Your right Marty,

Had the previous owner replaced ALL 7404's i wouldnt have had the light come on so quickly.

But tell the truth,. it was getting to the point where i was prepared to "shotgun" the circuit and replace all components. I knew that a chip was out of spec or a connector flakey, as you could see the machine TRYING to give you a game, then just crashing

Ive no doubt, the manual will say 7404, but i dont have it, nor do i have a schematic. Guess i could have saved time with one though...