Joust Cocktail de-conversion/restore

I would love that. I need to re-make both Caps from scratch. I was going to wait until I had CPOs and joysticks before doing that, but having the measurements and full pictures of the parts and the inside pan of the cabinet side would be really helpful.

- Jon
I will have to get my parts back first. I am trying to get them repaired/remade.
 
That's great - it would be correct. Can you take a picture of it and also a picture of where you found it?
 
That's great - it would be correct. Can you take a picture of it and also a picture of where you found it?
I can try to grab a pic, but I have to disassemble the coin door again. It was stamped on the back of the CoinCo metal plate and slightly transferred the wood of the coin door underneath.

This might not be a valid date stamp to use since it is on the coin mech plate and not the cabinet.

- Jon
 
So today was some assembly and some testing.

  • Verified the ground braid in the system, and all the grounds are connected except the coin door (waiting for final power supply assembly).
  • Test fit the power supply board with the temporary transformer in the machine.
  • Burned a new sound rom, verified the sound board as working.
  • Installed all the game boards.
  • Installed the CRT.
As a test, I used the upright harness I got from @Charles Kline to see how the monitor looks in the machine. I will let the image speak for it.

- Jon

IMG_2061.jpeg
 
Tasks that have been performed so far:

Board Set:
I sourced a Rev D CPU board that had "memory problems" from QuarterArcade. The board was in good physical shape and other than the battery holder having been removed, and appeared to be clean of hackery. Hooked up the CAT BOX, and my Stargate ROM board and started doing some checks. Replaced all of the RAM, cleaned the sockets, and the memory errors were gone! Booting Joust gave random RAM errors, but the game would start. Within about 15-30 seconds there was graphic glitches and reboots. I tried with Robotron as well, same as Joust. Still on the path to do easy things, I swapped out the video decoder ROMs. All the Memory errors were gone, all the graphic glitches were gone, and all 3 ROM boards booted with no issue and ran RAM tests for about an hour per board with no failures. Installed a coin battery mod, and (I think) I have a perfectly working CPU/ROM board set.

Widget Board:
In my box of random Williams parts, I found a widget board that I had been trying to get working, but had stopped for a bit due to lack of time/parts. Turned out there were two issues with this board. Pin 1 on connector 3J2 was stuck active, and pins 4 and 5 on connector 3J3 were connected to each other. The pin 1 issue on 3J2 was due to a bad 4049 at IC7, swapped that and all was happy again. The tied pins were annoying, mainly because the obvious and right solution was completely overlooked by yours truly. I started poking at the signal resistors, the caps, the pull-up resistor network, and none of that was the cause of the issue. The 4049 these lines were tied to seemed to be working correctly, so I was stumped. Looking at the back of the board where all the signal resistor are located showed an area on the board that looked mangled. The pads between R7 and R6 looked like they were incorrectly screen printed, and were connected. A little bit of careful cutting with a #11 pen-knife, and the issue was resolved. Another board ready to go.

Misc/Power Supply:
I have a sound board that I rebuilt a while ago, just need to make sure I have a proper ROM for it.

All that is left was a power supply. Thanks to @SCUBA King I was able to get a power supply and after a re-build and jumping to be a Cocktail power supply, the set of boards are complete.

I have most of the parts sourced for this, but there are certainly going to be some fun adventures with some items. While I have a solution for a power transformer, I would love to get an actual Williams Cocktail power transformer brick and mounting plate.

Items that are needed:
Wiring Harness - Sourced
CRT - Sourced
Cocktail Power transformer and power supply mounting plate.
Sound Board rails - Sourced
Joystick shafts, yellow and blue (the sticks in the machine are 8-way microswitch sticks for the JROK)
New CPOs
Cocktail Instruction Cards - Sourced
Light sockets for all the GI
Wiring strip and resistor for the GI
More things that I am sure I am overlooking.

This is going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to my first real project machine!

Special thanks to @lilypad19 who has been giving me advice on the side and for all of the Joust Cocktail restoration photos. Having them as a reference has been INVALUABLE!

- Jon

Tasks that have been performed so far:

Board Set:
I sourced a Rev D CPU board that had "memory problems" from QuarterArcade. The board was in good physical shape and other than the battery holder having been removed, and appeared to be clean of hackery. Hooked up the CAT BOX, and my Stargate ROM board and started doing some checks. Replaced all of the RAM, cleaned the sockets, and the memory errors were gone! Booting Joust gave random RAM errors, but the game would start. Within about 15-30 seconds there was graphic glitches and reboots. I tried with Robotron as well, same as Joust. Still on the path to do easy things, I swapped out the video decoder ROMs. All the Memory errors were gone, all the graphic glitches were gone, and all 3 ROM boards booted with no issue and ran RAM tests for about an hour per board with no failures. Installed a coin battery mod, and (I think) I have a perfectly working CPU/ROM board set.

Widget Board:
In my box of random Williams parts, I found a widget board that I had been trying to get working, but had stopped for a bit due to lack of time/parts. Turned out there were two issues with this board. Pin 1 on connector 3J2 was stuck active, and pins 4 and 5 on connector 3J3 were connected to each other. The pin 1 issue on 3J2 was due to a bad 4049 at IC7, swapped that and all was happy again. The tied pins were annoying, mainly because the obvious and right solution was completely overlooked by yours truly. I started poking at the signal resistors, the caps, the pull-up resistor network, and none of that was the cause of the issue. The 4049 these lines were tied to seemed to be working correctly, so I was stumped. Looking at the back of the board where all the signal resistor are located showed an area on the board that looked mangled. The pads between R7 and R6 looked like they were incorrectly screen printed, and were connected. A little bit of careful cutting with a #11 pen-knife, and the issue was resolved. Another board ready to go.

Misc/Power Supply:
I have a sound board that I rebuilt a while ago, just need to make sure I have a proper ROM for it.

All that is left was a power supply. Thanks to @SCUBA King I was able to get a power supply and after a re-build and jumping to be a Cocktail power supply, the set of boards are complete.

I have most of the parts sourced for this, but there are certainly going to be some fun adventures with some items. While I have a solution for a power transformer, I would love to get an actual Williams Cocktail power transformer brick and mounting plate.

Items that are needed:
Wiring Harness - Sourced
CRT - Sourced
Cocktail Power transformer and power supply mounting plate.
Sound Board rails - Sourced
Joystick shafts, yellow and blue (the sticks in the machine are 8-way microswitch sticks for the JROK)
New CPOs
Cocktail Instruction Cards - Sourced
Light sockets for all the GI
Wiring strip and resistor for the GI
More things that I am sure I am overlooking.

This is going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to my first real project machine!

Special thanks to @lilypad19 who has been giving me advice on the side and for all of the Joust Cocktail restoration photos. Having them as a reference has been INVALUABLE!

- Jon
Will these help you?
 

Attachments

  • 20240305_123057.jpg
    20240305_123057.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 22
Does everyone have a Joust cocktail? For being rare, these seem to be everywhere!

Cool cabinet. Nice to see them being brought back to original.
 
Last edited:
Sadly I don't have mine anymore. It was part of the trade to a buddy of mine to get my tempest cocktail project. It was a good deal, it went to a good home (surprisingly with another joust cocktail that needs restoration) and I got first right of refusal if he wants to ever part with it again ☺️
 
Does everyone have a Joust cocktail? For being rare, these seem to be everywhere!

Cool cabinet. Nice to see them being brought back to original.
They were rare, but also very easy to convert. Many survived due to this reason. If it weren't for the funky monitor shroud, it would be a great candidate to make reproductions.
 
My only stumbling block right now is the control panels. I need new CPOs, proper joystick bats, and to build the actual panels correctly.

I have a workable temp solution, but that will be the difficult part to finish.

- Jon

I got my CPs back today and took some hours measuring them. I will be putting up my findings on my thread later tonight.

TAG
 
We sent my control panels and start plate art to TOG a couple years ago. Rich has scans of them so I know its possible the art could come back on the market.
 
We sent my control panels and start plate art to TOG a couple years ago. Rich has scans of them so I know its possible the art could come back on the market.

I called them a couple months ago to check and they had just done a run when I contacted them. They hadn't put them on the site when I called. I purchased and received all three plexis. My "super attention to detail" eye caught a couple lines that were missed on the start plate (ostrich's foot on the player one side is one of them). That being said, I am still happy to have them.
 
I called them a couple months ago to check and they had just done a run when I contacted them. They hadn't put them on the site when I called. I purchased and received all three plexis. My "super attention to detail" eye caught a couple lines that were missed on the start plate (ostrich's foot on the player one side is one of them). That being said, I am still happy to have them.
Funny enough I got a shipping notification from @ThisOldGame today for the Joust CPOs and start plate!
 
It has been a while since the last update.

My Frankenstein transformer block is put together with a transformer from an upright Joust which is better than the other transformer.

View attachment IMG_2144.jpeg

The cabinet is now wired up with a new harness.

View attachment IMG_2148.jpeg

View attachment IMG_2157.jpeg


I temp wired up the old Swiss cheese control panels so the game would be playable. For now the machine is in a good holding state while the control panel parts are sourced.

View attachment IMG_2156.jpeg


IMG_2154.jpeg


Left to do:

Control panels, some veneer work on the front, and source a lockout coil that won't burn up.

The lockout supply is unregulated and the higher voltage cooked the coil that was in there. (36ish volts vs 24)

More to come!

- Jon
 
Back
Top Bottom