Quoted from ElectricCircuit:Hey thanks for the help on my caveman. I checked the connector for the +5 pop bumpers on a1j6 and once I re seated that connector I noticed without even starting a game the pop bumpers worked. Idk if this is normal or not. I then tried to credit the game up and now it will not credit up at all. Also now the game is not in English on the monitor. I tried reseating that connector a few more times and nothing brings back me being able to credit the game / start a game and it’s still in a different language. That connector is the only connector I touched... seems very weird. Any ideas?
OK, a little technical explanation of how the Caveman works is necessary:
The Caveman is the first SYSTEM 80A designed (prototyped on a Black Hole, and the first marketed was Devil's Dare): unlike the other pinball machines in the series, this one has not two but three independent systems.
There are :
① The CPU board (6502)
② The SOUND board (also built on a 6502 architecture)
③ The VIDEO board (built on an Intel 8086 architecture, developped in Europe )
These three independent systems communicate with each other.
► Between the CPU board and the SOUND board, the communication is unidirectional (CPU → SOUND) via the A3J5 (CPU / DRIVER) connector.
► Between the CPU board and the video board, the communication is bidirectional. As there was no dedicated bus, the designers used "lamp" outputs for the CPU → VIDEO direction and "switch" inputs for the VIDEO → CPU direction.
The video board (more exactly the ROMs) is multilingual. By default, it starts in German (no wonder ... when we know where it was developed! ).
◊ When the CPU starts, it sends a command to the video board, asking it to switch to the correct language. But what is important is that unlike AUDIO commands that are not acknoledged, the VIDEO commands are. The CPU board is waiting for a feedback from the VIDEO card and if this acknowledgment does not arrive, the game can not start.
Since the game remains in German, it is obviously that the initialization command does not reach the video board. It seems that the problem is at the level of the command (lamps) and not of the acknoledge (switch matrix). Since the command does not arrive at the video board, it never returns acknowledgment and the CPU can not start correctly. As the It is necessary to follow the signals of the lamps.
The causes can be multiple/complex:
• It can come simply from a bad connection (oxidized connectors).
• A failure on the CPU or the DRIVER that no longer controls the lamps properly.
• A failure on the input circuit in the video block.
If the game worked before, then it's most likely a connector problem.
The lamps L4, L5, L6 and L7 are used only to indicated to the video board, the player active (1...4). So the issue is probably not here.
The lamps L12, L13, L14, L15 are the command sent from the CPU to the video board.
The lamp L16 is the strobe sent from the CPU to start the command.
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Check the connections at A3J3 and on the video block (P2 - A23J2).