Zookeeper in a Qix

isucamper

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Some of you may remember a Qix converted Zookeeper that was on Chicago's craiglist several weeks ago. It was listed as in good shape but not powering on. It had been obtained in a forecloser and the seller stated that there was probably a switch he couldn't find to turn it on. I had some email contact with the owner and I offered him $200 for it at one point, but he said he had accepted an offer for $300 and the buyer was to set up shipping. I kind of gave up on it at that point but last week I emailed the seller again to see if the sale had gone through. He said he still had it and he'd give it to me for $200. Got in the car and 6 hours later I had a Zookeeper in my garage.

zoo.jpg


Not an ideal cabinet I know, but being horny for Zookeeper I couldn't pass it up. It's in pretty good shape, but as the seller stated it wasn't powering on when I got it home. I found the switch underneath and flipped it... still no luck. The cabinet was locked up tight and I'm always reluctant to drill out the lock knowing that there's probably a nice set of keys hanging off the inside of the coin door.

The back lock was pretty simple, and some people on here have recommended lock picking as an alternative to drilling so I watched a few videos and took to it with a paper clip. After several unsuccessful tries, I started asking around work and as luck would have it one of my buddies had a lock pick kit that he let me borrow. Using it, I popped the back door open in about 30 seconds. Much easier than using a paper clip.

zoo1.jpg


The inside was filthy, but pretty complete and unhacked. There were even keys on the coin door!!!

key.jpg


Unfortunately, they don't work in the lock. Oh well.

This cabinet had a decent owner at some point, as the conversion to from Qix was really clean. He had some notes in the manuals and seemed to know what he was doing.

zoo4.jpg


Also, the original battery had been replaced with something else. Anybody recognize this? Do I need to worry about it leaking??

zoo3.jpg


Seasoned Taito cabinet owners can probably already spot my problem in the picture of the inside, but I had no idea how to trouble shoot this issue. Plug it in, flip the switch, and nothing. Not a hum or LED or anything. It was just dead. I did some continuity tests on the power cable as it was pretty frayed, but it checked out ok. I knew about the two interlock switches, but I had them both pulled and still nothing. Turns out, there are the two switches behind the coin door, one for power and one for RAM or something. I had the RAM switch pulled thinking it was the power, but the power one was just dangling, not making contact with the coin door. This morning before work I got screwing with it again, pushed in the switch and pop... power... picture... upside down error message... close coin door (I had pushed in the RAM interlock as I fiddled with it).

Ok... I pulled the interlock switch out for the power, closed the door, and tried again. Power... picture... upside down error message "This location..."

Ok... tried again. Power... Zookeeper music. I couldn't believe it. For as crappy as all the components looked, the machine powered up and I got 2 games of Zookeeper in before work. It was even saving high scores!! Although there were no high scores set on the machine already which I thought was strange. Anyway, I was pretty much high all day as a result of my success, be being a total newb and everything.

However, when I got home after work, the game had stopped working. The 5V LED on the power supply is not on. It was on this morning when the game was running.

Does this make sense? Could the power supply have crapped out after being powered up for the first time in a long time and then sitting all day in reasonable humidity in my garage? Did it just have one last death rattle to tease me with before kicking the bucket?

What's the solution to this? New power supply? Anybody have a good example of a power supply replacement that a novice can follow?
 
However, when I got home after work, the game had stopped working. The 5V LED on the power supply is not on. It was on this morning when the game was running.

Does this make sense?

Dead +5V on a Taito power supply? Makes total sense. The title screen on every early '80s Taito game should say, "Hi, my name is Taito and I eat +5V power supply rails for breakfast."

Whether it was working right this morning is irrelevant. Original Taito power supplies fail if you breathe on 'em wrong. The only one I know of that is still working correctly is in Dokert's Zoo Keeper, and I think it had a voodoo curse put on it years ago that keeps it reanimated like the undead.

Let me put it this way... I own four early '80s Taito games: Qix, Jungle King, Zoo Keeper, and Elevator Action. Of the four only Elevator Action has its original power supply. The other three have had newer switching power supplies installed in them. Guess which ones work and which one is dead.

Elevator Action has marquee and bezel lights and a faintly glowing monitor, but doesn't POST. Why? No +5V going to the PCB.

What's the solution to this? New power supply? Anybody have a good example of a power supply replacement that a novice can follow?

Arcade Shop sells a switching power supply with a Taito converter board on it so it's a drop in replacement. I need to order one myself.

Normally you'd be fine rebuilding the original power supply on a lot of golden era coin ops, but if it's a Taito just save yourself the trouble and chuck the original power supply into the nearest garbage bin where it belongs.
 
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Thanks for the info! I see the arcade shop set has the same pins on it as the Taito power supply so I can plug the existing PCB cables right into it. Awesome.

taito-ps.jpg


How much of the bottom of the cabinet does this replace?

ps.jpg


Just the powersupply board? Would I plug the new powersupply into the available outlet that's in there? What about the the wires coming from the fuse box in the upper left and the wires going to that black box on the side of the cabinet? Also, some wires from the PS are going to that little plate on the left and they are soldered on.

Again, thanks for the help.
 
I also need to order that power supply for my Elevator Action, but I think that the two blue wires on the ArcadeShop power supply have splices which connect to AC power somewhere in the cabinet. I haven't checked where that would be though.

ETA: I'd probably take the old Taito power supply off of your hands, if you get the new power supply.
 
I also need to order that power supply for my Elevator Action, but I think that the two blue wires on the ArcadeShop power supply have splices which connect to AC power somewhere in the cabinet. I haven't checked where that would be though.

ETA: I'd probably take the old Taito power supply off of your hands, if you get the new power supply.

Just ordered the Qix one. I'm assuming all the Taito ones are actually the same thing. If not, I'm not sure what I would need for a Qix to Zookeeper conversion. I guess I should have asked the lady.

I'll probably hang on to the original in case I ever get an itch to rebuild it.

Also, I was told the kit comes with instructions to help idiots like me swap it in.
 
Just ordered the Qix one. I'm assuming all the Taito ones are actually the same thing. If not, I'm not sure what I would need for a Qix to Zookeeper conversion. I guess I should have asked the lady.

I'll probably hang on to the original in case I ever get an itch to rebuild it.

Also, I was told the kit comes with instructions to help idiots like me swap it in.

Yes, the Qix & ZK use the same kit and it's very easy to install.
 
How much of the bottom of the cabinet does this replace?

ps.jpg


Just the powersupply board?

The power supply board (that PCB in the bottom that has the giant blue capacitor and the big white capacitor) and the black box on the side of the cabinet (that's a giant heatsink for a couple of the power supply's transistors that run really hot; Taito just isolated them to keep them from burning up the rest of the power supply board).

Would I plug the new powersupply into the available outlet that's in there?

Nope, that's backwards. Your new switching power supply doesn't plug into anything inside the cab because it is what is providing the power. The switcher's cord will run out of the back of the cab and plug into an electrical outlet.

That outlet you see in the bottom of the cab receives power from the power supply. It is a service outlet that is not behind the isolation transformer. That means it is hot whenever the power supply is plugged in, not just when the cabinet's power switch is in the "On" position. The service outlet is there simply as a convenience for an arcade tech to plug in a light or an electrical tool without having to run an extension cord across the arcade floor.

Frequently when you pick up an old game like this that has had a new monitor installed in it you will see that the installer just plugged the new monitor into the service outlet. It works but that is incorrect. Doing this does not put the monitor behind the isolation transformer, so whenever the cab is plugged in to electrical power the monitor is getting power and is running even when the cab's power switched is turned off. Safety issue, not to mention it wastes electricity.

What about the the wires coming from the fuse box in the upper left and the wires going to that black box on the side of the cabinet? Also, some wires from the PS are going to that little plate on the left and they are soldered on.

The black box was discussed above; it is part of your power supply assembly and can be wrecked out when you install your new switcher. What I'm not clear about yet are the wires going to the fuse box and the wires soldered to that plate on the left. I haven't done this project myself yet. I've just seen others' handiwork in my own Taito cabs and I picked Oryk Zinyo's brain a bit when he was helping me with my Jungle King and when we looked at my dead Elevator Action. Hopefully Arcade Shop's instructions are idiot proof for us relative idiots. :)
 
Well I don't get it. This thing was dead in my garage. I ordered a new power supply and lugged the cabinet down to my basement. After a slightly bumpy trip, the new power supply showed up and I was all ready to install it. I figured I'd plug the game in first just to be sure it was still dead and it came up with all 4 LEDs lit on the power supply. Its been running great for 4 days now.

Not sure if moving it fixed something, or if the cooler temperatures in my basement are more conducive to the 30 year old capacitors, or what. Doesn't make sense to me.

zoo5.jpg


For the record, the arcade shop power supply doesn't plug into the wall. It hooks into where the monitor gets AC inside the cab. Basically, you unplug the monitor, plug the power supply in to where the monitor was hooked up, and then plug the monitor into the spliced connectors of the power supply. It looks really easy to install. Gonna hang on to it for now and see how long the original will last me.

230,000 and counting. I'm addicted to this game.
 
You probably have cold solder joints in the power supply board, and on the EMI board (if there is one in the cabinet). On my EA, EVERY SINGLE connector on the EMI board had >75% of the solder joints broken.

If you have any soldering experience, it's easy. Pull out the power supply, remove the old solder, and add new solder to all of the connectors, and components that you notice with broken solder joints. Same for the EMI board, if there is one.
 
Was reviewing this thread and I wanted to correct myself. The arcade shop power supply bites into the AC lines going to the monitor. It doesn't plug into anything.

However, I've been playing my zookeeper for months now on the original taito power supply without a problem. my high score is up to 3.4 mill!! love this game. I would like to restore the cabinet cause it's pretty beat up, but I don't think I can go that long without being able to play it.
 
I bet DPTwiz would build you a new one! Then you could buy the stencils and have the correct cab ready to go to minimize down time and end up with a minty machine!
 
I bet DPTwiz would build you a new one! Then you could buy the stencils and have the correct cab ready to go to minimize down time and end up with a minty machine!

That'd be sweet. I was thinking it'd be great to find some beat up old zookeeper converted to a rastan or something, then I could restore that cabinet while still working on my high score, and then do a quick switch of components when it was done, but a scratch build would be almost as good. Too bad my arcade budget is gone for the year :(
 
Could you scan that conversion manual from qix to zookeeper and share it with us?
 
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I repaired the original supply in my qix several years ago and its still going strong. Yes they seem to have a high failure rate from what I have seen. I repaired one a couple weeks ago and the bridge for the +5 was bad. Replaced that then the damn thing was crowbaring when I tried to adjust the +5 up where it needed to be. Swapped out the zener diode and its been good since.
Its very common for the BR's to go on these. I noticed alot of them have heatsinks added to help cool them. I dont think these came on them originally, probably added by the operator.
 
I repaired the original supply in my qix several years ago and its still going strong. Yes they seem to have a high failure rate from what I have seen. I repaired one a couple weeks ago and the bridge for the +5 was bad. Replaced that then the damn thing was crowbaring when I tried to adjust the +5 up where it needed to be. Swapped out the zener diode and its been good since.
Its very common for the BR's to go on these. I noticed alot of them have heatsinks added to help cool them. I dont think these came on them originally, probably added by the operator.

Good tip. Sort of unrelated, but I fixed a p/s in a Lady Bug and I had noticed that the BR got really hot. I had some of the huge replacement types, so I replaced it and added a heat sink. Sure didn't hurt.
 
been meaning to do this. got it scanned
 

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