Frogger resto project

[jimbodeanny]

It's been a while since I've had a new project (mostly because I had no more space at my apartment), but I moved into a house so it's exciting to finally start something new! I picked up this sad excuse for a Frogger that I'm planning on fully restoring.

Most of the artwork (with the exception of the marquee) is getting replaced. I'd like to punch the morons that decided to paint the sides black.

Aside from all of the cosmetic restoration, the two areas I'm in the most ponderment is the monitor and coin door.

The coin door is unlike most I've seen in terms of the coin mechs and layout and I'm not sure what to think of it. It has these really long coin mechs with just two slots in the door. I'm not sure what to make of it. For the coin return, again there are just two slots, one of the "catchers" appears to have broken off. I'm debating about what I should do. Keep it the way it is and hunt down a couple new coin return "catchers" or replace the mechs with some different ones or just replace the entire door all together.

The monitor is quite an issue all by itself. It's a Wells K4500 and has been nothing but a pain in the ass. It works, but it's way out of whack. First off, the picture size if way off and none of the controls can get it close to fitting the screen size entirely. Before I had tampered with the settings, my thoughts were to start out by just doing a cap kit and then make adjustments, but after a couple HOURS of trying to adjust this thing, I feel like that's not going to solve everything. The biggest problem is not the size and shape of the picture, it's the colors. All of the colors seem to be shifted one way or another. It's like looking at an old 3D movie without the glasses. The greens, reds, and blues are all offset and no matter how much adjusting I did on the yoke/tube controls, I couldn't get them perfectly lined up, just a little closer. Last, the tube has some noticeable burn in, that normally wouldn't bother me, except that it's somewhat "ghosted" and looks like it formed over time as the picture deformed, so there are a few instances of burn in on the tube. At this point, I'm kind of up in the air on this and I haven't decided if I'm going to replace the entire monitor/chassis, or recap the chassis and try to replace the tube, or what. I'm leaning towards replacing the entire monitor and just hanging on to the chassis, but I'm still undecided. I don't want to break the bank on a monitor replacement.

Any suggestions?


Anyhow here are some pics.

 

[jimbodeanny]

More pics...

 

[gutsman004]

Ah,another fellow Frogger restorer! Funny about the "punch the guys who painted it black" comment.I've sanded down the faux woodgrain sides and am going to paint mine black.Of course,I plan on finding some new woodgrain siding to put on it as what's on there is kinda beat up.Your monitor may be jacked up,but at least yours works.Mine collapsed,not to mention there's lots of bad burn in.Not sure what I'm going to do.Thinking about getting a 19" computer monitor and adapting it if I can't get my hands on a decent WG monitor.And that coin door is all kinds of weird.Totally different from the one I have.

 

[SaminVA]

Wile your cabinet looks like a Frogger cabinet and if you look in the manual their were many all basically the same but with slight differences. Looking at your pictures I don't believe your monitor is original to the cabinet nor is the wood and metal brackets used to mount the monitor. In fact nothing inside the cabinet looks like it's original or in it's original position. Well the Frogger board is provably original but they made different versions of it too. The coin door also is not original. Maybe the frame is but not the door. The door looks like the original door on my Vectorbeam Space War. Here's a few pictures of my Frogger and Space War coin door.
Good luck on the restoration, Frogger is a great classic worth saving.
Just wanted to add if you look at the inside of my Frogger it still has the original power supply but someone added the switcher power supply. If it's not to badly hacked up I plain to repair it and remove the switcher.

 

[jimbodeanny]

Interesting. Yeah, that door on your Space Wars looks exactly like the one on this cabinet. Not sure what to do with it yet. I'm probably going to take the monitor out sometime this week. More than likely it's going to get replaced, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one. I'm sure it could use a cap kit, but I really don't know how much that's going to help everything. The burn-in bothers me so that's one of the deciding factors.



EDIT: I did notice that on the title screen, the frogs that crawl up spell "Frog" not "Frogger" The game appears to be the exact same other than that. Any insight on this?

 

[gutsman004]

I'd toss the monitor.My burn in is fairly bad,and instead of repairing it I'm just going to replace it.

 

[jimbodeanny]

Looks like I've found the answer to my question regarding the version of Frogger I have

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7855

I also noticed that the rom chips all said "frog" on them, so I'm wondering if it's just a matter of getting a hold of the original chips and seating them into the board?

 

[SaminVA]

One thing you need to keep in mind if you replace your monitor. Frogger uses a Vertical mount monitor. If you buy a Horizontal mount monitor it will not fit. You might get it to bolt in but it will stick out the back and you cant put the back door on. You may get a universal mount monitor to work but just keep in mind and make sure before you put a lot of money in a new monitor you may not be able to use to make sure it will work. The 2 pictures below will give you an idea what I am talking about. Anyone else that's run into this before chime in please.
The first picture is a WG K-4600 vertical mount that came in my Frogger. The second picture is a WG K-4600 Horizontal mount like is used in a Pac-man. Now I know some one will say Pacman is a vertical game too, yes but the monitor is mounted sideways and lays flatter so it dose not stick out the back of the cabinet. I don't have a picture of my Pac cabinet with the monitor installed. All the parts are the same and can be swapped between frames but you need the correct frame for your game.
I just see in your last post you have a Bootleg Frog. I don't know if that came as a dedicated game or only as a conversion kit. Maybe someone else knows for sure.

 

[Riptor]

I have some NOS coin mech assemblys for it.

 

[roburt]

I just got a frogger project too! Cab is cracked at the bottom edges. Doesn't look like water damage, just from being dragged around over the years. The inside of yours looks nothing like mine. My monitor worked (vertical lines & off colors) when I got it. I had it on for about 5 minutes & then nothing. Not even neck glow. I havn't messed with it yet. Too many household projects. I'll see if I can shoot you some pics. Sometimes references help. Good luck!

 

[roburt]

Here's my Frogger. Everything is dated 1981 in it including the manual I found inside. It is very dirty! It is complete, but no side art.

 

[gutsman004]

Your Frogger is in a hell of a lot better shape than mine was.

 

[jimbodeanny]

I noticed that the monitor in my Frogger is mounted pretty ghetto-fabulously. Since it's a K4500 and not an original monitor (from what I've been told), it actually doesn't even have a frame that I can see attached. In fact, there's not even the second piece of wood in there that's used to mount the bottom part of the frame/chassis to. It's mounted to the wood frame by the four little brackets/screws at each corner of the tube. As you can see in the photos I attached earlier, the chassis is mounted in a metal frame that's attached to a metal pedestal/plate that's screwed down to the bottom of the cabinet. The back door actually has a small cutout with another small piece of wood over it to cover it up and allow the monitor to fit inside (since it must stick out just a hair.)

I suppose I could use the frame the chassis is mounted to and just mount the replacement monitor the same way this one is. Not entirely sure about that yet. The monitor replacement is probably going to be the last part of the restoration I do.

EDIT: I'm pulling the monitor out of the cabinet tonight. As animal from Muppet Babies says, it's time to "GOOO BYE BYE!" I'm probably going to toss this beater out. If anyone wants it, you're certainly welcome to make me a super low offer. The tube has some burn-in and it needs a cap kit and some serious adjusting. It's a pain in the ass! But it works. I'm not going to ship this thing so you'll have to pick it up. Otherwise it's getting thrown.