Pulstar "screen jump"

The place for all discussion on gaming hardware
Post Reply
User avatar
Nate
Posts: 531
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 5:16 am
Location: Corpus Christi, Tejas
Contact:

Pulstar "screen jump"

Post by Nate »

Ok, I went to the local "arcade" and they had Pulstar in a 6-slot NG MVS machine; the controllers were tight, the screen was crisp - but then to my HORROR I discovered at the first boss, whenever I hit its "sweet spot", the screen would jump...or twitch or whatever! It quickly became VERY hard to deal with. I called it to the owner's attention, and he sort of shirked the issue but stayed close by. When I got to boss 2, I quickly destroyed its head, then every hit that it took after that, the screen resumed the highly distracting wiggling! It made me really uncomfortable, but I managed to defeat the boss. He said something like, "ah, now I see it...I guess that's just going to happen". I said that it probably would, but that I wasn't going to stick around and find out - and just walked away from the game! Fuck that! Even worse is that the place takes TOKENS!
I know the owner/locator of the Neo Geo, but before I call him to complain, I'd like to know if anyone knows what this is all about?
User avatar
Ghegs
Posts: 5075
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:18 am
Location: Finland
Contact:

Re: Pulstar "screen jump"

Post by Ghegs »

Sounds more like a glitch in the hardware rather than a Strategy question, so moving thread to a more appropriate location.
No matter how good a game is, somebody will always hate it. No matter how bad a game is, somebody will always love it.

My videos
Ex-Cyber
Posts: 1401
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 12:43 am

Re: Pulstar "screen jump"

Post by Ex-Cyber »

I've seen geometry get distorted when the picture gets too bright on an old monitor, but I'm not sure what causes it (bad caps?). I'd guess that's what's going on here. and it's only connected to bosses because they're large enough to trigger the effect by blinking.
User avatar
Nate
Posts: 531
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 5:16 am
Location: Corpus Christi, Tejas
Contact:

Re: Pulstar "screen jump"

Post by Nate »

Thanks Ghegs: I was kind of afraid of mucking-up the strat section with this as i figured it indeed WAS a hardware issue; and thanks, Ex-Cyber for the "lead". Now, i can approach the "situation" with some knowledge.
gray117
Posts: 1235
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:19 pm
Location: Leeds

Re: Pulstar "screen jump"

Post by gray117 »

Geometry wobble will most likely be the fly back transformer.

Capacitors failing/failed doesn't tend to produce this kind of intermittent issue; the fault tends to simply get worse [failing] or appear [capacitor failed].

Unfortunately, if they're not the type of people to care I suspect a compliant will just get the machine removed or turned off :/
User avatar
Nate
Posts: 531
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 5:16 am
Location: Corpus Christi, Tejas
Contact:

Re: Pulstar "screen jump"

Post by Nate »

gray117 wrote:
not the type of people to care
I really don't think the arcade "owner" gives a flat flip, but I talked to the owner of the NG; good kid and a friend of mine - he said that he thought the "twitching" was natural - I corrected him on that; so, then he said he would have to play it and get to the first boss and test it...eh, but i don't know what kind of player he is, so I might have to meet him and help him test it.

The arcade actually favors fighting games to a disgusting degree - but, I'm determined to play/beat Pulstar in an arcade setting.

Another gripe I have is that the screen seems too big and too close. That'll just take some getting used-to.
Post Reply