The Cheap Daddy Arcade blog

Cap Kit - WIN! And now my Lock'n Chase is about 90%

2009-08-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. The kids and wife left to go to see a friend for the weekend. My son is now potty trained, so so it was the "Magical Train Ride" we'd promised him. That's a picture of him waiting for the train. I wanted to go, but Jenny's friend has 2 kids too, and they didn't have enough space in her car for 4 car seats and 4 adults. So, I stayed at home.

Spent about 5 hours total working on the Lock n' Chase. Had to figure out how to get it out first (see my last post). Turns out that once you take out the odd "metal frame" daughter card, you CAN get to the one nut you can see through the metal triangle shield part of the frame. Don't take off the two long ones.

So, for the Wells Gardner k4600, with the weird rails in the Taito cabinet (maybe cause it's vertical?), here's the take-apart steps. (I won't document taking off the wires. That should be self evident. I also won't document snipping the little plastic ring ties that are EVERYWHERE on the factory (I assume) setup.

1. Take off the 2 daughter cards. (xy and rbg I think are the names?)
2. Take off the black plastic bar. (You press in, and it pops off the pins.)
3. Pull up the black plastic knob and the white plastic nob.
4. Pull up the metal frame with the 3rd mini daughter card.
5. Where the black and white nobs where, and looking through the triangle sheet metal of the frame, you'll see 2 1/4" nut head screws. Take those out.
6. Pull the motherboard towards you. There are still 2 tabs in the back, right lined up with the tube. Tilt out, and it should come free.
7. NOW, you can find the 4 screws which hold the backing metal plate onto the 2 black plastic mother board holders.
8. Phew! That's it. Except that you might want to slip off the holders to get at some of the capacitors.
9. Note, the Bob Roberts kit instructions don't tell you that 2 of the capacitors are on the daughter card that on the metal frame. They are numbered correctly, but don't do a mini panic when you can't find 2 of your caps! :)

Here's me with my Hakko. Damn that thing's sweet.

I did my work in place, because there were too many things soldered to the monitor, and I 1. didn't want to take my monitor out and 2. didn't want to splice and solder wires later.

2 cardboard boxes (one flat, one raised) a flourescent light on a stick, and a rolly chair worked pretty well. I'm not saying it was a perfect experience for my back. But, it worked for me.

I probably spent an hour on adjusting it. Couldn't get it to come in at all at first. Tried hooking it up to the Turbo, got it a bit closer, but something wasn't syncing. Switched it back to the main boards, and it worked fine.

Feels so good to have everything plugged in now. With 5 machines in a row, it's nearly an arcade feel. I spent way too long with a dead machine in the row. Sure, sure, the sound went out (I know it works cause I bought the machine playing blind), and the joystick and control panel need some work. But, it's playable, and -most importantly- it's a 4-way vertical. Which means I can start working on wiring it up to be a switchable to the Amidar board I bought way too long ago.

Of course, I went to the Superauction in St. Louis on August first with my good friend Justin. And, I got a new idea for a project. Someone had a custom 48-1 mini pacman set up that went for $650. It had a tiny LCD VGA monitor on it, and it looked really sweet. I think I want to build one for the kids! Maybe someday, eh?

WG k4600's - boards locked in - Grr

2009-07-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well, the wife lets me have an hour or two of "Dad" time cause she took the kids to her mom's house. I decide to pull out the boards on my Lock N Chase. Look around. There seem to be a couple of hacks right at the neck board, but everything seems to have these clear little plastic bump ties like the board's never been touched. But, you definitely can't take the neck board or the main board out without cutting some wires. Geez. So, I look around, and decide I can do the cap kit with them hanging in the cabinet. No problem, right.

So, I get the neck board off, get the daughter cards, etc off, and then....

Day-yum. There seems to be no damn way to get the board off the cage. I've taken off way too damn many screws and it ain't budging, and then I realize that the board is on this black plastic frame. And I'm pinching and sticking my head up inside under the monitor. And I'm sweating and covered with monitor fuzz gunk, and my head hurts cause I keep bumping it into one of the wood blocks the door rests against.

And then I hear "HONEY, we're home, come help put the kids to bed."

*sigh*

Speaking of kids and things. Here's a few pics.

Best score in Top Score in a long time... I've had a few things sticking now and then since I don't get to play more than every 2 weeks in the summer. But, I've been able to narrow where, manually flip a few contacts which seems to eventually dislodge the stuck one, and get her running just fine. Wish I had more time to fix the spinner (which never registers 500 or add a bonus) and the Special light, which is even more random than ever.

My Girl at the pinball machine (You can see the scratchs on the side. This is stuff that makes collectors cry, but make Cheap players like myself happy - $350 for a completely playable EM with minor issues has been an awesome buy.)
My boy at the pinball machine. Yep, he knows how to start a game and is starting to learn how to play now. And yep, he is not wearing pants. LOL

So, at least I've gotten to enjoy the games some. I haven't fixed the Tubro graphics issue, but since it's playable, I don't feel bad about that.

And we got a Wii with William's Pinball - AWESOME game. Which was nice as I've been recovering from my accident. (Oh yeah, and I got hit by a car in February which has made life kinda crappy. Physical therapy for whiplash and a missing spleen are my rewards...)

And, I've made it out twice now to www.cppinball.com to play some incredible pinball machines - ALL NIGHT LONG. Yes.

SO, the last 6 months have been fruitful for actually playing games.

Plus, there is the arcade auction in St. Louis on August 1st, I'll get to go to that too. It's been a damn year since I've gone to one and I'm getting withdrawal!

I'll be back to blog again in 6 months when I get back to cap kitting, LOL...

Cap Kit - WIN! And now..My Turbo is 95%!

2009-01-01T22:27:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I got some GREAT help on the KLOV.com, coinopspace.com, and RGVAC groups. Turns out, my issue was I had the "Screen" knob on the flyback transformer cranked way up. And, everything else was out of whack too.

So, I tried the "screen", and failed. But, that was because I wasn't using a mirror, and was just running back and forth from back to front.

I found a cheap full length mirror, propped it up, and started working on it. By that point, I'd already started jumping it over to my Lock n Chase.

I have some old speaker wire from a cheap surround sound system that went tits up, so I just jammed that in the appropriate molex connectors, and found that I could mostly get it tuned it.

Damn, skippy, I was happy. So, I quickly hooked the Turbo back up, and boo yah!

In that picture, you can see how the left side of the screen had this weird "fold" in it. I was so damn happy, I didn't care, and played 20 games.

It was like 25 years ago, back in the day, at the Minot, ND "Bump N Tilt" free play arcade. The "drifting" game play using the pedal, and the "spin stop" motion of the wheel, and the way I'd spin in my initials "FUZ" on it.

You just can't beat that feeling.

You also can't beat the "my left leg has lost all feeling" feeling that Sega Turbo gives. LOL. Damn, I'd forgotten all about that! Since actually coordinating pedal movement with steering is key in Turbo, you really have to just fix on your left leg. And, after a while, it's painful.

I'm gonna have to get me a stool now. (I will anyway to help the kiddos play.)

Anyway, I fixed the fold by adjusting the vertical size... but I still have an issue. Aliens are eating the cars...

(The slight white line across the bottom of the screen is my hint the horizontal size is too big.)

Here's a video of the alien attack (before I'd fixed the vertical size issue...)

BTW, you'd think it's a "horizontal" size issue. But as James on RGVAC pointed out to me, every monitor is 4:3 horizontal. Even if it's mounted vertically. "Horizontal" always the long width.

Cap kit - FAIL!

2009-01-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

2 weeks ago, I got up in there, and discovered 2 screws and 2 little nuts I could get to on the board. On a Turbo, there's 2 nuts right in front, the 2 screws are on tabs, about 8 inches back. (The board is a square, and they're right on the ends.) So, finally, I had my "way in". That was probably my biggest mental hurdle

4 days ago, I finally had time to put my capacitors on a styrofoam block. (awesome idea from that video.) The kids helped. It was kinda fun. I'd find a cap, start it, and they'd push it the rest of the way in.

Sunday, I got my light-on-a-stick, and assembled my tools.

Tuesday, finally, I had my opportunity... Everyone was downstairs.... the kids were playing nicely in the castle, the wife was on the couch reading a book, and so I snuck off.

Unhooking the cables was a snap. I had to use a stubby phillips head to get the 2 screws in the back out. And, I had to sit on a stool, and turn my head halfway up the game just to see the lower screw in the back. Almost stripped that one's head, but, I finally got them. The nuts in front were simple.

One note that wasn't in the guides was that, on the neckboard, there is a little "V" of plastic out the back that is the actual connector. I kept wiggling the board itself, and things weren't moving. Then, I tried the "V", and it worked great.

Here's my "workstation", LOL. That's newspapers on a vintage 70's TV tray, LOL.

Damn, some of the caps on that board are _really_ wedged in tight. Can you say, disgusting mess?

10 paper towels and 4 ounces of LA's Totally Awesome later...
Look at that. Purdy. Everything on that board, once cleaned a bit, looks like "the day it was installed", save for some surface rust on the metal surfaces. Mmmm, nachos!
But, I got in there and got the job done. (Nuts in place, screws not yet...)

But.... ARGGGGHHHH!!!! The Turbo STILL plays blind. Before the cap kit, these lines were just part of a bigger annoyance of a faded screen that collapsed into a vertical line straight down the center.

Can anyone help???

Current state of gameroom - infested by kids and dragons!

2008-12-14T08:28:00.000-08:00

Someone just asked about gamerooms on Jeff's coinopspace.com site, and I thought I'd post a video that shows the current (pitiful, but fun) state of my gameroom. I have all the games moved in a row under the stairs. I've also now finally got all the moving boxes and file cabinets out of the way.

From left to right in the background...
The Candy Cab (Still currently with RushNAttack/GreenBeret board) fits up under there so you can sit under the steps.
Then I've got the Top Score pinball starting out the row.
Then the Lock N Chase (needs a cap kit at least, but possibly has lost a gun or two).
Then my working Jail Break (hopefully to be rotated to vertical to run TimePilot84 and my other vertical Konami's).
My Sega Turbo (working mostly blind), and hopefully soon to be cap kittd).
Not visible, but will go in eventually where the Christmas Crap shelf is - The boards and CP, etc of a Roadblasters and a monitor that I'm going to make into a dual kid/adult sized sitdown.
Barely visible - A fake kiddie pinball (the kind they sell for $75/$100)

In the foreground is the cheap ($40 at Kmart last year), but amazingly fun air hockey machine.
On the right, you can barely see the side of the castle (with blue fabric) I'm framing in for the kids.

Where the heck have I been?

2008-12-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

Let's see, where have a been? Since my last post, I took a bazillion business trips, smashed my car, lost a grandmother-in-law, landscaped my back yard, tried (in vain, but had fun soldering) to fix my inlaws TV, done a lot of rearranging of the basement den/arcade/shop/kids castle/Dreamcastland/etc and started coaching my daughter's soccer team.

Zap.

There goes 8 months.

Had some good pinball and arcade on my business trips. The best was probably GamesNAt in Pittsburgh, and the bowling alley next to the Pinball Parlour in Earlington, PA (Philadelphia area).

This week, I helped turn a fellow member of the awesome Yahoo EM pinball group onto Fitz's in St. Louis. They only have a LOTR, but it's well shopped, and the Rootbeer and Cream Soda are to die for.

I got the fever for it so bad that I took the wife and kids there before the Trout Fishing in America concert at the Library.

In other news, Jeff Rothe has got his great new website called coinopspace.com up and running. He calls www.coinopspace.com a "Classic Arcade Game Forum". Sounds about right. It's like KLOV or RGVAC or RGP, only with great graphics and (so far) lots of friendly "hobby" folks. (i.e. not a lot of jerks/egos).

They've helped me out with some cap kit questions, so I'm ready (I hope) finally to tackle my cap kits this winter.

The return of the 15 year old Mullet...

2008-03-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

Went to St. Pats the other weekend back at school. Didn't see many folks from my era. But, I did snap this picture of me circa 1993/4. Wow, that's some bad hair! LOL Hmmm, I wonder why Jenny had no interest in going out with me back then?

Where the heck have I been?

2008-03-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

I've been to Rome and back.

Here's me ordering a couple of veggie burgers at the Pompeii Burger King (this is not a joke... it's one of nearly 100 fast food joints found on the main streets of Pompeii.)
Here's me towering over the tiniest real care I've ever seen!Here's some of the fun they used to have at the brothel in Pompeii (kids, close your eyes!)

I've only got about another 400 or 500 pictures and a bunch of videos. So, you're lucky I'm sparing you. :)

In the basement, we've been progressing along fairly well. I put the Top Score on Free Play using Marvin3M's method for Gottlieb EM halfmoons. Works like a charm.

I've got all the games moved into place, and it feels good.

Made it to Lowes last weekend to finally give my daughter her castle. So, I've started framing in the walls in the corner. More pictures as it goes up. Should be fun.

And, tonight, we had a great walk in the neighborhood where William skipped and played drums on each electrical box and cable box... Then, came down stairs and played a few games of air hockey, pinball, and Green Beret. I beat Julia 9 to 8 in air hockey. She took it pretty well. I meant to let her win, but it didn't work that way. Oh well, she's doing well.

Then, Julia played Green Beret and William pretended to play Green Beret. Both of them were sitting on my lap. She scored 4700. Not bad. It was, for a daddy geek... awesome. Then, Julia played pinball on her own. Jenny had played pinball earlier.

It was a lot of fun, and a great family night.

What have I gotten myself into??? Cap hellllllp?

2008-01-28T18:56:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: Any dirt on the board is a combination between Nicotine and fried dog hair.

NOTE: All pictures are bigger if you just click on them.

I told my in-laws during the New Years weekend I'd try to fix their TV for them. Ah, smart Jon. I have a 32", 7 year old TV sitting upside down on a card table in my garage. Where my car should be. That was 3-4 weeks ago. Kids suck the time out of you. Putting a heater in an uninsulated garage when it's 20 degrees out - that takes the oomph out of you. Finally got into it this weekend when it hit 60F out.

Anyway... symptoms were that it started snapping to a horizontal line, then now it's down to just the power supply "clicking".

So, I got it open, reflowed what I could get to on the neckboard. (On the left)

No help. So, I decided maybe I could reflow the main board. But, I had to take it out. Took me a bit, and here's my reward... I think it's a slightly bulged cap. This one's big. Almost 2 inches high. It's in the powersupply section.

On the right side, there are two parallel traces coming down to some leads pointing up and then down (about 1/3 of the way down, under the "+" by the words "HOT\COLD")). That's where the big cap goes through.

Here's the detail on it. The "flashes" of brown are nicotine stains I haven't cleaned yet. But, on the left (the very left of the white line down the center), is where I think the capacitor "goo" is.Even worse, on the lower left side of the shot above, there is even more "goo". (I can't find the cap this would have come from. None of the others look even slightly "bulgy".)

So, this is where I'm at. I have never seen a blown cap before. I assume this is what it looks like, but I'm not sure. I don't even know if fixing a cap would fix the TV. Or, even where I'd buy the cap kit.

What have I gotten myself into? LOL *sigh*

Where have I been?

2008-01-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, so, it's been a while since I've posted. When I've been in the basement, I've been working on rearranging my game room. I got the entertainment center and the 31" Gateway Destination monitor moved with only one (near) Achille's tendon severing fall. I've gotten all my games moved, and finally, have gotten the rubber tile back down in the corner where my daughter's Cardboard Castle is going to go.

Phew.

Got the farthest I've ever gotten in Jail Break last night before litter duty. "Only" scored 110,000 (not my high), but got past the ships on Scene 3 and into the town. Dang, now I gotta learn the pattern for the SUV's on a part I've only been to once. Grrrreat.

On my pinball, I've been having some monster first balls lately. Racking up a 10 ball bonus, and clearing them, and starting over. (On Top Score, the backglass animation gimmick is a loading up of a bowling ball for each bonus point. The one rule of the game variation wise is, once you've loaded up 10 balls, you then go for the "bonus" hole to score them and start collecting more bonus points.) But, for some reason, ball 2 and ball 3 like to drain on me, so I've gotten 30k on the first ball, and then 5 k on the 2nd and 3rd. No where near a high score.

I'm beginning to wonder if the new spot I put the machine in is slower than the other. I haven't leveled it yet, but when I checked, it seemed to be right as is. Hmmm.

The other cool thing is that I've finally scored a Tiger Heli PCB. Sure, it's not JAMMA. And Sure, I don't have a cabinet for it. BUT, it's a minor Holy Grail of mine, and it was only $20 shipped. I used to play the heck out of Tiger Heli both in the Aladdin's Castle in Minot, ND as a kid, and on the Nintendo when I was in college. I even used a flight stick for it on the Nintendo. So, I'm happy.

I'm thinking about putting an Ultimarc Magstick 4/8 way onto my Lock n' Chase once I've done the cap kit, and using it for vertical 8 ways, not just 4 ways.

Next blog - my fun "project".

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

2007-12-22T22:11:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-05T20:17:00.000-08:00

:) 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...

2007-11-26T21:22:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-11-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-11-11T13:31:00.001-08:00

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

It's been a long time...

2007-10-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-20T19:15:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-14T20:53:00.001-07:00

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"

2007-09-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

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"

2007-08-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-08-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Dim screen (more burn in than color with the lights on)
No green (actually, the burn in isn't too bad with the lights off)?
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...

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?)
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.

2007-08-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-08-19T19:39:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-08-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-08T20:22:00.002-07:00

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

2007-08-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-08-05T09:48:00.001-07:00

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!