Well just got back from Jim's place with a new project machine, Mars God of War.

Just want to start off by saying how nice Jim was in helping me load the pin into my truck. Great guy, very helpful and fun to talk to, a real class act all the way

I have not plugged in the machine, or even put the machine back together yet. Will maybe put it together tomorrow or when I get a chance.

Machine is in great shape. Sideart is excellent, looks almost new! Playfield has a little bit a wear in one or two places, but is great for its age. Sadly the inner backglass was shattered a while ago, but the outer one still looks good. Hopefully I will be able to locate a new inner one in the future.

Good start to a project, bought it from a great guy, and have a few pin-savy friends to help me in fixing it up

BZM

Nice pin, one of my favorite, let us know what happen to her in the future !!

Of all the sneaky, underhanded, low down dirty tricks...
Don't think for a second that I don't know what you're doing my friend.

I can't decide what bothers me more...
The fact that you would stoop to such levels or that fact that it's working.

Damn you.
Adam

ok... GREAT avatar ! :

you lucky bastard.  great price as well.  have fun.  jims always great to deal with.  saves the crap out of my back havinng him around.

Let me know if the game is any good.  I've had a broken one staring at me for years now  (in my arcade graveyard).  It does look interesting.  I read somewhere that the designers blatently ripped off Xenon for the tube part.  And of course, its one of 4 Sys80 games that has voice (next to Voclano?, Black Hole and ?).  I always wondered how much cooler Haunted House would have been with voice...but I digress.

Well, anyone who knows me, knows that I can't just let something sit there too long without tinkering with it.......yes even a few hours is too long to wait

I put the legs on, then the head and put it beside the other pins. Then connected all the boards. Found one connector that was broken and missing pins inside, so I replaced it with a newer style connector. Also added new fuses on the power board.

Okay now that I did all that, naturally I had to plug the machine in to see if I could get it to come alive.........well its alive, but sort of brain dead.

All the attract lights are on, but no life in the machine. No sound, can't start a game, nothing.

Checked all connectors and they seem good, but found something that maybe the reason for it not working.

On the main board in the head, it looks as if I am missing two chips. Tried looking in the manual but found nothing indicating if the chips are suppose to be there or not ( IC1 & PROM2). Even looked on the Pinball Database online, but the picture of the boards in the backbox is grainy and very confusing as it has a lot of connectors to the boards missing, and connectors in places where mine has none at all. Hopefully a Sys80 expert will be able to help me out on that

Here are some pics.

Oh ya, here are some more pics of the machine and the playfield. Playfield has a little more wear than I had previously seen through the glass. A few little touch ups, and some mylar that has come off around the pop-bumpers. Still is not too shabby I think.

Quoted from 278

On the main board in the head, it looks as if I am missing two chips. Tried looking in the manual but found nothing indicating if the chips are suppose to be there or not ( IC1 & PROM2). Even looked on the Pinball Database online, but the picture of the boards in the backbox is grainy and very confusing as it has a lot of connectors to the boards missing, and connectors in places where mine has none at all. Hopefully a Sys80 expert will be able to help me out on that

These two sockets should be empty as you have them.
Besides, Jim's machine used to work intermittently in the past.

Mars, God of War only has 666/1 as game PROM
(and 666/S1 & 666/S2 for Sound ROMs on the sound board).

The top center connector on the Sys80 MPU was used for test at the factory.
Not used in your game.

Good luck,
Cheers,
- Sylvain

Hey BZM!,

Welcome to the fun that is Sys80!  From looking at your CPU I would say those two sockets should be empty.  The top center one I think is only used on game like Black Hole that have the chasing lights around the perimiter of the back box, and the other one.... Think its an exta ROM socket?  Either way I highly doubt that is the reason your MGOW isn't coining up.

My first guess would be the slam switch on yours isn't working right.  Are the displays switching between 000000 and some kind of score?  It's been a while since I worked on my BH but if memory serves correct if the display's are all stuck on 000000 the slam switch isn't working right, and this will keep the game from doing anything.

Use these links as they will be your Sys80 bible, and I would HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy of Clay's DVD on sys80 (they are volume 5.1 and 5.2 - 2 DVD's!)

http://www.geocities.com/kirbseepe/RepairCPUstartup.html
http://www.geocities.com/kirbseepe/repairCPU.html
http://marvin3m.com/sys80/index3.htm

If you've got any other questions, fire away.

Doug

Thanks for the reply guys, highly appreciated

Ya looks like it will be fun to work on. I have heard the Sys80 machines are pretty cool. Always loved playing Haunted House and Black Hole, so I guess this will be my first (and from what I am told) not my last Sys80

Menace, as for the slam switch, that might be the culprit, I will have to look again, but it looked okay to me. Also I am not getting any life out of the displays, fuse 7, 1/4A for the displays keeps burning out every time I turn the game on. Will have to read up on those links you posted to see what might be the problem.

Oh well, is only day 1 really of my adventures with Sys80. Can't have it all working perfectly right away. If it did, then what would I have left to do, play it???

BZM

Quoted from 278

Just want to start off by saying how nice Jim was in helping me load the pin into my truck. Great guy, very helpful and fun to talk to, a real class act all the way

I can second that!  Did you happen to see the colour picture of Lia on a pinball machine in his shop or did you put it in your wallet Jim?  

Brian