anyone with a Dino Bonk/Wacky Gator?

mecha

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
24,331
Reaction score
7,036
Location
MKE, Wisconsin
I'm gonna give Namco and Happ a call today, but was wondering if anyone here has ever worked on a Dino Bonk before. I knew it was going to be something of a maintenance nightmare, but this is ridiculous lol

the optic boards that go in the Dinos, the one that's acting up (out of 5) is a totally different board from the others, but I tried to match up the locations the wires are supposed to go in relation to the similar spots of the other boards. it keeps registering as a "hit" even though the bar isn't passing through the optics. the wires broke off the solder pads, I had to redo them.

whoever did the wiring work in this machine was a total arsehole, with my luck they just have the wires hooked to the wrong places.

the second part of my inquiry is how similar is Dino Bonk to the earlier Wacky Gator? do they share the same parts? (the optics, the plastic "tongues"?)

the top mouth part that you hit rubs on the plastic tongue part on one of the Dinos.... I hate this shit. lol

I hope Namco still carries parts. anyone have any experiences to share with me about them?
 
I have a wacky gator at my arcade. No major problems so far. Luckily I have a box of extra gator parts if something were to happen.

As far as dealing with namco... You think you're having fun now, when you make thta call to them, make sure you have your vicadin, remy Martin, and ass lube handy. Prepare to pay out the nose for parts.
 
Dude, I restored a Wacky Gator.

There's some guys on ebay that sell new parts. You can get sensors there.
There's another guy that actually sells new Wacky Gator parts as he bought the rights to Data East's back catalog.

PM me for details.
 
I went through the same thing, the sensor boards look the same (other than the color) but they don't seem to interchange. All of the mechanical parts seem to interchange without any problems.

Getting any information on the Dino Bonks is tough.
 
yeah, it's a Dino Bonk, but I was looking through the trusty Happ catalog and they have gobs of Wacky Gator parts. if the sensor boards aren't interchangeable though, then I guess I have to go the Namco route.

I guess there's even a possibility that the assholes that worked on the game before me put a Wacky Gator sensor on this one I'm having trouble with. lol

I tried to match the wires to what appeared to be the same places. I put orange on the +5, brown on the ground (I think), and the pink went to something labeled "S".

I soldered them back in the same place I had them on the first try, cause it's still registering immediately when the Dino is activated to come out.

it's like the optic is stuck in a Normally Closed state.
 
I have a spare sensor or two out of a WG.
You can borrow it to test with. I believe that it should work fine.

I was able to find top and bottom shells for my restore. I ended up respraying the tongues abut they are chipping now.
The lower jaws are original and had some cracks but it wasn't too bad. The big difference was having new shells.

WG was distributed by Data East but the design came from Namco. It's funny cause I've seen more WG than DB machines out in the wild.
attachment.php


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • wacky gator.jpg
    wacky gator.jpg
    57.7 KB · Views: 100
  • wacky gator_apart.jpg
    wacky gator_apart.jpg
    74.4 KB · Views: 101
Last edited:
holy shit, the gators are the same as the dinos. lol

so I guess they're kinda interchangeable then. I need to get the game up again by friday, I really need like an entire gator assembly. I can just swap the dino plastics onto it, but I have a poorly-made metal assembly (where the tongue part screws in, it doesn't go back far enough and the top half of the mouth rubs against it)

do you have pictures of the wires soldered to one of the optic boards by chance?

EDIT: wow, I never saw a Wacky Gator, or at least paid attention to detail... it's IDENTICAL to Dino Bonk, they're just green instead of orange. lol
 
I have a couple of spare harness caue I bought like 2 spare gators from someone off of ebay to restore my WG. I bought it for $200 and sunk another $200+ parts into it. I got all of the new shells for free. I have a couple of new backs still actually.

I'll try to remember to take a picture tonight. I'm a bit sick so I don't know if I'll really venture into the cold garage much tonight.

Here's a better shot of the heads I had to compare the faded color with that of the new head.
attachment.php


Actually I don't think that the heads are the same.
I found these shots online:

attachment.php

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • wacky gator_compare.jpg
    wacky gator_compare.jpg
    64.9 KB · Views: 97
  • wacky gator parts.jpg
    wacky gator parts.jpg
    21 KB · Views: 93
  • dinobonk.jpg
    dinobonk.jpg
    20.8 KB · Views: 95
Last edited:
ah, they're pretty similar then. lol

either way I guess I need a new tongue (I took too much off with the dremel sanding block!) and some kind of friggin resolution for this optic.

I may just put it back together as-is for now. all it really does is just register a hit immediately on the #4 dino, so it doesn't come out all the way.

I'm sure the genius kids will still try to beat the fuck out of it and start killing wood.
 
don't know if this helps.

attachment.php


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0208.jpg
    IMG_0208.jpg
    73.4 KB · Views: 92
  • IMG_0209.jpg
    IMG_0209.jpg
    94.1 KB · Views: 88
I'll compare it tomorrow or something, depends on if I'm heading out that way.

any way you can get a picture of the back side of yours too?

my optics are actually on the opposite end of the board it seems. like on all of them.
 
back side

sorry for the phone camera pic. I brought down the DSLR but left out the SD Card.

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20110113_002520.jpg
    IMG_20110113_002520.jpg
    92.1 KB · Views: 64
yeah I think even that one's a little different than what I've got.

it uses the same wire colors though... and I suppose it performs the same function, I can't see why it wouldn't work, honestly. lol

we'll see.
 
I have some NOS WG parts and other NOS Data East/Namco parts. If you get me part numbers I can check my stock. As you know, Namco parts are not cheap but I will be cheaper than if you bought direct (not sure if Namco sells direct to consumer).
 
yeah, I put it back together the way it was, I'll try and get #'s tomorrow or monday. thanks

do you have any of the plastic parts too, like the tongues? I never got through to my sales rep at Happ to ask, the gator and dino ones look identical.
 
you can replace the opto board with a microswitch. The one we have in our arcade was rigged to use a microswitch instead of the opto. I can get you pics if you want to go this route. Its actually very reliable.
 
if you know which wires to short then why not use a leaf switch instead.
 
Back
Top Bottom