*) ... second, the knock occurs right at startup, before the
cpu has even had time to finish its ROM and RAM tests.
I'm guessing somekind of capacitor discharge or something ...
- Jonathan
--
mus...@gsusgi2.gsu.edu | "I Hate it when I can't trust | Atlanta 1996 !!
jde...@aol.com | my own technology!" - LaForge | Play Pinball !!
jde...@gisatl.fidonet.org |--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- "Thrills! Chills! Magic! Prizes!" -- Hurricane
Gene Roddenberry, Isaac Asimov, Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss, Mel Blanc ... Sigh ...
peter van os
u...@filenet.com (Bill Ung) writes:
>
>U01...@netnews.uci.kun.nl (peter van os) writes:
>|Last week I bought an Earthshaker that needs some repair and a lot of
>|cleaning. It's my first system 11 game and I don't have the manual yet
>|(just the preliminary mamual), so I have some questions.
>
>What is a "preliminary" manual?
>
but in general not very helpfull.
>|1. The software is LU-1; I know there is L, LX, LA software; but LU ???
>| BTW, I live in The Netherlands (Europe), so maybe that has something to do
>| with it.
>
>Perhaps, I have LA-3 which you'll probably want, it fixes a lot of bugs.
>Your game doesn't reboot on occasion during Quick Multi-Ball, does it?
>
>
>|BTW, the serial # is 568I216379.
>
>Cool, thanks. Judging by the serial number, it's pretty far down the
>line, but just in case: Does your building move up and down during
>power-up, ball-lock or Multi-Ball?
BTW, I found out that two plastics are damaged (zone 1 and zone 5).
Is there someone out there who has these things and wants to sell/trade ?
Peter.
Bill Ung
|u...@filenet.com (Bill Ung) writes:
|
|>U01...@netnews.uci.kun.nl (peter van os) writes:
|>|Last week I bought an Earthshaker that needs some repair and a lot of
|>|cleaning. It's my first system 11 game and I don't have the manual yet
|>|(just the preliminary mamual), so I have some questions.
|
|>What is a "preliminary" manual?
|
|Prototype manuals are "preliminary" and have plain white covers with the
|game name on them ... they are infamous for having innacurate and/or
|missing information. The Galleria's TZ manual has the solenoid chart, but
|no information on the chart. Very useful. Indy has an elaborate diagram and
|schematic for a "tri-level" drop target that doesn't exist in the game (it's
|supposed to be the top drop, which is a standard target). Etc. Etc.
*Really*? Sounds interesting. Neat mechanical stuff is one of the reasons
I love going through these manuals. Suppose you can photocopy that stuff
for me when you ship out the rest of the parts I ordered?
|You can distinguish them by part # --
|
|Prototype manuals : 16-xxxxx-101A
|Production Manuals : 16-xxxxx-101
|
|xxxxx = game #
Good to know...
|>|1. The software is LU-1; I know there is L, LX, LA software; but LU ???
|>| BTW, I live in The Netherlands (Europe), so maybe that has something
|>| to do with it.
|>
|>Perhaps, I have LA-3 which you'll probably want, it fixes a lot of bugs.
|>Your game doesn't reboot on occasion during Quick Multi-Ball, does it?
|
|Bill, you have "L-3" .... they didn't distinguish between LA and LX back
|then ...
That's what I thought. On the other hand, the ROM itself specifically
says LA-3 on the display. Don't ask me why, but it does. HIGH SPEED
says L-4 and WHITEWATER says L-5 but EARTHSHAKER says LA-3.
|>|3. When you power up, a solenoid fires once (I think it's the drop-target
|>| reset). The same solenoid (I think) fires after a new ball is served
|>| in the plunger lane and again just after the game ends.
|>| Is this normal behaviour ?
|
|>Yup, mine does too. It's just resetting the drop-targets, that's all.
|
|Standard stuff .... Whirlwind will occasionaly fire random coils upon
|powerup ... it's really disconcerting to turn the game on and then try
|not to jump through the roof as the knocker *immediately* fires ...
Actually, the game fires the drop-target reset coil as part of the
power-up recalibration. It would be moving the building up and down
as well ... if that part worked. The occasional coil fire during
power-up is a different thing and may just be a problem in System 11B
CPUs. HIGH SPEED (System 11) and WHITEWATER (WPC) don't have this
problem.
|It's not trying to "knock" upon an error at startup time ... first, there
|are *no* problems with this game (and if there were, they'd be fixed
|*immediately*) ... second, the knock occurs right at startup, before the
|cpu has even had time to finish its ROM and RAM tests.
|
|I'm guessing somekind of capacitor discharge or something ...
Or an uninitialized flip-flop/TTL.
For reference, the drop-targets are reset just before "EARTHSHAKER"
comes up on the display, not immediately at power-up.
Bennet McComish
> I think Bill is right. That's why I know that the software on my Earthshaker
> is LU-1. It's on the display during test-mode; the chip itself is just marked
> "Level-1".
Strangely enough, the software on my Banzai Run is U-3.
No L, just U, although the manual says it should be L-x.
This could get almost as complicated as the serial numbers.
Bennet
B.J.Mc...@massey.ac.nz