Gutted Donkey Kong Cabinet, What Do I Need?

[jackillac92]

I recently acquired a Donkey Kong cabinet, it is black and light blue and is completely gutted except for the wood and front coin door and Plexiglas monitor cover and top art and light.

The arcade 3 down is exactly what I have
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7610

What exactly do I need to get her working again?

I was thinking

Donkey Kong Board and harness
Controller joystick set
T-Molding
Monitor
Various cables
Speaker (I can sub out one right? Im not playing mozart through it)

What kind of power supply do I need for it?
What type of monitor is a good cheap one?
I noticed that in the past this machine was a VS golf machine?
Does Nintendo use similar parts on most 80s era arcade cabinets?
Or do I have to look for "Donkey Kong" specific arcade parts?
What parts can I substitiute?
What are some major compatibility issues?
Is their a schematic for the wiring of the cabinet?
How much is to much for a monitor for this I saw them go from 50 - 200$ ?



How much would this total, ballpark estimate wise?

[Flack]

Well, you pretty much nailed it. You need a monitor, a Donkey Kong PCB, a power supply, joysticks and buttons, a speaker and wires to connect them all together. You'll also need t-molding and side art.

Nintendo cabs are unique beasts. I know you can use a newer switching power supply with them but I'm not sure about the monitors. I know there are unique challenges with Nintendo monitors.

Really it all depends on how authentic you want to go. You can still buy Nintnedo joysticks, Nintendo buttons, and so on. It won't be cheap and you're going to end up spending a lot more on this project than it would cost you to simply buy a restored DK machine.

[namzep]

If it was my cab, personally, I'd just end up mameing it. As Flack mentioned, you're going to spend a ton of cash fixing it up (even more than just buying a restored one). If you decide to go ahead with a restore, good luck.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

What the guys said above. You WILL spend more money buying all the separate parts, than if you found one in working condition. It's best turning this into a project cab, unless you were to stumble upon a Donkey Kong with a shitty water damaged cabinet, with mostly working parts.

Most early Nintendo cabs used a Sanyo EZ monitor, which are a little harder to fix than some other monitors like a WG.

You'd probably spend about $250-$400 alone on the monitor and PCB. But the good thing is that there is a lot of online stores that offer parts for a Donkey Kong, and you really could piece together a working machine if money was no object.

I'm a Donkey Kong cab owner myself, although I own the cocktail version.

[darthi8nt]

you would spend nearly $100 just for the wiring and then another $140 for the boardset. Top that off with $35 for a 100 watt isolation power transformer and look to spend $260 on a monitor(sanyo-ez) with no burn in. Another $80 for the joystick then $30 for the T-molding top that off with $6 for three buttons. Estimate of $651 and those prices don't include shipping and then the cost of the unexpected like the mounting brackets for the monitor are normally not included and a high score kit if you intend to save your high scores. So my advise is to just use the cab as a Mame project and buy yourself a nice restored DK unit I have seen them in great shape go for as little as $550 with all side artwork the works because of the economy. I too own a cocktail version of DK with DK2 installed , which I fully restored.

[Flack]

That what I would do with it. Toss a 48-in-1 board in there (<$100) and a monitor (you can use a PC monitor with those boards), a PC power supply, and you're done (minus joysticks and buttons of course). With that you'd be able to play Donkey Kong plus 47 other games for about 1/3 the price of building a DK from scratch. Hell, with the money you save you might be able to pick up a restored DK off of eBay.

[diskoboy]

You pretty much HAVE to use a Sanyo 20EZ.

Nintendo used a video inverter on all their arcade games and the sound board is on the monitors chassis.

If you plan on buying a new monitor, you will also need a soundboard and a video inverter. Otherwise known as a monitor converter kit for it to even work.

And I'll just say this - those 20EZ's are the worst monitors in the history of arcades. They are absoulte pains to do a cap kit on, and they break down constantly.