- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
- Messages
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Damn..nice way to go!
looking good man..
looking good man..
Simpsons restoration
- Thread starter SuperGunGuru
- Start date
OP
OP
I found some NOS Wico joysticks on eBay last week and they arrived yesterday. They look very nice overall and should bring a more authentic look to the cab than using Happ joysticks. I still need to place an order with Bob to get new buttons and a few molex connectors and then I can finish up the entire cabinet wiring which is the biggest task left other than purchasing and applying side art. The coin doors and vaults have also been re-installed on the cab. There are a few wires hacked on them, but nothing a little solder and heat shrink tubing can't clean up.
cadillacman
Well-known member
dude you gotta be dying.... id kill for that game man..
NICE JOB... take your time, that baby will be pristine when your done with it..
NICE JOB... take your time, that baby will be pristine when your done with it..
OP
OP
Thanks for the kind words.
It's been a lot of fun so far and I was just thinking back on how far the game truly has come from what I started with. This resto has made me feel more confident about tackling projects that I have let sit for far too long. The fact I am out of room now will force me to focus on these neglected projects. I just found out today that my cousin, who's helped me move a number of cabs, has a nice spray gun setup. Kinda funny I just found out, but I guess the subject never came up with me not really into painting my cabs much. I'm hoping to get my Q*Bert finally painted in the near future, *maybe* while the Simpsons is in progress or at least before winter gets here.
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Tighe
Well-known member
Too bad you are not near NY you could have bought this cheap:
OP
OP
Too bad you are not near NY you could have bought this cheap:
Yeah but then I'd miss out on the fun of restoring this one and bringing it back from conversion hell.
Still as I've said earlier I probably wouldn't have done this full restore if the side art had been salvageable. It has been fun though.
descrentl
New member
Lovin this thread. Looking great so far. Im looking forward to seeing your finished project.
shawnbo42
Member
Yeah, I am also enjoying the read on this one. Keep up the good work, and raise it from the dead! Er...dying...um...alive in another form? Yeah, that's it.
Also, what paint did you use on your coin doors? That looks incredible. I want some.
Also, what paint did you use on your coin doors? That looks incredible. I want some.
OP
OP
Thanks for all the kind words thus far. First, a little progress update for today. JoshBrown80 dropped by last Saturday with some nice new locks for all coin doors and the back door. With all of the major painting completed, the cab was moved inside and to the basement arcade on Sunday. I think I will need to do a little bit more filling and sanding on the cabinet because I found a spot with some dips in it and I want a nice surface for the side art to sit on.
My joystick and control panel hardware came in on Monday and today the last of the parts needed for the wiring phase arrived courtesy of Bob. I still need to replace the plexi at some point, but I couldn't resist mounting all the joysticks and buttons to the cab to see how it looked. The next phase will be finishing up the wiring, which won't be difficult but just time consuming. I had posted a thread in the repair forum regarding the connectors originally used on the control panel's break connectors. I got some good responses there and from a suggestion there I measured the pin pitch and thought they are molex .093 connectors. However after comparing some molex .093 connectors I had lying around, I found out there are not Molex, but probably Amp. Since I'm doing this much wiring including fixing up a few broken ground loops on the cp, I decided to just get .093 Molex connectors.
Shawnbo42: The stuff used on the coin doors is Rustoleum's "Appliance Epoxy." JoshBrown80 suggested I try it as he learned about it at work. It's supposed to be more durable and give a smooth factory like finish. It definitely looks nice.
My joystick and control panel hardware came in on Monday and today the last of the parts needed for the wiring phase arrived courtesy of Bob. I still need to replace the plexi at some point, but I couldn't resist mounting all the joysticks and buttons to the cab to see how it looked. The next phase will be finishing up the wiring, which won't be difficult but just time consuming. I had posted a thread in the repair forum regarding the connectors originally used on the control panel's break connectors. I got some good responses there and from a suggestion there I measured the pin pitch and thought they are molex .093 connectors. However after comparing some molex .093 connectors I had lying around, I found out there are not Molex, but probably Amp. Since I'm doing this much wiring including fixing up a few broken ground loops on the cp, I decided to just get .093 Molex connectors.
Shawnbo42: The stuff used on the coin doors is Rustoleum's "Appliance Epoxy." JoshBrown80 suggested I try it as he learned about it at work. It's supposed to be more durable and give a smooth factory like finish. It definitely looks nice.
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- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
- Messages
- 575
- Reaction score
- 65
Yes I can personally vouch for the Appliance epoxy..I ues it on games at work (Chuck E Cheese's and it awesome
Biull...
Control Panel looks AMAZING! hopefully Bobs package is here by sunday...cuz we got some wiring to do
Biull...
Control Panel looks AMAZING! hopefully Bobs package is here by sunday...cuz we got some wiring to do
OP
OP
Huh? The package from Bob arrived today man! That's why I have the buttons all installed. The wiring now is a matter of figuring out what needs to go where.Yes I can personally vouch for the Appliance epoxy..I ues it on games at work (Chuck E Cheese's and it awesome
Biull...
Control Panel looks AMAZING! hopefully Bobs package is here by sunday...cuz we got some wiring to do
Just got done with a bit more progress. I fixed the hacked coin door wiring and made sure to solder and use heat shrink tubing so the repair functions as well as it looks. I'm still not entirely sure how the coin doors will be wired. The coin door lamps run off of +12, but I don't know how it was originally routed there from the power supply. The game uses one of those UPS11 computer style supplies which is factory. I can only assume that the JAMMA harness side of the power supply molex connector has wires doubled up in the connector with some going to the JAMMA harness and others to the coin door. Anyone got a dedicated Simpsons willing to take a few pics of the wiring to the coin door?
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meatball2112
New member
Supergun
I can take a few for you. Tell me what you need and I will get it for you.
OP
OP
What I really need is a picture of is how the +12 for the coin door lights get to the coin door. I'm assuming the wires have to come right out of the power supply's molex connection before it gets to the JAMMA harness. A few pictures of how the wires to the control panel are bundled and run up to the panel would be helpful too. In fact a general wide shot of the wiring as it sits in the cabinet couldn't hurt either. I appreciate you being willing to help. Please let me know if you need better descriptions of what I'm looking for. Thanks!
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OP
OP
Hours of work between myself and Josh brings the biggest progress yet to the cabinet. We spent hours and hours crimping wires and re-wiring most of the cabinet. I think our work looks pretty damn good as well as nice and neat. Using my 6 player X-Men as a reference to how Konami did some things, we got it figured out very well. We did have a setback near the end with the JAMMA harness housing not wanting to hold a 5 volt pin in place. A little piece of plastic that grips the barb on the JAMMA pins had broken off and it happened on another one too. We decided to transfer all the wiring to another spare housing. After that it was a matter of hooking up the coin doors and 99% of the wiring is done. The game still needs its test button mounted to one of the coin vaults and the coin counters. Of course with the game ready to play, we had to test it out just to make sure everything works. As expected, player 2's coin input is stuck closed according to the test menu. I think it's a funky resistor pack that will need to be changed to fix that, which is no biggie, but I may have to find a junk Konami board to get it. Also the convergence is still a bit off on the right side of the screen, but we were able to bring the reds more in line horizontally than they were upon first testing the game. At this point it's mostly cosmetics (t-molding, marquee, and side art) to be done. I'd like to get the convergence tweaked a bit more also, but the monitor still has a very nice picture.
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its looking great.. I need to get moving on mine..
someone painted black over the art too.. I was getting the paint off with goof off, but its taking the blue/teal background ink off the art too..
so... maybe I should get moving!
someone painted black over the art too.. I was getting the paint off with goof off, but its taking the blue/teal background ink off the art too..
so... maybe I should get moving!
Zeke The Plumber.......
OP
OP
Haha I wondered how many people on KLOV, if anyone would recognize my avatar. Salute Your Shorts is classic.
One of the best shows ever. When I was a kid, I thought "Dina Alexander" was the hottest girl on earth. Every Saturday morning was Salute Your Shorts, Clarissa Explains It All, Rocko's Modern Life, and Ren And Stimpy. Great old lineup.
OP
OP
Well I'm hoping to get the player 2 (Homer) coin input issue fixed soon. A guy over at BOYAC is generously sending me another Konami board that has multiple IC failures so I can get the small resisitor pack looking chip off it for Simpsons. The last thing I'm debating his how to handle the side art issue. I would love to find some NOS side art but that's going to be tough to find and even then I would be concerned with it sticking to the cab being so old. Mamemarquees does have sideart availalbe on their page, but in comparing how it looks on another restoration versus an original cabinet, I can see that the characters on the mamemarquees version are smaller. You can really tell comparing these photos and using Homer's position relative to the bottom of the cabinet.
Original cab as seen on Quarterarcade
A cabinet restored using Mamemarquees side art
Localarcade.com has a PDF of another Simpsons side art scan that I was thinking of asking Mamemarquees to print out instead of what they currently. I think it looks close in terms of the character size. Unfortunately their website is down at the moment, but I do have the PDF saved fortunately. If anyone has any thoughts or opinions on this I'd be glad to hear them. I know I wouldn't be the first to be picky on repro artwork, but I am glad there is at least some option available. I just want it to be as close as it can get.
Original cab as seen on Quarterarcade
A cabinet restored using Mamemarquees side art
Localarcade.com has a PDF of another Simpsons side art scan that I was thinking of asking Mamemarquees to print out instead of what they currently. I think it looks close in terms of the character size. Unfortunately their website is down at the moment, but I do have the PDF saved fortunately. If anyone has any thoughts or opinions on this I'd be glad to hear them. I know I wouldn't be the first to be picky on repro artwork, but I am glad there is at least some option available. I just want it to be as close as it can get.
