What did you do with your arcade games today? Post your progress and woes.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I won't pretend this is an original idea, someone over on KLOV had it first- but I still like it. If you're cheap like me, then most of you probably bought fixer-upers. So I guess this is just a thread to document what you did with your games today. Rewired a button on a CP? Repainted a cab? Tried to track down a problem only to have been beaten, and then gave up? Pictures are always great. I personally love looking at them or taking them. This may be a +1 thread but maybe you'll learn a few tips in the process.

Anyway, I'll start even though it was yesterday when I last did work.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________



Applied the final coats of glossy Polycrylic to my Asteroids to protect its decent (original) side art. Maybe I should have used a satin finish in retrospect, as the glossy can sometimes look uneven due to the amount of light it reflects. Also put on the new T-Molding on the cabinet- Asteroids requires 35 foot worth which is $10 at Arcadeshop.com. Polycrylic is a water-based sealer which is $16 a quart at Lowe's.

All I have left to do is, get my gameboard back and hope that it was the only problem it had. A guy over on KLOV fixes them for $50 shipped- which is a steal. I heard he does good work.

What it looked like several weeks ago:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/4411966159_9cd21e62bd.jpg

What it looks like now:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2764/4474509503_269b1163c8.jpg

The whole process documented:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhanlen1/sets/72157623489836658/

After all is done, I'll have about $290 in this cabinet, including all repairs and the cost of the cab. Provided everything goes right.

[bradd]

put on a new cpo and marquee. old tv for monitor, ancient laptop running mame (windows 98, 128MB ram). total cost - just over $100

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7742/frogger.jpg

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Cheap, I like it.

Yesterday I went to a value village and picked up a working Dell (Sony) 19" with VGA and 5-wire in for $5.50 I just opened it up to see what a fresh capping would do. Hmm... it's pretty crowded. I want to throw it and a JAMMA harness in a gutted cab I have, and put in a multi to see if I can sell it.

[Videogamerdaryll]

I'm having a problem with a touchy monitor color adjustment pot(remote board) In my Neo Geo Cab

If I leave the cab off for awhile it must build up corrosion or something on the pot...I'm not sure on the best method on cleaning these pots as I've had other cabs pots break in the past or wre broken,glued in place.

When I run the cab I sometimes get a color blinking on screen,if I moved the pot left to right left to right a few times it sems to fix the problem..but it's one of those lil things I'd like to fix..

[diskoboy]

I bought a new power cord for my Vs. SMB cab, yesterday. The ground broke off the old one, and my game makes this horrible buzzing noise whenever the power is on.

I'm currently searching the house for something to use as a molex pin extractor.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

So it took me all day, but I was able to butcher some brackets from an old G07 monitor and attach portions of them to the Sony CRT, and got the monitor mounted in the gutted cabinet. It fits really well. The monitor was moved around quite a bit today, so hopefully it still works when I get everything attached.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I made quite a bit of progress on my gutted cab. I was able to completely primer, and design the artwork- done freehand. If I'm going to sell the cabinet when I'm done, it seems cabinets with artwork are more desirable. It may not be original but it's cheaper than spending $150 on repro vinyl or $100 plus on stencils (if they're even available). My idea is to stick with the large Pac-Man on the side but instead of lettering, to add some of the food found in Super Pac-man. I hand drew many of the characters several times before I was comfortable masking them off for a makeshift stencil.

I'm going to be using a combination of spray paint (for the characters) and some of the leftover Latex from my Last Super Pac-man as the background.

How I got it:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2683/4087840170_e1b5daf8de.jpg


The Stripped Cabinet (with "new" monitor):


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2710/4483515904_47b8ddc199.jpg


The Stencil Work So far:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4483504733_a47dee0bce.jpg

For all the purists out there- I apologize. This game was DOA. It had been in storage for years, and had been converted terribly to a shitty JAMMA game(s) in the past. Everything was a complete mess on the inside, and the monitor was horribly burnt in and caked with filth. My intent is to make this game look decent enough for someone's game room and not a damp barn.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Here is most of what I got done today- represented by the same side though.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2740/4485356469_0c8d97e7ba.jpg

Here is the photoset so far for the cabinet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhanlen1/sets/72157622763668802/

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Is no one else working on their games?

Well here's progress over the last two days or so. All the unpictured sides of the cab are in equal states of progress, but to keep from posting a ton of pics I'll just keep it to one side of the game.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4494954151_c46b3ae9cd.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4495602626_a8ee2e1914.jpg

I don't know if I like the paint job so far, but I decided to add a few more pieces of inspiration from the original Super Pac art. I still need to add the eyes on Pac-Man

[Flack]

I can't wait to see the final results. I have considered doing this to a couple of my cabinets for the same reason (wanting to sell, crappy side paint and no artwork).

[Videogamerdaryll]

I need to change the fuse blocks and fuses in my Ms Pac Man Cocktail Table,,
I need to get the parts...I can get them but it's a job to change them as there are so many tiny wires..

[InsaneDavid]

Very nice on that Super Pac rework!

Over the past weekend I took care of a couple of arcade projects that are currently residing at my parent's place. First off was to finish the disassembly of my Pole Position MAME cabinet, Pole Position Deluxe. It was a hard decision but as I've said before, I'd like to try my hand at keeping an original Pole Position cabinet running - possibly a cockpit one day. The MAME conversion taught me a lot about MAME and arcade cabinets in general and it was a lot of fun for the couple years I had it. That and I brought it back from a stinky rotting pile and got the salvageable internal parts to people that needed them. Space issues are starting to creep up along with other reasons (such as building a MAME cabinet that only plays a dozen games in one of the most top heavy cabinets ever created) so I stripped out all the MAME components. I removed the marquee, bezel, control panel, control panel plastics and coin door - sealing all that up and putting it in storage for spare parts when it comes time for the next Pole Position cabinet. Then the cabinet itself was moved out into the garage until the day in the next couple months when it will be sold / given away.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/ArcadeUpdates001.jpg

I also finished up the Galaga Multigame mini cabinet. I still need to replace a flaky button (doesn't rest solidly atop the microswitch) but it's not really a problem, just a quirk I didn't notice until just before the weekend was over. I made a full backup of the MAME setup and put in the new instruction cards. I also moved the cabinet to the space that the Pole Position machine previously occupied.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/ArcadeUpdates002.jpg

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/ArcadeUpdates003.jpg

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/ArcadeUpdates004.jpg

I have to say, I really love that cabinet.


I need to change the fuse blocks and fuses in my Ms Pac Man Cocktail Table,,
I need to get the parts...I can get them but it's a job to change them as there are so many tiny wires..

My problem with cocktail tables of that design is anything on the bottom of the cabinet is a pain in the ass to get to. Replacing the power button on my Galaxian wasn't too big a deal, until I had to find a way to comfortably solder the connectors to it without hitting anything else. Leaning over the side beat leaning over the monitor tube however.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Finally got my Asteroids back from repair. The guy who repaired it said that my board was so problematic, that it would take several more weeks to test it and make sure it was ok. Or he could just send me a working board. I took the working board, and got it today. Before I put it back in the machine I installed the Braze High Score kit. So I put it back in and...

It now works! Who knew? I'm happy.

Before:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4380708756_a6dbce789c.jpg

After:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4522258890_2f9eb70a0d.jpg

[ihavethatpma]

I finally fixed the bad monitor of my PC10 after weeks of it not working, but now all of the PCBs are gone, so I still can't play it.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

So this is pretty much how the side art is going to look on the cab. I still may add something to the kick panel, but I can't say for sure. I have a new jamma harness and a used coin door on the way. I rebuilt one of the dead switchers I found in the cab... So it should be sort of working in a week or two. The control panel is also finished.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3342/4552804543_f6a3b65664.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/4553439432_64f38fe7f2.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2513/4552808593_95db63e677.jpg

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Once again, the game works. Of course, it has all new internals- but it probably hasn't been working for quite some time. I still have a lot of work to do before I put it up for sale, but most of the time consuming stuff has been done. I just got the JAMMA harness in today, and it took me a few hours but I hooked up everything correctly it appears. I also cut a new back door this morning, since my old one was damaged beyond repair.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3652/4556710700_652c2b2e7c.jpg

I'm estimating that I'll have $250 in it when I'm done, and countless hours of painting and wiring.

The monitor looks a little small in the photo, but it's a 19". You can run the 60-in-1's via VGA, but the drawback is much crisper graphics. The crisper graphics look nice and clean, but they look "computery" without the smoothing effects of an arcade monitor. I guess if you have a MAME rig that runs a PC monitor, you know what I mean.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Today I finished my multicade. I applied the last coat of Polycrylic to the sideart (5 coats), installed the new T-molding, took pictures and threw it on CL. I've spent a lot of hours on it, so hopefully all my labor will pay off. I'm reasonabbly happy with the artwork, and I think while not perfect, will add a great selling point. It's my first attempt at such a thing. Here are the final pictures.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4607205924_3a9f5b7040.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4607202860_fe974f6e3c.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1337/4607194392_755eef5873.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3577/4607189300_0e1e387267.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1165/4606573429_12aa69680a.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4607184622_d7b241ecef.jpg

The cabinet was free but here were the costs:

60-in-1: ----------------------------------- -- $90
Locks/Tmolding/New Leg Levelers: ---- --$30
Coin Door: --------------------------------- --$25
New JAMMA Harness: ------------------- --$16
New Buttons and Joystick: ------------- -$26
Used PC Monitor: ------------------------------$5
New Capacitors for Switching Power Supply: $8
Paint:--------------------------------------------$20
Marquee---------------------------------------- $11
Additional cords and misc-----------------------$10

Total=$241

Give or take a few dollars.

[InsaneDavid]

I've said so before, but awesome job TheDomesticInstitution. It almost looks like a production cabinet from the golden age, fresh off the line.

Today I spent a little time giving the Klax machine a solid play after working on the monitor last week. The Wells Gardner 19K7901 in it had a slight quirk since I originally brought the game home. From time to time the display would flicker blue or the whole screen would bleed blue for a moment. Not the blue objects, it was more like a blue wash over the screen quickly. Really old thread here (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129060). I cycled the pots, tried some adjustments, but it would still come back. Eventually I figured I had a harness problem since everything on the monitor checked out. As Peale said in the old thread about it, originally I figured it was an adjustment problem but I couldn't get anywhere with adjustments.

Well last week I decided to mess around with it a little more before replacing the harness. I made a few minor tuning adjustments, walked around to look at the screen and it was almost totally black. Eventually I locked it down to the brightness pot being extremely touchy, like the slightest change would make the hugest difference. I cycled it again a few times and got it to a place where things looked good. With that properly adjusted I was able to turn the focus and screen down on the flyback without losing any detail or contrast. A little more adjusting and tweaking and I got the monitor to looking near factory crisp. I guess the screen control was turned up too high, but due to the brightness being so out of whack I had no choice but to incorrectly tune the other settings to get a good picture up on the screen. With the brightness squared away everything is back to being adjusted to proper levels. After a couple hours of play, not a single oddity.

Really makes me glad since the monitor is beautiful otherwise.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/ArcadeUpdates005.jpg

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/ArcadeUpdates006.jpg

Still would like to replace the control panel graphics but I guess no one has an NOS Klax control panel sticker for the cabaret and the only reproduction is for the full size conversion.

My next projects for it are to build / buy a JAMMA extender (about two feet should do it) so I can switch to my Tetris board (which is mounted on the other side of the cabinet) through the coin door. Eventually I would also like to play other JAMMA games on it but that requires the next project which entails a modular control panel. Turns out that the cabinet has a full JAMMA harness up until a pair of molex connectors for the control panel where only one stick and one button per player are populated on the other side. My idea is to bend a sheet of metal to the same contour as the stock control panel, install a joystick, start button, and three buttons for each player, then wire them to a matching molex connector. Then when I want to use a board that requires a conventional JAMMA control method, I can quickly just swap out the original Klax panel. Keeps the machine original and I love the Klax joysticks for Klax and Tetris - they're great for that type of puzzle game.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

That monitor looks really great. Not a single section looks mis-converged or out of focus. Not even my Sanyo 20ez looks that great- and it looks pretty good. I wish the monitor in my main multicade looked as good. I've adjusted the shit out of the pots it to no avail. I think it requires adjusting of the yoke- something I'm just not comfortable with.

[InsaneDavid]

I think it requires adjusting of the yoke- something I'm just not comfortable with.

The Galaxian table needs a minor yoke adjustment and I'm with you, too much opportunity to screw something up - so I've learned to live with it.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Sold the Super Pac with custom art for $625. Woo-hoo! Not bad for a $250 investment.