Got a DK cabinet...What next?

IllState

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IllState's Donkey Kong Restore Project

I thought re titling this thread and editing the first post was better than starting a whole new thread about it.

I got a DK cabinet, completely gutted a few weeks ago. At first my intentions were to MAME it because it was the first cab I had come across in years of wanting one, but after speaking to a few folks on here I have decided to restore it back to a DK (possibly a 60 in 1 instead).

When I got the cabinet it was a fugly mess. The whole thing had been spray painted black very sloppy. The CP was covered in ugly marble blue shelf paper and had been modified for 2 joysticks and 2 buttons per side. There was a gouge in the top left corner, and the laminate was peeling slightly. The wiring was switched to JAMMA and there was a mystery board in it (Made by Konami, but since there is no monitor or PSU, I can't really tell what it is.)

Looks like I got my work cut out for me. Here are some pics taken the day I got it:

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Do not destroy a DK! 750$? Are you looking at solid gold parts?


Basically youre looking at :

100$ PCB
30$ Harness
30$ Bezel
20$ Marquee
 
I've been wanting an arcade cabinet for years now, but never knew the right people to get a hold of one I could make into a project. Then I met a friend of a friend who had a DK he had restored and had a spare DK cab he had used for parts. Long story short I talked him out of it and its now in my basement. My original plan was to figure out a way to extend the control panel on it and turn i into a MAME cab, but I was told by the BYOAC forums that this is a terrible thing to do. (I was never that into DK myself) However the cab is completely gutted and parts for a restore com up to $750 which is almost 400 more than a MAME cab conversion would cost and I'm on kind of a budget. Anyone have any Ideas, either on making a bigger CP or what to do with the cab?

You can always throw a multi 60 in 1 board in it: wiring, the the board and the power supply should cost you around 160$ if you shop around and you can get a free 21 computer monitor off craiglist and a cheap nintendo vs control panel(i have one im willing to sell) and some button and joystick for around 30$ and other than cosmetics you would be set, that is if you can wire simple jamma and do simple sanding and painting a cab
 
Do not destroy a DK! 750$? Are you looking at solid gold parts?


Basically youre looking at :

100$ PCB
30$ Harness
30$ Bezel
20$ Marquee

The cab is completely empty I need more than art and a PCB There are pics of the cab here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=105700.0

Parts needed list is as follows:

Cabinet hardware (from Mikesarcade.com)

Bezel Art retainer - 17.00
Nintendo Style Joystick - 24.00
Joystick adapter (says its needed because its not an exact original nintendo joystick) - 12.00
DK Board - 140
Monitor Brackets - 10.75
Lower monitor support - 15.00
Upper monitor support - 15.50
Color invertor and sound amp board - 25.00
Button holders - 12.00
Buttons - 10
T-molding - 11
Power supply - 32
6 inch speaker - 14
Hardware total = $338.25 + shipping

Artwork (http://www.gameongrafix.com)

Marquee - 50
Sideart - 62.99
CPO - 32.99
Bezel - 39.95

Artwork total = 185.93

19 inch monitor - between $199 and $299

Total restore cost = $723.18 - $824.18 plus paint and shipping

The cab has joysticks and buttons but they are 8 way joysticks and Happ buttons so they would be unusable in a restore

MAME cabinet option (Cab will be painted and dings filled in but artwork to be added later)

Bezel Art retainer - 17.00
Monitor Brackets - 10.75
Lower monitor support - 15.00
Upper monitor support - 15.50
Monitor - 199-300
T-Molding - 11

Total = $268.25 - $369.25

Thats almost $450 less than a restore so unless someone knows where I can get parts cheaper the MAME cab option is still a better sounding to me.
 
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You can always throw a multi 60 in 1 board in it: wiring, the the board and the power supply should cost you around 160$ if you shop around and you can get a free 21 computer monitor off craiglist and a cheap nintendo vs control panel(i have one im willing to sell) and some button and joystick for around 30$ and other than cosmetics you would be set, that is if you can wire simple jamma and do simple sanding and painting a cab

Yeah, the wiring and sanding is no problem, I'll have to keep that option in mind should nothing else work out.
 
I've been wanting an arcade cabinet for years now, but never knew the right people to get a hold of one I could make into a project. Then I met a friend of a friend who had a DK he had restored and had a spare DK cab he had used for parts. Long story short I talked him out of it and its now in my basement. My original plan was to figure out a way to extend the control panel on it and turn i into a MAME cab, but I was told by the BYOAC forums that this is a terrible thing to do. (I was never that into DK myself) However the cab is completely gutted and parts for a restore com up to $750 which is almost 400 more than a MAME cab conversion would cost and I'm on kind of a budget. Anyone have any Ideas, either on making a bigger CP or what to do with the cab?

Not picking on you, we just would hate to see a Nintendo cabinet end up as one of these:

http://wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/

Do me a favor and go through all 30+ pages It is sad and funny at the same time.

And if you want to see the saddest thing on the planet this guy destroyed a Stargate(Defender 2) cabinet:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94966.0

Was this:
index.php


And ended up as this:
index.php
 
Don't worry about that...I've seen that crapmame before. Some of those machines are disgusting lol. If I do anything to it it will all be reversible...I'm not cutting a thing on the cab and if it starts looking like I am going to have to I'll just take the project in another direction. I'm going to wait a little before I start doing anything though and see if anyone in my area that wants to restore a DK has another cab to trade me for this one.
 
Don't worry about that...I've seen that crapmame before. Some of those machines are disgusting lol. If I do anything to it it will all be reversible...I'm not cutting a thing on the cab and if it starts looking like I am going to have to I'll just take the project in another direction. I'm going to wait a little before I start doing anything though and see if anyone in my area that wants to restore a DK has another cab to trade me for this one.

If you were closer to me I would take it off your hands, but if you do anything to it, put a 60 in 1 in it, those things are great, and just use an original DK CP. The player 1 and 2 buttons can serve as extra buttons, and you can hide the actual 1 and 2 in the coin returns.
 
Many years ago I built a MAME cabinet out of a Donkey Kong. Similar story - I got a gutted cabinet for free, and built it up. The nice thing about the Nintendo cabinets is that the control panels are simple, flat boards. I just made a new one from scratch, and took the retainer clips off the old one. That way I could have a couple of extra buttons without drilling holes in the original (not that the panel that came with the cabinet was any good, cigarette burned CPO and everything).

There's no need to extend the control panel to make it bigger. Man, I have no idea why people insist on bolting massive, hideous control panels to the fronts of cabinets. One stick and two or three buttons is all you really need.

-Ian
 
Im not looking to add something HUGE...just something a tad wider and deeper to accomidate 2 players (I'm thinking 30 inches across maximum). I don't want an arcade machine so I can play games by myself, unfortunatly the only one I've ever had the opportunity of owning in the 4-5 years Ive been thinking of doing this is this DK machine. I've offered it for trade to anyone else who wants it so I've done my part
 
Wouldn't you need a lot of the parts on your list to make it a MAME machine? I thought the Mame parts added up also. You could buy used items on the list when they come or sale here or at other places. That would save some money.
 
MAME cabinet option (Cab will be painted and dings filled in but artwork to be added later)

Bezel Art retainer - 17.00
Monitor Brackets - 10.75
Lower monitor support - 15.00
Upper monitor support - 15.50
Monitor - 199-300
T-Molding - 11

Total = $268.25 - $369.25

Thats almost $450 less than a restore so unless someone knows where I can get parts cheaper the MAME cab option is still a better sounding to me.

I included the cost for the MAME conversion too. Being I own an Ipac, Joysticks, and buttons already (albeit not a DK Joystick or Nintendo buttons which would be needed for a restore) the cost goes down significantly without the DK PCB, marquee, bezel, CPO, Joystick, buttons, PSU, Color invertor, wiring, etc. Plus my patience level doesn't let me wait for sales and drag this project out months more waiting on prices for parts. The only things I didnt include on my list for MAME is art because if its my own personal machine I can add it later, however if I'm restoring it, art would need to be bought before I sell it. Even with art its still $250 less than a restore and I don't have to take a gamble trying to sell it and not finding any takers.
 
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Most of the stuff you would need for a DK can be had right here.
Post in the WTB section for the things you need and you should be able to get most,if not all of those things,at a fraction of what the online stores charge.
They will be used but most can be painted to look like new if needed.
For example I have a marquee and repro cpo that you could have for $30.00 shipped for both.
They are in pretty good shape. If interested shoot me a pm and I will send you some pics.
If you wired the cab jamma then you just need an adapter instead of the inverter board.
You could then swap other games with the proper adapters.
Mine is wired jamma with 6 boards in it along with a 6 in 1 switcher and a Tovis monitor.
If you clean the joystick then it should be OK,those never wear out.
 
Most of the stuff you would need for a DK can be had right here.
Post in the WTB section for the things you need and you should be able to get most,if not all of those things,at a fraction of what the online stores charge.
They will be used but most can be painted to look like new if needed.
For example I have a marquee and repro cpo that you could have for $30.00 shipped for both.
They are in pretty good shape. If interested shoot me a pm and I will send you some pics.
If you wired the cab jamma then you just need an adapter instead of the inverter board.
You could then swap other games with the proper adapters.
Mine is wired jamma with 6 boards in it along with a 6 in 1 switcher and a Tovis monitor.
If you clean the joystick then it should be OK,those never wear out.

PM sent

I've gotten some great advice from you guys in the last few days. and I thank you all a lot for your ideas. Right now I'm thinking if i don't get any one around here who wants it I'm gonna slowly restore it...but, I am gonna make a larger panel too (15x30 max) that will fit over the machine. (without cutting the cab of course) Then I will have a restored DK cp, and my custom cp that can be changed around should I find another cab for my mame project, or someone around here decides to buy it. At least if I start on a slow restore/mame path I'll at least have something better than a crappily spray painted cab with a shelf papered cp should I find someone who wants it and would appriciate DK more than I.

I'm going to strip the black paint off, sand it and start painting it blue again. Then I should have the money next week to start buying parts for it.

edit: I'm pretty sure the joyticks still work, but they are happ style sticks and for a restore I'd wanna get as close to a Nintendo joy as possible. Just because DK isn't one of my favorites doesn't mean I'd want to cheat the restore.
 
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There should be panels under the cp,where the latches are,that should be blue,if the cab was originally blue.
You can easily remove one of those panels and take it to the paint store for a color match.
I used those to color match my DK blue.
An original joystick should be pretty easy to locate.
Mikes is a bit expensive but it is nice and a good repro stick.
Just post in the WTB section when you are ready to locate the parts you need.
Original buttons are hard to come by,so you might have to settle for repro's.
 
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I don't mind repros...it doesn't have to be all original, just close enough to pass on a first look. I do have the blue panels in there so that should work out great for the paint.
 
I don't mind repros...it doesn't have to be all original, just close enough to pass on a first look. I do have the blue panels in there so that should work out great for the paint.

If you want a bigger panel, just find yourself a Dynamo cabinet. They are everywhere and cheap.
 
I'm going to strip the black paint off, sand it and start painting it blue again. Then I should have the money next week to start buying parts for it.

You may not even need to sand/paint the entire thing. I have a Popeye that I picked up a few weeks ago that was painted some gray blue shade. I used Citristrip, and it came out VERY clean. The original blue wasn't harmed in the least by the stripping process. It's not perfect, but I'm going to apply the repro side art without a repaint anyway.
 
You may not even need to sand/paint the entire thing. I have a Popeye that I picked up a few weeks ago that was painted some gray blue shade. I used Citristrip, and it came out VERY clean. The original blue wasn't harmed in the least by the stripping process. It's not perfect, but I'm going to apply the repro side art without a repaint anyway.

That would be nice. The way that black spray paint is layered on I'm not thinking I'll get off that easy. That being said I'm also a bit of a pessimist. Hoping to get the paint stripping started this evening or tomarrow afternoon. I already know theres going to be some filling in to do to as there is a nasty gouge in the top left corner of the left side, and there are 2 holes in the front where a bar lock was. I'm sure as more paint comes off I'll find some more things. I'll post pics as the process continues forward.

Also if anyone has a pic of what the back panel/door looks like I would appriciate it as my machine didn't have one.
 
If you want a bigger panel, just find yourself a Dynamo cabinet. They are everywhere and cheap.

You and I have different definitions of everywhere I guess. I've been looking for a cab for the last 4-5 years, but I didn't know anyone else as into them as I was, and the local craigslist has nothing when it comes to cabs. Through a friend of a friend I met a guy who had this cab and it was the only one he had. Add that to the fact that I don't have a vehicle big enough to transport a cab and I'd say I got pretty lucky with this one.
 
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