It is the nineties and there is time for... InsaneDavid to pick up one of his grails

[InsaneDavid]

Finally after many years of failed attempts to pick one up, I have a Klax cabaret.













It's in pretty nice shape although I'd like to replace the control panel underlay at some point due to cigarette damage. I've been after one of these for years but something always happens to prevent me from getting the machine - not this time. I ended up paying $225.00 including delivery across town.

It works great although I've noticed that from time to time a blue hue kinda flickers across the display then goes away. I'm guessing something made itself loose as it didn't do it prior to moving. I've already done a quick reseat of the IC's on the PCB which fixed a little two player graphic glitch. I'll have to go through it and reseat everything sometime this week. The machine did travel about half an hour on the freeway - in the rain - after all. Inside the cabinet looks as if it's brand new, cleanest arcade cab I've ever seen.

Curious though, would having the cabinet in my kitchen about four feet from my refridgerator and oven cause the above display problem? I remember when I was moving it into position I turned it on for a moment with the left corner closer to my oven and I got color distortion in the lower left corner of the display. Once I moved it to where it rests now the distortion went away. The oven was off when this occured. Also when I had it moved like that it also did have the corner pointed closer to the refridgerator... hmmm... maybe I need to move it elsewhere? I did drag it out of the kitchen for a moment but had the same problem. The only thing I haven't tried is turning the pots but that's because otherwise the display is excellent. Any advice would be great.

Also a BIG thank you to Arcade Antics for furnishing me with the dimensions of this cabinet awhile back. If I didn't know the exact size I wouldn't have finally taken the plunge.

[boatofcar]

Congrats! Once you fix the control panel everything will look spectacular! Can't beat the price, either!

[Steve W]

Curious though, would having the cabinet in my kitchen about four feet from my refridgerator and oven cause the above display problem? I remember when I was moving it into position I turned it on for a moment with the left corner closer to my oven and I got color distortion in the lower left corner of the display. Once I moved it to where it rests now the distortion went away. The oven was off when this occured. Also when I had it moved like that it also did have the corner pointed closer to the refridgerator... hmmm... maybe I need to move it elsewhere? I did drag it out of the kitchen for a moment but had the same problem. The only thing I haven't tried is turning the pots but that's because otherwise the display is excellent. Any advice would be great.

Not being an expert on arcade cabs, I couldn't say factually, but I don't know if a refrigerator or oven generates large enough electromagnetic fields to mess with your monitor. It might be that your monitor is going out. I had a TV set that did that, but it turned pink instead of blue. It got progressively worse until it had to be replaced.

[Videogamerdaryll]

AWESOME!! congratulations...

Man that's a clean PCB...Looks so familiar as that's how I had to mount mini in the lil convert Klax machine..

My wife loves this game but boy do I stink at it...I was just playing the machine the other day...(though she loves it I really need to sell it cheap to have more room here..If I don't sell the cab cheap I might just pull the board etc/sell it and gut the cab..

.
I notice on your jamma harness a cylindrical item..I forget what they are called but I think they are put on to reduce interference and may be magnets...I wonder if these things can actually cause problems..
I had one of them(same looking) on my Virtual Boy display unit and I was having screen issues..I could not figure it out...,I took it off and it cleared up....


I've always been curious to the Attract Mode..
I don't get any music when I turn Attract Mode on....Is there supposed to be music playing when in Attract Mode ...I Just get the screen game play and the(there's time for Klax,T shirt Ad etc..

I bought the PCB Game as a Kit years ago.for like $50.00..then put it in the Cab since it was wired for jamma.,had a CP overlay made up but it's lavender based....
I never really knew if the Attract Mode's sound was messed up on the board.(one of those things that has kept me in wonder ..if I was sold a board with an issue..




..........
My Neo MVS Candy Cab is in my Kitchen..4 feet away from my Oven..6 feet away from the Fridge...I never had an issue with it in there..
Sometimes I take the Touchmaster 7000 out of the bathroom and put it tight in front of the over when guests are coming over but that has never got a screen issue from either the oven fridge..
Neither Machine is plugged in the kitchen though..The oven is a Gas stove turned on by electric pilot lights..I have seen interference when the pilots click in my kitchen TV screen..

The Klax actually spent some time in the same spot the Neo was in with no issues..

It might be whets in the wall behind where the cab was put..

[Joe West]

Nice cab..............& a great deal for $225

[Ed Oscuro]

Not such a bad game, and the memorable tagline "It is the nineties..." somehow makes it immortal. I know I quoted it a few days ago, and I often do

Edit: Huh, the Game Boy Color uses the word "millennium." Anybody remember that show? All I remember is Lance Henriksen going to his fax often and cowering in his open-plan house.

[mnbren05]

That is a beautiful cab, and $225 is a deal. Congrats man and enjoy.

[fahlim003]

Not such a bad game, and the memorable tagline "It is the nineties..." somehow makes it immortal. I know I quoted it a few days ago, and I often do

Agreed, classic line and an interesting puzzle game to be certain. One of Atari's finest. While I don't quote that line myself it's often in my thoughts, which is usually good for a chuckle.

Nice cab by the way, it's always nice land something like this after a long time.

[InsaneDavid]

I've always been curious to the Attract Mode..

I don't get any music when I turn Attract Mode on....Is there supposed to be music playing when in Attract Mode ...I Just get the screen game play and the there's time for Klax,T shirt Ad etc..

No, no sound in attract mode at all. Nothing until you coin up and get the "DOOOONNNNN" sound. I must have either a very early or very late board revision since it doesn't have the "Step into the nineties..." T-shirt offer screen. I thought ALL Klax boards displayed the T-shirt screen.

It might be whets in the wall behind where the cab was put..

I'm starting to think the color distortion in the corner had more to do with whatever is in the floor there / ceiling below me. The blue flicker on the other hand makes me think I have a bad connection somewhere. Although it barely flickered at all last night when my girlfriend and I were playing for about 45 minutes, and I had the machine running in attract mode this morning while I was getting ready for work and it was dead steady.

Even if I do have to repair / replace the monitor, I still think I got a good deal on the cabinet. If I remember correctly the Klax cabaret joystick style is exclusive to this cabinet as well. It's simply one of my favorite cabinet designs and I can't knock a horizontal two player, single stick, single button JAMMA cabinet that fits in such a small space. Eventually I'd like to pick up a Tetris board as well.

Funny enough the guy that sold me the cabinet was also trying to get rid of an ugly Tetris conversion in a generic cabinet. He always wanted MORE for the Tetris, and even with the prices knocked down to their lowest, Tetris would still be $100 more. He would have sold both for $450 and if I had the space to store the other cabinet I might have have done it. (would have taken the board and tossed another cheap JAMMA board in the Tetris and sold it)

Something else somewhat funny. The right coin mech wouldn't take a quarter, would reject it every time. I couldn't figure out what was going on since everything looked to be in working order. When I was messing around inside the back of the cabinet I found four Canadian quarters. Out of curiosity I dropped one of them into the right side mech and sure enough, it's a Canadian quarter mech. Gotta replace that eventually but I'm in no rush since Klax shares credits from either slot.

Question though, were the control panels lavender originally? Every Klax cabaret I can remember had a tan control panel but there's one place on mine near the left edge near the cigarette damage where it's lavender.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Thank you so much InsaneDavid..I feel better now knowing that the Attract mode is ok..

The T shirt add I think I could turn on and off in the soft dip settings..I think I turned it off once because I felt it was stuck on that screen too long..then turned it back on because I thin it's cool..

I'm not sure on the lavender ..When I ordered the cP overlay it was shown in lavender ...The side art was avaiable but it looked different then yours...I never got to buy it as the arcade art site went down..
There may be a different revision= a full sized cab of different colored art and CP.

My kits bezel was big with the word KLAX on top..very colorfull...I cut it to 4 parts putting the two sides over my plexy,the instructions in the from and the Klax up top..

[Flack]

Cool find, David! It doesn't surprise me that the guy wanted more for the Tetris cabinet. Tetris is just so well known that people feel like they can get more for it.

This may sound dumb but, have you tried pointing the cabinet in different directions? I have heard of people reporting monitor issues due to the Earth's magnetic poles. I know it sounds crazy, but I thought I would pass it on.

On my Gauntlet II cabinet I get occasional discoloration and I traced the problem to where the video connector plugs into the PCB. At this point I'm not sure if it's the cable or the PCB -- when I press down on the cable in that area, it fixes the problem. You might check your video cable connections and see if they are all plugged in tight.

Congrats again on your find, I know you've been looking for one for a while now!

[Howie6925]

Sometimes I take the Touchmaster 7000 out of the bathroom

lol..thats funny you have a machine in the bathroom.

[guitargary75]

I wish that I had one.

[Videogamerdaryll]

lol..thats funny you have a machine in the bathroom.

............................

[InsaneDavid]

I went into the self test and turned the T-Shirt screen back on, thanks!

I'm starting to think the electrical socket that the cabinet is plugged in at may be what is causing some of the problems. My refridgerator runs on that same line it seems. I think it's dirtying the power through that outlet since it's an older 'fridge and call me crazy but I swear that some of the moments of blue haze match when the refridgerator turns on or changes in tone. I'm going to leave the cabinet where it is and use an extension cord to plug it in elsewhere, on a different breaker line. I'll probably try the one I run my Galaxian cocktail off of first. I'm also going to grab another JAMMA board for the hell of it. If anything it gives me more options to troubleshoot with, right?

[Videogamerdaryll]

IMO the old fridge might be sucking op a lot of power,creating a power surge/lowering-fluctuating the power going to the Arcade Machine..thus making it have issues..

For troubleshooting I'd try to snag another KLAX board,..also to have a spare..At least if it works without issue then you .

.I think I paid $50.00 for the kit on eBay,came with the manual....The Repro CP Overlay was somewhere between $40.00 and $70.00,I remember it being a Whopper in price and hit me in the head like a brick..Took a long time to get too.
.Go figure<I can even sell the whole cab for $100.00 lololol

Due to the limited amount of buttons on the machine,it may be hard to determin things with a regular jamma board..
I forget what other boards I had put in this Klax.Jamma cab,,,It may have been TAITO F3 .CPS2,STV,TETRIS etc....
....but within the Jamma boards soft dips setting I needed more buttons to back out of things or set them..MVS 1 slot needed me to press a B,.......C,D to do things

So I had to temporarily wire up other buttons to the harness in the cab to make soft dip setting changes.

If anything make sure to get a Jamma board that utilizes the same amount of buttons you currently have.


............
I see one KLAX Jamma Board on Ebay for $69.00 but from my past(a lot) history in dealing with the seller,,He doesn't really test things and he's not very responsive to questions(beware buy at own risk)

Another for $49.99

And a Third for 169.00 WOW!!!
Hmm,watches this auction..

[Arcade Antics]

Question though, were the control panels lavender originally? Every Klax cabaret I can remember had a tan control panel but there's one place on mine near the left edge near the cigarette damage where it's lavender.

All the cabaret CPOs were a flat gray/silver color, same color as on the sideart.

[Videogamerdaryll]

I had to play the game today David...The Baby Loves it..

[Kaboomer]

Where did you get the Klax Cabaret? I just sold mine down here in So Cal. Can't be too many of them floating around Cali? Did you get it from someone down here? If so, could have been mine

[InsaneDavid]

Where did you get the Klax Cabaret? I just sold mine down here in So Cal. Can't be too many of them floating around Cali? Did you get it from someone down here? If so, could have been mine

Nah, it was local, about 20 minutes away from me on the east edge of San Jose and had been for sale for over six months. The guy I bought it from basically had his own little private gated complex with his own private bridge across a creek. "Call me when you get here and I'll open the gate" is never a good sign. Appears that he's a hotrod builder from a bit of research I did, as well as one of his friends pulling up with a bunch of newly milled custom engine parts while we were loading the cabinet. Had the cabinet out in a huge game room attached to what I think was his shop.

I wish I could say the transaction was a smooth as my Galaxian cocktail but it simply wasn't. I had a couple minutes to mess with the machine. He had never opened it from the back (shocked it was so clean when I got it home). After I had paid him the cash the feeling seemed to be like "let's get this piece of crap outta here." Basically tossed it up on a handtruck with the power cord rubbing against one of the tires (which ate away the insulation in one part which I thankfully noticed during an inspection when bringing it in) and then we put it in the back of his truck. Rainy weekend although sunny the previous day (when he wouldn't return my inquiry to set up a pickup day) so I assumed we'd be tarping it - nope. I had the foresight to bring a large towel and some bungee cords just in case, but the way he locked it in prevented me from covering it how I would have liked. He knew where we were headed so he took off first and drove like a bat out of hell on the freeway - in the now pouring rain. I'm sure you know that a Klax cabaret is designed like a catcher's mitt so it basically tried to scoop up as much water as it could as the water flew over the top of the cab. My improperly secured towel only covered the machine about half of the way before peeling back but the bungee kept it from flipping off completely. Once we got here we unloaded it and I told him that was fine and he left.

My cousin and myself lugged it upstairs on a small handtruck but before bringing it in I gave it a wipedown. Removed the control panel to get the glass off since some rainwater had gotten behind it. I was able to catch all the water before it got to anything thankfully. It was splattered here and there behind the edges of the glass and some ran down into the control panel but none of it got to any of the electronics. Road grime from transport on the freeway in the rain was the worst that I had to clean.

Once I got it inside and set up I noticed the monitor had developed a flicker, which I'm now pointing toward being caused by some bad solder joints on the monitor board where the harness connects. I think I have things seated fine now but eventually I'll discharge the monitor, remove the board, and reflow those pins. Figure the rocking and rolling up the stairs probably did that.

If one really good thing came from all this it was the price. Back during last summer he wanted $650.00 for the machine. I watched it slowly drop down month after month until at $200.00 I couldn't pass it up.

Anyone want his Tetris conversion? The address is in Santa Clara technically, by the way.

There are some deals to be had right now - if I only had the space.

Thanks for the comments everyone!