I got an Ark Area board and don't get any sound from it. I see now that it's the same hardware as Ninja Kid 2 (according to MAME), which is known to have a suicide battery. Board ID is UPL-87007. Anybody have an idea what to do here? Anybody willing to take a crack at it sometime? I know somebody's "phoenixed" a Ninja Kid 2.
Edit: It looks nothing like this board. It's a single layer with no unusual looking components. There are some copper wires running between some smaller chips though...
Ark Area sound? Suicide battery?
Ark Area sound? Suicide battery?
Last edited by Ed Oscuro on Sat May 05, 2012 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Ark Area sound? Suicide battery?
Ark Area does not have suicide battery afaik... there must be something else that is faulty on your PCB.
Re: Ark Area sound? Suicide battery?
The only dip switch setting that's different from what MAME reports is demo sound - that's set off (all switches are off) but that should not cause no sound at all. Didn't get any sound from coin in or gameplay, for example. Do get some noise through the speaker (headphones) so it should be picking something up.
Interestingly, the coin pickups appear to stay longer than they do in MAME.
Wonder if it's a boot, despite the UPL-87007 designation silkscreened into the board?
Interestingly, the coin pickups appear to stay longer than they do in MAME.
Wonder if it's a boot, despite the UPL-87007 designation silkscreened into the board?
Re: Ark Area sound? Suicide battery?
Please post a pic of your PCB 
Re: Ark Area sound? Suicide battery?
Just a little note - the seller sent along a video of the PCB working in his rig (in April shortly before sending), with sound. Same board obviously.
I think it's something in my end. I was told (I have one of the notorious Fire-Bug superguns, or rather one of the superguns from the notorious Fire-Bug) that it has -5V for sound. I get sound in everything else I've tried running, and it's not an unstable setup as far as I can tell. I think I can rule out suicide batteries - there's no place for one anywhere on the board; no metal-encased CPU as in Ninja-Kid II (it's just a single layer board as mentioned). I might try getting somebody else to run this in a cabinet, or something, to check.
I think it's something in my end. I was told (I have one of the notorious Fire-Bug superguns, or rather one of the superguns from the notorious Fire-Bug) that it has -5V for sound. I get sound in everything else I've tried running, and it's not an unstable setup as far as I can tell. I think I can rule out suicide batteries - there's no place for one anywhere on the board; no metal-encased CPU as in Ninja-Kid II (it's just a single layer board as mentioned). I might try getting somebody else to run this in a cabinet, or something, to check.