Operation Wolf Optical Board Sensors Available Soon! Optical Board Repro Interest?

Arcade22

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Operation Wolf Optical Board Sensors Available Soon! Optical Board Repro Interest?

Soon I should have my hands on a large quantity of NOS optical sensors for Operation Wolf. These are the photodiodes for the optical circuit, which fail more and more frequently as time goes on. This is not the entire optical circuit board from inside the gun, just the optical sensor. These should help save a ton of game guns out there.

I wanted to ask if any of you who are into circuit board design & chip repro have any interest in reproducing the entire optical board (or helping come up with a DIY kit) which is housed inside the machine gun or if I should just make these diodes available individually? I think it would be great to either build drop-in replacements or DIY kits if feasable.

Please provide feedback if you've got any interest.

Thanks!
 
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I would probably be interested at some point... Got to get an op wolf first though!
 
I would probably be interested at some point... Got to get an op wolf first though!

This is a game I spent ALOT of time playing when I was a kid. Its really strange that I dont have one in my collection.
Guys, im seriously looking into reproducing the optic board. Im also going to look into making spare parts to repair the gun assembly and vibration motor. I have a gun on the way so I can take a look and see what I can make.
 
Agreed it was one of my favorites as kid, I even bought it for my 286 and played it on a keyboard as i did not have a mouse. I would have one now if it was not so big and live in townhouse.. But building new house so will hopefully have enough room soon!

I would be interested in any replacement parts that were made depending on cost obviously. Hope you can get this stuff made. That's awesome
 
Agreed! It is a great game and there is nothing like playing it on a fully working dedicated machine!

The sequels, in my opinion are no good. Operation Thunderbolt, although two-player, was rushed to market and is a terrible game. Operation Wolf 3 was like kicking a dead horse by the time it came around. The original is the only way to go!

Anyway, I have two Operation Wolf machines (one for sale soon) and I am working to help Riptor with what he needs for this project. If this comes to fruition, it'll halp save a bunch of these games.
 
This is a game I spent ALOT of time playing when I was a kid. Its really strange that I dont have one in my collection.
Guys, im seriously looking into reproducing the optic board. Im also going to look into making spare parts to repair the gun assembly and vibration motor. I have a gun on the way so I can take a look and see what I can make.


Yep, I played this a lot when I was in college. Playing it at Crabtowne a year or so ago got me hooked on it again. Soon after I got one from Lloyd at Coinopwarehouse for $75! Nice cab, but no monitor. It plays well now, but the motor could use some attention, I think. I look forward to getting the kits you guys are planning on putting together.
 
I wholeheartedly applaud this effort. I grudgingly sold my Operation Wolf several years ago for exactly that reason -- I went through probably 7 non-working guns and eventually gave up because the sensor never worked. I was always sad to think that all Operation Wolf games would eventually be gone because of this issue. It's a great game that has tons of nostalgia for me.

My vote (as someone who no longer owns an OW, mind you) would personally be for the entire optical board to be reproduced. I remember hearing theories that the rattling action of the gun was part of what caused parts of the optical board to eventually fail, so it might be more helpful to have a part that could be swapped out right in the gun.
 
I wholeheartedly applaud this effort. I grudgingly sold my Operation Wolf several years ago for exactly that reason -- I went through probably 7 non-working guns and eventually gave up because the sensor never worked. I was always sad to think that all Operation Wolf games would eventually be gone because of this issue. It's a great game that has tons of nostalgia for me.

My vote (as someone who no longer owns an OW, mind you) would personally be for the entire optical board to be reproduced. I remember hearing theories that the rattling action of the gun was part of what caused parts of the optical board to eventually fail, so it might be more helpful to have a part that could be swapped out right in the gun.

I suspect that is the reason my shaker motor has been removed. My game works but I have several boards with various problems and parts missing broken. I need the sips as most are not working or are broken from storage (not by me). Also I need the 384khz crystal but I have read that the 40khz one that is more common will work.
 
Im already well underway on this project. I will be drawing up the boards in the next day or two. There does seem to be two revisions of the pcb so im going to look into that and see exactly what the differences is. The hard part is done, already sourced and ordered the optics and IC's. The photodiodes were actually not as hard to find as I expected them to be.
After the pcb's are done im going to look into some of the other gun parts such as a motor replacement. That may take a bit of trial and error / testing but I have some good ideas on a drop in alternative that wont shake the gun to pieces yet will still provide decent feedback.
 
Progress report!
I finished most of the pcb design last night, just need to verify all the traces, check for errors and some minor clean up.
I have learned a few things researching these guns. The operation wolf 1 used the optic setup and they changed to X/Y pots for the thunderbolt and OW3 games. However there does appear to be some other games that use this gun....at least a copy of it. I picked up a couple guns that appear to be op wolf guns but they have plastic shells around it and say SNK on them. Seems that this gun is a direct copy of the taito guns with some minor changes. The optic board is the same as far as the circuit is concerned. They reversed the pinout on the IO header. Easy enough, mount the header on the bottom side of the board and it will be correct for the snk gun(still have to verify this but it sounds right in my head). The other difference is a slightly different mounting hole pattern. If you take a look at my pcb drawing you can see I have included two sets of mounting holes. If everything works out like it should I will be able to produce both versions of the board on the same pcb.
So anyways, should be ready to order pcbs and components this week and start building these. Im working on locating a machine so I can use it to test the boards.
 
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Riptor, where do you do your pcb prototyping from?

Been looking for a place where I can do some at a reasonable price. I have used express pcb but they seem to be too expensive except if you use there tiny board service which limits you on the pcb size
 
I can test in my two machines... also should have my extra board tested shortly if you need to borrow. Nice work!!
 
Riptor, where do you do your pcb prototyping from?

Been looking for a place where I can do some at a reasonable price. I have used express pcb but they seem to be too expensive except if you use there tiny board service which limits you on the pcb size

I use Pad2Pad for most of the small boards. Their software is rather limited but it is getting better. If you designed and uploaded your own footprints it would be much easier to use but it does look like they have added more footprints since the last version. I have used Express PCB a couple times and it is faster and easier to use. However, the cost to produce using Pad2Pad is nearly half so its worth a little extra time it takes. As far as pcb quality, no complaints at all from either companies.
Of course if your trying to do a full size pcb your going to want a good cad program and an attention span better than mine :)
http://www.pad2pad.com/

"I can test in my two machines... also should have my extra board tested shortly if you need to borrow. Nice work!!"
Its a machine I have always loved so im going to go ahead and try to find one. Kill two birds with one stone. If it doesnt happen in a timely manner I will hit you up to borrow a pcb. I have a buck hunter cab that will be perfect for testing or I can use my KI cab. Op wolf uses a mirror doesnt it? I guess the image will display backwards but it will be sufficient for testing the gun boards.

Can anyone comment on the SNK version of this gun? Any extra info will help, such as a list of games that used it. So far I found this game "Beast Busters" that has three of the guns on the control panel!
http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7063
 
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