My Donkey Kong Project
Well it took me about three weeks to finish this project. I found a cocktail table cheap of Donkey Kong but it had many issues. The first main issue was the game did not run and the monitor was broken. Second was the top was broken and the locks were locked and no keys. Paint was faded and scraped up really bad and it had chewing gum wads on the bottom of it ,but I was determined to fix it.
First thing was to just get the game to run and after some multi meter testing on the circuit boards I found 6 resistors and 2 Capacitors were bad so I desoldered and resolder new ones. Next it was on to the monitor and what a challenge as this too was broken and needed a cap kit with 22 Capacitors and a complete discharge of the sanyo monitor which stores a high amount of volts of electricity man did I make sure I was completely grounded but it discharged with no problems.
Put the boards and monitor back into the case and it fired up great and the good news was the controllers and buttons worked great. Oh yeah and I did put a new cord end on the power cord because the one on it already was frayed.
I played Donkey Kong when I was a kid like crazy, some kids played Pacman or Ms Pacman but for me it was that dam ape with the crazy sound. So there I was playing Donkey Kong again and realized that the machine built in or sometime after 1981 did not keep the High Score saves. But thanks to Arcadeshop.com I found out some interesting stuff. A new chip which could be installed as an eeprom and it would allow me to save High Scores, run diagnostics and freeplay (note: the coin slots worked great on the machine and you could press the service swith inside for multiple credits) and it would also let me play Donkey Kong 2 the return of jumpman.
Now I ordered the chips and installed them and now DK1 and DK2 can be played in the one machine.
Off to the hardware store I went I had to get some wood and veneer to fix the top of the game plus hinges as the original hinges on the machine were ripped off. After a few days of working on the top I test fix the top back on the body and it fit nice and snug. I took the top back off and removed all the electronics and monitor from the case.
Fixing the body was a chore I needed some bondo and a hammer to fix some major dents that were in it, but I also made a decision not to make it too perfect like brand new because remember it is an antique and so I left a few imperfections there. I sanded it down with automotive 60,120,400,and 1000 wet/dry sandpaper and then primered the inside and outside and painted it Krylon Dark Brown which matched the original color. Installed the painted hinges by drilling new holes into the side of the body but measured it with the top in place.
Reinstalled the security locks after a trip to the lock smith shop which ran me 16 dollars for the locks keyed the same.(forgot to mention I drilled the original locks out to remove them since I had no keys for them.)
Painted the legs semi gloss black and polished the feet back to their bright aluminum color.
Removed the old chipped and cracked veneer and added new band of Red Oak veneer [2 inch strip to the tops sides] Then I stained it with minwax dark walnut water based stain. Finally, removed the old weather stripping from the top and replaced it with new weatherstripping. I then cleaned the top with a lint free cloth and some windex cleaned the glass top( has some scratches in it but its in good enough shape I wasn't going to replace it) reinstalled the glass clip holders to the tables top and I think it came out good. I will post some more pics of it soon. Here is one showing it playing DK2.
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Originally Posted by TheDomesticInstitution
