Micro Coleco Donkey Kong Tabletop [FINISHED]

[vwalbridge]

This is going to be my 2nd arcade build. You can see my first Mini Donkey Kong build here: Mini Donkey Kong

So what should I do for my 2nd build? Well...make Donkey Kong even smaller of course! I will be building a Micro Donkey Kong Coleco tabletop this time.

I want to make sure I give proper credit to those who inspired me to do this build:

Vidiot - His awesome Relic build found here: Relic Relic Coleco Tabletop

And...

nhenry1647 - His fantastic Coleco Pac-man Mame system found here: Coleco Pac-Man Mame

For me, these guys started it all so everything I do in my build, I'm giving credit to them. I might even steal a few ideas from each of them. Hopfully they don't mind!

Here is where I'll try to be different: I'm going to try and get Hyperspin stuffed into this thing.

Well here she is. Found this broken Donkey Kong Coleco on eBay for $35. These little guys are getting a bit expensive...even the broken ones!


As you can tell, it is in bad shape. Joystick broken off. Decals are faded and peeling off. Battery cover is missing. Battery terminals are totally rusted out and it doesn't power on. But that's fine because this thing is going to get totally overhauled.


I disassembled the entire machine:


De-soldered the main board from the battery terminals:


Removed all the decals:


You can see how badly the plastic discolored over 30 years. The edges almost turned green:

[yotsuya]

I'm surprised you're not going the Pi route. Or that no one has rabidly insisted you go the Pi route. 

[vwalbridge]

I'm surprised you're not going the Pi route. Or that no one has rabidly insisted you go the Pi route. 

Hi yotsuya!  Yes, looking back, the Pi would have been easier but I always wanted to see Hyperspin on something really small. It has been a real challenge to say the least. 

Found 4.3 inch HDMI LCD screen from eBay. Looks like it will fit perfectly:


I also took apart my joystick to replace the switches with micro leaf switches just like Vidiot. The stock switches click way to loud:

[yotsuya]

I like the way you think, brother! 

[vwalbridge]

I like the way you think, brother! 

Thanks yotsuya!  I think the challenge of this build has been worth it.

I wanted to see if I could power my LCD screen from USB so I found and old power plug and USB cable. I then stripped the ends off. (The green and white cables on the USB are not needed here). I just needed to match up the black and red cables.


However, the power plug I have didn't have colors so I have to use my volt meter to determine the polarity. Turns out the inside of the barrel plug was red and the outside was black:


Twisted all the wires together, plugged the USB cable into my laptop and boom!...it turns on! This makes it really easy to power my micro cab because now I only have to worry about powering the computer. Everything else will power over USB.

[vwalbridge]

Working on my joystick and case. (all the credit goes to Vidiot for the Joystick idea...thanks!):

I center punched the ball top for my joystick:


Then wrapped it with tape so that my pliers didn't scratch it while I drilled it. Started with the smallest drill bit I had and worked my way up:


I drilled out a few if these so that I can test paint on them. I think that I'll just epoxy the ball top on when ready.


I also used my dremel to cut away the battery chamber on the Coleco base. Surprised how easy that was to remove. I was really worried that was going to difficult:

[vwalbridge]

Removed the unnecessary posts from the upper-inside of the cab to make as much room as possible:


Cut out a piece of Kydex to become the new control panel surface:


Used a plastic scoring knife to cut out the marquee:


Cut the opening for the 4.3 inch LCD screen:


The opening for the marquee. This took some patience to ensure that I didn't crack the bottom edge:


Measured for the exact width of the existing bezel plastic:


Rounded the corners and the new bezel plastic fits right in:


I also cut out the new marquee plastic. This was really hard. I couldn't really trace anything so I had to cut it by eye and sand the edges like crazy:


I also threw in a picture of my current work space. I can't believe how many parts and tools this little project requires! You will notice the NES30 controller on the table...I'll be integrating that into this build. 

[vwalbridge]

For the brains of the arcade, I'm using a Zotac Pi320. It normally looks like this:


But I have de-cased it and it now it looks like this. (It's about the size of an iPhone 4. It's amazing this thing runs Windows 8.1  Quite frankly, I wish it didn't because I really love win7 better. I had to make MAJOR changes to get win8 to behave the way I like it. )


For my sound setup, I'm using a 5v potentiometer. So I could easily strip down a USB cable and solder the power from that to the potentiometer. I also soldered up a speaker and the mini-plug. It sounds pretty good and loud enough but I'm getting some background static. There is a GROUND pin-out on the potentiometer so maybe I need to use that. This potentiometer actually supports 2 speakers! Not sure how "stereo" it will sound in such a small space but I guess I might as well use them both.


Here is my artwork. Very happy with it! Big thanks to BYOAC member lucian045 for printing it!


I couldn't find motherboard stand-offs small enough for my computer so I had to go to my local hardware store and find some screws that were small enough. However, I needed to slightly drill out the existing holes on the board to accommodate them. I had to be super careful doing this.


The screws lift up the board just the right amount and give it a stable platform


Here it is inside the Coleco shell. I needed it raised up so that i clears the cut edge of the existing battery chamber.

[vwalbridge]

Working on my backlit marquee. Applied glue to the back of the marquee:


Pressed aluminium foil to the glue:


Cut the edges of the aluminium foil off:


My LED strip already had adhesive material on the back so I just stuck it down:


I then used epoxy to glue the 2 sides behind the marquee. Turns out a roll off electrical tape and a rubics cube were the perfect weight to hold it in place.   


Here is it is glued in place:


I then spliced an opening in the power line so as to fit it inside the case:


Ran it down the inside edge. I'll just hot glue it in place back there.


It will slide through this opening in the face-plate nicely.


I also started working on my joystick and soldering in the ground wires. I first needed to bend the pins over. I need make as much room as possible inside.


Here is most of the stuff that needs to fit inside. It's going to be a very tight fit indeed. You can see the illuminated marquee down there. It's so bright that you can see the light bleeding through the sides! Luckily the artwork will cover most of that. You can also see Hyperspin already up and running on the screen.


My first coat of paint has gone on pretty well. I was nervous to paint plastic. I've never done it before but this new plastic paint is really looking good so far:


Peeled away the tape on my marquee.


That Frog Tape did a good job keeping the paint from bleeding:


Painted control panel:


Roughly assembled:


Control switches. (I put 3 layers of paint on these and then realized it started to gum-up the movement. I might need to paint another set and tape them off this time)


Joystick ball top. This has been a royal PAIN to paint. The wood soaked up all the paint on the first 2 coats. I'm on coat number 4 right now and will still need to do another 4 at least. Then I will clear coat it.

[BorgDog]

Awesome little project!  I couldn't wait so headed over to bartopmainia and read it there 

[vwalbridge]

Awesome little project!  I couldn't wait so headed over to bartopmainia and read it there 

Thanks BorgDog! Appreciate the compliments! I see that you have built a mini pin. I've always wanted to do that. Definitely need to read your build thread.

[vwalbridge]

I heard mixed results with Krylon so I ended up going with the Rust-oleum brand paint. This stuff is legit. Sprays so clean and leave a very smooth finish. I'll be using the "Clear" can to give my buttons and joystick ball a nice clear protective layer.


I've been spending an unhealthy amount of time thinking about how I'm going to run horizontal games on this micro vertical screen.     It's a bit complicated because Windows 8.1 needs to run un-rotated, while my vertical themes are rotated 90 degrees. Thus, I needed to create my own NES horizontal theme for Hyperspin. Here is a screenshot below. It's like iTunes coverflow with box art on the bottom with a video preview on top. That's it. No text, no directions, no silly animations. Just find the game and it loads the video preview. This will allow me to have a Vertical FE that organizes horizontal games. I feel like a Hyperspin Jedi now!


Soldered the wires to my joystick. You will notice I also put some heat-shrink tubing around the solder connections. They are pretty delicate so that tubing really helps. I LOVE shrink tubing.


I've needed to make my own USB cables for this build and some need to curve at strange angles. When shrink tubing cools, it retains its shape. Here is the USB cable for my mini ipac bent at the angle I needed


Put some black electrical tape around the inside edge of the bezel. This will prevent any blue color from showing on the edges of the screen.


Applied the bezel artwork to my bezel lexan


Here it is in comparison to the real thing. You can see how much wider the screen is on mine. I had to Photoshop the snot out of it to get it to fit but still look as original as possible.


Soldering up my 3 admin buttons and attaching them with the joystick to my mini ipac for button testing. All the buttons appear to be working! My joystick ball took 8 coats of high gloss white and 2 coats of clear coat.


Hot glued my 4.3 inch LCD to the back of the bezel. I didn't go overboard with the glue. Just tacked it down in some strategic places.


I screwed the bolts onto my stand-off screws about 1/2 cm down. Then pushed them in through the bottom and tacked them in place with hot glue.


I then flipped the board over and hot glued the protruding portion into place. I couldn't just use the same bolts on the top side because there were parts of the board in the way. The final result is a home made stand for my compute to rest on. The hot side of the board is on the buttom so it will help with air-flow. Lifting it up also helps save room on the inside because it lifts it up above the edge of the battery door.


I also tacked my minipac into place and connected it via USB.


Now that I have my LCD mounted, I need to figure out where to put its control board. It has a rather large and in-flexible ribbon cable that is going to make it difficult to put anywhere but exactly inline with the connector port. I think that I have a pretty good idea the only way it will fit in there but it's going to require some strategic hot glue placement.


Finished wiring up the control board for my LCD screen. The power for the LCD comes out the left side there and then combines with the power coming from the LEDs in the marquee on the right. The are soldered together and will plug into one USB port on the computer.  The HDMI port is easily accessible. (The gold square in the middle) I had to fold my ribbon cable twice to get it to all fit in there. Then just hot glued it down.


I needed to restore Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity to the computer and the antenna was embedded in the top shell of the computer case. So I used a razor blade to pry it off:


I was careful to take all the copper tape with it as well. I assume this helps with signal strength:


I then reattached it to the computer and glued it on top of the cmos battery. It's not pretty but it will work. (I put some electrical tape on the bottom of the copper to keep it from shorting anything out.

[vwalbridge]

I took some really strong carpet tape and applied it to the back of my control panel.


Then cut off the excess


Peeled off the backing and stuck it into place. The nice thing about this carpet tape is that is is VERY sticky but also very thin. Almost like a membrane. It doesn't add any thickness


If you look at the side of my joystick, you can see that it doesn't sit flat. There is a black collar in the middle that protrudes up. I need to level that out so that I have something flat to glue to the under-side of the control panel


So I cut out 2 small squares of kydex plastic and glued them together. Then drilled a hole in the center the same diameter of the black collar.


Put it over the top and glued it into place


Now the joystick has a flush mounting surface.


I also needed a flush mounting surface on the under-side of the control panel. I simply filled the original coleco holes with self-leveling epoxy


Drilled the button holes in my control panel. I was very worried about this step because I didn't want to tear the decal.


However, I used a unibit and top-layer tape and it protected the decal


I was also very pleased how well the epoxy held up on the back. Especially between the two "jump" buttons on the left.


It took me nearly 2 hours to drill 6 holes because I was being so careful.


I had a very hard time finding some buttons I liked and finally settled on these. The are a bit smaller than a NES A and B button but at least they are white to match my Joystick....at least I thought they would be. Unfortunately, after I painted my joystick ball, I realized how opaque or off-white these buttons really were.


So I popped the button tops off and just sprayed them the same high-gloss white as my joystick ball. My OCD just wasn't having it!


Installed my 3 admin buttons. I decided to just use big globs of hot glue. It's not pretty but it appears to get the job done. These buttons are so tiny I had to use tweezers to hold them in place while the glue cooled.


My middle button is a bit twisted and tilted. I might have to re-mount that one. That's the great thing about hot glue, I can just peel it off and start over. If the hot glue doesn't work long-term, then I'll use epoxy. I was just too timid to commit to something permanent just yet.


I also glued down my joystick. Used hot glue here too. Just applied it to contacting surfaces and around the edges. Seems to be holding pretty good.


So far so good on the top side. I think the last step here is to mount the joystick ball. I didn't include a "START" button for two reasons:

1. A 4th admin button was not going to fit very well with my layout
2. I didn't think I would need it

...Well I'm starting to wish I had included a START button because I'm doing some semi-complex Hyperspin configurations and my life would be so much easier if I had. Oh, well...I think of something.


Marked the spots to drill holes for power, volume knob, and power button. Another job for the Unibit.


The Unibit does such a great job drilling holes in plastic. It makes a perfectly sized hole and doesn't "bite" into the plastic like a regular drill bit. Leaving a perfectly round and smooth hole.


A view of the inside with the input components


A view from the outside with all the inputs installed


Soldered in the power cord


I wanted to be able to fully remove the computer from the Coleco if I needed to. So I found some very small wire "Quick Disconnects" and soldered them in-line with the power button.


Here it is inside the case.


Adhered the bottom instructions and battery warning decal. Also put on some new rubber feet. Just used some left-over cabinet/drawer liner material.


Testing all my control panel buttons with my MINIPAC.  I bought the MINIPAC used on ebay months ago and never tested it when I first received it. Luckily it works but the owner before me never bothered to mention that he had completely re-mapped all the inputs. It took me 2 hours just to figure out what was going on and another hour to find the proper software to set it back to default inputs.   


Placed a little tape around the top edge of the joystick


Then pressed the ball top down. The tape provided just enough thickness to hold down the ball top but not so much that I could never get it back off if I needed to.


I also used some shrink tubing to bundle some of the wires together. This will make it easier to plug everything in when I close it up. Also keeps everything from getting tangled.


I've been doing a lot of system configuration and testing now. And while doing so, I noticed that this computer can get very hot at times. As we all know, emulating is very taxing on the CPU so the heat goes up. This little computer relies 100% on passive cooling so I picked some tiny copper heat sinks and stuck them to the bottom of the computer. I didn't think they would do much but I thought "what the heck I"ll give it a try" I was shocked how much they helped. They lowered the temp dramatically and now I don't need to worry.


I'm finally done configuring the software and getting it to all work properly with my hardware. WOW, I spent a lot of time working on the software but I think it's finally where I want it. I'm just about ready to close up the case so here is one final look on the inside. (I should have some pictures and video of the completed project soon)

Top half:


Bottom half:

[yotsuya]

I must have missed it - what's the CPU?

[vwalbridge]

I must have missed it - what's the CPU?

Here are the quick specs of the Zotac zbox pi320

- Atom Z3735F Quad Core (1.33 GHz)
- 2GB DDR3 32GB eMMC SSD
- Windows 8.1 32-bit  (Yes it's bold on purpose, and good luck getting Windows 7 64 bit on it with a 32bit UEFI bios)
- Intel HD Graphics
- 10/100 LAN
- 3 USB Ports
- 1 headphone jack
- 1 micro SD/SDHC/SDXC slot
- HDMI video out
- Integrated WiFi and Bluetooth

[tomstewdevine]

.....Or that no one has rabidly insisted you go the Pi route. 

 

[yotsuya]

Vwalbridge is my new homeboy. 

[tomstewdevine]

This is really a cool build, nice work.

[JimmyU]

I like it. I've always thought about putting a microcomputer into one of these.

[dmckean]

- Windows 8.1 32-bit  (Yes it's bold on purpose, and good luck getting Windows 7 64 bit on it with a 32bit UEFI bios)

Is that the with BING version or did you install another version?

[vwalbridge]

- Windows 8.1 32-bit  (Yes it's bold on purpose, and good luck getting Windows 7 64 bit on it with a 32bit UEFI bios)

Is that the with BING version or did you install another version?

You are correct. It's the BING version. Funny too, that's literally the only difference...it comes with BING as the default search provider in IE. 

[vwalbridge]

Vwalbridge is my new homeboy.

[yotsuya]

Vwalbridge is my new homeboy.

In all seriousness,  I commend you for taking a broken device and breathing new life into it instead of gutting a perfectly working one. Some of us still have fond memories of those.

[vwalbridge]

This is really a cool build, nice work.

Thanks tomstewdevine! Appreciate the compliment!

[vwalbridge]

I like it. I've always thought about putting a microcomputer into one of these.

Thanks JimmU!  I wish that I could say I was the first to have this idea but there we a couple of guys that did it before me.   

[vwalbridge]

In all seriousness,  I commend you for taking a broken device and breathing new life into it instead of gutting a perfectly working one. Some of us still have fond memories of those.

Thanks yotsuya! I agree, there was no way I was going to rip apart a perfectly good working unit. That is a "no-no" among collectors. These little guys are part of video game history and I was glad to breath new life into a broken one.

[05SRT4]

Sweet build man  I have always been a huge fan of the mini builds.

[danny_galaga]

Very tidy, Very jealous.

Top work!

[vwalbridge]

Sweet build man  I have always been a huge fan of the mini builds.

Thanks for your compliments. I see that you did a micro MK build. Very, very cool. I need to check that out in detail.

[vwalbridge]

Very tidy, Very jealous.

Top work!

Thanks for the kind words! Can't wait to show everyone the final product in action.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Wow! What a great and interesting project 

[dkssprs]

Absolutely lovable!!!

The result will be like it was made from a real manufacturer.

Keep up the good work.

Oh and a question i always had. How its called the green with white lines board on your desk? 

[Le Chuck]

A lot of projects lately haven't been getting me excited.  They're very nice but nothing has been grabbing me.  This project totally has its hooks in and won't let go of me.  Great looking little build, fun execution, and gives me lots of ideas I don't have time for!  All the things a great project should do!! Well done man.

[stigzler]

Loving this. Can't wait to see it running. With those specs it could maybe manage PSX/N64 emulation?? Donkey Kong 64 on that badboy

[yotsuya]

A lot of projects lately haven't been getting me excited.  They're very nice but nothing has been grabbing me.  This project totally has its hooks in and won't let go of me.  Great looking little build, fun execution, and gives me lots of ideas I don't have time for!  All the things a great project should do!! Well done man.

You complete me, bro.

[vwalbridge]

Absolutely lovable!!!

The result will be like it was made from a real manufacturer.

Keep up the good work.

Oh and a question i always had. How its called the green with white lines board on your desk?

Thanks for your compliment! I really tried to make it look as much like a real product as I could.

It's an Alvin self-healing cuttin mat. Great surface for projects like these where cutting is frequent. You can find all sizes here:

http://www.amazon.com/Alvin-Professional--Self-Healing-Cutting/dp/B0015AOIYI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433122408&sr=8-1&keywords=self+healing+cutting+mat

[ChanceKJ]

  This thing is fantastic!!

[emphatic]

Really mindblowing build!

[vwalbridge]

Loving this. Can't wait to see it running. With those specs it could maybe manage PSX/N64 emulation?? Donkey Kong 64 on that badboy

I really tried to get N64 to run. However, it only ran games at about 50fps with some audio stutter. I'm using retroarch with mupen64plus. I might try project 64 later.

[vwalbridge]

Really mindblowing build!

This thing is fantastic!!

Thanks you both for you kind comments! Really appreciate it! Final photos of the project coming soon.

[yotsuya]

I really tried to get N64 to run. However, it only ran games at about 50fps with some audio stutter. I'm using retroarch with mupen64plus. I might try project 64 later.

Just stick with the vertical arcade stuff. The project is great as is, no need to shoehorn other stuff in just because.

[vwalbridge]

Here are the final photos of my project. I hope you all enjoy. A big THANK YOU to everyone who followed my build and commented on my project. This is a great community and I had just as much fun sharing it with everyone as I did building it.

A YouTube video of it in action is inbound in the next day or so!

[DeLuSioNal29]

This thing looks great!  Congrats!  Can't wait to see the video.   

DeLuSioNaL29

[JimmyU]

Very neat! Has anybody written a simulator for those Coleco VFD games? It would be awesome to see this play the game it was made to play.

[yotsuya]

Of all the Nintendo-related projects I've seen, this one is by far the best. It is both creative and innovative, and best yet, you didn't butcher a working device. As stated, you gave new life to something that easily could have been tossed out as non-working. Good for you! 

[8BitMonk]

Nice work, this turned out great! Looking forward to the video to see it in action.

[vwalbridge]

This thing looks great!  Congrats!  Can't wait to see the video.   

DeLuSioNaL29

Thanks! Can't wait to show everyone how it works.

Of all the Nintendo-related projects I've seen, this one is by far the best. It is both creative and innovative, and best yet, you didn't butcher a working device. As stated, you gave new life to something that easily could have been tossed out as non-working. Good for you! 

Thanks you so much! I really tried to pay respect to the original by restoring it to something new yet keeping it as original as possible at the same time.

Nice work, this turned out great! Looking forward to the video to see it in action.

Thanks! Hopfully I'll have the video posted here tomorrow.

[vwalbridge]

Very neat! Has anybody written a simulator for those Coleco VFD games? It would be awesome to see this play the game it was made to play.

Yes! You are one step ahead of me.    There are simulators for these old VFD games. There is a SUPER smart guy out there painstakingly writing the code for each one individually. These simulators are not like emulators where you can write one emulator for hundres of games. No, he has to write the simulator from the ground up for EACH one. And they are FREE no less. It's an amazing process and involves him literally scanning in each sprite. They can be found here:

http://www.madrigaldesign.it/sim/

I have included 2 of these simulators (one is the original coleco DK) in my cab but they don't run full screen. I have already contacted the deveoper asking if he could write a special version for me but he was too busy at the time and it's difficult to make changes. I'm hoping he reconsiders when he sees my build! The guy is really smart and I'm hoping he enjoys what I did. I have sure enjoyed what he has done.

[emphatic]

Looks fantastic! How is it for playing the games? I can't imagine it's very comfortable for longer sessions?

[vwalbridge]

Looks fantastic! How is it for playing the games? I don't imaging it's very comfortable for longer sessions?

Thanks! I haven't played for a long duration on it yet but you are correct. I can imagine it not being very comfortable the longer you play on it. The joystick sits a little tall so you kinda need to keep your left hand raised up to use it. There is nowhere to really rest your palms. It's also extremely difficult to find good buttons this small. So the ones I finally found are a little on the "mushy" side. The good news is that I don't have to press them down the full distance to register. Only about half.

So...because of all the above, I decided to pair that bluetooth NES30 controller to it. Obviously much more comfortable and also allows me to play games on it that require more buttons like SNES games. Overall, it's very playable. In fact, while I was testing it, I was so engaged in some Megaman 2 I forgot what I was checking to test for in the first place! I got lost in the gaming!

[reptileink]

This is such a cool build! I love re-purposing what normal people may have sold for $5 at a yard sale back in the day..lol.

I just found a "lot" on Craigslist for Frogger, Pac Man, and Qbert for $50, but I don't have half the skills as you do to mod them all. Very cool!

[vwalbridge]

This is such a cool build! I love re-purposing what normal people may have sold for $5 at a yard sale back in the day..lol.

I just found a "lot" on Craigslist for Frogger, Pac Man, and Qbert for $50, but I don't have half the skills as you do to mod them all. Very cool!

Whoa!    I would be all over that. If they are in good condition, they normally go for over $50 EACH on eBay. Great Little pieces of gaming history.

You are lucky. I'm always on Craigslist and nobody ever seems to post anything cool like that in my area.

[stigzler]

Truly fab. Congrats on a great project - one of me faves.

[reptileink]

This is such a cool build! I love re-purposing what normal people may have sold for $5 at a yard sale back in the day..lol.

I just found a "lot" on Craigslist for Frogger, Pac Man, and Qbert for $50, but I don't have half the skills as you do to mod them all. Very cool!

Whoa!    I would be all over that. If they are in good condition, they normally go for over $50 EACH on eBay. Great Little pieces of gaming history.

You are lucky. I'm always on Craigslist and nobody ever seems to post anything cool like that in my area.

Sadly, it's about an hour and a half drive away, so not really worth the time/trouble to go grab them. He might ship them, but that would probably cost $50 itself. He also doesn't state if they are working or not. I just checkd too, and now it's up to $100 firm, he must have looked around for prices.

[vwalbridge]

This is such a cool build! I love re-purposing what normal people may have sold for $5 at a yard sale back in the day..lol.

I just found a "lot" on Craigslist for Frogger, Pac Man, and Qbert for $50, but I don't have half the skills as you do to mod them all. Very cool!

Whoa!    I would be all over that. If they are in good condition, they normally go for over $50 EACH on eBay. Great Little pieces of gaming history.

You are lucky. I'm always on Craigslist and nobody ever seems to post anything cool like that in my area.

Sadly, it's about an hour and a half drive away, so not really worth the time/trouble to go grab them. He might ship them, but that would probably cost $50 itself. He also doesn't state if they are working or not. I just checkd too, and now it's up to $100 firm, he must have looked around for prices.

The Q*bert is best of that bunch. Frogger would be great if it was in good condition and the pac-man one is in great condition but not as rare. I agree, not worth it for $100.   Especially for the drive and not knowing if they even work. Funny, the owner raised his/her price after doing their homework.

I've always loved Q*bert. And I've always wanted to do something cool with the Q*bert tabletop but I can never find one broken and beat up enough. Even If i could find a broken one, I'd feel too bad about modifying it and would feel way too obligated to restore it as original.

[Vigo]

Great build!  I had tron and donkey kong as a kid, and later acquired a zaxxon. This brings back memories, I can still hear those plucky tapletop DK sounds in my head.  Very tasteful.

[Wyo]

Very cool!  Now THAT is a DK tabletop!   

[vwalbridge]

Great build!  I had tron and donkey kong as a kid, and later acquired a zaxxon. This brings back memories, I can still hear those plucky tapletop DK sounds in my head.  Very tasteful.

Thanks Vigo! These tabletops do bring back some fond memories. The Zaxxon one was crazy huge!   And YES, that "plucky' DK sound is so distinct and unique.

[vwalbridge]

Very cool!  Now THAT is a DK tabletop!   

Thanks Wyo! I'll have video of it in action posted today.

[yotsuya]

Looks fantastic! How is it for playing the games? I don't imaging it's very comfortable for longer sessions?

Thanks! I haven't played for a long duration on it yet but you are correct. I can imagine it not being very comfortable the longer you play on it. The joystick sits a little tall so you kinda need to keep your left hand raised up to use it. There is nowhere to really rest your palms. It's also extremely difficult to find good buttons this small. So the ones I finally found are a little on the "mushy" side. The good news is that I don't have to press them down the full distance to register. Only about half.

So...because of all the above, I decided to pair that bluetooth NES30 controller to it. Obviously much more comfortable and also allows me to play games on it that require more buttons like SNES games. Overall, it's very playable. In fact, while I was testing it, I was so engaged in some Megaman 2 I forgot what I was checking to test for in the first place! I got lost in the gaming!

I was thinking, even if this only played the original arcade Donkey Kong and nothing else, it would still be an outstanding project.

[Vidiot]

This turned out so great! Outstanding job. Looks so clean and well finished! Extra points for using something other than a Raspberry Pi. I was wondering how that lil computer handles Hyperspin.

[vwalbridge]

This turned out so great! Outstanding job. Looks so clean and well finished! Extra points for using something other than a Raspberry Pi. I was wondering how that lil computer handles Hyperspin.

Thanks you so much Vidiot. Everyone following my build should know that all my inspiration came from your Coleco build! If you had not done yours...I would have never done mine. THANK YOU!

...and as promised, here is the video of it in action.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Great project, interesting video and a fantastic result. Looks like a lot of work putting the emulation/simulation/interface/controller together. Excellent. 

[Ond]

I just found this and it brought a big smile to my dial  .  Love your work 

[JimmyU]

Hey look what I found! It looks like you can run those Coleco tabletop games in Mame:
Haze even had a brief description on how to get it running in MAME 0.162. Since it's MAME, I'm sure you can run it full screen vertical.

[Vigo]

Hey look what I found! It looks like you can run those Coleco tabletop games in Mame:
Haze even had a brief description on how to get it running in MAME 0.162. Since it's MAME, I'm sure you can run it full screen vertical.

  That is awesome!

[vwalbridge]

I just found this and it brought a big smile to my dial  .  Love your work 

  Thanks! Really makes me happy that enjoyed my build.

[vwalbridge]

Hey look what I found! It looks like you can run those Coleco tabletop games in Mame:
Haze even had a brief description on how to get it running in MAME 0.162. Since it's MAME, I'm sure you can run it full screen vertical.

  That is awesome!

Holy moly! This is so rad. How in the world did I miss this during all 6 months of my build. Thank you so much for posting this. I'm literally going to check this out and test it right now. I'll be sure to post my results! Once again, thanks for digging this up and sharing it. Crazy I never discovered this before 

[Vigo]

I think you only "missed it" because it is pretty fresh news. Only available since the release of mame 0.161, which came out at end of April. This is a new addition I think a lot of us were unaware of.

[Vigo]

For those interested, I started a thread with a list of the tabletops/handhelds added to mame, rather than derail this thread.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,145733.0.html

[JimmyU]

You're welcome man. If I can make your already awesome build 1% more awesome, then I've done my job. It was weird how it happened. I was reading an article Haze wrote about how they're combining MAME with MESS and he just happened to use Donkey Kong as an example of all the ports that you can now run in MAME and one the of the ports was Coleco tabletop version. Apparently, they were able to dump the MCU so it's an actual emulation rather than a simulation.

[dmckean]

Hey look what I found! It looks like you can run those Coleco tabletop games in Mame:
Haze even had a brief description on how to get it running in MAME 0.162. Since it's MAME, I'm sure you can run it full screen vertical.

Now we're going to need new HLSL settings to mimic vacuum fluorescent displays.

[vwalbridge]

You're welcome man. If I can make your already awesome build 1% more awesome, then I've done my job. It was weird how it happened. I was reading an article Haze wrote about how they're combining MAME with MESS and he just happened to use Donkey Kong as an example of all the ports that you can now run in MAME and one the of the ports was Coleco tabletop version. Apparently, they were able to dump the MCU so it's an actual emulation rather than a simulation.

I checked this out last night and it's amazing how far along this is. They already have over 70 handhelds emulated. Some better than others but it is an amazingly good start. Another fascinating person figuring out how to reverse engineer hardwired chips. The Coleco DK one emulates pretty good but some of the movements are a little slow to react and some movements don't even register. But heck...I'll take it! And I"m sure it will only get better.

Hey look what I found! It looks like you can run those Coleco tabletop games in Mame:
Haze even had a brief description on how to get it running in MAME 0.162. Since it's MAME, I'm sure you can run it full screen vertical.

Now we're going to need new HLSL settings to mimic vacuum fluorescent displays.

I love a guy that thinks ahead like me.    I have some old yet really nice HLSL "glow" effects that I have tried to use on these games to get that same VFD effect. But it wasn't working. Then it occured to me that HLSL settings will probably never work with these games because they use static artwork files to move the sprites around the screen. So HLSL settings can't be applied to static art files. But hey...this is already 100% more than I thought was ever possible!

[vwalbridge]

Well, I couldn't help myself and decided to poke around and realized I might be able to apply some sudo VFD effects. So I opened one of the artwork files and changed the top level of the ladders to a more yellow color. (I don't know why they made them gray-ish. The original is more yellow. So...If I spend enough time in photosphop, I might be able to make my own "glow" effects. 



Also, sorry. Someone please tell me if this should be on Vigo's new MAME emulating tabletop/handheld gaming thread : http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,145733.0.html

[mgb]

This is a cool little project here.
Very nicely executed.

[vwalbridge]

Here is an updated video of my tabletop. Now with original Coleco VFD games!

(Skip ahead to about 4:30 to see them in action)

[DeLuSioNal29]

Fantastic!  The video was very well done. (As was this project). Congrats!

D

[markrvp]

I absolutely love this!!!  I wanted one of those so bad when I was a kid.  Way to improve it ;-)

[reptileink]

This is such a cool build! I love re-purposing what normal people may have sold for $5 at a yard sale back in the day..lol.

I just found a "lot" on Craigslist for Frogger, Pac Man, and Qbert for $50, but I don't have half the skills as you do to mod them all. Very cool!

Whoa!    I would be all over that. If they are in good condition, they normally go for over $50 EACH on eBay. Great Little pieces of gaming history.

You are lucky. I'm always on Craigslist and nobody ever seems to post anything cool like that in my area.

Sadly, it's about an hour and a half drive away, so not really worth the time/trouble to go grab them. He might ship them, but that would probably cost $50 itself. He also doesn't state if they are working or not. I just checkd too, and now it's up to $100 firm, he must have looked around for prices.

Still available, and now dropped to $85....so tempting

[Knievel]

Love this, really nice work..and looks a lot of it!
Would love to have one myself but I don't think I'm up to the challenge.

When I was a young lad Santa brought these to nearly every kid on the block one Christmas.
I've collected a handful of them mostly for display purposes and I cherish them.

[aldub516]

damn dude.. that is such a damn cool project. Maximum props!

[vwalbridge]

Fantastic!  The video was very well done. (As was this project). Congrats!

Thank you so much for you kind words. Glad you liked the video too. I really love it when builders demonstrate their creations in video. It's great to see then in action no matter how simple or sophisticated they are.

I absolutely love this!!!  I wanted one of those so bad when I was a kid.  Way to improve it ;-)

Thank you again! Glad you like it.  I didn't know a lot of people that had them as a kid. But if you did, then you were a pretty cool kid!

Love this, really nice work..and looks a lot of it!
Would love to have one myself but I don't think I'm up to the challenge.

When I was a young lad Santa brought these to nearly every kid on the block one Christmas.
I've collected a handful of them mostly for display purposes and I cherish them.

Thank you for you compliments! They are great little collectors items. Don't ever let them go. They are just great pieces of gaming history.

damn dude.. that is such a damn cool project. Maximum props!

Thanks! It means a lot to get compliments from such great builders on this forum. After seeing so many stunning builds here, it's hard not to pour yourself into your own build.

[Bender]

Really nice work! 

You implemented a lot of things I've just been thinking about so beatifully
Might have to pick your brain on some of it when I get started on a new project
In the meantime I have a couple of questions

What type of joystick you are using?

What were the major things you had to overcome with windows 8?

Thanks and again fantastic work
Looks like it's a blast to play
I can only imagine how my little mind would have been blown if what you made was what coleco actually released back in the day!

[Nephasth]

First I've seen this. Very cool! Excellent work!

[vwalbridge]

Really nice work! 

You implemented a lot of things I've just been thinking about so beatifully
Might have to pick your brain on some of it when I get started on a new project
In the meantime I have a couple of questions

What type of joystick you are using?

What were the major things you had to overcome with windows 8?

Thanks and again fantastic work
Looks like it's a blast to play
I can only imagine how my little mind would have been blown if what you made was what coleco actually released back in the day!

Thanks Bender! Appreciate the compliments.

The Joystick I used is conveniently available on Amazon. Pretty sweet little joystick because you can actually swap out the switches for Micro-Leaf switches from Groovy Game Gear. The stock switches were a bit too loud and clicky for me. (This idea originally came from BYOAC member Vidiot. (Just want to make sure I give him credit because he inspired my build)

Ah yes, Windows 8. If I had just waited a little longer, I could have just used Windows 10. But then again, I might have had the same issues. But anyway, the issues I had with Win8 revolved mostly around the de-branding. In other words, it's relatively easy to hide the login screen, change the boot logo animation and shutdown screen in windows 7. But they make it nearly impossible to do it completely in Windows 8. It involves some pretty heavy reg edits that could have their own set of unintended consequences. I really wanted to hide windows as much as possible to make it feel like it was a real mini-arcade. It's just so much easier in Windows 7. Also, Windows 7 has been out for so much longer so many people have had time to create guides and utilities to hide windows. Windows 8 also has other minor challenges like hiding the task bar, boot to desktop, and hiding metro tiles. Not hard, but just not something you have to mess with in Windows 7. I also work in IT and us guys like to keep things simple. Windows 8 is just such a mess of extras that I wanted to shut off. (The computer I used also only supported Win8 32bit. That got a little tricky as well)

Thanks again for your compliments. I had just as much fun building it as I do playing it. I really learned a lot while building it. My biggest lesson was probably patience. It really pays off not to rush into things and just  really think about what you are doing and how it might impact 2 other things along the way.

When building it, I gave myself the unnecessary challenge of shoe-horning in console games. It would have been fine to just leave vertical arcade games on there but I thought it would be fun to just see if I could. I'm also a fan of Hyperspin and wanted to sort of Prove that Hyperspin is not as bad as some people think. With some time, I was able to get Hyperspin to perform exactly how I wanted in a pretty small form.

[vwalbridge]

First I've seen this. Very cool! Excellent work!

Thanks Nephasth!  It really means a lot coming from an experienced builder. I know you like to give credit where credit is due and I really respect that philosophy.

Your feedback...positive OR negative is always welcome to me.   

[yotsuya]

First I've seen this. Very cool! Excellent work!

Thanks Nephasth!  It really means a lot coming from an experienced builder. I know you like to give credit where credit is due and I really respect that philosophy.

Your feedback...positive OR negative is always welcome to me.   

Someone who gets it....

[burn_654]

This is an awesome build from start to finish! I would love to own one, very nice work.

You mentioned carpet tape for your stickers...I could definitely have a use for something like that with the removable paper back. Do you have a link for the product you used? It would be very helpful 

Looking at that bare zotac board (and NUCs as well) gets my gears turning as well - that would be cool for a lot of projects. How's the performance generally for later Mame? Do you think it would stand a chance with say, Demul or Dolphin?

You know it's a good project when it's making me think about new projects!

[vwalbridge]

This is an awesome build from start to finish! I would love to own one, very nice work.

You mentioned carpet tape for your stickers...I could definitely have a use for something like that with the removable paper back. Do you have a link for the product you used? It would be very helpful 

Looking at that bare zotac board (and NUCs as well) gets my gears turning as well - that would be cool for a lot of projects. How's the performance generally for later Mame? Do you think it would stand a chance with say, Demul or Dolphin?

You know it's a good project when it's making me think about new projects!

Thanks for the compliments! One of the funnest projects I've done.

This is the exact carpet tape I used: Robert's Max Grip Carpet Installation Tape

I think there are several brands of this tape but most importantly look for the tape that has that black thread pattern on it. It's VERY sticky but also very thin.

I've used both the Intel NUC and the Zotac pico for arcade builds. If you have the room (and the budget) the NUC is much better.

Why?

 - The NUC has removeable ram and hard drive. (Depending on the model)
 - The NUC has more power (Depending on the model)
 - You can install whatever OS you want on the NUC

The Zotac is very good for such a small package but (at the time) I was stuck with Windows 8.1  But the good news now is that you can get win 10 for free.

Another important item to note is that both are only going to come with integrated Intel HD graphics. So they can only handle so much HLSL that you throw at them. I was only able to max out SNES titles on the Zotac. N64 wouldn't run.

Most important to me was that they ran Windows so that I could run Hyperspin for the Front End.

On the Intel NUC I kept it simple with classic vertical games so I don't know how high it could have gone. There are even newer NUCs since my Mini DK build that could perform even better. The CPUs on NUCs are great, but just know what you are getting into with the stock Intel HD graphics.

[mvolke1]

I love this build!

Do you think this could be a quick back project?

http://www.dreamgear.com/my-arcade-retro-machine-gaming-system-with-200-games/

[vwalbridge]

I love this build!

Do you think this could be a quick back project?

http://www.dreamgear.com/my-arcade-retro-machine-gaming-system-with-200-games/

Thanks!

The link to the micro cab you provided is pretty neat for 200 games. But for only $40 I'd be leery of its quality. Also, since you mentioned "project"...I assume you would convert that micro cab?

[mvolke1]

Yea, I would get it. Probably keep the monitor, maybe the buttons. I think the 200 games are all just knock-offs. Probably, I'd put a Pi in it.

[yotsuya]

You assume the monitor is going to work with the Pi.

[vwalbridge]

You assume the monitor is going to work with the Pi.

+1

That screen could have a proprietary connection ribbon that would be impossible to interface with.

Here is a video of it in use:



And it gets mixed reviews at best on Amazon

I'b be really sure you are ok with throwing $40 down the tube. I didn't realize the games were knock-offs. That seems pretty obvious now.

[DarakuTenshi]

Very cool!  I used to own one of those DK games, but gave it to a friend of mine about 15 years ago... wish I had it right now.

[tigernut]

Amazing project and craftsmanship, thanks for sharing!

[MrThunderwing]

Hey vwalbridge, this is a fantastic looking project. I love the idea of people making mini-arcade machines out of the pre-existing designs of the sort of tabletop games that were around when I was a kid. It's the sort of thing that would have blown the mind of my 11 year old self, the idea that in the future an actual arcade game would be playable in a cabinet that small. With that in mind, if you're looking for inspiration for another project how about this: Turning one of these old Grandstand LCD Outrun games into a fully working driving cabinet. By all accounts the game was terrible but I always liked the design of it.

[javeryh]

Just wanted to say that this is an amazing project.   

[vwalbridge]

Hey vwalbridge, this is a fantastic looking project. I love the idea of people making mini-arcade machines out of the pre-existing designs of the sort of tabletop games that were around when I was a kid. It's the sort of thing that would have blown the mind of my 11 year old self, the idea that in the future an actual arcade game would be playable in a cabinet that small. With that in mind, if you're looking for inspiration for another project how about this: Turning one of these old Grandstand LCD Outrun games into a fully working driving cabinet. By all accounts the game was terrible but I always liked the design of it.

LOL, yea I've heard that tabletop was awful as well. It's certainly begging possible to be modded. It could certainly be done because there is plenty of room in there but that screen is just a bit too small. One would have to make adjustments for a larger screen for sure.

Just wanted to say that this is an amazing project.   

Thanks man! Appreciate it!

[numach]

I am so glad I stumbled on to this thread.  I saw the final product initially on YouTube.  I had this idea in mind for the Coleco tabletops for a long time (I can honestly say I first envisioned it as a kid - but only for one game in the cabinet back then, lol) and was sitting around thinking "why not do this?" recently as I was looking at my restored Coleco Pac-Man in my living room. 

I figured I'd just use a Raspberry Pi - I have a model B and ordered the new Pi 3 too already.  Then I thought "Other people had to have done something like this already"... so I started looking.  Your build is so elegant!  I had a bunch of questions after seeing it (I posted one on the YouTube video actually) but now that I found this AWESOME thread they have been answered.  Funny too because I was already a member on here from years ago.

I use Hyperspin on a full size Berzerk cabinet at home that I converted to MAME (built a completely new control panel for it needless to say) years ago.  Back then MAME didn't support things like these Coleco games - I guess the convergence with MESS helped that along.  I had wondered how you included them until I found this thread.

Anyways, I don't know if I will go the Zotac Pico route (even though I LOVE the use of Hyperspin) since I already have the Raspberry Pi's (plus I only paid $35 for them vs. $175-$200 for the Pico)... but I am taking so much away from this very well laid out thread that I will be using in my build.

This was so INSPIRED!!! Kudos VWALLBRIDGE - this is honestly fantastic compared to others I have seen - top notch!  I just had to commend you man!!!!