OMG What have I gotten myself into -- 10 MORE CABS!

[smalltownguy]

So I'm walking by the local pizzeria last week, and noticed that 2 of the 4 cabs in the hallway outside are not working. I know the owner, so I walked in and mentioned that I'd be willing to fix up his cabs since I enjoy the hobby and could use the experience. I told him that I would only charge him for parts and I'd provide the labor. I just cant stand to see cabs in disrepair, plus he's not making any money on cabs that don't work.

Sunday, I get a call from the owner - he wants to take me up on my offer. He's got a 'few more' cabs that he'd like to drop off to see if I can do anything with them, or maybe use them for parts.

2 hours later, here's what I have in my garage:





From left to right in the two pics:

1. Final Fight, in a converted midway cab. I believe it was a pacman cab, based on the blue paint I see on the back panel. Does not currently power up. Was working 2 months ago.
2. DONKEY KONG! Dedicated, original cab. Powers on and plays. A few sound issues noted, could be a speaker connection issue. Joystick is very loose, and intermittently responsive. Cab is in GREAT shape, 1 side of the coin mech still works. A real jem -- just needs a bit of cleanup and joystick work.
3. Tetris - I believe it's dedicated, but not sure based on the pic I see on KLOV. Works, but controllers are sloppy and intermittently unresponsive. Both coin mechs work. Monitor clear and bright.
4. Mortal Kombat II, in a converted cab of unknown origin. Monitor has a bit of burn, but looks OK when on. Owner tells me that it powers on and off randomly. Controls feel OK, but CP is in need of recovering or repainting. Both coin mechs work.
5. MS PACMAN, totally dedicated, restored cab. Currently using pac man bezel. Screen shows a bit of flagging, needs a capkit. Joystick a bit sloppy.
6. Tetris II - the Revenge of DOH, in a converted cab of unknown origin. Decent conversion, cab is solid. Needs marquee. Controls feel good. Game plays blind, monitor shows red image at times, scrambled at other times. I'm sure it needs a capkit.
7. Neo Geo cab, in a conversion of unknown origin. Marquee shows a driving game, but cartidge currently installed is a bowling game. Game does not currently power up. Control panel is horrible - button layout is all wrong, but joysticks feel good.
8. Head On - cab is in terrible condition - was left outside for many years with the back removed. The particle board is swelled and bloated everywhere, though it still appears to be structurally sound. All original artwork is there, including original 4-way joystick. Button is snapped off. Cab is open in the back (back board are stuffed in sideways in the bottom), and is full of dust and pine needles. I didn't try powering it on since I like my house 'not burned down.'

Needless to say, I've got some work ahead of me! I'll be working on the Donkey Kong, Ms Pac Man, Tetris, Arkanoid, Mortal Kobmat II, and then Final Fight in that order to get them in route ready condition again, and the other 2 cabs are parts machines only. I may ask him to keep the Neo Geo cab so I can rework it, and I'm pretty sure the Head On cab has so graciously been 'donated' to me.  

Looks like Bob Roberts and I are going to become good friends over the next few weeks.  

The owner has offered me free pizza for life when I get them all working again. Obviously that kind of offer would come with limitations (hey can I have 42 pizzas for my superbowl party?) but I'm inclined to take him up on his offer.

My wife was actually somewhat OK with the situation, even though this has rendered one stall of our 2 car garage useless for parking. I think the fact that there's a working Tetris and Arkanoid cabs in the mix helps with the WAF.

I'll try to post updates as I dig into these cabs to get them working again. Cheers!  

[sstralkowski]

Good luck, man.  This sounds like a fun project. 

[TOK]

Don't let this ruin the hobby for you. Taking on too many projects can burn you out.

[smalltownguy]

Don't let this ruin the hobby for you. Taking on too many projects can burn you out.

That's wise advice, TOK. I already told the owner that it may take some time to get this done. He's fine with however long it takes; in the mean time, I get to play them all I want during the repair process.

It helps that he's agreed to pay for the replacement parts. It's always much easier to do repairs / restorations when it's not YOUR money on the line for parts.

[opt2not]

3. Tetris - I believe it's dedicated, but not sure based on the pic I see on KLOV. Works, but controllers are sloppy and intermittently unresponsive. Both coin mechs work. Monitor clear and bright.

That is actually a Williams cabinet, looks like a Robotron. I'd recognize it anywhere!

[smalltownguy]

3. Tetris - I believe it's dedicated, but not sure based on the pic I see on KLOV. Works, but controllers are sloppy and intermittently unresponsive. Both coin mechs work. Monitor clear and bright.

That is actually a Williams cabinet, looks like a Robotron. I'd recognize it anywhere!

Thanks, that helps a bunch! Getting replacement coin mech parts and such is always easier when you know what kind of cab you're dealing with.

[Bender]

I think you ought to get a least one cab for yourself out of the deal for all your time!

Take your time and have fun

[IG-88]

Great project  You should learn alot. Make sure you post as much as you can here so we can learn too! 

What happens if/when the parts bill adds up to more then the guy is willing to spend? I hear a "It's going to cost HOW much to fix that?" in your future...

[jennifer]

   Not sure where you live, but does it get cold there??? If so your house will soon look like mine!!!
   

[smalltownguy]

Great project  You should learn alot. Make sure you post as much as you can here so we can learn too! 

What happens if/when the parts bill adds up to more then the guy is willing to spend? I hear a "It's going to cost HOW much to fix that?" in your future...

The owner stopped over today, to drop off keys for the DK and Ms Pac cabs. Little did he know that I'd already picked the locks 

I told him I'd start a list (excel spreadsheet, actually) of the breakdown by game of what parts he'd need. If the price gets too high for his liking, I will barter for some of the non-working or lesser desirable cabs. He's actually got a secret jewel in this mix that I'll write about later.

I got a chance to get a better look inside each of the cabs tonight. Here's what I found:

Mortal Kombat II: monitor is an e-home G07, very common monitor. Looks good, even though there's a bit of Defender burn in. Game looks and plays good. Owner SWEARS that it shuts down occasionally. We'll see. I'll leave it running 24/7 for a few days and see what happens. BONUS: I found about $100 in quarters in the locked coin box. *grin* That'll make paying for parts a bit easier.

Tetris: Turns out this IS a Robotron conversion, as correctly pointed out by opt2not (thanks!). A decent conversion, I guess. Found the manual inside the cab, and the original keys. Monitor is a Wells Gardner 19K4901. Looks good, plays OK -- joystick needs cleaning.

Donkey Kong: This baby's all original, with the exception of the back panel - it's been replaced with plywood It's even got the original Sanyo monitor with very little burn. Found a spare NOS Sanyo flyback still in the bubble wrap in the bottom of the cab! The manual is there, though it seems a bit 'crisp' to be an original - probably a repro. Game has minor sound issues with bass -- the audio board is up on the monitor chassis. Has anyone worked on this before? Joystick responds about 80-90% of the time - it needs a serious teardown and rebuild.

Final Fight: And here we have our Jewel. I knew it was a Midway cab conversion, but I couldn't tell which. Imagine my surprise when I saw the PMMS tag with a serial number inside! A Ms Pac Man cab! The stamped number on the outside (#5310) confirmed it. The original isolation transformer and power supply is still bolted to the floor. The cab is rock solid with no water damage or wood rot. Coin mechs are perfect. The back panel will likely need to be replaced -- it's got a caved spot where someone must have hit it with a small sledge hammer -- but I might be able to put a backer board on there and flatten it out again. Cab doesn't currently power on. I haven't traced power yet, but I'm sure I'll find a failed switch or interlock, possibly the power supply. If I have to barter for a cab because of cost, this is it. It's a PERFECT candidate for a restoration! Monitor: WG 19K7951.

Neo Geo cab: Indeed, as pointed out by the boys over at KLOV, it's a Wizard of Wor cab conversion. Two switching power supplies and frayed cord tell me that there are definitely some electrical reasons why this cab wont power up. The monitor is newer, though. It's a Wells Gardner 19K7302 with the optional remote board, manufactured in 1997. No burn that I can see. Hopefully she fires up -- I'll be taking THAT monitor for my personal Double Dragon cab

Arkanoid II: Yep, it's a Centipede conversion. Crappy one, too. Found the kit manual in the bottom. It's a really funny read. There's actually a step in the manual where it says, 'now kick back and relax a bit, you've done a lot of work so far. Your NEW GAME is almost ready!' LOL Monitor: Electrohome G07, and it needs serious work, or the power supply is failing, because all I get is red signal, and I can't keep it synced for more than a few minutes before it scrambles again.  I'm thinking cap kit. Needs a marquee too.

Ms Pac Man: This is pretty much a complete restoration unit - the only reason the owner brought it over is because the screen is starting to show some flagging on one side. It needs a cap kit, which should be simple enough. I did notice that the coin mechs are missing some parts though - it appears that they are missing the reject mechanism? I compared them to the mechs on the Final Fight cab (also a Ms Pac) and the Final Fight cab's coin mechs appear complete. This one looks like it needs more pieces to divert the quarters in the proper direction to the coin box. Does that make sense? Monitor: E-home G07.

Head On: I did find the original manual (on one of the swelled access doors) and the PCB appears complete. I had no idea how to ID the monitor -- it looks so primitive! The chassis is like 10 chips total. I'm not touching this one for a bit yet.

So that's it. I still have lots of diagnosis to do; I need to check coin mech lights, and marquee bulbs and fixtures. New locks are in order for almost all of these cabs except the DK and Ms Pac.

My list of parts needed so far:

1. 2 Cap kits for G07 (Ms Pac and Arkanoid)
2. Two Possible switching power supplies (Neo Geo and Final Fight)
3. 5 sets of locks
4. Arkanoid II marquee
5. Additional coin mech parts for the Ms Pac Cab.
6. 2nd coin mech for the DK cab
7. Replacement leg levelers for 3 cabs.
8. Sanyo monitor audio board cap kit??
9. Find another owner (sucker) for the Head On cab

Sorry for the long post -- lots to share!

[smalltownguy]

Well, got up this morning, and yep, the Mortal Kombat cab is dead. Unplugged it, waited 30 seconds, plugged it back in, and heard the rom sound, but no image. Unplugging, I get red image collapse on the monitor, but no image on screen when plugged in.

I'll wait 30 min or so and see if that makes a difference.

Any ideas?

[Roo]

I have no ideas for you.      I've never owned or even been allowed inside an arcade cabinet, so I know nothing about working on a real cab.

I just wanted to thank you for posting.  I like reading your descriptions of the cabinets.  It sounds like a lot of fun!

[smalltownguy]

I have no ideas for you.      I've never owned or even been allowed inside an arcade cabinet, so I know nothing about working on a real cab.

I just wanted to thank you for posting.  I like reading your descriptions of the cabinets.  It sounds like a lot of fun!

Hey thanks! You know I never really know how many people are reading my posts. I know there's a few die hard readers of the forum, but sometimes I wonder whether I'm just talking to myself, talking too much, not enough, you know, that whole 'among strangers' feeling.

Anyhoo, I went out after 30 minutes and tried plugging in the Mortal Kombat cab, and got some different behavior this time. This time I would hear the boot beep, then some very quiet ticking (presumably the processor crystal clocking, perhaps?) and then nothing. Shortly thereafter, I heard another boot beep. Then another. Unplugging and plugging resulted in more boot beeps, and once I got garbage on the screen. Never got to the ROM check though. I'm beginning to think the power supply is bad. Good thing I have a few more to swap in and try

[EvilNuff]

I'm reading too...I have no input for you but I am enjoying reading about the projects.

[jennifer]

  You could take a voltmeter after it.....

[smalltownguy]

  You could take a voltmeter after it.....

I'm going to. I have an older analog multimeter that I was using before this summer, a 'hand me down' from my Dad for some project I was working on years ago. Acutally, I don't think it was a 'hand me down' as much as I borrowed it, and then after 10 years, well, they say possession is 9/10ths of the law, right? 

Anyways, the Radio Shack in a town near me closed up shop earlier this spring, and I picked up a bunch of great parts including this multimeter:

http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shack-Digital-Multimeter-20-Range/dp/B003E2YXJK

Looks like it's high time I learned how to use it!

[Dr Zero]

Very cool congrats on the nice find and taking on the job! 

Not many people care about games any more it seems (general public) but love to see places who still have them and working well is really a great find!

If you need a final fight bezel there was a fellow on KLOV with one for sale I was tempted but had to pass for right now.

Talking about coin door lights I ordered these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5789 from deal extreme and have been real happy with them, they fit with no issue and there is no heat and will probably outlast me LOL

[smalltownguy]

Talking about coin door lights I ordered these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5789 from deal extreme and have been real happy with them, they fit with no issue and there is no heat and will probably outlast me LOL

Dr Zero, thanks for the kind words. I really want to do these cabs some justice. The pizza place in my home town is the only place that I see cabs at this point, so I want them work, so kids (ME) can enjoy them.

I installed similar lights like those in my MAME cab, and I noticed that they have a sort of 'directional' inensity to them. Do you know if these bulbs diffuse better? If you look at mine head on, they're very bright, but from an angle they appear as spotlights on the coin reject inserts.

[abzman2000]

No helpful words from me, but I will be coming back/researching problems you have when I have more time, as I have never worked on an arcade cab before (except my half finished mame cab) I would be interested to see how your repairs go.  If you get stuck, then just post a pic and ask a question, I like the people here and they all tend to be helpful when they can. 

actually, you could just hit the LEDs with some sandpaper or a file to diffuse them

[Dr Zero]

I installed similar lights like those in my MAME cab, and I noticed that they have a sort of 'directional' inensity to them. Do you know if these bulbs diffuse better? If you look at mine head on, they're very bright, but from an angle they appear as spotlights on the coin reject inserts.

I was able to slide mine back some so they were not as deep into the plastic they just are in a bit and they look good to me 


http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35621 these have 2 small led around the base to help with the spread

[RonnieC312]

my wife would kill me LOL

[smalltownguy]

my wife would kill me LOL

With a 60 inch MAME setup, I'd say you've used up all the WAF stock you own at this point. 

[smalltownguy]

So I went to the bank today to cash in the quarters I found in the cash boxes.

*drumroll...................*


$190!! SWEET! That should more than cover the cost of most of the small parts I need to get like bulbs, locks, cap kits, etc. Even a few switching power supplies and possibly a game PCB will fit in that budget, if I'm careful.

[RonnieC312]

my wife would kill me LOL

With a 60 inch MAME setup, I'd say you've used up all the WAF stock you own at this point. 

LOL  HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

I just brought home a old machine "Time Killer"  its a great bad game.   So I better stop before she makes me sleep in the Man-Cave and to be honest that wouldnt be that bad HAHA

[IG-88]

9. Find another owner (sucker) for the Head On cab

I'm kinda a sucker for hard luck cabs. Where you located at?

[smalltownguy]

I'm in Osceola, WI.

I learned a valuable lesson tonight, which I will share in a bit.

So I was perplexed by the whole Mortal Kombat 'shut down' phenomenon. Since I haven't figured out why it's acting the way it is, I figured I'd swap the monitor (a G07) with the monitor that was in the Arkanoid cab. I knew the monitor in the Mortal Kombat cabinet worked, so that would rule out the possibility of a problem with the Arkanoid monitor.

When I put the monitor in the Arkanoid cab, I got the same result: game played nearly blind, red color only, inability to stabilize the picture. At this point I suspected either the power supply was bad or the PCB was hosed. Just for kicks I plugged one of my spare Double Dragon boards into the jamma connector in the Arkanoid cab. Bam, perfect picture, and the game coined up and started properly. So, the power supply is good. That left the PCB. Remembering the problems I had with an older Double Dragon PCB jamma connection causing issues, I decided to examine the jamma connector and harness.

I should have started there to begin with.



Voila! Re-seating the jamma harness and cleaning the jamma connector contacts was enough to get this game going again. So, valuable lesson learned is: start with the simple stuff first before you go doing things like removing monitors 

[smalltownguy]

On a whim, I picked this up:



It's an Operation Wolf cab converted to Golden Tee.

The flyback is hosed on the monitor, otherwise the game plays blind.

Make that 9 cabs to work on

[IG-88]

Ocseola 'eh?  About an 8 hr drive for me.    You wouldn't happen to know anybody heading towards Des Monies/Omaha/KC in the near future would you?

[Nicodumas]

Dude, you are making us all look bad! 9 at once? Heck, I am struggling to get my 1st project off the ground!

[mgb]

Man, You're gonna be busy.
 As far as the Donkey Kong goes, You're probably best getting an audio rebuild kit from Bob Roberts.
How's the picture on the monitor. I recently did a cap kit on a Sanyo in a DK and I rebuilt the sound board and adjusted the B+ voltage (108vdc).
unfortunately on that job, I had to adjust the convergence rings too, but man it looked great when I was done and the audio rebuild kit got rid of the loud hum.

Definately make sure you have a meter (digital) (Autoranging helps)

Remember one of the first things to check is your 5volts. I usually shoot for around 5.1 volts on the game board. best place to test is either on a test point on the board or right on a chip.
pin1 on most any chip is the 5volt.

[smalltownguy]

Very good tips! Yes, I just got ahold of a decent auto ranging meter this summer, so I guess I'll be learning how to use it.

I was just reading one of the stickies on the KLOV forums monitor repair thread tonight -- very good stuff in there about testing the B+ voltage.

I don't notice too much in the way of foldover or flagging on this Sanyo, so I'm inclined to leave it as is for now. I will test the B+ voltage though.

Thanx for the 5v tip too, I'll keep that in mind for all my games.

Definitely an audio rebuild kit in my future....

[mgb]

yeah more than likely the audio rebuild kit will fix the sound issues on the DK.

[sstralkowski]

I'm really enjoying this thread.  A lot of it is ove my head, but I'm loving it anyway. 

[Donkey_Kong]

Your garage must have been immaculate in order for the 9 cabs to fit so nicely! Great games! May the force be with you in getting them repaired...

[smalltownguy]

Your garage must have been immaculate in order for the 9 cabs to fit so nicely! Great games! May the force be with you in getting them repaired...

DK, it WAS clean....

On a more serious note, I'm trying to keep things contained by cab, so as not to get the 'bomb went off' effect going on. I've kind of been jumping around a bit from cab to cab as I've been trouble shooting. I'm waiting for parts for a few of the cabs that are first in line.

I'm really enjoying this thread.  A lot of it is ove my head, but I'm loving it anyway. 

Thanks sstralkowski! You know, a very short time ago I would have said the same thing. A lot of what I'm undertaking will be things I'm doing for the first or second time. I've replaced capacitors before, but I've never recapped an arcade monitor. I've tinkered with arcade cabinet mechanical parts before, but never really worked on replacing or servicing things like leg levelers, interlock switches, jamma harnesses, switching power supplies, ground cables, marquee lights, coin mechs, volume potentiometers, etc.

Speaking of coin mechs, I dug into the coin mechs on the Ms Pac Man cabinet last night. Owner told me that one side didn't work (and so he taped it off with electrical tape), and the other side seemed to only work 1/2 of the time. The other 1/2 of the time, the quarters just fell into the cabinet and not the coin box. I opened up the coin mech door, and here's what I found:



Yes, folks, your eyes are not fooling you that a TOILET PAPER ROLL TUBE scotch taped to the inside of the coin mech opening!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL I've seen some jerry-rigged things before, but this one comes close to the best yet. And this is supposed to be a 'restored' Ms Pac Man cab, too. The left side mech is totally missing, which would explain why it 'wasn't working' .... DUH.

Needless to say, I ripped out the poop paper roll solution, and fitted 2 coin mechs from the Neo Geo (Wizard of Wor) cab. A shot of WD-40 and 10 min later Ms Pac Man has 100% fully working coin mechs. Now I just need to cap the monitor, and she's done.

[abzman2000]

This may seem like nit picking, but in reality you shouldn't use wd40 for that, it may work for now, but it drys out and gets sticky, I recommend tri-flow teflon lube. 

[smalltownguy]

Emboldened by my success at getting the Arkanoid cab up and running, I decided to look at the Neo Geo Cab and see if I could figure out why it wouldn't power up. The monitor in it, a Wells Gardner 19K7302 has a manufacture date of 1997, clearly the newest of the bunch here, so I was betting that it would perform pretty well in my Golden Tee 99 cab as a drop-in swap. I soon learned later that it wasn't. Read on....

I pulled the monitor and moved it to a table next to my Golden Tee cab. Since both are Wells Gardner monitors, the pinouts for RGB, ground, and sync were similar, so the connectors fit without any modifications.

I powered on the Golden Tee and nothing. Game still plays blind, monitor shows nothing. Tweaking the settings on the remote board did nothing. I can see a little bit of neck glow, but my untrained eyes cannot tell if it's not enough neck glow or not. Damn, and I thought this monitor was going to look good. So, back into the Neo Geo cab it goes. I guess I'll have to see if I can at least get the PCB on the Neo Geo cab to fire up, and I'll address this monitor later, when I have more time to read about it.

The back end of the Neo Geo cab was a mess of tangled wires, some tight, some loose. Whomever converted this from Wizard of Wor to Neo Geo cut some corners, because none of the interlocks are used any more, the power switch has been bypassed, and several wires from the jamma harness are just spiderwebbed everywhere. It looked like this cab had been rolled down a hill somewhere.

There were 2 power supplies in it, one older, and one newer. I presume the older one died at some point, and the operator never bothered to remove it. Instead, they just fitted another one in the cab and just laid it on top of the old one. Not screwed down, not secured in any way. Just flopping around in the cab.

The power cord coming out of the back had about a 6 inch length of cord that had been spliced together. I'm guessing that's where the cord had originally gone to the power switch, and then from there to the isolation transformer, but someone just bypassed the power switch altogether and wire tied the cord in one length. Rather than go through the hassle of hooking up the back switch again -- really, at this point, why bother?? -- I decided to tie a knot in the cord downstream from the splice and left everything inside the bottom, coming out the cord hole. The knot will provide the proper strain release necessary to ensure that no one pulls the cord apart.

Examining the plug at the other end revealed why the cab wouldn't power on. After removing what seemed like 14 miles of duct tape wound around the plug end, I discovered that the plug fixture was loose. Taking apart, I found the ground wired to one of the hot/neutral contacts, the hot wired to the other, and the neutral wired to nothing. Hm....that's not right. Good thing I was using a breaker protected power strip when I plugged THAT cab in 2 days ago. *eek!*

I wired up the plug correctly, did a smoke test. I heard the familiar 'bah dah da DING' of the Neo Geo start sequence, and the marquee lit up! Woo Hoo! It works!

The monitor shows an image, but it's VERY faint, and I can see almost no color. Adjusting the controls on the remote board works, but since the image is so faint, it's hard to tell what's going on. What's wrong with this stupid monitor? Does it need a cap kit? Flyback? Sledge hammer? The chassis looks nice and clean, and the screen shows ZERO burn. Shame this won't work.

The PCB goes through the start sequence, and then it starts to get loud and scratchy when the game starts to load League Bowling. Then the game restarts. Is it possible that my Neo Geo cartridge is bad? The owner says he has a few more cartridges in his garage somewhere, but he couldn't find them. I'd sure like to try another one to see if that's the problem.

Anyway, that's where I'm at for now. At least I know that the Neo Geo cab might be salvageable. The monitor, however worries me. I really can't find anything out there about it -- it's like WG didn't make them. The serial number doesn't come up on their website lookup, and I can't find a manual or schematics anywhere. Anyone have any other ideas? Should I just forget about it? Can I put a different chassis on it?

[smalltownguy]

This may seem like nit picking, but in reality you shouldn't use wd40 for that, it may work for now, but it drys out and gets sticky, I recommend tri-flow teflon lube. 

OK, thanks for that! Would silicone spray be better? I have that.

[KagatoAMV]

This thread makes me want to track down my old arcade repair manual from my days working at an arcade.

Good luck on this project, do you plan to restore cabinets as well (paint/body work) or just get the games playing right?

[abzman2000]

silicone spray should be perfect