SeverdHed's Donkey Kong project...OFFICIALLY DEAD

[Vebbo]

That mala layout looks pretty darn good from the pics severdheds  I havent tried mala or any frontend for that matter but mala looks pretty interesting.

Keep up the good work 

[severdhed]

thank you for the kind words.  i like MALA because it is really easy to set up and get working.  and if you can use photoshop, it is really easy to make it look exactly the way you want it.  i have tried quite a few different front ends, but i always come back to MALA because of it's simplicity and functionality.  hyperspin intrigues me, but it seems like way too much work to get set up with all of the elaborate animations, at least on my main mame cabinet..  i may give it a shot on my DK cab though, because with less than 30 games, it might not be that bad to set up.

i didn't get anything done with the cabinet today.  my wife got up early to go set up at the local flea market to try to sell some of our crap.  she of course was noisy and woke the kids up..which means i had to get up around 7am today, which sucks.  i took the kids to meet her later in the morning, and we looked around for good bargains at the flea market.  i spent a few bucks and picked up a few ninja turtle action figures for my 2  year old, which he was very excited about.  then we went out to eat, then went to a local amusement park with my mom.  we didnt get home till around 8pm, got the kids a snack, gave them each a bath and they just now went to bed.  normally i'd be up for another 2 hours or so, but my wife and I are both really tired, so i dont think anything is happening on the DK cab tonight. 

they did have a decent arcade at the amusement park, which suprised me.  i took some pics that i'll look through tomorrow.  there were a few racing cabs, some gun cabs...a skiing game.  a gigantic hercules pinball, space invaders in decent shape (monitor image was crooked though, and the background image overlay thing was missing). there was a qbert cab in good shape, and a 6 player xmen that was in pretty good condition as well.  the rest of the stuff didnt really stand out.



i have decided that i just really dont like the wico joystick i have in there.  it is way too stiff.  i like my joysticks to have a light action, so i can leave my hand rest on the panel and just move it with my thumb and index finger.  with this stupid wico stick, i have to use my whole arm to manipulate it properly, which just seems unnecessary. I dont know if it is just different because of that rubber grommet, or what.

 I dont know what an original nintendo stick feels like, i have never used one.  i learned to play Donkey Kong on an Ultimarc J-Stik, which is what i plan on installing once i get the money.  i do have a betson space invaders 4 way stick that i could use.  i dont really like the way it feels either, but it does have a lighter feel to it, so for now, i'll probably swap them.  i do have a few other sticks and pieces of sticks lying around in some boxes, i may try to mix and match them to see if i can piece together something that feels right.

i figured when copying mame over to this PC, i didn't bring the hi score folder along, so i could get a fresh start.  however after playing a few games with this stick, i can't get anywhere near the scores i got on my other cabinet with my u360s.

[IG-88]

I hear you on the stiff stick thing    I had to switch one out for my 4 yr old. He was cranking so hard on one I had in his bartop that the whole machine would slide around. Now he can actually make the turns in Jr. Pac without pullin a hammy.

[severdhed]

here are a few more pics to show what i got accomplished this weekend...

here is a shot of the speakers.  the original speaker was still in the cabinet, but i figured stereo sound might be better.  i had a cheap set of PC speakers lying around that i am using..for now anyway.  i may upgrade them later when my wallet permits.  i just removed the original speaker and put the PC speakers behind the grill.  i mounted them using some angle brackets i had lying around.

i also removed the speaker amp/volume adjustment and mounted it so that i can reach in the coin door to adjust the volume



i also took the time to re-wire my coin door.  the other day when i hooked it up, i used some left over wires i had from another project that already had quick disconnects on it.  but because they werent all the right lenght, it was a mess.  i found my container of quick disconnects, so i figured i'd rewire it and make it a little nicer.  i looked in my bin of wires i have collected over the years, and i found a 3pin set of matching connectors with wires on them..i used this so i could easily disconnect the coin door from the control panel.  i only needed 2 wires since all of the coin switches are wired into coin 1..but there is another wire available if i want to change that later.



i wanted to have some USB ports that i could easily get to in case i need to hook up a mouse or keyboard.   a while back i was throwing away a dead PC and i pulled the front panel USB port module out of it.  it also had firewire and front panel audio ports, which i dont need.   but because it has USB, and a nice little bracket for easy mounting, i connected it to the motherboard and mounted it on top of the wooden box inside the coin door.



i took the time to mount the power supply to the same board i mounted my motherboard and hard drive to.  there wasn't alot of space avialable, but since i am not using any of the pci slots, i figured i could mount it right behind them. 

i also removed the small, noisy fan from the CPU cooler, and replaced it with an 80mm case fan.  it is only mounted with 1 screw, but it works just fine.  it is much quieter and seems to be keeping the cpu cool. 



i took the time to tidy up the wires inside the cabinet too.  i mounted the power strip to the side of the cabinet.  i will eventually replace it with a smart strip of some kind, but for now, it will have to do.  i had to use a long extension cord because the cabinet sits pretty far from the electrical outlet.  the only one i had was bright orange and 25ft long.  not ideal, but it works.  i havent actually mounted the monitor yet, but it is sitting in there just fine.



I took the time to tidy up the control panel wiring as well.  i am using the encoder from my x-arcade. i disconnected the wires that i am not using.  i didnt want to cut any of the wires, so i just had to tie them up the best i could.    (just for reference, when using an x-arcade,the harness with the LED and program switch has to be connected...it will not function without it.  you can also see the wire harness along the bottom edge, that connects to the coin door.



here is a shot of the control panel.  I had to pull out the wico stick because it just sucked.  i had a betson 4way stick that is a little better, so i installed it instead.  the ball top is a little smaller than i would like, and the throw is a little long, but at least i wont pull a muscle playing pacman.  i have the wico stick help up for size comparison.



now i just need to mount the monitor and wipe down the back door, which i forgot to do when i was cleaning the rest of the cabinet.  i also got the OK from the wife to get the lock for the coin door.  my 8month old keeps playing with it and pinching his fingers.  so i'll look for one at lowes tomorrow.  eventually i'd like to get a set of 4 that are keyed alike for the coin doors and back panels, so i could use  1 key for both cabinets....

well...thats all for tonight.

[Ryglore]

Excellent! I can't wait til Christmas! 

[Jack Burton]

I too hate those Wico joysticks.  I really do think you should hunt down a DK in the wild so you can have the experience of playing on an original or repro stick and see how you like it though. 

[javeryh]

Very very nice.  I'm thinking I should have mounted everything in mine vertically too - mine is a mess and yours looks really neat inside.  I did the EXACT same thing you did for the speakers - I mounted both left and right behind the cutout and there was plenty of room. 

I also bought some "usb extenders" from hong kong off of eBay (they were under $1 each) and mounted them on the coin door so I could easily plug in a mouse and keyboard or transfer files from a usb stick without moving the cabinet away from the wall and taking off the back panel. 

I need to get my wires under control though - the coin door wiring is weird - there is no room for the crimp-on connectors because the coin box is in the way.

Keep up the great work!

[severdhed]

i almost mounted my PC on the bottom of the cabinet, but i figured since that shelf was there, i should use it.  it worked out better than i expected.

thats weird about your coin doors, i had no problem with the crimp on conectors clearing the wooden box.  (then again the tabs on the switches were already bent back when i got it).

i'll definitely try to play any DK cab i can find...i have only ever seen one in real life other than the one i own, and it did not have a nintendo stick in it.  i read somewhere ( think it was on quarterarcade.com) that a DK joystick doesnt center itself...is that true?  i can't imaging using a stick that you had to manually center..that would be like playing using a shifter or something.

[Chicken McNobody]

i almost mounted my PC on the bottom of the cabinet, but i figured since that shelf was there, i should use it.  it worked out better than i expected.

thats weird about your coin doors, i had no problem with the crimp on conectors clearing the wooden box.  (then again the tabs on the switches were already bent back when i got it).

i'll definitely try to play any DK cab i can find...i have only ever seen one in real life other than the one i own, and it did not have a nintendo stick in it.  i read somewhere ( think it was on quarterarcade.com) that a DK joystick doesnt center itself...is that true?  i can't imaging using a stick that you had to manually center..that would be like playing using a shifter or something.

I found one in New York but it has monitor issues, it was impossible to play.  But I did fudge around with the joystick a bit, and it felt odd, but I can't confirm the playability difference.  I live in Ohio, and over this past weekend I went to Cedar Point, and they have a huge arcade with tons of favorite classics, but not a single Nintendo game of any sort.  You name it otherwise, it was there.  Odd. . .

But they had two of the Hercules pinball games where the ball is almost the size of a pool cue, that is a monster to play, it was almost too far for me to reach.

This is a pic taken from Cedar point.  The other pins are all full size. . .

[severdhed]

that hercules pinball is huge...i just saw one for the first time the other day at Lakemont Park, which is a crappy little amusement park that is only about a 5 minute drive from my house.  it doesnt have alot of cool rides or anything, but it is home to the oldest operational wooden roller coaster in the world.  my 2 year old rode it with me the last time we were there...it was a little rough, but he had fun.

i got to play some games on my dk cab tonight, which was the first time i really got to do that.  this 4way stick is way better than the wico, but the throw is alot longer than i would like.  i barely broke the 50,000 mark in DK, which is a pretty crappy run.  i had to go through and try each game and try to set the high score. i used Javeryh's game list, since our cabinets are functionally similar.  i had never played most of the pacman games, other than pacman and ms pacman...most of them arent really that great.  however i did discover that i like crush roller and pengo.  mappy is pretty stupid. overall though, i think i have 26 games, and i'd guess 90% of them are alot of fun...even if i am not very good at them.

[severdhed]

i'm now in the need of a little advice.  it will be a little while until i can do alot of the cosmetic work on this cabinet, but i am just trying to figure out how to go about doing it.

javeryh's thread was very informative, and i think bondo is definitely the way to go..even though i havent really worked with it very much before.  i am a little afraid that i am going to make the cabinet look worse.  ive thought about leaving the few chips and marks intact and just replacing the T-molding.  i dont mind a few marks here and there, they add character.  but then i look at it that it is stupid to install brand new decals on a beat up looking cabinet...i just dont know which way to go.

the biggest problem on this cabinet is by far the front panel where the speaker grill is.    the laminate surface is chipped away from the grill area, and i'm just not sure how to fix that.  i thought about just replacing that entire piece of wood and trying to cut a new set of slots.  but i am afraid that without the laminate surface, it will look different than the rest of the cabinet.

how else can i fix this?  i guess i could slap some bondo on there and then use a file or something to even out the slots or something.  any other suggestions?

Javeryh, if you are reading this...did you have any problems painting that laminate surface?

i've never worked with laminate, but from what i have seen, it isn't cheap and i doubt i'd be able to find it in the proper color.

here is the area i am talking about...



if any of you have any suggestions on how to get this looking good, i'm all ears.

[javeryh]

Javeryh, if you are reading this...did you have any problems painting that laminate surface?

I had no problems at all.  I roughed up all of the surfaces using 100 grit sandpaper and the paint went on really nice.  I would definitely fix that if I were you.  In fact, I'd put a brand new coat of paint on both sides and the front at the very least.  It is an afternoon's worth of work to bondo and sand and then another few hours to put on the primer and topcoats.  It actually takes less than 15 minutes to put an entire coat of paint on but you have to space it out for drying.  The cabinet will look brand new if you take the time to do this.

The speaker cut out on mine was in much better shape but I did have to bondo one area.  It was my first time working with the stuff and it was pretty easy once you get a feel for the consistency and drying time.  Sanding it to the proper shape was real easy too.  Even if you can't do this stuff now, maybe plan for it after Christmas and when the weather starts to warm up again in the Spring.  Mine's been in the living room for a month and it doesn't look that out of place since it looks brand new - a little bondo and paint goes a long way for the wife acceptance factor.   

[javeryh]

i had never played most of the pacman games, other than pacman and ms pacman...most of them arent really that great.  however i did discover that i like crush roller and pengo.  mappy is pretty stupid. overall though, i think i have 26 games, and i'd guess 90% of them are alot of fun...even if i am not very good at them.

Add Jumping Jack to the list if you haven't already.  It is VERY challenging but it is a lot of fun.  Also, I really got into Super Pac-man, Pac & Pal and Jr. Pac-man after playing them for a while.  I especially enjoy Super Pac-man and Jr. Pac-man is really tough even though there is more space to move around.  It's like the ghosts are always anticipating my moves!   

[severdhed]

thanks javeryh, i'll check out jumping jack when i get a chance...my wife was not in a good mood tonight, so no gaming for me.  perhaps tomorrow. 

as for the bondo, i will have to wait till spring.  i may go ahead and do the tmolding right after Christmas, because it would really make the cabinet look alot better.  even if i have to replace it again later after i paint it...it is not that expensive.

i did get the coin door lock installed tonight, so at least my 8-month-old wont pinch his fingers in it anymore.  i am going to make some changes to the speakers..i'm just not real happy with the sound of them.  they are very small and sound crappy. i have some more pc speakers sitting around i may play around with.   i should probably add a subwoofer at some point, but i dont have one sitting around, so i'll have to do without one for now.

[severdhed]

small update.  i havent got much done with the cabinet lately, mainly because i'm running out of things to do that dont cost money.  i did get a lock installed on the coin door to keep my sons from pinching their fingers.  i also replaced the speakers i had installed.  i thought that having stereo speakers back there would be good, however they just sounded like crap. (they were crappy cheap speakers).  i found a harman kardon PC speaker lying in a box of stuff to be thrown away the other day. it was just the speaker with the amp in it, the matching speaker was missing. it was much heavier than the speakers that i had in the cabinet, and when it comes to speakers...heavier is usually better.

i opened it up and saw that the speaker that was in there was 4ohm, which is the same as the 6.5" speaker that was in the DK Cab originally.  so i installed the original speaker back in the cabinet and powered it with the amp from this speaker i found....now it sounds really good.  the high frequency stuff still sounds nice and clear, but there is a little more mid/low range in there as well.    i wasnt sure how it would work out with only one speaker, but a quick trip to the windows control panel, i set the speaker type to "laptop mono" and now everything works great and sounds great.

i mounted the amp/volume control right where the other one was so i can adjust it by opening the coin door.   my camera batteries are dead, so i didnt take any pics...i'll try to take a few in a day or so.  so, if any of you have a cab with only one speaker location, dont be afraid to install only one, as long as you set up your PC for mono it will sound fine.


oh, and thanks Javeryh...jumping jack is awesome....difficult, but awesome

[kjeffery]

dang..looks good..im thinking about ditching the cardboard bezel im making and just use tinted glass.is it completely black until the monitor is on, any idea what % tint that is.i guess i should go to a glass shop and tell them what i need and see what they can do

[severdhed]

Well guys, it's been a while since i've done anything with this project..but i'm slowly getting back into the swing of things.  Due to budget issues, this could be a slow process.  I haven't done too much since my last post all those months ago, but even just a little progress is worth sharing.  

I finally got around to ordering the controls for this cabinet. previously i had a really horrible betson 4way stick that completely sucked.  I decided to go with a Sanwa JLW stick, because we have one as a dedicated 4way in our mame cabinet at work and I absolutely love the feel of this stick.  I picked up some blue and orange happ buttons, but i also decided to try some Sanwa buttons as well.  I hear alot of people talking about these Japanese style buttons and i've been wanting to give them a try.  i figured since i was placing an order at lizardlick anyway, i should just throw on a few sanwa buttons.  I didn't know how they would work, since they are designed for a metal panel, but they are a little larger in diameter than the happ buttons, so they fit in the existing button holes very tightly...they seem to stay in there very nicely.  I have only had them in the cabinet for about 2 days now, but i really like the feel of them...they are so different than the happ buttons.  I'm not sure which way i will end up going in the end, but so far, i'm thinking the sanwa buttons will stay.( i know that they arent exactly like the original nintendo buttons, but then again, neither are the happs, and it is my cabinet, so the only thing that matters is that i like them).  i know it is stupid to mount them in the DK Jr panel when i know i will be replacing that soon, but i just had to see how much better it plays with a real joystick.



I also decided to tackle the side art, since it will have to go before i can start the bondo/paint process.  I went to harbor freight and picked up a heat gun for $10, it has 2 settings, hot and really damn hot.  the highest setting pretty much just melted the side art almost instantly...it took about 10 minutes to get the whole piece off, and that was taking a few breaks to separate my fighting kids, and to pull the battery out of the smoke alarm   I also removed the 5 bolts on either side, since i no longer need them to mount my monitor.  

here is a before and after...




There is still alot of glue left behind, so i'm assuming the best way to deal with this is to lay the cabinet on it's side and soak it with goo gone...but that would mean i would have to gut the cabinet and i just want to have a few more days to play with these new controls.  fortunately the other side of the cabinet already had the side art removed when i got the cabinet.  

after removing the glue, i guess i need to bondo and paint...i'm really not looking forward to this part...painting sucks.  javeryh was kind enough to provide me the color codes to take to sherwin williams for the DK blue...so that will be a big help.  The first week of the month is always really busy for me at work, there will be quite a few late nights, so i probably wont get alot done this week, but i figured if I resurrected this thread, then i would be motivated to keep the progress updated.  plus i have to fix a leaky drain pipe and finish the ceiling in my dining room before i do too much to this cabinet (gotta keep my wife happy...she isn't exactly thrilled about how much i need to spend to replace all the artwork on this cabinet)

well, that's it for now

[mr_doles]

Well guys, it's been a while since i've done anything with this project..but i'm slowly getting back into the swing of things.  Due to budget issues, this could be a slow process. 

Ever since I started my DK Jr restore I LOVE reading these Nintendo restores/builds.  Glad to see you are back at it.  Believe me I feel the pain of the budget.

I went to harbor freight and picked up a heat gun for $10, it has 2 settings, hot and really damn hot.  the highest setting pretty much just melted the side art almost instantly...it took about 10 minutes to get the whole piece off, and that was taking a few breaks to separate my fighting kids, and to pull the battery out of the smoke alarm

I actually used the wife's hair dryer...it worked really well.  I did have some glue to deal with but not a lot.  Goo Gone, small scraper, a rag, and some patience.

[LeedsFan]

I missed this thread when it was first up. That is such a score you got there for $50!!! I never even saw a genuine DK cabinet here in the UK... all we got was the game in generic cabs. That Mala layout is just awesome. I tried to download it from the earlier link but it's not working any more. You still got the files to share perhaps? 

[severdhed]

yeah, i was pretty happy to find that cabinet.  i'm glad you like the mala layout...here is a link to download it (i may have moved it a while back)

ftp://nickf.dyndns.org/Dkong.zip

[severdhed]

another tiny bit of progress..i replaced my dead marquee light i think the bulb was blown, but i found a completely new fixture for $5, so i figured i'd just replace the entire unit.





I also replaced the crappy power strip with a Philips smart power strip that I picked up at Walmart.  It was $20 and works great...it has 1 master outlet, 4 switched outlets, and 1 outlet that is always powered and not controlled by the master. The PC is connected to the master outlet,  this way when i turn the PC on, the power strip activates the other outlets and turns the monitor, speakers, and marquee light.  once the PC shuts down, about 5 seconds later, everything else turns off.  I am very pleased with this power strip.  It works every bit as well as the Craftsman unit i used in my other cabinet, but this one has more outlets and is just better suited for cabinet use in my opinion.


i know it is stupid to take the time to mount these things, when i know that in the next week or so i will have to rip it all back out to start the painting process, but i just couldn't help myself.

well, that's it for now

[shiftpdn]

Thanks for posting this.  Lot of inspiration for my DK scratch build.

[severdhed]

hopefully i'll be able to get something done on this over the next week or so.  I've been struggling with taking apart to get started, but last night, i powered it up and walked out of the room, when i came back a few minutes later, there was a nasty burning electrical component smell, and the pc wasnt booting.  looks like i blew out the power supply...which sucks, but it at the very least makes it easier to gut it..i just need to get a little time now

[severdhed]

well, i still haven't had any time to work on the cabinet, but i did pull the PC out and took it to work with me today to throw on the work bench.  i initially thought the power supply was dead, when i put it on the tester, the 12v rails were showing 14v.  i swapped the power supply, but it doesn't post at all, no beeps or anything, even without the ram installed, looks like the motherboard may be bad. 

[Mirickle]

This is a nice project to follow
Will definitely help me with the DK bartop I plan to build some time...

Can you describe the difference in feel, mounting and build quality between the Sanwa and the regular Happ buttons?

I have Happs on my cab and I hate the clicking sound they make. Also, the switches they come with seem to be crappy, I've already had to replace some of them.

[severdhed]

thanks..i just wish there was something to follow at this point..my plans have pretty much been derailed at this point.

as for the sanwa buttons...they are just so dramatically different from happ buttons.
first, they are convex instead of concave, so they feel very different under your fingers.
second, they dont use standard microswitches, the switch is pretty much built into the button and doesn't appear to be replaceable...and the switch itself is very quiet.
third, the have a much softer feel and a shorter throw distance...this makes them very fast, but if you rest your fingers on them to hard, they will activate
fourth, the colors are very different from happ buttons, so mixing and matching doesnt work too well

[severdhed]

well, this project has come to an end.  i had to do some re evaluating and decided that having this cabinet is just not the best thing for me and my family at this point in time.  it takes up too much space in my family room and i just need to cut my losses before i get any further into this project.  i created a thread in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum....

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=103441.0

if anyone is interested, let me know.

hopefully someone can pick up where i left off and bring some glory back to this classic.

[nintendoid]

i can provide the photoshop file if needed for the mala layout, but i need to clean it up a litle since there about 35 non used layers from a result of alot of testing

hi dont happen to have the psd still do u???

would make a good frontend im planning for something!!

[severdhed]

i'm sure i have it...i just have to find it.  i did some file cleaning out recently and i am not exactly sure where it is..but i'm pretty sure i still have it..  i'll look for it tonight



EDIT: file found, PM sent