Author Topic: This Popeye needs some spinach (Read 36588 times)

opt2not · « **Reply #40 on:** November 15, 2010, 04:04:23 pm »

Lookin' good. I love me a minty looking cab...

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #41 on:** November 16, 2010, 09:11:26 am »

Is it working?

isucamper · « **Reply #42 on:** November 16, 2010, 10:57:39 pm »

It was when I took it apart, aside from a few graphical gliltches. Will know in a few weeks once i get it reassembled.

isucamper · « **Reply #43 on:** November 24, 2010, 11:04:17 pm »

Got the first side arted up. Got the silk screen from Arcadeshop. It went on much easier than the inkjet stuff I got from Mamemarquees for my MAME cabinet. It's stiffer and easier to work with (snark).

isucamper · « **Reply #44 on:** December 04, 2010, 04:45:13 pm »

Got the second side applied and got the protective layer removed. I wasn't prepared for how nice the silk screen art looks. The pictures don't do it justice. Its all shiny.

Here's a before shot for comparison:

So, any tips on putting the monitor bolts through the art? Do I just poke holes?

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #45 on:** December 04, 2010, 05:00:55 pm »

Use an exacto and cut a cross in the hole, then insert bolt.

IG-88 · « **Reply #46 on:** December 04, 2010, 06:53:02 pm »

You can't just glue and screw some wood strips on the inside of the cab to avoid drilling the holes in the first place?

isucamper · « **Reply #47 on:** December 05, 2010, 03:00:50 pm »

The holes are already drilled. These nintendo cabinets have expose bolt heads on the sides (see the last picture above). You could countersink them and keep from having them go through the artwork, and this would look nicer, but wouldn't be authentic.

isucamper · « **Reply #48 on:** December 08, 2010, 12:25:39 am »

Got most of the guts in and am almost ready to power her up. Just need to make a new power cord.

I learned the all too important lesson of tightening the monitor bracket nuts too much and I stressed the side art in 2 spots. Oh well.

Question. When I first opened this thing up there was a fan literally dangling in there. It's power cord traced back to underneath the outlet on the bottom of the cabinet. Can anyone tell me what this fan is supposed to be cooling?

TheShanMan · « **Reply #49 on:** December 08, 2010, 02:24:10 am »

I'm almost positive my nintendo cabs have no fan (including my popeye). I'm guessing the wiring for it doesn't look factory?

isucamper · « **Reply #50 on:** December 08, 2010, 08:06:30 am »

It kinda does look factory, but who knows. It certainly wasn't secure in the cabinet so maybe not.

Spyridon · « **Reply #51 on:** December 08, 2010, 12:04:44 pm »

I'm not aware of any Nintendo's coming with a fan in them.

isucamper · « **Reply #52 on:** December 08, 2010, 08:46:28 pm »

Got it powered up. I was relieved that after the year long restoration I was able to get it connected back up and that all the components were still working. Was sad to see my graphical glitches are still an issue.

I'll try cleaning the ROM chips as suggested earlier. Any other suggestions?

Also, can't see the scores and I don't see a vertical position adjustment on the monitor. Suggestions?

isucamper · « **Reply #53 on:** December 08, 2010, 08:56:02 pm »

BTW, making a new power cable for a Nintendo cabinet is easy.

Just get any old power cable,

these molex connectors:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/19-09-1029/?qs=404muyNbhLGM%2fJzO7I4sLA%3d%3d

and these pins:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Tyco-Electronics/770144-5/?qs=m8myXnDJXpVj8%2f556MjcuA%3d%3d

The mate for that molex is here should you need it, but you shouldn't it'll be in the cabinet already.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Molex/19-09-2029/?qs=LQQHZ4xw2XC5dznzjhhjnQ%3d%3d

Cut the female end off your power cable and strip back the insulation so you can get at the wires. Screw the green wire to your ground block on the power switch and crimp your pins on to the white and black cables. Stick the white cable in the 'D' hole of the molex and the black cable in the 'O' hole. You kinda need a special crimp tool for to crimp these pins nicely, but I made do with my normal crimper.

isucamper · « **Reply #54 on:** December 11, 2010, 03:34:36 pm »

Forgetting my technical issues for a minute, here is my coin door:

The plan is to strip the paint (with something like citistrip?) sand it down with a fairly coarse sand paper (150-200 grit?) and prime and paint with a spray of some kind. Is this a reasonable approach? I'm pretty clueless as usual so help a noob out if I'm about to do something stupid.

opt2not · « **Reply #55 on:** December 11, 2010, 06:06:04 pm »

Quote from: isucamper on December 11, 2010, 03:34:36 pm

Forgetting my technical issues for a minute, here is my coin door:

The plan is to strip the paint (with something like citistrip?) sand it down with a fairly coarse sand paper (150-200 grit?) and prime and paint with a spray of some kind. Is this a reasonable approach? I'm pretty clueless as usual so help a noob out if I'm about to do something stupid.

Wire wheel and a drill is probably the best way to strip it. I did it to my midway coin door without any citristrip substance and the paint came off pretty easily. Then just paint it and you're go to go!

Spyridon · « **Reply #56 on:** December 11, 2010, 08:19:12 pm »

I'll second the wire wheel approach. I use it on all my coin doors and it works great. It will strip it right down to the bare metal in no time.

AmishHitman · « **Reply #57 on:** December 15, 2010, 03:51:03 am »

Love the build... Dont see many of these around.

isucamper · « **Reply #58 on:** February 28, 2011, 10:52:17 pm »

The wire brush and drill did the trick for stripping the paint off. Thanks for the tip on that one guys.

Then a fresh coat of paint and some shine on the bolts made it look brand new.

I found a tip on KLOV to use this paint and it looks great. Not quite the textured look that the door originally had but pretty close.

Coin mech face plates, reject buttions w/ spring, and coin rails are all brand new. Ordered the parts mentioned in this thread. I ordered way more of these than I will need to make the minimum order price, and I will be selling a few sets for 10 bucks shipped (each). Anyone who wants any, let me know.

Also got a new lock and shined up the lock washer with some sand paper.

So. Moving on. Is there anything I can do to make the marquee and bezel look nice and new like I did with the coin door? Does Novus work?

yotsuya · « **Reply #59 on:** February 28, 2011, 11:09:41 pm »

That looks great! How do the mechs fit on the back of the coin slots? I might be interested in one of the sets.

isucamper · « **Reply #60 on:** March 01, 2011, 08:30:03 am »

The mechs just screw into the the back of the faceplate. You can see the little screw nubs on the front of the faceplates. Let me know. I have 4 of these I would part with.

isucamper · « **Reply #61 on:** March 17, 2011, 11:15:42 pm »

More progress. The marquee and bezel retainers were in pretty sorry shape, so I used my new wire brush skills to strip them down and repaint them the same way I did the coin door, but used regular semi gloss black instead of the hammered stuff. Its nice to have another skill under my belt.

The bezel holder was in bad shape too, but I couldn't figure out how to get it off of the bezel. So, instead of using the wire brush I just wrapped the bezel up and stripped the metal with 220 grit sandpaper which worked just as good (if not a little better) as the wire brush.

I decided to keep the original bezel since it really wasn't in horrible shape except for the crack, which isn't too noticable. I did get the Novus 3-2-1 kit to try and shine up the bezel and marquee. I was amazed at how it worked on the bezel. The millions of tiny scratches disappeared, and the few deeper scratches dulled a good deal. If I wanted to do a few more applications they would probably go away. The glass looked brand new when I was done. For some reason I couldn't get similar results on the marquee. The same treatment didn't seem to do anything.

Then it was time to get all this stuff back on the cabinet. A slight miscalculation made the bezel mount a little difficult. When I got the cab, one of the wood strips that holds the bezel in place was falling off. I reattached it with glue and it would seem my measurement was just a bit off. There was barely enough room between the wood strip and the bracket between the bezel and marquee. It took some straining but I was able to get the bezel between them. Also as a result of my reattaching the wood strip, the bezel won't sit perfectly in the groove above the control panel. It slides in on the left side but not all the way on the right (which is the side I reattached the wood strip on). However, it fits enough, and when locked into place by the above bracket, its not going anywhere. And no one will ever notice.

Since the marquee light wasn't lighting I got some replacement bulbs and starters from Topbulb for the factory original marquee light fixture. I first got these bulbs (ignore the voltage rating on the listing, its a mistake, they are actually the 100V bulbs that work with the Nintendo fixtures) and these starters. The bulbs worked great, but the starters were duds. Put them in, turn the game on, and nothing. I then tried ordering the same part from Bulbtronics here since the part in the picture looked more like the original one that was in my cabinet. Got 2 of them in the mail and they looked just like the ones I got from TopBulb. Tried them out, and these ones lit, but after about 10 minutes the bulb started turning off and on over and over. Weird. So I put the original lighter back in and it seems to be working fine, despite that I'm out about 20 bucks in bad starters. Not sure why I'm having such trouble with them.

The good news? At some point in testing the bulbs, my graphics glitches went away!!

I probably still need to pull the board and clean the contacts on the chips... but then again... if it aint broke...

So. I'm almost done. Just gotta wire up the coin door and do some work on the control panel.

Once I get the panel taken apart it will need some bondo work and I have to recut the t-molding slot since it got filled in and painted over. And I need a new instruction card as the one in the panel looks pretty crappy. Anybody know a good source? The ones at MikesArcade look more yellow than the off white one that's already in my panel.

isucamper · « **Reply #62 on:** March 17, 2011, 11:27:37 pm »

And because I'm in a Popeye mood.

opt2not · « **Reply #63 on:** March 18, 2011, 05:56:13 pm »

This is turning out to be a real beauty!
Congrats on the hard work! You're really doing it justice!

I'm glad to hear you've got wire-wheel skills now, you'll be surprised how many of these "little skills" you acquire while restoring these cabinets.

As for the instruction card, the Arcade Art Library has a less yellow one, and it seemed that this version of the card's reds are more accurate to what you have, rather than the one on Mike's:
http://arcadeartlibrary.com/arcade_art/details.php?image_id=666

Though, there is that blue Popeye banner and border, so...I took the liberty of cutting out the border for you.

You could probably just print it out onto some nice-quality card stock at Kinkos or Office Depot or something for a few bucks. Just cut the rounded corners and you're set!

isucamper · « **Reply #64 on:** March 18, 2011, 10:49:51 pm »

Good idea! I got the control panel apart tonight and I see that the instruction card is just a little piece of semi gloss paper tapped to the underside of the control panel. I could totally print one of these. And the off white on the arcade art file is a perfect match. Thanks! I will take a side by side photo with the original once I get the new one printed.

opt2not · « **Reply #65 on:** March 19, 2011, 01:08:44 am »

DeLuSioNal29 · « **Reply #66 on:** March 21, 2011, 05:55:31 pm »

I finally got a chance to read through this entire thread. Great job!

D

Epyx · « **Reply #67 on:** March 23, 2011, 02:10:00 pm »

Fantastic job, I gotta agree, nothing like seeing a classic restored. I too am already starting to suffer from my original plan of a home theater with one Mame cab to a basement arcade with a projector "where there is room" lol.

isucamper · « **Reply #68 on:** March 29, 2011, 11:35:32 pm »

Got the panel take apart. Kind of an involved process, and these Nintendo panels are so simple.

Printed out a new instruction card using Opts' file and some semi gloss paper using my POS inkjet printer. Turned out pretty nice. Could probably do better if I took it someplace, but it'll do for now.

Then it was time to do some work on the panel. It was pretty ugly to start with. The t-molding groove had been filled in and painted over.

First thing to do was recut the slot. I used the same 1/16th inch slot cutting bit in my router that I used to cut the slot for my MAME cabinet which used thicker t-molding.

Then I sanded the whole thing down and used a bit of bondo on the worst parts.

Repainted and repopulated, got a new clear joystick ring from gamestencils and lubed up the joystick as directed by the manual, and the control panel is as good as new.

And then Popeye was done.

The finishing touch:

I still need a coin decal, but ThisOldGame is currently sold out.

And that completes my first arcade restoration. It took about a year from the point when I actually started to work on the cab. Pretty long, but I could only find time here and there for it. This was the first original arcade cabinet I bought, and in the time it took me to restore it I bought 5 more... all of which need work. So maybe I'll have them all done by the time I'm 60. For as tedious and difficult as it was, it sure got fun toward the end. Hopefully that will get me movtivated to start the next one.

Thanks for everybody's help. Couldn't have done it without you.

yotsuya · « **Reply #69 on:** March 30, 2011, 12:10:28 am »

clutch · « **Reply #70 on:** March 30, 2011, 01:11:55 am »

Very nice! Congrats!

opt2not · « **Reply #71 on:** March 30, 2011, 02:46:47 am »

Incredible job, Congrats on your resto! Popeye looks great, better than what I remember playing back then.
I look forward to your next resto, I'm sure it'll go faster for you based on what you've learned so far.

Excellent work!!!!

Ground_Gainer · « **Reply #72 on:** April 04, 2011, 10:39:00 am »

I love all the pictures and explanations--the final game looks great! I will definitely be referring to this on my restore.

Cheers!

Necro · « **Reply #73 on:** April 06, 2011, 09:39:47 pm »

So, what was the issue with the game itself? Just needed new roms or something more detailed?

isucamper · « **Reply #74 on:** April 07, 2011, 09:22:23 am »

So as I stated, the graphics glitches went away after testing bulbs, but they came back a few nights later. I ended up taking the board out and took a look at it, but got cold feet before taking the roms off and cleaning them up (I've never messed with anything like that before). I did however find that the connector from the board to the board cage was not seated flush. I cleaned up the connector (which was really dusty and seemed pretty brittle) reseated it, put the board back in and it's been fine for a few nights now. I'm up to 74,000 btw.

GAJoe · « **Reply #75 on:** June 02, 2011, 02:34:27 pm »

Great job! This tickles me because a few years ago I got into a bit of an argument on here with people who cry bloody murder when a Donkey Kong gets MAiMEd, but don't bat an eyelash when people convert working Popeye cabinets into DK machines. It's good to see someone restore a Popeye for a change.

TheShanMan · « **Reply #76 on:** June 02, 2011, 02:44:53 pm »

I think many popeyes were originally DK's. Mine is. So I wouldn't bat an eye if someone de-converted one (although I don't plan to). But I hate to see classics get mame'd. In fact I'm hoping to de-convert my centipede mame and get a non-classic generic cabinet for it this summer.

Isu, I recently had to replace the edge connectors on my Vs. SMB. The original green ones Nintendo used are crap so it might be good preventative maintenance for you to replace them.

isucamper · « **Reply #77 on:** June 06, 2011, 08:31:46 am »

Hmm. Are you talking about on the board itself or the one on the board cage?

TheShanMan · « **Reply #78 on:** June 07, 2011, 01:51:53 pm »

Both really. The cage cover isn't actually necessary. You can plug the harness into the board directly. Two fewer connectors to worry about causing problems and/or needing to be replaced.

IrishKrush · « **Reply #79 on:** July 10, 2011, 06:33:58 am »

This is a great restore. I love the old Nintendo cabs!


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