Help! - Zoo Keeper

[chumblespuzz]

Hi All,

I've been hacking away at this Zoo Keeper and now I'm kinda stuck.

Fixed a myriad of problems, and now the thing does boot up, but it displays
the setup menu. Upon pushing the test button, it cycles through the tests
until it gets to the switch test. In addition to 9 displaying red and 29,
30, 31 and 32 displaying green (all normal), 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 also
display green (closed). Pushing any button has no effect. Note that this
display is consistent even with the CP and coin door disconnected.

So, I've probed around alot. I believe the 6821s on the ROM I/O board are
ok, and all ROMs checksum to the MAME images. I've also checked the TIP120s,
diodes and resistors on the input lines and they're all ok.

I'm starting to get the feeling that the problem is not on the ROM I/O
board, but somewhere else. I've also checked the 6821 on the DD lines on the
Data/Sounds board and it's ok as well.

Any thoughts?

TIA,
-roy-

[Tim]

Coin processor bad or missing? You can patch the ROMs to work w/o it.

Tim

[Jon eXidy]

roy

i purchased 5 zookeepers in the last year. 4 of which were dead, but
complete. After fixing the CPU's, most of the games didnt work. Here are
some of the problems i had to fix:

Setup screen - on a loop.

zookeeper #1:
the coin door board was causing the problem. Aparantly someone switched the
coindoor board with another, leaving the original chip in it. the lettering
on the rom was "SD", which turned out to be a SPACE DUNGEON coin door board.
once I replaced this with a ZK chip, everything worked fine.

zookeeper #2:
it turned out to be the rom chips. one of the rom chips was bad, i just
reburnt the bad chip and the game has worked since.

zookeeper #3 (and several others):
the game was wired incorrectly! Yes, this is actually true. several of the
games had the wires plugged in incorrectly. I used the working zookeeper as
a guide and managed
to fix several zookeepers this way.

important tip:
make sure you place a battery on the CPU. For some reason, this causes some
booting problems with the game.

last tip:
i have also noticed that some of the settings on the setup menu will cause
the game to freeze up when its booted. i just set it on freeplay and left
everything else alone. that seems to be the best setting for this damn game.

i hope this helps. if you need any help, drop me an email.

jon

[chumblespuzz]

Thanks for all the input Jon!

My responses below:

> zookeeper #1:
> the coin door board was causing the problem.

The coind door board had a problem which I fixed, but this problem occurs
even when the coin door board is disconnected from the ROM I/O board.

> zookeeper #2:
> it turned out to be the rom chips.

Check all ROMs against MAME. All checksum ok.

> zookeeper #3 (and several others):
> the game was wired incorrectly!

So was mine! Really scared me, and perhaps was the cause of this problem.
However, the game is wired correctly now (and now runs) and this problem
exists.

> important tip:
> make sure you place a battery on the CPU. For some reason, this causes
some
> booting problems with the game.

I didn't have the battery on. I just installed one (fully charged), but it
exhibits the same problem.

> last tip:
> i have also noticed that some of the settings on the setup menu will cause
> the game to freeze up when its booted. i just set it on freeplay and left
> everything else alone. that seems to be the best setting for this damn
game.

I'll keep this in mind once I can get past this screen.

Thanks!

-roy-

[Jon eXidy]

if you continue to have problems with the boards,
you can send them to me. ill see if i can fix them
i also happen to have 10 or so extra boardsets
sitting around, im sure i can fix yours.

i almost forgot to tell you.

information on the TAITO CPU (zk style):

i have fixed several CPU's that will work on a space dungeon and qix, yet
they wont work on a ZK. i havent figured out why, but im guessing it has to
do with it being more intense (graphics and logic) than the rest.

jon

"chumblespuzz" <chumbl...@home.com> wrote in message
news:NF0q7.17543$NT3.2...@news1.rdc1.ct.home.com...

[chumblespuzz]

When you do this, do you just plug the coin door harness directly into the
I/O board? Do you have the patch handy?

Thanks,
-roy-

"Tim" <t...@arcadecollecting.com> wrote in message
news:3BA82D17...@arcadecollecting.com...

[Ceg...@webtv.net]

jon,
sure wish i could find at least one zoo...
i guess i cant complain too much, i did bring home about 20 pac/ms pac
cocktails last week. :)
ronald

[chumblespuzz]

Can anyone tell me what buttons 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 are? Control panel or
coin door?

The manual says that they are numbered on the wiring harness diagram, but
they are not.

Thanks,
-roy-

"chumblespuzz" <chumbl...@home.com> wrote in message

news:5pVp7.16697$NT3.2...@news1.rdc1.ct.home.com...

[chumblespuzz]

Tim,

Thanks a lot. When I read the description of how the coin board works I said
to myself that that looks familiar. I was seeing lots of weird behavior on
the input lines. That also made me realize that without the coin board
plugged in, it would still exhibit those conditions.

So, I burned a new ROM, plugged it in, and I GOT GAME!!!!! Allright!

I did also have to install a battery, like Jon suggested, so that it would
boot past the Location Name screen, but I just finished playing a few rounds
and I am psyched!

Thanks to both Tim and Jon for their help. Much apprecitated.

-roy-

"chumblespuzz" <chumbl...@home.com> wrote in message

news:Ox1q7.17940$NT3.2...@news1.rdc1.ct.home.com...

[David Haynes]

I used to have 3 ZK boardsets...

"Jon eXidy" <ex...@arcade-classics.com> wrote in message
news:5DZp7.175571$aZ.31...@typhoon.tampabay.rr.com...

[Jon eXidy]

hahhah.. have you tried asking jason about them?

jon/evil exidy

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"David Haynes" <d...@bombjack.org> wrote in message
news:9oavhs$iq5$1...@slb6.atl.mindspring.net...

[Jake]

roy,
Did you burn a new ROM for the coin processor board or did you just
have a bad rom on the rom board?
Because I suspect that I may have a bad rom on the coin processor pcb
but I have no idea what size/type of eprom to burn to replace it.
The only numbers on it look like a PN (15-00011-001)
Or would any of you happen to have the patched roms to eliminate the
coin processor pcb.
Thnaks,
Jake

[Tim]

Jake wrote:

>
> Or would any of you happen to have the patched roms to eliminate the
> coin processor pcb.
> Thnaks,
> Jake
>

http://www.arcadecollecting.com/info/Zookeeper-no68705.zip

Tim