Berzerk, yet another thread!

[Muerto]

Thanks to Andre, i received the all the Berzerk PCB´s today!!!
and after work i tried them...!





1st. i tried only with the new ZPU and the old pcb´s in the cab....



weeeeeh! - seems like all the other boards works!!!



though, it seems like there´s a problem with the high score save kit??? andre??

[level42]

YIHAAAA !!!

Great to see the second "stooge" alive and kicking !!!

Glad it made it, still pretty fast considering x-mas was in between shipping !
Great that all the other boards in your machine still work !

I presume you installed the battery ?

There's nothing wrong with the high scores. The first time you power up (even with the battery in there) there will be "garble" in the memory. You have to clear it. Push the service button inside the coin door. Now you can go through all the settings step-by-step. If you want to clear any step, press the fire button. Then the service button again etc.
Note that if you clear the credits number, you will have to activate the coin-mechs to get credits from that point on. It might be handy to keep it as it is, sort of a free-play option (there is no real free-play option on Berzerk).

The next step you have to do is measure the voltage between test-point 4 and the gnd  on the Voice board (lowest left one) (the metal strips on the sides of all PCB's are ground). This is also instructed on the drawer stickers. Voltage should be between 5.0 and 5.25V there. If not, _CAREFULLY_ and _SLOWLY_ adjust the pot on PS-1000 board. I'd set it to 5.1 Volts.

And then, enjoy your game !

[Muerto]

Hehe, yes, battery installed 
and high score reset´t, unfortunately the "freeplay" mode i reset on accident, how do i reverse it?

The voltage messured 4.96V, so i adjusted it to 5.10V

[level42]

Great. You can "reverse" it by powering the machine down, removing the battery, wait a minute or so, replace the battery and power up again. Now, clear everything except the credits. This way it will save whatever there is on the credit counter and you have "semi" freeplay. Do you like the game ? I'm hooked !

It reminds me of the movie Cube for some reasons. OK, there's no robots in Cube, but it's room after room after room after room and it all seems so pointless because you know you won't reach the end, but yet, the basic instinct of survival is stronger than anything else ! It has this magical "I KNOW I can do better next game" that makes a game great.

I broke the 10000 points barrier the first time a day or three ago (before I dissasembled the drawer).

I set the game up correctly according to Twin Galaxies rules (extra man at 5000 and 10000 points. This is also the "easiest" setting because of the 2 extra men.

There are 2 rom-sets for Berzerk, but it looks all the one's I've got on all the boards here are Set 2 (the later set). I might look into being able to switch between 1 and 2 but that will be later....much later

[Muerto]

ah! excellent, ill try to remove the battery.
And yes, very addictive game!!!! my best is 3000, but this is the first time i tried it! and
my jou stick won´t let me do the down-left and down-right diagonals... hmmm, maby a loose wire...

[Etienne MacGyver]

It reminds me of the movie Cube for some reasons.

Sorry again off- topic  

CUBE , Brilliant movie, LOVE IT !

[Muerto]

Solved the credit problem! - it´s working like a charm again! the only thing i really miss on this "free play mode"
is the sentence "Coin´s detected in pockets".....

and this game get´s better and better each time you play it! managed to get 6K now 



And a close up in all it´s glory (missing the marquee light though...)

[arcadecollection]

nice its working now

what a lot of pcb

[level42]

what a lot of pcb

Yep. It is partially caused by the fact that Berzerk was first developed as a black & white game. The color was "added on" later during development, because Stern saw the success of early color games. This also gives the effect that if the player stands very close to a wall, the color of part of the wall changes to the players color.

Also, Stern was a pinball factory. They were used to a "modular" set-up. Although it looks clumsy and it introduces possible problems (like connection problems with the flatcables) it is still a good thing now IMHO. F.I. my machine worked fine too when I had replaced the main (ZPU) board. But after a couple of hours the voice module died. Now I was able to simply replace that module. If it all would have been on one board it would have meant a clumsy (if at all possible) repair.

And I _LOVE_ the drawer set-up. It does mean the game is very deep (To house the huge drawer-board) but it's great when you have to work on it. No more turning the cab around.

[level42]

That's me......new record, and no battery back-up installed yet:




Did you get the joystick to work 100% Michael ?

[Muerto]

Damn! - my best times 2!
My joystick.... yes and no..
Down-Right diagonal is not working
Down-Left diagonal is hard to do
everything else is a walk in the park 

[level42]

Do the contacts close when you make the diagonals ?

I remember that the optical board was still mounted somewhere on your CP, but I'm not sure how they hooked up the leaf joystick ? Could you make a pic ?

[Muerto]

it looks like this, and i think i know why it ain´t working properly, the "leafs" that presses the micro switch is quite bend!!!!

[Alpha1]

Berzerk is one of my most FAVOURITE games EVER!

My best score is 22-23,000 ish.

Once you get to the white screen and white robots it gets HARD

Oliver

[Jase]

White screen AND white robots?!? Seriously?