Raiden Fighters 2 on Supergun: TALE OF WOE!

[Ed Oscuro]

I got a brand new...secondhand but nicely kept Raiden Fighters 2 + 1995 copyright SXX2C-MAIN V2.0 SPI motherboard combo today. Edit: Ought to mention that it was confirmed working immediately before being sent out.

Problem is, I get nothing 98%+ of the times I've tried it, video and audio-wise.

Setup is a Fire-Bug brand supergun + XRGB-2 upscaler, VGA connected to a NEC MultiSync FE700+. The connection is RGB input from the supergun, and this is the mode the XRGB2 is set to. I have tested, today (and immediately before and after trying to get Raiden Fighters 2 working, when I first tested it), a non-60Hz board (Toki, runs slightly over 59Hz) and confirmed it was working (though the short supergun connector does not like to stick to the short Toki PCB connector). Ken-Go also played well a month or two back, and that runs slightly over 55Hz.

I did get it to sync and actually play once, after my initial seller followup where I asked about it, and got a suggestion to reseat the cartridge. I had also cleaned the connector (got some gray off, maybe just metal dust) with isopropyl alcohol immediately before, as well.

After seeing the intro roll by, I listened to the headphones (ATH A-900: low impedance headphones) plugged into the XRGB2's line out, and didn't hear anything other than the low level of noise that always gets picked up by the XRGB2 when the supergun is on and this board is attached. But when I hit the service coin button (which is on the front of the supergun), I heard the familiar coin sound. Then I noticed the blue level was low, so I leaned over to quickly correct the pot on back of the supergun. That fixed the color but I noticed now that the game was frozen. In fact, it must have been frozen the moment I hit the service coin button, because the little scrolling text box with the RF2 story (middle of the screen) was still there, as it had been right when I hit that service coin button. So basically: Game working, story scrolling + service coin = sound but no change to the "Press Start" screen.

I tried restarting the supergun and reseating the PCB with the supergun connector again, and this time was rewarded with a matrix pattern of short white horizontal lines racing across the screen. Fiddling with the XRGB2 just made the lines race different ways. Turning off the supergun, reseating the PCB, and starting over returned us back to nothing happening at all - no sound, and the XRGB2 giving the very familiar "NONE INPUT" screen. I tried reseating the cartridge one more time, no help.

Any suggestions or diagnosis, leave 'em here for now please. I'll be not around here over the weekend so I can only try something out when I'm back.

[oxtsu]

adjust voltage on PSU

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, seems reasonable, but it's literally a "black box." I'm guessing (well, hoping really) that Fire-Bug used a new arcade power supply for the unit. Works for everything else. More to the point I don't think there's a pot for voltage...I'll have a look inside when I get back after this weekend, there may be a pot inside. Don't remember seeing one though.

Edit: here's Fire-Bug's JAMMA connector pinout, as in the Supergun discussion thread he made, which I think applies to mine as well:

1- Ground
2- Hard Kick (capcom)
3- Select (neo), Medium Kick (capcom), E (atomiswave)
4- D (neo/ atomiswave), Light kick (capcom)
5- B (neo/ atomiswave), Medium punch (capcom)
6- Down
7- Right
8- +5 volts (needed for certain adaptors and neo pads/ sticks)
9- Not used, but can be connected as Neo D (like pin 4)
10- Select (neo), Medium Kick (capcom), E (atomiswave)
11- Start
12- C (neo/ atomiswave) Hard punch (capcom)
13- A (neo/ atomiswave) Light punch (capcom)
14- Left
15- Up