javeryh's Donkey Kong Plus [FINISHED]

[ivwshane]

Damn javeryh!! You are getting really good at this craft!!

[Classic Arcade]

Awesome restoration classic arcade cabinets deserve the time and effort you put in this project, anyway followed your progress and its awesome   

[Kaytrim]

is it possible to look better than mint?
I think that thing look nicer than the ones that came off the factory floor!
BEAUTIFUL work!

I whole heatedly agree.  Just don't let playing with it keep you from the last final touches.

TTFN 
Michael

[javeryh]

Wow - thanks so much everyone!!  I am flattered by all of the nice comments.

Anyway, as predicted, work has slowed on this thing since I got it up and running but I hope to turn my attention to the final details over the next 2 weeks and get this completely wrapped up.  The past 2 weeks have been rough as I've been dealing with a pilonidal abscess which is painful as hell and I'm going to need some minor surgery to remove it - hopefully within the next few days.  I just turned 35 and it must be all downhill from here, eh?  Once I get that taken care of and I feel up to it I'm going to finish this up.

One thing of note - the left side art COMPLETELY fell off the other night.  It is still tacky to the touch but not really that sticky so I'm thinking I got a bad piece of art.  I'm going to contact QuarterArcade and see what they say.  The side art on the right hasn't moved (but still isn't 100% secure).  Worst case scenario is that I'll have to buy some more side art and reapply it using some spray adhesive.

 

[Kaytrim]

Man I just looked that up.  It sounds like it is painful.  You should pull through ok though from the sounds of what I read.  Take care and get back in the game as soon as you are able.

As far as the side art, try some of the spray adhesive you can get at a craft store.  Spray it on the back of the artwork then reapply it to the cabinet.  Read the labels because there are different types.  Some are temporary like a post it note, others are more permanent like a sticker.  By all means try and get a free replacement first.  If they don't replace the artwork then go the spray adhesive route.  If all else fails buy another set from another vendor or go without for the time being.

TTFN
Michael

[Epyx]

I just turned 35 and it must be all downhill from here, eh?

37 here and ya that's about right...although it's better than the alternative...and as long as we can hold a game controller and pushbuttons with a reasonable dash of mental faculty...who cares right?

As for the surgery good luck and am sure it will work out fine. 

Also hope the side art works out.

[javeryh]

Thanks guys.  I just emailed QuarterArcade so I'm going to wait to hear back before trying to MacGyver it myself.  I have no idea now how I'd go about it though since the side art doesn't have the backing - there's no good way to line it up anymore.

I was under the impression that you had one chance with side art which is why people are a bit nervous to apply it just right.  I could have peeled the side art off and repositioned it no problem.  Maybe the glue wasn't tacky enough or dried out or something?

[Kaytrim]

Thanks guys.  I just emailed QuarterArcade so I'm going to wait to hear back before trying to MacGyver it myself.  I have no idea now how I'd go about it though since the side art doesn't have the backing - there's no good way to line it up anymore.

If you were to use wax paper after you sprayed on the adhesive you could apply the artwork the same way as before.  I'd do a test first to make sure that the adhesive won't stick to the wax paper.  It shouldn't but its better to be safe than sorry later.

TTFN
Michael

P.S I am almost 43 years old so I got you both beat. 

[severdhed]

good luck with everything.  i hope the surgery and sideart both go smoothly

[Ond]

Yeah.....looks ok......... WOW!  FANTASTIC!  jeez It's almost like friggin time travel looking at your cab.  *sigh*  37? 43?  ehhh I just turned 45 well life begins at 40 so I'm 5! 

[javeryh]

Yeah.....looks ok......... WOW!  FANTASTIC!  jeez It's almost like friggin time travel looking at your cab.  *sigh*  37? 43?  ehhh I just turned 45 well life begins at 40 so I'm 5! 

Whew - this is a relief!  It gives me some hope that in the next 10 years I might develop 25% of your mad skills.   

[SpaceHedgehog]

 Great job, I really enjoyed reading this and picked up a whole buch of tips. Thanks!

[javeryh]

Thanks! 

In other news, my surgery yesterday was successful.  The cyst they removed was about the size of a grape - it was at the base of my spine right on my tailbone.  I'm still a little groggy and I slept a lot yesterday.  I think I'll be back at work on Friday but I'm still in quite a bit of pain - thank god for vicoden.  They didn't close the wound - they packed it with gauze and it has to close from the inside out or else I'd be susceptible to another cyst.  I think I have to take it easy for a while but it sucks that I can't sit down.

If I'm up to it I'd like to finish the ab before Saturday - we are having a house full of people for my daughter's birthday - but I don't know if I'll be able to.

[Epyx]

 

Good news and am sure after some rest you will be tip top. 

Careful with those Vicoden though...tolerance develops quick and the withdrawal can be tough!

[Ryglore]

Good to hear you're doing well! Hopefully it heals up with no problems!

[severdhed]

glad to hear the surgery went well, now just take care of yourself and make sure you heal up OK.

[Yvan256]

Take care of yourself and your family before taking care of what is basically a pile of woods and electronics. 

[jmike]

 
Glad to hear you're doing well. Try to take it easy for a bit. The arcade ain't going nowhere. Enjoy the party.


 

[Ond]

javeryh, I hope you rest up really well, put your feet up (if you can?) and watch some other people doing some work for a change.   

[Kaytrim]

Don't push yourself buddy.  If the cab is not finished then it isn't finished.

[Bender]

Don't push yourself buddy.  If the cab is not finished then it isn't finished.

Yeah, take it easy and feel better!

[Namco]

Mmmmm, grapes!

 

Hope you're feeling better soon. In my work I see alot of woundostomy pictures from the surgery clinic. Pretty neat stuff, only plastics has better pictures, but they don't let us have access to those 

If you're doing a lot of laying around, may I suggest planning your next project or learning SketchUp.

Get well soon, man!

[javeryh]

Thanks guys!  I'm feeling better so I decided to tinker a little tonight.  I have a few questions:

1.  How do I disable the pop-up notification in XP?  When I'm looking at the MaLa game list sometimes one of these things pops up and MaLa is no longer the top window and it takes a mouse click to fix it.

2.  Does anyone know how to disable the MaLa Menu box in the attached pic?  It appears when I hit P2 Start when looking at the MaLa game list.  I don't know how I activated this!

3.  Finally, removing the grape-sized cyst from ---my bottom--- must have also cleared up my brain.  I figured out my high score saving problem - I DIDN'T HAVE A "HI" FOLDER!!!  I can't believe it - I must have accidentally deleted it because it was 100% absolutely saving high scores at some point.  I added it back and like magic it is working again!  I was so excited I fired up some DK and set a personal best of 82,900!

[javeryh]

Nevermind on #2... jeez I spend an hour looking in the settings then post and as soon as I go back I figure it out.  So I just need to figure out the pop-up thing...

Oh yeah - does Nibbler usually go 100 mph?  I can only get to the 3rd stage because the game plays incredibly fast - My high score is around 5,000 and the default high score is 50,000 which I will never ever get to unless there really is something wrong with my version.... I don't know what the deal is...

[severdhed]

glad you got your mala menu and hiscore problems sorted out.  it would suck to play without saving the scores.

as for hiding the popups, check the wiki article on hiding windows..

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Hiding_Windows

there are alot of cool things you can do to hide windows.  towards the bottom there is a section on hiding balloon tips, which should take care of it.  but read through the whole thing because there are a ton of awesome tips for making windows as transparent as possible

[Kman-Sweden]

Thanks! 

In other news, my surgery yesterday was successful.  The cyst they removed was about the size of a grape - it was at the base of my spine right on my tailbone.  I'm still a little groggy and I slept a lot yesterday.  I think I'll be back at work on Friday but I'm still in quite a bit of pain - thank god for vicoden.  They didn't close the wound - they packed it with gauze and it has to close from the inside out or else I'd be susceptible to another cyst.  I think I have to take it easy for a while but it sucks that I can't sit down.

If I'm up to it I'd like to finish the ab before Saturday - we are having a house full of people for my daughter's birthday - but I don't know if I'll be able to.

---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- I don't know how I missed this? Hope you get well soon.

[Shortbus]

Mmmmm, grapes!

 

Thats good stuff right there. thanks for the laugh Namco!   

Glad your surgery went well, just read the entire thread, you have a great project there, good info and good pictures as well....at first I thought you were a CHICK, because everyone was talking about stripping/teasing, etc, etc and with your profile pic.....but then after further reading (and seeing your hairy arms) I realized your a guy, and I've gotta say you did a great job, and excited me and inspired me to want one, Donkey Kong Rules and I love the cabinet style. Glad your dad didn't get stung by the monitor, I don't recommend it to anyone, especially our parents......

Excellent Job and thanks for sharing!

[javeryh]

Thanks for the well-wishes guys.  I haven't been online much since my surgery.  The recovery has been rough.  I still can't sit down straight and I see the doctor again tomorrow.  I developed another infection which set me back and even though I'm no longer putting gauze in the wound I'm bleeding pretty much all the time (it just won't close up).  I thought this was going to be quick but the more I'm learning about it the more it seems like 8-12 weeks is the full recovery time and I just hit 6 weeks today.

The good news is that I've been able to at least enjoy the DK+ and the other night I got my high score in Dig Dug (a game I really really like now after never putting much time into it previously).  3 deaths were avoidable so I think I can do much much better.  I have been doing a lot of sitting around (no gym = fat me) and been playing Batman on my 360.  I can't wait to get back into building - the DK+ is close but not totally finished!   

[Kaytrim]

Thanks for the update bud.  Keep on top of things otherwise those infections will get worse.  Prayers for a full recovery are outgoing.

TTFN
Michael

[syph007]

Thanks guys!  I'm feeling better so I decided to tinker a little tonight.  I have a few questions:

1.  How do I disable the pop-up notification in XP?  When I'm looking at the MaLa game list sometimes one of these things pops up and MaLa is no longer the top window and it takes a mouse click to fix it.

2.  Does anyone know how to disable the MaLa Menu box in the attached pic?  It appears when I hit P2 Start when looking at the MaLa game list.  I don't know how I activated this!

3.  Finally, removing the grape-sized cyst from ---my bottom--- must have also cleared up my brain.  I figured out my high score saving problem - I DIDN'T HAVE A "HI" FOLDER!!!  I can't believe it - I must have accidentally deleted it because it was 100% absolutely saving high scores at some point.  I added it back and like magic it is working again!  I was so excited I fired up some DK and set a personal best of 82,900!

I had 1. as well, really irritated me.   If I'm assuming right, you mean those balloon popups in the lower right of screen.  

Run regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Add DWORD "EnableBalloonTips" if it's not there and set it to the 0.  

That stopped all my balloon popups.


BTW: Digdug is my fav game, what's your top score?

[javeryh]

BTW: Digdug is my fav game, what's your top score?

53,XXX - not great but OK - I don't play it all the time. 

[javeryh]

OK, long time and no posts in this thread!  I have been pretty much "done" with this thing for a while now but there are still some things I want to do to completely finish it.

Construction:
- I STILL haven't placed the $.25 stickers on the coin door
- I have to reorder side art for the left side - it completely came off and I think I know why (that side of the cab is next to a heat vent)
- I STILL haven't placed the long instruction sticker on the black bar above the CP (Any thoughts with what I should do here?  The bar is painted black bu the wood grain still shows through which bugs me).
- I want to remake the back door out of 1/4" material and paint it black
- I want to somehow get a hold of a Nintendo Serial # plate for the back - my cab didn't come with one

There is a foot of snow on the ground so I can't really work in the shop (in my detached, unheated MESSY garage).  I promised the wife I wouldn't start any new projects until the current ones are 100% complete so I better get going!

Software:
-  Mala refuses to remain the top window but ONLY after exiting out of DK for the first time otherwise it works perfectly.  I have several ideas on how to fix it which leads me to the next point
- I MAY install Instant Sheller - I also have to remove the XP start-up crap (welcome screen, logo splash, etc. - there are no balloon pop-ups - I successfully edited the registry for those).
- I think my gamelist is set.  I decided to add a few horizontal games that I like and that are playable with my setup (Chicken Shift, Joust, Tapper and Jungle King).  I also added a few vertical games that kind of work but the jury is still out (Gyruss being the main one).
- figure out how to control the volume from the CP (I think cabvol will work - maybe I can use the P2 start button as a shift key and then the hidden coin and pause buttons for Vol Up and Vol Down (any thoughts?).
- I may try and redesign the MaLa layout - I'm using the one from John's Arcade which is great but I think I may want more of a DK theme.

That's it, I think.  I've been playing the cab quite a bit and my new high score is 125,600 which I think is pretty good.  You need to get over 100K to even get on the high score list now.  Also, check out the attached picture - I'm so proud!

[Neverending Project]

One other thought I had regarding Mala losing focus... Do you have the Reorder Layout option ticked in Mala (see attached)? I found that when it was ticked, I had a problem with Mala losing focus. When it wasn't ticked, the problem went away. Although in my case there were other issues that required me to enable it. But have you checked this setting?

[javeryh]

One other thought I had regarding Mala losing focus... Do you have the Reorder Layout option ticked in Mala (see attached)? I found that when it was ticked, I had a problem with Mala losing focus. When it wasn't ticked, the problem went away. Although in my case there were other issues that required me to enable it. But have you checked this setting?

I haven't tried that yet - I will tonight and I'll report back.  Thanks!!   I'm working up the nerve to try Instant Sheller too - maybe after a few beers one Saturday I'll go through with it... 

[Hewskie]

Why so nervous about instant sheller? I've had absolutely no problems with it and everything it does is reversible. Also, a guy in the software forum made a program called quickshell I think that I've heard great things about, just another option.

Nice cab btw 

Hewskie

[Bender]

Why so nervous about instant sheller? I've had absolutely no problems with it and everything it does is reversible. Also, a guy in the software forum made a program called quickshell I think that I've heard great things about, just another option.

Nice cab btw  

Hewskie

Yeah try Quickshell
I've had nothing but headaches from instant sheller, just look it up in the software forum every month or so someone is trying to get it off their machine

I still think doing it by hand from the info in the wiki is the best way to go. You can do one at a time and make sure nothing is messed up before moving onto the next thing

[leapinlew]

Nice. Don't you just hate hiding the side art like that?

PM sent.

[javeryh]

I'm going to give some sort of sheller a shot.  I've been doing searches and seen a lot of people complain that Instant Sheller didn't work properly but those are the people that are also more likely to post about it.  As long as it is reversible without too much trouble I should be OK.

Nice. Don't you just hate hiding the side art like that?

PM sent.

Yes definitely - I love the side art but you can barely see it!  I was lucky enough to talk the wife into putting it in my dining room though so beggars can't be choosers.  Got your PM.   

[sk8ersublime]

Nice score

I hit 80k last night for the first time, that damn third elevator stage...soon ill make it my ---smurfette---.

[javeryh]

One other thought I had regarding Mala losing focus... Do you have the Reorder Layout option ticked in Mala (see attached)? I found that when it was ticked, I had a problem with Mala losing focus. When it wasn't ticked, the problem went away. Although in my case there were other issues that required me to enable it. But have you checked this setting?

Hmmm... I don't have that option!  I'm running MaLa 1.04... maybe I should upgrade?  Is it just a matter of copying the mala.exe file over or do I have to set everything up again?