Grandstand The Big Game Soccer Troubleshooting Guide
The Grandstand The Big Game Soccer is Epoch's 1981 Exciting Soccer Game in Grandstand's name.[1] No manual, leaflet or service information has been found for either version, and only one repair has been published: a Korean collector's 2026 repair of an Exciting Soccer Game that would not power up.[2] The fault-finding below is built from that repair's photographs, the Handheld Museum's photographs of a Grandstand unit,[1][3] and NEC's data for the microcontroller.[4] Opening the case is covered on Grandstand The Big Game Soccer General Maintenance.
What should happen at power-on
[edit | edit source]No instruction leaflet has been found, so this is what the hardware and the photographs show:
- POWER on: the display lights with the pitch, the players and the score digits; one side's players are red and the other's blue.[1]
- PLAYER selects one player against the game or two players against each other; LEVEL selects AMA or PRO.[1]
- Each player's four direction keys and SHOOT button work from their own end.[1]
Measurements
[edit | edit source]| Point | Expected | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Battery holder | About 6 V from four fresh AA cells | [1] |
| Microcontroller supply, pin 21 (VSS) to pin 41 (VGG) of the D553C | NEC specifies a single −10 V supply; on Astro Wars, which uses the same chip family and the same kind of converter, an owner measured the full −10 V at the chip | [4][5] |
| Display supply | Not published for this game |
Symptom checklist
[edit | edit source]
| Symptom | Likely cause | Action | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will not power up | Cells, holder contacts and leads; DC socket; the converter (D882, capacitors, small transistors) | Check the supply reaches the board; then the parts below | [2] |
| Display dim or blank, game otherwise alive | Display supply: capacitors C01, C06, C07, C10, the D882 at S03 | Replace the four electrolytics; test the D882 | [2] |
| One player's keys dead, the other's fine | That side's control board, rubber keys or flat cable | Clean the keys and board; check the cable | [3][2] |
| One key dead | Dirty contact under that key | Clean the pad and the board contact | [2] |
| Cannot change level or player mode | Dirty LEVEL or PLAYER switch | Clean the switch | [1] |
| Works on cells but not an adaptor, or the reverse | DC socket and its leads; adaptor polarity | Check the socket; measure the adaptor | [2] |
The known repair
[edit | edit source]The Korean repair is the only published account. The game would not power up; the post's text says only that it was dismantled and repaired, so the cause has to be read from the photographs:[2]
- All four electrolytic capacitors were replaced: C01 330 µF 16 V, C06 47 µF 50 V, C07 220 µF 16 V and C10 10 µF 16 V, with new parts (Nippon Chemi-Con KMG at C01 and C10).
- A C945 transistor from the pair at S11 and S12, and a resistor, are shown removed beside the board.
- The board was then run on the bench from clip leads, the display lit, and the game was reassembled and played.
Which of these parts had failed is not stated. Values and positions are on Grandstand The Big Game Soccer Capacitor Replacement Guide.
Power supply and display supply
[edit | edit source]The board's converter is a D882 power transistor at S03 driving a round TDK transformer marked TY-33 at I01, with diodes S04 to S10 and S13 and the four electrolytics.[2] The microcontroller is an NEC μPD553, which runs from −10 V and drives the display from outputs that can be pulled to −35 V.[4] On Astro Wars, built round the same kind of converter, an owner measured about 200 V peak to peak on the transformer winding.[5] Keep fingers away from the transformer while the board is powered.
If the D882 runs hot with the game dead, suspect a short further on in the converter: on Astro Wars that symptom came from a diode that had failed short. No such fault has been published for this game.[5]
Display faults
[edit | edit source]The display is a vacuum fluorescent tube at V01 with "10AM18T" printed beside it on the board,[2] and if that is part of an NEC FIP number, the tube has ten grids; the tube's own label has not been photographed.[6] It shows one team in red and the other in blue, under a violet filter in the top shell.[1][2]
| Symptom | Likely cause | Action | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| No display, no sound | No supply, or the converter | See the symptom checklist above | [2] |
| Dim display | Weak cells; capacitors in the display supply | Fresh cells; replace the four electrolytics | [2] |
| Some figures fainter than others | Worn phosphor; heavy use fades the most-lit parts first | Not repairable | [7] |
| One area very dim | Broken filament wire | Not repairable | [7] |
| Tube cracked, or tip broken | Vacuum lost | Not repairable; the only replacement is the tube from another copy of the game | [7] |
The 2026 repair shows the tube lighting on the bench before the case went back together:[2] powering the board on clip leads with the stadium moulding off is a quick way to see the whole display.
Things that are not faults
[edit | edit source]- The two teams are different colours (red and blue) by design: the box calls it a "2-color fluorescent display".[1]
- Some collections describe it as an LED game; it is a VFD game.[8][3]
What can be repaired
[edit | edit source]| Part | Repairable? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Electrolytic capacitors, D882, small transistors, diodes | Yes | Standard parts[2] |
| Control boards, rubber keys, flat cables, switches | Yes | Clean or repair |
| Display tube | Only from another copy of the game | Game-specific player and pitch shapes[1] |
| Microcontroller D553C 136 | Only from another copy of the game | The program is in the chip's mask ROM[4][2] |
Related pages
[edit | edit source]- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer
- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer General Maintenance
- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer Capacitor Replacement Guide
- Grandstand Astro Wars
- Capacitor Failure Symptoms
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Handheld Museum, "Grandstand The Big Game Soccer" and "Epoch Exciting Soccer Game" (retrieved 2026-10-18). The Grandstand game: 1981, VFD, four AA batteries, "Licensed from Epoch (Exciting Soccer Game)"; Epoch's: 1981, VFD, four AA batteries, "Sold in the U.K. by Grandstand as Kevin Keegan's The Big Game Soccer and in Germany by GAMAtronic as Fussball-Spiel". The photographs, examined: the Grandstand game, yellow, with "THE BIG GAME SOCCER" and "GRANDSTAND" on the green pitch printing, four direction keys and a SHOOT button at each end, POWER OFF/ON, LEVEL AMA/PRO and PLAYER 1/2 switches at the left, and a speaker grille at the right; the lit display, with red players for one side and blue for the other; the box ("THE BIG GAME ELECTRONIC SOCCER", Kevin Keegan roundel, "EXCITING ELECTRONIC SOUND EFFECTS", "2-COLOR FLUORESCENT DISPLAY WITH SHAPED PLAYERS").
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 analo9, "1981 에포크 VFD 휴대용 축구 게임기 (EPOCH Exciting Soccer)", 아날로그 탐구생활 (Naver blog, in Korean), 28 April 2026 (retrieved 2026-10-18); the same repair on YouTube as "1981 에포크 VFD 휴대용 축구 게임기 (EPOCH Exciting Soccer LSI Game repair)". An Epoch Exciting Soccer Game that would not power up, "disassembled and repaired" (the post's only text). Its 38 photographs, examined at full size (1,280 × 717 pixels), show: the Japanese box (デジコムサッカー, code no. 36070, "four AA (単III) batteries or AC adapter (sold separately)"); the base, with a screw hole at each corner and a separate battery door; the case opened, with the white stadium moulding and its green pitch print over the main board, the speaker in a white foam pad at one corner, a control board at each side with rubber keys, and the DC socket on red and black leads at one corner beside the battery holder; inside the top shell, a violet filter sheet over the display window; the main board, with an NEC microcontroller marked "D553C 136" and "E13326", the display tube at position V01 beside the silkscreen "10AM18T", with its sealed glass tip at one end, an NEC D882 power transistor at S03, a round TDK transformer marked TY-33 at I01, diodes S04 to S10 and S13, transistors marked C945 at S11 and S12, and four electrolytic capacitors: C01 (beside S03), C06 and C07 (side by side near the transformer) and C10 (beside the speaker leads); the four old electrolytics after removal, marked 330 µF 16 V, 47 µF 50 V, 220 µF 16 V and 10 µF 16 V, and the board before and after, showing that the grey part at C07 was the 220 µF, the light-blue part at C06 the 47 µF, the blue part at C01 the 330 µF and the small blue part at C10 the 10 µF; new Nippon Chemi-Con KMG parts in place, legible as 330 µF 16 V at C01 and 10 µF 50 V at C10; a removed C945 transistor and a resistor beside the board; clear flat cables joining the control boards to the main board; the game running on the bench from clip leads and then reassembled.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Handheld Museum, "Game Guts", photograph Grandstand-BigGameSoccerGuts.jpg (500 × 377 pixels, retrieved 2026-10-18), examined at full size: a Grandstand unit opened, with the main board in the centre carrying the display tube and an NEC microcontroller whose label, upside down, reads "D553C 13" and a last digit not clear at this size; a holder for four cells along the top; the DC socket at the top right; a control board at each side; the speaker at the lower left; the round transformer at the lower right.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 NEC Electronics USA, 1982 Microcomputer Catalog, data sheet "μPD552/μPD553", p. 165; Bitsavers copy on the Internet Archive (retrieved 2026-10-18): the μPD553 is a PMOS 4-bit microcontroller in a 42-pin DIP with a 2000 × 8-bit ROM, running from a single −10 V supply, with 27 port lines that can be pulled to −35 V to drive a vacuum fluorescent display directly; pin 21 is VSS and pin 41 VGG.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Handheld Museum forum, "Astro wars / galaxy ii repair", pages 1 and 2, December 2018 to January 2019 (retrieved 2026-10-18): on Grandstand Astro Wars (Epoch Galaxy II), whose display supply is a D882 switching 6 V into a TDK transformer, the dead game's D882 ran hot and the supply fell to about 1.5 V; diode S06 read about 20 Ω both ways, and the game worked once S06 was replaced; with S06 removed, the full −10 V reached the μPD553 microcontroller. On a working game the owner measured about 200 V peak to peak on the transformer winding with a basic oscilloscope he said was probably not accurate at that level.
- ↑ MAME source, hh_ucom4.cpp at commit d404316 (retrieved 2026-10-18): the chip list of NEC μCOM-4 games includes several μPD553C serials, among them 153 (Epoch Galaxy II, Grandstand Astro Wars), but no Epoch soccer game; the header explains NEC's FIP tube numbers (the figure after FIP is the number of grids).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Handheld Museum forum, "EPOCH Astro Command - dead or dying", January 2016 (retrieved 2026-10-18). The site administrator (Rik): he has never had a VFD fail unless the glass was broken; with heavy use they fade unevenly, the most-lit parts first; a broken filament wire leaves an area very dim.
- ↑ Centre for Computing History, "Grandstand The Big Game Soccer", CH77112 (retrieved 2026-10-18): "LED tabletop / handheld soccer game. Grandstand's only simultaneous 2 player tabletop game"; 1981.
