[snip]
1) I'm guessing that I can just drive the board off of +5 and gnd and ignore the xformer. Looking at the schems (they are *very* fuzzy in the version I'm looking at), that looks to be it. Guess I'm half thinking aloud here.
You are correct, find the start lamp vcc output pin, it is actually +5v going straight to the bus. Remember the entire pcb will be drawing +5 through one pad, so don't leave it like this for long periods as it will heat up and lift.
2) Monitor. I see a composite sync line on the schems, but note explicitly documented in the wire diagram. But I'm guessing that you can just pick a color (or tie all three together) and just run it into a normal monitor.
define normal. If you are hooking it up to an RGB monitor you will have to find the VIDEO signal (this is composite video) back and split it off at the point where it combines the sync and video signals into the one composite signal. Then of course run sync to sync and then run the video to one of the colours. However, if you have an old amiga monitor on your test bench (like i do) then you can just run the video straight into its composite video input. No board hacking neccesary. These monitors are great, with RGB input on the back, and composite RCA phono jacks on the back, with a mode switch on the front. I modified my jamma test rig pinout to include a composite video input on the end of the jamma connector, so i can hook up my b/w games to my regular jamma connector, flip the mode switch and et voila i'm in b/w mode.
3) Antenna? FCC regulation or something? Interesting.
as John already said, anti cheat device, not neccesary to hook up while testing.
4) Any other "gotchas"? I was going to start playing around with it tonight during MNF. I do have a Pong on hand right now, so I can also peek inside. Just much easier to run the thing on my bench.
Pinout
[snip] i don't like the look of your pinout tho, i don't have my schems to hand, but i'm not sure pins 8 and 9 are +5v. I could be wrong, or gettign the pinout confused with other atari pong-style games that i have done recently. you'll also find that you actually need to have a NC/NO switch to coin them up as they use a flip flop for coin input, and it wont register anythgin more than your first credit if you are simply tapping the NO pin to ground. Also, check the schems, again i could be getting confused here, but ithink you might be able to wire pong with a start button instead of it starting as soon as you drop a coin in.. usually a looped pin to ground. [snip]
--James Bright www.QuarterArcade.com Restored Arcade Games for your Home
Let us know how you get on, pongs are dead simple to work on. Andy Welburn www.andys-arcade.com