Dumpster diving is paying off!!

[Sidgoop]

Hi there - long time lurker, relatively first time poster.  Anyway, I live in a suburb of New Orleans, and as many of you know, we had a visitor last year named Katrina.  Over the course of the next few months, everything that got or potentially got wet was thrown to the curb.  My first find was the cabinet that would be my current MAME box. 

http://members.cox.net/briecke37/

Almost a year has passed, and I figured everything that was going to get thrown out had already gone out. 

Boy, was I wrong.

I was on my way to the local Lowe's to pick up some stuff to rebuild my workshop, when I decided to take the back way there.  A block away, I saw a construction dumpster next to an office building with some familiar things poking out of the top.  It was the top of a Pac Man/ Ms. Pac Man/ Galaga 25th anniversary game.  I pulled up to the dumpster, climed up, and looked in to see what was happening.  Apparently, there had been an operator in the building who had never returned, and a couple of contractors who were gutting the building had thrown everything out.  There was one full size anniversary game, and two cabaret versions.  The full size was on top, and had crushed the cabaret games into unusable heaps of trash.  I found one of the clean up guys to get permission (ALWAYS DO THIS IF YOU CAN WHEN YOU DUMPSTER DIVE - IT MAKES IT EASIER IF THE POLICE SHOW UP), and he said if I could take the whole dumpster, he would actually pay me to take it!  So with his blessing, I hopped in, and started surveying the damage.  The cabinet on the full size was completely water logged, so I just pulled everything I could salvage.  I was able to get all the essentials - all the electronics, coin door, control panel, bezel, and 25" WG monitor.  The marquee and monitor glass were smashed, so I left them.  I threw everything in my car and hauled ass home.

I never made it to Lowes!

Here's pictures of my haul:



It was easier to rip the front apart then unbold the coin box.



Here's the control panel.  Gotta love that retro artwork!!



Here's the underside.  No rust, and as good as new!!



The electronics are intact.  There is some minor rust and corrosion.



A close up of the CPU. 



The first thing was to disconnect the Jamma harness, and check the power supply.  This thing worked just fine.  I just needed to calibrate it a little to get the 5V and 12V up to par.  I cleaned off all the connectors on the CPU board and jamma harness, and fired up this baby.  This is what I got:



Now the picture didn't come out good because of the interlace difference between the monitor and my camera, but long story short, the screen is filled with multi-colored cubes.  The good news is the monitor works, but I'm having issues with the board.  The power checks out, so I know the power supply is good. I re-seated the chips on the board, but it didn't do any good.  Not being one to sit still, I went back to the dumpster, and tried to get the other two boards out of the crushed cabarets.  Well, only one was salvagable, so I brought it home and hooked it up. 

Same results. 

Now I did notice a little corrosion between some of the legs on some of the chips, so I'm going to bring the boards into work to clean them.  Maybe that'll do some good. My main goal is to build a cocktail table, albeit a larger one with a 25" monitor.  Any advice and comments would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!!

[More Cowbell]

Sweet finds. I'm always amazed at what people can get for free. I never thought it would happen to me but in the past few weeks I have come across 2 free computers which can be used in future cabs. Also, my son happened across a free working PS2 at a garage sale. The lady even sent the controllers at her expense to us when she found them a few weeks later (nicest.lady.ever). Good luck getting it all back up and running.

[Sidgoop]

Yeah, it's so sad that all my good finds had to be at the expense of a natural disaster.  Part of me actually feels guilty about taking this stuff.  Well, after checking some information on Namco's website, this particular game is available in full size and cabaret models - but not cocktail models.  This means that there probably won't be an option to flip the screen between players.  Does anybody know for sure if there is a programming option in the test mode to switch it up?  If not, I'll try to rebuild a midway pac-style cabinet from scratch, or pray and hope I can find a gutted one in good shape for sale. 

[Sidgoop]

Stick a fork in it - it's done.

I couldn't get the boards to come up, no matter how much I cleaned them.    So I've done the next best thing - put 'em on ebay.  Maybe somebody can have better luck than I did.  As for the monitor, I'm going to use it in my MAME box.  I'm waiting for Ultimarc to get some ArcadeVGAs in now.  I'm saving the coin box and control panel for a future cocktail project. 

If any of you are interested, here's the ebay links -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120019024021&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120019024289&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

[dudebozo]

Sidgoop,
that's too bad that the boards don't work.  that would have been awesome to get them working and start up a project.  good deal with the monitor though. 

[ChadTower]

If they were on when it flooded, forget it, most everything on it is fried.

I bet the implied license that comes with the boards is worth at least a little money, though.