slowcade

MAX TV arcade identity spots

2012-01-24T10:32:00.003+01:00

The Norwegian TV channel MAX has a variety of identity spots in between their programs and commercials. Among them are two nice arcade related clips. One is heavily inspired by a certain space shooter, and the other shows the (de)construction of an arcade cabinet. Enjoy!

These spots are designed and produced by Dallas Sthlm.

Fixing TAF

2011-10-28T14:54:00.002+02:00

Part of the deal when I purchased Medieval Madness was to fix his two remaining pinballs mechanically: The Addams Family and Star Trek The Next Generation. I have been unable to make good on that promise for a long time because of my back problems. Until now.

I concentrated on Addams Family first, as I am most familiar with it, and it looked like it had the least problems. Boy, was I wrong! The problems weren't many, but they ranged from the very simple to more time consuming troubleshooting.

Shooter lane switch: Replaced broken switch.
Outhole switch: Found that the diode was on backwards, after a lot of searching.
Outhole coil: Replaced two transistors on the power driver board.
Left magnet stuck on: Replaced transistor on the under playfield board.
Upper left flipper: Rebuilt flipper.

It plays perfectly now, and I was happy to return the game to its owner. Next up is ST:TNG, which has some cannon problems, among other things.

Cabinet / leg protectors

2011-10-13T11:50:00.003+02:00

Do you want to protect your pinball cabinet from leg wear? I do, but I didn't want to fork out for "professional" ones.
I've been trying to make my own, but it's not easy to get the size just right. Luckily I discovered that someone has already done the hard work for me! An excellent template for leg protectors is available here:
http://www.blackknightpinball.com/leg-protector-template.pdf

It took me just a couple of minutes to cut felt pieces to size, and they fit perfectly on my Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Back again!

2011-09-09T19:01:00.004+02:00

I've been away from this hobby for more than a little while. I'm not sure what happened, but maybe real life caught up with me. I definitely spent a long time trying to recover from my little spinal injury, and I'm still working on it.
I have slowly started working on the game room again, but this hobby is a bit difficult as long as my back is not 100%. The games are heavy beasts, and I need to wait some more until I can move and carry them like I used to.

First of all I have decided that my hoarding should end, and I am selling some pinballs. I started off with Elvira and the Party Monsters, and yesterday I sold Who Dunnit.
I will try to shop/fix/sell one pinball every month this winter, until I have only my favourite six left. That should be manageable, and other people will have more fun with the games I'm selling than I've had while they were in storage.

I feel a bit bad for not having touched the games for more than a year, and even more for some friends who I promised to help with games, but I hope I'm slowly getting into it again.

Personal gameroom - part 7

2010-11-24T18:16:00.005+01:00

Two of my friends came to help me carry the pinballs from the garage to the shed, just before the worst temperatures kicked in.
I covered the window with some heavy black carton to avoid the sun bleaching the cabinets.

It's a wonderful feeling to have the games in a warm 20°C room, while it's -15°C outside! They are still just in the middle of the room, and not connected, as I'm seriously considering to cover them up and spend a couple of hours repainting the walls and ceiling.

It's so cold outside that the snow has crystallized. It's beautiful to look at, but it's more comfortable to stay indoors at the moment.

Personal gameroom - part 6

2010-11-23T18:03:00.004+01:00

The weather forecast said that it would get very cold Tuesday night, with temperatures down to -15°C. Even worse, the cold period would last for two weeks and possibly longer, with temperatures decreasing down to -20 °C. I had two pinball games in the garage, and I definitely wanted to get them into the shed before the temperature dropped. So I gave the floor two fast coats of floor paint.

I think the result was very nice! However, I had a concern before painting it. I would have to use masking tape on the painted wall plastered board, and I was afraid it would rip the paint right off. I asked at the shop (who said that it would not be a problem) and bought their least sticky masking tape. However, the paint really did come off in places.

It's not a big deal, but a bit of extra work. In a strange way, this made me want even more to repaint the walls and ceiling dark blue. Maybe because I hardly have any white paint left, so I will have to buy more paint anyway.

Medieval Madness

2010-11-22T14:44:00.000+01:00

I forgot to say this, but I got a new toy this summer, just before my spine went bad.
It's often considered the holy grail of pinballs: Medieval Madness! I never thought that I would find one in my area, let alone afford buying it. But here it is!

I hope I recover quickly. Can't wait to clean it.. and PLAY IT!

Personal gameroom - part 5

2010-11-21T17:48:00.001+01:00

The floor was still a mess, and the individual floor boards made a very uneven surface. I got it sanded down a bit, which removed the biggest differences in height.
The floor also looked a lot better after some rounds with the vaccuum cleaner and a wash.

Painting the walls and ceiling went quite fast, as I used a long extension pole and rollers. That way I also avoided straining my back. I simply chose a white colour, which I regret a bit now. I thought it would make the room seem large, open and clean, but I'm not so sure after seeing the result. I think it looks more like a hospital wall, and I'm afraid it will get dirty and ugly fast. I am actually considering to repaint it dark blue, which I'm sure will look better with my framed posters and my plans for lighting.

Personal gameroom - part 4

2010-11-14T17:40:00.000+01:00

Time went by while waiting for my father to come help me adjust the door. I lost some motivation, and I didn't do much for almost two weeks. Until one day I discovered by accident that the door suddenly moved smoothly!

I plastered all the gaps and holes in the plasterboard inside. It was more time consuming than I had expected, because I had to go three rounds to make it flush with the boards. The end result was by no means perfect, but good enough for such a shed.

Gilligan's Island GC!

2010-10-30T19:06:00.002+02:00

For some reason, I enjoy a game much more when I actually have to pay to play it. Maybe it's because of childhood memories, or maybe something too readily available becomes less attractive? Whatever the reason, I almost always take the chance to play a classic in the wild.

We're not spoiled with pinball machines on route where I live. In fact, I can count them on one hand, and they are almost all owned by friends of mine. Anyway, I was driving to our cottage this summer, with my wife and mother in law in the car. Just as we passed by the local bowling place, I saw a familiar friend. Even though the moment flashed by quickly, I was quite sure that the sun faded side art belonged to a Gilligan's Island. The next day, I persuaded the two women to go bowling and have an ice cream, and my feeling was confirmed.

This Gilligan's Island was an import from Germany, and certainly not in the best condition. That didn't stop me, however. I had to test it. I had only tested this title briefly some 7 years earlier, in a pinball convention.
I was surprised how well it went! I kept getting extra balls and felt like I eventually conquered the game. It actually got to the point of being embarrassing, as my mother in law was waiting. But I was having the game of a lifetime..ish! It reminds me of a story from a friend who spent his birthday party having his best ever game on Terminator 2. He felt a bit bad letting his guests wait for more than an hour, but what could he do? Unlike him, I actually felt so bad in the end that I had to let the ball drain a couple of times. Still, I got a score that was good enough to make me grand champion. This is not an every day thing for me, even on factory hiscores, as I'm definitely not a good player.

Comparing my score to the world rankings would be embarrassing, but I'm very happy with my 200.739.570 points.

Magic Castle #2

2010-10-29T22:40:00.001+02:00

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I bought an absolutely beautiful Magic Castle from Germany last year.
...and then I sold it this summer. I'm not even sure if I have a picture of it.

I need to cut down on my collection, and my target is to sell the following games in 2011:
The Machine - Bride of Pinbot
Star Wars Trilogy
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Judge Dredd

VHD discs revisited

2010-10-28T19:40:00.001+02:00

Do you remember my post about my two VHD discs? If not, take a look at it before you continue reading.

I finally got an answer, and without purchasing a VHD player! The good news: It's sort of arcade related. Bad news: ...and at the same time it's not.

I have had an auto search on eBay for more than a year now, but I only found one VHD player, and it would have been very expensive with shipping.
A local classifieds site had an advert from a guy who could transfer various video formats to DVD. Much to my surprise, VHD was one of them, so I contacted him.
Before even getting to the point of sending him the discs, he had found out what they are. The discs' labels gave him the information he needed, and it turned out he actually has the very same discs himself.

They come from a video jukebox system which was produced in England in the 80s, called ThornEMI Videodisc Jukebox. That explains 'VJBE' on the label, where the E stands for Europe. My two discs were a part of a set which consisted of disc numbers 76, 77 and 78, and contain music videos. These specific discs were produced in the end of 1986, and each of them contains approximately one hour of video, which means they only utilized one side of the disc.

The Videodisc Jukebox had three VHD players and an interface which enabled you to choose songs, much like in regular jukeboxes, a monitor and speakers. They existed from about 1985 to 1988, and were often placed in game arcades and similar locations.
At least that explains why I got them from an old op.

I was very lucky to bump into a VHD expert locally, and I thank him for all his help. One of my few arcade related mysteries has been solved.

It wasn't easy finding a picture of the jukebox, but I believe this is it:

Personal gameroom - part 3

2010-10-28T17:28:00.000+02:00

The snow disappeared again, and it was time to remove the old door. I didn't have the materials needed to cover up the window, and it would have to be ordered. Winter is coming fast, so I decided to keep the window until spring and just remove the old door for now.

The job didn't take much time outside, but fitting the plaster boards inside was more tedious. The weather forecast said that it would rain all week, so I rushed the outside job a bit. A bit too much, I later discovered. I should have used a string or something to keep the bottom edge of the wall level, because it ended up crooked. It's not a big deal, I will fix it in spring, when I'm covering up the window anyway.

Here is a picture of the end result, after the forecasted rain and snow had already fallen:

Bride of Pinbot DMD? Wow!

2010-10-27T19:22:00.004+02:00

A friend tipped me about a pinball project which for me is the most exciting ever. I haven't been much online for some months, and this totally blew me away.
Some talented guys are changing Bride of Pinbot, utilizing a DMD, new sounds, rules and animation. The video mode looks amazing. And three ball multiball, finally! I'm almost speechless. BoP is definitely among my top 5 favourite games, and the first one I purchased. I can't wait to get my hands on this! I actually have two BoPs at the moment, one of them being a diamond plate.

For more information, take a look at the promo video at http://www.dutchpinball.com/ and read their blog at http://dutchpinball.blogspot.com/.

Personal gameroom - part 2

2010-10-21T20:48:00.005+02:00

It took some time before my father had time to help me fit the new door. And in the meantime, disaster struck.. The first snow fell! Winter is approaching fast, and I would want to finish the shed before the weather makes it impossible.
We couldn't let the snow stop us, though. We finally got the new 90x190 door fitted, but not without difficulties. It wasn't level in the beginning, so we drilled more holes in the door frame than necessary. I'll have to find a way to cover them up.
The door was level in the end, but we realized that it didn't close easily. At that time it was already late afternoon, and my father had to leave. We agreed to work on it another day, but it's looking nice already. I actually have a door which is wide enough to bring games inside the shed!

It was stupid of me not to paint the door when I had it stored in the garage while waiting for my father. I'm covering it with plastic and hoping for warmer weather.

Personal gameroom - part 1

2010-10-07T21:31:00.004+02:00

I have been wanting my own gameroom for some years now. I was looking for a house with a basement for my games when we moved this spring, but finding the perfect house proved difficult. They were either too expensive, too old or the location was wrong.
We ended up with a semi-detached house located at the outskirts of a quiet neighborhood. Although it doesn't have a basement, the previous owner had built a shed in the garden, which is fully insulated and therefore suitable for our cold winters. I measured the shed, ensuring that I could fit at least 4 pinballs and 4-5 arcade games inside. I even double checked the ceiling height, and made sure that a normal pinball game (without topper) would be ok.

What I didn't do, was to make sure that the door was actually wide enough to fit a game. It turned out it was just 70 cm wide!
I called my father, who promised to help me get a new door and fit it. As I injured my spine this summer, I depend on more help than usual for a while. Although we moved in at the end of May, it was September before I was able to do anything at all. My father didn't have the time to help me yet, so I started tidying up all the empty cartons and boxes we had stuffed into the shed while moving, and also disassembling some shelves the previous owner had made.

The floor is quite rough, but I'm sure it will clean up nicely. I'm planning to paint it, so all the dark spots will be hidden.
Most of them are from the previous owner fixing his motorcycle, and there is also a lot of dirt just inside the door, from walking in with shoes.

The walls and ceiling look nice already, all covered with plasterboard.

Out of order

2010-10-06T19:01:00.000+02:00

If I have any readers left, you may be wondering where I've been. I actually got a spinal disc herniation, so I've been more on the sofa than tinkering with games. I'm slowly recovering, and I'm hoping that I can update the blog more often from now on.

Hong Kong arcades

2010-03-31T20:45:00.009+02:00

While I'm trying to find a new home for me and my games, progress is even slower than before. So I'll post some pictures I took in Hong Kong.

First of all, a picture of a tiny local arcade in Sha Tin, 2002. Lovely candy cabs. What a culture shock!

The rest of the pictures are all from 2006.

Before Mario Kart Wii, they had this great game! The cabinet even includes a camera, so you can get your face on your in-game avatar. This is from the basement arcade of the MetroPlaza mall in Kwai Fong.

I believe this is from the same, relatively large, arcade. Many rows of candy cabs, but also other interesting games.

A row of linked Outrun 2 SP cabs. A great place to challenge the local boys!

I believe this is House of the Dead 4.

Yet another arcade beneath a shopping mall. This time it's the New Town Plaza, Sha Tin. I don't remember the name of this sword game anymore. There are sensors all around the screen, and you wield a foam sword.

Of course, horse racing is big in Hong Kong.

I think this is another arcade, in Wan Chai, with some nice musical games.

This is a large linked football game.

If I'm not totally mistaken, this House of the Dead 4 is in Lai Chi Kok.

..and we're back to Kwai Fong. I must have messed up the order of the pictures. Or maybe I just returned to that arcade too often. Crayon Shinchan is certainly entertaining!

My favourite candy cab is Blast City, and that is purely for nostalgic reason. It must be the type I've spent the most time with. I was offered one in nice condition at a good price, but the shipping costs would certainly be higher than the cab itself.

And now for something completely different.. Old kiddie rides!

I didn't see these games anywhere else in Hong Kong:

Here's a picture from Tin Shui Wai. People were impressed with my DDR skills back then. Maybe because I'm an old gweilo. :-)

..and back to Wan Chai. Sorry about the jumping. What a great schmup!

The most spectacular coin pusher I've ever seen!

..and this is somewhere else. I think I took this picture because it reminded me of pinball. Which was nowhere to be seen in Hong Kong.

Moving out

2009-12-07T16:59:00.005+01:00

I have sold my apartment, and all my games are currently in storage. This is also why I haven't posted lately, as I've been busy with the whole selling process.
I hope to find a house with a big basement suitable for a game room, but it may take a couple of months. Until then we are living with relatives.

On a brighter note, I am now a lucky owner of a non-working Out Run, which was given to me by a friend. He was going to trash it. Out Run has always been a favourite of mine, and I'm looking forward to eventually restoring it.
Until then, I'm officially a hoarder. :-)

What a sad story

2009-09-06T09:56:00.000+02:00

It happened more than a month ago, but it's so terrible that I had to post it.

Casters

2009-09-05T08:53:00.001+02:00

I was walking around one of my favourite shops, Jula, when I saw these casters which I recognized from Treasure Cove's pictures.

The capacity of four casters is 200 kilos, more than enough to move some pinballs around.

I got to test them already, as I reorganized the gameroom a bit to accommodate my newest acquisitions: Star Wars Trilogy and Judge Dredd. They are great!

Moving some friends' games: You're looking at Rollergames

A little roadtrip - part 2

2009-09-04T18:17:00.006+02:00

I just have a little BMW, so my cousin was lucky enough to lend me his Opel Vivaro for the trip home. That meant I could fit at least three games, and I only had two in there..

I have a fighting game waiting for me in the middle of no-where, and a recently purchased Creature from the Black Lagoon on the way home, so I figured I could pick up one of them.

My wife and I had seen Cadillac Diner on a TV show, and that was pretty much halfway to our next destination, so we decided to stop there for food.

What a great place! Not that there are many diners in Norway, but this was quite authentic. It's obviously a converted gas station, but the atmosphere is wonderful, both inside and outside. And the food is good, too.

I met the owner, who was a great guy! We started talking about his jukebox and other memorabilia, and I really appreciate his efforts to keep this diner as authentic as possible.

I played a couple of balls on the Harley Davidson pinball, but it really doesn't appeal to me. He also had an Elvis, but I've played that one enough to know that it's not for me.

Who can say no to a good burger and Coke from a glass bottle?

There were some sitdown cabs and a pool table in the back room.

Sadly, I couldn't pick up the fighter, as the seller was working the whole weekend, and it's way too heavy to move it by myself.

My next option was to pick up my Creature, so I called my friend and agreed to visit him two days later.

We were staying at my sister's house for the weekend, and we were driving down from the mountains towards the coast. The road was steep and narrow, but the scenery is beautiful!

We finally arrived in my sister's home, and I must say that I envy the view from their living room window..

I tried calling my friend both saturday and sunday, but all I got was his answering machine. Unfortunately, I never reached him, so I never got to pick up my Creature from the Black Lagoon. It made me a bit sad, as I'm not very often in this area, especially with such a big car.

I finally reached him online a couple of days later, and he told me that his wallet and cell phone was stolen the very same friday night that I talked to him. Bad luck...

I'm back home, and so are Judge Dredd and the Star Wars Trilogy. They don't look too bad, actually. I will be covering each of them in separate posts, but here are some previews.

Just "a little" wear around the flipper buttons, there... Arghl.

How not to break into a cash box.

A little roadtrip

2009-09-03T20:13:00.010+02:00

I noticed a classified ad some weeks ago, from an ex-op selling a whole warehouse full of stuff. He wasn't easy to reach, but I finally got a return call from his workplace.

It turned out he was going on vacation the next day, and he didn't have time to check what was in his warehouse. All I got out of him was that he had a bunch of pinballs and all sorts of coin-ops. He definitely preferred to sell it as a lot, but he sounded willing to let go of a couple of games separately.

The warehouse was about 500 km away from me, and when I was in the area a couple of weeks later, I tried calling him. Repeatedly! The problem was, I still only had his work number, and no-one picked up. I finally got an sms, evidently from one of his co-workers, who informed me that he (co-worker) was home sick, and he gave me the op's cell phone number, asking me to contact him instead. Jackpot!

The op (who shall remain nameless) sounded surprised to hear me, but he still remembered me, and said: "You can buy the whole lot and sell it separately to the hundreds of guys who have been e-mailing me". Oh-oh.. Not good. I asked if I could come and take a look, and maybe buy just a selection of the games. I was short on time, though, as I was going home three days later. He agreed, and promised that we could meet before that.

He called me back the next day, and said that someone was coming to potentially buy the whole lot at 5 pm the day after. I persuaded him to meet me at 3, so I could choose some games before they were all gone.

I called him up the day of the meeting, just to confirm that the deal was still on.

It was all looking good, and my cousin and I arrived at 1:40, as we didn't want to arrive late. We had to drive for an hour to get to the warehouse area, and we didn't know how the traffic would be. We enjoyed a meal at a Chinese restaurant while waiting for the clock to strike 3.

We had spent the last couple of days dreaming about what kind of games would be there, and we wound each other up like we always do. I was at the point of believing that he would have titles like Medieval Madness, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and that I would have to choose between them. We discussed back and forth between bringing two cars with trailers, but ended up with just one large Opel Vivaro and a trailer.

So we were there ..and we waited.. But no-one showed up. I called the seller at 3:20, and he told me that he was late from work. So we waited again.. To make a long story short, he eventually came to meet us at 4:30, just half an hour before the other people were supposedly coming to pick up the lot.

I was quite stressed arriving at the warehouse some minutes later, as I felt I didn't have much time. Of course, I was bound to be disappointed after my sky high expectations... and I was. The seller had an ok selection of games, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I saw the backbox doors of a Safe Cracker, which was actually one of the titles I was fabling about! Asking about it, I was told that he used to have one, but he sold it to one of his friends, who is a pinball collector. He had actually sold many of his games to that friend.

So much for the hope of finding an untouched warehouse! Someone had already picked from the "A" list!

Anyway, a quick look around revealed a mixed lot of pinballs:

Revenge From Mars
Judge Dredd
Star Wars Trilogy
Fish Tales
Terminator 2
Stargate
Eight Ball Deluxe
Tales From The Crypt
Doctor Who
No Fear
NBA Fastbreak
World Challenge Soccer
Big Guns

I asked about the Terminator 2, which he was keeping for himself, and the Revenge of Mars, which he wanted quite a lot for. I contemplated buying three pinballs, but ended up with Judge Dredd and the Star Wars Trilogy. (Doctor Who was my potential third choice, if you're wondering).

The Judge Dredd had been broken into, so the front was completely broken. It was supposedly working, though.

I was too stressed about the other people coming some minutes later, so I didn't test the games in any way. In fact, I didn't even look at the playfields! In retrospect, this was too brash, but the pressure got to me.

The seller definitely knew the value of his games. Being unshopped and untested, I would say that some of them were even overestimated. I got a good deal on the Judge Dredd, though.

The buyers? No-one showed up at 5! We left at 5:45, and the op locked up and left at that point.

All in all, it was a bit disappointing, but it was nice visiting a warehouse full of games. The seller was a very nice guy. I just wish I wasn't so stressed out.

This whole story would be worthless without some pictures, so here we go. Sorry for the bad picture quality. Most of them were taken to help me look above or around something blocking my view.

Revenge of Mars and my Judge Dredd. Notice the stack of backglasses in the foreground.

Kiddie rides, House of the Dead 2, the usuals.

I would have had interest in this HotD2, had I not had a Wii. Just not worth it anymore, when I can get the same experience from the sofa.

Nothing to see here. Move along..

I need such a Videomaster bezel, as mine is damaged. The seller promised to look through is glass collection, maybe he has one for me. These were all converted to poker, actually.

Eight Ball Deluxe.. and.. furniture??

Eight Ball Deluxe, World Challenge Soccer, No Fear, Tales from the Crypt, NBA Fastbreak, Terminator 2.

..and a Big Guns, Stargate and Doctor Who

If you don't recognize these, I can't help you.

Doctor Who and Fish Tales

More of the same

Big Guns. I had never seen this before, so I didn't recognize it before checking it just now.

Nothing of interest to me

A friend of mine is looking for Sega Rally, but the seller was asking the usual (high) price for them.

I wish I had seen that these are two cocktail tables stacked on top of each other! Maybe I should give him a call.

Some nice jukeboxes, but way over my budget.

Does anyone buy these anymore?

Kiddie Rides

Not sure what this is. Some kind of old gambling machine..

So, that's the end of that. I'll write about the trip home and the state of the games I bought in later posts.

T2 left flipper fixed

2009-08-02T17:15:00.003+02:00

I was having some problems with the left flipper on T2, ever since I switched the power driver board from BoP. The flipper worked (as in, it was moving), but the machine didn't register that it was pressed. That lead to problems during video mode (the crosshatch could only move right) and when entering initials.

Clay's great guide had this advice:

Pre-Fliptronics WPC game's lane change doesn't work. This is almost
always driver board chips U7 (left flipper) or U8 (right flipper)
which are the 4n25 opto isolators.

My local supplier had two different 4N25 opto isolators. At least the part numbers were different, so I ordered two of each.
After removing the power driver board, I noticed much to my surprise that the resistor connected to U7 had come loose!

Even though inserting and removing the board is a strain on the molex connectors, I took a chance on just soldering the resistor back on and put the board back into the game without swapping out the opto isolator.
Success! Everything is working like it should now! At least that's what the switch test said. I never got to video mode, and got even less close to entering my initials...

Must be Italian

2009-07-19T09:40:00.001+02:00

I have, for some reason, started to believe that the Mystery Game must be Italian. At least that would explain why no-one knows about it, and why I can't find any info on Klov or Arcadeflyers.
I've seen a bunch of unknown Italian space shooters for sale on eBay Germany, and every time it breaks my heart a little. I can't help thinking that one of them could be my game.
I will try to contact some Italian collectors to get to the bottom of this.

Donkey Kong cocktail parts

2009-07-18T13:02:00.000+02:00

The Donkey Kong cocktail is mostly in ok shape, so I don't think it will be a big restoration job. It's missing some of its buttons, or what looks like the button caps. I've seen these around, and it's just a button with a screw coming out of it. I wonder if that's enough for my control panels, or if I need something more to make them stick?

Are these broken, or can I just buy the screw-in button cap?

Another thing is the veneer strip going around the top of the cabinet. I found a post describing a replacement:

Removed the old chipped and cracked veneer and added new band of Red Oak veneer [2 inch strip to the tops sides] Then I stained it with minwax dark walnut water based stain.

I'm thinking it's this one: http://www.hardwareworld.com/2-inch-X-8-feet-Red-Oak-Bandit-pRNHBU4.aspx
Man, sometimes it would be a lot easier to live in the US of A.

The joysticks have two different ball tops, and it looks like the red one on player 2's side is retrofitted. I've seen these for sale, so that shouldn't pose much of a problem.

The glass is very scratched, but I think I'll just leave it as is for now. My guess is a new one would cost 100-150 USD here. At least.

The decals are old, and much of the color is actually faded down to white!

I found a repro on eBay, from wmentic. The quality is reasonably good, and probably a lot better than what I could have printed myself.
It looks like the quality and method of print is different between the big instruction and the smaller strips.

The big one:

Good print quality, solid colors
Thick material, looks like photo paper
Rounded corners not cut
No adhesive on the back

The smaller ones:

Somewhat speckled print, not really sold colors
Thin material, some kind of plastic film with paper protection
Adhesive backing

I wasn't successful with the closeups, but I would say that the quality is satisfactory all in all. It will definitely look nice under the glass, and I can recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to print the decals themselves.

LED displays for Elvira

2009-07-16T15:52:00.011+02:00

What, I didn't tell you that I bought an Elvira? Don't tell my wife, ok? :-)
All joking aside, she really doesn't know. But she doesn't need to either, because I purchased it with a plan in mind. A friend of a friend desperately wants an Elvira, and I'm restoring it for him. Hopefully with a small profit.

We quickly realized that the left display had problems. There was no sign of life, and it also looked older than the right one, which must have been changed at some point.

Following Clay's display troubleshooting guide, we eventually found that the display itself was dead.
He even mentioned something which I believe is quite visible here..

Check the displays and if there are little bright speckles like tiny diamonds when the game is on, this usually means the display is outgassed. Also there is a little are below the visible section on the display with two tiny wires. If some white dust is seen, that's also a good indicator of an outgassed display.

Now, I had some options what to buy..

One original display (approximately USD 160 + shipping from Norway, but it would require soldering)
PinLED displays (approximately USD 225 + shipping from Germany)
PINSCORE displays (USD 199 + shipping from USA)
Rottendog Amusements (USD 150 + shipping from USA)

I chose the latter one, even though I didn't know that the three LED displays were from different manufacturers. I honestly believed that they were all from PinLED.

Soldering this would be quite boring..

I purchased the displays from how_bout_them_apples on eBay for USD 165 plus shipping, before I knew about the Rottendog site. Although a bit more expensive than Rottendog, he was very helpful and nice, and the shipping was lightning fast!
The displays themselves were a bit disappointing, though.
I chose LED displays because of the obvious advantages, even though they are a tad more expensive than an original display:

They don't need 100V
They're supposed to last up to 10 times longer than conventional displays
No need for soldering
They come in a matching pair

What struck me first of all, was that the segments were much lighter than on a conventional display. This makes the unlit segments more visible, which in my opinion leads to degraded contrast.

Also, the displays seem to be positioned 2-3 mm too high, they're not really vertically centered on the translite. Maybe it's because of the positioning of my translate, so I will test it further. This also leads to the circuit board being visible around the display. It would actually be visible anyway, as the displays themselves are smaller than conventional displays.

They have included masking stickers, which I believe will hide the issue somewhat.

All in all, the conclusion is 2 thumbs up from the boogie men! (Out of 4, that is).

I actually found someone describing the very same problems on RGP:

One issue with the Rottendog display is that it doesn't line up as
good as the original did so it looks odd in my Funhouse. It sits a
little too deep behind the glass so from a playing position the top
actually gets cut off from my view. Also i can see the circuit board
around the display. They give you a black sticker to put somewhere to
hide that, but I didn't really see a good way to attach it. I have to
play around with the spacers(or maybe even remove them) when I get
time I guess, but unless I installed something wrong, it wasn't a
perfect replacement. Also the display shows white letter/number
segments when they're not lit which for me is very distracting. I was
disappointed overall.

Dragon's Lair laser disc players

2009-07-16T15:12:00.003+02:00

I may have talked about the Dragon's Lair laser disc players before, I'm not sure. I purchased a Philips VP835 on German eBay a couple of years ago, with the intention of using it for my European DL cabinet. According to this article, it's very similar to the laser disc player originally used in Dragon's Lair, called Philips 22VP932. In fact, both the VP835 and 831 can be used in a DL cab with just a small interface board, described in the same article.

It's quite a beast! It may be difficult to see the size from these pictures, but I would say it's like a quite large desktop PC cabinet.

Anyway.. I was able to track down an original VP932 from an operator not far away, and he finally sent it to me a couple of months ago, after having asked him to sell it for years.
However, it turned out that both the power supply and the laser was removed, thus the player can't be used in its current condition. There's a bunch of loose wires in there, after the parts have evidently just been cut out.
That's why I was wondering if I somehow can combine the two laser disc players, utilizing parts from the 835 in the 932 or vice versa. However, when I opened them up, they were quite different. Maybe it's because the 835 was a consumer model, but it had an extra board, which I presume was used for RF out.

Also, there is a ribbon cable coming out from the 932, which I wouldn't know where to attach on the 835. So, does any of my 2-3 loyal followers (are there that many??) have any experience with laser disc players? I am thinking... No.
I may post this question over at the DL Forums and hope for the best.

I fear that I will end up being forced to scrap the 932 and use the 835 with an EuroDL interface board after all.
The absolute worst case would be gutting the 932 and putting a PC inside, and letting the DL mainboard communicate with the PC, retreiving the requested frames from a video file.
That would require some moderate programming skills, which I am definitely not comfortable with, but it would at least look original inside the cabinet, and it would be quite robust compared to a laser disc.

Donkey Kong cocktail

2009-06-26T11:54:00.005+02:00

May and June have been extremely busy for me, so I didn't have much time for this hobby. That is, until now!

I was visiting a customer when I got a phone call from a friend, saying that an original Donkey Kong cab had been spotted at a local auction. I obviously wasn't free to talk there and then, but I called him up immidiately after leaving the customer.

I must admit that I didn't really believe him. People tend to say things like "an original blablah" when it's just some brown veneered generic JAMMA cab with a bootleg board. Still, we decided to visit the auction, which was being held the very same afternoon.

Sure enough, it was an original Donkey Kong. But not the upright I expected, it was a cocktail! Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that I would find something like this just a 5 minutes drive from home.

After sitting through hundreds of useless items, from silverware to old cassette tapes, the time had finally come to the DK. My pulse must have been close to 200 when the auctioneer announced it, and asked if anyone was willing to pay the mimimum price. I raised my hand, and feared that someone else would also start bidding. Much to my surprise, no-one did. It seemed like an eternity before the club hit the table, and I was the happy owner of one of my favourite games!

As I paid (what I find a very reasonable sum), the seller told me it was working, and that it had previously been on route in my home town. This was the first game machine they ever sold at this auction house.

I wish they had more of them! Donkey Kong came from a very big and well-known op, and they surely must have had hundreds of arcade machines.

The monitor was a bit weak in the beginning, but now it's close to perfect. The whole cabinet is in quite good shape. One of the balltops has been changed, and some buttons are missing. Luckily, it's all available online.

I know that the vectorized instructions are available for free, but I found someone selling them on eBay. It's cheaper than what I could have made locally, so I ordered a set yesterday.

My wife is away on holiday for six weeks, but I guess she will find out eventually. Honey, if you are reading this, it's not mine. I'm just keeping it for a friend! :-)

Beating the bride

2009-05-04T11:02:00.002+02:00

I was expecting visitors, and played a couple of Bride of Pinbot rounds to kill time. I have a (quite rare) diamond plated BoP at home, but I haven't gotten around to shopping it yet.

Anyway, I was having a great second ball, joining the billionaires club and still retaining one of the balls, when the doorbell rang! I was forced to let the ball drain and end the game so I could entertain the guests.

Sometimes I wish these machines had a pause button..

(For those of you who ask why I didn't play the last ball after the guests left: They also wanted to try the game..)

..and the plunger is back on

2009-05-02T07:23:00.000+02:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had troubles finding the right screws for Magic Castle's plunger mount. It turned out they were just standard US threads, and I actually found a pack of brand new screws in a rack mounting kit at work. It's nice getting something for free for a change!

New hiscore!

2009-05-01T11:18:00.000+02:00

I joined the billionaires club again! I was actually already a member, but I had since removed the batteries from my BOP, and all the scores reset.

Although I'm no Tommy, I'm getting noticably better. The metamorphosis used to be something impossible for me to achieve (I think I did it one time since 2003), but the last couple of weeks I have consistently gotten the metamorphosis at least every third game.

Broken post

2009-04-30T11:08:00.003+02:00

I won an eBay auction for a Magic Castle backglass. The seller was from Austria, and I sent him some e-mails in (my quite basic) german.

I tried to make sure that he would pack it properly, and that he had actually shipped a backglass before, and he assured me that it would be safe, in many layers of styrofoam. This didn't quite comfort me, as I would want a wooden board in there, but in the end I just had to take his word for it.

Sadly, it arrived broken.

I didn't find the packaging to be satisfactory, with just a couple of thin layers of styrofoam inside a quite flimsy flatscreen tv cardboard box. In fact, I was quite nervous that the Post would feel the same way, and refuse to refund the costs, but they were ok with it.

The 170 USD are back in my account, but I still don't have a backglass. It's quite sad actually.. I'm sure there aren't that many left of them out there, and now there's one less.

Polishing the plunger

2009-04-01T06:57:00.001+02:00

Don't worry about the title!

The plunger housing I got with the Magic Castle backbox was a bit rusty looking, but I decided to polish it in the tumbler.

The all-important "before" shots..

I was hoping to awe you all with some fantastic "after" shots, but it turned out just ok. It may not be very visible in the pictures, but there were some spots I just couldn't remove, neither with the tumbler or with good old manual polishing with Autosol.

Still, I don't think anyone (or me, for that matter) will notice it while playing, and I think this is as good as it will get without actually re-chroming it.

The worst part, though, is that the screws don't fit the housing. It seems the threads are some kind of southern European non-standard, and I can't find matching screws anywhere!

I'll do a last attempt in a specialist hardware store, and after that I'll just have to order three screws from Italy.

Dead Street Fighter 2

2009-03-31T08:32:00.001+02:00

I guess I didn't mention that I own 50% of a Street Fighter 2? We got it cheap from a guy who wasn't very good at fixing pinball machines. It seemed whenever he got a new game and started restoring it, problems were near. He often ended up with a couple of fried components and a big question mark, and sold the machine.

It's been a couple of years since we bought it, and we haven't looked much at it since then. Whenever we tried to boot it, there was only garbage on the display, and the boot process halted. Someone suggested changing the display chip. I don't even remember what it was called anymore (U9??), but that didn't help.

Fast forward to today, and we have discovered that all the LEDs inside the backbox are lit. They don't blink, they just stay on.

My friends found that the +5v was just above 4, so they adjusted it, but they quickly realized that the real problem was somewhere on the CPU board.

What happened next was quite frankly a bit of a mystery to me, as I've learnt the basic electronics I know from pinball machines. They were using an oscilloscope to check the pulses from the crystal.. or the CPU.. or something. But it didn't look right, I understood that much.

My more electronics proficient friends suspect that the fault lies somewhere in this region of the schematics.

...or this section of the board.

I don't know what to believe, as this is a bit above me. My friend and part-owner has taken the board home for further checking. With a bit of luck, he'll have it up and running again in some days.

Pinball Summer

2009-03-30T22:20:00.004+02:00

I won an eBay auction for a strange pinball related poster a couple of years ago. The text was Finnish, and the movie title was Pinball Summer.

I bought it for the most obvious of reasons.

The picture is quite bizarre, and the Finnish text just makes it even more surreal.

I didn't give much thought to the movie itself before I showed the poster to some friends, and one of them commented that he had the movie on VHS in the eighties.

Still, the movie crept back into the dark corners of my brain once again, until one day when I was searching for some other pinball related items on eBay. At the very end of the list was a listing for Pinball Summer on DVD. And today it arrived in my mailbox!

I must say, I enjoyed it quite a bit! Most of the plot revolves around a pinball tournament, and there are plenty of wonderful classic pinball machines throughout the movie. Ok, the story is kind of weak, but not much worse than other movies from that era.

I somehow feel that it deserves more than the 4.4 it currently has on IMDB. I wouldn't recommend that you paid 25 dollars for it, not by far. But if you see it in the bargain bin somewhere, do pick it up!

Terminator 2 hiscore

2009-03-21T22:44:00.004+01:00

I brought my wife with me to the game room on the way home from shopping. She got a couple of games on Hot Shots while I was playing Terminator 2.

I had a great first ball, with approximately 115 millions. But then it all went downhill, and I drained the two next ones very fast.

Anyway, I ended up with 120,380,800, which is my highest score since I got T2 up and running again.

I noticed a problem, though. I used to have an error with the left flipper not registering on Bride of Pinbot. Of course the flipper moved whenever I pushed the button, but the game wasn't noticing that I did. For example for the extra ball lane change, or when entering initials after a good game. Only the right flipper button worked.

As you may remember, I swapped the power driver board between these two games, and now the problem has moved to T2. Suddenly I can't go left in video mode or when entering my initials. I was convinced that the cause was on the cpu board up until now, but it's the power driver board. Seems I have some troubleshooting to do.

Zaccaria gifts

2009-03-18T18:54:00.001+01:00

The friend from whom I bought Magic Castle surprised me with two items which he had forgotten to give me:

A coil with a plunger of some sort. I'm not sure where it fits, because I frankly didn't study the underside of the playfield enough yet to determine if something is missing.
Some sort of official Magic Castle operator's sheet, inside a beautiful Zaccaria zip lock bag. Evidently, it doesn't take much to make me happy!

Isn't it great?

Where does this go? Follow this blog and see.

T2: Success!

2009-03-17T19:06:00.001+01:00

Fixing J115 on Terminator 2 was easier than I thought, mostly because a friend let me borrow his molex tool.

I was afraid that especially making the cable loops would be difficult, but I just took my time and tried my best, and everything worked out fine.

New connector with some new red loops. Time to remove those labels!

Terminator 2 lives again! I had to test it, and although I didn't get a great score, I remembered why this is one of my absolute favourites. I wish I had fixed it before, and I didn't realize how much I had missed it until I was going for the skill shot and ramp combos. What a feeling!

It almost brings tears to my eyes

My terrible mobile camera (do you hear that, Nokia?) doesn't do the game justice. My translite is actually signed by Doug Watson himself, as he visited us a couple of years ago. What a great guy!

This one will never be for sale

I'm very happy that everything seems to be working perfectly, and I'm looking forward to welcoming our visitors this wednesday.

Replacing robotron sockets

2009-03-16T07:37:00.003+01:00

While I was repairing my Terminator 2, a friend helped me remove faulty ram sockets from my Robotron. The battery had leaked all over them, and they need to be replaced.

When all of them have been removed, 5 in total, I will clean the area with vinegar and alcohol, and hopefully Robotron will be as good as new!

Terminator 2 repair

2009-03-15T19:13:00.008+01:00

My Terminator 2 pinball had some power problems. I couldn't start a game, and if I remember correctly, none of the coils worked in test mode.

With good help from my friends, we found out that a bridge rectifier on the power driver board was most probably the culprit. I had delayed fixing it until now, but the aforementioned out-of-towners are coming next week, and they are eager T2 fans, so I had to take a look at it.

First of all, when removing the power driver board, I found that the J115 connector was completely burned. This is a usual problem, especially on T2, and in this case they had solved it by soldering the wires directly to the board.

Burnt J115 connector

Hacked back side

I got this game from a container deal. It came with tens of other pins from Poland a couple of years ago, but it died quite quickly, and it has just been sitting in our gameroom ever since.

As they had completely removed the molex plug, I had to mark each wire carefully. I intend to replace the original IDT connector with a crimp, which should make it less prone to overheating and errors.

Somewhat readable markings on painter's tape

Removing the old cables was easy enough, but they sure used a lot of solder back then! Some of the solder pads were in such a bad condition that they just fell off.

See those black marks? They aren't dirt..

Even after fitting the new molex socket, some of the pins didn't have any contact with the components. I had to solder some jumper cables on the back side of the board. They won't be visible, and it was the quickest way to resolve the problem.

Ugly but functional

I just did one small mistake.. One of the pins isn't supposed to be there, as it's used as a key, ensuring that you connect the molex plug correctly. I just cut it after taking this picture.

New and fresh!

Of course I also replaced the faulty bridge rectifier. I couldn't test the power driver board in the T2 afterwards, as it didn't have a molex plug for J115. I therefore swapped it with the one in my Bride of Pinbot, and it worked perfectly!

Next time I'll be fitting a new molex plug on Terminator 2, using this tool.

Even though I will be studying this article beforehand, I think I need my share of luck to succeed. Jamming two cables into one terminal sure doesn't look easy...

Transporting Whirlwind

2009-03-14T22:06:00.002+01:00

I can honestly say that my heart almost stopped today. I was driving home from IKEA, when I suddenly saw a car with a Whirlwind in the back!

It took me a second to realize that I was just in the neighbourhood of one of my pinball friends, and that this was probably not a great deal that I was missing out on. In fact, after thinking about it some more, I kind of knew that he had helped a mall with a pinball themed event.

This kind of thing doesn't happen that often in a town with just below 150.000 citizens, at least not to me. The last time I saw someone transporting a pinball (which I didn't know about beforehand) was very early in the nineties, when Terminator 2 was hot news, and it was being dropped off at a kiosk.

The Machine: Bride of Pinbot

2009-02-27T11:05:00.005+01:00

My gameroom friends and I were approached by a group of pinball enthusiasts some weeks ago. They had a non-working The Machine: Bride of Pinbot, and they asked us to have a look at it. It was obvious that they were very good at playing, but had little experience with repair. Quite the opposite of my gameroom friends and me.

We agreed on a fixed price for the work: One case of beer. They drove quite far, 62 US miles, to deliver the game.

We quickly discovered that it had a switch matrix problem, which was solved by replacing the ULN 2803A chip at U20. It also had a problem getting balls from the through to the shooter lane, which was easily fixed by changing a coil sleeve.

We played a couple of test rounds, and I was happy to call the owners to let them know that they could pick BOP up the following week. Then.. problem struck! They soon discovered that the game had a problem with some of the upper playfield swithces. I was unable to locate the error on such short notice, I just saw that there was no contact between a pin on J207 and the aforementioned U20. As I said, they drove far to pick up the game, and I wasn't ready to disappoint them, so I switched their CPU board with mine.

I actually have two BOPs: The first pinball I acquired, in 2003, and a more recent, diamondplated one. You may ask why I would trade a perfectly working CPU board for a broken one, but it doesn't matter that much. The next day, I soldered a jumper wire on the backside of the board, and everything was working perfectly again.

And.. I will sell that BOP anyway, and probably to one of those guys, who was interested in purchasing it.

New highscore!

2009-02-19T09:12:00.003+01:00

I achieved a new personal high score playing Robotron yesterday. First I got 88175, and minutes later I achieved 88375!

I'll admit that I spent about 30 credits, with very variable results..

Colour changes

2009-02-13T22:59:00.000+01:00

Changed some colours and removed the background, hoping to improve readability.

Playing!

2009-02-13T11:16:00.000+01:00

Nothing much to say, as I have been too busy playing Robotron!

My highest score so far is 73,375. Ridiculously much, I know. But given time and the proper training, you too can achieve such a magnificent score. ;-)

I connected the sound board's -12V input to the switcher's -5V, and the sound worked perfectly.

Now I need to hook up the coin door and its control panel, and also to tidy up the rest of the wiring. It's all a bit messy at the moment..

LB cab issues

2009-02-12T00:05:00.000+01:00

I talked to the seller, who has the same cabinet as me, and he said that he hung the 6-slot MVS main board on the back wall of the cabinet. That truly surprises me, as the back wall isn't even vertical, it's like an overhang. So the main board would be hanging at an angle, almost a bit upside down.

What's even more confusing is that this is obviously a cabinet meant for the MVS system, but it only has one speaker. How that is supposed to work with the stereo output of MVS is beyond me.

Magic Castle Electrical Diagram

2009-02-11T00:01:00.002+01:00

I haven't worked on Magic Castle for a while, simply because I was too into Robotron.

MC still has some issues, specifically the sound and some loose wires. So when an eBay auction popped up with the electrical diagram part of the manual set, I just had to get it.

I later found out that I had the pdf, but that's just life as a compulsive shopper, I guess. Besides, it's better to have the actual schematics than some low-quality A4 prints.

I'm looking very much forward to troubleshooting Magic Castle again.

Pardon the image quality. I better get a new cell phone. I assure you, the manual is white.

The seller even included a flyer for CSI, which I infact haven't tested yet.

Neo Geo bonanza!

2009-02-10T09:16:00.000+01:00

The song "Oh, happy day" is playing over and over again in my head. The postman delivered a 6-slot Neo Geo mainboard with 7 MVS carts!

I already had Goal Goal Goal (which I don't like much, as I'm not into soccer), and one of my definite favourites; Puzzle Bobble. I actually also had a full Pulstar kit once, but I sold it before I knew that I would have an MVS mainboard in the future.

I already own a cabinet for this purpose, a very sturdy (and a bit strange looking) one from local maker Lars Berg.

What confuses me a bit, is that I have seen this being used with a 6-slot mainboard before, but I'm not sure how they could fit it. The cab has a nice shelf for the MVS mainboard, but the 6-slot is just too wide to fit between the metal support struts. I guess I can force it in, but I would frankly be a bit nervous to do so.

For testing purposes, I just left the mainboard rotated 90 degrees in there. I couldn't close the door, but the control panel still works, and I suddenly found myself playing round after round of KOF97.

MVS is a wonderful system, and I am looking forward to getting more carts already!

I'm very thankful to the seller, who after some years of persuasion finally sold me this great kit.

Philips 22VP932

2009-02-09T22:11:00.003+01:00

After two and a half years of hunting, I finally have an original Philips 22VP932 laser disc player for my Atari Dragon's Lair cabinet. And I got it locally! Thank you very much to the seller, if you are reading this!

He said it's probably missing the power supply. I have a VP835 with a working PSU which I hope can be used as a replacement. The VP932 was originally made to use 110V. My power supply is for 220V, but I believe they have the same outputs, as the two players are 99% identical. That may also come in handy if I need spare parts.

This laser disc player has definitely seen better days, and I don't even know if it's working, but I don't worry about that yet.

I will hopefully start testing it soon, along with the other Dragon's Lair parts.

Playing Robotron

2009-02-07T10:04:00.005+01:00

Just a quick update, as I couldn't stay away from the game room..

The Robotron cabinet was JAMMAtized and the control panel butchered when I bought it. I decided to hook up the existing joysticks to have a go at the game, just temporarily.

Everything is working fine! It was a great (albeit difficult, I'll admit) experience to finally play some Robotron after all these years.

There were a couple of things which left me wondering, though. I'm quite sure I marked 1P START and 2P START correctly, but pressing the 1P button started the two player mode Maybe there was a misprint in the manual?

Also, 4 of the orange wires in the controls harness didn't lead to anything at all. I wonder if they are supposed to be extra ground wires, but they weren't connected to GND. I'll have a closer look next week.

The sound is still not working, as I haven't connected the wires to the PSU.

Tidying up the wires

2009-02-04T22:48:00.004+01:00

I've been working too much lately, and game room day was sadly no exception. I had planned to work a lot on Robotron, but the phone kept ringing.

I ripped out the old JAMMA harness and connected the speaker to the boards. However, I didn't hear any sounds. Maybe because I didn't connect the -12V (which I will need to connect to -5V, as I am using a switcher without -12V).

Shorting the center coin pin gave me credits!

I started extending the wires for the controls, but I didn't have time to hook up the actual joysticks. However, shorting the cables let me start a game!

It's tearing me up that I need to work the coming evenings. I would love to start playing, but now I have to wait until next week.

Live Chat Event: Tim Skelly

2009-02-02T19:52:00.003+01:00

I should have written more about CoinOpSpace.com before, as it's a fantastic resource.

This week they are arranging a live, open chat event with the famous arcade game creator Tim Skelly. His credits include games such as Reactor, Armor Attacks and Rip-Off.

What are you waiting for? Come join us at CoinOpSpace.com!

New Robotron sticks

2009-01-29T21:20:00.003+01:00

Larry sent me a pair of joysticks for Robotron, perfect timing!

I already had standard length shafts from an earlier deal, but these will make it.. well.. perfect!

Robotron lives!

2009-01-29T00:08:00.005+01:00

I was out of town on business last Wednesday, and my fingers were literally itching to get something done arcade-wise this week. I arrived at the game room just after six, and much to my surprise, two of my friends were already there.

I have had a lot of time to think about what could be the problem with Robotron, and I had frankly started contemplating shipping the boards stateside for repair. However, I decided to at least check what I could. The board set I got from Morgan a couple of years ago had some battery leakage, which I tried cleaning up with a toothbrush, vinegar and alcohol some time in 2007.

The strange contact problem which I saw last time led me to believe that the leak caused some problems with the RAM sockets. I got a friend to help me with the DMM, and it turned out that the board had contact problems on 5 of 24 sockets! I was able to clean some of them, but for testing purposes we ended up soldering jumper wires from each "faulty" leg on the chips to the corresponding solder point on the back of the board.

The first test was a moderate success. The monitor showed the usual pre-boot garbage, but it flashed black for just some microseconds, displaying a faint error message about system check failure. I don't remember the exact words, but it was encouraging to see some actual letters on the screen for a change!

A couple of more jumper wires later, and Robotron actually booted!

It went back to the usual pre-boot garbage after some seconds, and this process repeated for quite some time. Until, like a bear coming out of its long winter sleep, Robotron lived again!

In the end, it remained stable for several minutes, seemingly just waiting for quarters and eager players. The display was eventually perfect, without graphical glitches of any sort.

Sadly, it was getting late and we all headed home.

But I almost need to pinch myself, it's like a dream! Robotron is alive!

I still haven't hooked up the sound, coin door, joysticks and buttons. I'm not sure if I can wait a whole week. Even while writing this, I feel the urge to just spend the night in the game room and get everything sorted.

I will eventually replace the five faulty RAM sockets, but I just need to play some rounds of Robotron first. Not only for myself, but I almost feel like I owe it to the other guys. They have accepted the presence of this lifeless, ancient beast in our game room all these years, and it's time they get to see what it's all about.

Robotron garbage

2008-11-27T15:49:00.003+01:00

Wednesday is game room night, and I had some time to continue work on the Robotron. Hooking up the monitor gave me only garbage, but at least the picture was changing. Now and then something wiped horizontally, to what looked like a different screen.

Testing the old 4116 ram was a pain. I started swapping chips from bank 1 to bank 3, and the error messages went something like this:

1-3-2

1-3-3

1-3-4

1-3-5

1-3-7

1-3-8

1-3-7

1-3-8

1-3-1

1-3-8

That is, whenever I replaced a chip, the next in line was broken. And even after replacing some (like 1 and 8) with chips which seemed ok for a moment, it gave an error when replacing a chip in a different location.

I decided that 4116s are indeed troublesome, and ordered a batch of 4164s today.

I wonder if the garbage on the monitor is caused only by the ram error, or if there's more to this. Booting Robotron in MAME actually gives exactly the same garbage pattern, but only for two seconds or so. After that it continues with diagnostics.

I am slightly worried, but mostly excited.

Learn I must, but teach me who will?

2008-11-22T21:59:00.003+01:00

I realize there are a lot of things I need to learn when it comes to the behind-the-scenes of arcade games. Or at least there are lots of things I want to learn.
I feel more comfortable around pins. Maybe it's the monitor that freaks me out. All this talk of discharging, flybacks and cap kits..
Almost by accident, I found Randy Fromm's Arcade School, which seems to be a great resource. However, buying the whole DVD set is a bit pricy. I may well order it in a few months, but it would be great to get some pointers first.
Does anyone have any experience with his videos, and are there similar, less costly tutorials around?

Robotron RAM update

2008-11-21T07:09:00.000+01:00

I tried swapping chip 1 and 2 in RAM bank 3, and that gave me an 1-3-2 error.
Good news, the chip is actually broken!
I think I'll just buy 4116s, to make it as easy on myself as possible.

Magic Castle is alive!

2008-11-20T12:05:00.005+01:00

The backbox for my Magic Castle arrived last week. I must send a big thank you to László (of Zaccaria-Pinball.hu fame) for selling it to me. Not only did he part with the backbox for a very reasonable price, he even collected and assembled all the needed parts, programmed the roms and tested that everything was working. He must be a true Zaccaria fan for putting so much love and effort into the machine for a fellow collector. To top it all off, he even sent me the plunger assembly which was missing from my Magic Castle!

László had sent me a list of things to check before it was safe to connect the backbox:

Check the main transformator voltage setting and fuses values (5A and 20A).
Be sure the switch matrix circuit not connected to the +40V circuit. The most failure point the switch on the main right flipper arms. (React ball saver). Is there a combinated switch - this switching the +5V and the +40V circuits too.When it's there a short contact the IC38, 25 will be destroyed !!! The inputs will not working more ...
Be sure the light bulb sockets in the pops are ok. Watch the shorted sockets ! If not - the lamp SRC 69, 73, 79 will be destroyed !
Secure the head with the screw to protect a falling head. The displays and the neon tube can damaged! Maybe the steels are made with different setting points and the lock can be release the head under repair !

After checking it all, I plugged it in. And without much further ado..

Life at last! This game has been sleeping for too long.

DHL had transported the backbox upside down, so one of the displays had fallen off, and another one was disconnected. But they both worked after reseating, and the game plays almost perfectly already!

Sadly, it was getting late, and I had to leave the game room before I could finish the testing.

The biggest issue I noticed was the sound. The ambient background sound was not at all what it's supposed to be, but all of the effect sounds were working nicely.
I will try to ask László if he has any tips. All the chips and ribbon cables seem to be seated, but I may have overlooked something.

Robotron RAM error

2008-11-20T11:47:00.005+01:00

I finally fired up Robotron yesterday. The US wiring harness I have was modified to use an AT/ATX power supply, so I connected it to a switching arcade psu.

I still haven't gotten around to hooking up the monitor or joysticks, but the Robotron boards luckily have a little display to indicate errors.

It didn't light up immediately on the first attempt, but after a couple of seconds it blinked 1-3-1 repeatedly. After that initial boot, it showed 1-3-1 almost instantly after turning on the power.

The manual says that 1 means RAM failure, and the two next numbers indicate which bank and chip has the problem. From what I could tell, this means that the chip in the upper left corner of this picture is the faulty one:

The manual says to check for normal voltages on the chip: -5V/pin 1, +12V/pin 8, +5V pin 9. They were all correct in my case, and I'm not exactly sure what that means. The manual doesn't really explain if wrong values means a bad chip, or if it indicates a different problem altogether.

I'm hoping for the last one, meaning that I should just replace the RAM chip. I tried reseating it, but that didn't help. I guess the next step would be switching it with another chip in the same bank, and see if the error message remains the same, but I didn't think of that yesterday.

It may be pretty obvious from my postings, but I'm not very familiar with troubleshooting and modifying arcade PCBs. As far as I can tell these ram chips are 4116, and they seem to be somewhat rare nowadays, but I found them online.

I also found an article describing how to replace them with 4164 DRAM, but I'm not sure if I'll go that route. Any tips?

VHD video discs mystery

2008-11-16T19:52:00.007+01:00

I acquired two VHD video discs from an operator, along with a bunch of game boards. I had never heard about the VHD format before, and frankly I find them quite intriguing.

The labels are quite cryptic, and don't tell much about the contents.

I can't find any information on KLOV about games which used VHD discs, although there are a bunch of laserdisc games. I still feel that these must be arcade related in some way. As I said, they came from an operator, and they were in between game boards, MVS carts and manuals. There were absolutely no movies, music or non-arcade material in their vicinity.

I am seriously considering to look for a VHD player, if for nothing else then to tame my curiosity.

And who knows.. Maybe this is some unknown little arcade treasure?

Any hints or ideas about the contents will be highly appreciated, to say the least.

Edit: I found a page describing a special MSX2 machine which utilized VHD discs. At least that proves that VHD discs were indeed used for games.

One JAMMA cab less

2008-11-16T10:15:00.008+01:00

I gave one of my unused JAMMA cabs to a friend, as a part of a diabolical plan to recruit a new member to our game room. And it worked!

He's turning it into a MAME cabinet, and I decided to rip out the monitor and power supply before donating it. Sadly the monitor has some burn-ins, so I guess I will have limited use of it.

The cab originally had just one joystick and some awkward buttons, not really suitable for the kind of games he intends to play.

I remembered a control panel I had laying around, and it turned out it was a really good match.

...at least visually. The old control panel is wood, and this newer one is metal. They're obviously from the same manufacturer, but the fastening clamps need to be adjusted. This newer control panel also seemed more loose.

Well, I guess that just means a bit more work on his part, and hopefully that will keep him going for the next couple of months. It also has room for a spinner or trackball.

My intention was to save the monitor for an Out Run coming my way, but I guess I'm not going to use it after seeing the burn-ins. I may have to resort to an old CRT TV, like Bruno does. Those are practically free nowadays anyway.

There and back again - A logo tale

2008-11-15T20:19:00.006+01:00

I've decided to revert to the old logo due to popular opinion. That is, I've modified it a bit to my liking, and I think I can live with it now.

So, to sum it all up, this is how it went:

New background

2008-11-11T23:20:00.003+01:00

A bit too much?

One of my friends left a (very honest) comment, that I should stop drawing and start restoring. I'll get back to that tomorrow, when I'm parting out a JAMMA cabinet and testing power connections on Robotron.

Logo iterations

2008-11-11T21:51:00.005+01:00

I got quite a lot of comments on the new logo recently, and even some here in the blog for a change. Many positives, and also some who preferred the old one.

One of the few comments in the latter category was from Jeff Rothe, whose opinion I respect after having followed his blog (and artwork reproduction) for some time.

I feel I've kind of painted myself into a corner with this one, as I spent more time on the new logo than the old. Also, it's personally quite annoying that the first logo was based on a truetype font (BM biscuit), I usually draw the outlines myself.

The other authority on the subject (my wife) also finds the former logo more fitting to the retro arcade theme of the blog, so I might abandon the new graffiti style logo. It was more cheerful and readable before, I guess. I'll consider it for a couple of days.

I updated the logo one last time.

New logo

2008-11-06T21:51:00.008+01:00

I fired up Photoshop and drew a new header logo, but it seems to be lacking something. Colours, more elements or what.. Perhaps it's just the wrong ratio. It looks a bit boring at the moment. And I messed up some of the paths, so they don't look quite curvy enough.

Maybe I'll rework it, or go back to the old one, but that one is based on a truetype font, and it just doesn't feel right.

Edit: I added some more stuff to make it marginally more interesting.

Now is the time for comments.

Build Book

2008-11-03T19:57:00.006+01:00

I was tidying in the basement some time ago, and found many items from my childhood. I'm one of those nostalgic people who keep everything and always look back on the past. Hey, that's why I'm into pinball and arcade games in general, so it can't be all that bad!

One of the things I found was my Build Book. Looking back, I was more creative and inspired back then than what I am now. Quite influenced by my next door neigbour Thomas, who was my age, I always conjured up inventions and stuff to build. I can't say that the Build Book is very thick, but among the things in there are plans for a pinball machine!

I was maybe 8 at the time, and I obviously didn't know how a pinball machine worked, but it was a dream of mine owning one already at that time. I remember Thomas and I even scavenged the city dump looking for game machines, inspired by a story from his uncle, who had salvaged a fully working pinball. In retrospect I must say we didn't have much of a chance. We rode our bikes there a couple of times, and had no means to haul a 200 pound game machine back home. And his uncle must have gone to the landfill a lot, because he had found a stereo and several other items. It's not like pinball machines popped up every day, even back then.

I only have drawings of a couple of the parts needed for the pinball machine, but I remember I had drawings for slingshots, holes, spinners and drop targets.

The plunger and flippers were both quite simple, with the flipper buttons being linked to poles which physically pushed the flippers upwards. I later added springs to pull them down, but those drawings are nowhere to be found.

Flipper and plunger drawings

I had an electronics set for kids, so I had some very basic knowledge about circuits. The scoring/award system was based on lamps blinking when you hit something. Shown in the drawing below, the ball is supposed to come from the left and light the bulb.

Circuit

We actually started constructing a pinball machine later, using particle board, rubber bands and common building materials such as nails and screws. I recall the drop targets being small blocks of wood fastened to the playfield with hinges. Sadly I don't have any pictures of it. Or maybe that's a good thing, as it was probably far from the marvel I remember.

The pinball machine we built later using LEGO was more functional, and also our cardboard-based flick-a-coin.

Well, that concludes the nostalgia trip... I'm putting the book back and I'll save it for another 25 years.

Magic Castle: Backbox on its way!

2008-10-29T11:51:00.003+01:00

The backbox for Magic Castle is getting closer. I have transferred the payment, and hopefully it will be shipped via DHL later this week.

The seller is a great guy! He has checked/repaired all the boards, and confirms that everything is working. I can't wait to finally test the game!

Here are some of the pictures he sent me.

Working displays

Boards in place

Working neon tube

Help needed - The mystery game

2008-10-25T14:06:00.002+02:00

I played a vertical shooter in Sweden in what might have been 1986, and then later in Italy in 1989. The game must be from 1980-84, and takes place in space. The graphics are very blocky, with maybe 8 colors.

The background is black, but now and then you get a "hyperspace mode" and it flickers in red.

I think you control a white ship, and the enemies were yellow, pink etc. When you hit an enemy I think its sprite was replaced with a score (e.g. 800 points). I believe that yellow gave the most points (1000?).

The enemies come one and one scattered around the screen, not in clusters like Galaga.

I haven't seen the game since 1989, so it's not easy to remember everything, but I have made a mockup.

The best tip so far is Enigma, but I can't find any screenshots of it anywhere, and it seems it's not emulated. Any tips?

The reason for my obsession with this game is that it's the first one I got a hiscore on, and I remember the gameplay as fast and exciting.

Mockup screenshot

Robotron wiring continued

2008-10-24T12:05:00.003+02:00

Once again I got some help from Larry, who has restored many a Robotron cab.

[...] The best way to do this is to leave all the original PS equipment in the cab. Tap the AC for the Switching PS from the AC wiring going to the monitor. This way the Switching PS will go on and off with the cabinet power switch. [...] Leave the power for the coin door lights connected to the original linear power pcb also.

You'll also want to tie the GND pin in the DC section of the Switching PS to one of the existing Ground wires in the cabinet otherwise the controls won't work (need to share a common ground).

I'm hoping I will have time to test it this weekend.

Robotron boards and wiring

2008-10-23T12:05:00.002+02:00

Wednesday is gameroom day, and four of us showed up. I checked the almost finished Turtles overlay, but I focused mainly on the Robotron. I attached the boards to the new mounting plates from Larry, and everything fits perfectly in my cab!

I had more trouble getting the wiring right. All I had to help me was a black and white print of the manual, downloaded from Robotron-2084.co.uk. The big pcb was easy enough, but finding the right connectors for the smaller pcb proved quite a job. I decided to let it rest, and Google for some hires colour pictures later.

That brought me to this great resource. I have colour printed all their pictures, so I think I'm more ready for the wiring at this point.

As you may remember from an earlier post, I bought the wiring harness off eBay some time ago. The power supplies were removed to save shipping costs, but the seller was very helpful and took some pictures of the wiring before cutting.

I'm quite confident that I can connect it all back together again, but I'm a bit confused as to what part the old (original) power supply will play in all of this. My cab has been fitted with a newer style switching psu, so I will try to use that one first.

Progress is slow, but that's just me sticking to the blog theme. Or so I tell myself.

Dragon's Lair cpo and sideart

2008-10-22T08:13:00.004+02:00

Namfreak from the DragonsLairFans forum was selling a Dragon's Lair cpo and a sideart set on eBay, and I was thrilled to see that the cpo evidently wasn't pierced. The problem with owning an European Dragon's Lair cab (besides the obvious lack of spare parts) is that the US control panels were a bit different, so the holes don't line up. I had been looking at QuarterArcade's reproduction, but they sadly don't sell them without the holes pre-cut.

Namfreak mentioned in the auction listing that the cpo "was produced by Arcade Renovations / QuarterArcade". RotheBlog's extensive list of reproduction artwork shows that Arcade Renovations ran a batch of these in 2001, and I was hoping that these were without the holes. I'll be honest and say that I was willing to pay almost anything for the cpo as the auction came to an end. Luckily I ended up with a price quite close to QuarterArcade's.

eBay picture

Alas my hope was shattered after the auction when I got the info from Namfreak. "However, this CPO still has the little circles intact where it has been cut out for the buttons, so keep them safe!". Why didn't I ask him before bidding? I guess this means I have to custom create a US control panel. It doesn't matter much, though. The original control panel is completely ruined and drilled anyway.

The sideart auction mentioned that "I have kept these stored flat all these years and I would ship them similarly", but Namfreak wanted to ship them rolled. I was a bit sceptical, but I figured it would be ok.

eBay picture

I received the sideart some days later, and I was not very happy to see the result. When laying them flat after removing them from the tube, they curled up and the decal lifted from the backing paper. I feared that this would weaken the adhesive, especially as I don't plan to apply them before sometime next year, so I asked the seller for a partial refund. He would be happy to issue a full refund if I returned the sideart, but assured me that everything would be ok once I stick them to the cab.

I choose to trust him, as a fellow Dragon's Lair fan, and I'm crossing my fingers that they will still be good next year.

The sideart decals laying on my table

eBay picture

But where was the cpo? He assured me that they were shipped at the same time, but I hadn't received it even one week after the sidearts arrived.

I got the answer the same day I was going to holiday, when I got a notice from the Norwegian Post saying that I would need to declare a value for the parcel for customs purposes. It turned out Namfreak had forgotten that we agreed to add a value to the parcels and mark them as gifts.

I quickly notified the Post that the cpo was indeed a gift, and just a sticker with low value, hoping for the best.

One week later, it was waiting for me in the mail as I returned home. Namfreak did a great job of packing it, sandwitched between layers of sturdy cardboard. It looks great!

eBay picture

We had some bad luck and misunderstandings with these, but all in all it turned out ok. I am looking forward to restoring the Dragon's Lair, but I need to get it working first.

Jambo Safari in the house!

2008-10-22T07:57:00.006+02:00

A friend got a Jambo Safari for free, and brought it to our gameroom after a four hour haul. For reasons not known to me I ended up as part owner! The game is in a good cosmetic shape, but the steering didn't work when he brought it in.

It turned out the potmeter was stuck, so a couple of minutes of prying and some lube was all it took to get this baby fully working. (Somehow that sentence seems very wrong..)

And what a game it is! It didn't look like much in the beginning, but it's great fun! Think of it as a SEGA Bass Fishing on land, where you drive around Africa trying to catch lions, zebras, elephants and other animals. Much like in the more well-known fishing game, you throw a line to capture the animal, and you must keep the tension to reel it in. But not too much, or the line snaps.

I have been looking around eBay a bit for some other Naomi driving games (like Crazy Taxi) in case we get tired of Jambo Safari, but there's really no danger of that happening anytime soon.

Now if I could just get this song out of my head...

Colour matching Turtles

2008-10-14T10:32:00.001+02:00

I borrowed a Pantone wheel from a friend to match the colours on the TMNT playfield for the overlays I'm making. It wasn't that easy, however. It seemed the Pantone wheel didn't have all the colours I need, or did the playfield fade? I definitely couldn't find a perfect match for every colour, but it's better than nothing. The alternative would be me test printing colour samples, a very tedious job.

What surprised me was that the wheel didn't include CMYK or RGB values, just Pantone colour names. I Googled a bit and found some RGB values. Here's what I have so far.

The top (left) overlay:

Red: Pantone 199C (216,28,63)

Blue: Pantone Process Cyan C (0,159,218)

The bottom (right) overlay:

Yellow: Pantone 109C (249,214,22)

Solid red/orange: Pantone Warm Red (255,64,25)

I am starting to doubt the final results a bit, as I am going from "almost correct" Pantone colours through RGB conversion to CMYK. We'll see how it look when it's all done and printed.

WTB: Parts for Magic Castle

2008-10-11T10:18:00.005+02:00

I recently acquired a Zaccaria Magic Castle from a friend. Half a Magic Castle, that is. It's missing its backbox, playfield glass and legs, and I just noticed it doesn't have the plunger either.

I have contacted a collector who is willing to sell me the backbox, so I'm getting very optimistic about it! Zaccaria's build quality continues to impress me, and my impression of the machines I have seen so far is that the game play is solid too.

The shipping costs are quite high, actually more than I paid for the machine in the first place, but this is one beautiful game I would love to see restored. Cross your fingers for me!

(Not so) shocking news!

2008-09-30T14:43:00.004+02:00

For a long time, I thought my Robotron cab was something special. It didn't look like the US version with all silver sides, and it sure didn't look like the UK Robotrons.

Still, there was this feeling in the back of my head that everything wasn't like it was supposed to. And now I got it confirmed. My cab is indeed a standard US model, and the operator has just sprayed the sides black!

He even took the time to mask out the areas which he wanted to keep (2084), but there are traces of his somewhat sloppy job all over the cabinet.

I started removing some of the black paint on the sides, and found the common silver underneath.

I guess that means I will strip the whole cabinet and repaint it, with stencils and all. But how glossy are the black parts supposed to be? And what is the colour code of the silver?

I guess I'll get to that later. First of all, I want to get this baby up and running!

Turtles playfield overlay

2008-09-29T09:16:00.000+02:00

My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball has a couple of areas with lots of wear. I'm trying to make some overlays to cover them.

Stripping the playfield was more of a hazzle than I had thought. Quite frankly, I didn't like the Data East playfield assembly and fittings. I'm used to Bally/Williams games with at least some kind of bar to keep the playfield up, but it seems I had to hold this one myself while loosening the parts.

I used a cheap old Mustek flat bed scanner, but it seems it's not very happy with laying upside down. It all became very blurry. I don't know if it's because the scanning mechanism can't cope with being run upside down, or if it's the extra distance from the glass plate to the object being scanned.

Anyway, I was able to more or less recreate one of the worn areas in Illustrator.

I didn't care much about getting the colours right just yet, but I'm hoping someone can lend me a Pantone wheel later. However, I wasn't sure about the size of the thing. I believe I scanned it at 300 dpi, but I really can't know for sure. The Mustek scanning application leaves a lot to be desired. It even crashes when trying to aquire from Photoshop..

I tried scaling the vectorized artwork down to 1/3, but that was just a tad too small. Oh well, I will continue resizing and test printing until I get it all right, and then I'll print the overlays for real.

Dragon's Lair signed poster

2008-09-28T10:49:00.004+02:00

The signed Dragon's Lair poster I ordered has arrived! It will look great next to my DL cab (which is still undergoing work to become playable).

I'll be selling the unsigned poster I already had, especially now that my wife accidentially discovered the receipt for the signed one. It wasn't cheap, I'll admit that much.

Dirk is even featured on the packing tube!

Certificate of authenticity

And there it is, in all its glory. It will look even better framed!

Robotron parts have arrived!

2008-09-27T16:24:00.011+02:00

Things were starting to look sad for my Robotron. It's not easy finding classic dedicated cabs in Norway, so I just had to buy it when I found it three years ago. However, it was really beaten up! The butchered control panel has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, and all the boards and wiring are long gone. It had been fitted with a bootleg Street Fighter 2 and Jammatized.

The Robotron's condition hasn't changed much since then. I got a complete board set with wiring harness last year, but it turned out the mounting plates were wrong. The ones I got were evidently made for the smaller UK model, not the US one that I got.

I started checking resellers for parts, but I soon found out that buying from separate dealers would become very expensive. Especially the shipping, and some wouldn't even ship outside the States. Having just bought a US wiring harness off eBay for more money than many would spend on an entire cab, I started whining about it on the Klov forums.

Larry to the rescue! He volunteered to collect all the parts I needed, pack them up and ship them to me. That way, I not only saved a fortune on shipping, but I could even order things not available to international customers. To top it all off, Larry had a control panel, NOS buttons and US mounting plates for sale at a very fair price. When this Robotron restoration is finally over, I owe a lot to him. So thank you again Larry! The world needs more people like you.

The parts arrived last week, and it was like my birthday and Christmas combined!

A much better control panel from Larry

Two new joysticks (I just need to get the longer shafts)

NOS buttons

Larry even threw in a very nice keychain!

Great CPO

New plexiglass bezel

One of two mounting plates - they fit my cab perfectly!

I guess I don't have an excuse anymore. I really want to see the Robotron up and playing!

slowcade

MAX TV arcade identity spots

Fixing TAF

Cabinet / leg protectors

Back again!

Personal gameroom - part 7

Personal gameroom - part 6

Medieval Madness

Personal gameroom - part 5

Personal gameroom - part 4

Gilligan's Island GC!

Magic Castle #2

VHD discs revisited

Personal gameroom - part 3

Bride of Pinbot DMD? Wow!

Personal gameroom - part 2

Personal gameroom - part 1

Out of order

Hong Kong arcades

Moving out

What a sad story

Casters

A little roadtrip - part 2

A little roadtrip

T2 left flipper fixed

Must be Italian

Donkey Kong cocktail parts

LED displays for Elvira

Dragon's Lair laser disc players

Donkey Kong cocktail

Beating the bride

..and the plunger is back on

New hiscore!

Broken post

Polishing the plunger

Dead Street Fighter 2

Pinball Summer

Terminator 2 hiscore

Zaccaria gifts

T2: Success!

Replacing robotron sockets

Terminator 2 repair

Transporting Whirlwind

The Machine: Bride of Pinbot

New highscore!

Colour changes

Playing!

LB cab issues

Magic Castle Electrical Diagram

Neo Geo bonanza!

Philips 22VP932

Playing Robotron

Tidying up the wires

Live Chat Event: Tim Skelly

New Robotron sticks

Robotron lives!

More Robotron problems

Robotron garbage

Learn I must, but teach me who will?

Robotron RAM update

Magic Castle is alive!

Robotron RAM error

VHD video discs mystery

One JAMMA cab less

There and back again - A logo tale

New background

Logo iterations

New logo

Build Book

Magic Castle: Backbox on its way!

Help needed - The mystery game

Robotron wiring continued

Robotron boards and wiring

Dragon's Lair cpo and sideart

Jambo Safari in the house!

Colour matching Turtles

WTB: Parts for Magic Castle

(Not so) shocking news!

Turtles playfield overlay

Dragon's Lair signed poster