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SecretSquirrel
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Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:23 am

So I was up visiting my daughter at college this weekend. In between fixing fridges and dryers and the like, I had to run to Walmart, Saturday morning. On the way, I happened to look down a side street and saw someone having a garage sale. Not unusual on a Saturday morning. The shape of something sitting out on the sidewalk caught my eye. One my way back, I stopped and ….

Image

The cabinet has definitely seen better days.

Image

But, it has two circuit boards, the mounted one looks to be nearly new.

Image

The other, not so much...

Image

The display is intact and looks to be in reasonably good shape, though I don't know about burn in.

Image

I couldn't pass it up though. So, $100 later, it's sitting in my daughter's garage until I get get back up with a trailer and bring it home.

Image

--SS
 
ludi
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:31 am

Worst case, nothing works and you've got the perfect cabinet and hardware for an RPi emulator restomod. Win either way.
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SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:19 pm

ludi wrote:
Worst case, nothing works and you've got the perfect cabinet and hardware for an RPi emulator restomod. Win either way.


The only thing that matter is the ROM contents. I have all the equipment to replace every chip on the board, if need. I probably have all the chips too. Actually, I might have to dig for a Z80... I probably even have the EPROM chips if I need to burn new ROMs. Not sure I have a computer that could drive my old programmer, but I think I still have my UV eraser.

--SS
 
Heiwashin
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:43 pm

I'm pretty jelly right now. What are you going to do about the cabinets condition.
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SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:15 pm

Heiwashin wrote:
I'm pretty jelly right now. What are you going to do about the cabinets condition.


I'm not entirely sure yet. I think some of if may have to do with the state of the electronics, and especially the monitor. If it turns out the monitor is in really good shape and the electronics work, then I'll probably go to a lot more effort to restore the cabinet.

--SS
 
videobits
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:57 pm

Yes...some envy here as well. Great price for the cabinet alone as a starting point to a project.

Two comments: You might check with a shop that does vinyl wraps for cars and trucks. Duplicating the cabinet art should be fairly simple...just 4 colors it looks like.

And you probably should be thinking about just replacing those electrolytic capacitors on those boards. Likely problems due to heat and age. Through-hole components everywhere so it should be simple.

Good luck on your project.
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 6:35 pm

videobits wrote:
Yes...some envy here as well. Great price for the cabinet alone as a starting point to a project.

Two comments: You might check with a shop that does vinyl wraps for cars and trucks. Duplicating the cabinet art should be fairly simple...just 4 colors it looks like.

And you probably should be thinking about just replacing those electrolytic capacitors on those boards. Likely problems due to heat and age. Through-hole components everywhere so it should be simple.

Good luck on your project.


Checking all the caps is the first thing on my electronics list. Then it's going to be checking the power "supply". Depending, I may desolder the regulators and use my current controlled bench supplies for initial board power testing.

--SS
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:56 pm

videobits wrote:
You might check with a shop that does vinyl wraps for cars and trucks. Duplicating the cabinet art should be fairly simple...just 4 colors it looks like.


There are a number of places that will print vinyl decals or full side sheets for various video game cabinets. If the electronics don't work or I end up parting them out, I'll have a set for the Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga combo cabinet made and put an emulator in. If the electronics are good and the monitor are good then I might actually do stencils and properly repaint the cabinet as a full restoration. Regardless, there is going to be lots of work needed on the edges. They are pretty beat up.

--SS
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:04 pm

The patient has been transported home...

Image

Finally got the chance to go pick up the Ms Pac-Man, as well as do some other handyman stuff at my daughter's house. Made for a long weekend. Unfortunately, I won't have the chance to work on the game much for a couple of weeks as I have some other stuff to do around the house, including finishing up getting the garage cleaned and organized. First step will be to get things cleaned up a bit.

--SS
 
thegleek
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:09 pm

so cool! long time TR member, haven't post **** in years, cuz that's just the way life is.

frobozz alerted me to this thread, and me being a huge arcade hobbyist, i'm here!

nice find indeed secretsquirrel! over the past 5 years, I've amassed over 30 of these arcade refrigerators! :)

i'll muster up some photos and share with the class soon...
––•–√\/––√\/––•–– nostalgia is an emotion for people with no future ––•–√\/––√\/––•–-
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sat Feb 09, 2019 3:36 pm

thegleek wrote:
so cool! long time TR member, haven't post **** in years, cuz that's just the way life is.

frobozz alerted me to this thread, and me being a huge arcade hobbyist, i'm here!

nice find indeed secretsquirrel! over the past 5 years, I've amassed over 30 of these arcade refrigerators! :)

i'll muster up some photos and share with the class soon...


Don't suppose you have the combo Ms PacMan/Galaga, do you?

--SS
 
CScottG
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:00 pm

Ah, Nostalgia. 8) Galaga was my favorite arcade game.. Pushed a lot of quarters into those machines in the early '80s. :D
 
Chuckaluphagus
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:54 am

CScottG wrote:
Ah, Nostalgia. 8) Galaga was my favorite arcade game.. Pushed a lot of quarters into those machines in the early '80s. :D

Tempest was mine. I'm never going to get bored of it. I've got the ROM via the Atari Vault, although it's never the same playing it on without a paddle.
 
thegleek
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:27 am

SecretSquirrel wrote:
Don't suppose you have the combo Ms PacMan/Galaga, do you?
--SS

i did. the pcb only. i gave it away for free this 2018 xmas for my secret santa gift. oh well.
––•–√\/––√\/––•–– nostalgia is an emotion for people with no future ––•–√\/––√\/––•–-
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sun Mar 03, 2019 5:03 pm

The scales are tilting towards refurbing the game.

Image

The monitor, at least, is functional. I haven't done anything more that vacuum out the bottom of the cabinet, and power it on. Screen is all garbage, but at least there are signs of life. Unfortunately I leave for a week long business trip in about two hours, so any further investigation will have to wait.

--SS
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sun Mar 03, 2019 8:45 pm

And my flight was delayed... So I spent some time on the Ms Pacman.

Since I have a spare board, the first thing I tried was to plug the other board in. It showed signs of life, but nothing better than the board already in place. Since the installed board is in much better condition, I opted to work with it first. I pulled each socketed chip and re-installed it. a few were showing discoloration on the exposed parts of the pins, but the contact points generally looked clean. While I was at it, I disconnected the Ms Pacman daughter board and installed the CPU from the second board directly on the installed board.

Image

Definite progress! It doesn't show in the picture but the horizontal sync is bad. Still, you can make out text. I enlisted my wife to watch while I adjusted the hsync pot on the monitor. Unfortunately, no luck. I got either fast scroll, faster scroll, or a completely broken image. Still, I'm quite pleased.

--SS
 
toki
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:06 pm

I am absolutely jealous of this find. I loved this game so much in the 80s as well as the arcade. Going to the arcade after a movie and winning a bracelet with my name on it! lol
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:11 pm

And, flight is delayed a second time. Yeah, I'm posting this right after the prior message, but I'm sitting at the airport waiting on my flight and updating progress.

After dinner, and finding out I had another hour of "unplanned free time", I decided to give Ms Pacman a bit more love. While I was eating, it dawned on me that if the hsync signal wasn't making it to the monitor, then no amount of pot twisting would work. I had pulled the wiring harness connector off the filter board, but I hadn't disconnected the filter board from the main board. I didn't take pictures, but there was signs of some corrosion on the main board fingers. I re-installed the filter board and...

Image

Now totally stoked! Even better, the joystick and buttons all work. Each plays a different sound at the menu. Hit the credit switch on the back of the coin panel and...

Image

Image

You can't tell, from the crappy blurred picture, but Ms Pacman is all corrupted due to playing with half Pacman and half Ms Pacman ROMs since the daughter card is removed, but the game plays. Sound works and has more than enough volume. Joystick seems to respond well, as does the 2 player button. The 1 player button doesn't seem to do anything, but I'm assuming thats due to the DIP switch settings.

With a functioning system, I plugged the Ms Pacman daughter card back in and went back to the garbage screen in the first picture I posted. I pulled the daughter board off it's mount and started unsocketing chips. When the plastic from the socket for the middle EPROM came off with the EPROM... Well, that socket will have to be replaced. But, there wasn't any damage to the wipes and I fit the plastic back in place and plugged the EPROM back in. Plugging it all back together resulted in slightly different garbage on the screen. While I was looking at it, I noticed that there was a wire hanging loose off the ribbon cable that runs from the main board to the daughterboard. It looks like there was a problem with conductor #1, near where it entered the plug on the daughterboard, so someone snipped it back and soldered a jumper wire to it. However the other end was hanging loose. I tried plugging it into pin one on the socket, but that didn't do anything.

So, the mainboard works. I need to build a new ribbon cable, and replace all the socket on the daughter board. At least thats the start. I'm going to try and get the parts ordered this week, so they are waiting when I get home.

At this point, the decision has been made. The cabinet will get a full reconditioning. There didn't appear to be any burn in visible on the monitor, but the plexiglass is so dirty, it's hard to say what the actual state of the monitor is. I'll likely clean things up a bit more and turn up the brightness a little. If the monitor isn't too burnt in, I'll order a new set of caps for it, and the mainboard as well. I'll tackle all that when I pull the guts out to sand down the cabinet.

--SS
 
sweatshopking
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Sun Mar 03, 2019 11:48 pm

Wondering what the power consumption of the original setup VS a newer smaller emulator would be....
Neat project either way. I'd love a street fighter setup, since that's my timeframe
 
Heiwashin
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:29 am

Strikers 1941 here . Something occurs to me. Has anyone seen an arcade game that's just free to play all the time. They aren't so expensive that they shouldn't be I never have.
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just brew it!
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:58 am

sweatshopking wrote:
Wondering what the power consumption of the original setup VS a newer smaller emulator would be....
Neat project either way. I'd love a street fighter setup, since that's my timeframe

I have occasionally wondered what the total power consumption is at Galloping Ghost: https://www.gallopingghostarcade.com

125kW is my ballpark guess for the games alone. Then there's A/C in the summer months.

(And if you ever get a chance to go, DO IT!)
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
Heiwashin
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:12 am

just brew it! wrote:
sweatshopking wrote:
Wondering what the power consumption of the original setup VS a newer smaller emulator would be....
Neat project either way. I'd love a street fighter setup, since that's my timeframe

I have occasionally wondered what the total power consumption is at Galloping Ghost: https://www.gallopingghostarcade.com

125kW is my ballpark guess for the games alone. Then there's A/C in the summer months.

(And if you ever get a chance to go, DO IT!)


That's such a weird spot for my routes and parking locations. These days the closest I park to Chicago is the Merrillville Walmart. Still, if it ever looks like I'll be there a few days for some reason I'll rent a car and head there
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just brew it!
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Mar 04, 2019 10:59 am

Heiwashin wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
I have occasionally wondered what the total power consumption is at Galloping Ghost: https://www.gallopingghostarcade.com

125kW is my ballpark guess for the games alone. Then there's A/C in the summer months.

(And if you ever get a chance to go, DO IT!)

That's such a weird spot for my routes and parking locations. These days the closest I park to Chicago is the Merrillville Walmart. Still, if it ever looks like I'll be there a few days for some reason I'll rent a car and head there

Another option to consider - they're about a 20 minute walk from the Brookfield Metra station if you can get yourself to somewhere with a Metra connection. But renting a car is certainly an option; parking in the area shouldn't be a problem since Brookfield isn't anywhere near as congested as Chicago proper.

There's also a pretty nice neighborhood bar up the street (Brixies) if you need to take a break from retro gaming for an "adult beverage".
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
The Egg
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:09 am

^ If you happen to catch a train which stops at Congress Park, that's less than 5 min. Any TR regulars going should shoot me a PM and we'll grab a beer (I'm a stone's throw away).
 
SuperSpy
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Mar 04, 2019 1:06 pm

Heiwashin wrote:
Strikers 1941 here . Something occurs to me. Has anyone seen an arcade game that's just free to play all the time. They aren't so expensive that they shouldn't be I never have.


Man I love the snot out of that game, the amount of quarters I must have dumped into it at the local video rental store back in the day...

I did manage to get a retropie setup running with it and it was a treat playing such a crazy game with my son (who loved it).
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just brew it!
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Mon Mar 04, 2019 4:13 pm

The Egg wrote:
^ If you happen to catch a train which stops at Congress Park, that's less than 5 min. Any TR regulars going should shoot me a PM and we'll grab a beer (I'm a stone's throw away).

Completely forgot about that stop!

Given your location, if you like good burgers you need to hit Burger Antics if you haven't already.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
Thagarr
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:33 pm

Nice rummage sale find right there, I have been watching this thread since your first post, glad to see you got it working! Emulators are a lot of fun, but there is just no substitute for a stand-up arcade cabinet! Galaga was probably my favorite, but also loved Donkey Kong, Joust, Zaxxon and Spy Hunter among many others, but I spent some time with Ms Pac-Man too.

There is a much smaller Arcade museum in Central IL, just south of Bloomington in the small town of Mclean. It is of course nowhere near the size of Galloping Ghost, but does have a pretty good selection of games, and rotates some in and out frequently. It is called Arcadia, you can find out a lot more about it on their web page : vintagevideogames.com. They have a dedicated Pinball arcade nearby as well. They also occasionally have machines and parts up for sale too.

While I have never seen a free to play arcade game, inside an actual arcade that is, I have played a lot of free games in an arcade! Back in the mid 80’s three of my friends and myself happened to be at an arcade in a local Mall and noticed that one of the machine coin doors had been accidentally left open and the coin drawer was completely full of arcade tokens. The place was fairly busy at the time, and being young and stupid, we had absolutely no issues in unscrupulously pilfering as many tokens as we could get our hands on.

Two of my friends and myself spent the next several hours playing all the arcade and pinball games that we wanted. I don’t remember for sure how long we played, but finally noticed that our third friend had disappeared. We looked around the whole arcade and couldn't find him anywhere, eventually we noticed an arcade employee looking our direction and decided it was time to leave. We finally found our other friend out in the Mall. While we were inside playing games, he had stuffed his pockets and spent the last couple of hours selling Arcade tokens out in the Mall for 8 for $1! He never would tell us how much he made ...Good times!
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Wed Mar 06, 2019 1:11 am

Just ordered a complete electrolytic cap set for the main and daughter boards and all the sockets for the daughter board, as well as the ribbon cable and connectors for the daughterboard cable. Should be waiting for me when I get home Friday. Don't know if I will have time to work on it this weekend as replacing all the sockets on the daughterboard will be a bit time consuming. Desoldering is slow...

So now, I'm pondering how original to keep things. I am lucky enough to have a cabinet where everything is intact and is either functional or can be made so, in its original form. Take the power supply, for example. A new, high efficiency switcher is only about $35. Not a huge expenditure given I expect to be into this project for around $1k, including tools and stuff that this project will be an excuse to add to the shop. But, the cabinet isn't going to be on 24x7, maybe a couple hours a week, so efficiency isn't a huge deal. Lighting is another area. My first instinct is to replace all the incandescents with LED bulbs. I'm also certainly going to do that for everything I can find a LED equivalent that will go in the original socket. But what about the marque lighting? It's a fluorescent job. It doesn't come on now, and I'm going to assume the ballast is shot, along with the bulb. My thought would be to replace it with an LED unit of similar length. I also have a bunch of 12V white LED strip that I could use for the marquee, though that would require a new power supply.

Of course, if I really wanted to, I could refurb both PCBs I have and the control panel and sell them and turn the cabinet into a combo Ms Pacman/Galaga. The PCB for it is about $300. But somehow, that feels like desecrating the system.

Oh well. Decisions for a later date.

--SS
 
FireGryphon
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:01 am

LEDs could be fine but I’d make sure the emission spectrum and color temperature of the LEDs are the same as the fluorescent would be. That’ll keep the look similar even if the parts are not totally original. Lighting is one of those things that is often overlooked but is very important to maintain a look and feel.
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The Egg
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Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:20 am

SecretSquirrel wrote:
So now, I'm pondering how original to keep things. I am lucky enough to have a cabinet where everything is intact and is either functional or can be made so, in its original form. Take the power supply, for example. A new, high efficiency switcher is only about $35. Not a huge expenditure given I expect to be into this project for around $1k, including tools and stuff that this project will be an excuse to add to the shop. But, the cabinet isn't going to be on 24x7, maybe a couple hours a week, so efficiency isn't a huge deal. Lighting is another area. My first instinct is to replace all the incandescents with LED bulbs. I'm also certainly going to do that for everything I can find a LED equivalent that will go in the original socket. But what about the marque lighting? It's a fluorescent job. It doesn't come on now, and I'm going to assume the ballast is shot, along with the bulb. My thought would be to replace it with an LED unit of similar length. I also have a bunch of 12V white LED strip that I could use for the marquee, though that would require a new power supply.

I view powersupplies much like mechanical storage in old systems ----- since they don't really affect the experience (unless something's wrong), I don't care much about originality, and would rather have reliability and less screwing around. If the original PSU is dead, I'd get the new HE one. For marque lighting on the other hand, I'd go original. Not only to keep it looking the same, but also because it's easier.
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