"Bargain Basement" Golden Tee

[mllkat]

Greeting's,

I have been in the process of gathering parts for an impending project but I needed to make use of a previous purchase...a red 2005 Golden Tee board. I thought about going the MarkMVP route of building a cabinet but lack of space in my workshop precluded that. I did, however, have my first project based on an old Taito cab just sitting there...all lonely since I had stripped the computer out of it. It was not exactly up to Golden Tee specs but I thought with a little improvising, it might be functional. I have included a picture of it in it's previous incarnation. I ended up replacing the computer monitor with a 20" flatscreen TV, mainly because I was running an Averkey Micro converter to output it to S-Video. It produces a decent picture....not great but acceptable with the "Bargain Basement" Golden Tee. I de-cased the CRT and created a mounting bracket for it. Since the Cabinet already was set up for the sharply angled monitor, I used the mounting strips already in place. I then purchased a flat screen bezel and it turned out alright. I had previously acquired the LED header for the future cabinet but it did not come with the power harness. I took care of that by hard wiring it into a spare power supply. It "of course" only shows what the previous updated information shows. Nothing like seeing the warm greeting of "Welcome to this location!" That's OK, according to the chassis, I live in Indianapolis...Ohhhh...So close to Richmond where I ACTUALLY live...but hey...it IS the "Bargain Basement" Golden Tee.  Next...the Control Panel!

[mllkat]

The original control panel measured 23.5" x 7". That was not going to be big enough to make use of a full sized trackball. I considered using the 2.25" trackball but it was not weighty enough to give me a good spin. My only alternative, short of cutting into the cabinet, was to extend the control panel out some to accommodate the 3" trackball and buttons required. I had purchased a Router almost a year ago but had not had a chance to use it...or to take it out of the box for that matter. Now was the time! Since I had never used one before, I decided to experiment on some scrap wood first. Good thing too. First lesson for the thought challenged...Make sure the Slot Cutting bit  you put in is NOT on backwards. I never saw wood smoke so much with out being in a Barbeque Pit!! DOH!!!! Hey....you can't make an omelet without burning...I mean breaking a few eggs...or something like that. Anyways, I used a pine board for my first attempt...mainly because I wanted an easier to work with soft wood for my initial efforts.  To make an already long story shorter, it worked pretty well and I was able to cut the board, use my forsner bit to make my holes (using the template that came inside the Golden Tee owner's manual) and route out the track ball space. I had previously had obtained on e-bay the control panel adhesive overlays for the panel for $20.00 each so once I had prepared the board and sanded it smooth,  I applied the overlay...adjusting for the smaller size. I think it came out pretty well. I have attached a pic of the front view and side so you can see how it mounted. Next...what it looks like so far.

[mllkat]

"Never has so much been said about so little at one time"....Winston Churchill....or maybe I made it up...anyways....Here is what it looks like so far...The "Bargain Basement" Golden Tee!

[TOK]

You did a great job converting that, though I think stripping that marble contact paper and painting it would improve it by an order of magnitude.

I did the same project as you in the opposite direction. I bought a nearly gutted Golden Tee cab and replaced the power supply, board and monitor in it just to have a dedicated cab.

I found you can't change the location info without being on the Live! network, and the old games are no longer supported. I'm the Philly 'burbs and my game says it's in Connecticut.

[mllkat]

Thanks TOK for the kind words,
You're right...the old marble contact paper is the next thing to go. I am thinking about purchasing the Golden Tee Side Art from Gatorcade for the cab...but for now...I just printed out the side-art posted on Localarcade.com. My step-father, God rest his soul, had a large amount of printer paper including an adhesive paper meant to use as a cover for laptops. The larger one measure 8.5 x14 and made for a great medium to print the side-art on. It is made to be removeable but so far, has proven to be very solid as far as sticktuitiveness...I really don't think that's a word. Oh well....It works really well!

[TOK]

What you have there is really no worse than the actual art. The original yellow IT stickers are only 6.5" square and the golf ball on the tee is 8" tall.

Someone used to have stick on vinyl with grass printed on it. Making a circle of that with the smaller GT logo in the center would have looked really cool. I'm sorry I didn't snag it when I saw it.

[mllkat]

What you have there is really no worse than the actual art. The original yellow IT stickers are only 6.5" square and the golf ball on the tee is 8" tall.

Someone used to have stick on vinyl with grass printed on it. Making a circle of that with the smaller GT logo in the center would have looked really cool. I'm sorry I didn't snag it when I saw it.

Hmmmmm....Grass with the GT Logo.....I'm sure I could make something like that in Photoshop and print it out. I know I saw a grass overlay for sale on e-bay. I already have the older control panel stickers like the ones shown at Localarcade. I decided not to use them in preference to the newer ones.

[TOK]

Yes, the overlay you found went with the older machines and the control decals were placed over them.
The vendor I found before basically had the grass CPO overlay graphics uncut to do large surfaces.

[mllkat]

Well I have stripped the first side (left) of the classic marble contact paper. It came off pretty clean with just a bit of glue residue. Nothing a bit of adhesive remover and elbow grease didn't remove. I still need to do the front and the right side...it would go a lot quicker if I would stop playing rounds of golf. I now wish I had taken the opportunity back in the day to upgrade the thing to Complete...the five courses I have available are not enough...Now that I get to play them. Speaking of which, during attract mode they keep showing the records for Bamoral Greens and Sapphire Springs but they are not accessible. Bummer!! Was there a way to access them short of tournament play?

I want more GOLF!! Oh well...that's where my next project comes in.

[Ond]

Here's my go at the Golden Tee logo for your cab, Lowres version posted here (against grass background) Hi-Res version emailed to you.

 

Ond 

[Spyridon]

That actually looks pretty good.  Taitos are a good cab because of the monitor angle (No people, that doesn't make it okay to go out and dismantle fully working dedicated Taito cabs  )

I agree on the contact paper and it should look good once you get the sides done.

[mllkat]

Here's my go at the Golden Tee logo for your cab, Lowres version posted here (against grass background) Hi-Res version emailed to you.

 

Ond 

That actually looks pretty good.  Taitos are a good cab because of the monitor angle (No people, that doesn't make it okay to go out and dismantle fully working dedicated Taito cabs  )

I agree on the contact paper and it should look good once you get the sides done.

It looks exceptional Ond!!! Just as I knew it would! You ARE the man!

Thanks for the encouragement Spyridon....the monitor angle was one of the main reasons I thought this would work....and the fact that my Taito Cab was all I have at the time...So it was a Win, Win! Besides, by extending the control panel and not butchering the poor thing, it would still be possible to restore it in the future. I still have the original metal control panel (awaiting the remainder of the adhesive to be stripped off) and leaf-switch Joystick and buttons.

[mllkat]

Well....the removal of the contact paper is progressing nicely but now a new problem has arisen. It (the game) has been working fine for the last few weeks until today when I turned it on so that some of my wife's family could play it. I had it warming up, since it hadn't been on for a while. After leaving it for about 30 minutes, I returned to see the screen frozen and an audio buzz like the audio had stuck as well. I shut it down and restarted it but now I get nothing. It is getting power to the board and the monitor but I am seeing nothing on the screen....not the post information...nothing. On the board, two of the LED's are green and one is red...if that means anything. Any guesses???

[Jesperpark]

good chance it's the hard drive, you can find the manual on PDF format on the web somewhere.  that will tell you the light code for sure

[mllkat]

Well...it's been over 7 months since I started the Bargain Basement Golden Tee conversion and I have met with nothing but frustration in keeping the Golden Tee board working. After three different boards and no small amount of "Descriptive Phrases," I have decided to put that chapter on hold. However, the cabinet...when it worked, did Golf very well. So with that in mind, I have started the minor conversion to Global VR's PGA Golf Tour Challenge.  Just as a reminder, here it was in it's GT version.

[mllkat]

The first thing I wanted to do was to make use of the LED Marquee from Golden Tee. Naturally, the present circuitry would not work for me since I could not change what it said. So I stripped it out. (It is still intact for future use) I then purchased a BetaBrite Prism from Ebay. The only minor problem with it was it was too long to fit in the enclosure..just barely.
The simple solution for that was to take my router and cut holes in each end for the betabrite to slide thru and then cut new pieces to cap off the ends. Some black paint to refresh the enclosure and here is what it looked like from that point.

[mllkat]

Next was the old "Tournament Play" framework. I took it, separated it from the red plexi that was behind it and then masked it off to let only the new betabrite LED show. A little bit of Blue "Krylon Fusion", some new labels and here is what that part looked like.

[mllkat]

OK, Now that the LED Marquee looks like something, it was time to work on the coin door. The original coin door was pretty much stripped out when I had purchased the cabinet shell those many moons ago. It was a coin door only in the basic sense. It WAS a door...and it used to take coins but that was pretty much it. I had not long ago purchased one of Happs Over/Under Upstacker Mid-Width doors and later added the MARS Bill Validator. Now was the perfect time to put it to use. This did require me to make a new front panel for the cab. I removed the old one taking careful measurements of the piece and the routed out edges on the sides and the bottom edge. Well....careful measurements for me anyway..which means...measure once...look at it...and say....Close enough!! I used a piece of the prelaminated MDF thinking this would speed up the process...and it most certainly did...except I could not find a black board...only white. This proved not to be that big a deal as it painted quite nicely. I wish I had thought to take pictures of this process but as you might imagine, it would never have measured up to the skill and precision I have seen time and again from the people on this board. One the plus side...I still have all my fingers! So anyways, here is the new front with coin door installed.