Toaplans' Zero Wing Object and/or Video ram error and fix

[rugdoctor]

I received the board as part of my haul and it booted up with proper game-play and music, however, the graphics were wrong or missing. Rather than tossing it aside and moving to the next board, I decided to troubleshoot it. When the board is placed on the vertical orientation, the game will not boot and instead comes up with a "object ram error" or sometimes "video ram error". I firstly checked the pins on solder side of the board to make sure nothing is touching together and manage to find a couple of dry solder joints which I touched up.

Still getting the error after the initial touch ups so I proceeded to look at the custom chips. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but I notice that a slight pressure on two of the chips yielded perfect graphics and game-play. This lead me to up-skill in the smd way of soldering specifically re-flowing those damn custom chips.

These are the two troublesome chips:

1. The BCU-2 and
2. the custom chip on the "F" position of the board.



So I proceeded to re-flow them with great success! As I was greeted with perfect gameplay.



I finally cleaned up the residual lacquer and sprayed on a new coat to extend the life of the board.