Turbo Outrun mini - better than when I got it...

ifkz

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I was on the hunt for a Turbo Outrun for years and my wish came true about a week ago. I got it non-working but a few reseated cables and brought her back to life. I am very happy to have my old arcade favorite...I haven't been in front of a real one since I was twelve. Reproduction art isn't available, but I wouldn't have the budget for it even if it was around. My goal is to make this look better than when I got it, hence my title.

Here is what it looked like when I got it.
HPIM1270.jpg


Here is what it looks like after I found some freely available art on the internet and 0.60 cents for red posterboard. Special thanks to JC Arcade for a good scan of the bezel emblem.
HPIM1287.jpg


The steering wheel cap was printed on adhesive paper and stuck on a piece of plastic from an old folder, the map was printed on regular paper and sprayed with adhesive. The power cord was missing the ground plug, so I bought a new end and spliced it in.

After the initial power up, I found that I had no sound. Long story short, I soon found that the amp for the game was missing. It turns out that this mini amp board is a bit hard to find, but I found a member here that sold me one from a regular Out Run UR. After some re-wiring and member input, I got it to work..sort of. All sounds and music are present, but can't be turned up much before distortion sets in. It is not the speakers, I tried known good ones with the same result. A 12V regulator in-line didn't help either. I may re-cap the amp in the future to see if that helps. But, much better than nothing, and if I have to live with it, I'm still happy.

I removed the lock bar assembly and I plan to fill in the holes with bondo and repaint everything black.

The game is missing the push button power switch, I'll have to see if I can find a replacement. The monitor is a K7000 in need of a cap kit and a new flyback.

The more I complete, the more I'll update this post :)
 
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Is that a converted turbo cabinet? I haven't seen a cabaret outrun. Does that have a shaker motor for the steering wheel?

Love me some Outrun mini's! Here's mine (original Outrun variety) followed by a Turbo Outrun like ifkz just scored...

mini%202%20021.jpg


Turbo%20Outrun%20Mini.jpg
 
Those are sweet. I've never seen the mini versions before. I might be able to squeeze one of those in the basement. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for one of those.
 
Looks good so far! There is a lot to work with there and will be real nice when done!
 
I had a little time today and I removed the coin door to get better access to the lock bar holes and other damage the cab received during its former life on route. Next, I'll sand and paint.

Before:
HPIM1289.jpg


After:
HPIM1293.jpg


The other side, no art to worry about:
HPIM1295.jpg
 
Something to consider is seeing if KLOV'r "JeffKlam" still has some more of the Outrun floor matting. Bottom of my cab looked like yours with the metal trim and matting all discolored. You can see in the pic of my Outrun above that the new floor matting makes it look fantastic. Think it was only $15 shipped or something, but that was a while back.

** Edit - on second glance I think the floor matting is supposed to be black on those Turbo Outrun cabs, so ignore my "discolored" comment. Carry on. :) **
 
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I had the entire day to myself, so I sunk the time into finishing off the cab's exterior. I sanded, masked, painted, and polished. The most surprising part of the whole project was how well I got the pedals to shine, and how well the rubber mat cleaned up. I also rebuilt the coin door and sprayed it with rustoleum textured black paint. It certainly looks like a much nicer machine now.

Side art side
HPIM1300.jpg


No art side, the black monolith.
HPIM1299.jpg


I give myself a strict limit of .50 cents in quarters so far and I have not finished the game. I may lower that to .25 cents after I finish it. I am well aware how a continue feature can ruin games, I have a similar limit on Toobin. I've got to earn my ending.

I still have some things to do with the machine, like wire up the coin door lights, hunt down a new steering wheel, rebuild the K7000, and stick some of the peeling side art back down.
 
I've been pretty busy with my game since my last post. In addition to another coat of paint...

HPIM1325.jpg


Welcome to my (manual) Outrun multi-game! Between posts I did some work (obviously).

For starters I met another forum member and bought an expensive dead Outrun boardset along with a slightly better steering wheel. I even took some armor-all to the wheel to "shine and protect" it.

Per the DOA Outrun set, I was unable to bring it back to life, even after a new memory chip the self test flagged as bad. I still had a trick up my sleeve. One of the readers of this thread and I worked out a deal for a Turbo Outrun set with issues. When I got it, I set about converting it to a regular Out Run set. It was a tedious process, keeping each chip in the right spot, but it went without issue...until the first power up. I had a mostly working Outrun, but like Turbo Outrun, the glitches remained. After glancing everything over, I noticed some clipped components on this new set vs. my DOA set. The tally ended up being one missing cap on the upper board, two clipped out resistors on the bottom board, and two sets of jumper wires that needed to be moved into new slots. I ended up using the good top board that I fixed and the bottom board from my DOA set. After the second power up, everything looked just as it should! Whew! After other things in my life breaking lately, and my own spotty game PCB repairs, this is a huge win. I needed it.

It didn't help that my trusty iron broke it's tip while I was in the middle of repair. Nothing like trying to do tight work with a tip that resembled something bought at Rat Shack. My work station, and a complete set of working Turbo Outrun EPROMs and mask ROMS, and suicide CPU (still working). I thought about trying to sell what was left to recoup costs, but I'll keep it around for future troubleshooting.
HPIM1326.jpg



Now that I have a genuine Outrun to see and play, I can say with 100% certainty that all of the ports of this game are bad. The scrolling is off on all of them! I've been an Outrun fan since the Sega Master System version through the Genesis and more recent Xbox port in Shenmue II. They're all wrong....including MAME. This is one of the few times were I was lamenting the cost of the PCBs until I booted the game, looked at it and started playing. The cost truely fell away...amazing!

Here is a pic of my manual multi-game. Hey, manual is the only way to drive a Ferarri, right? I finally found a use for Bob Robert's lagnapie PCB standoffs. Like my idea?
HPIM1324.jpg


Still more to do the cab. My next project will be to rebuild the K7000 series in the cab with a new flyback, capkit, and maybe a new VR (just in case).

Anyone know what grease to use to lube everything. I usually use brownish lithium grease, but this had white grease of a sort on the gears and somthing on the accel/brake assemblies. Anyone???
 
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Awesome! Nice troubleshooting. Now help me try to coerce someone into making a high score save kit for Outrun. If you do a search, you'll see that I've tried...and tried...and tried. :D

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I need to find a new or reproduction Low/High plate to make the control panel look better. It was used on several games, so it should not be too hard to source. I haven't looked into it yet. It is pretty much done on a cosmetic level. Next year I'll freshen up the monitor chassis with new caps and a new flyback.

Thanks for the thread bump, nice to see it got some views.
 
I have a working Turbo Out Run full-size upright (converted from an out Run). I'd like to get a working Out Run boardset for it so I could have a manual multi, too. What do they go for?
 
I did a search of past for sale posts here. $180 to slightly over $200 depending on shipping it seems.
 
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