I'm new to this. Just bought 2 arcade games, but no video

scottkeen

New member
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Messages
133
Reaction score
1
Location
Reston, Virginia
I'm new to this. Just bought 2 arcade games, but no video

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I've been wanting to build a MAME arcade, but instead just picked up these 2 very used arcade cabinets. I have some monitor questions and some general newbie questions.

IMAG0268.jpg


The marquee on the first one reads "X-Men vs Street Fighter" and it has a Capcom CP System II computer inside.

IMAG0272.jpg


The marquee on the second one reads "Tekken 4" but it doesn't have Tekken running on it. It has an ICade 60-in-1 computer inside.

IMAG0270.jpg


Both arcades have a Zenith 25" CRT. The Street Fighter has the CRT mounted horizontally, the ICade has the CRT mounted vertically.

IMAG0269.jpg




The Street Fighter boots up, says "Capcom" (Japanese girl accent) and you can hear music and fight sounds in the background. But no video.

The ICade boots up and actually works but the screen is so blurry and dim, it's unplayable.

I have a few questions:

1) I spent $200 for both of these. Did I do OK, or over-pay? Should these just go to the landfill?

2) What can I do to see if I can get these CRTs to work? The SF CRT doesn't come on at all, the ICade is blurry and dim.

3) The cabinets are chipped and the MDF is crumbly and swelling (high humidity here in Hawaii). Would I just be better off removing all the components and building a cabinet from scratch? What would you do?

I live on an outer island of Hawaii, so my choices for replacement monitors are very limited -- basically what people are selling in garage sales, and whatever is for sale at Costco/Walmart/Target.
 
Those cabs are fine in my opinion and in a place like HI I think you did very well just to find original cabs.

Can you take a pic of the monitor chassis? These are the circuit boards attached to the monitors. The picture posted above is just the tube number and they are somewhat universal. My guess is you have WGA K7000 monitors in both cabs and they are repairable (by you or a service), or you can buy rebuilt chassis from a few people on these boards.
 
Thanks for the reply.

OK, I took a few more pictures of the monitors. Looks like:
Street Fighter = Wells Gardner 25K7197
ICade = Wells Gardner 25K7193

Here's a link to all the photos of this arcade project:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114761922834576844961/albums/5675344972825831841

You can see in the album that I hooked up an LCD monitor to the ICade, flipped the dip-switch to VGA, and it works great on the LCD. But the 15" LCD I have is way too small compared to the 25" CRT.


CRT in the SF arcade:

IMAG0290.jpg

IMAG0287.jpg


CRT in the ICade arcade:

IMAG0289.jpg

IMAG0283.jpg
 
Just a follow-up. I just noticed that the neck board had popped off the neck tube of the SF arcade. I plugged it back on, but still no video.
 
Both of those monitors are standard K7000's. They are easy to work on and easy to get parts for. I would start by doing some reading in the sticky threads about basic monitor repair, and the one dedicated to K7000's. Be prepared to replace caps and flybacks in both of those.

Blurry is a very common symptom in those - you can adjust the focus knob on the flyback, but be careful - check the flyback for cracks first. The common failure mode of these flybacks is to crack and break around the controls. Then they get blurry/bright/dim and fluctuate as they warm up. Then, eventually, they fail completely. But a cracked flyback can sometimes arc to you if you go to adjust it...

And welcome to the wonderful world of arcade collecting!

-Ian
 
Thanks for the welcome. I'm having fun trouble-shooting this.

I reattached the neck board to the neck tub of the SF cabinet, and checked the fuse (is there only one?). The monitor does not power up. There's no hum, no crackle when I plug in power. Anything else to check with the monitor? I'll also check the FAQ.

I'm glad I didn't trash the cabinet of the ICade, because it looks like the ICade monitor is working OK now. I fiddled with the focus knobs on the back (before I read your post, didn't know about the arcing!) and it looks like I've got it mostly focused.

I need some help with the fine tuning to fix some of the focus/bleeding issues that I'm having.

Check out these images, maybe you have some suggestions for fine tuning? Thanks

IMAG0292.jpg


IMAG0297.jpg


IMAG0303.jpg


IMAG0305.jpg
 
Seems like a pretty good picture actually. It may have very minor convergence issues but not bad enough to mess with in my opinion. The color drive adjustments on the neckboard might dial it in more but like I said it looks pretty good in the pics.
 
Man, it took me 2 years to finally find a Z-Back and it's in worse shape than both of yours LOL. Great cabinets man, and for $200. Awesome.

The monitor looks great in my opinion as well.
 
Makes me feel a bit better.

So, to find the monitor chassis parts (for the Street Fighter arcade) it's gonna take me a
couple of years? Yikes...

I almost took a 5 lb sledge hammer to both of these yesterday to extract out the electronics. I'm kinda glad I didn't (but they are HUGE and heavy).

I have no idea what value these are, I wasn't even sure if $200 bucks was too much or not. I started feeling that I paid some guy $200 to move his trash for him.

I'm still not sure if the cabinets are worth keeping since they are in such rough shape.

I'm really new to buying arcades, so I'm trying to not make any mistakes.
 
Wait, no. It took me a few years to find a Z back arcade cabinet in my area to buy.

The monitors usually come out from the front. Unlatch the control panel so it flip down. Then remove the glass/plexiglass over the monitor. Then the bezel. Once that is all gone you will see how to get it out.
 
Two things to be careful of when removing the monitor (besides your typical voltage thing).

1. Make sure all the cables are unplugged from the back so nothing is going to catch when you pull it out. This is usually the power cable and the RGB inputs. Just pay close attention, and make sure the remote board is tucked in on the chassis to not get caught either.

2. The monitor is mounted to a cage. You will take this whole cage out. Do not remove the 4 hex bolts that attach the actual monitor to the cage. It will fall, and you will be sad to hear the neck go pop :).
 
Man, it took me 2 years to finally find a Z-Back and it's in worse shape than both of yours LOL. Great cabinets man, and for $200. Awesome.

The monitor looks great in my opinion as well.

I just understood what you said -- "Z-Back" as in the "Z" shape of the cabinet. I thought you meant "Z" as in "Zenith", the brand of the monitors.

I thought these cabinets were just something someone threw together in their basement. These are something people would want?!

I have to say I was impressed with some of the design -- the latch system to drop down the control deck is a pretty good idea. And the Z shape of the cabinet made it easier to unload the arcade down the tailgate of my truck, made for a natural "step" to ease the cabinet down and rest on the tailgate.

Any suggestions about restoring the cabinet? The red film covering it is flaking off, and the corners of the MDF are crumbling and eroding and swollen with humidity.
 
great score!!

those monitor chassis are good chassis. and can be rebuilt pretty easy with help from people here.

welcome.

Peace
Buffett
 
I was too young to get to play with a Z-cab back when my family still had SF2 CE in '95... at least in the way of pulling the monitor. a friend of mine brought his Z-cab over to me to adjust the monitor for him, I was rather intrigued by how there's no actual back door and that it's entirely control panel and a flip-out monitor lol

make sure you have someone help you take it out and put it back in. I had kind of a bitch of a time with that one cause the pins didn't line up right on their own.

also, forget that the tubes say Zenith on them. Zenith has nothing to do with it, it's just a TV tube that the Wells-Gardner K7000s you have mate to.

you'll have to inspect the one that doesn't work, particularly the flyback, as it may just be dead. if the fuse is still good, then I don't know... you're probably looking at rebuilding the whole thing. however, it should be noted, I had a K7000 in a Terminator 2 that wouldn't power up either, and after I threw a new flyback, horizontal output transistor, voltage regulator, new fuse, and a cap kit in it, it still wouldn't work. that big white resistor on the side with the blue and pink wires...? it was cracked in half, not entirely sure how I missed that one!

it'll probably be a little overwhelming, just getting into it, but it takes a little bit of practice, and a WANT to learn this stuff. read threads, watch videos, even if it's stuff about games you don't even have, I can't tell you how many times I picked up on problems other people had and had to apply the same fixes to stuff I encounter at work.
 
I guess I should start throwing hardware at it and see if that fixes it.

Considering the monitor does not power on (no hum, no buzz, no crackle, no glow), what would you start with replacing?

The game board definitely powers on, makes all kinds of noises so I know the power supply, game board, speakers, and marquee light are working.
 
Did you verify that the 'broken monitor' power is plugged in? Also..be VERY careful reseating a neck board..but be sure its seated all the way on.
 
Did you verify that the 'broken monitor' power is plugged in? Also..be VERY careful reseating a neck board..but be sure its seated all the way on.

good call. had to service a Pac-Man one day that had a K7200 dropped in it that also would not power on or do anything. after inspecting everything, I noticed one of the AC pins popped out of the connector. that'll do it! of course, don't do this with the game plugged in :)
 
Did you verify that the 'broken monitor' power is plugged in? Also..be VERY careful reseating a neck board..but be sure its seated all the way on.

Thanks, I'll check all the power connectors.

When you say, "be VERY careful reseating a neck board", are you saying be careful because you might get shocked, or be careful you might break it?
 
Back
Top Bottom