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Hey everyone, I picked what I believe to be a fairly rare, low serial number Blue Donkey Kong TKG3 with what appears to be original copywrite-less art on the Marquee, Bezel, CPO and what's remaining of the side art! I purchased it knowing it would need some TLC but so far I'm super psyched with this find!!

Let's start with the positives: I think the cab is in pretty great shape, everything appears to be original aside from the buttons/joystick on the control panel, and a small hole drilled in the coin door 😤

The game boots and plays properly, buttons work and all the sounds seem to be proper / accounted for (Donkey Kong jumping, thumping, Mario running, jumping & so on). The counter shows less than 46,000 plays.

When I first brought it home there was a constant loud repetitive sound I believe the "running" sound was stuck on / glitching. It was constant, from power on until powered down. However adjusting the main audio pot down decreased it, so much so I was able to make it disappear completely yet still having all the normal sounds / sound effects still be present and at a good volume level for gameplay . When I tried to raise it back up to check if it was still there the first few times it was, but then most recently it seems to have completely gone away altogether, even with that volume knob cranked up...🤷‍♂️

Now my main, and really only problem is with the picture being produced.. When I first got it, part of the left side of the screen was cut off (vertical collapse). Donkey Kong was a giant red blob, and aside from the girders and ladders you'd never be able to tell what anything was supposed to be unless you were already familiar with the game. Mario was a blue blob,
the barrels, Kong, and really everything aside from the different numbers on the screen, the ladders and girders were all just blobs.. it played, but everything looked horrible!

After tweaking the different picture size, positioning and color settings the detail and overall picture quality improved drastically! The game is now at least fun to play while I try and figure out how to get it back to looking 100% !!

I'm going to attach some photos of the cab, as well as some photos of the screen. Mario's head, the barrels and donkey Kong still have big squares around them and I'm wondering if this is a common problem that one of the knowledgeable vets may be able to save me hours diagnosing?? Do the colors on the monitor just need further tweaking and those boxes will go away? Will my cap kits on order likely fix this issue? Am I in over my head and should just skip to sending out the boards to Mike's Arcade or Starbase Alpha Arcade??

I'd hate to not be able to play this for weeks / months if it's something I can eventually figure out and fix myself (with your guys/gals help of course).. 👀

I've already ordered: cap kits for the monitor and pcb from Arcade Parts and Repair. True flat 15mm t moulding from Chompin Quarters. Phoenix Arcade copywrite-less side art for the side that's missing ( going to leave what's left of the original on the one side). Proper Nintendo repro buttons, black joystick ball, and a new coin stop for the broken one on the coin door from Mikes Arcade.

Between wealth of knowledge on here, as well as the various YouTube tutorials I'm confident I'll be able to get those cap kits (and everything else) installed with minimal anguish.. 🤞!!
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