javeryh's Donkey Kong Plus [FINISHED]

[javeryh]

Oh yeah - here is a shot showing what I had to do to get the monitor to fit:



The purple outline is where the original mounting bracket was and it would have been sticking out of the back if we didn't remove it.  I'm like MacGyver or something.

[Epyx]

Wow, nice improv!   

You were certainly lucky to not just have Dad around...but Mom as well. I can only imagine the catatastrophe that may have been had you attempted this alone or just with Dad...

Where the electrical is secured, I am assuming you still have adequate clearance for the back panel?  It looks like just a 1/8" or so at the top right corner.

[javeryh]

Wow, nice improv!   

You were certainly lucky to not just have Dad around...but Mom as well. I can only imagine the catatastrophe that may have been had you attempted this alone or just with Dad...

Where the electrical is secured, I am assuming you still have adequate clearance for the back panel?  It looks like just a 1/8" or so at the top right corner.

Thanks!  I was lucky that they were both able to help out - it basically killed their entire weekend but we got to spend time together which is always nice.  I honestly don't think I could have done this without them.  I am scared to death of electricity and exposed monitors so I didn't feel comfortable moving the monitor around and I especially didn't like the idea of modding it. 

My dad had no fear and thought I was overreacting but I got on him pretty good a couple of times for not being careful enough around the suction cup thing and the exposed wires (the monitor hadn't been turned on in well over a month so I was pretty sure there was no charge left but you never know).  We spent all this time on the monitor mount and we didn't even know whether it would power on!

There is plenty of room for the back panel - the studs are about 1" in from the back edge leaving about 1/2" of space plus the thickness of the back door.   

[Ryglore]

Awesome! One step closer to completion, eh?

This is totally helping me with figuring out how to mount a monitor inside the cab.

[javeryh]

Awesome! One step closer to completion, eh?

This is totally helping me with figuring out how to mount a monitor inside the cab.

yeah - I'm actually a bit farther than the progress in these posts (not much though).  I was playing DK last night - FINALLY!  I still have a bunch of stuff to do though before Friday's deadline and I wasted 2 hours playing instead of working. 

 

I'm glad this can help - every build is different but you have to have a monitor! 

I'll be posting final pics of the monitor mount from the front shortly - stupid work actually wants me to um, do work.  The nerve!   

[Yvan256]

I was playing DK last night - FINALLY!  I still have a bunch of stuff to do though before Friday's deadline and I wasted 2 hours playing instead of working.

Now that you know the monitor is working, disconnect the controls until you're done (unless you need to do more tests, i.e. speakers, coin door, etc). 

[javeryh]

I was playing DK last night - FINALLY!  I still have a bunch of stuff to do though before Friday's deadline and I wasted 2 hours playing instead of working.

Now that you know the monitor is working, disconnect the controls until you're done (unless you need to do more tests, i.e. speakers, coin door, etc). 

I wish I could!  All that's left is:

- configuring boot-up (straight to MaLa/DK and hiding Windows)
- figuring out the speaker situation (the sound is horrid right now)
- wiring the power button to the back of the cabinet
- installing ArcadeVGA card
- playing with the monitor settings to get the picture looking just right
- making the mullet thing that covers the monitor and the black monitor bezel out of posterboard
- cut some ABS plastic to cover the wood above the CP and apply decal

I think that's it.  Most of that is computer-related so the temptation to play will be great!!!

[Yvan256]

- making the mullet thing that covers the monitor and the black monitor bezel out of posterboard

I'm sure I won't be the only one to tell you that posterboard is not a good idea for the monitor bezel (see reply #38). You probably won't like the way it looks.

[javeryh]

- making the mullet thing that covers the monitor and the black monitor bezel out of posterboard

I'm sure I won't be the only one to tell you that posterboard is not a good idea for the monitor bezel (see reply #38). You probably won't like the way it looks.

oops... thanks.  You are right.  I meant Matteboard.  I've used that in the past and been very happy with it.   

[mj147]

Great job so far Jav.   Keep them pics coming.

A Nintendo cab is definitely on my wants list, maybe start on it after my Karate Champ resto.

I always preferred the radarscope red cabs, but the new D2K dark blue looks good aswell.


mj147

[emphatic]

That mounting is very nice, but be aware that as heat travels upward, the lifespan of the monitor's chassis will be shortened if it's not mounted horizontally.

[Ryglore]

Awesome! One step closer to completion, eh?

This is totally helping me with figuring out how to mount a monitor inside the cab.

yeah - I'm actually a bit farther than the progress in these posts (not much though).  I was playing DK last night - FINALLY!  I still have a bunch of stuff to do though before Friday's deadline and I wasted 2 hours playing instead of working. 

 

I'm glad this can help - every build is different but you have to have a monitor! 

I'll be posting final pics of the monitor mount from the front shortly - stupid work actually wants me to um, do work.  The nerve!   

Ya I am to the point design wise where I need to know exact measurements of my Monitor. So I think I'll be taking it home today or tomorrow so I can strip it down. Currently I'm using a 20" CRT and it's like 19" long front to back in it's shell... I'm going to have to gut it and see what I can finagle. I'm sure there is a bunch of "wasted space" surrounding the gun and screen.

Awesome job on the DK cab so far though!

[javeryh]

Thanks guys.  Hmmm... that's the first time I've heard about potential heat issues by mounting the monitor chassis against the side panel.  Hopefully the monitor will last a long time - good thing it is not glued in place and can be replaced if necessary.

Anyway, now that the monitor is in place I guess I can show off what it looks like from the front!





It looks great!   All of that hard work paid off. 

[severdhed]

looking great...this is coming along nicely.   it must be awesome to see the finish line on this one


simply awesome

[Epyx]

Monitor looks great in there!

Any luck/update on the side art?

[javeryh]

looking great...this is coming along nicely.   it must be awesome to see the finish line on this one


simply awesome

Thanks!  Tonight is the night I have to finish.  I think there will be a few odds and ends to take care of later on but I at least have to wire the power button to the back of the cabinet, cut a notch in the back door for the power cord and figure out the speaker situation - I'm headed to Radio Shack to buy a pair of cheapo 2.1 speakers and I'm going to mount them side by side behind the speaker cutout.  The only problem is controlling the volume - the knob is on one of the speakers so it won't be accessible.  I'm hoping to figure out a software solution so I can use shifted buttons to control the volume.

Monitor looks great in there!

Any luck/update on the side art?

Thanks!  I haven't done anything else with the side art but it seems to be holding.  It comes up around the edges every night but it's not too bad.  Eventually I'll have to mask off the side and try to get some adhesive underneath it.

I'm leaving the office now to go home and (almost) finish this thing!   

[Epyx]

I have tried a few utilities linked on the wiki page:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Utilities

VolumeTray and Cabvol are both great and can be mapped to buttons/sticks etc.

EDIT: looks like the Cabvol link is fine but the volumetray link is dead. You can find it here:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Mixers-Synthesizers/VolumeTray.shtml

[Ryglore]

That is complete sexyness. I am slightly jealous. 

[Chicken McNobody]

That is complete sexyness. I am slightly jealous. 

I am slightly jealous of your slightly jealousness, I am wholely jealous, oh wait it would have to be your bull.  And I have a DK cab, but now I want it to be an original, not a reproduction MAME.  I think I'll restore an original Nintendo cabinet, then go crazy and do Radar Scope. 

On a legit note here, your monitor is mounted like what I need to do with my cabaret build.  I didn't think about how a curved 17 inch CRT will be a little bigger than a flat 17 inch CRT.  So I can't use the original brackets without modification.  Now it looks like your monitor is a single panel of MDF, and I don't see an under supports other than the one there to stop the board from sliding down or falling in, which I already have.  With a 19 inch monitor and what seems like no extra mounting brackets, how solid does it feel to you?  I know you haven't done any of this half rear-ended, but I wanted to make sure.  I will most likely do the same thing myself.

[LeedsFan]

Did you manage to get the software all working in that Windows was completely hidden and it boots right into DK? I can do it with mine but I still get a flash of Windows desktop on exiting DK for the first time into MaLa. After that it's fine.

[javeryh]

I have tried a few utilities linked on the wiki page:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Utilities

VolumeTray and Cabvol are both great and can be mapped to buttons/sticks etc.

EDIT: looks like the Cabvol link is fine but the volumetray link is dead. You can find it here:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Mixers-Synthesizers/VolumeTray.shtml

Thanks - I tried Cabvol but I just got an error when clicking the .exe file.  I'm sure I'm not doing something right but I only played with it for about 5 minutes.  I'll work on it over the weekend.  For now I tried setting the volume at a decent level and people will have to live with it tonight.

That is complete sexyness. I am slightly jealous. 

Thanks - it actually looks way better in person!  I'm still in shock that I have a DK cabinet in my house!

That is complete sexyness. I am slightly jealous. 

I am slightly jealous of your slightly jealousness, I am wholely jealous, oh wait it would have to be your bull.  And I have a DK cab, but now I want it to be an original, not a reproduction MAME.  I think I'll restore an original Nintendo cabinet, then go crazy and do Radar Scope. 

On a legit note here, your monitor is mounted like what I need to do with my cabaret build.  I didn't think about how a curved 17 inch CRT will be a little bigger than a flat 17 inch CRT.  So I can't use the original brackets without modification.  Now it looks like your monitor is a single panel of MDF, and I don't see an under supports other than the one there to stop the board from sliding down or falling in, which I already have.  With a 19 inch monitor and what seems like no extra mounting brackets, how solid does it feel to you?  I know you haven't done any of this half rear-ended, but I wanted to make sure.  I will most likely do the same thing myself.

Thanks - The monitor is in there really really tight.  The whole thing is solid and I have ZERO concerns about it coming apart or falling or whatever.  I could probably hang on it and it wouldn't move.  I went overboard because I worry about my kids.   

[javeryh]

Did you manage to get the software all working in that Windows was completely hidden and it boots right into DK? I can do it with mine but I still get a flash of Windows desktop on exiting DK for the first time into MaLa. After that it's fine.

Not yet.  I am in software hell right now - MAME refuses to remember any high scores for some reason.  I posted another thread about it but I may as well repeat myself here - the more help the better.

I finally got everything set up in my cab but for some reason between Tuesday night and now MAME refuses to remember anything - high scores, dip switch settings, etc.  Every time I power on the computer I'm starting from scratch (but gamelists and MaLa settings are remembered).  I have friends coming over tomorrow TONIGHT to play some games and I need high scores to work!!!

I am running a compiled version of MAME .119 with the high score patch/diff - it has worked flawlessly in this computer for at least a year and it just went bonkers.   Should I copy over the mame.exe file from my backup?  I can't remember what files are created when you compile MAME since it has been so long...

I'm using TinyXP as my OS.  I did not log in under a different name or anything - I don't have the log-on screen when I turn the computer on.  This computer is doing nothing other than running MAME and MaLa.

protokatie suggested it might be a read/write problem (that somehow files in my "C:\Arcade" folder have been set to read-only),

I noticed this problem started around the time I told the computer to launch MaLa on startup (this is a setting in MaLa - I checked the box).  Perhaps this is causing some trouble?  I haven't started trying to hide XP or mess with the registry settings.  Although shouldn't it only be running once after booting up?  It should be shutting down when I turn the computer off, right?

I am using command line MAME (not MAMEUI or MAME 32).

Does any of this help?  I have about an hour tonight when I get home to figure it out before people start arriving!

THANKS!!!   

[Ryglore]

Thanks - The monitor is in there really really tight.  The whole thing is solid and I have ZERO concerns about it coming apart or falling or whatever.  I could probably hang on it and it wouldn't move.  I went overboard because I worry about my kids.   

Sweet I was wondering the same thing.

[LeedsFan]

I compiled my own version of Mame but only to have a Generic Bezel for all vertical games to make the "screen" smaller for my bartop. I used Mame v.131 because .132 (the latest at time of doing it) didn't have source available with the Hiscore patch included. It seems to have worked fine but I haven't done any extensive testing with the software as my project isn't finished yet.

I would try and copy over your old .exe file. If that doesn't work then I would assume it's something to do with TinyXP. Did it work before on TinyXP or was it on a normal XP install?

[brock.sampson]

I don't use mala so I don't know how it closes mame.  Meaning does it exit mame or just kill the process.  I had a similar problem with maximus arcade.  It just kills the process and I don't think the settings and hi scores get written until mame exits.  You may want to try running mame outside of mala and see if it remembers your config changes and hiscores.

[emphatic]

Not yet.  I am in software hell right now - MAME refuses to remember any high scores for some reason.  I posted another thread about it but I may as well repeat myself here - the more help the better.

Do you have the "highscore.dat" in your MAME directory?

[Bender]

hummmmm....

playable cab.....

Lack of posts.....

I  wonder

I have a feeling the hi score situation has been solved



Is that the pot calling the kettle black or what

[severdhed]

hummmmm....

playable cab.....

Lack of posts.....

I  wonder

I have a feeling the hi score situation has been solved



Is that the pot calling the kettle black or what

i was just thinking the same thing.  hopefull all is well and the problem has been resolved

[Ryglore]

 /que Donkey Kong theme music. 

[severdhed]

must be awesome to take an old cabinet and make it look all awesome and new again.  There is just something about playing a game on it's original cabinet just makes it seem so much cooler.

My wife doesn't know this yet, (a wise man once said: when it comes to bringing home another cabinet, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission) but i have a possible lead on locating a DK cabinet..i talked to the guy on Friday and he said he was pretty sure he still had one in storage.  he wasn't sure of it's condition, and was too busy to check, but told me to come back Monday or Tuesday and talk to him then.  Fortunately my boss is awesome and will not have a problem with me swinging by to talk to him during the day tomorrow. he told me that he thinks the monitor is bad, and he is not sure if there is a game board in it or not.  since my budget for this right now is pretty low,  i'm hoping that the cabinet is in decent shape,but the gameboard and monitor are either missing or dead, so i can hopefully pick up the cabinet for not too much money. I have a PC and 19" crt monitor ready to go, i figured i'd run mame on it and set it up to play 4 way vertical classics on it.

fortunately, thanks to javeryh, the restore process is fairly well documented, and there is already a good thread listing all of the 4way , vertical, 1button or less games that i can run on this cabinet.

i hope everything is going well jav....get some of those finished pics posted up here.   hopefully i'll be starting a thread like this of my own here shortly

[Bender]

I got mine pretty cheap around $200. The cab was in fantastic condition had the boards and all (one rom was bad) $5 for a new one

the guy said the monitor was bad too, but $10 to get a cap kit and it was working great and not even any burn in!

so far I've just replaced the CP. There was some crappy joystick in there and I refurbed an original Nintendo one i got for $30

and all I left is to replace the t-molding and I gotta do some work on the coin door, I might have to suck it up and buy those nice coin mechs

I'm hoping to get all done for around $300 not including the braze kit and DKII (which I got some time back)

good luck Severdhed!

it is so fun

[Vebbo]

hummmmm....

playable cab.....

Lack of posts.....

I  wonder

I have a feeling the hi score situation has been solved



Is that the pot calling the kettle black or what

 

[javeryh]

hey guys - I did NOT solve the computer problems.  As expected, I had no time on Friday to configure things before people started showing up.  The cabinet was a big hit - it was being played pretty much most of the night until around 3:30AM (latest I've been up in YEARS) and people were preferring it over Rock Band which I was surprised about.  Unfortunately, the high scores were not being saved but now that I don't have any artificial deadline to worry about I can take my time and maybe just try reinstalling everything.  I was traveling Saturday and Sunday so that's why there was a lack of posts... 

I don't know what it is about arcade cabinets but my friends were being brutal with the joystick and mashing buttons and all sorts of crap that eventually I just had to leave the room and try not to think about it.  THey even managed to make the TAB menu pop up somehow as well as the volume bar in MAME.  I left the keyboard inside of the cabinet resting against the side and I'm thinking maybe they were so rough that buttons were getting pressed inside.  I don't know.  Maybe it's because I spent so many hours on the restoration or maybe I'm just anal but it was driving me nuts.   

One thing that I thought was very strange after playing the cab for a while was that high scores in Tapper and Tetris were being saved.  These are two games I added to my gamelist AFTER I started having the high score problem.  The first thing I do before reinstalling everything is going to be to delete my gamelist entirely and create it again with a different file name - maybe that will solve the problem?  During the initial configuration I was having problems getting MaLa to find D2K so I ended up saving a new gamelist and naming it "Donkey Kong 2" and I deleted my original gamelist named "Donkey Kong".  This fixed the D2K problem but it was right around that time that I noticed the high scores were not being saved.  I'm hoping if I start fresh with an entirely new gamelist it will fix everything.

 

[LeedsFan]

I'm wondering if it has something to do with you adding D2K to the list. Hiscore.dat has to match the version of Mame you are using. If you add D2K to the Mame.xml file will it mess up the order of the hiscore listing? I dunno if I'm making myself clear with my train of thought.

I would rename your Mame folder something else for now. And then reinstall Mame again but without D2K. Leave Mala as it is (or as it would be without D2K installed). See if that fixes the hiscore saving.

[severdhed]

javeryh...did you try launching the games directly via the command line?That would show you if it is a mala issue, or a mame issue.

[Ryglore]

Awesome! That ABS plastic idea was ingenious.

[javeryh]

OK, I probably won't have time to test the software for a few days at least but I can continue with the build.  I want to completely finish everything before messing around with the computer otherwise I'll never finish.

Next up - the coin door.  It was the one thing I didn't feel comfortable restoring myself. I could have taken a can of spray paint to it but I didn't want to risk ruining it. As far as I know there aren't any vendors out there selling Nintendo coin door reproductions which means there is a finite number of these things out there to be had. I was lucky - mine came with the cabinet and was in pretty good shape. No major dents or scratches.







As you can see the door had started to rust in several spots and the paint was bubbling all over the place. A local custom motorcycle shop has powdercoating capabilities so had them refinish it for me (as well as the bottom marquee retainer). It came out very nice and way better than if I had attempted to do this myself.

I ordered some #6-32 carriage bolts from Quarter Arcade to secure the door to the cabinet and they fit perfectly. I had to order 2 sets though since I needed 12 for the door and they only sold them in packs of 10. I also bought a $4 lock from Home Depot. Here's what it looks like installed:



I'm not sure why - maybe it was the lighting or the sweet finish on the door - but I can't seem to get a good picture of it. The door looks brand new and I couldn't be happier with the result.

[javeryh]

In addition to having the door powder coated, I also ordered two brand new coin mechs from Asahi Seiko in Las Vegas (they still make them!) so the entire thing now looks factory fresh. It was EXPENSIVE ($93 for the new mechs!). Here is what the old mechs looked like - these were unfixable to me with the rust and everything (not so much on the outside but around the coin return button):



It took about a week for the new mechs to arrive but it was worth the wait. Here's some unboxing pictures for the full effect:













They look great!   

[javeryh]

And here it is - all installed and looking brand new:





The side art is next...   

[severdhed]

looking good.  i am so excited to pick mine up tomorrow and get started. I'm setting my goals a little lower than yours, i want to not look crappy, but still look used, so i dont have  heart attach if it gets a scratch from my 2 year old hitting it with something stupid. 

i will be using this thread for inspiration though..and may need to hit you up for advice at some point.

this thing is looking great.  keep up the good work.