I've been working on the Star Wars I got in a trade (THANKS Kurt!) and
It works pretty good except there are no Tie Fighters, and most of the
time, no Death Star. Now, I've narrowed it down to.
SYMPTOMS: STAR WARS ONLY: When game first turned on, no starfield
background pattern (noticable during demo display). When game
is played, everything appears normal until you select a
difficulty (deathstar). Once your ship leaves the menu, no
starfield background nor enemy attackers (tie fighters) nor
deathstar ever appear. Gameplay is otherwise unaffected (you
can aim, fire, etc).
SOLUTION: Check the four 18-pin socketed ROMs 136021-110 through -113 at
locations 7H, 7J, 7K, 7L in the middle of the main game board.
At least one of these is bad. These are 1024x4 bipolar 82S137
(Signetics) PROMS which contain the microcode for the math
box. In my case -112 was bad. Frys, Jameco, and JDR
Microdevices sell these PROMs.
Does anyone have any spare 82S137's I can use before I depart Utah
again? This game is wonderful besides that ;)