OMG What have I gotten mysefl into! 8 additional cabs in one shot...

smalltownguy2

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OMG What have I gotten mysefl into! 8 done, only one left!

So I'm walking by the local pizzeria last week, and noticed that 2 of the 4 cabs in the hallway outside are not working. I know the owner, so I walked in and mentioned that I'd be willing to fix up his cabs since I enjoy the hobby and could use the experience. I told him that I would only charge him for parts and I'd provide the labor. I just cant stand to see cabs in disrepair, plus he's not making any money on cabs that don't work.

Sunday, I get a call from the owner - he wants to take me up on my offer. He's got a 'few more' cabs that he'd like to drop off to see if I can do anything with them, or maybe use them for parts.

2 hours later, here's what I have in my garage:

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From left to right in the two pics:

1. Final Fight, in a converted midway cab. I believe it was a pacman cab, based on the blue paint I see on the back panel. Does not currently power up. Was working 2 months ago.
2. DONKEY KONG! Dedicated, original cab. Powers on and plays. A few sound issues noted, could be a speaker connection issue. Joystick is very loose, and intermittently responsive. Cab is in GREAT shape, 1 side of the coin mech still works. A real jem -- just needs a bit of cleanup and joystick work.
3. Tetris - I believe it's dedicated, but not sure based on the pic I see on KLOV. Works, but controllers are sloppy and intermittently unresponsive. Both coin mechs work. Monitor clear and bright.
4. Mortal Kombat II, in a converted cab of unknown origin. Monitor has a bit of burn, but looks OK when on. Owner tells me that it powers on and off randomly. Controls feel OK, but CP is in need of recovering or repainting. Both coin mechs work.
5. MS PACMAN, totally dedicated, restored cab. Currently using pac man bezel. Screen shows a bit of flagging, needs a capkit. Joystick a bit sloppy.
6. Arkanoid II - the Revenge of DOH, in a converted cab of unknown origin. Decent conversion, cab is solid. Needs marquee. Controls feel good. Game plays blind, monitor shows red image at times, scrambled at other times. I'm sure it needs a capkit.
7. Neo Geo cab, in a conversion of unknown origin. Marquee shows a driving game, but cartidge currently installed is a bowling game. Game does not currently power up. Control panel is horrible - button layout is all wrong, but joysticks feel good.
8. Head On - cab is in terrible condition - was left outside for many years with the back removed. The particle board is swelled and bloated everywhere, though it still appears to be structurally sound. All original artwork is there, including original 4-way joystick. Button is snapped off. Cab is open in the back (back board are stuffed in sideways in the bottom), and is full of dust and pine needles. I didn't try powering it on since I like my house 'not burned down.'

Needless to say, I've got some work ahead of me! I'll be working on the Donkey Kong, Ms Pac Man, Tetris, Arkanoid, Mortal Kobmat II, and then Final Fight in that order to get them in route ready condition again, and the other 2 cabs are parts machines only. I may ask him to keep the Neo Geo cab so I can rework it, and I'm pretty sure the Head On cab has so graciously been 'donated' to me. :rolleyes:

Looks like Bob Roberts and I are going to become good friends over the next few weeks. :call:

The owner has offered me free pizza for life when I get them all working again. Obviously that kind of offer would come with limitations (hey can I have 42 pizzas for my superbowl party?) but I'm inclined to take him up on his offer.

My wife was actually somewhat OK with the situation, even though this has rendered one stall of our 2 car garage useless for parking. I think the fact that there's a working Tetris and Arkanoid cabs in the mix helps with the WAF.

I'll try to post updates as I dig into these cabs to get them working again. Cheers! :cheers:
 
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Free pizza for life? I like your business model.

By the way, the Revenge of Doh cab looks to be a Centipede conversion.

Good luck with those cabs!
 
tetris is a robotron cabinet.
mk in a generic dynamo cabinet with defender screen burn
arkanoid (not tetris II) in a centipede cabinet
negeo midway cabinet. I want to say wizard of wor, but Don't think thats right.(if there is a front access door and 3 speakers, then its WOW)
 
Did your offer come with a limit? Will there be another round when these are fixed? Perhaps you should've offered to buy them and give them a good home instead of countless hours of free labor spent setting up another guys collection. That is ALOT of time and work ahead of you brother, for free.
 
The most IMPORTANT thing is GET SOMETHING IN WRITING ASAP.

If you do go with free pizza, keep in mind that PizzaHut pizzas are $10 each.
Based off that it's 10 Pizzas for every $100 spent. At Least...

Why not buy them from him, fix them up and then put them back in his place and split the earnings?
You could even give him the option to buy them back.

You should at least give him an estimate for repairs, before you do or buy anything.
Then have him give you a 50% deposit.
In the small print be sure to put if he doesn't pay the balance that you will own the games.

Good luck and have fun!
 
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The most IMPORTANT thing is GET SOMETHING IN WRITING ASAP.

If you do go with free pizza, keep in mind that PizzaHut pizzas are $10 each.
Based off that it's 10 Pizzas for every $100 spent. At Least...

Why not buy them from him, fix them up and then put them back in his place and split the earnings?
You could even give him the option to buy them back.

You should at least give him an estimate for repairs, before you do or buy anything.
Then have him give you a 50% deposit.
In the small print be sure to put if he doesn't pay the balance that you will own the games.

Good luck and have fun!

Funny you mention that -- I was considering doing something just like that. I thought about offering him a flat amount for them all and doing just what you said. Fix them myself, and let him buy them back or allow me to place them and split the take. Honestly, he's the kind of guy that would probably let me keep them if he knew that someone would take care of them. The 2 sticky points would be the Ms Pac Man and Donkey Kong cabs - I have a a feeling he's got a bit of attachment to those, and will probably want more for them than I'm willing to pay. The Neo Geo and Head On cabs are pretty much junk IMHO, and the other 4 are probably worth $250 as a group in the condition they're in now.

I think what I'm going to do is a detailed diagnostic on each one, and put together a spreadsheet illustrating my recommendations on repairs. Once he sees how much it will cost to repair them all, he may be inclined to sell them to me.

I don't really NEED to have the Ms Pac Man or Donkey Kong cabs, but it would be nice to get them as part of some kind of deal where we both can benefit. The converted fighters, Tetris and Arkanoid can live at the pizzeria, but the dedicated cabs need 'home use' lives now, if they should ever stand a chance at survival.

The 'pizza for life' idea is nice, but to be honest, I'd like the cabs. What other ideas do you folks have?
 
Your idea about showing him the cost-benefit analysis is a very good one.

At the end of the day, though, you may want to recommend that he pick two or three to focus on for business income, and that if he wants to dispose of the remainder, you'd be willing to take them on as a collector's personal labor of love and in trade off for your labor. And that you'll take a pass on the pizza offer.
 
now this is what i would like to do, collecting these things are fun but i like to work on them more! i may have to go around and see if theres any local places that could use some repairs :)
 
congrats, and lemme say I got a deal with the local pizzeria here (best pizza outside of the city you will find, cause there from italy and the city) and I get free pizza for life as well. Greatest thing in the world. Build up a relationship with the owner and it will go a long way, hang out with him, dont just run in grab a pie and bounce. The owners of this pizzeria are like family now and we were only good friends before the free pizza kicked in. Its worth it!!!!!
 
You walked in with an offer to fix them essentially for free but got an offer of pizza for life! That sounds like a big upgrade to the original offer you made and I'd be totally cool with that. After all, you *are* looking to learn and someone else is footing the bill.

I think it's awesome that he offered to do that for you and you should be satisfied with that. Plus, it would be super cool to have a deal like that where you could just get a pizza whenever. Sure, nothing is forever but that goes for the games too ... you could eventually get tired of them.

I say take the pizza and education! :)
 
Well how far away is Muskego from Eau Claire? I could go for 20 pizzas. :)

About 3 huors unfortuneately...got the re-wiring done, but for the life of me I can't find anyone to come out and do a cap kit on a monitor. Was hoping to have it done with the monitor still in the machine, if it's possible, I have no desire to pull the monitor and lug it anywhere.
 
The owner stopped over today, to drop off keys for the DK and Ms Pac cabs. Little did he know that I'd already picked the locks :D

I told him I'd start a list (excel spreadsheet, actually) of the breakdown by game of what parts he'd need. If the price gets too high for his liking, I will barter for some of the non-working or lesser desirable cabs. He's actually got a secret jewel in this mix that I'll write about later.

I got a chance to get a better look inside each of the cabs tonight. Here's what I found:

Mortal Kombat II: monitor is an e-home G07, very common monitor. Looks good, even though there's a bit of Defender burn in. Game looks and plays good. Owner SWEARS that it shuts down occasionally. We'll see. I'll leave it running 24/7 for a few days and see what happens. BONUS: I found about $100 in quarters in the locked coin box. *grin* That'll make paying for parts a bit easier.

Tetris: Turns out this IS a Robotron conversion, as correctly pointed out by opt2not (thanks!). A decent conversion, I guess. Found the manual inside the cab, and the original keys. Monitor is a Wells Gardner 19K4901. Looks good, plays OK -- joystick needs cleaning.

Donkey Kong: This baby's all original, with the exception of the back panel - it's been replaced with plywood :( It's even got the original Sanyo monitor with very little burn. Found a spare NOS Sanyo flyback still in the bubble wrap in the bottom of the cab! The manual is there, though it seems a bit 'crisp' to be an original - probably a repro. Game has minor sound issues with bass -- the audio board is up on the monitor chassis. Has anyone worked on this before? Joystick responds about 80-90% of the time - it needs a serious teardown and rebuild.

Final Fight: And here we have our Jewel. I knew it was a Midway cab conversion, but I couldn't tell which. Imagine my surprise when I saw the PMMS tag with a serial number inside! A Ms Pac Man cab! The stamped number on the outside (#5310) confirmed it. The original isolation transformer and power supply is still bolted to the floor. The cab is rock solid with no water damage or wood rot. Coin mechs are perfect. The back panel will likely need to be replaced -- it's got a caved spot where someone must have hit it with a small sledge hammer -- but I might be able to put a backer board on there and flatten it out again. Cab doesn't currently power on. I haven't traced power yet, but I'm sure I'll find a failed switch or interlock, possibly the power supply. If I have to barter for a cab because of cost, this is it. It's a PERFECT candidate for a restoration! Monitor: WG 19K7951.

Neo Geo cab: Indeed, as pointed out by the boys over at KLOV, it's a Wizard of Wor cab conversion. Two switching power supplies and frayed cord tell me that there are definitely some electrical reasons why this cab wont power up. The monitor is newer, though. It's a Wells Gardner 19K7302 with the optional remote board, manufactured in 1997. No burn that I can see. Hopefully she fires up -- I'll be taking THAT monitor for my personal Double Dragon cab :D

Arkanoid II: Yep, it's a Centipede conversion. Crappy one, too. Found the kit manual in the bottom. It's a really funny read. There's actually a step in the manual where it says, 'now kick back and relax a bit, you've done a lot of work so far. Your NEW GAME is almost ready!' LOL Monitor: Electrohome G07, and it needs serious work, or the power supply is failing, because all I get is red signal, and I can't keep it synced for more than a few minutes before it scrambles again. I'm thinking cap kit. Needs a marquee too.

Ms Pac Man: This is pretty much a complete restoration unit - the only reason the owner brought it over is because the screen is starting to show some flagging on one side. It needs a cap kit, which should be simple enough. I did notice that the coin mechs are missing some parts though - it appears that they are missing the reject mechanism? I compared them to the mechs on the Final Fight cab (also a Ms Pac) and the Final Fight cab's coin mechs appear complete. This one looks like it needs more pieces to divert the quarters in the proper direction to the coin box. Does that make sense? Monitor: E-home G07.

Head On: I did find the original manual (on one of the swelled access doors) and the PCB appears complete. I had no idea how to ID the monitor -- it looks so primitive! The chassis is like 10 chips total. I'm not touching this one for a bit yet.

So that's it. I still have lots of diagnosis to do; I need to check coin mech lights, and marquee bulbs and fixtures. New locks are in order for almost all of these cabs except the DK and Ms Pac.

My list of parts needed so far:

1. 2 Cap kits for G07 (Ms Pac and Arkanoid)
2. Two Possible switching power supplies (Neo Geo and Final Fight)
3. 5 sets of locks
4. Arkanoid II marquee
5. Additional coin mech parts for the Ms Pac Cab.
6. 2nd coin mech for the DK cab
7. Replacement leg levelers for 3 cabs.
8. Sanyo monitor audio board cap kit??
9. Find another owner (sucker) for the Head On cab

Sorry for the long post -- lots to share!
 
About 3 huors unfortuneately...got the re-wiring done, but for the life of me I can't find anyone to come out and do a cap kit on a monitor. Was hoping to have it done with the monitor still in the machine, if it's possible, I have no desire to pull the monitor and lug it anywhere.

You pretty much HAVE to remove the monitor from the machine to do the cap kit. I mean, yes, you could probably achieve the cap kit replacement without removing it, but it would sort of be like trying to change the oil in your car without removing the drain plug. Possible, but not very easy. :D

On a lighter note, I work 1 day a week in Menomonie, so I could easily meet up with you to collect your monitor and cap it & return it the next week. Of course, it may be a few weeks before I have the free time to do it.....heheh

Give me a little while to hone my skills on a few chassis here, and then I'll recap yours.
 
You pretty much HAVE to remove the monitor from the machine to do the cap kit. I mean, yes, you could probably achieve the cap kit replacement without removing it, but it would sort of be like trying to change the oil in your car without removing the drain plug. Possible, but not very easy. :D

On a lighter note, I work 1 day a week in Menomonie, so I could easily meet up with you to collect your monitor and cap it & return it the next week. Of course, it may be a few weeks before I have the free time to do it.....heheh

Give me a little while to hone my skills on a few chassis here, and then I'll recap yours.

Menomonie or Menomonee Falls? Menomonie isnt far from Eau Claire unfortuneately about 3 hours out.

Nice analogy on the drain plug. I haven't looked to much into it as I am not one for soldering so I havent looked into what is all needed for doing a cap kit yet. There is a local warehouse of games in my town here they tested my light guns for me maybe I'll see if they wouldnt mind doing a cap kit.

Thanks for the offer and the heads up though it is appreciated.
 
Well, got up this morning, and yep, the Mortal Kombat cab is dead. Unplugged it, waited 30 seconds, plugged it back in, and heard the rom sound, but no image. Unplugging, I get red image collapse on the monitor, but no image on screen when plugged in.

I went out after 30 minutes and tried plugging in the Mortal Kombat cab again, and got some different behavior this time. This time I would hear the boot beep, then some very quiet ticking (presumably the processor crystal clocking, perhaps?) and then nothing. Shortly thereafter, I heard another boot beep. Then another. Unplugging and plugging resulted in more boot beeps, and once I got garbage on the screen. Never got to the ROM check though. I'm beginning to think the power supply is bad. Good thing I have a few more to swap in and try ;)

I'm off to work, so more testing when I get home!
 
In order to fix them and have them halfway reliable, I'd do cap kits on every monitor, incl reflowing molex headers, whether they are working or not.
 
In order to fix them and have them halfway reliable, I'd do cap kits on every monitor, incl reflowing molex headers, whether they are working or not.

I thought about reflowing too. Do you know any way that I can employ that technique without a reflow table? I don't really have one handy, but there has to be some alternative techniques to achieve an acceptable result.
 
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