My Donkey Kong Restoration

toad

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hello, I am new here on the forums .

I pick up this donkey kong arcade game form a guy on Craigslist on Monday for $150
and it was missing the main donkey kong board. I am planing on restoring
it with a original donkey kong board 4 board set .
I am planing on basing my restoration on this restoration.


http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=70324.80
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Yeah, those multi boards are kinda neat. Just personally don't like the way they play. The emulation isn't quite as good as the real thing. But, yeah, if you're not a die-hard classic game geek, you'd never notice :)

Word of warning though, make sure you get a video inverter (or check to see if your monitor already has one), since the Sanyo monitors in Nintendo games take an inverted video signal. Hooking it up to a multiboard will result in a negative (all colors inverted) picture without one.

The nice thing about the multiboard is that you can configure the menu only to display certain games. You can't play anything that needs two buttons, or requires an 8 way stick without hacking up the panel to add the controls. But all the core games, DK, Galaga, Pac, Burger Time, etc will play just fine. So, all you have to do is set the menu not to display games like 1943, etc.

-Ian
 
well I do under stand how the Nintendo donkey kong arcade board would be cool but I do still want the 60 in 1 board
 
I haven't been around long, but I've never seen that knockoff CPO before. Very strange.

I have. It's a Willis overlay. They made all kinds of knockoff overlays for all the classic games "back in the day" to serve as replacements when the originals got worn out or damaged.

-Ian
 
The guy I bought it from said that he bought it from a arcade in VA beach I do find the cpo
odd the cpo does say wells 1982 .
 
I took off the cpo of the cp and I looks like it was a Donkey Kong JR cpo with a wells overlay on top .
 
The multi-cades are particularly bad with Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. because those boards used analog sounds which aren't replicated well in the digital realm. The classic sounds you get from Mario and DK Jr. walking get lost in the mulitcades. The thuds and rumbles don't sound right either. Not a huge thing, but if you're used to playing real DK or DK Jr. its kind of dissapointing to play on a multi-cade.
 
Looking good - it'll clean up real nice. That cabinet is nice and solid.

Just a word of warning, although I'm sure you already knew this. Whatever you do, DON'T plug that monitor directly into the wall! The power block that goes in the bottom of the game contains the special Nintendo isolation transformer, which outputs isolated 100v on those two outlets. You absolutely must use this to power the monitor. A standard isolation transformer puts out too much juice, and plugging the monitor directly into the wall with destroy several components on the chassis.

-Ian
 
I agree with the earlier posts about going original! I think multi game PCBs belong in generic cabinets. DK was never my favorite game but I'm always a fan of staying original.

Regardless, looks like you have a nice cabinet so you're doing something good by at least restoring that back ... so someone can put an original PCB back in it! :D

Best of luck.
 
Yeah, those multi boards are kinda neat. Just personally don't like the way they play. The emulation isn't quite as good as the real thing. But, yeah, if you're not a die-hard classic game geek, you'd never notice :)

Word of warning though, make sure you get a video inverter (or check to see if your monitor already has one), since the Sanyo monitors in Nintendo games take an inverted video signal. Hooking it up to a multiboard will result in a negative (all colors inverted) picture without one.
-Ian

I'm not big on the multiboards but I am sort of curious though. I wouldn't go so far as to drop one into a dedicated game. Probably use something that has already been JAMMAtized. Just me, I guess.
 
Yeah, those multi boards are kinda neat. Just personally don't like the way they play. The emulation isn't quite as good as the real thing.

+100000000000

Used to have a Ms.Pac-man board in my Pac-man cabinet. Stuck a 48in1 in there. The ms pac-man on it sucks.

But yeah, If you not an arcade die hard fan you would never notice.. untill you play the real thing. :D

Edit: Looks like you already made up your mind, woops! :eek:
 
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My donkey kong came with the original wire harness , but I do not know if the wire harness is for the four board set or the 2 board set. can you guys help. thanks
here is some pics
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That'll plug right into either the four board stack or the two board version. Also, Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong 3 had an edge connector type harness. The edge connector harness is also backwards compatible, and will plug into DK Jr. and the two board DK.

Basically, Donkey Kong and most DK Jr.'s used that style harness - one cable for each function. There are two power cables (one for each board) that plug into two sockets on the power supply. There's a coin counter connector, coin switch connector, control panel connector, sound connector, video connector, etc. That style harness works great, but it's kind of clumsy, so they switched to a single edge-card type harness for other games (DK3 and Popeye, and I think Mario). The two board DK set has the edge connector on it, in addition to the multiple small plugs. Same with DK Jr. Only thing you have to remember, is that when using the single edge connector, you need an additional 10-pin interconnect cable to connect both boards to carry power from one board to the other.

So, if you get any original DK (or DK Jr.) board, it'll plug right into that harness, no modifications.

-Ian
 
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