Zoo Keeper scratch build

barrysfarm

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Over the past 8 months or so, I've been on-and-off building a zoo keeper mostly from scratch. I used a barely working, water damaged 10 Yard Fight to get accurate measurements (also where i got all the hardware), and built every piece of wood from scratch.

The machine is done for now. If someone ever reproduces the bezel, the marquee, or the side art, i'll buy those up quickly and replace what I've got. It's running a game room classics multi board right now, though i've got an almost complete ZK board set that I may, one day, attempt to fix.

The actual cost on this machine was actually much less than most of my other projects, and i had a lot of fun doing it.

I kept a log of everything I did, though I kind of forgot to take pictures over the last few weeks.

http://barrysarcade.com/post/10643147891/zoo-keeper
 

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Looks great! My only comment is your using the wrong stick.. Zookeeper came with a short shaft wico leaf joystick.. Nos ones are expensive, but if you want a rebuilt one pm me.
 
gamestencils was selling the art...they sold out, were supposed to print more but never have...they only have the kick plate right now.
 
Looks great! My only comment is your using the wrong stick.. Zookeeper came with a short shaft wico leaf joystick.. Nos ones are expensive, but if you want a rebuilt one pm me.

Interesting. The joystick is the one that was on the 10 yard fight, and is a wico leaf, but the shaft does look longer now that I look up pictures of other games. Could I just replace the shaft?
 
gamestencils was selling the art...they sold out, were supposed to print more but never have...they only have the kick plate right now.

I bought some standard taito stencils from him a week ago, which I was originally going to use on this, before I decided on just waiting. (They're the same as an Elevator Action) Brian from game stencils told me that it's not looking likely for ZK side art any time soon. He said there wasn't enough interest to justify costs.
 
If its a skinny diameter shaft, then yes all you have to to is swap.. If its a 3.5" thicker diameter one, then the hole in the base will be to large.
 
If it came off a 10 yard fight then it is probably an 8-way stick while Zoo Keeper is a 4-way game.
 
ZK build

Who did you get the repro marquee & bezel from and how is the quality. I have been shopping for them and haven't made up my mind where to get them...
 
Who did you get the repro marquee & bezel from and how is the quality. I have been shopping for them and haven't made up my mind where to get them...

I got them from gameongraphics. They had them in their clearance section because i think someone returned them, so they were like $15. As a temporary solution until someone silk screens some, they work just fine. The bezel doesn't have the cut out pieces that the original had, and the marquee had some black flecks on them. I put the bezel on top of the 10 yard fight bezel, since it wasn't too scratched up, but then I realized that the instructions at the bottom had lights underneath.


Nice work!

Any pics of the inside and the boards? Just curious.

Sure. Here's a few I just took.

I realized when I opened the back door I've still got some work to do. I need to clean up the jamma harness. I've got cable ties and cable holders to do it, I just didn't have time to do it over the weekend.

I also plan to clean up the power section.
 

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that taito board....

By the way you can swap the memory card and put in the 10in1 and also the SNK games. You can search KLOV for the files. I suggest you also make a back up of your 20in1.
 
Nice job, that cabinet looks great! Hopefully someone will repro the sideart stencils (again). I thought someone did a run of screened marquees not too long ago? Or maybe I'm thinking of the cpos...
 
Sure. Here's a few I just took.

I realized when I opened the back door I've still got some work to do. I need to clean up the jamma harness. I've got cable ties and cable holders to do it, I just didn't have time to do it over the weekend.

I also plan to clean up the power section.


Yes, that is a small board for sure! Just wondered what it looked like and not familiar with Jamma stuff...

I am a big fan of things like what you did and or taking a console game for example and making an original game from it, only wiring it all like an original so no one can tell it is running a console or Jamma. (note to others, this is not a debate on using a console to make a machine and the pros or cons, just my opinion that is all)
 
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First off - great looking cabinet! Zookeeper is a perennial favorite of mine, so I was glad to find this thread. Best of (continued) luck on finding the rest of the parts.

Hopefully. Fingers crossed. The CPO was recently done. I think someone is working on the marquee and bezel.

Quarterarcade.com has the silkscreened CPO's available for sale.

http://www.quarterarcade.com/Game.aspx/10038

I'm hoping for silkscreen repro marquees and bezels myself.

Also, I'll vouch for Local413 as a seller.. I've bought several Taito parts from him for my ZK build and he's treated me very well.
 
Nice work on a great game. Until someone does the sideart/stencils, you should cram the cabinet between a couple of others. :D

A couple of mistakes for Taito cabinets:
1. The side carriage bolt heads are supposed to be shiny, not dark (not sure if yours are painted or chemically darkened)

2. One of the bolt heads in the back is shiny, while the rest are dark :001_sconfused:
 
Thanks!

I couldn't find anything conclusive about the bolt heads, so I sanded them and painted them. Wouldn't take long to sand off the paint.

As I was putting the machine together, I realized that I lost one of the bolts. I founded it the next day, but didn't have time to paint that one.

Nice work on a great game. Until someone does the sideart/stencils, you should cram the cabinet between a couple of others. :D

A couple of mistakes for Taito cabinets:
1. The side carriage bolt heads are supposed to be shiny, not dark (not sure if yours are painted or chemically darkened)

2. One of the bolt heads in the back is shiny, while the rest are dark :001_sconfused:
 
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