Author Topic: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....  (Read 82054 times)

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
I guess most of you guys read about the amazing find of Three very nice looking and complete Berzerks.

This is a historic picture as it is the last moment (well, very likely) that the Three were together. I had some hard time letting them separate as you can see :)



Anyway, I've been working on all the ZPU boards to get at least one of them running. Running "on the bench" would mean three flashes by the LED. I've reached that stage on one board, but will have to bypass the reset circuit to let it happen.

Now, I was looking at a board-set that was on offer in the US e-bay for only 100 bucks BIN. A very decent price for a complete Berzerk board-set. Seller mentioned it was pulled from a working machine quite some time ago and indeed the pics showed the nice blue color of the terrible acid that leaks out of the batteries. Got into contact with the seller and got some confirmations he was OK. Asked him to remove the battery ASAP which he did. The leaks were kept in a relatively small area around the battery, it looked like the board was lying down when it started to leak. Most boards are in the cab, and thus vertical when leaking starts and so the acid does much more damage.

The owners of the Three agreed on buying the board-set together. We thought we could probably use several boards between eachother and at least give it a good chance to get all Three running...

Now finding Three Berzerks (in Europe !) is already simply amazing,but right after I ordered the above mentioned board-set, there were Three _working_ board-sets offered on the KLOV forum ! One was kind of reserverd, but thanks to a great tip I was fast enough to get hold of 2 of the 3 sets. After some days I was actually offered the third set too, but we had to act quickly.

Again all owners agreed and the Three boardsets were bought. Tested.Working.

SO.....I bet I will have the largest concentration of Berzerk PCBs in Europe within a couple more days :)

Today the first set I mentioned arrived safely. Of course first thing was checking the acid damage:


As mentioned, not too bad. The area is relatively small (which is good) but the intensity has been pretty hard. Again an indication that the board was flat during most of the leaking period.

Here's a close up:


Now, the way to fight that acid and make sure it turns into something harmless (neutralize it) we need a little chemical experiment. I use some "cleaning vinegar" as we call it (it's the kind you don't put on your salad). Normally you can see some tiny bubbles when you poor a little vinegar onto the bad parts, but this time it looked like a complete shower of tiny bubbles ! Pretty fun to watch. I was a bit late to film it, but this was a little bit after that moment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gDi--jrAdk

After the reaction has stopped, it's time to rinse the part of the board where the vinegar "hit" with lots of water. Then of course drying with paper towel and wife's hair dryer :D

Next step is to scrape away the plastic layer that has turned into crud. This normally covers the copper tracks but the bad places have to go. This means some tedious scraping away. Here's a first try. Not to happy with it yet, but it's ready for a test now....



Well allmost.

This little fellow caught my eye and I had a feeling that it might not be entirely in working condition anymore:


Of course I replaced it (had bough a couple already for the repairs).

Sad thing is that my Berzerk is still in temporary storage. Hope to get it out by monday so I can do some testing.

And, of course, we are in glad expectation of the 3 working board-sets !

I hope to fix all the boards in the end. That would make some nice spares.
« Last Edit: December 06, 2009, 12:10:15 AM by Level42 »

Superully

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 6300
  • Southern Part of Germany
    • View Profile
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2009, 07:59:55 AM »
Then of course drying with paper towel and wife's hair dryer :D

@One of Three: do you have your own personal hair dryer?  ;)

anyway, YES, the Berzerks will rise again soon ...  :twisted:

Two of Three
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2009, 10:47:03 AM »
Then of course drying with paper towel and wife's hair dryer :D

@One of Three: do you have your own personal hair dryer?  ;)
You've seen my hair. (or more: lack of it !) It's dry within 10 seconds after washing ! :D



Yesterday another mysterious box from the US arrived:



LOOK IT'S EVIL OTTO ALREADY CYNICALLY SMILING AT ME !!!!



Now, what could this be ?


(ALL boards were bubble-wrapped very well. Removed them here from the ZPU boards already).

The repaired boards are still in the sealed anti-static bag !

More pics in about an hour...
« Last Edit: December 12, 2009, 10:48:56 AM by Level42 »

DarthNuno

  • Administrator
  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • *****
  • Posts: 11708
  • Singe's castle
    • View Profile
    • Dragon's Lair Fans / Arcade LifeStyle
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2009, 11:25:51 AM »
Cool  :P Evil OTTO is watching you  ;D



 :spaceace:

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2009, 01:02:41 PM »
Yeah, I even thought I heard a little voice saying "The humanoid must not escape !" when I opened the box !

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2009, 05:03:14 PM »
Uhm.....thought you guys might wanted to see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReK6RaSQi-Q&feature=youtube_gdata


YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!

The video looks very crappy but the picture is like new in real !!!!

This is with three boards from the sets I received. That means the other boards are still OK (voice, sound and interface).
Also, the joystick works but it's very hard to hit diagonals.

I have to say I also had one ZPU board only giving one flash/beep...... yikes !

More testing tonight !!!!!
« Last Edit: December 12, 2009, 05:51:35 PM by Level42 »

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2009, 05:26:37 PM »
Just reconnected my own VFB board and it still works. So only two boards were dead on my machine.

Muerto

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 3855
  • Denmark
    • View Profile
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2009, 05:28:51 PM »
YES!!!!!!! WEEEEEH!!!!!!
cant wait to get mine up and running!!!!!

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2009, 05:54:04 PM »
Damn, 2 of the 3 ZPU's work 100%, 1 gives only 1 beep/flash....

Let's see if I can find the problem....

Superully

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 6300
  • Southern Part of Germany
    • View Profile
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2009, 06:24:01 PM »
YES !!!

i'm sure you'll have the final boardset up and running soon, too! thx a lot andrĂ©, you're doing a wonderful job here  :spaceace:

p.s.: do i see a berzerk machine in your house?   ;)
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2009, 07:46:57 PM »
Hahaha, see who's the boss here ! :D

First had to promise it was only for the weekend, now it can stay until before x-mas.....
Wife said it was looking great ! (She hadn't seen the Berzerks before ! :D

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2009, 08:09:19 PM »
Gotta love how the speaker plops when the voice synth is turned on and off.....those were the days....no-one cared about it then :D

The ZPU board that is not running gives one beep/flash which means a ROM problem. Weird, because on this one all the EPROMs are new. Freshly burned. Also some of the sockets have been replaced. I bet it gave ROM problems before....
I'll try to swap in a set of the EPROMs from one of my original boards and see what happens....

This is going to be a LONG evening....testing all the boards....gotta mark them first or I will get lost !

:D

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2009, 08:51:23 PM »
Yikes after been only on for an hour or two I lost the voice.....rats !

Superully

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 6300
  • Southern Part of Germany
    • View Profile
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2009, 09:24:59 PM »
Yikes after been only on for an hour or two I lost the voice.....rats !

you shouldn't shout that much at your wife ... oops, i see, berzerk lost its voice  ;)
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

level42

  • ArcadeLifeStyler'
  • ***
  • Posts: 13555
  • Ridderkerk, arcade capital of Europe !
    • View Profile
    • Arcade 42
Re: The Three Stooges, I mean Bezerks. Blowing life into them again....
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2009, 01:34:40 AM »
Well I swapped in another voice board and it kept working fine for the rest of the evening.....

What I've been doing this night ? Not testing....

I've actually set-up a small database in Bento 3 (it's great!) for all the Berzerk boards I have flying around here !
I seriously was starting to loose track about which was which, so I thought before that would _really_ happen I'd better catalogue them !

Made pics of every single board and am now (and tomorrow ) in the process of entering everything.

I need this so I can do a thorough and consistent testing of each and every board.

Results tomorrow night !