January 11, 2009

Here’s what I alluded to in my comment for the MAME cabinet.  I traveled to Indianapolis to pick up another cabinet.  Yes, it’s another Nintendo cabinet.  Yes, it’s another Donkey Kong.  However, this one is special.  This Donkey Kong is one if the few original Donkey Kong conversions from Radar Scope.  And it’s mine, all mine.

More pictures will soon follow.  It will need some work.  Most noticeably there are a couple of bad corners, the back edges are a little splintered, and some dings and scratches will need to be filled and painted.  And of course it will need new t-molding and new side art.  I want to attempt to get away with only touching up the bad spots so I can keep most of the original paint job in tact.  I don’t know when I’ll get around to working on it with all my other projects, but when I do, I will update my progress here.

January 8, 2009

-No back
-But has wheels (can lean back and roll)
-Completely painted black
-Has one noticeable bad corner (that stands out anyway)
-Comes with the pedal
-Coin door is there but no coin mechs and has been painted black
-Noticeable scratch on right side
-Still has the speakers in place
-Still has light sockets
-Not pictured are a couple of boards that served as a platform for the control panel

December 9, 2008

I won an auction on eBay for a Centipede machine in Knoxville…  $50.  Unfortunately, it’s non-working.  The problem is in the board I believe.  That is, unless it’s in the wiring.  I verified the monitor works, so that’s a start.  Anyway, here are a few photos.  Maybe this will be the last game I buy for awhile.  Maybe…

I finally snapped some pictures of the lot of games I picked up a few weeks ago.  In the pictures you’ll see the Golden Tee 3D, Kid Niki, Haunted Castle, and Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters…

November 20, 2008

November 9, 2008

I’ll cut to the chase.  I picked up a Super Pac-Man machine the other day (I believe it was this past Monday).  It’s in great shape with a few dings, but was not working.  I’m not sure how much cabinet work I’ll put into this machine, but I may try to patch the dings and do a little touch up painting.  The original sideart is in great shape so I don’t want to mess with it.

After I got the machine home, I cleaned out the dust and cob webs and tinkered around with the electronics.  For the most part, I just made sure everything was connected properly.  Basically, I just unplugged everything to make sure there wasn’t dirt breaking the connection.  However, I noticed one wire was hanging loose.  I tracked it down and determined it was a loose ground wire.  I screwed it down and fired up the machine.  After about 15 seconds, I was looking at a functioning Super Pac-Man, but the screen was sagging and blurry on one side.

It didn’t take long to determine the cause of the blurry image.  It turns out the inside of the bezel was just really dusty.  A simple cleaning remedied that problem.  However the screen is still warped, so I’m sure I will have to replace a capacitor or 2.  But for now, the game is very playable.

Here are a few pictures I snapped.  You can see there is bad burn-in on the screen, but it’s not noticeable at all when the bezel is replaced and the game is running.  Since it will be for my own use, I will refrain from replacing the monitor for now.  And my investment is already paying off.  I found a total of $2.51 ($0.50 is in the coin box) lodged in the back of the cabinet.

I took the 1st step in my second Donkey Kong restoration project.  I finally decided to clean out the inside of the cabinet.  There is only one word to describe what I encountered… na-has-ty.  I thought the cabinet had some water damage, but it turns out it was just caked on dirt.   So, I swabbed and swabbed and swabbed with a rag and soapy water until I got all the gunk cleaned out.   I refused to take pictures so I wouldn’t have to relive that nightmare.

Now that the hard part is over, I can begin the real work.  The next step will be to remove everything else (coin door, etc) that I didn’t have to remove to clean out the inside and then I can begin the sanding.

I need to go take a hot shower now…

I’m a few days late posting this, but here is one more pumpkin I hastily carved on Halloween night…

October 30, 2008

Another pumpkin I carved tonight…
apparently it’s not my best work.

October 28, 2008

I had not mentioned it here before, mainly because I didn’t want to alert someone to swoop in and steal my deal, but I reached an agreement to buy a few arcade games this past weekend.  There had been an ad on Craigslist for some time, advertising these games for sale.  The person selling them was initially asking $500 for a lot of 4 games.  But, over time, we discussed it and I got the lot for a grand total of $250.

The ad did not offer much of a description, but from my conversations with the seller, I found out three of the games were working fine, while one had an unknown problem.  One game was sitting in their house and was in pretty good shape while the others were in a storage building and collecting cobwebs.  The 3 in storage were in somewhat rough shape, but nothing that couldn’t be repaired.

The Games

The non-working machine is a Kid Niki: Radical Ninja.  The cabinet is in decent shape but needs cleaned.  There are dings, scrapes and scratches that need patched, but it won’t be too difficult.  I will probably end up replacing the t-molding on it as well.  However, I would like to get the machine in working order first.  I really have no idea what’s wrong with it.  It looks like someone has replaced the normal cord with a plug from a PC power supply.  Plugging that in will kick off the fan, but nothing else happens.  No sounds, no lights, nothing.  I supposed I will start with checking voltages.  I have a few other games to restore before this one, so it might be awhile.

The second game is Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters.  The cabinet is in OK shape but, like mentioned above, needs some patching/painting.  It powered up right off the bat and seemed to be working great.  However, I noticed that the top of the screen is cut off.  I think this is usually an indication of a bad capacitor, so I’ll get the monitor model information and see if someone sells cap kits.  If not, hopefully I can dig out the schematics and give it a capacitor overhaul.

The next game is probably going to become a favorite of mine.  It is Haunted Castle, a game from the Castelvania series.  The game works great.  All controls are functional and the monitor is full, bright, and with no waviness.  However, there’s always a catch.  The cabinet is in very rough shape.  The bottom must have gotten damp at some point, because the cabinet is breaking off.  Fortunately, the sides are lower than the actual floor of the machine.  So, I might be able to whack off the overhang and do some minor patching around the bottom and give it some feet.  The cabinet won’t be 100% complete, but it will look a lot better if I can pull this off.

The final game, and one I really wanted, is a Golden Tee 3D.  This is the machine that was sitting in their home.  From an operational point, it seems to work fine.  The monitor might need a cap kit because I saw a little waviness, otherwise it’s really bright with little to no burn-in.  The trackball, however, is a little rough.  It has been dinged up over the years and rolls rough.  I might be able to clean it out, but ultimately I will probably end up replacing it.  I will most likely have to drill out the locks and replace them, but it’s a small price to pay.

So there it is, my treasue I found tucked away in eastern (not “Eastern”) Kentucky.  I’ll post some pictures when I get a chance to snap some.  I guess these will turn into projects V, VI, VII, and VIII.

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