Arcade Projects
Jr. Pac-man’s in the basement ‘gameroom’
After we got back tonight, Sarah and I moved the Jr. Pac-man into the basement. Before we left on Friday the monitor connector had arrived, so the only thing left to do is put in the monitor in the cabinet.
It was really hot this weekend, after looking at the Jr. Pac cabinet closer I felt like it had warped a little bit. I had to put that out of my mind, there was nothing I could do about the cabinet now, just that much more important to get Jr. Pac inside tonight.
Jr. Pac-man was the hardest game we have moved so far. The unique Bally cabinet was just a touch wider than the base of the steps where the turn is always hard, so it took some fancy maneuvering to keep the game and walls safe and get it to the back room.
But, looks cool either way. Pretty basic and less than special when it comes to some of the gamerooms I have seen, including one this weekend, but that is going to have to do for now.
This is also the first photo with the new Ikea stools. Never liked round stools much, and after visiting Chris Moore’s gameroom this weekend, I saw a couple of different stools he had that he got from Ikea. Sarah loves the store, I had never been, so it just made sense to go and I am really happy about the choice and that I waited.
Now all I need is a real Mr. Do, a Galaga cocktail out in the main room somewhere, and, well, I’ll still sit on the pinball. I don’t even know how that would work.
Wizard of Wor problem was a sync issue
I couldn’t believe it a little bit myself, for how bad those lines were, but that is exactly what it was. Once I started messing around with both vertical and horizontal sync, I got the picture back square and almost stationary. Except, no matter how fine of an adjustment I make, the screen still rolls. The lines are gone, so Mark’s fix worked just fine, but I can’t fix the vertical sync.
I made sure the card was seated, and adjusted everything but it still slowly rolls. I just replace the caps in that, what, a month ago, so those shouldn’t be an issue. I suppose the connection could be bad. Not sure what to do, need to have time to research a solution, but I suppose I could finalize one of my other two almost working monitors and swap them in. But then, I would still have this one that I would have to fix at some point….
Or I could just sell it. It mostly works and would just need a touch of tlc. I don’t know how desirable a 19K4600 Wells Gardner monitor is…
Missing Monitor hookup for Jr. Pac-man
Sent payment for the Jr. Pac yesterday, so I felt comfortable asking Rick how to hook up the monitor. After a series of emails, it came out that the monitor hooks into the top of the PCB on the right side. There is another connection on the left side as well that attachs right into the harness. There was no connector on the right side, and I looked inside the game in case it came loose, wasn’t there either. So it sounds like he is going to send it to me in the mail today so I have it by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I was really hoping to play it sometime before Friday for sure.
Plus, I had forgotten about the monitor brackets. He had mentioned that original Jr. Pac owner had taken them out with the monitor before Rick bought it. The Pac-man ones I have won’t work, just a little too short. I am going to try to go to Home Depot this week and try to find something that will match, I have read in the forums that people have found things. I also need some tinted plexi, but I am less worried about that right now…
Other info about the game…The swelling that I mistook for water damage towards the back of the cab can just be caused from heat he said. He said he sealed it off, hopefully preventing any more swelling. That makes me glad it is sitting in the garage now that it is a little cooler out. I also identified the serial no. #333, it’s stamped on the back of the cab above the back door. The Mappy serial is stamped there too. The Serial is in the cab still too on a piece of paper, A29-00333, and you can see where the old Mappy tag was on the harness.
Rick also said that the tracks that are in the bottom where the new switcher supply is are for the old linear power supply board that almost always fails in these games.
Pac-man back in downstairs living room
After I sold the R-Type today, I moved the historic Pac-man cabinet back into the main living room. I hope that in the next month I can work on it a little bit, installing the computer I have and finalizing the final details of my mame machine. It has been so long, what a nightmare. It would be nice to have it done by November, but who knows what the next few months hold.
R-Type is sold and gone
Today at lunch I went home to meet the ebay winner from last week. The auction ended on Thursday, about 18 people were watching it, but it didn’t turn into a bidding war, I had only two bids.
But the guy out of Chicago who won it really wanted it for awhile, so I was just glad someone won it who really loves the game. I love it too, but I don’t need a dedicated cabinet for it, at least not now. My name is signed on the inside in permanent marker, so someday if I decide I want it back when I have my mansion, I can hunt it down. But I imagine even then I won’t be able to beat it:)
Here are some photos of it getting loaded up.
Jr. Pac-man has arrived
It finally came on Thursday, as smoothly as planned. The truck came, they dropped off the game wrapped up tightly and well protected, they took some photos of my “gameroom” which was a small disarrayed mess, and they headed out. They didn’t want a drink, food or anything.
I will try to post some photos of it, it’s still sitting in the garage as I wait to have a little more space hopefully after Tuesday. I haven’t figured out how to hook up the monitor just yet either, but I am sure that won’t be too hard.
Installed a switcher in the Pengo
That was over a week ago already, last weekend to be exact. I was talking with Richard, and looking inside the cabinet, and then I figured out how the switcher had to be wired. I had an extra two pronged plug that was some sort of AC power source. All I needed to do was snip that connector, tie that positive and negative into the switcher position and negative, and I knew the other voltages that I needed to supply for the PCB, so I went ahead and did it.
I was nervous about clipping connectors, but I kept telling myself that I could always put it back if I needed. I would have done this earlier, but I had it in my mind that the power was coming out from the linear power supply and going to the isolation transformer. But I wasn’t looking at the wiring. The power comes in from one main source and through the isolation transformer. the transformer then powers the monitor and the linear power supply. The linear power supply takes the AC voltages and changes them into DC voltages so the board and sound can use them.
Here are the photos of what I did. I even made a little harness out of different molex connectors for the power supply connection.
I double checked my pinouts before plugging everything in. At first, the game came up, but it did it’s typical thing. I put in a ton of credits, it started resetting, and then when I pressed player 1, I got one character on screen and everything froze. I heard some clicking noises in the coin box area, and that was it.
On Sunday, I stopped and got some clips to put on my wire connections just to make sure that I had good connections. I emailed Richard about what I did, everything sounded right to him, and I explained it with intricate little questions down to if it matter how many wires you had tied to one 5v connection head.
Well, the lesson I learned, you always have to test voltages coming from the power supply again. Come to find out, I was supplying around 5.83 V instead of 5V, so I probably just toasted my board. I didn’t have it on for long, but I know it doesn’t take much. But, the funny thing is, I thought with a switcher I would be able to get very exact voltages. But you only have one knob to adjust, and I am only able to get the same voltages to the Pengo PCB as I was with the linear power supply. I have to do about 5.1 V and that gives me about 11.9 V for the sound.
I don’t know. I am extremely frustrated, don’t know if my board works anymore, and out of options again.
