two arcade machines out for trash

[bomberpunk]

You found Donkey Kong and Space Invaders in the trash? Just, sitting there, waiting for pickup? On the way to work?

 

*muttered expletives*

 

You sir, are a damned lucky bastard, and I hate you. Why can't I find that on the way to work!?

 

FYI, my buddy fixes trashed games like that all the time. The usual procedure is to check for bad solder joints, rust etc and clean fix that. Then, order and replace all of the capacitors on the board/monitor, which is time consuming, but not that hard if you can solder. Lastly, you would order a replacement power supply. Lot of work, not necessarily a lot of money.

 

Or, you could just gut it, drop in a 19' computer monitor and an old pc with a minipac board wired to the controls ($40 or so) and use dos mame to boot directly to Space invaders. You'd never be able to tell once it boots up

 

haha, yeah. well i'm not sure how long they sat out on the curb, but it was definitely the (maybe second) most awesome game find in my experience.

 

i am debating whether or not to sell SI or turn it into a MAME cabinet. i think if i can't fix the DK board, i'll toss it out (or eBay it), get a working DK Jr board, and then send it to the guy at MikesArcade.com so he can upgrade it to play both DK and DK Jr. now that would be Dope with a capital D.

[Shawn]

i am debating whether or not to sell SI or turn it into a MAME cabinet. i think if i can't fix the DK board, i'll toss it out (or eBay it), get a working DK Jr board, and then send it to the guy at MikesArcade.com so he can upgrade it to play both DK and DK Jr. now that would be Dope with a capital D.

 

Don't you dare ruin that SI machine with a yucky mame setup inside it! It can be your rainy day(s) tinkering project! Trust me once you get it going you will really love it! SI arcade is the only real way to play Nice find and enjoy your restoration work!

[Cassidy Nolen]

http://elektronforge.com/parts.htm

 

 

Should solve your board problems. With a good Radio Shack meter, you can test the harness. A small amount of electronic experience goes a long way to diagnosing a game. For what its worth, read up all you can.

 

Elektron is not cheap, but their stuff is good.

 

C

[Dr Galaga]

I was curious if there was some video online of this Donkey Kong hack? I rather enjoyed the Champ Games version of DK... is this DK2 hack as good?

 

The only video on YouTube that I could find was some footage of the prototype. Yes, it is good.

[bomberpunk]

exciting new developments (for me, anyway!) coming very soon in video format!!

 

EDIT: and here's the video in question.

 

i still don't friggin believe it.

Edited February 24, 2008 by bomberpunk

[jcleverly]

exciting new developments (for me, anyway!) coming very soon in video format!!

 

EDIT: and here's the video in question.

 

i still don't friggin believe it.

sweet!!! looks like you may have a ram issue causing the lines. try cleaning the edge connectors and try reseating all the ram to see if that fixes it.

[Crimefighter]

The lines glitch...I've wondered what was up with that when a machine that had that glitch you couldn't shoot through it and sometimes the invaders just went and landed on the bottom of the screen much quicker.

[bomberpunk]

The lines glitch...I've wondered what was up with that when a machine that had that glitch you couldn't shoot through it and sometimes the invaders just went and landed on the bottom of the screen much quicker.

 

the weird thing is that sometimes it plays fine and other times it won't start up at all.

 

here's an update. i've been working on the SI cabinet all damn day. the on/off button was corroded and stuck in the on position. i ripped that out, as well as the entire top panel and two back panels (they're all wet, moldy, & falling apart) and have new replacements for them. right now i'm in the middle of sawing the square holes for the vents, which are rusty but still do their job. anyway, i replaced the button with a nifty toggle switch. all the new board pieces fit nicely, but something in my measurements is keeping about a 1/2 inch gap in the back between the back of the top board and the top of the...

 

...ehh, i'll just post pictures when i decide i'm done for the evening.

 

anyway, once the cabinet itself is done, the next project is to turn an ordinary doorbell into a credit button. i looked online for info on how to do this, and it seems that this mod is frowned upon. however in my case, the previous owner has a big ugly hole on the right side of the coin door, and i have an extra doorbell laying around that is the perfect size to civer up that hole. i still could not find how to do it, but it can't be that hard....right?

 

then there's still DK, but his hairy ass can wait.

Edited March 2, 2008 by bomberpunk

[bomberpunk]

pictures, as promised (though a little late).

 

here's the new top board with the new power switch. it currently just sits in place, but i'll fix that later. getting the old piece of wood removed was such a royal pain. it came off in messy wet pieces and a lot of it fell into the machine which had to get vacuumed out.

 

look closely at the right side. that's the hole i'm going to cover with a doorbell/credit button, if i can figure out how to make it trip the coin mechs.

 

this is one of the two backboards. this is for the lower side. cutting new vent holes, but don't have the right blades for the jogsaw so i have to improvise with drill bits (looks like shit but oh well).

 

below are the original vent pieces. going to C-L-R these babies and they'll look great.

 

windexed the hell out of this and it looks brand spankin new!

 

instead of screws, i'm going to bolt the backboards on for easy access. and there's the doorbell.

 

 

it's almost downhill time, guys. stay tuned (if anyone is keeping up with this).

[bomberpunk]

below is a photo of the bottom backboard, secured by three barrier locks for easy access to fuses and the volume control. i didn't have any C-L-R, so i soaked the vent pieces in hot water and Oxi-Clean for a few hours. it didn't do jack as you can see. i figured since i was on a roll today, i'd forget about having them shiny.

 

this is the top backboard. there's no reason for it to be easily removable so it's screwed in there. as you can see, it sits inside the frame, so i had to screw in a piece of wood on either side behind it, and screwed the board to those pieces.

 

 

the top panel is my pride and joy. it has been secured from the side panels, but i didn't damage any of the [already flawed] side art. i pimped out the on/off toggle with a plastic light-switch frame, and added a nifty little access panel (secured with one barrel lock and underboards screwed to the top panel) for changing the florescent light / cleaning.

 

after all that, i decided that was enough for one day. and i went to move the unit closer to the wall. and when i did, this happened to the bottom:

 

also, the sound decided not to work anymore.

i am not a happy camper right now.

 

 

TO DO LIST:

 

* fix the bottom somehow

* install doorbell

* figure out how to wire doorbell into being a credit button

* buy replacement florescent bulb

* paint the new panels blue

* get the game to work 100%

Edited March 3, 2008 by bomberpunk

[Atari5200]

i've been keeping up with this project, good job and nice find. I'm not lucky enough to find cabs in the garbage. I know I spent some time with my 4 slot MVS doing a total button and joystick refurb, next in the restore process will be to replace the 4 slot mini marque, the right speaker is a 6 x 9 car speaker and looks like crap, so I need to replace that, and I think I'm going to replace the joystick and button panel. I originally did not plan to do this, but if I'm going to restore this to 100%, it's going to eventually need done.

[gklinger]

Best. Garbage. Ever.

[supercat]

...and there's the doorbell.

 

Somehow the doorbell button you found doesn't 'do it' for me aesthetically. A button without the elaborate border would seem more apropos to a video game. Still, if you can get it all to work that will be the important thing.