Air Hockey 1, Arcade 0, Cap Kit 0, Hans O - a bazillion

Well, you'd think, since it's been 3 weeks since I last blogged, that I'd come back fresh with tales of cap kits. (I did score a Hans O free friday! - Thanks Hans!)

Nope, I just have tales of busy Christmas time, and starting to arrange my Game Room. Had a great day today with the lovely wife. Went to eat Vietnamese at yummy Miss Saigon, and then went to go see a pants peeing funny stage version of Sedaris' Santaland Diaries. Grandma watched the kids.

Then, went down in the basement to set up the new Air Hockey Machine once we got home.

It was part of my first Xmas adventure since my last blog... taking my daughter to Chuck E Cheese for a daddy/daughter night. What a blast. Go on a Tuesday, and the place is yours for the taking. But, kiddie cheesy-ness aside, where else can you go to make your daughter grin like a fool, and get in a few hours of Stern pinball, a number of decent racing games, Johnny Nero Action Hero, and a ton of Air Hockey? Plus a full meal, for under $20?

As we left there, we stopped in the KMart next door, and picked up the $40 air hockey promo table. Yeah sure, it's a piece of Harvard crap, but, you know, it's perfectly sized for the kids, and if we're still playing it in a few years, I'll step up to a real table.


The kids sure enjoyed it, even if it's craptastic!


In the background of this shot, you can see some of what I'm setting up.


That's the candy cab hiding under the steps on the left. The Top Score beside it, and the Lock N' Chase to the right. I'll put the Jail Break and Turbo to the right of those. And that will hit the side wall of the basement, and seal the kids in so they can't run around the back to the furnace and hot water heater and kitty litter.

It's just an unfinished basement, so it won't be a real wall. But, in the play area, I've at least got padded floor tiles and garage sale'd carpets. And, honestly, for now, with 2 munchkins and wife who like me around, it's good enough.

And, most importantly, I've left myself enough room behind each game to get behind it for repairs.

Which, I'd better get on, since my luck is not too good lately. I went to fire up my Jail Break, and it was having a resetting problem. *sigh* So, yesterday, I bummed a 1987 vintage power supply off the IS guys at work (thanks, Chris!). So, hopefully I'll find a power supply issue with the Jail Break when I get back there. Cause, I have a 4 project vs. 2 working ratio right now.

Plus, when I went to move the games, my poor dolly had a flat on the pneumatic tire. So, I had to go to Quik Trip tonight to fix the flat.

Oh well, all's well that ends well. After letting my girl win at Air Hockey, I got the kids to bed tonight. Then, I got the mess of Air Hockey boxes picked up. Played a game of pinball (had the full 10 balls on the last ball bonus!), and moved the couch into position.

Not too shabby, with 3 days left in the weekend, and another one coming up in a week.

Merry Christmas, all!

Bob Roberts arrives

:) Wow. It's true, it's all true. The Real Bob Roberts experience is professional, friendly, and accurate.

Here's my loot! Friendly emails. Quick and timely. And, I got a Holiday Pen. A freakin' pen! LOL (No fabled moon pie, but that's okay.) Some guy on KLOV recently complained about _not_ getting a bit of schwag, on an order, once. Boo hoo. Really.

3 cap kits, a solder sucker, solder, some lamps for my pinball machine. Let's see how long before I actually use any of it. Gotta rearrange my basement first. Clean it up so the kids can play while I work on the games. Don't want the 2 year old climbing in the back of an open cabinet that's powered up. I have a plan.

My first Bob Roberts...

Well, here we go... I've placed my first Bob Roberts order! Wheeeeee!

1 Spring loaded solder sucker
1 1LB Roll Of Solder
1 10 Lamps 47
1 GO7-CBO cap kit
1 MC2000S cap kit
1 K4600 cap kit

This is so much fun. I feel like I've entered a secret club by ordering from them. ;)

Cap kits here I come!

p.s. I know, I know. Everyone recommends a soldapult solder sucker, but I didn't feel like ordering from a second place.

My Christmas "unpack" video...

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus...and she let me buy my Hakko 936ESD Soldering Iron! Woohoo! Better than a Red-Rider BB Gun!

I'm sure for some folks, dropping $85 on a soldering iron seems like a cheap price. Seeing as your games may cost you $500-$1500 apiece. But, for us, we really had to justify it. Me, for a hopeful lifetime of use on cheap boards and my games (max price paid was $125 on my 25" Candy Cab). Jenny, for me to consider it my Christmas present, since it's about my hobby/fun, and not a "real" expense.

Bob Roberts cap kits, here I come.


The full video... My boy does the unpack. We played Karate Chop with that paper, me and the kids, for 30 minutes after that. It was awesome fun. All we were left with were karate chopped, kicked, and head butt-ed squares of 4 inch paper everywhere.


The stills... My son getting out the paper...

My Son trying to life out the 936.

"Alright, Dad, let's plug this bad-boy in!"

Did I mention they're on sale at Kiesub! Cheapest on the net. $69.95 plus ~$12 shipping.



And finally, My girl decorating the box it came in. (This was pre-karate time.)

Hell, I haven't even really plugged it in yet, and I already got a whole night of fun out of it. A Merry Christmas indeed. Thanks, hon!

1 week...

Until the arcade auction in St. Louey! www.superauctions.com. It'll be fun.

It's been a long time...

No, no... I'm not going to break into an incredible Eric B and Rakim rap.



But, here's what I've done when I've been travelling... Awesome pinball in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh....
Landmark Lanes Kinda hot by the games (no air), but where else do you get 5 perfectly shopped, high end games? Milwaukee rocks. And, I ate at Beans N Barley. Yummy.
Game n At (didn't go, but looked great) http://www.gamesnat.com/index.php - $8 for all night playing. Like a Chuck e Cheese - 9 pins, plus arcade and other games.
Smiling Moose - kind of a dive, but they got games and Karaoke, so I was happy.
Beehive Coffeehouse - Not everyone's ideal pinball place, but again, they got games and are artsy, so I was happy.

Travelling sucks, but at least there are places out there with good pinball. Here by us in Fenton, I have the broke ass Shadow at Cecil Whitakers (still got 400,000,000 on it tonight, with the upper table plunger broke, and both of the ramp lane selectors broke), the flipper sticking Johnny Pnemonia at the laundrymat, and the Cranked way to f-ing loud Tommy at the Swing A Round. Oh well, all 3 are excellent playing games, even when they aren't shopped properly. For some reason, despite their cheesy themes, all 3 are very playable. Lots of shots, and enough ruleset depth for a part-timer like me.

The Goodluck Boy

Last night was a good night. Since it's getting dark so early and the mosquito's are as thick as penguins, the kids and I went down for an hour of fun. (Note: I've got no idea what "thick as penguins" means!)


85,060 is not quite my best score ever on my Top Score (I'd gotten over 100,000 6 months ago when we first had it), but it's pretty good. I had a sweet 2nd ball where I had all of the bonus credit "balls", and spent about 2 minutes trying desperately to hit the "score bonus" and racking up points. If I'd have hit the "score bonus", I'd probably been over 100,000.

Unfortunately, the free credits aren't working - there's no "knock" or credits register. Matches "knock", but there's no credit register. 2 things for me to fix - someday.... once I figure out the schematic.

Anyway, how did I score so high? My little Goodluck Boy wanted to play and help out.


I set up a stand for him by my left arm, and showed him how to hit the button. He helped with a few flips, but mainly wanted to race his Lightening McQueen car and hit the glass. But, either way, he got me back in the groove. :)

Two lumps please

My wife has an incredible little blog. (She aspires to blog like this lady who's like a tightwad version of Martha Stewart.) Both of them take these nicely framed and posed pictures of things. So, after my last kitty litter/arcade time, I decided to take a similar shot.


70,100. Not too shabby. Finally made it to Green Beret level 2. (And, I scooped up a lot of turds. We bought 200 pounds of litter this time, since they were $2 off at Costco.)

Always remember! Game first! Litter second! No feline fecal matter on your joysticks!

"Grape KoolAid Party Night in the Basement"

When I was a kid, a mini family tradition was to make popcorn and grape Kool-Aid and watch a movie together. As an adult, my wife makes fun of me for this, but indulges my nostalgia (and taste in Kool-Aid.)Friday Night, my daughter asked for a "Grape KoolAid Party Night in the Basement", and we complied. I set up our new MacBookPro to play out on our Gateway 31" monitor, and fired up "Blades of Glory" (funny!)

We didn't get through more than 5 minutes before most of the popcorn was consumed by the William monster, and Will Farrell and Napoleon Dynamite were beating each other up. And so, the movie went off, and it turned into game night.

I got half a man on the Green Beret before the kids wanted to me to play. Jenny played the 6 credits left on the Top Score. I sat on the floor and played and watched Jenny "work" the machine. Damn, she got a 58,000. I haven't gotten that high for months. She was cooking. Nothing sweeter than your woman playing some serious pinball when she's in that "stance". :) (You know what I'm talking about...)

Anyway, so, when she ran out of credits, it didn't take long for me to work on the bad switch I have on the credit unit with the "credit card" trick. (I've been too lazy/scared to try to readjust the bad switch, as it's been readjusted a few times already before I owned it, and the metal seems ready to break.) Nothing like having a good reason to do some tech work, eh? Had to get that "stance" back!

All in all, my son and I stacked a lot of blocks with my daughter, she even played a little pinball, and we had a great night. Once the kids were in bed, I went down and played a few games before I shut everything down. My best at Top Score was 26,000. I only got 34,000 on Green Beret. I'm out of practice. *sigh* So, I shut them off and went up stairs to finish the rest of the movie with Jenny.


Even with the bad scores, Friday was a good game night. :) Thanks Grape KoolAid!

Thank Shiva for Kitty Litter!

Well, see this?


That's cat crap. In my basement. Yummy.


Most guys would hate this chore - constantly having to scoop out the litter. And, don't get me wrong, I hate it. BUT, I love it too, because twice a week, it means I get to go play my games, just a little bit, for my reward.

So, tonight, I played 4 games of Green Beret. I'm FUZ. I got 41550 on my best game, 38550 on my second best.
I SUCK AT GREEN BERET! LOL I'm going to have to check the dip switch settings on this bad-boy. Oh well, at least I got farther than I've gotten in the month I've had it. I now know I have to jump over the truck, and then kill the guys who run out. Is that the first level? I hope so.

Of course, I have a long way to go. Twin Galaxies record is a high score of 447,140. For some reason, that one seems doable. One of my thoughts is to pick a completely obscure game, and set the high score for it. Kind of like people do when they come up with their own category for the Guiness Book of World Records.

Wish me luck, cause that's going to be a LOT of kitty litter changes before I get there... :)

Free "monkeyball" = "Neverball"

I was trying to find if MAME or Dreamcast had Monkey Ball ("No" and "I don't think so" - but there's other emulated platforms and a new Wii version if I want), when I came across this GPL/Freeware version of it called "Neverball".


It runs on almost any platform. (Did I mention it's free?) Very cool!

And, it has a putt putt golf version called "Neverputt".


Freeware is so cool! Now I gotta hook up a trackball and see how it plays.

Lock n' Chase lives (sorta)

Okay, so took me 6 days to find the 5-10 minutes it took me to swap the k46xx's daughter cards and play a little Lock n' Chase technician.

End results? I got the Daughter cards in, and I have playable video! Plus, I used my new High Voltage Probe to safely discharge when I was done. Those things kick the heck out of the "big screw driver and a hanger" method.

1. Dim screen (more burn in than color with the lights on)
2. No green (actually, the burn in isn't too bad with the lights off)?
3. Disturbing sound. (This is video... just look and listen... The sound comes on like that when I plug it in... Originally, after getting in the basement, it played blink with proper sound. All I've done is recheck the video, and scoot the whole thing back and forth 1 foot)

So, guru's, what's the story. Can I...

1. Cap kit it and get playable video? (The burnout doesn't bug me, but I need green for the high score list...Will a cap kit get my green back? Should I try the "swap the red and green wires and see if it's the board or the monitor" trick?)
2. Troubleshoot the audio? No way it's related to the video, right? So, maybe it's an easy fix since it was working after I moved it down the stairs?
   

TIA.

Family night in the basement.

Cool, only took 6 days this time to get back to the basement.

After a few crazy days of Parent's as Teachers meetings, errands, going to Seattle, recovering from Seattle, going out swimming, frozen banana pops, etc. ... well, it was time to have some family fun.

Jenny actually decided to pop some popcorn, cue up the Tivo, and come down and visit the basement with me and the kidlets. That meant I had a little time to work on the Lock N' Chase (see next blog).

Here's her and my daughter playing my Top Score pinball.


That's the Konami Jail Break cabinet in purple behind them. The circuit boards (PCB's) and Priority Mail boxes you see stacked everywhere, from left to right, are

• a Konami-JAMMA adapter,
  
• a Yie Ar Kung Fu, Scamble,
  
• a Time Pilot '84,
• a Combatribes (JAMMA), and
  
• an Amidar.
  

Note to self: I really need to figure out a storage method for my boards.

Of course, I almost got to play a complete game on everything!

• On my half-MAME'd system, I got in 1 man of Wizard of Wor in before my daughter wanted to play hide and seek.
• On my Green Beret (Rush N' Attack), I got my son to play a little, and then got 2 men in for myself, before he ran to where I haven't baby proofed.
• On my Jail Break, I got half a man before my daughter said she wanted to play pinball with me.
• On the Top Score (see above), I got 2 balls in against my daughter (she was winning), before Mom decided she wanted to play.
  

...and that's when my son wanted to watch pinball, and I found out he had a poopy diaper. Since it was his bedtime, I snapped the shot above, and took him for a fresh diaper and to read him his night book (Duck on Holiday).


*ah*, such is the life of the Cheap Daddy Arcade Blogger.

Well packaged, and high quality... 2 great guys.

My faith in eBay and RGVAC is being restored. Here's my high voltage probe and chassis unpack. Bob, eBay seller ID rwa-tech, and Larry from HermitCreek are Great Guys in my book!

That's the probe. A nice handwritten note, peanuts with the probe in a section of apple crate! Wow. See that piece of styrofoam...


It's to protect the tip! Wow. Bob, you're awesome.

Here's the chassis from Larry before unpacking. Beautiful. That's 4 layers of bubble wrap! With paper on the side to stop shifting. (Larry was giving the monitor away and had no takers! What is this world coming to!)

And look, everything's off the chassis that's on a wire is wrapped up separately.

The only sad part of this story? What I did after unpacking... I immediately took them down, and put them on top of their project - the Lock 'n Chase.
(The pink squares on the marquee are my Daughter's "artwork".

Start the count...Days from opening the box, to installing the chassis? Today's 8/19/07. I'm going to Seattle for 3 days. So, we're at 4 days at least until I can work on it. Wish me luck! :)

Pooh: Bringing neighbors together

The following "call" to the editor was logged in our local edition paper last week...
----------------------------

Pooh: Bringing neighbors together
THIS IS ABOUT the caller with the problem of people letting their dog pooh in their yard. Let me tell you how I remedied the situation. I had a neighbor a few doors down who used to do that and I asked them nicely to stop and he told me to do something to myself that if I could do it I would join the circus. I went out there one time after the dog pooped in the yard I had a wet paper bag with me and I scooped up the pooh and put it in the wet paper bag and I walked down in front of their house and flung it at their storm door. The pooh went everywhere the neighbor opened their door and game me a nasty look I just smiled and waved and they turned around and walked off. After that it never happened again. This neighbor and I get along pretty good now but I think that's because the dog died and he divorced his wife.

----------------------------
That's exactly how it was in the paper. Punctuation and all. Gotta love the small town papers!

Probing my chassis

Well, my daughter's still at Grandma and Grandpa's, having fun with Luna Moth's and ponys, and I've been knee deep in helping Jenny keep my son busy and doing all of the rebates for my new MacBookPro (damn, this is a sexy computer - I got Windows on BootCamp and Parallels - and they're wicked fast - FINALLY Visual Pinball and Baby Pacman!)

So, I've kept my arcade and pinball time to a minimum. But, I've got an eBay box collecting dust for the last 2 days, and another one on the way.

In box #1 - a high voltage probe - $15 from eBay. When Mongo sold me a G07 monitor, I got to see him use one in person, and I decided I had to have one.


In box #2, set to arrive soon, - A working Wells Gardner k4600 chassis. $25, from a good collector on RGVAC who couldn't give the monitor away! (Damn, if I was only closer.)

Maybe, just maybe, I'll get my Lock 'N Chase working finally (without shocking myself to death)!

Wow, that was fast...

So, tonight, I got my wish early! Got off work to see my daughter finish her tumbling class, went to the Cecil Whitaker's $3 pizza night, and then we had enough time for me and her to go in the basement and open my box.

It was a nice Green Beret board (with a few resistors snipped and bent back, and a capacitor on the bottom -- Do they all look like that?). Anyway, plugged it in, fired it up, and bingo-bango-bongo! Fully working Green Beret.

Played a bit, and got my name on the high score list. My girl was eating an apple while I played. Snapped this shot of her by the candy cab. (That's her "smile" smile. She said she's playing the game with her foot.)



I gotta adjust my monitor a little, but for now, I'm a happy man.

The "Green Beret Box Watch" - Day 3

Well, it's been now, 2 days, since my Green Beret (aka Rush'n Attack) came from eBay ($15 total including shipping).

Right now, it's a box in our hallway... :( (It will be Konami Classic # 6 or #7 I believe. Let's see here. I now have Jail Break, Amidar, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Time Pilot '84, Scramble, Super Basketball, and, yep, #7 Green Beret. Still need Time Pilot, Gyruss, Circus Charlie, Lost Tomb, and Gradius/Nemesis to be a completist of my faves. Would probably also like to have the wrestling one too...)

Anyway, yesterday and the night before were taken already. And tonight is too. Tomorrow night might be open, but Friday night and Saturday and Sunday are all busy. Monday maybe.

Here's the Cheap Daddy schedule....

The night before was "computer"night as we got our new MacBookPro and I was getting it up and running. (We've been without our iBook for almost 2 months, using my Windoze work laptop. I have yet to try the flaming candle trick on the iBook, but after 3 repairs and the 4th failure out of warranty, the iBook, should I get it running again, will become a MAME box.)

...coming soon to my iBook...


Yesterday was mowing the lawn.


Tonight was the free Gumbohead cajun/jazz concert at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Tomorrow night... Tumbling at the Little Gym and Cecil Whitaker's $3 pizza night.

Friday night, Going over to Justin and Stacey's.

Saturday, haircut, fence guys, Sam's Club and Trader Joe's run, and that night? Maybe?

Sunday, drive to Terre Haute to drop off My girl with my parents for the week.

Monday... hmmm, nothing Monday. Maybe, just maybe, I'll have my chance to try out Green Beret!

Wish me luck!

My Weekend adventure

Well, it was the Belleville, IL Superauction again this last weekend. The wife said "no more cabinets", and I said "okay". (But, it was killing me.)

So, I went for the preview only. Played a ton of games. Damn, Sega's Monkeyball is fun. It went for $500. It was worth it if you're into that.


Had a lot of great pinball machines too.

Got home, and Sunday, watched the kids for a bit while the wife went out and shopped in mock retaliation. (She was just being her normal frugal self - Walmart without munchkins.) My son went down for a nap, and so I decided to fix my Konami classic to JAMMA converter.

I have a Candy Cab that was an MVS originally, and I didn't fix the audio on it properly when I rewired it. Oops. So, I had problems getting the converter I won in an auction with a Konami board to work properly. It was a real nice converter made using a JAMMAboards.com connector. Turns out, the original guy did it right, but I'd second guessed myself a few weeks ago and switched the audio +/- to be -/+.

That went okay. Soldering gun worked fine.

Wife came home, the son woke up, and I moved to the basement with both kids. They played fine, and I got some more solder time in on the Candy Cab.

I studied www.hardmvs.com's PDF of the MVS and JAMMA pinouts again, and realized that I'd never connected up a proper - in the JAMMA location. I'd just left the grounds as is.

So, I got the multimeter out and tracked down the speaker grounds as actually going to a single pin on the MVS connector. And, it wasn't the speaker -. So, I took both speaker +'s, soldered them to the 10 pin. Took the actual ground and wired it to the J pin.

After the last step, I applied my newly learned technique of wiping off my soldering iron with a sponge to keep it fresh. Only, I was using a damp rag, when I think I shorted it or something, because *POP* *POP* *POP*

Dead soldering gun. The wire itself fell out. Of course, not too suprising since it was a made in China $1 gun. Time to upgrade to a real gun.

Luckily, I'd done my last solder. Hooked up the adapter. Hooked in my Yie Ar Kung Fu board, and walla! Sound! Bingo. Of course, my new Championship Vball board I won off of eBay for $15 doesn't have working sound still. I believe the board is bad. :(

I gave my daughter the solder rag to take back upstairs to Mom. Bad mistake. She loves cleaning with wet rags. Getting them wet again, and squeezing them to drip, and then wipe up again.

She did this on the stairs, and came back down with a newly wet rag. Dripping on each step. She got down to the 4th step from the end and fell hard on her back. Scraped it up good. :( I'm sitting on the ground (only way to get into the CandyCab), busted soldering iron cooling. My son walking over, crying because his sister's screaming. Yie Ar Kung Fu blaring in the background. Wife at the top of the stairs screaming with worry. My son climbing up the steps to my wife. Steps with water keeping her from saving her son. I'm flat on my butt with a screaming 4 year old with a possibly busted back.

See what I get for working on my games for once? *sigh*

But *phew* Everyone's okay.

After the kids are in bed, I can't relax, so I go downstairs to clean up the mess of fried soldering gun and other miscellania. I boot up the mute volleyball game, and play 6 credits. Get myself to the second round. Am learning the game. Not too bad. But, man, did those guys create some quarter sucking games back in the late 80's/early 90's. Not as bad as Combatribes, but still. (Anyone want a Combatribes?) Ah well, that's what you get for games when you're paying $15 (including shipping) for JAMMA boards on eBay. :)

Time to put up some auctions.

In the beginning...

In the beginning, there was the arcade, and the arcade was good.

...and expensive. So, after the quarters were gone, there were the mall stores with the Atari 2600's, the Intellivisions, the Colecovisions, and even Target with the TI's and Atari 800/400's.

On the weekends, there was the Bump and Tilt. It was $10 back in 1984, and we got to play all day long - for free. Robotron, Pacman Plus, Sega Turbo, Galaga, Omega Race, Amidar, Kangaroo, Centipede, and more.. all set to freeplay. Pinball games I forget to this day, except for a Black Knight.

Later, there was Nintendo and others at home, and a few arcades, and an addictive phase to Cabal - the only game I've completed on a single quarter. A Wizard pinball at the college laundromat.

And finally, marriage. Which meant MAME .30ish and on up through today.

Which eventually meant, I realized that keyboards and gamepads sucked for classics. Enter byoac.com (Build Your Own Arcade Controls).

But wait! Enter kids too! Enter no time to solder! No time to tinker. No time to use the ton of parts I'd eBay'd for myself.

Then, came the arcade auctions I never knew existed. Where I got myself a working game for $25. And that's where I realized that I could work on real games and get them going about as fast and cheaply as I could get MAME running.

So, fast forward to today. I have a 1 year old and a 4 year old. I have 2 working games at the moment, a bunch of boards to swap into them, and 2 on the verge. And my MAME CP is, sadly, still incomplete.

I am a complete tightwad gamer. I search eBay for deals, and I'm not interested in "pristine" original games. I just want to play!

Here's what my current KLOV sig says...
--Working - Jail Break, Neo Candy Cab(rewired for JAMMA), Top Score (Gottlieb EM Pinball)
--Projects - Lock N Chase, Sega Turbo, Roadblasters, MAME (with Gateway Destination 31" monitor), and my pipe dream - convert the Jail Break cab to a "multi Konami with Rotating Monitor"
--Wants - k4600 daughter cards for the Lock n' Chase, cabinet for the Roadblasters kit, baby sitter so I can cap kit my Turbo and hacksaw my Jail Break cab.

Enjoy my blog!