Re: SOT: got a Tempest for $75


those boards and monitors like to "break" often. even if its ok now,
dont bet on it working too much longer. color xy games are the biggest
beasts to keep running.

rebuild everything you can, even connectors.
its 30 years old!!

Don't I know it!! :) I've owned three or four Tempests, a Space Duel,
a Star Wars, and an asteroids Deluxe table model in the last 25
years. I recalled that there was a wiring/connector weakness in the
circuit that feeds the input to the +5V regulator, and I took a chance
that this one had that particular problem. The fact that it had no
other problems was a pleasant surprise. I do plan to change the big
power supply cap and maybe the caps in the monitor though. Speaking
of which, I've replaced a lot of 2N3716's and 2N3792's in my time. So
many that those numbers are still in my brain without having to look
them up :)

I love the color X-Y monitor. I used to play with it by connecting
stereo music signals to the X and Y inputs (left to x, right to y or
vice-versa). This makes Lissajous patterns on the monitor similar to
what you can see with a scope in X-Y mode. Except that they're a lot
bigger and in color! Leaving the monitor's RGB inputs connected to
the game logic while doing this makes colors move around in the
figures because the game's video color is out of sync with the audio
coming in. The patterns have areas that are dark too because the RGB
outputs are turned of when drawing "retrace" lines (which in an X-Y
monitor are just the invisible lines that connect all the visible ones
as the beam draws the picture).

Later I built a circuit that would drive the RGB inputs at voltages
proportional to the level of audio at different frequencies (kind of
like a color organ circuit).

It's interesting to see which music makes cool patterns on the monitor
and which doesn't. It's actually hard to predict; you just have to
try it. I might rig this up again and make some video of the best
stuff. It was cool back then and, despite all the amazing computer
technology advances of the last 25 years, I think it's still cool.

Michael Beverly
.

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