Unconverting Eight Ball Action back to DKJR -------With Pics-------

[ElfShotTheFood]

I just won an auction for an eight ball action game that is a converted donkey kong junior. 
Big thanks to everyone who didn't bid against me  (thats all of you cause i got it for the starting bid.) 

I haven't picked up the game yet, or even started the argument of where are we going to put it.   from what I've read the conversion was just a rom chip swap.  so now the quest for dkjr rom chips begins.  i will probably try to get a full junior board set and leave the 8ball set together.  unless anyone has a set of dkjr rom chips lying around.  Of course the only junior pcb on eBay right now has no chips on it.    

From what i can see in the bad pictures from the auction, it looks like the jr bezel was just turned around backwards,  possibly the marquee was reversed also and the someone used markers or crayons to make a "eight ball video" marquee.    the game appears to have the 8ball cp graphics on it.  so i am looking at having to get new side art, control panel graphics and the instruction sticker sometime after it plays junior again.

Is anyone actually interested in 8ball action?   klov lists it as a 2 on there scale of common/uncommon,  but its not really that much fun to play.   I have had visions of taking the board and making a nice pool table type cocktail for it, complete with a green felt monitor bezel and such, but i know that i will never do it.

Has anyone here had any experience with this type of conversion?  would it be possible for me (or someone) to program new chips for the board? Does anyone have a dkjr pcb or side art set they don't want?  hehe

well here are the bad pics from the auction.

[AwesomeAlbert]

I have a dk3 marquee. pm me if intrested. Wait, dk3 is blue? nevermind .

[FrizzleFried]

It's GOTTA be gone by now,  but someone either here or over at the KLOV website was selling a DKJR restoration art set...included side art, instruction card for under the bezel,  instruction card for the CPO, insert coin stickers all for $50.00 I think it was.

[ElfShotTheFood]

My first priority will be to get it playing dkjr again.  the side art and such will have to wait, unless an offer i cant refuse comes along.

[Kevin Mullins]

Eight Ball Action was merely a ROM swap kit if I remember correctly.

The rest of the restoration should just be the pretty stuff, side art, cpo, marquee, etc.

Is there a metal tag on the back of the cabinet, near the top?
If so, what does it have for the model?

[ElfShotTheFood]

Hopefully I will be able to pick it up tomorrow.  I'll definitely post some    just as soon as i can get my grubby hands on it.


so what happened to all the various rom chips that people removed from good games to make eight ball action.   i played it recently and well it kinda sucks.    should i pick up a marquee to go with the chips and the cp art and see if anyone wants the set?

[Kevin Mullins]

it kinda sucks.   

Kinda ? ......  Kinda ? ..... No, it REALLY sucks.

should i pick up a marquee to go with the chips and the cp art and see if anyone wants the set?

Don't waste your time or money on that one, nobody will REALLY want it.

Convert it back to original and keep the Eight Ball ROMs for nostalgia sake for yourself.
(or use them to burn something more useful) 

[ElfShotTheFood]

well i was trying to be nice to the poor game. 

ok, so eight ball action scores a 2 on klov because nobody wants it  hehe

the marquee for it is on eBay for $3.99 plus about $8 shipping.  is seems like a good idea to have the marquee and cp together,  but who knows.

could i burn the eight ball action roms back to dkjr?   i know there are diy rom burners for network card rom chips,  could it really be that easy,  I'm guessing no. 

[Kevin Mullins]

could i burn the eight ball action roms back to dkjr?   

Possibly.... I'm not sure on what size and type each of those games used. (probably the same)

But I would just contact somone like: HOBBYROMS.COM

Here's the manual for the Eight Ball conversion. It might give you a better idea what all is changed.
 EightBall Action Manual
Do you have the two board or four board pcb set?
Have you had a chance to find out about the nameplate tag on the back of the machine?

[ElfShotTheFood]

This is incredible info that i did not find in my searches
 
thank you very much.   

unfortunately i haven't heard back from the guy that has the game,  he said (in a brief phone conversation) that he is on vacation till the 4th and that he would call his son to find out when i could pick it up, and call me back.   haven't heard back from him yet. 

thanks again,  if your ever at the jersey shore let me know,  I'll buy you beers and some ribs and wings at my dad's BBQ shack.

[Kevin Mullins]

Just be sure to keep us posted on how this one goes for ya.

[Rocky]

I'm very interested in your project.  I had a working 8-ball deluxe with a converted DK Jr board in it.  I burned all the DK Jr ROMS for it and it did nothing.  My board also had a small adaptor board that I wasn't sure if it was original or part of the 8-ball kit.

Hope it works for you.  8-ball really sucks.

[ElfShotTheFood]

The pdf that kevin posted the link to mentions a sub-board that goes into the z-80 cpu socket.  that sounds like the adapter board you mention.  hopefully i will be able to follow those directions backwards to restore the glory of dkjr. 

Still waiting to hear from the guy.   

[Kevin Mullins]

Remove that sub-board and replace your Z80 CPU back in it's place.
The location depends on whther you have the two or four board set..... be sure to read the correct section.

[BrentRadio]

You can send your 8 ball roms to hobbyroms.com and he will burn them for you to save some cash.

I also have 2 new blue buttons (leaf) for DK or DK Jr. for $9 shipped.

Brent

[ElfShotTheFood]

well, i finally got my hands on the game late last night.  and finally cracked it open this morning.   

the little plate on the back does indeed say djr1-up-us.  serial somewhere in the 7000s.

the bezel is intact, just spun around backwards.   the board is also djr-something.

it is very clean inside,  not much dust. 

the marquee was covered with some poster board, and it covered a kung fu commando marquee that is trashed.

It has the original power supply, and the monitor looks great.


pics are coming soon.

[ElfShotTheFood]

well, here are the 

as you can see it has some dings in it.  all will be fixed in time, although i will probably wait until after we move to fix up the outside.

apparently eightball action was its second conversion.  i had never heard of "special forces - kung fu commando" before seeing whats left of the marquee.

the machine is missing the cardboard monitor blind,   hehe can i send a request to nintendo for part number djru-01-67   

the last pic shows the "marquee" that was on it,  which was the first thing i ripped off,  i was hoping to find the jr marquee underneath, but alas, no luck

[ElfShotTheFood]

ok while looking for info about replacing the 8ball roms i noticed on maws they have details on all the rom files.       here is an example

v_7f.bin  2048    0f8c083f    dkongjr      0b688ae9da296b2447fffa5e135fd6a56ec3e790
c-2e.bpr  256   463dc7ad   dkongjr      b2c9f22facc8885be2d953b056eb8dcddd4f34cb

am i correct to assume, judging by the names of the file that the first one is a 2m eeprom that goes on the video board at location 7f of the grid? and the second is a 256k that goes at location 2e of the cpu board?    i understand what the crc number is but what does the sha1 number mean.  is it another type of checksum?  is it the number that i have to type in to reprogram the rom chip.   (just kidding on that last one, i just remembered the dumping a roms set thread here recently)  if i am correct about the chip locations then that will ease my fears about reprogramming the chips.


a bigger question is, should i go with the Japanese rom set that has the levels in the correct order, or go with the traditional us rom set?


also in the pic of the monitor you can see six bolts (3 on each side) that are not holding anything.  there are 4 more that are holding the back of the monitor.  are these six bolts there to hold the cardboard monitor blind that i dont have?   are they on original machines or are the part of a conversion?  they all stick out on the outside.     and if i can get rid of them when i fix up the sides that would be great. 


I'm going to say that what is in the machine is not the original monitor,  there is no burn-in on it.      where should i find the model and serial number on the monitor? 

                                                     Thanks

oh yeah, should this thread be moved to project announcements or start a new thread there when i'm actually restoring the cab?

[ElfShotTheFood]

ok, so it looks like i'll be ordering a set of dkjr chips from mikesarcade.

the set of eight ball action stuff (chips, sub-board and cpo) will be available if anybody actually wants them.