Nintendo Cocktail questions -- Restore or Mame? and/or Parts wanted

[MonitorGuru]

Hey all...

After restoring a handful of uprights and a real nice Ms.Pac cocktail, I just obtained a partially gutted Nintendo (DonkeyKong) cocktail cabinet.  It was missing the monitor, power board, game board and joysticks.


Anyway, here are my questions/wants

- Sould I attempt to restore it to a Donkey Kong or DK Jr?  or  Should I convert it to a Mame system instead? (I have enough parts to build one to play all 4 way + 1 button games easily, including PC monitor or hacked Commodore monitor for arcade graphic quality

- If I dont mame it, does anyone have a working or only-need-a-cap-kit non working Nintendo 13" color monitor?  How about a power board?  How about 4 way restrictor plates for the joystick? (I have the joysticks, but only in 8 way or 2 way, not 4 way.)

- Has anyone ever tried to match the paint on the game?  Are they all the same? Mine is a darker red/purpleish brown color.  Are there standard spray paint colors that are very close? something from the big 3 (Rustoleum, Krylon or Painters Touch [rustoleum too I think])

[RayB]

Pics always help people form such opinions...

[spriggy]

My opinion... and methods....

Is it something you would want restored in your place?  If not, would someone else take it off your hands fro dollars when restored?  Or take it off your hands for dollars to restore themselves so you can buy something else you really want or would like?

I would restore where possible!!  And not half-assed.  At least as asthetically close as possible anyway.  If need be, iInternals can always be upgraded due to the age of some parts.

Extensively scour the net for the parts you require to restore her.  If you can't get the parts or repro the artwork to do the job (and or have the dollars to do it!)... then take the step of selling it to someone who has the parts to do it or mame it as the LAST RESORT.

But that's just my opinion......

Game On!  

[MonitorGuru]

I will upload some pics this weekend.  It's shell is pretty good only a few dings, but inside there is rust in quite a few scattered, but small spots.  It definitely needs a sanding inside and out and a coat of paint.

Don't worry, if I were to mame it, I would not degrade the value of it by drilling new holes/etc...  I would make board mounts (circuit boards like being mounted to non-conductive surfaces better anyway ) and adapt them to the existing mounting pieces, so it would be a cinch to convert back.

I got for a reasonably good deal (around $100), but I didn't know how different it was than from working with wood products and didn't consider a lot of the issues with that and it being nintendo and having 'special needs' compared to other games (e.g. 100 volt monitor, 110->100 volt power converter, negative video monitor, special nintendo joysticks, metal vs wood shell)

It has 3 pieces of graphics, all have been warped and need replacing.  It had almost all the wiring (they chopped the wire right next to the power supply, otherwise all ends are there including the 2 prong AC line to the (missing) monitor. The vinyl fake red stained oak laminate is starting to peel in spots.

The joysticks were stripped out, the buttons were still there. The top glass has scratches and one edge ding (1/8") over player 1. The support legs are physically okay but look like he11--tons of grain-of-sand sized pitting on the pewter-like aluminum base (probably from aluminum eating floor cleaners) and no black (just rust starting) on the uprights that slide into the cabinet side posts.

It definitely needs work.  I know I could sand it down, spray a new coat of paint, make some mounts, slap in an ATX power supply, ATX mobo, Duron 600 (O/c to 933) chip, 128 meg DDR memory, 4 meg AGP video card, 2.5 gig hard drive, a hacked Commodore 1084 monitor, AdvanceMame, and hack a single USB gravis gamepad to 2 replacement 8 way Nintendo joysticks I have for under $100 and have the thing playing every single vertical orientation 0 or 1 button game ever made, and no headaches with getting working classic parts.

I'd sand, reprime and repaint the top cream-white as it's got a fair amount of liquid damage (cleaner more than soda pop).  I could easily iron on new real-oak laminiate trim and restain the deep red and it'd look even better than the vinyl laminite.

Just wouldn't be able to replace the slightly worn graphics around the P1 joystick.

I figure cost to mame: $0 == Nothing as I have all the parts ($100-$130 if I had to buy them all now), plus ~$20 in paint and laminate. (Value of selling parts , on ebay that I'd end up using are probably < $50 [half what it would cost for me to buy them there due to shipping])

Cost to restore to original DK: At least $300 all told.  Need to get power ($50), monitor ($75), boards ($100), 2x 4 way sticks ($30), new graphics ($25 though I dont think the bigger instruction sheet for the cocktail was ever repro'd.. the smaller one on the uprights were), ~$20 paint and laminate.  Don't think the thing would be worth $400 to resell though...

Again, I'll post pics this weekend, but I think my description above gives a good idea of where the thing is at...

[RayB]

It's weird, but I am kind of sitting on the fence on this one. I am definitely anti-MAME when it comes to beautiful uprights (like Centipede, Midway classics, etc), abd also for some of the cooler looking cocktails (Williams), but sometimes there just isn't enough there to make it really worth it. DK cocktails look a little weird and don't have much art on them beyond the little instruction card. So I'm torn. It's almost not really worth restoring cuz it's an ugly cocktail to begin with.  

I'm debating the same thing with an Atari Missile Command cocktail. It turns out I have alot of non-working electronic parts in it, and thetop glass is missing (the top glass is where all the artwork would be). So right now it's basically a brown  box doing nothing.  Should I could MAME it and go against my own pro-repro opinions?

[JoyMonkey]

- Has anyone ever tried to match the paint on the game?  Are they all the same? Mine is a darker red/purpleish brown color.  Are there standard spray paint colors that are very close? something from the big 3 (Rustoleum, Krylon or Painters Touch [rustoleum too I think])

There's a DK Jr cocktail in an antique shop down the street from me (they've been trying to seel it for months but won't drop below $700). I'm pretty sure it's the original cabinet and it's plain black.

[spriggy]

Good reply MG.  How can I argue with that.

My reasoning is a little different because of my location on the world map...that being WESTERN AUSTRALIA.    Original dedicated cabs are as rare as dogs balls (excuse the analogy) and I mean rare!!!!

So for me, any dedicated cabinets that end up in my hands will have a tendancy to lean heavily towards restoration before taking the conversion route.

As you described...both have merits.

YOU LUCKY BASTARD  

Cheers

[MonitorGuru]

Well I think the decision has been for me..

Over lunch I attempted to remove the top glass.  The 3 pieces of art, especially the large one, had over time, near completely stuck themselves to the glass, and the ink was flaking off of them. I couldn't even lift the glass off and had to slowly twist it to break it free. The artwork got stuck from numerous cleaners running underneath and soaking it so it was bubbled (sort of like the plastic underlays on Midway cocktail tables), and since it was just a paper card with double sided masking tape (still sticky by the way, yet still removable from the painted top), it was a mess.

There was no salvaging it since it was in the middle of the glass.  I took a couple dead on digital pictures of it before lifting the glass (the damage could be easily seen even before removing the glass).

Anyway, I don't believe this piece of art was repo'd since it was only on the cocktail version.

After looking at how much it would cost to bring back to a DK or DKJr, it just doesn't make too much sense to sink a lot into this beast to bring it back.

Part of me is upset at spending so much on it, yet the other part says that I could barely have built a wood box for that much (plus ALL the headache of building--sawing, routering) so it isn't totally wasted money.

I know I can make it look really good, and yet not prevent someone from converting it back in the future.

By the way, I did find that their metal control panel housings had two holes drilled for fire buttons (one directly horizontal to the first), their exposed aluminum bezel simply didn't expose it.


I took a closer look at the color in the sunlight today.  Definitely a dark brown, and in some light a very very DARK redish/purple tint, in other ways, just plain dark brown.  I see Painter Touch (Rustoleum) has a Koha Brown color that on computer screen seems to be very close.   Better than painting it black probably, just more expensive.

So perhaps I can sell off the unneeded parts.. aluminum joystick bezels and interior wiring and recoup 1/3rd to half of my investment.


I feel your pain spriggy... I live in virtually the same area... it's called North Dakota. (Hey, in some ways it's like Austraillia... excrutiatingly hot in the summer, but no ocean to cool us down, and barely any games within 350 miles in any direction... It was 90 degrees yesterday as I was loading the game into my car, having to take off the legs to make it fit.

[Chemixtry]

Where are you on North Dakota? I live in Dallas now but I am originally from there. (Dickinson area). I used to joke that N. Dak wasnt the end of the world but you could see it from there! When I tell people I'm from there they always ask me either did I live in Fargo or isnt that where Mt Rushmore is at.  

[SirPeale]

There's a DK Jr cocktail in an antique shop down the street from me (they've been trying to seel it for months but won't drop below $700). I'm pretty sure it's the original cabinet and it's plain black.

You saw that on craigslist too, eh?  I emailed him about it, offered him $200.  He laughed.  I told him that was about going rate.  He said he had more invested in it with the repairs and new monitor.  He also said that if I could find DJ JR cocktails for $200 that I should snap them up.

I wish the guy luck, and it will likely sell eventually, to someone that doesn't know any better.

[JoyMonkey]

There's a DK Jr cocktail in an antique shop down the street from me (they've been trying to seel it for months but won't drop below $700). I'm pretty sure it's the original cabinet and it's plain black.

You saw that on craigslist too, eh?  I emailed him about it, offered him $200.  He laughed.  I told him that was about going rate.  He said he had more invested in it with the repairs and new monitor.  He also said that if I could find DJ JR cocktails for $200 that I should snap them up.

I wish the guy luck, and it will likely sell eventually, to someone that doesn't know any better.

Yes, I found this originally on CraigsList, but thought $700 was a bit much. Then my finacee and I were shopping for a dinner table and found it sitting in our local antique shop; weeks later, and still priced at $700. There was a 70 year old woman in charge of the shop that day, and she said she didn't know too much about it. It looks alright; all the artwork is badly faded, but it plays well. I can't really tell if it's a new monitor or not, but $700 is still a joke. Maybe I'll drop down there over the weekend and see if they've still got it (or if some sucker has shelled out the $700 for it).