knudsen@ihnss.UUCP (01/12/84)
A few weeks ago my favorite arcade's Star Wars machine (cockpit style) developed two problems. The vector generator drops a few bits somewhere so that tie fighters are fuzzy and the laser towers split in two. Sorta like being drunk I guess. It's a real pain trying to aim at the things-- I was amazed when I managed to break one million. The other bug didn't hurt! The game starts you off with 8 instead of 6 shields. Earlier the bug started you at 6, but if you lost none at your starting level, the usual added shield raised you to 7, etc. It now consistently starts at 8, at all three difficulty levels. I'm wondering if the 8 shields is a deliberate update of the ROM (What??? make a game EASIER???), or is this part of the bug? Seems the two should be in totally different parts of the hard and software. Anybody else seen a machine "break" in these ways? mike k
norskog@fortune.UUCP (Lance Norskog) (01/13/84)
The Star Wars Game (it deserves a capital G) can be set to start with 6,7,8, or 9 shields, and to give you 1,2, or 3 shields for each wave. (At least, these are the ones I've seen.) At one point a few weeks after the Game first came out six arcades around here (S.F. Peninsula) had them AND THEY ALL HAD SOMETHING WRONG, both with the hand controls and with funky ROMS. Atari had some QC problems out the wazoo.
paulsc@tekecs.UUCP (Paul Scherf) (01/14/84)
Re: seeing games "break"
I have seen games (Pengo, and I think Pacman) that, I believe, were
deliberately set much easier (start with at least twice as many
Pengo's/Pacmen). At the time I just assumed every game had some sort of
dial somewhere inside to make it easier or harder. I don't imagine it
would be too hard, since many vending machines can be set "easier"
(cheaper) or "harder" (more expensive) with a dial of somesort.
Paul Scherf, Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon, USA
{cbosg,chico,decvax,harpo,ihnss,lbl-unix}!teklabs!tekecs!paulsc
{ogcvax,pur-ee,reed,ssc-vax,ucbvax,zehntel}!teklabs!tekecs!paulscprabhaka@ucbvax.UUCP (01/19/84)
I once saw the "bug" where everthing freaks out on the screen. It is not in the software. It has something to do with faulty transformers in the game itself. (I spoke to the repairman when he was fixing it; he said it was a common problem in the game.) As far as the other "bug" goes, (i.e. # of shields), it isnt really a bug. When the repairman was setting up the machine, he pressed a button which put him in a menu mode. He selected things like level of difficulty, number of sheilds, and number of sheilds won when finishing a round. The SW game I play at a local pizza place is set to 6 sheilds, hardest level, and 0 sheilds upon completeing a wave. Geezz!! Aloke Prabhakar ...ucbvax!prabhaka prabhaka@BERKELEY
saj@iuvax.UUCP (02/15/84)
#R:ihnss:-187000:iuvax:6700001:000:855 iuvax!apratt Jan 12 20:42:00 1984 Update of the ROM? No chance. But the number of shields you start with can be set by the operator of the machine -- that is, the arcade owner. It might be that the initial number of shields and the maximum number of shields are independent, which would explain the progression of the glitch. They may also have a maximum of 8 (not an unrealistic number, since it fits in 3 bits (1-8)). The other problem could easily be independent of that: the color tube could be going. Video games routinely overdrive their video, because manufacturers don't expect them to stay in one place very long. When the do, you get that kind of fritz. The first symptom I noticed popping up around here was a dot in the center of the screen which didn't go away. Does anybody know as much about the innards as I'm guessing? -- Allan Pratt ...ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!apratt