My Donkey Kong Cabaret is all Fixed!

Tighe

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Several threads later and I have this little cutie up and running and in the line up. I think I need to rearrange though it is dwarfed right now, but it was where I could easily fit it.

Things I fixed:
Bad 4 Board Set
Pretty sure the problem was with the CLK board, I could see smoke stains on the board. I was able to snipe up another 4 board set for SUPER cheap on Ebay so I opted to do that.

Bad Audio
The large cap on the audio amp board on the monitor had exploded, so I installed Bob Robert's deluxe cap kit which included 2 transistors. That didn't fix the problem completely, and I was about to test every resistor on the board when buffett told me he had the same sound distortions and that Resistor 383 was bad on his board. Same on mine, but it turns out that R383 is a fusable resistor which I really didn't feel like placing an order with mouser for 1 component, so replaced the it with a 39O resistor and put an inline fuse holder with 1 .5A 250V fuse on the wire BK that runs from the monitor chassis to the audio amp. This is the functional equivalent to a fuseable resistor.

Video
Multiple issues here:
  1. Video would go dark after 10-15 minutes.
  2. Blue was dark and everything had a blue tint.
  3. Blue and green would turn off.

So I was going to install the rest of the cap kit in the chassis, but when I was reinstalling the audio amp I found that the degauss wire was disconected. Reconnecting it seemed to fix the problem with the screen going dark after 10-15 minutes.

Then I pulled the monitor out and found that the RGB cable to the monitor has intermittent contact. At first I thought it was the header pins on the chassis, but it is the cable. That fixed the green and blue turning off.

While I had it out I proceeded to adjust the settings on the monitor. It is almost impossible to do when it is in. Turns out that the screen was turned WAY up, so I turned it down and was able to adjust RGB drive and focus and got it looking great. So I had decided to hold off on installing the rest of the cap kit.

Cabinet
I cleaned the cabinet up, there was tape residue all over it, and some stinky liquid under the CPO. I painted the back of the CPO with triple thick, polished the buttons and joystick knob.

I cleaned and lubracated the joystick and replaced the 8 way restrictor plate with a 4 way.

I also replaced the scratched to hell monitor plexi with glass. The bezel was assembled incorrectly too.

The cabinet is still missing a back door, which I will make a new one soon.

The "marquee" sticker on the front is quite faded and tore on the edges, I think I will replace that, just need someone to print one up for me.

Edgar checking it out:
IMG_20111003_080445.jpg


IMG_20111003_080500.jpg


Monitor looking great (any blur is my phone's fault)
IMG_20111003_080548.jpg



You can see that I used a microfiber cloth to clean the glass, need to get some paper towels!
IMG_20111003_080555.jpg



I still need to take some photos with the light on, but you can see the before here:

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Interesting, the DKs I've seen don't have that "million" digit on the score. Is that something that the DK2 kit added?

I believe that the DK2 Kit did add that, but I think that it only displays the Millions digit in DK2. I could be wrong though.
 
I believe that the DK2 Kit did add that, but I think that it only displays the Millions digit in DK2. I could be wrong though.

Yeah, that's correct. The original DK pretty much runs the same, other than having free play and high score saving. He added the millions digit to D2K, but nobody has come anywhere near it and probably never will...supposedly the level 14 elevators are impossible to pass, and the scores are in the upper 300K range at that point.
 
Looks nice Tighe,

I just got my game working tonight as well. Got a couple of PCBs from BallyTableWiz and got my Ninty going tonight. I need to find a replacement joystick as well and hope to hear from the original owners when they find the back door to mine. I've yet to do the cap kit and audio pcb on my monitor next but happy to have it running. Need to get it in my gameroom this week before the cold spell comes.
Nice little mini you got there-- congrats on bringing it back!
 
Looks nice Tighe,

I just got my game working tonight as well. Got a couple of PCBs from BallyTableWiz and got my Ninty going tonight. I need to find a replacement joystick as well and hope to hear from the original owners when they find the back door to mine. I've yet to do the cap kit and audio pcb on my monitor next but happy to have it running. Need to get it in my gameroom this week before the cold spell comes.
Nice little mini you got there-- congrats on bringing it back!

Thanks man! These minis are quite addicting! What is with back doors, RetroHacker joked when I picked this thing up that there is probably a operator with a warehouse full of back doors! :eek:
 
man, i have to say that mini looks so small next to all the uprights. you know, if i converted all my games to minis, i could stuff more games in the gameroom.

[goes off to thwart wife's evil 'no more space' claim]
 
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