Donkey Kong cab refurb/Ghetto golden tee. Orange button pЯon/multipanel 05/12/14

[chopperthedog]

Time to do the Kong cab. Gonna make it a mame cab (computer is already set up) to have 27 games. I've compiled a .105 with the source edit to skip the nag in galaga and mr do. I had been out of it for so long it took me a tick to get up to speed on the .106 rewrite thingy. The original screen is in the cab and has a tag hanging from it that says "bad". So I'm gonna use a 19" 4:3 lcd for now since I'm a noob when it comes to the old screens. But in the future i would like to get it fixed and educate myself on the hardware needed. The monitor mounting system will remain untouched.







The way it sat in his shop for years the nintendo panel was never wired (wonder if the intentions were to convert from basketvall to vs and never happened) but the konami basketball board was still in it minus the power supply. Plus the original controls were left at the bottom. Since I was in really good with this guy he allowed me to dig in all of his corners. Upon my travels I found the original DK panel (just the wood) with the added 2 button holes that were part of the 3 needed for the basketball. It's obvious that the bezel is original DK turned around during conversion.



And the other plus was once I took the marquee off that to was the original DK perfectly preserved under the vinyl.





Control panel wood work was all loose took it all of and filled all holes with wood and glue and will drill new holes during reassembly. All other individual parts will be repaired also.





Coin slots clean up nicely. I played with using the coin mech and getting the coin to eject and trigger the switch. But those coin returns are very unreliable (may revisit that in the future). But came up with a way to add a micro switch the coin button without altering the coin plate.







Of course the base was shot. But this gave me an opportunity to rethink things. I'm 6ft 3" and that cab is horrible for tall people. Constructed a new base out of 1x8 poplar ripped down to 6". Once glued and screwed that thing is a tank. But the added height once installed made it perfect for myself.



Just fillin' them holes and repairin' the mucked up edges of the plywood.





Prep for new black paint. New layer of flat in the interior and semi gloss on the top and going down the sides came out great. Also just received my box of goodies from mikes arcade  I shall carry on.


good day.



 

[leapinlew]

Love it! That looks to be in decent shape. One of the tweaks I (and a lot of others do) is ditch the carriage bolts going through the cabinet.

[chopperthedog]

Love it! That looks to be in decent shape. One of the tweaks I (and a lot of others do) is ditch the carriage bolts going through the cabinet.

Way ahead of ya. I grinded the heads of the bolts down a tad and routed holes out and bondo'd over the 4 (2 a side) for the crossbar.





Primed with oil based killz and painted with enamel oil based satin (Sherwin Williams) that was matched from a clean area of the panel side support. I used mohair rollers for all coats with some sanding between. Final result came out great.



Pretty straight forward monitor mounting. Also added a 18" led bar from Menards that was $12 during the summer at some point (snagged 3 for future use).



Cab made the move from the garage to it's new home 24 hours after the final coat of paint. Didn't wanna keep burnin' up propane keeping the garage warm. All other wood and metal parts have been painted and are scattered throughout the house. And begins the long agonizing week of letting everything cure properly. Marquee is held there with blue tape to tease myself. Time to move on to the other mini projects.



There could probably be a thread entitled "101 ways to make a smart strip". My last 3 builds I have used this method (never seen it done exactly this way). These metal strips are very easy to come by at local computer closeout places in my area. Relay tucked in the left corner with a barrel connector on the right, 2 outlets are constant and 4 are relay switched. Diode gets attached to the connector harness that goes into the computer case. And the day I did this my roll of black wire grew legs and ran away from me.

The one thing pissing me of is getting the coin door perfectly painted. Just finished taking it down to bare metal for the 3rd time  . We'll see how the 4th time painting goes  .


good day.

[CoryBee]

I love it! Can't wait to make a few smart strips for around the house. 

[chopperthedog]

Putz around with a layout for mala. Since it's only 27 games it doesn't need a list of any sort. Tried adding  game characters and other items but they are already all over the cab. Settled on a background with a 2 line border crudely created in gimp and using a simple snap, marquee and panel images for the game list.





Cut new screen bezel and backdrop.



Despite my busy weekend I found time to get the cab reassembled and wired up with computer and sound. (Need to borrow a better camera for the final photo shoot that will include interior and exterior completed pics)



The fourth time painting the coin door came out perfect. The right combo of the hammered finish and semigloss on top finally worked out. My ghetto golden tee cab that was built 6 years ago now needs a sprucing up. Looks like ass sitting next to a new looking donkey kong cab. :p Panel, side art and coin door is all that is left. I'm a little nervous about the side art since I've never applied any before. Been reading and watched a bunch of videos hope all goes well.


good day.

[SpaceHedgehog]

The 3rd pic looks like the cab is on an intravenous drip  Great progress so far, looking dandy.

[chopperthedog]

Well  me... I kinda did a one stop shop for what I needed at mike's. But just stumbled upon chomping quarters and see the true flat tmolding. Sonna ofa ---smurfette--- my ocd won't allow for this! ordered and will redo 


good day.

[chopperthedog]

Very very very happy with the results! As you can see the monkey took a JLF to the side of the head . It was either the JLF or an extra button and I settled on the JLF. I cannot for the life of me play frogger, Mr. and Ms. pacman with my left hand (and never mind trying to play those games with the DK joystick as well). The true flat t-molding is wonderful. The molding from mike's was also more of a bright white where as the true flat is perfectly toned down a tad imho.





I think it was user griffindodd that had linked some l.e.d.'s http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/component-leds/little-dot-smd-led-accent-light/639/ that he was gonna use on his build which sparked an idea in my head. Ordered a bunch of different types but settled on the warm white ones for some under panel accent lights. That flat wire worked out great for putting then between the seam of the plywood. I absolutely love the way they look as they shed some light on a place that is normally not highlighted (of course the pics don't do it justice). Also in the under pic you can see the power button on the left and volume control on the right. I don't like to use "shift" buttons on my cabs. Jump starts a game and pressing player 2 start and jump at the same time will exit a game. I didn't like having 1 and 2 at the same time exit (hand slipped off JLF mid game and it quit on me ). Moved player 1 start to switch 8 on the ipac and changed the general config in mame.













Pretty straight forward pics. The "SoundMax" on board audio interface was horrible (grayed out EQ and it had a buzz to it as well). Picked up a sound blaster usb audio interface and the audio came alive with minus the buzz and hum .



As I said in a previous post my ghetto ass golden tee/HOD (and other gun games) cab looked like ass next to the DK and had to do something about that.



The control panel was built in 2004. It was stand alone and I would plop that thing in front of my other cab with 19" horizontal monitor and rip off some GT. In 2006 a computer fell off a truck  and ended up making a ---smurfy--- shipping crate like thing to hold a 27" tv and ordered up an optical gun. The control panel and the cab mate together to become a solid ass structure. After being out of the game for 6 years I'm blown away by the new crop of gun tech that is out now and will be ordering an aimtrak once andy gets the in stock along with some other stuff for the next project.



I got rid of the volume control unit to the left of the red button and added a stereo line level volume pot.



Painted the silver portion of the TV flat black, made a lighted marquee box, mounted the speakers on the side of the marquee box, changed out the 3 fans in the computer and 2 in the cab that were whining in perfect harmony, serviced the ball and cleaned the whole cab up.



They're pretty sexy sitting together now. I'm glad that I left the DK cab under a tarp for 6 years. I hate to think what the "me" of 6 years ago would have done to it. The 2 3/4" that I added to the base height is excellent for my 6' 3" body frame. The final result exceeded my expectations and will cherish this thing for many years to come. Got many vivid memories of riding my bike to a local laundromat in the early 80's to play DK.


good day.

[Furry131]

  I love it! You did very nice work restoring in my opinion.  I would be proud of it. I really like the LED's under the CP to light up the coin mech. Cool touch.
I like what you did to fix up your golden tee. Looks much better than the sony grey.

[DaOld Man]

Great job!
 
I too like the leds under the cp panel. May have to steal that idea.

[javeryh]

Nice job!  I always like seeing one of these things come back to former glory.   

[chopperthedog]

Thanks guys. The kong build has been perfect. Meaning I've just been able to enjoy it and haven't had to "tinker" with it at all since last update. But on to the ghetto ass golden tee cab. 



Finally had a chance to install the aimtrak gun. When I built the marquee box who would have thunk that I had the foresight to check the specs on the led module and only rout out the channel 1/8" to accommodate routing for the led bar. Yay me!. The gun is awesome!!! Keep in mind I'm coming from an act labs gun purchased in 2005 . I just didn't keep up with any type of development of hardware over the last 6 years. But oh man did my finger ever get tired playing operation wolf or other types with the act labs and never mind being on the brink of having a seizure from the screen flashes with every trigger pull. I was giddy the first time I swept across the screen to kill the first line of 4 dudes with one trigger pull in operation wolf with the aimtrak. Dropped in a new set of bearings on the trackball as well. There was a little bit of grind that may have been from them superman moves that have occurred from my idiot friends.



Once the gun was up and running I installed the recoil kit. Found a 20v 5a laptop power supply at microcenter that obviously had been returned numerous times and was priced at $6 (perfect), also snagged 10' of the 1/2"i.d. cable wrap to cover the usb and recoil power cables. All that went perfect till I went to use the gun software on the computer in the machine. It's running XP SP1 and I'm lazy. Pulled led bar and gun and changed all the settings for recoil on another machine. Set it back up on the cab and all has been perfect. I think I would like to try a higher voltage PS for the recoil at some point.



Gun holder added to the back of the monitor.

When I originally built this cab I used the (at that time) current version of mala and never up dated it. Well.... it was v0.9.5 lol. But I was excited to try the new (well... new to me) trackball scrolling game list support apparently added years ago . Also when I first built the cab I had no graphic skills what so ever.



So yes, the ghetto ass cab had an even more ghetto ass layout. Last couple years I have been doing some themes for android and have gotten to know my way around GIMP really well.



New layout started with this image as a base from a Google search.



End result and I got cute with the starting window.

Had fun bringing this ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- build up to speed. Well at least for the moment, been pondering ordering a second gun. I would like find a more respectable cab for GT and gun purposes in the future, or not.



good day.

[chopperthedog]

Recently I have been noticing the picture being squeezed more and more on one side of the 27" tv I was using. Well last night a buddy and I were playing some HODIII and the screen went all went all crazy hour glass, let out a hum and a loud pop accompanied by a pleasant smell. Freaked us the F out!!!



Had today off and put my thinking cap on and a few saw cuts here and there, couple pieces of pipe and a new 32" screen. I love it when a plan comes together.


good day.

[kahlid74]

Nice job on the Donkey Kong, good craftsmanship too.  For the Golden Tee I like the new TV layout but the pedestal for controls is way too fat.  I would like a slimmer one would fit more with the sleek and thin style of the TV mount.

[chopperthedog]

Nice job on the Donkey Kong, good craftsmanship too.  For the Golden Tee I like the new TV layout but the pedestal for controls is way too fat.  I would like a slimmer one would fit more with the sleek and thin style of the TV mount.

Thanks... Oh I completely agree about the cab. The pedestal was built originally by itself and used in front of an upright. I really do like the new screen. And now that I have a garage, tools and money I think that is gonna be the next project to make a "real" cab and not have to have the kid at Home Depot make all my plywood cuts.



good day.

[OpFlash]

Nice DK cab.  LCD doesnt look bad behind the plexi either... What paint codes did you use for your blue??

[chopperthedog]

Nice DK cab.  LCD doesnt look bad behind the plexi either... What paint codes did you use for your blue??

I removed the control/speaker panel side and took the whole piece in to SW. Underneath one of the corner blocks was a great area to match from that had not seen the light of day since built..



It's neat how this cab is now longer just an imposing mass of blah now. Finally settled on the 3rd 32in tv . First one I had was a Westinghouse. Picture looked great and crisp but had really crappy viewing angle. From 9' dead center was fine but, if you moved 3' to the left or right the opposing sides of the screen would begin to develop a white clouding. Second was a Panasonic viera, Bleh!!... It did not know what to do with a computer signal. It seemed to be stuck in it's own resolution of 1360x762. color reproduction was horrible. Even picked up a new computer and tried the hdmi and same ---smurf-poo--- thing. Plus at the playing distance the lower corners had the white clouding. Third tv was my original choice (but it only had hdmi in), a Samsung but after the new computer purchase that has hdmi I snagged the tv and it's wonderful. The viewing angles and color reproduction are spot on. Players eyes while using trackball end up being about 3' with a cloudless perfect picture. I thought I would really get annoyed with the stretching of games but it doesn't bug me one bit. Touched up and repainted some areas of the cab and gave the tv mounting system a couple coats of flat black.



Figured out what to do with the gun and the cord. But it required me to tidy up the inside and since the cab was much more shallow the sub kept get rolled over if I moved the cab a little. So added a sub shelf in the back. The gun cable is fed through an arcade button with the plunger removed and the bottom cut off and beveled on the inside. Allows for an easy way to just grab the gun and have cable come out and feed it back in for storage on it's own little rack.



Forgot my neighbor gave me a poker machine years back that I stripped the buttons from. Green/credit red/exit game yellow/power and knob above green button is volume.



Also reedited mala layout for the 1366x768 resolution with some better text colors. Hard drivin' is in the list because for giggles I happen to start it while picking out new gun games from my main list. I loved that game as a kid and my original mame cab back in the day only ran it at about 1 fps . But the new puter I picked up runs it great along with NFL blitz too (obvious sound issues but sweet video) but it's neat watching the attracts now.



For now the cab will remain like this. I'm happy where it's at now. The aimtrak is great, so many games that were impossible to play with the actlabs gun are now frickin' awesome and added back to the list along with many more that the new computer can actually handle. There is this little thought in my head to utilize the dead space of the front of the thing to hide a retracting steering wheel and pedal system  . But I really really miss my 2 player horizontal cab from 2003 (hasn't powered on in 4 years ). That's gonna be my next focus is to bring Frankenstein back to life and undo/redo a slew of noob sauce that I slathered on that thing back in the day and get a sweet new computer for it as well.


good day.

[chopperthedog]

Had to edit a side by side. Ever since the box was altered I find myself taking the same walking path to avoid what used to be there. 


good day.

[DaOld Man]

Looking good. 

[PL1]

Ever since the box was altered I find myself taking the same walking path to avoid what used to be there. 

Sounds like you're taking Polar Bear Steps.


Scott

[chopperthedog]

Ever since the box was altered I find myself taking the same walking path to avoid what used to be there. 

Sounds like you're taking Polar Bear Steps.


Scott

Heh, that's pretty good.

Sooooo, I finally found a working chd of CarnEvil (it was an impossible crack pipe dream on the old computer). But that is one badass game right there. I remember playing it a couple times in person back in the day. But runs great on the new hardware. Makes me even more excited to get a new computer for my dead horizontal 2 player.


good day.

[OpFlash]

The DK looks killer !! Thanks for the paint codes

[DickTurpin]

Chopper. I don't think I have seen a DK that looked that good to start with.
Looks awesome. You are truly a perfectionist and its to your credit 

[eds1275]

Great looking cab. I like what you did to the Golden Tee. But I have to admit, I am more interested in that Marshall Amplification plaque you have on the wall there. Mind telling me how you aquired it?

[chopperthedog]

Great looking cab. I like what you did to the Golden Tee. But I have to admit, I am more interested in that Marshall Amplification plaque you have on the wall there. Mind telling me how you aquired it?

Whoops missed the question from 4 months ago. Got it when I worked at guitar center back in the 90's. It's a cool piece.




Merry Christmas to me... From the beginning the computer and lcd monitor was never meant to be permanent situation. Finally got around to recapping the ezv20 that originally came with the cab and gathered up some other needed items (harness, iso trans, reg ps and other stuff) over the last couple months. I got nice a xmas bonus and splurged on the http://phoenixarcade.com/ArcadeSD.htm board (the real one). I'm very pleased with the presentation and quality of the game play on this board. Yeah, it's a bit pricy but blows a 60in1 out of the water and is still actively being developed for. I also removed the JLF and went with a Tornado Terry pac joystick that is pretty damn nice. 2 weeks after I installed it though, GGG announced the leaf pac stick. Oh well, can't win em' all.



The monitor did not have the inverter board attached to the fly-back cage like they have on the later sanyo ez's. I had an inverter board that is used on the ez's but it wasn't until after recapping that I learned that it needed +voltage attached to position 232 on the chassis. Got a sweet light from my brother for Christmas that came in handy right away.



Ummmm, bench, I mean floor testing. 



Board and power stuff in place. I put the board further up front do that the SD card could be accessed easily from the coin door for future updates. Added a 9pin molex connector to the control panel for easy removal (ipac used to be mounted to the underside of cp, so it was just the usb cable to disconnect before).



The PT-7A isolation transformer came from a Nintendo cocktail table. I created a WTB thread on klov looking for an iso trans and someone actually responded to it with one for $30 shipped. When I originally got the cab there was no power stuff at all, so I needed the iso trans for the ezv. (For anyone wondering) The piece of t molding at the bottom is enough for a control panel for future use so I always know where it's at.



After spending some time on the yoke, convergence rings and all the other adjustments I got this thing lookin' real nice. With the control options I have (4 way "kong&pac" and 1 button) I ended up with a game list of 40 games. I'm waiting on my code from here http://www.jeffsromhack.com/products/d2k_arcadesd.htm to complete the multi kong collection as well. Before I loaded the vertical games I gave the board a test run in horizontal mode in my multi-williams cab and had some fun. I would definitely buy another arcadeSD (only from Phoenix Arcade) for another project in the future.


good day.

[chopperthedog]

Sexy night shot of mah line up.



good day.

[Slippyblade]

Holy crap, is that a dedicated Ninja Gaiden there?  That was one of my "must play" games back in the day, as in if I saw one I was required to play at least a dollar.

[chopperthedog]

Holy crap, is that a dedicated Ninja Gaiden there?  That was one of my "must play" games back in the day, as in if I saw one I was required to play at least a dollar.

Nah, What it originally was can be seen here http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,133627. The marquee was something I got from my op friend years ago that had cool artwork and fit the opening. I can tell the marquee was trimmed plus I also have an odd control panel with the top fire sticks and generic tecmo overlay from the same conversion.


good day.

[chopperthedog]

Woot!! Just got the email confirming registration. Perfect timing since it's cold as fock here in Chicago and got a free day at home.


good day.

[TKW4rr10r]

Awesome job! 

Man you are really convincing me to go the arcade SD route on one of my builds. I'm converting a Nintendo VS Dual upright machine to a side-by-side of Nintendo's greatest arcade Horizontal/Vertical hits, so to speak. The vertical side was going to look like a DK cab with all the PCBs, the splitters, and such to have a multi-kong going.

But after seeing what Maximus went through on his multi-rotary build, this looks to be such a better, not to mention cheaper / less headache inducing, solution. If only the board also supported Radar Scope, that would be bad-ass.

I may still have to bite the bullet and go with some fancy multi-PCB goodness on the horizontal side (that sounded weird reading that back), but I really don't want to go the PC route if I can avoid it. (Planning Mario Bros, Popeye, the original VS board, and a PlayChoice 10 board as the 4th for that side).

Is there any way we can see a vid of the final build in action?

[jdbailey1206]

Nice DK cab.  LCD doesnt look bad behind the plexi either... What paint codes did you use for your blue??

I ran this pic to my local Sherwin-Williams store and the color that came back was amazing.  Thanks for the numbers Chopper.  Haven't applied it to my cab yet but the sample on the top of the can was such a vibrant blue.  Couldn't be more satisfied.   

[chopperthedog]

I've been keeping an eye out for parts to make a nice mint control panel for the last 6 months. My first panel annoyed me from day one. I spent way to much time sanding and bondo'ing over and over to rebuild the front edge that eventually got all got F'd up when I put the tmolding in. So I had this awesome looking machine with a crappy front edge on the control panel that I couldn't unsee.



First panel and the craptastic edge that was consitant across the whole front.



Got a rough populated DK panel for cheap. Joystick base was junk, blue buttons had some bad burns. But for the wood, cp bolts, blue buttons and all switches and wiring it was well worth it.



This panel saw more sun than a hawaiian tropic model.



The black under the overlay even had image burn.



I scored a very nice early overlay that doesn't have coryright or trademark logos. The colors look great on it compaired to the sun bleached one. Like any original DK overlay it was riddled with cigarette burns that discolored the plexi.



More burns. The area above the player one button was burned bad. I suck for not taking a before shot of that area.



Picked up the Maguiar's headlight polish kit. After a couple hours of wet sanding and buffing, the cig burns and wear marks are gone and the overlay looks stunning. Blue buttons look amazing after wet sanding and polishing.



I peeled the top ply off of the panel I bought since it was beyond working with and refinished the top off with black laminate. It came out perfect.



Looks sweet installed and the perfect compliment to the no copyright bezel that originally came with the cab. After many many near misses over the last 6 months I finally found an original gold/orange DK jump button and it should be in next week.


good day.

[Gatsu]

I've always had a soft spot for the DK & DK Jr. Cabs. Love the overall vibe & coolness factor of the cabs.

Did a damn good job man. Looks shmexy! 

[jmike]

Chopper that looks great!!!!!   

I'm right there with you on looking for parts.
Been collecting parts for a FFJr cab for the last couple of weeks.


 

[talkgeek]

I've always had a soft spot for the DK & DK Jr. Cabs. Love the overall vibe & coolness factor of the cabs.

Did a damn good job man. Looks shmexy! 

+1 

really got to get me one of these, but in this country will have to be a scratch build, no chance of finding one for restro 

[chopperthedog]

Thanks guys!!!! DK, space invaders and defender were my 3 fav cabs for overall badass vibe as a young lad, even if I didn't have a quarter I would still watch the attract while dad bowled.










Finally! A real deal Donkey Kong orange button. Looks, feels, plays and sounds perfect.



Mike's "repro" isn't even on the same planet as the original.

Figured I'd have some fun with my original panel and create a better multigame panel by adding a second button and mounting a new joystick. The arcadeSD allows you create multiple SD cards with different game lists. I've got one card that has all 6 variations of Kong offered to go along with the "new" original panel and a second card that has everything else that supports 8way or 4way and 2 buttons for the multigame panel.



Snagged a very nice Monroe joystick through the klov bst section. Very unique and smooth stick that will fit in nicely with time pilot and many other games.


I top mounted the Monroe under the plexi and widened the hole to accommodate the center stem on the stick.


I didn't even care where the second button ended up. I used the same spacing distance used on a Nintendo vs panel.


Under pic of the multigame panel. Over the last year or so I tried 5 different "newer" design sticks in the center position and in the end the 4 way wico won and put them all to shame.


good day.

[Slippyblade]

Sooo, wait.  Let me get this straight.  You went through all the trouble of sourcing original DK parts and an original DK overlay.  Went insane doing the sanding and polishing to restore said original components to nearly new condition...

AND THEN DRILLED INTO THEM TO MOUNT A SECOND JOY AND AN EXTRA BUTTON?!?!?!

Am I reading this correctly?

[Le Chuck]

No, I think he's got two different panels, one original with the correct orange button and the other is now a multi-panel that he can switch out.  Right?

[chopperthedog]

Ha Ha, sorry if there was any confusion. Yes I now have 2 panels.




The multigame panel with repro overlay is what I originally started off with when this thread first started. Since I pulled the DK stick from it I figured I'd add the second button and mount the monroe stick so that I could at least enjoy some of the other games supported by the arcadeSD. The "true" DK panel was restored using old parts gathered over the last 6 months. Each panel has it's own corresponding SD card that gets swapped out when the panels are switched.


good day.

[Slippyblade]

The multigame panel with repro overlay is what I originally started off with when this thread first started. Since I pulled the DK stick from it I figured I'd add the second button and mount the monroe stick so that I could at least enjoy some of the other games supported by the arcadeSD. The "true" DK panel was restored using old parts gathered over the last 6 months. Each panel has it's own corresponding SD card that gets swapped out when the panels are switched.

Whew!  You kinda freaked me out there.  I'm not a KLOV level "Don't maim for MAME" kind of guy but still got a bit upset there.  Good job on the restore though!