#space panic

Space Panic - from ColecoVision Flashback (Steam)

I picked up this unusual Space Panic dedicated mini a couple months back, but haven’t had time to mess with it much. Unusual find, it was up on Craigslist for free, but with the catch that you had to haul it up from a beach house, up a 200′ long dirt path with a 50′ incline. I didn’t do this, but I traded some stuff to the guy who did.

The cabinet is in good shape, but has some moisture damage and chips that will need to be repaired. The control panel is rough as well. When powered on, a static image comes up, and the game doesn’t boot. I tend to prefer playable games over pristine restores, so I pulled the PCB to work on first.

The mini uses an unusual PCB, compared to the upright. Instead of a single large PCB, there’s a stack of three. Two logic boards with 2x40p ribbon cable interconnects, plus a power regulator PCB slapped on top. There’s a PCB-based edge connector interconnect between the power PCB and the CPU board, similar to a Star Wars or Pole Position boardset uses. The harness has AC voltages from the step-down transformer in the bottom of the cabinet, plus AV and the usual input/coin controls.

I wired up a minimal JAMMA adapter that plugs into the CPU board, power and video only. This eliminates the power regulator as a source of problems, and makes it easier to get at the components on the main board it covers up. It comes up with the same static rug as in the cabinet, so it’s definitely a PCB issue.

The Z80 CPU is soldered to the PCB, so I pulled it and socketed so I could hook up my Fluke 9010a. All the RAM and ROMs check out — this uses the panic3 romset from MAME. Looking at the Z80′s /RESET line, it’s low and doesn’t go high when the board boots, which points to a power-on reset issue.

The schematic only covers the single-board version, but all the component locations match up, at least for the CPU board. Power-on reset is handled by a 556 dual timer at C7. Piggybacked a new component, and the board came right up. Socketed and replaced, and the board is now working. Failed IC is a Raytheon RC556 with a date code of August 1979 — older than I am.

I reassembled everything and put it back in the cabinet, and it fired right up. The monitor needs some adjustment and looks like it could use new caps, but produces a reasonable image. I started a game, but there’s no sound. Poking around the back, I see that one of the speaker wires has pulled out of the quick disconnect terminal. I shoved it back in and re-crimped, and audio is working.

HAVE YOU EVER READ HOW FAR AWAY THESE THINGS ARE

HAVE YOU EVER WATCHED A VIDEO WHERE IT ZOOMS OUT FROM EARTH TO SHOW YOU THESE THINGS AND THEN SUDDENLY YOU LOSE TRACK OF THE MILKY WAY

H O W