Inferno #2 - To Hell and Back

Has anyone modeled the metal plate that the PCB set mounts to? And if not, does anyone have one of those lying around? 😅
 
Maybe @braedel?

Had a feeling you were going to grab a Joust 2 PCB eventually! Everything's already looking great so far.
 
At one point I had planned on modeling/making the plate, but was able to find one in the 11th hour!

I ended up having to make for Blaster. I used threaded standoffs with countersunk screws (8-32) - Had the metal laser cut and bent at OSHCut (see image below)

Getting the PEM fasteners wasn't an easy option at the time, but I think sendcutsend does them now!

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At one point I had planned on modeling/making the plate, but was able to find one in the 11th hour!

I ended up having to make for Blaster. I used threaded standoffs with countersunk screws (8-32) - Had the metal laser cut and bent at OSHCut (see image below)

Getting the PEM fasteners wasn't an easy option at the time, but I think sendcutsend does them now!

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Good call on SendcutSend...

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I think the standoff pattern is correct for the two PCBs. the only measurement I'm not 100% sure of is the distance between the two PCBS when they're mounted together. I had 0.865" for that, which seems pretty arbitrary.

I know the mounting pattern to the back door is wrong. I just put in arbitrary screw holes, seeing as I don't have a plate to compare to.
 
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Can you send the DXF over? I can probably help with the missing data. Bought some very large digital calipers a while back for doing this!

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Today's activity:

Repaired and reinstalled the power system.

This isn't the original power supply set to the cabinet, unfortunately... I guess the original failed, and it was replaced sometime BITD before Inferno was converted to something else. But it is the supply that was in the cabinet when i got it, so I'll continue to use it.

Now I just have to make the harness.

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Tomorrow's activity:

Order the new control panel plate, and a new PCB plate from SendCutSend.
 
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I don't think I posted a photo, but I did also paint the back doors when I did the cabinet, and just reinstalled them. I am very happy with how they came out.

Just need the lock bracket that mounts to the top of the cab to keep the upper door in.
 
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I don't think I posted a photo, but I did also paint the back doors when I did the cabinet, and just reinstalled them. I am very happy with how they came out.

Just need the lock bracket that mounts to the top of the cab to keep the upper door in.
That looks minty nice!
 
Back from Christmas vacation, and back to fiddling with arcade games! There are basically no arcade games in Austria. So sad.

Here's the result of god knows how much sanding. In order to remove the goop from three previous CPOs (Inferno, then Double Dragon, then TMNT) I alternatively used Isopropyl alcohol, sanding with a fresh 220g disc, and then a steel scraper to remove gunk, and repeated many, many, many times. It seems to have done the trick though.

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Ultimately, in the process of removing all the gunk, this was the only evidence I could find of the original Inferno artwork :(

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As for the extra holes in the control panel, I am sticking with my decision not to bondo them or attempt to fill them in any way.
My reasoning is this:
While I could potentially clamp a plate to the front of the panel and fill all the holes in green, they will be covered by the new metal plate, and thus are a non-issue.
The holes in red I would have a difficult time filling because I don't have a good way of contouring the bondo properly to fill those, and could potentially interfere with dust washers or something like that.

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The repro Inferno plates I've ordered are supposed to come tomorrow, but we're apparently due for a large amount of snow, so that may delay things, unfortunately. That said, the control panel overlay I ordered from Galloping Ghost has arrived, and looks to be the proper size, at least based on the existing plate I've got.

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Hopefully when the plates arrive, I'll be able to do more in putting this game together....


Question of Opinion:

When I did the CPO for my Robotron, I coated the control panel in grey primer before I applied the CPO. I did not do that for my Joust. For this panel, is primer or no primer going to be the best route?
 
View attachment 788068

I don't think I posted a photo, but I did also paint the back doors when I did the cabinet, and just reinstalled them. I am very happy with how they came out.

Just need the lock bracket that mounts to the top of the cab to keep the upper door in.
Damn that looks so nice and complete. I'm still in absolute shock that that other dude isn't gonna paint the back door on his Centipede. I could never imagine leaving the back door unfinished when everything else looks perfect. Oh and I would fill all those holes if I were you, even with the metal plate. You can easily contour Bondo by using forms made of plexi or other plastics. I did it with my Bubbles. The problem is you will see the underside of the panel and all those hack holes are gonna look whack.

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If the holes are not structural and eventually covered with metal plates, then just use wood putty instead of bondo. Easier to work with; less messy. Will look less whack assuming anyone looks at the underside - ever. LOL

EDIT: Nevermind, to Hell with it, I just noticed they are big Demon holes. Use bondo.

🍆 YMMV
 
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Peer Pressure Works I Guess. However....

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The lesson I got from this is that I'm pretty bad at Bondo + Sanding, and I probably shouldn't be allowed near bondo and a sander. I kinda regret doing this and not just leaving it alone like I thought I would.

At least it's done. Pity I messed up the wood by sanding too much though.
 
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Peer Pressure Works I Guess. However....

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The lesson I got from this is that I'm pretty bad at Bondo + Sanding, and I probably shouldn't be allowed near bondo and a sander. I kinda regret doing this and not just leaving it alone like I thought I would.

At least it's done. Pity I messed up the wood by sanding too much though.

Looks great to me! If you're not happy with the results, just apply another skim-coat layer of bondo, let it dry, and sand to perfection. It's a trap to try to be a one-shot-hero with the bondo -- multiple applications almost always yield the best results!
 
Okay! Plates are here! Results are... Mixed!

First up, the bad news. The PCB plate mostly worked... Except I messed up the placement of the PEM circled in red. Not sure how I managed to fuck this up, because it's off by a lot... I'm guessing it was an input error at the last second that I forgot to check. Damnit. I just hammered it out, and the rest of the PCBs fit perfectly onto the plate. So I guess If I make more, with that fixed, it'll be good to go.

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Unfortunately, IMO that's probably the single most important PEM on this damn thing. Arg.

Anyway, the good news:

The Control Panel Plate appears to be a perfect match!

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Been Harness Building. And as per usual with this thread, there's good news and there's bad news.

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The good news is I was able to get enough of the harness together that I was able to power the PCB set from within the cabinet. Inferno, displayed on the original monitor in the original cabinet is a pretty cool sight to see. Even if that monitor needs a little tuning.

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The bad news is that there is some visual corruption on the main game screen that I hadn't noticed before. The set seemed to work fine as a Joust 2, so I'm wondering if this is something that I did in the process of conversion.

I think these dots are supposed to be the colored accents on the maze, that color cycle. For whatever reason, they're not placed properly. Why would the placement of these dots be treated differently than any of the other elements on the screen? Does anyone know anything about this feature?

 
So I just looked at the Williams MAME driver and discovered something that I hope can be fixed easily.

Mystic Marathon and Inferno use additional SRAM, whereas Joust 2 and Turkey Shoot do not.

Code:
     Mystic Marathon/Inferno:
     1  1  0  1   0  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  D000-D7FF   SRAM0*
     1  1  0  1   1  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  D800-DFFF   SRAM1*
     1  1  1  0   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  E000-EFFF   EXXX* 4K ROM
     1  1  1  1   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  F000-FFFF   FXXX* 4K ROM

     Turkey Shoot/Joust2:
     1  1  0  1   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  D000-DFFF   DXXX* 4K ROM
     1  1  1  0   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  E000-EFFF   EXXX* 4K ROM
     1  1  1  1   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  F000-FFFF   FXXX* 4K ROM
 
Okay so I made some progress on the color cycling issue after staring at the PCB late last night. Seems to have been because I'm dumb.

The instructions for converting Joust 2 to Inferno simply state:

7. There's a jumper across W1. Move it to W2. This turns on the color cycling.

What I did not realize at the time that I had done the board modification was that BOTH boards have a W1 and W2 jumper point. For the CPU board, it's a setup like this:

W2 <- - - - - - -> o <--====--> W1

Where you only have to "flip" the orientation of the jumper from W1 to W2.

For the video board it's a setup like this:

W2 o <- - - - - - -> o
W1 o <--====--> o

Where you have to move the entire jumper from W1 to W2. Dummy me, I did the one on the CPU board, and NOT the video board.

To be 100% clear, anyone else trying to do this, it is the W1/W2 on the Video Board.

So, I went ahead and fixed it.

That brings us here: Close, but no cigar (yet).


The color cycling is working, and the game looks pretty much perfect EXCEPT for the fact that this garbage is still there. It seems to be less than before, but it's still present. Now I am wondering what the W1 and W2 jumper setup actually does on the CPU board, and if it's possible that I damaged something, and if so, what?

Unfortunately the scan of the Inferno schematics are pretty much illegible, and there is no scan of the Joust 2 schematics that I'm aware of, so the details of those jumpers may have to be traced out which I'm not super enthused about. But, progress I guess.


So I just looked at the Williams MAME driver and discovered something that I hope can be fixed easily.

Mystic Marathon and Inferno use additional SRAM, whereas Joust 2 and Turkey Shoot do not.

Code:
     Mystic Marathon/Inferno:
     1  1  0  1   0  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  D000-D7FF   SRAM0*
     1  1  0  1   1  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  D800-DFFF   SRAM1*
     1  1  1  0   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  E000-EFFF   EXXX* 4K ROM
     1  1  1  1   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  F000-FFFF   FXXX* 4K ROM

     Turkey Shoot/Joust2:
     1  1  0  1   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  D000-DFFF   DXXX* 4K ROM
     1  1  1  0   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  E000-EFFF   EXXX* 4K ROM
     1  1  1  1   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x   x  x  x  x  F000-FFFF   FXXX* 4K ROM
I do have the extra RAM installed. One of the jumper mods is to enable it.
 
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