Castlevania Vs. Pac Man Monitor

rainman154

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Hey all,
So I am just starting into collecting Arcade machines. I have a Nintendo Vs. Castlevania system. From what I can tell this was originally an old Pac Man system that was converted into a Vs. system.
I would love to replace the monitor, or at least do a cap kit on it. It takes a LONG time to warm up and flickers quite often. The green and blue are also starting to blend together.
The biggest issue is that there is a VERY distinct Pac Man "maze" burn in the monitor.

I can not figure out what type of monitor this is?? Is it a 19 inch?? I have looked in the machine but see nothing to tell me. It must have originally been vertical and now is horizontal for the side scrolling.
Any help would be great.
Cap Kit I need??
New Monitor??

Thanks!
 
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Hope these help! I can take more if there is another angle you want.
 

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So when you say a 4600 does that mean it is a WG (wells gardner)?

Do you think a Cap Kit would be best to try, or should I look on ebay for a new monitor.
Are they pretty hard to install? I know about discharging it, but thats about all.
 
Well,the cap kit will do nothing for the burn-in,so if you don't want any burn-in on your monitor,then you'll have to get a new one.If it doesn't bother you,then cap it.And I'm guessing the flickering may be a loose connection somewhere.The color problem can probably be easily solved as well by adjustments on the chassis.

And yes,it's a Wells-Gardner K4600 series monitor. Here is a link to the WG 4600 series manual.It helped me with my WG K4655 monitor.Hopefully this will help you diagnose and fix your monitor problems.

http://technical-department.servegame.com/monitor_schematic_diagrams/wells-gardner/WG-4600.pdf
 
Do a cap kit - that'll fix most of your smearing problems. Most 4600 cap kits come with a replacement black level pot, that's a VERY common problem and causes a lot of video issues and should not be left out. Also, while you have the monitor apart, you need to reflow all of the solder joints on the header pins on the chassis, as well as on the connectors on the cards. This is a major cause of flickering and flakeyness on these monitors. Go over the whole chassis and carefully inspect for cold solder joints. The 4600 is known for them.

As for the picture tube... well it's burned, and nothing will fix it. But, if you're willing to do some work, you can replace the picture tube with one from an old television set. Just find a 19" set with a tube with the same neck pinout. Keep the yoke with the chassis, and the convergence rings with the tube.

Note that all this is a lot of work, and should not be attempted if you don't know how to solder, or don't understand what's going on. Do some reading before sticking your fingers into a monitor chassis...

Any standard 19" arcade monitor will work as a direct replacement for what you have, if you want to go that route.

-Ian
 
Thanks all. Wow you guys are a lot of help.

Yeah, I don't really know enough to pull apart an old 19" TV and do all that work.

So any 19" new monitor from say Ebay will work just fine? I saw one brand new for $289, but it was not a WG, it was a Cherry something??
 
$289 is pretty expensive. You should be able to get a good used monitor for less than that. I'm not familiar with Cherry, but I know that there are alot of cheapie off-brand monitors out there, most of which should work OK for you. Just remember you need a 19" standard resolution arcade monitor.

I would suggest putting a WTB in the trading section here - I'm sure someone has a good working monitor they can sell you. And don't throw out your existing monitor - there are plenty of people like me that repair them.

-Ian
 
Surprised no one has mentioned it yet (or if they did, I missed it in my skimming), but another thing to be aware of is that the image is currently being inverted to run on that monitor. Vs. Castlevania is a Nintendo game, and as such is outputting inverted video and unamplified sound. The WG K4600 will not show proper colors if it receives an inverted signal, and you won't hear sound if it's not amplified.

Now, original Nintendo monitors (such as the Sanyo 20EZ) worked well with the inverted signal, and had a sound amplifier board built into the monitor setup. In order to use a different type of monitor with this board, you need something that will invert the video and amplify the sound.

It looks like you have an inverter/amplifier there on the left, possibly the Mike's Arcade version. If so, then that's good - provided it's not part of the problem (due to age or whatever). You can replace the K4600 (or rebuild it if you don't mind the burn-in) with any standard-resolution monitor (except the Sanyo or Sharp Nintendo monitors). If you want to put a Sanyo or Sharp in, then you would just remove the inverter/amplifier from the circuit, and you'll have to do some wiring adaption probably because the Nintendo monitors had different video cables.

If you put in a new (or different) regular monitor that is known to be good and still have an issue, then you may need to look at the inverter. I'm not sure how the Mike's Arcade is for reliability, but I know the original Nintendo inverter boards can cause problems with colors sometimes...
 
Man I am impressed. I guess I know where to look for all my Arcade info.

Ok, so let's figure that I want to get a new monitor because I really want the burn to be gone. Put up a post in the WTB section.

Now, should I be only looking for a 19" WG k4600? Or it sounds like any monitor will work (except Sanyo and the other) because of the inverter thing that I might have.

In all, how much of an "expert" do I need to be to swap out these monitors. I know about discharging them first.
 
Well, any COMPLETE monitor (chassis, tube, yoke, frame) will be fairly simple to swap in. You'll have to remove the current monitor setup (remove the four bolts holding the mounting rails to the side rails - 2 on the front and 2 on the back) by sliding it out the back (disconnect the wires first). Then you'll have to move those mounting rails over to the new monitor frame. If your cab has the brackets around the tube for the plastic bezel and tinted plexi, then you'll have to transfer that, too.

After that, you may need to change the power connector to get it to match what your cab has. Some monitors have different video connectors (not many), so that might be an issue also...
 
Yes - as mod said, any complete monitor will be a simple drop-in replacement. Most common monitors have the same exact video connector - Electrohome G07, WG4600, WG4900, WGK7000, etc. Some of the newer monitors, especially the korean ones might have a slightly different video connector. The signals are the same, just the connector is somewhat different. Not at all hard to change though. Power connectors sometimes vary - but again, easy to swap.

For a direct drop-in, no problems monitor, I'd look for one of the real common ones, like the G07, 4600, 4900, or K7000. All great monitors, which definitely use the same video connector, and which SHOULD use the same power plug. I say should because sometimes you see them where the original plug was changed.

Also, just a word of warning - NEVER plug an arcade monitor directly into the wall. They require an isolation transformer to operate. Only power the arcade monitor from it's power connector in the game, as it's supplied by the isolation transformer in the bottom of the cabinet.

-Ian
 
Great advice Ian.
I found a guy in WI who has some 19" monitors for sale for around 45 bucks. I might make a 2 hour drive out there to see if one is worth getting. Hopefully I can get a nice monitor for my game and get rid of those Pac Man burns.
 
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