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Asteroids Multigame Kit -- Trouble Shooting

General Overview and Strategy

Not trying to sound like an old nag, but the first step to trouble shooting the Asteroids Multigame is to throughly review the install instructions and double check all of your work checking for bent pins, checking that the kit is not overlapping the socket by one pin, checking for backwards CPU, and that the 2 wires are indeed soldered to the correct locations on the board. This is also a good time to review the multigame Power On Self Test (POST) and testmode procedures.

The two Start LEDs and audio sounds are used to help debug problems. It is essential that your machine's start LEDs and Audio are all fully working.

The general approach for trouble shooting the multikit is to determine what (if any) signs of life the game indicates and from that determine how far into the startup sequence the game as progressed. This can greatly narrow down the scope of the problem and how to debug it. The multikit has enhanced diagnostic functions not found on the original asteroids board and also performs diagnostic tests in a more extensive and exhaustive manner. In some cases it is possible the multikit will detect existing problems not previously detected by the original asteroids software.

Looking for signs of life

Try putting the game in and out of testmode to see if there is any behavior change, such as LED patterns, audio tones, messages on screen. Attempt to get a full assessment of the state of the machine, then look over the following sections to see what topics match with the problem(s) seen.

Game appears dead - Both LEDs are always off

Game appears dead - Both LEDs are always ON

Game not running - LEDs flicker or flash quickly

Game not running - LEDs blinking slowly

Game not running - series of beeps in testmode

Game appears dead - Leds are always off

What are looking for in this section is for any signs of life such as even a brief flash of the start LEDS.

Check to see if the red +5V LED on the game board itself is on. Make sure the game board is probably installed with the correct orientation of the edge connector. If the pcb LED is off, the board does not have power

The game board will powerup with both the two Start LEDS ON. As well if the game is resetting (eg watchdogging), each reset should cause the LEDs to come back on, even if just briefly. Try both test mode on and test mode off switch settings.

If the LEDs do light, even if just briefly, check out the section Game appears dead - Both LEDs are always ON. If you cannot get the start LEDs to light at all, then focus back on the board installation, power supply, etc. As it appears the problem is probably not related to the kit.

Game appears dead - Leds are always ON

The game board will powerup with both the two Start LEDS ON. As well if the game is resetting (eg watchdogging), each reset should cause the LEDs to come back on, even if just briefly. Look closely and see if the LEDs flash, even if very briefly. See if testmode switch on or off changes the behavior.

What we are looking for here is any sign that the 6502 CPU complex has started executing instructions. One of the very first things the multigame software does during bootup is to turn off player-1 start LED (but leave on the player-2 start LED). It does this very early in the bringup sequence to indicate the first signs of life. If the game board resets, it still should cause a quick flickering of LED-1. Determine if the LEDs never turn off or if they flicker or flash.

Try both test mode on and test mode off switch settings.

Game not running - LEDs flicker or flash quickly

Game is probaby running for just a split second and then the watchdog is resetting the game (eg. watchdogging). Since the game powers up with both LEDs ON and the early boot sequence turns off LED-1, a reset can appear to make it look like LED-1 is flickering. If the game is resetting, the strategy is to figure out what is causing it to reset.

Try both test mode on and test mode off switch settings and see if that changes the behavior any. Testmode will do a series of exhaustive memory tests, and if any of the tests fail it will pulse out a code using high and low tones as well it will flash the LEDs in conjunction with the pulses. If you are seeing this behavior check out section Game not running - series of beeps in testmode.

Game not running - LEDs blinking slowly

The multigame diagnostic software makes many uses of the LEDs during selftest operations to indicate progress and or failures. The use of the LEDs is different for testmode versus the normal powerup boot sequence. In addition to the LEDs, audio tones may accompany the failure pattern to provide additional information. The following table shows the failure codes.

Game not running - series of beeps in testmode

The multigame software has exhaustive memory tests which are run at the beginning of testmode on both the CPU RAM and the VECTOR RAM. The multigame completely tests all of the RAM and if there are any failures it beeps out a code using high and low tones just like the original asteroids testmode does. See section test mode memory failures.

Hidden factory erase sequence

When in configuration settings mode pressing LEFT + RIGHT + FIRE + THRUST will cause the entire contents of the serial eeprom to be completely erased. All high scores and settings will be lost! This is a hidden backdoor way to resetting the game to its factory defaults and should be used with caution.

RAM failure codes

This from REV-05 board. low beep good. medium tone beep bad. led2=on good. led1=on bad.

• 1 beep CPU RAM location xx.
• 2 beeps CPU RAM location xx.
• 3 Beeps VEC RAM location L4??
• 4 beeps VEC RAM location R4.
• 5 beeps VEC RAM location N4.
• 6 beeps VEC RAM location P4.