Williams System 8

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1 Introduction

Williams System 8 Board Set

The Williams System 8 boardset was used in 1984 with only two games, the pitch and bat Pennant Fever and Still Crazy, a novelty game. Combining the driver board, sound board, and cpu directly onto one board eliminated several design deficiencies of the earlier System 3-7 boardsets; mainly the 40 pin interconnector, and extra wiring harness interboard connectors.

System 8 is very similar to its successor (System 9), but it is more of a "slimmed down" version. There are a total of 8 controlled solenoids versus the 16 used with the system 9 boardset. Another distinct difference is system 8 hardware does not utilize special solenoids. System 8 also lacks the connector for a speech daughterboard.

Although system 8 is capable of driving four 7-digit displays and one 4 digit display, only two 7-digit displays are used with Pennant Fever and one 7-digit display is used with Still Crazy. Therefore, master display boards are not used on either game. Both the lamp and switch matrices are 8 x 8 in size, but neither Pennant Fever nor Still Crazy use many switches in their matrices.

2 Games

Title	Date of Release	Model #	Other Boards	Notes
Pennant Fever	05-1984	526	CPU rev A	Pitch and Bat
Still Crazy	06-1984	534	CPU rev X1	Novelty Vertical Pinball

3 Technical Info

3.1 CPU Driver Board

System 8 CPU rev A (Pennant Fever)

System 8 CPU rev X1 (Still Crazy)

3.2 Power Supply

System 8 Power Supply

4 Problems and Solutions

4.2 MPU boot issues

4.2.2 Repairing Alkaline Corrosion

Remove the battery holder entirely from the MPU board and wash the board's affected areas with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water. Scrub the corrosion with a soft toothbrush, rinse with water, then rinse with 91% or 99% isopropyl alcohol to displace the water.

4.2.3 Connecting a logic probe to the MPU

Connect the +5V lead of your logic probe to the top of C6.

The System 8 MPU lacks test points. Argh!

To connect a logic probe, pick up +5V at the top lead of capacitor C6 (a trace extends down from the larger electrolytic cap at C5). Pick up ground at pin 9 of 1J5.

4.4 Solenoid problems

this is a stub

4.7 Display problems

WARNING: This circuit uses high voltages. Don't continue, unless you are confident in your diagnostic abilities.

5 Repair Logs

Did you do a repair? Log it here as a possible solution for others.