So today I built a utilty panel for Pole Position from the various bits required and an Atari metal plate I happened to find (2 volume controls + test and service switches). This brought the sound roaring to life.
Yet again I made the rookie Pole Position mistake of forgetting that during the power up sequence, the game board plays an explosion sound (whoever at Atari added that into the power up sequence is the biggest bastard in the arcade gaming world) - It made me jump as the speakers were turned right up.
Next I diverted my attention to the monitor, which, was lacking in green. Green was clearly working, but it seemed that the cutoff was wrong as light shades of green were not visible but bright green was perfectly fine. Adjusting the cutoff (it was nearly on maximum) resulted in either a very green screen or almost no green at all. Clearly another tube that I need to rejuvenate... urrgh! For now I have gone for the best compromise and then slotted the cab back into its place so that I could have a few games. Wow I suck at Pole Position! In fairness, I have not played it in years, other than on my test bench using a trackball for steering, while fixing other peoples Pole Position PCB s
The next thing I do to the cab is going to have to be to fit a switch mode PSU. The Pole Position boards drain loads of power and have endless power and heat problems, caused by the AR2's struggling to keep up with the power demands. Burnt edge connectors are also all too common with this game. I envisage connecting the swtich mode PSU directly to the boards +5 and Ground test points with crimp terminals, which should offer a much better power path than the edge connector.
