Arcade Collecting > Restorations & repair
Mario Bros in Red !
Kevin Mullins:
Personally I have always wanted to build a Mario Bros. and mentally I have always thought it would look best in a red cabinet........ TADA !!......sure enough it really does look good in that cab.
Keep it as is.
DK's can be found easy enough.
Radar Scope just ain't worth the hassle to round up the parts for.
(my opinion of course) :cheers:
Great history find for sure though.
Hard to find a red one that has been converted over at least twice now and still have the TRS tag on it. :applaud:
Level42:
Thanks Kevin !
I love the cab as it is, the Mario Bros. art is simply great both in design and shape. (I think the cutenes factor was something that Nintendo has always been strong in. Atari f.i. failed in that part, they made great games, but they never had a "hero" that players could relate too.....drifting off ;) )
Did you also notice some color differences on the side-art ? Mario's blue outfit seems to be a little bit lighter than I've seen on other pics on the internet......could be that the repro's are a bit off of course.....I "think" the side-art on this one are originals, but how can I know for sure ? I have also tried feeling if there is some other artwork under the Mario Bros. but there doesn't seem to be anything so it's probably been removed.
I think the biggest mystery is why the monitor is (back ?) in it's vertical position. I haven't investigated so far if the parts for putting it horizontal have been installed. That monitor is built in a pretty riggid frame...gotta study the Mario Bras Pak instructions on how that was done...
Radar Scope is out of the question for me. Besides finding the parts, this would be nice to do if it would be my 6th or so cab of this shape, but it isn't.
You say "DK's can be found easy enough". That may be true in the US, but here in Europe it's a LOT different. I can tell you that I don't even remember seeing a dedicated Donkey Kong here in the 80s. I played Crazy Kong lots of times though, but of course these were in generic cabs. I did play a lot of DKjr and I think that one (at a movie theatre) was an original, but again not 100% sure....
Anyway, they are very rare here, just like most classics. I think if I would re-convert it to a Kong (and do a restoration) it would be worth quite a bit here....especialy since it's red.
Hah, yeah that TRS-tag is great....I hadn't expected that this one would have come from Japan though.
I checked out the CP yesterday, and there's some broken microswiches for sure. I also saw that the joysticks are limited by a 2-way restrictor plate (and of course there are no up-down microswitches), but I guess it could be made into 4 (or even 8) ways. I've checked around, and the only Mario Bros. PCB I found so far is at Mikesarcade.com and it's a whopping $140,-
I'd thought the CPO would be available as weel, but all I can find is the version for the wide-body, not for the conversion-kit :(
I'm in no rush though, I first have to get the Galaxian ready, so I can look around for some time. If I fail to find one, I might be putting an old PC in it running Mame. Or one of these 1000 in 1 boards ? I'd love to be able to play DK(jr) and Popeye as well on this cab...even if it needs monitor rotation
By the way, it turned out the lock was not locked and I could pry the back open ....here's some pics:
1st: back open, there's the 2nd power supply....
2nd: Yep, it's the original Sanyo monitor alright
Level42:
Some more inside pics....lots of wires and small connectors....
Kevin Mullins:
I'm wondering if the conversion to Mario Bros. was ever completed. (?)
The wiring harness is super clean compared to the rest of the original inside stuff.
The Radarscope/DK harness would be different from the Mario Bros.
You might have some "extra" stuff in there as well.
What kind of edge connectors can you find in there?
And that might also explain why the monitor is still vertically mounted.
Are there any extra holes in the sides of the cabinet around the monitor mounting holes?
The conversion from vertical to horizontal always required some new holes.
So maybe it was never mounted horizontally.
It does appear to have the Sanyo 20EZ.
But a good cleaning would be in order to sort things out a bit further on the wiring.
Could be interesting. ;D
Level42:
Kevin, you're right. This conversion was never completed. There are no extra holes in the sides....No brackets for horizontal positioning of the monitor. The whole monitor fixing looks like a puzzle to me though....a huge "wood" case around the monitor...I don't know where to start to remove it....it looks very different from the metal "framed" monitors I've seen on pictures on Kong machines.....maybe this was a Radar Scope "feature" ?
MAYBE this will make it able to put it in horizontal position still ? Will require a LOT of "hacking" though I fear....
Indeed, there are also "spare" cables. Shouldn't there be at least one big PCB-edge connector ? Didn't find it....
Check out the pics 1st is the top of the "cage" right, mounted into the side panel, 2nd the same on the left.
3rd: The space between the left side of the cab and the "cage" around the monitor.
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