D2K on 4-board DK PCB.

[ArtsNFartsNCrafts]

Kind of a random question (and apologies in advance if I'm posting in the wrong area), but has anyone out there attempted a D2k mod on a 4-board (cocktail) Donkey Kong PCB?  I want to try it out, but

1) I have little experience with soldering and don't want to permanently brick my PCB.

2) My Z80 chip isn't on one of the outside boards...it's sanwiched between the two outside boards on one of the inner boards...I wonder if it would be difficult to take the spacers off and "rearrange" the boards...

Any ideas?

[Level42]

I am planning to do this as well.

I looked at it and it shouldn't be too hard to move the board currently over the Z80 spot to the other side.

But you will have to remove the Z80. Best way is to clip off all the legs and then desolder all legs one by one. Then install a socket. Of course you will need a new Z80, but they are not too expensive. It's better then "baking" your board in just trying to get out the Z80 in one piece.

[CrazyKongFan]

I have a DK cocktail and it was pretty easy to add the D2K kit. I was a little afraid of moving the sound board (which is the little half board covering the Z80). I just used a small screwdriver to push the tabs together enough to remove those plastic spacers (needlenose pliers would probably work better, but I didn't have them). My Z80 was socketed, and as long as your cocktail isn't an early production one, yours probably is too. The cables that attach the sound board are long enough to reach to the top half, so don't be worried about that. The only thing to watch out for, is the kit is really tough to get in, and once it's in, you don't want to be switching it in and out This shouldn't be a problem, as you can play both DK and D2K on it. Only issue is if you plan on submitting scores to Twin Galaxies on DK. You can't have any add-on boards. If that's the case, you're probably better off buying a 2nd boardset to keep dedicated to DK.

[Bender]

I was too chicken
so I traded my 4 board in to Mike's arcade for a 2 board set (cost a bit to trade up) and didn't have to solder or move a board, just removed one chip and pressed the Braze kit in and I was done!
this was one of the first things I did modding or restoring anything arcade related. It was quite few years ago now

Now I'd mod the 4 board set in heartbeat (after doing a cap kit on that monitor this all seems pretty tame)

I can't remember, but with the braze kit do you even need a new z80 chip?

[CrazyKongFan]

You only need a new Z80 if you've cut out yours. Otherwise, you just pop the Z80 out of the socket, put the Z80 on the D2K board, then plug the D2K board into the former Z80 slot on your DK board.
Bender, you must have had an early upright. You can't use the 2 board in a DK cocktail, it's too big. That's why they continued to make the 4 board sets for the cocktails, even though they'd switched to 2 board sets in the uprights.

[Bender]

You only need a new Z80 if you've cut out yours. Otherwise, you just pop the Z80 out of the socket, put the Z80 on the D2K board, then plug the D2K board into the former Z80 slot on your DK board.
Bender, you must have had an early upright. You can't use the 2 board in a DK cocktail, it's too big. That's why they continued to make the 4 board sets for the cocktails, even though they'd switched to 2 board sets in the uprights.

Yeah, mines an upright, I didn't know the 2 board set was bigger and wouldn't fit into a cocktail
good to know