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Author Topic: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games  (Read 126352 times)

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vr_junkie

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Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« on: January 13, 2007, 02:06:09 am »
Hi,

I own a Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games. I know, I know... gee what a loser and what a POS - right?

Well, don't pass judgement too soon. I have made some pretty good upgrades to the cabinet and have significantly improved it and probably still not invested over 100 dollars.

I am the individual who submited the "An Insider's View (Internals)" to the Retroblast article on this machine: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games - http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/biggames.html

I am also the author of the mods articles at Retroblast: "You Just Bought a Big Electronic Games Midway Arcade Cabinet. Now What?" - http://www.retroblast.com/articles/BEGMods.html

Well I have several exciting updates... a newly discovered un-documented mode/menu, a new control panel, and Playstation compatibility.

I have discovered a secret undocumented mode/menu while working on a control panel update for my arcade.

If you simultaneously press and hold down; one player, two player, and forward (on joystick 1) for about 5 seconds - a special menu pops up on the screen. You have 3 options... Settings, Hardware Tests, and Exit.

Under settings, you can adjust various variables that effect gameplay. There is a custom tailored settings screen for each game and the options available vary from game to game... some common examples are; level of dificulty, number of initial ships or men, bonus level, high score reset, and many other options depending on the game. Button 1 on player 1 side scrolls forward thru the options, and button 2 scrolls backward through the available options for each setting.

I discovered this while pursuing the addition of Playstation capability to my Midway cab. I have a BUNCH of games for Playstation (including classic arcade compilations) and I want to play them thru the cab. On the Midway cab, there is a switch to change the video and audio inputs to another device, but there is no way to use the arcades controls with your game system.

Well, I have discovered a cheap and easy way to do this. Rather than use expensive solutions from Ultimarc which would require the purchase of multiple pieces, and entail extra expense and probably not fit within the small area available under the control panel, I went a cheaper route and hacked and gutted the adapter circuitry from a cheap Arcade controller I already have for the Playstation - it is one that used to be aviailable from www.redoctane.com, but I imagine you could use many others or even hack a old playstation controller.

All you have to do is run a single wire to the common ground on the Midway that goes to each and every switch (including each one on the joysticks), and also run a wire to each "positive" pin/wire on each switch.

I'm also upgraded the controls for my Midway cab... I made a new board, drilled holes (1 1/8") and placed new controls I purchased from X-gaming: http://www.xgaming.com/arcade_bundle.shtml in the Midway cab. This is a VERY good deal, you get 2 joysticks, 20 switches, and a 12 game arcade bundle for your PC - all for 29.95!

I highly recommmend these controls, they are WAY WAY better than what comes with the biggames arcades yet WAY WAY cheaper than what is available from all the other vendors.

I also drilled a couple 1/4" holes and mounted a LED I had laying around and also one for a momentary switch for the re-set function. I used a radioshack SPST mini momentary push button switch - P/N 275-1547. This allowed me to keep my complete original control panel intact for returning it to that condition (can't imagine) or for selling on e-bay as a spare!

While making the control panel upgrade I noticed that only buttons 1 and 2 were utilized on the player 2 side of the board, buttons 3-6 were totally unused. This gave me an idea... I ended up connecting up these buttons in parallel with the player 2 joystick in the familiar Playstation x,o,triangle,square, configuration. This allows me to use either the buttons or the joystick to control the player 2 directions. IOW, it allows you to play with 2 sticks, so games like BattleZone or other versions of Robotron, or simulation games can be played much more naturally - even if the are not written for analog joystick control - I LIKE that. I also got rid of the diagonal mounting on the player 1 side of the board - it's just 2 rows of three. And I switched the wiring on buttons 5 and 6 to make it similar to how the buttons are on a real Defender II/Stargate arcade.

I used a terminal block for the connections from the board to the switches and used spade connectors on the switches themselves - so it is real easy to change things.

Here is a view of the new controls wiring with the small front skirt panel removed. 



Here is the view from the top with everything buttoned up. Note Tempest running via Atari's Anniversary Edition Compilation on Playstation.


I am REAL happy now, especially considering how few dollars I have invested.

Below you will find a crude (not to scale) layout of the new control panel, as well as a wiring schematic/breakout depicting the ribbon cabeling and a breakout of the circuit board that crosses the ribbon cable wiring to individual wires that run to each switch.

Here is the layout



Here is the breakout



Hope this information is of use to someone "out there" looking for help in bettering the Midway cab!

Regards,
Lane




leapinlew

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2007, 02:42:08 am »
Look at you!

Thats some good hack'n. Hopefully someone finds all your hard work useful.

Ken Layton

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2007, 11:26:07 am »
So the actual gameboard in this cabinet is NOT a JAMMA one then?

BobA

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2007, 01:17:40 pm »
Wow.  Really good  digging out that undocumented setup screen for that cab.   Good work in updating the controls and getting the info published on Retroblast.  The cab is definately not one of the favourites on this board but you have gone a long way in making it more arcade like.

Good Work :applaud:

 

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2007, 02:26:03 am »
It sure takes a looonnnggg time to see anything on the retroblast site. I get frustrated after waiting a half hour (I'm on a 28k dialup connection) and looking at a blue screen then it asks me if I want to install Flash. No way do I want Flash on my computer.  :angry:

I'd like to be able to read and print the information about the mods to that game, but geez that Flash crap is irritating and frustrating.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2007, 04:48:22 pm »
I dunno VR, I respect your opinion, but you also come off like you're trying a little too hard to justify your purchase and be nice about the cabinet.

Let's see, $400 for the cabinet (and guts), + $100 for the mods = $500.

Now, a REAL arcade cabinet (gutted) is $Free to $75 and usually comes with a real coin door.  A brand new real 19" arcade monitor is $170. Controls (if the gutted cab didn't come with some) could be about $70 for 2 players, seven buttons each. This totals at most $315, leaving still $185+ to invest into a used computer, keyboard encoder and shipping fees.

So I dunno. In the end, is it worth the crappy 13" tv, thin cheap construction, etc for the same price as putting together a "traditional" MAME cabinet?

NO MORE!!

vr_junkie

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2007, 12:59:50 am »
Ken,

No, this is not a JAMAA.  It's propritary - but Clay did the work so it plays like the real thing. Sounds are REAL good too once you get some powered speakers hooked up.


Are you REALLY on a 28k dial up... This is a joke - right? Anyway, you should be able to read the text and see the graphics following the direct links I provided without flash. If you really want, LMK and I'll put the stuff together for you in a straight html file.

Ray,

Regarding my purchase... I wanted to get something that was ready to go -  I did not want to have to buid it from scratch. At the time I decided I wanted one I did not know much about the internals how they worked etc. But I knew I wanted something - and I did not want to be limited to 1 game.

From my research, It was going to cost over 2 grand to get a fully functional cabinet delivered to my door.  And these 2 grand units were stripped down or limited in some way. The really nice ones are 3-5 grand! I make a pretty good living, I could afford a 3-5 grand unit if I really wanted to, but I didn't REALLY want to invest that kind of money to simply play Robotron, Defender, and Tempest (my 3 favorite games) ocassionaly.

Also a BIG iussue was space. My rec room already has a bar, full size pool table, 3 in one card/bumper pool table, Tornado foosball table, hand built chess table, dart board, and a home theatre setup - I truely have nowhere to put a full size cab - so the smaller size of this one was a real plus.

So while it obviously isn't for everyone - it was right for me. I would buy it all over again.

It's been fun using it, my kids love it, and when I have parties,  people  stand in line to play it  - children and adults. I have yet to hear anyone complain about the quality! 

And, it's been fun learning about these things and upgrading it. And it's proved to be tougher unit than I imagined... it's seen quite a bit of use for over a year now, and is still working fine.

BTW, I caught it on sale at Target last Christmas, talked them down over a scratch that would not show,  and got an additional 10 percent off for getting their credit card  -  my cost out the door was under  300 dollars!

To the others posters,

Thanks for the compliments... I didn't make this post to wow any of you elite builders here, but to offer some help to anyone else who may be looking for a way to enhance their Midway cab - there is almost nothing on the net about these except critical comments.

Regards,
Lane


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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2007, 02:11:15 am »
Have you also modified the Konami version?

vr_junkie

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2007, 11:57:59 am »
Ken,

No, I have not. I believe it is EXTREMELY similar though. The controls look to be identical. So I think it could be modified just like mine... the only extra part you would need to do is put your own audio video switcher in if you wanted to run a console through it. The Midway came with one. Honestly, they did so much other work to run  a console thu the midway - I can't figure out why they didn't give you a way to use the controls.

Lane

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2007, 12:04:39 pm »
I see they also have a Golden Tee Golf out now. It's in a much different cabinet than the Midway one and more like the real commercial Golden Tee dedicated cabinet.

Has anyone modified/improved the "Arcade Game Room Classics - SNK Version" tabletop game by jazwares yet?
« Last Edit: January 17, 2007, 12:08:21 pm by Ken Layton »

Ken Layton

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2007, 10:33:20 am »
I see the Midway circuit board is inside a box. Has anyone opened that box to check out the circuit board? I wonder if a person could hack it for R-G-B-sync output to run to a normal arcade monitor?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2007, 02:15:36 pm »
Ken,

I've wondered about this myself, I would think it could be done. They are supposed to sell parts for this machine and I have heard some went out without the cartridge - and they had to send one out to the customer.

Is anyone here good at reverse engineering things like this and be willing to do it if we happened upon a spare cartridge?

Lane

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2007, 12:23:37 pm »
The only "support" I see on Big Electronic Games (www.mybiggames.com) is downloadable cabinet assembly instruction sheets and a poor excuse for a troubleshooting sheet.

I wish they'd have wiring schematics for the cabinet & control panel. Even better would be schematics to the gameboard.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #13 on: January 20, 2007, 05:18:17 pm »
I'm pretty sure that Clay himself stated somewhere that it's not hackable to get RGB.....
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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #14 on: January 31, 2007, 02:32:03 pm »
Just wanted people to know that the Midway Arcade cabinets are now on clearance at JCPenney.  I purchased one for $129.99 on 1/28/07 at the JCPenney store in Glendale, CA.  The price was after the clearance price was discounted and then another 50% was discounted off the clearance price.  I think I got a good deal and it works great. 

-Chuck

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2011, 02:16:59 am »
May the forum gods forgive me, I am knowingly posting to a 4+ year old topic.  But I deem it appropriate in this instance, because the original post by VR Junkie gives the reader many tools to accomplish a specific task, and I want to simply augment that wealth of information with one additional piece, because I think that over time, people will continue to find this topic useful for a very specific purpose - to convert one of those old Target Midway cabs, circa 2006-2007, into a MAME machine.  I think there are still tons of them out there, in varying states of neglect and decrepitude, and with a little know-how and elbow grease, these are much better candidates for Maiming than an original dedicated cab which could be restored instead.  That said, here is my contribution.

This cabinet uses a simple (and seemingly unnecessary) PCB as a go-between from the thicker, color-coded control panel wires to two sets of thin, 15-conductor ribbon cables.  The original post, while providing a great wiring breakout for the wires connected to the actual controls, did not give a clear mapping to the wires of the ribbon cables, which I feel are better suited for wiring to the keyboard encoder.  So for those who want to go the route I went, snipping/ripping/stripping the two ribbon cables and wiring those to the encoder, here is a quick and easy ribbon cable wiring breakout diagram:



Note the lingo for these cabinets, they refer to all the buttons on the control panel (except for Player 1 Start, Player 2 Start and Reset) as "Fire" buttons, hence the terminology "F1" through "F6" above.  I know this additional information will be of use to someone in the future.  For now, I just ask that this topic be allowed to quietly slip back into obscurity.  :)

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #16 on: March 16, 2011, 03:12:29 pm »
It's good to bring back this thread. The links posted by the original poster are now invalid. Here is one that was archived:

http://retroblast.arcadecontrols.com/articles/BEGMods.html

I understand that Big Electronic Games went out of business two years ago so finding any kind of support is going to be tough. This thread will help in compiling some information on the machines.

Big Electronic Games Ltd.
29/F Wing On Centre
111 Connaught Road Central
Hong Kong
sales@mybiggames.com

USA office: 1-800-749-4345

Manual for the Midway version:

http://arcarc.xmission.com/Kits%20and%20Hacks/Big%20Games/Midway-Instructions.pdf

Manual for the Konami version:

http://arcarc.xmission.com/Kits%20and%20Hacks/Big%20Games/Konami-Instructions.pdf

Manual for the Golden Tee Golf version:

http://arcarc.xmission.com/Kits%20and%20Hacks/Big%20Games/Golden-Tee-Instruction.pdf
« Last Edit: March 16, 2011, 09:58:01 pm by Ken Layton »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #17 on: February 08, 2012, 01:01:07 pm »
this is super helpful!!!

i just garbage picked a konami 12-in-1 this morning.

cabinet is mint, and everything works.

the joysticks are crap though.

Ken Layton

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #18 on: February 08, 2012, 05:17:21 pm »
Yes, it does appear that Big Electronic Games is out of business. Perhaps someone will do some more mods to these machines to improve them?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #19 on: April 01, 2012, 01:32:31 pm »
I'm thinking about buying one of these and slapping an LCD into it. Is it the same size as a typical cabinet? How wide are these things? Are they 3/4" MDF or 1/2" plywood? It seems like a nice base to put a loaded hyperspin system in.
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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #20 on: April 01, 2012, 02:09:53 pm »
Found my own answer after posting: Midway Dimensions: 62 x 22 x 24-inches (H x W x D approximate), weight approx 128lbs, 13 inch monitor.

I think I'll pass.
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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #21 on: June 12, 2012, 08:38:49 pm »
I cracked the plastic control board on the Midway Arcade Cabinet. Does anyone know where I could source another one ? thanks

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #22 on: June 15, 2012, 04:31:16 pm »
I cracked the plastic control board on the Midway Arcade Cabinet. Does anyone know where I could source another one ? thanks

Ace, etc, plexi.
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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #23 on: June 16, 2012, 09:07:34 pm »
hi
thk-u ppl for this interesting thread

clearly marked in the midway stuff pg10
is a switchable module,ie aux audio/video
if u were to hack into it
this is where i would start

these cab's look interesting from a build yourself point of view
lot of neat drawing's in there for home builder's

ed
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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #24 on: January 07, 2013, 12:05:58 pm »
I purchased one of these on Craigslist...got it home, powered up and it’s stuck on the setup screen. Anyone have any experience with this piece of junk. It’s almost as if the joysticks etc aren’t connected. All connections are correctly seated etc.  Any help on getting this thing un-stuck would be appreciated.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #25 on: April 01, 2014, 11:15:36 am »
Is there any sort of following for these machines still?  I picked one up and appreciate the ideas for some updates, but was looking to see if there are people still actively maintaining/upgrading/modding these.

I printed out all of the sheets from this post and plan to use the Playstation hack, but was wondering if there was more going on.  Any forums/topics devoted to these?

Thanks!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #26 on: April 01, 2014, 11:22:25 am »
I haven't seen anyone doing anything with these machines for a long time. I think interest must have died out.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #27 on: April 01, 2014, 02:46:59 pm »
I haven't seen anyone doing anything with these machines for a long time. I think interest must have died out.

Thanks for your quick response.  This blows my theory that there is a following for everything on the internet!

I was able to get my cabinet back up and running.  The screen was so dark you couldn't make out the buildings in Rampage.  Fortunately, I was able to pull the tv out and adjust the brightness.  It was at 50% and still has some life left after cranking it up to 100%.  Also, one of the RCA cables was bad and there was no sound.  That was quickly resolved as well.

I plan to upgrade the controls once someone breaks them the first time and a new tv may be down the road, but I was more interested in hacks/findings on the game unit itself.  I'm getting some noise on the screen and didn't know if anyone had rerun the video wires or found any components that wear out.  Also, I was surprised it didn't store high scores when you flipped the switch on the side.  I'm wondering if there's a cmos battery or something in the game unit that was supposed to handle that task, but until I have time to pull apart the game unit, I broke out the game unit transformer and ran it to a UPS.  It stays on all the time now and even survives when I unplug the whole unit from the wall.  I can flip just the tv on and off from the side which will help prolong its life and reduce my power bill.  I was concerned about keeping it energized, but apparently it had been running 24/7 in the break room for years.  Hopefully it keeps going.

Despite the horrible reviews when it came out, I think it's a fun little box, especially since I only paid for gas to go pick it up.

Well, if this post finds anyone out there still playing/upgrading one of these boxes, send me a line.  I'm interested to hear from you.

Thanks!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #28 on: April 07, 2014, 11:46:43 am »
Interest in anything comes and goes. Trick is finding someone who currently has an interest. My wife asked me to write new windows drivers for her sewing machine. There is a hacking community of ZERO for the machine but TONS of interest. Conversely, there was a pretty big modding community around the original Carmageddon and tons of interest. Hundreds of car mods alone. Good luck finding any of those original files and anyone who cares about them now.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #29 on: April 16, 2014, 09:29:39 am »
Well, I pulled the cartridge apart and there is no battery.  I'm confused why my scores aren't saving, but don't have any resources to figure out why.  That's too bad.  The wall of high scores is always nice for competition.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #30 on: April 18, 2014, 12:36:43 pm »
Not knowing what was inside them it's hard to say. If it used an EEPROM or Flash, it might be fried. If it used a battery, it might not be a CMOS. It could be very well a simple capacitor or a small Alkaline battery soldered directly to the board. Look for blown or leaking components on the board. Caps also swell sometimes before popping. If it dried out... well.... goodluck finding it. You'l have to study the board or find a schematic

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #31 on: July 21, 2014, 12:29:32 pm »
Interesting C1 and C3 are not populated.  Could anyone take a peak at their board?  I wonder if they pulled them on the demo system.  Might have to find a couple of caps!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #32 on: July 22, 2014, 11:11:09 am »
Interesting C1 and C3 are not populated.  Could anyone take a peak at their board?  I wonder if they pulled them on the demo system.  Might have to find a couple of caps!

Crap.  No joy.  All of the other caps were 25v 10uF.  I found two 25v/10uF from an old motherboard and soldered them in but the game scores are still not saved.  I swear there is just an internal reset that happens when it goes into demo mode that clears all of the scores, but I've asked other people and they say the scores do in fact save.  Well, the hunt continues.  Maybe I'll find a replacement cartridge...

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #33 on: July 28, 2014, 03:40:31 am »
Just realized that Clay Cowgill did the firmware for this hardware. He runs http://www.multigame.com/ as well as other sites. If the NDA ran out, he might be able to tell you what keeps the high scores. Hopefully you'll get lucky. According to Clay at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.video.arcade.collecting/rBBj7m_AOTk

I didn't look too hard but multigame is his business site so there must be some way of contacting him. Unfortunately the last update is from 2007??
Clay Cowgill wrote:
Quote
Chuk" <ch...@ourcade.com> wrote in message
news:A56mf.10180$l1.6422@fe26.usenetserver.com...

> Someone mentioned that the emulation was identical to the MW board, and
that
> the menus were almost identical.  Though I thought that arcadeshop had
hired
> them out to do that board.  I wouldn't think he could produce it for
someone
> else.  However, I have no idea what the actual situation is there.  Maybe
> Clay will speak up if he can?

Well, hey, I was just waiting for someone to ask!. ;-)

Of course I'm NDA'd on the subject as to most of the particulars, but yes,
we were involved with the product.  We worked under contract to do the
software development and help bring up the hardware design.  (Our software
solution is optimized to run on hardware with very limited RAM and CPU
resources-- a good match for a very cost sensitive device like this one).

The hardware wasn't directly done by us (we worked with another contractor
that implemented the ASICs and handled the final hardware design).  If
someone tears into it it's kinda anticlimactic-- a couple 'block blobs' (COB
packaging) and a little memory.  That's about it!

I must admit that I've been conducting a little science experiment
collecting the feedback here before people got any sort of bias knowing any
back-story about it.  :-P

(Clearly the product wasn't intended for readers of this newsgroup.) ;-)

That having been said, it really *is* fully emulated. (...and quite
accurately so with the exception of the TV output instead of a full-on
arcade monitor.)  One of the early comments to the contrary was from someone
who had pitched a competing design that we beat out.  I didn't feel like
getting in a pissing match over it.  No, it's not a Nintendo or Genesis. :-P

I will say that every 'negative' that people mentioned here was not the
first time it had been thought of...  When it came right down to it though,
the costs couldn't move and the delivery date was set in stone.  If the
retail price point was going to (really) be $499 and not $397 that might
have changed some things, but the channel buyers know what will sell at what
price points and the product needed to go out the door at the $397 mark and
still make everyone a profit at that price.

Like most engineers, given my druthers I'd probably just work on 'unlimited'
price stuff with 'open ended' timetables, but alas, that's not the kind of
thing you can sell by the truckload at Target...  That having been said, all
indications are that it's going to do quite well in its intended market.  I
suspect you'll see more.

-Clay

P.S. Some years down the road when the NDA's expire and if anyone's
interested in hearing them, I do have some good stories to tell about the
project. :-)

and
Quote
"Scott Caldwell" <lscottc...@excite.com> wrote in message
news:bGDmf.26948$BZ5.8503@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...

>  Seems like that could be sold
> for less than the existing Multi-Williams JAMMA
> PCBs, by a large margin.

Price is, of course, largely volume driven.  In the case of the Target unit,
the very first shipment that left the factory was more total units than the
sum of every multigame kit, JAMMA adapter, pacman daughterboard, etc. that
I've ever sold in the last *ten* years combined.  Suffice it to say that at
those volumes they can get a lot better deals on parts that the little guy!

They also kept the per-unit cost down by doing custom ASICs to integrate a
bunch of functionality down onto a couple IC's...  Then they ran a lot of
product through high speed factories which gets good pricing (because the
setup/teardown expense on the line gets smaller when you run the line
longer).  The problem for small volume products is that ASIC math just
doesn't pan out when you consider minimums and NREs.  (Even if you just put
one wafer through on a small process you wind up having to buy 5-6K parts,
plus the engineering costs up front, plus the cost of the ASIC designer. ;-)

> Clay, is the sound 100% emulated too?  The Target
> game I played sounded a little off.

Yep-- but the cabinet, speaker, and the audio output stages make a big
difference in the "sound" as you hear it.  I can't imagine the TV has a very
beefy speaker in it.  It's hard to get good bass without one, so higher
frequencies might seem more prominent.  The original games also all have
slightly different analog filtering in their audio path, so we did have to
compromise a bit to try to get things as good as possible across all titles.
(Having a steep rolloff on a filter to make the old Williams games sound
'just right', resulted in the other games sounding too muffled, etc.  We had
to pick something that was "good" for all, but probably not the best
possible for any one particular architecture.  You could likely 'fix' that
with some DSP on the sound, but there wasn't that kind of budget in the
hardware.)

-Clay

If the problem is with the ASIC, you'll probably have to live with it.

Good luck.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2014, 03:43:41 am by SavannahLion »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #34 on: July 28, 2014, 10:51:43 am »
Thanks SavannahLion.

I had wondered where that post had gone.  I had come across it a few months back and couldn't find it again.  I will see if he's responding to any emails.  I think I tried previously with no success, but I'll try again.

Yesterday I got to play hacker for a little while.  I found out that the PCB that plugs into the back of the cartridge is one pin longer than a floppy disk connector, so I modified a FD cable to accept it and then broke all of the wires out onto a PS1 controller PCB.  I plugged the PS1 controller into the playstation, loaded up Midway Greatest Hits and tested things out.  The MGH disk has all of the games the original 12 in 1 had, minus Wizard of Wor, but it also has another 13 games on top of that.  Player1 worked!  Now to find a second donor controller to set up player2.  And guess what?  It saves games! :-)  The loading times are a little annoying, but not too bad.  Played some Marble Madness, 720 (Skate or Die!) and Joust 2.  I couldn't get Spy Hunter mapped correctly.  We'll see about the other games.  I was very excited it worked on the first try and I can always plug the original unit back in.  Good times.

Thinking about a 20" (4:3) LCD upgrade.  Will see how it looks and possibly build a new face for the unit to house it.  Fun stuff!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #35 on: July 28, 2014, 02:43:16 pm »
Yeah, that was probably the biggest opinion flipflop in arcade collector history.  Up until that point, everyone hated those cabinets and thought the emulation was terrible. 

Then Clay announces he's the one that did it?  All of the sudden he was a programming genius that got very accurate results with very cheap components.  It was beyond ridiculous.


Only pinball one I've witnessed at that magnitude was when the Demolition Man swear ROMs were finally "released."  After years of, "I've seen a copy but I gave my word I wouldn't distribute them" it turned out everyone had had them for years.   :lol




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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #36 on: July 28, 2014, 05:10:56 pm »
I have an old Sharp 20" 4:3 LCD that I thought would be perfect.  It kind of had to be old since you don't really see 4:3 LCD TVs anymore.  Anyway, it's always been a good TV, thought it would be good for a replacement screen.  Wow, was I wrong.  Static pictures look FANTASTIC.  Colors pop, pictures sharp.  As soon as you start moving around the screen, the picture look horrible.  All sorts of jaggies and blur.  Blah.  Will stick with the 13" CRT until a better replacement comes along.

EDIT: Maybe it was just 720 (Skate or Die).  I tried a couple of the other games and it was less noticeable, bordering on acceptable.  May keep the LCD option on the table or find a 20" tube tv for cheap/free on Craigslist.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2014, 10:26:02 pm by jserrawi »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #37 on: July 29, 2014, 10:42:49 am »
Yeah... that motion blur is really noticeable. Personally, I think the 120Hz screens make the problem worse, not better. But I suspect the root cause is different.

Plasma seems to do better but has a "jittery" look. Took me months to get used to it but if I switch to a CRT for awhile my brain resets and I see it again.

Given that CRT is toast it's a shame we're forced to live with that kind of tradeoff.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #38 on: February 16, 2015, 09:31:06 am »
Spent the $5 and started the upgrade :-)

New TV is mounted and very stable.  Just need a new skin for the front.


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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #39 on: February 16, 2015, 10:01:55 am »
ITT: turd polishing

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #40 on: February 16, 2015, 11:13:22 am »
Do you really have to rain on my parade?  I'm quite happy with my $5 TOTAL investment and have thoroughly enjoyed this cabinet so far (minus the games not saving with the original "cartridge").  I have also hacked it to play Playstation games.  An upright arcade w/20" flat screen and the full library of playstation1/2 games for $5 is a deal I'd do again!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #41 on: February 16, 2015, 11:44:03 am »
Jim Gotta Jim, bro. It's a Tenet of this place.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #42 on: February 16, 2015, 12:09:42 pm »
That's cool that you're happy with it.  Onward and upwards.

 :cheers:

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #43 on: March 12, 2015, 05:46:05 pm »
As much as this thread tries to do it looks to still be alive. :)

I've just picked up one of these beauties. Or POS. Whatever the current opinion is. My kids love the darn thing but I think I'm going to make it a cheap/free upgrade until I can afford to build my own machine.

I'm heading to goodwill this weekend to see if any old TVs will work for expanding the screen size. If anyone has any comments on the subject I'd love to hear them. The one I picked up appears to be working very well in spite of its cheap parts.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #44 on: March 26, 2015, 10:26:36 am »
As much as this thread tries to do it looks to still be alive. :)

I've just picked up one of these beauties. Or POS. Whatever the current opinion is. My kids love the darn thing but I think I'm going to make it a cheap/free upgrade until I can afford to build my own machine.

I'm heading to goodwill this weekend to see if any old TVs will work for expanding the screen size. If anyone has any comments on the subject I'd love to hear them. The one I picked up appears to be working very well in spite of its cheap parts.

If you look earlier in this thread, I've mounted a 20" Sony.  Looks great!  I just started the new skin for the front:


The million dollar question for me, does yours store high scores day after day?  Is yours one of the demo floor units?

Thanks and have fun!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #45 on: April 03, 2015, 01:47:24 pm »
How can I post pictures? I have modded this thing as well. I have added a 14" TFT monitor, LED lights, Soundbox and a Jamma Board!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #46 on: April 03, 2015, 02:02:10 pm »
I just took the link from my pictures in google.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #47 on: April 03, 2015, 06:38:09 pm »
How can I post pictures? I have modded this thing as well. I have added a 14" TFT monitor, LED lights, Soundbox and a Jamma Board!

When you click on reply, there will be a phrase "Attachments and other options" under the reply box. Click on that phrase then you'll see "Attach: Browse" from which you can select pictures to upload from you computer.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #48 on: April 13, 2015, 10:21:57 am »
Now 14" TFT / Jamma / LED lights / External speaker in the marquee. Rest button now coin / works very fine.

Thanks to this forum for all the info!

Andy from Good old Germany!!!
(temporary in wonderful USA)

Has anyone ever wired a XBOX 360 to Jamma? If yes how?

« Last Edit: April 13, 2015, 06:45:06 pm by andy4sandy »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #50 on: April 13, 2015, 12:38:07 pm »
Now with 14 inch TFT, Jamma Board, 30 Watt Speaker, and LEDs. Work fine :-)

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #51 on: April 13, 2015, 12:38:52 pm »
May the forum gods forgive me, I am knowingly posting to a 4+ year old topic.  But I deem it appropriate in this instance, because the original post by VR Junkie gives the reader many tools to accomplish a specific task, and I want to simply augment that wealth of information with one additional piece, because I think that over time, people will continue to find this topic useful for a very specific purpose - to convert one of those old Target Midway cabs, circa 2006-2007, into a MAME machine.  I think there are still tons of them out there, in varying states of neglect and decrepitude, and with a little know-how and elbow grease, these are much better candidates for Maiming than an original dedicated cab which could be restored instead.  That said, here is my contribution.

This cabinet uses a simple (and seemingly unnecessary) PCB as a go-between from the thicker, color-coded control panel wires to two sets of thin, 15-conductor ribbon cables.  The original post, while providing a great wiring breakout for the wires connected to the actual controls, did not give a clear mapping to the wires of the ribbon cables, which I feel are better suited for wiring to the keyboard encoder.  So for those who want to go the route I went, snipping/ripping/stripping the two ribbon cables and wiring those to the encoder, here is a quick and easy ribbon cable wiring breakout diagram:



Note the lingo for these cabinets, they refer to all the buttons on the control panel (except for Player 1 Start, Player 2 Start and Reset) as "Fire" buttons, hence the terminology "F1" through "F6" above.  I know this additional information will be of use to someone in the future.  For now, I just ask that this topic be allowed to quietly slip back into obscurity.  :)

Thanks for this!!!!

Andy

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #52 on: April 16, 2015, 01:24:54 pm »
Now with 14 inch TFT, Jamma Board, 30 Watt Speaker, and LEDs. Work fine :-)

Is your marquee lit as well?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #53 on: April 16, 2015, 03:27:34 pm »
I just acquired one of these for $20 without even seeing it first.  I already have a MAME Machine, Mini pinball, and a Pacman and figured for $20 I can't loose.  I never knew these existed until now (10 years later), lol.  Anyway, P1 joystick will not go left and the screen is scrunched up toward the bottom, top 20% of screen is blank.  Does the joystick use a normal replaceable microswitch? and does the monitor have controls to adjust the vertical hold like a normal arcade monitor?  If so, are the switches located up front with the volume buttons or do I have to get the TV out and take the cover off?

@jbserra looking good!  :)

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #54 on: April 16, 2015, 03:49:35 pm »
I just acquired one of these for $20 without even seeing it first.  I already have a MAME Machine, Mini pinball, and a Pacman and figured for $20 I can't loose.  I never knew these existed until now (10 years later), lol.  Anyway, P1 joystick will not go left and the screen is scrunched up toward the bottom, top 20% of screen is blank.  Does the joystick use a normal replaceable microswitch? and does the monitor have controls to adjust the vertical hold like a normal arcade monitor?  If so, are the switches located up front with the volume buttons or do I have to get the TV out and take the cover off?

@jbserra looking good!  :)

I believe they use normal replaceable microswitches, but if not, I have seen the full joystick swapped out which may be better anyway.

The monitor is a 13" TV with RCA input.  There is channel, volume and menu on the front.  I tried unsuccessfully to guess a code for my universal remote that would allow me into all of the menus, so I had to pull out the tv entirely and push the buttons.  I put an extra hole on the front that lined up with the menu button so I didn't have to take everything apart again.  I could just use a skinny screw driver if I needed it.  But then I swapped the whole TV anyway.  You can have my old tube if you're ever near Milwaukee for a case of Dew :-)

I'm pretty sure there is not a vertical hold unless it's in the menu somewhere or something inside the case.

Bypass the video switcher and try a good RCA straight from the cartridge to the tv to rule out the cable.  Mine was bad when I got it.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2015, 04:05:36 pm by jbserra »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #55 on: April 17, 2015, 08:21:27 am »
Now with 14 inch TFT, Jamma Board, 30 Watt Speaker, and LEDs. Work fine :-)

Is your marquee lit as well?

No not yet, working on it! But I guess it should be no problem at all!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #56 on: April 17, 2015, 08:33:01 am »
Now with 14 inch TFT, Jamma Board, 30 Watt Speaker, and LEDs. Work fine :-)

Is your marquee lit as well?

No not yet, working on it! But I guess it should be no problem at all!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #57 on: April 17, 2015, 08:37:37 am »
I just acquired one of these for $20 without even seeing it first.  I already have a MAME Machine, Mini pinball, and a Pacman and figured for $20 I can't loose.  I never knew these existed until now (10 years later), lol.  Anyway, P1 joystick will not go left and the screen is scrunched up toward the bottom, top 20% of screen is blank.  Does the joystick use a normal replaceable microswitch? and does the monitor have controls to adjust the vertical hold like a normal arcade monitor?  If so, are the switches located up front with the volume buttons or do I have to get the TV out and take the cover off?

@jbserra looking good!  :)

I believe they use normal replaceable microswitches, but if not, I have seen the full joystick swapped out which may be better anyway.

I will replace the controls soon - see pictures!



The monitor is a 13" TV with RCA input.  There is channel, volume and menu on the front.  I tried unsuccessfully to guess a code for my universal remote that would allow me into all of the menus, so I had to pull out the tv entirely and push the buttons.  I put an extra hole on the front that lined up with the menu button so I didn't have to take everything apart again.  I could just use a skinny screw driver if I needed it.  But then I swapped the whole TV anyway.  You can have my old tube if you're ever near Milwaukee for a case of Dew :-)

I'm pretty sure there is not a vertical hold unless it's in the menu somewhere or something inside the case.

Bypass the video switcher and try a good RCA straight from the cartridge to the tv to rule out the cable.  Mine was bad when I got it.

andy4sandy

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #58 on: April 17, 2015, 08:38:54 am »
I just acquired one of these for $20 without even seeing it first.  I already have a MAME Machine, Mini pinball, and a Pacman and figured for $20 I can't loose.  I never knew these existed until now (10 years later), lol.  Anyway, P1 joystick will not go left and the screen is scrunched up toward the bottom, top 20% of screen is blank.  Does the joystick use a normal replaceable microswitch? and does the monitor have controls to adjust the vertical hold like a normal arcade monitor?  If so, are the switches located up front with the volume buttons or do I have to get the TV out and take the cover off?

@jbserra looking good!  :)

I believe they use normal replaceable microswitches, but if not, I have seen the full joystick swapped out which may be better anyway.

I will replace the controls soon - see pictures!



The monitor is a 13" TV with RCA input.  There is channel, volume and menu on the front.  I tried unsuccessfully to guess a code for my universal remote that would allow me into all of the menus, so I had to pull out the tv entirely and push the buttons.  I put an extra hole on the front that lined up with the menu button so I didn't have to take everything apart again.  I could just use a skinny screw driver if I needed it.  But then I swapped the whole TV anyway.  You can have my old tube if you're ever near Milwaukee for a case of Dew :-)

I'm pretty sure there is not a vertical hold unless it's in the menu somewhere or something inside the case.

Bypass the video switcher and try a good RCA straight from the cartridge to the tv to rule out the cable.  Mine was bad when I got it.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #59 on: April 19, 2015, 01:55:46 am »
The new control panel with genuine arcade joysticks and pushbuttons looks so much better than the original setup. :)

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #60 on: August 04, 2015, 05:34:33 pm »
I have made some changes.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2015, 05:48:03 pm by andy4sandy »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #61 on: August 04, 2015, 05:35:36 pm »
I have made some changes. Now with LED banner!
« Last Edit: August 04, 2015, 05:47:46 pm by andy4sandy »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #62 on: August 06, 2015, 12:36:11 pm »
Nice touches.  What drives the little LCD?


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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #63 on: August 06, 2015, 03:30:02 pm »
The LED thing is called: USB Programmable LED Scrolling Message Id Badge Red. I bought this on Amazon.
Holds up to 1500 characters, programmable via USB. Fit´s just perfect into the gap where the original game cartridge was sitting.

I guess the cup holder look better at night when the little led glow!

« Last Edit: August 11, 2015, 03:51:21 pm by andy4sandy »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #64 on: February 01, 2016, 04:52:58 pm »
Hi all, just ran across this thread and was wondering if anyone was still active on it?  I've had one of these Midway Big Electronic Games arcade machines since 2007 (bought used) and just recently it stopped working.  Not sure if the main board went bad or perhaps the monitor.  Was just wondering if any of you had a similar problem that you troubleshooted correctly. 

Before it stopped working, I caught my 4 year old pushing the Reset button over and over forever as only kids will for some reason want to do, so I'm wondering if that messed up the board. 

I took the back of the cabinet off and only had a short time yesterday to start my troubleshooting.  The first thing I did was plug a portable DVD player into the monitor's inputs, but nothing played on the monitor.  That leads me to believe the monitor is bad.  It seems like the speakers are in the monitor as well, so that would explain why no sound is heard even if the picture is bad. 

When I have a chance to get back into it, the next thing I will try is to plug the output from the board into a working TV just to see if the board is working properly.  Anyone have any other suggestions?

One unrelated question I had is if the cartridge is supposed to be able to be pulled out from the front of the machine (above the screen)?  It looks like it should pull out, but I pried on it a little and it did not budge.  I didn't force the issue because I didn't want to break it.  Also, I started loosening the board housing from the backside of the bezel, but it would not come off despite removing the 4 screws holding it against the bezel.  Also, the screws holding the housing together are only accessible from underneath, which is just about impossible without taking the structure of the cabinet apart (I'm wondering if whoever put mine together attached the board housing to the backside of the bezel upside down by accident). 

In any case, if this thread is still active, please let me know if you have any troubleshooting tips!

-James



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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #65 on: February 08, 2016, 06:05:40 pm »
Hi all, just ran across this thread and was wondering if anyone was still active on it?  I've had one of these Midway Big Electronic Games arcade machines since 2007 (bought used) and just recently it stopped working.  Not sure if the main board went bad or perhaps the monitor.  Was just wondering if any of you had a similar problem that you troubleshooted correctly. 

Before it stopped working, I caught my 4 year old pushing the Reset button over and over forever as only kids will for some reason want to do, so I'm wondering if that messed up the board. 

I took the back of the cabinet off and only had a short time yesterday to start my troubleshooting.  The first thing I did was plug a portable DVD player into the monitor's inputs, but nothing played on the monitor.  That leads me to believe the monitor is bad.  It seems like the speakers are in the monitor as well, so that would explain why no sound is heard even if the picture is bad. 

When I have a chance to get back into it, the next thing I will try is to plug the output from the board into a working TV just to see if the board is working properly.  Anyone have any other suggestions?

One unrelated question I had is if the cartridge is supposed to be able to be pulled out from the front of the machine (above the screen)?  It looks like it should pull out, but I pried on it a little and it did not budge.  I didn't force the issue because I didn't want to break it.  Also, I started loosening the board housing from the backside of the bezel, but it would not come off despite removing the 4 screws holding it against the bezel.  Also, the screws holding the housing together are only accessible from underneath, which is just about impossible without taking the structure of the cabinet apart (I'm wondering if whoever put mine together attached the board housing to the backside of the bezel upside down by accident). 

In any case, if this thread is still active, please let me know if you have any troubleshooting tips!

-James

Hey, welcome to the post everyone wants dead ;-)

I have 2 boards so if you end up needing one, let me know.

Your troubleshooting sounds good.  If the TV didn't display an image from the DVD (assuming the tv was on), that may be a bad sign for the TV.  I went out and replaced mine with a 20" sony which is a little big, but fit just about perfect inbetween some existing bracing.  Just moved the board that keeps the TV from sliding out the back, cut a hole for the larger tv case out the back and off to the races.  Well, still working on a new bezel, but game is up and running.

Nothing really comes out easily.  I took a lot apart to get at the TV and the cartridge.  There is a metal clip that holds the cartridge into that holder.  You have to take the screw out of that or possibly pry it up while trying to remove the cartridge.  Not sure why they made it look like you could swap carts but then basically locked it in.

If you have any other questions, just send me a message.

Good luck!

EDIT:
I found these pictures from when I tore it apart:
https://goo.gl/photos/b6qixnPfrZBLPi1RA

I think that is the silver tab under the holder that is keeping the cartridge from pulling out.  You can see a sliver of it in the close up pic.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 06:11:22 pm by jbserra »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #66 on: February 20, 2016, 01:31:16 am »
Hello everyone, I'm a new owner of a Big Games Konami and Midway machine. The Konami works flawlessly, but I'm having a problem with the Midway which I hope someone here can help me with. The volume buttons on the Midway do not seem to do anything. The unit is very loud and I'm unable to lower the volume.. I wanted to try to manually lower the volume but I'm unsure how to remove the TV from the unit. Any advice on this? What screws need to be removed in order to free the TV? Is any of the wood in the unit glued instead of screwed? I see that a few of you got remotes for the TV. Could a universal remote find the code for this TV and is the remote even able to function with the TV while it is in the cab (is the sensor covered?). I'm hoping that if I get the TV loose there is just a loose connection on the volume buttons.

Edit: This morning I was able to enter the TVs on screen volume setting using a Radio Shack Universal HDTV remote (#15-135).  I had to aim the remote slightly to the right half of the TV and aim very close and down (to get behind the enclosure).The power button and volume button seems to be the only buttons that function on this remote with this TV. I'm very thankful that I was able to lower the volume from it's set volume of 76 down to a more comfortable 20. I would still like to get the volume buttons on the machine working, just because I hate to leave things undone. Any advice on easily accessing behind those buttons? Like I said previously I'm hoping it's just a loose wire. I would also love to access the TVs other settings such as color, contrast, etc like one of the users above me did. Can they be accessed with the official remote? If so, I'd order one right away.

Edit 2: I attempted to order the official remote control for the TV via sales@mybiggames.com but it was returned deliverable. Where are some of you ordering this remote control? I've also contacted TCL North America Customer Support but they said that because the TV was not manufactured in North America, they cannot help me.

Edit 3: I've been able to access all the TV's controls via the Radio Shack Universal Remote Model #15-135. So if you ever need a remote to adjust your setting, and can't find an official one, this is your best bet. Here's what the remote's buttons do:

Firstly, enter 11314 into the remote's program feature (if you need instructions on how to this this, contact me and I'll send you the instructions).
The 'Volume' button adjusts the volume of the set.
The 'CC" button (closed caption button) brings up the TV's settings (pressing the 'Volume'  button here will scroll through other option pages but only the 1st page is needed).
The 'PIP' button (picture in picture button) scrolls down through the settings menu.
The 'Volume' button will then adjust the setting you chose with the 'PIP' button.

I would still like to fix the physical volume buttons on the machine, so I appreciate the knowledge anyone may be able to give me in regards to this.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2016, 08:10:40 pm by livingonwheels »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #67 on: February 22, 2016, 10:02:39 am »
livingonwheels,

The TV removal requires a lot of disassembly.  It's not horrible, but you have to take a lot of the unit apart if I recall correctly.

The company that built these is long out of business.  There is no way to get a remote from the company anymore.

Thanks for the information on the universal remote.  I had tried a Philips remote and couldn't get the buttons to walk through the menu options so I ended up just drilling a little hole on the front to access the button on the front of the TV (when I was still using it).

I use a remote for turning on the unit and adjusting volume, but I've swapped out the TV at this point for a bigger one.  I never opened the TV, so I'm not sure what would be required to repair the volume.  You could pull it out and find that the button is broken somehow as well.  There is a button on the front bezel of the arcade which pushes a button on the front of the TV.  If they're not being pushed all the way in for some reason, they obviously wouldn't work.  If you get to the tv and the tv volume button doesn't work, then you get to crack open a TV and try your luck and repairing the circuit.  Good luck!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #68 on: February 22, 2016, 12:17:46 pm »
You were correct, the buttons on the front of the machine were not touching the TV's volume control. Just out of curiosity I decided to press the volume buttons on the cabinet a little harder than I normally would (slightly bending the enclosure). Well, it was enough for it to make contact with the volume controls on the TV! I suppose now I would consider them working, I just have to press them in a little bit harder. One other note for those who's high scores are not saving: I noticed that if you use the remote to turn off the unit (instead of the button on the side of the cabinet) your high scores will be saved. Now of course that also means the power box and electronic module in the machine is still running (even though the TV is off). Weather or not that is causing wear on the it, I do not know. I suppose it would be like keeping any vintage video game console running 24/7.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2016, 12:19:58 pm by livingonwheels »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #69 on: February 22, 2016, 12:38:58 pm »
Unfortunately, the games will not save. I've tried 2 boards and neither save even when left powered.  As soon as it goes into demo mode or loads another game, it wipes out the high scores.  I keep hoping I'm wrong, but even the developer confirmed that the mfg didn't opt for the extra ram chip to save games.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #70 on: February 22, 2016, 03:42:08 pm »
Thanks for the clarification.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2016, 03:51:34 pm by livingonwheels »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #71 on: February 22, 2016, 04:14:47 pm »
I've gone to a dedicated white board with color print out of the marquees to keep track of high scores :-)

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #72 on: February 23, 2016, 10:46:30 pm »
I have just bought one of these, player 2 up on joystick does not work, the switch Is good, I have check that I have connection all the way to the pcb board. I have a good connection. Not sure what could be wrong as the board itself looks to be good. I have connection to pin 8. What else could be wrong?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #73 on: February 24, 2016, 11:41:35 am »
I'm not sure there's much left other than a board/chip problem unless the connector for the joystick has something bent or broken. Maybe wire it straight to the board?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #74 on: February 29, 2016, 07:42:24 pm »
I've encountered an issue with my Big Games Konami machine. The screen on this machine is vertical (as opposed to the Midway screen which is horizontal). A single wavy line has appeared 3/4 down the screen. I've hooked up other video game devices to the monitor (it is a VGA monitor) and they look great, no sign of the wavy line. I've hooked up another power supply to the Konami board and the problem persists. I can't seem to hook the board up to another monitor, because I don't own another vga monitor (yet). I've tried to hook it up to a couple modern Lcds with vga inputs but it says "unsupported" on the screens. I'm hoping to find a cheap vga monitor soon, but I suspect it's the Konami board that is giving me the problem. I've cleaned the board and see no signs of damage. What could be causing this single wavy line on the screen?
« Last Edit: February 29, 2016, 07:45:10 pm by livingonwheels »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #75 on: March 01, 2016, 09:11:46 am »
I'm just shocked the Konami has a VGA connector. They made these systems appear to be cartridge based with an interchangeable cartridge, but apparently the guts are entirely different.  Obviously the monitor orientation is different, but I still thought it was the same little box with different games on the chips.

Hopefully it's not the board. Replacements may not be easy to come by.  The Konami seems to be harder to find.  You could open it up and check for something obvious like a blown capacitor or trace.  Maybe if someone knows which part of the VGA connection controls what you're seeing, you can at least narrow it down to a path.

Good luck!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #76 on: October 17, 2017, 10:00:02 pm »
Time to revive this old thread once again. No point on wasting a new threat on this nasty little cade. Anyways, I was given one of these and I just started to fiddle with it. The main issue is that the monitor only shows less than half of the screen. So I decided to hook it up to an old lcd tv I had laying around but the picture is just white and distorted. Any ideas on how to get this to work with an lcd tv or Dell monitor? I've attached a picture of what it looks like when attached to the TV.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #77 on: October 18, 2017, 11:13:47 am »
Is the video direct from the "cartridge"?  I would make sure you're bypassing the switch box to rule that out as an issue.  If you're getting a bad signal direct from the cartridge, then I would think that's implicating the board itself inside the cartridge.  You may have to open it up and see if there's anything obvious, otherwise you may be hunting for a replacement cartridge.

Other options would be to hack an old Playstation 2 controller to the control panel and put in the Midway Classics game disk in the PS2.  Raspberry pi with Retropie would be another option.  The pinout for the control panel is included in this thread.  I've used it to hack in a PS2 controller successfully.

Good luck!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #78 on: October 18, 2017, 11:21:06 am »
 I plugged it in directly to the box, I think the cartridge box is good because I can see it on the original TLC TV. The problem is that it only shows less than half the screen.
Could you elaborate a little more on the PS2 Raspberry Pi options? Both seem interesting to me.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #79 on: October 18, 2017, 02:44:52 pm »
I tried to find a picture, but I took an old playstation2 controller, took it apart, scratched a little spot on each of the metal under the buttons and soldered a ribbon cable to each location.  The ribbon cable had a floppy drive connector on the other side that actually fit the Control panel edge connector, so I just had to match up the wire on the edge connector to the ps2 controller input using the pin diagrams in this post.  I can slip that edge connector on, plug the hacked controller into the playstation, power up and off I go.

For a Raspberry Pi, you could use the instructions and software from something like this:
http://www.retrobuiltgames.com/diy-kits-shop/arcade-fight-stick-v3/

I happen to have one of those kits, so I would probably just use the Midway buttons/joystick instead of the ones in the fight stick and be off and running.  One potential issue is the Pi is HDMI, so you would need a converter or a different display.  I'm using a 20" Trinitron at the moment which isn't HDMI compatible, so I'd have to either swap it or find a converter.

I'm sure there are other ways to do it too, but that's where I would start.




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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #80 on: October 18, 2017, 09:28:50 pm »
I've been having an issue with my Konami machine (the one with vga). In the lower left corner of the vga screen I see some wavy lines or interference of some sort. I'd say about a couple inches or so. I hooked the machine's board up to another monitor and didn't have this issue. I also ran different power supplies to the machine's board to see if there was any difference, and there was not. Lastly I connected a Dreamcast to the machines monitor to see if the monitor itself was the issue, but the Dreamcast's image was perfect, no wavy line interference at all. It just seems the machine's board and monitor are not working well together anymore for some reason.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #81 on: October 20, 2017, 10:35:07 pm »
Interestingly enough, hooked up an old Commodore 64 monitor I had laying around and it works. I'll see if I can get it mounted for giggles. The funny thing is that the monitor is worth more than the cade fully restored.  ;D

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #82 on: October 23, 2017, 11:00:59 am »
Here are some pics of the playstation conversion

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #83 on: October 24, 2017, 11:03:00 am »
I've been messing around with one of these for a while, and after raising the base up 6 inches on a riser box, it feels a lot better to play.

What I wanted to do was do some other cheap mods to it, like replace the 12 inch TV, and maybe put a lighted marquee on it.

The problem is the CPU box apparently puts out a super weak signal, so that most TVs won't recognize it.

I've tried adapter cables to get it to display to LCDs thru VGA but no dice (that was one suggestion I received).

Does ANYONE have the model numbers of TVs that they have used that work? 

I've tried posting around a few places but had little luck.

I know the old RetroBlast website had a page talking about modifying this thing, but that site is long gone and archive.org doesn't have that article saved.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #84 on: October 24, 2017, 02:18:51 pm »
PM me your email address.  I can share from Dropbox the contents of the old RetroBlast website for this machine.

I'm using a 20" Sony Trinitron CRT TV.  Works great.  Might be a little big for the graphic capabilities, but fits the cabinet and works properly.  I submitted some pictures previously to this thread.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2017, 02:24:18 pm by jbserra »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #85 on: December 08, 2017, 09:41:40 am »
Does anyone have the tabletop version of this arcade game? The tabletop has RCA jacks as an input for plug and play games or an additional console to be viewed through the monitor. Is there a way to disassemble a PS controller and attach it to the control buttons on the system?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #86 on: January 05, 2018, 09:31:07 pm »
Thanks for sharing JBSierra, that is good info.

As far as I know, the standup version also has those rca jacks in the interface box on the inside for plug and play games.

Were you trying to replace the original joysticks and buttons with a PS controller?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #87 on: January 06, 2018, 10:09:53 am »
Does anyone have the tabletop version of this arcade game? The tabletop has RCA jacks as an input for plug and play games or an additional console to be viewed through the monitor. Is there a way to disassemble a PS controller and attach it to the control buttons on the system?

Yes, you can use an old PS controller and the pinout on this thread to allow the use of the control panel with a Playstation.  Pictures were in Reply #82 above.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #88 on: January 11, 2018, 01:11:07 am »
Would someone be able to help me out by sending over the archived webpage for this cabinet? Yes I too fell into the trap and looking to change the monitor and add more sound.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #89 on: January 21, 2018, 09:14:48 pm »
It is both hilarious and interesting to me that this thread is still going.  When I first found it, and saw it started in 2007, I had no hope.  But seeing that it keeps getting revived, I've gotta laugh, and join in.

I have attempted the same as Ice2921.  I cannot get it to work properly on an LCD.  I have a Dell LCD 4:3 monitor with a composite input.  Sometimes I get a B/W display with strange lines, although the games are perfectly visible.  Sometimes I get what looks like a weak signal along with an off-color band going down the left side of the monitor about 1/5 of the way in from the side.  It looks good on the CRT the unit came with, but as we know, the colors are a bit off and it's quite small.  My idea was to convert this into a tabletop as the base was trashed on mine.

I have no serious love for this thing, but 4 dear friends of mine spent way too much on it for me and I want to resurrect it to make them feel better.  I know they paid at least 200 bucks for it.  I didn't have the heart to tell them it was crap.  Only that the base was water damaged and it needed to be rebuilt.

I saw up above that Viewsonix stated the box might just not put out enough juice for another monitor.  Has anyone tried a video amp?  I'd much rather use an LCD, but I do have a source of old flat screen CRTs at work.  I'm going to bring one home to see if the display is better on one of those.  But LCD is definitely desired.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #90 on: February 02, 2018, 11:41:37 am »
Would someone be able to help me out by sending over the archived webpage for this cabinet? Yes I too fell into the trap and looking to change the monitor and add more sound.

PM your email address and I'll add you to the share on dropbox.  Thanks

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #91 on: February 02, 2018, 11:44:46 am »
It is both hilarious and interesting to me that this thread is still going.  When I first found it, and saw it started in 2007, I had no hope.  But seeing that it keeps getting revived, I've gotta laugh, and join in.

I have attempted the same as Ice2921.  I cannot get it to work properly on an LCD.  I have a Dell LCD 4:3 monitor with a composite input.  Sometimes I get a B/W display with strange lines, although the games are perfectly visible.  Sometimes I get what looks like a weak signal along with an off-color band going down the left side of the monitor about 1/5 of the way in from the side.  It looks good on the CRT the unit came with, but as we know, the colors are a bit off and it's quite small.  My idea was to convert this into a tabletop as the base was trashed on mine.

I have no serious love for this thing, but 4 dear friends of mine spent way too much on it for me and I want to resurrect it to make them feel better.  I know they paid at least 200 bucks for it.  I didn't have the heart to tell them it was crap.  Only that the base was water damaged and it needed to be rebuilt.

I saw up above that Viewsonix stated the box might just not put out enough juice for another monitor.  Has anyone tried a video amp?  I'd much rather use an LCD, but I do have a source of old flat screen CRTs at work.  I'm going to bring one home to see if the display is better on one of those.  But LCD is definitely desired.

The only place on the internet to talk about it! :-)  Welcome to the party!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #92 on: February 05, 2018, 05:55:32 pm »
Hey, thanks! 

I got it working on an old Commodore CRT, and a tiny 7" LCD screen from a vehicle entertainment system.  But no go on a 20" LCD.  My buddy brought over a VHS enhancer (one of those old tweaking boxes for getting past Macrovision), and it didn't help much at all.  I think I might try buying a straight video AMP from Amazon and give it a shot.  I REALLY want it working with this Dell 20" LCD.


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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #93 on: February 08, 2018, 12:27:38 pm »
Greetings all!  What a wonderful thread.  I am here to help keep it going with some questions.  Keep in mind this is my first foray into Arcades as a hobby.(Not to mention from reading reviews around the web and this thread it appears people do not consider this device a "true" arcade system, but meh!)

I picked one of these up a week back or so for what I felt was relatively cheap.  It fired up and I could play "some" of the games.  The problem was that not all of the controls worked.  Upon removing the controller platform I discovered why.  It appears, what I will call the pass-through controller pcb, that the wire connections have been soldered and re-soldered countless times.  I found numerous wire breaks.  (Image 1)With this knowledge and the wiring pin out found in this thread, (Thanks for that btw!) I will be attempting to remove all wires this weekend and cleaning up the board as best as possible and then re-tinning all the wires and soldering them back into the board.

My question is directed to jbserra.  Where did you find the board you were using to mod that controller?  (jbserra's image from post above or Image 2 attached)  My thought was, if my cleanup and re-solder was not successful this weekend, could I not get two of those boards and and hook one up for Player 1 controls and one up for Player 2 controls and figure a way out to mount them inside?  Was that a specific board for your mod or is it just a pass-through for the connections much like the original board in the system?

Anyway, thanks again for keeping this thread alive and the information provided here.  It has helped me feel much more comfortable about taking on what I am going to do.  I do not plan on doing any mods "yet"  I would like to get it up and running first and let the kids and grandkids play it first.  Not to mention, I spent many an allowance and mowed many a lawn just to feed my Joust addiction.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #94 on: February 16, 2018, 04:01:04 pm »
That is the original board that plugs into the back of the cartridge, but you have to remove it from the sleeve.  I disconnect the board from the back of the cartridge and hook my ribbon cable to it to take the CP inputs and pass it along to my hacked PS2 controller which is plugged into the PS2 :-)

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #95 on: February 23, 2018, 12:23:06 pm »
Yeah, I guess it is.  The one I had was pretty beat up from constant re-solders.  I managed to clean it up, re-tin all the wires and re-solder everything cleanly.  Only issue was the reset solder pad was missing.  I can jump that one later to an unused pad if needed.  Probably good that I do not have it anyway so that the grand kids can't constantly hit the reset button.

Thanks for the input!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #96 on: March 06, 2018, 11:45:41 pm »
No luck with either the video amp or the Composite to HDMI conversion.  I still get terrible video with strange lines going down the screen.  What could possibly cause this thing to work very well with other CRTs, but not play nice with LCD  (except for that little 7 inch guy)?


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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #97 on: July 22, 2018, 10:08:11 pm »
The year is 2018 and I'm needing a monitor for my big midway that this forum is about.. so I'll run my issue by yall. Its plugged up and I cut the switch on and within 5 seconds u see the monitor attempt to turn on some colors appear then it shuts off with a white dot about 3 inches across.. with 1/4 of the top of the screen also lit and then goes black. No sounds either. I seen a pic of the machine working when it was posted for sale,  I got it for free when I went to get it and it was doing this. I'll try to post 2 pics... i so wanna show my kid defender and joust and rampage.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #98 on: August 27, 2018, 09:19:17 pm »
The year is 2018 and I'm needing a monitor for my big midway that this forum is about.. so I'll run my issue by yall. Its plugged up and I cut the switch on and within 5 seconds u see the monitor attempt to turn on some colors appear then it shuts off with a white dot about 3 inches across.. with 1/4 of the top of the screen also lit and then goes black. No sounds either. I seen a pic of the machine working when it was posted for sale,  I got it for free when I went to get it and it was doing this. I'll try to post 2 pics... i so wanna show my kid defender and joust and rampage.

It might be a little too late to help you out, but have you tried flipping the switch under the unit? I had a similar issue and my switch was "in the middle" when it should have been either to the left or right.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #99 on: September 13, 2018, 03:27:43 pm »
I just picked up one of these machines and it appears it was working except the control panel.  I didn't care about the internals however so I gutted it  and i'm in the process of building a vertical machine with an LCD, light up marquee, and new control panel.   If anyone needs a control panel, buttons, 12 in 1 game board, Non light up wood marquee, or bezel just let me know.  I will give you want ever you want for free as I rather you have a working machine than my trash can eating arcade parts. As for the TV, I've already trashed that piece.   

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #100 on: September 24, 2018, 10:46:45 pm »
I would like the game board. Where are you located?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #101 on: September 24, 2018, 10:54:28 pm »
Also. I have a question about the original TCL TV. I have a harmony remote. I tried programming it with the TCL brand and model number into it. The TV doesn't respond. Has some one figured out what brand remote has worked for it. If any have worked. I know someone before got a universal remote to work. But I don't have that type. The harmony ones are programmed with info.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #102 on: October 04, 2018, 10:13:43 pm »
Here is some repair information about the monitor in these machines (including a link to the monitor schematic):

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=437315
« Last Edit: October 05, 2018, 01:01:22 pm by Ken Layton »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #103 on: February 09, 2019, 11:26:22 pm »
Brand new to this. Forum

I have never been able to get the game settings for difficulty and spaceships to work on my. Big electronics game. Cartridge

Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help

jbserra

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #104 on: April 18, 2019, 04:29:28 pm »
Also. I have a question about the original TCL TV. I have a harmony remote. I tried programming it with the TCL brand and model number into it. The TV doesn't respond. Has some one figured out what brand remote has worked for it. If any have worked. I know someone before got a universal remote to work. But I don't have that type. The harmony ones are programmed with info.

I never found it either.  I tried with a Philips programmable remote, but none worked.  In the end, I drilled small holes over the buttons I needed access to so I could use a paper clip.  Ultimately, replaced the TV anyway with a 20" Sony.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #105 on: April 18, 2019, 04:31:56 pm »
Brand new to this. Forum

I have never been able to get the game settings for difficulty and spaceships to work on my. Big electronics game. Cartridge

Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help

Did you try holding player1 and player2?  You should be able to change settings for all games from that menu.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #106 on: May 13, 2019, 11:28:30 am »
Hi, I am new to this forum, I just picked up one of these units for $125.  JBSERRA,  I was interested  in any information and/or pictures on how you replaced the screen with a 20" sony.  Concerned that a crt screen will be too heavy!  Thanks.  Chris.  Any other help with screen replacement would be greatly appreciated! !!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #107 on: May 26, 2020, 01:59:25 pm »
PM me your email address.  I can share from Dropbox the contents of the old RetroBlast website for this machine.

I'm using a 20" Sony Trinitron CRT TV.  Works great.  Might be a little big for the graphic capabilities, but fits the cabinet and works properly.  I submitted some pictures previously to this thread.

I cant PM for some reason, can you PM me this info too please?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #108 on: June 18, 2020, 02:39:51 pm »
PM me your email address.  I can share from Dropbox the contents of the old RetroBlast website for this machine.

I'm using a 20" Sony Trinitron CRT TV.  Works great.  Might be a little big for the graphic capabilities, but fits the cabinet and works properly.  I submitted some pictures previously to this thread.

I cant PM for some reason, can you PM me this info too please?

Sent!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #109 on: August 24, 2020, 11:54:52 am »
ok so i actually found one of these things on the side of the road with FREE next to it. apparently the previous owner had it outdoors somewhere so the cabinet is not in great shape anymore but im going to build a new one. my project with this is not only to add a new screen(hd if possible) but also use my raspberry pi thats gathering dust in the other room to just basically make a retropie machine. the thing still works great surprisingly i wanted to know if the gaming module will hook into an hdtv and if it is possible to have a multi system where i can still use the built in midway games and dual boot to the pi if i wanted. anyone taken on such a project and is it even worth it or should i put it back out on the corner with FREE next to it?

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #110 on: September 23, 2020, 01:22:49 pm »
It requires an RCA input.  There are RCAs out on the "computer".  You would need an LCD with RCA input.  You could always run sound to speakers if it's a monitor with a single video RCA input.

There is a video switch box inside the cabinet for the TV, so you could switch the video between sources, but that doesn't switch the controls.  You can probably wire your pi to the controls simultaneous to the existing computer and just power up one unit or the other and use the switch box for video.  If your LCD support HDMI, then you would switch inputs on the LCD.

If you don't want the old game unit, let me know. I might be interested as a spare.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #111 on: March 15, 2021, 03:21:11 pm »
My son in law just dropped one of these off to me that he has had since it was new.
Monitor h-hold was out, so I replaced the cap and got everything up and running.

I checked the monitor while it was out using a commodore 64, and it looked good.. really good.
But when I got it back in the game, every thing was dark and smeary, with horrible colors.

So I removed the cart assembly and tried it on different monitors, and it's color is awful.. Black and white on most lcds (if they sync at all),
Look at it on a scope, the colorburst signal is very low. Has anybody ever figured out a hardware fix to get good video out of these things?

Thanks.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #112 on: March 15, 2021, 04:54:45 pm »
My son in law just dropped one of these off to me that he has had since it was new.
Monitor h-hold was out, so I replaced the cap and got everything up and running.

I checked the monitor while it was out using a commodore 64, and it looked good.. really good.
But when I got it back in the game, every thing was dark and smeary, with horrible colors.

So I removed the cart assembly and tried it on different monitors, and it's color is awful.. Black and white on most lcds (if they sync at all),
Look at it on a scope, the colorburst signal is very low. Has anybody ever figured out a hardware fix to get good video out of these things?

Thanks.

What do you mean, "it's color is awful"?  Do you mean it doesn't look like the original game, it's faded, wrong color selection or what?  It does look like some folks had issues with getting LCDs to display properly (see above posts).  The original tube looked fine when I got mine, but it was dark. I found my brightness was at 50%.  Cranked it up to 100% and image looked just fine.  I now run a 20" Sony tv in it and it has colors and I think it looks decent.  If you want to use the original cartridge, just grab a free/cheap tube off Craigslist and off you go!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #113 on: March 15, 2021, 09:45:57 pm »
What I mean is that the games are too dark, and colors are wayyyyy off

But the same TV using a different input device. (I.e. a commodore 64.) is displaying all the colors correctly, brightness and contrast are good. And looking at the output of the original game board (cart),
it's a very weak signal.

Hooking the board up to one of my Sony PVMs, same dark screen with very muted colors. Like everything is muted pastels.

Robotron has never looked so bad, and bubbles is basically unplayable (Player character is lost in the background except for the eyes and smile.)
Another example, in robotron the hulks are grey. And I still don't think I've see a bright red out of this thing while on the PVM.
Joust logo is pale yellow with orange highlights.

Here's the title screen for splat




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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #114 on: March 16, 2021, 09:28:41 am »
Yeah, I'm not sure.  Maybe there is something with the board.  There isn't much red (as you mentioned), but there is some.  Here's a couple of screens:

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #115 on: March 16, 2021, 10:56:03 am »
The pictures didn't do it much justice.  There is more contrast when viewing directly.  There is a Yellow and an orange and those look blended together in the pictures I sent.  I think some of that was lost in taking the pictures.  Bubble is playable as a little blue drop floating around on a lighter blue background.  Sounds like you've lost contrast somewhere.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #116 on: March 16, 2021, 11:52:42 am »
Yeah, my board is nowhere near as good video quality as that one. Maybe a capacitor on the board is going, but they are all surface mount in the video section, and I have no idea of the values.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #117 on: March 16, 2021, 01:02:37 pm »
I used hot air to reflow the caps near the video out port (C33 thru C35) and that actually brought back the color.. weird.

I was also having a issue where the board wouldn't startup all the time and would take multiple power cycles to boot.

Replacing C2 (10uf @ 10v) cured that.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #118 on: March 16, 2021, 01:06:56 pm »
That is great information!  Thanks on the C2 heads up.  Mine occasionally does not boot as well.  Guess I'll have to take a look.

Now if you're savvy, see if you can figure out how to keep the high scores :-)

Thanks!

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #119 on: June 12, 2021, 12:30:16 am »
So I adopted one of these and was going to replace the monitor but while I was testing it out i pressed the reset button.
once you do that the unit stops working then at a random time minutes or hours later it will start working...

any thoughts?

Has anymore made a ribbon cable to jamma adapter for this?
it seems to be a ton of the still out there lol

Keith

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #120 on: July 27, 2021, 11:40:39 am »
So I adopted one of these and was going to replace the monitor but while I was testing it out i pressed the reset button.
once you do that the unit stops working then at a random time minutes or hours later it will start working...

any thoughts?

Has anymore made a ribbon cable to jamma adapter for this?
it seems to be a ton of the still out there lol

Keith

I haven't done it, but the buttons would be pretty easy.  You might have to add a couple for coin, etc.  You might have to swap the monitor if you're going to use VGA, though.  The "monitor" only has RCA inputs.

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #121 on: August 03, 2021, 11:47:44 pm »
I'm now also having that issue where the board won't startup all the time and it takes multiple power cycles to boot.
I've read earlier that replacing C2 (10uf @ 10v) on the board fixed that.
Where is this board located in this machine? Is it in the plastic box that also hold the cartridge? Or is it that green board located under the joysticks?
Pictures from RetroBlast:

« Last Edit: August 10, 2021, 04:04:26 pm by PL1 »

jbserra

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #122 on: August 10, 2021, 03:26:34 pm »
I'm now also having that issue where the board won't startup all the time and it takes multiple power cycles to boot.
I've read earlier that replacing C2 (10uf @ 10v) on the board fixed that.
Where is this board located in this machine? Is it in the plastic box that also hold the cartridge? Or is it that green board located under the joysticks?
Pictures from RetroBlast:



The circuit board is in the "cartridge" which is the top part of that picture above the blue tv.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2021, 04:04:53 pm by PL1 »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #123 on: May 09, 2022, 04:28:56 pm »
Has anyone here successfully removed that cartridge in the Midway machine? Doesn't seem to remove from the front of cabinet, so I removed the 4 screws holding it in from the rear of the cab (as shown in the reply above mine). Pulls out perhaps a 1/8 inch, can't get it to budge any further. If I pull any harder I feel I might break it right through the backboard. The front of the cartridge is preventing me from pulling it out from the back due to two "latches" holding it in from the front. Seems like it should just pull out from the front (to insert another cartridge, implied by the "series 1" marking on the cart), obviously no other cartridges were made though. Should I just keep pulling from the front or rear until it comes loose? Could it be inserted that tightly? I wonder if it's actually glued in due to Big Games knowing there would be a further cartridges.
I was encountering  that issue that other owners have had in this topic of having to turn the cabinet on/off a couple times until it successfully booted (you would just hear a buzzing and a non-image on the screen). Was going to replace the C2 as discussed earlier in this thread. But about a year or so ago I just wiggled the cartridge, from the front of the machine, and have had no issues the entire year until yesterday. I figured the cartridge slots might need cleaning, the reason I'd like to pull it out.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2022, 02:53:32 pm by livingonwheels »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #124 on: May 19, 2022, 08:44:42 pm »
Has anyone here successfully removed that cartridge in the Midway machine? Doesn't seem to remove from the front of cabinet, so I removed the 4 screws holding it in from the rear of the cab (as shown in the reply above mine). Pulls out perhaps a 1/8 inch, can't get it to budge any further. If I pull any harder I feel I might break it right through the backboard. The front of the cartridge is preventing me from pulling it out from the back due to two "latches" holding it in from the front. Seems like it should just pull out from the front (to insert another cartridge, implied by the "series 1" marking on the cart), obviously no other cartridges were made though. Should I just keep pulling from the front or rear until it comes loose? Could it be inserted that tightly? I wonder if it's actually glued in due to Big Games knowing there would be a further cartridges.
I was encountering  that issue that other owners have had in this topic of having to turn the cabinet on/off a couple times until it successfully booted (you would just hear a buzzing and a non-image on the screen). Was going to replace the C2 as discussed earlier in this thread. But about a year or so ago I just wiggled the cartridge, from the front of the machine, and have had no issues the entire year until yesterday. I figured the cartridge slots might need cleaning, the reason I'd like to pull it out.

The cartridge does NOT pull out.  It is not removable or replaceable without taking it out and taking it apart.  You have to detach it from the back and then it's in an outer shell that has to be unscrewed.  Inside the case it's the "cartridge" with RCAs for AV, a flat ribbon connection to the control panel, and power.  I also feel like there was a clip that held it in place too, but I have mine out because I replaced the bezel.  Hopefully some pictures will help.

The only "cartridge slot" is the ribbon cable/connector for the control panel.  Not sure that would affect boot up.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2022, 08:47:02 pm by jbserra »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #125 on: August 05, 2023, 06:44:17 pm »
For anyone still following this topic, I had made up for me new light-up marquees for both my Konami and Midway cabs. Here's a couple pictures, believe it or not they are lit up in these photos'. They look absolutely gorgeous:

https://postimg.cc/G4b7pQGs
https://postimg.cc/K4LJrV5M
« Last Edit: August 05, 2023, 06:49:43 pm by livingonwheels »

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #126 on: September 12, 2023, 04:15:02 pm »
Those look great!  Do you have the steps/artwork you took to create those?

livingonwheels

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Re: Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games
« Reply #127 on: September 12, 2023, 05:20:18 pm »
Those look great!  Do you have the steps/artwork you took to create those?

Angel from "This Ability Upgrades" did these marquees for me. They came to around $70 each (which included the marquee, lightbar, hardware, and shipping). I had sent him my original Big Games marquees from my cabinets so he could make a perfect match. He has my files on record, so if you do decide to have him make them for you, you won't need to send your originals obviously. There are power strips inside these cabinets, so you'll plug them straight into the machine itself, which is great (the cabinets powers the marquees). One of the cabinets has it's power strip enclosed, so to make it easier for yourself, you can just use an outlet adapter (or small extension cord) to divide the single exposed outlet into two. If I remember correctly, I also drilled a small hole to run the marquee's light cords under the cabinet's marquee "base" in the rear of the cabinet. But I'm a perfectionist and you could just use a knife and cut a small upside down "V" on the base to run the cord. Also I preferred to make my own holes in the sides of the marquees during installation. The holes he made didn't line up as closely as I would have preferred. But it's just soft plastic so you can make those holes easily with anything, even a pointy Philipps screwdriver. Because the cabinets were not made with a lightbar in mind, I used black contact paper to block all areas where you will have "light bleed", but electrical tape would probably do just as well. I used the contact paper from the inside of the cabinet, not the outside (so it won't be noticeable). Once you turn off your room lights, and turn the cabinets on, you will see exactly where you need to apply the tape. It took me a few tries to get the correct position for the contact paper, for you need to be exact so you don't block any light from the marquee. It's around 20" from the rear of the cabinet to the marquee itself so you really have to reach. I placed the lightbar 4" from the marquee, on the top. If you decide to get this done, and you need help, just let me know and I'll post pictures of my installation, for I know some of what I'm trying to explain might sound confusing, but really it was quite easy.  He prefers to communicate via text so I'll PM you his number.