Author Topic: Lazarian lives!  (Read 8920 times)

PaulSwan

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Lazarian lives!
« on: May 28, 2011, 06:30:00 PM »
It's finally running!


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8899we.JPG

The story is that I bought this cab a few years ago from somewhere on the east side of the US (and it was bought and delivered for my by XY-Man). The monitor was missing along with the smoked plexi and surround that still are. A little later I bought a wrecked Galaxian at the San Jose auction for $50 for a WG monitor to go in it (rest of the cab was scrapped).

With the NW Pinball and Gameroom show coming up it was the closest cab to working that would make the 3 needed to get pickup and it'd put 3 Zaccaria games in the show that I'm pretty sure is a first :)

Initial try out with the WG was no picture at all. I took the WG along to a SMAC (Seattle Metro Arcade Collectors) repair party to test & fix if needed and it tested out fine as is (the Galaxian looked like it'd been outside for years so this was a pleasant surprise). In the Lazarian, though, there was still no picture with any of the six main PCB's I have installed. The first lucky break was that poking around with an oscilloscope caused the picture to appear briefly every time a colour signal was touched. Turned out that the colour signals were floating (Lazarian has AC coupled colour signals) but the WG schematic I had showed 3 RGB pull downs. Except the interface board in the monitor was an older one different from the schematic that didn't have them. Adding 3 5K Ohm pull-downs on the RGB inputs brought a lovely picture :)

Adding the 3 pulldowns to the WG interface board:


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8862w.JPG

Back in the monitor:


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8864w.JPG

That got me as far as picture with bad graphics on at least two of the boards (the remainder were all dead):


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8865w.JPG

Poking around the background graphics EPROMS with an oscilloscope was hinting that one of the 2114 video RAMS had a floating data bus and the other had one bit on the data bus that looked clamped down.Time for them to come out and sockets to go in - temporary work area set up on the breakfast table:


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8876we.JPG

Old 2114's cut out, holes cleaned up and new sockets put in (sockets borrowed from Barry S. as I needed them ASAP). The replacement 2114's were unknowns from an untested Lost Tomb that had them in sockets.

Fired it up, and the graphics are back spot on! Rest of the game works fine now :)


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8889w.JPG


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8890w.JPG


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8891w.JPG


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8892w.JPG


http://www.zzzaccaria.com/photos/Lazarian/SAM_8893w.JPG

Show Time  ;D

Paul.
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ataritoobin

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2011, 06:34:28 PM »
Lovely work, Paul!  I used to play the Commodore 64 version quite a bit back in the day.  Nice to see one of these restored.

Belike

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2011, 06:39:03 PM »
A rare and super cool beast, I love those artworks on the bezel. :D
Excellent job you did there Paul! ;)
« Last Edit: May 29, 2011, 07:52:45 PM by Belike »

Superully

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2011, 07:38:42 PM »
great job, paul, if only i understood half of what you're telling ;)

note to myself: in my next life, attend some electronic classes :P
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2011, 07:53:02 PM »
Very nice paul !

note to myself: in my next life, attend some electronic classes :P

Secret to Learning Electronics - Fail and Fail Often  ;D

level42

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2011, 01:42:52 PM »
Very nice !!! Never played it, not even on Mame.....

scr33n

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2011, 05:11:40 PM »
Awesome cab and artwork, congrats Paul !!!  :spaceace:

I used to play the Commodore 64 version quite a bit back in the day.  Nice to see one of these restored.

+1
 
nice memories  :'(
PROJECTS FROM SCRATCH:

Galaga - PacMan - Donkey Kong Red Cab - Track & Field Upright - Tempest - Burgertime - Gyruss - Defender - Track & Field Cocktail - Robotron 2084

RESTORATIONS:

Q*bert - Timber

DarthNuno

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2011, 06:37:32 PM »
Very nice !!! Never played it, not even on Mame.....

Same for me.
First time I see that gorgeous cabinet! The artworks are just beautiful  :o :-* :-* :-*

Congratulation!

PaulSwan

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2011, 07:16:44 AM »
Well, Jackrabbit lasted a few hours at the show before the monitor gave out and Lazarian was on-and-off for video sync before the board finally gave out. Quasar lasted the distance, amazing given it still has the late 70's Philips KT-3 TV chassis monitor in it. I was sure it would come back dead.

Still, I heard someone got really into Jackrabbit before it died and people got to see and play some games they'd never seen or played before.

Some photos from the show...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nwpinballshow/

Now got to get Jackrabbit/Lazarian back working again...

Paul
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Belike

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2011, 08:14:16 AM »
Wow, tons of great classics there, reminds me to Eurocade. ;D

level42

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2011, 09:24:28 AM »
....amazing given it still has the late 70's Philips KT-3 TV chassis monitor in it. I was sure it would come back dead.

[Darth Vader voice on]

I find your lack of faith in Dutch products disturbing !

[Darth Vader voice off]

I've always wondered why there were so few Philips monitors in cabs, it's like they didn't care much about the cab market. Could also be that there was close to 0 production of cabs in our regions. Italian builders of course almost always chose Hantarex which is also Italian.
(The videocolor tubes often found in Hantarex monitors were produced by Philips by the way, hence the great picture ;))
The Irish Atari factory seemed to receive their monitors from the US.

I'd like to see a couple of good pictures of a Philips arcade monitor. The TV's that they built in that era were the best around IMO. Totally built service-friendly and non-compromising for quality. They had the best picture of all of them.

I've also often wondered why Sony didn't do anything in that market. Sony built loads of broadcast type monitors but (it seems) none for the arcade market. My guess is that either they, or the cab manufacturers didn't want them because color shifts happen when the Trinitrons get bumped.

I personally never liked the Trinitron picture. The sharpness was great, but I just didn't like the phosphors they used for their colors. Philips tubes looked much more natural to my eye.

Laschek

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2011, 03:37:17 PM »
German company Valvo produced tons of arcade monitors back then, often used in generic cabs made by ADP, Hellomat, etc. They (Valvo) were part of Philips, so there...
« Last Edit: June 12, 2011, 03:41:00 PM by Laschek »

level42

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Re: Lazarian lives!
« Reply #12 on: June 13, 2011, 12:19:51 AM »
German company Valvo produced tons of arcade monitors back then, often used in generic cabs made by ADP, Hellomat, etc. They (Valvo) were part of Philips, so there...
Ah, yeah that sounds like a very reasonable explanation....I haven't seen a Valvo yet though...