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.