Spotlight on: Moon Patrol

As I began to fall in love with classic games as a kid of the 80's, Moon Patrol was one of my first 'favorites'. A local bingo hall called Jake's was where I played Moon Patrol quite regularly on Friday nights while my mom and grandmother played bingo. As a kid I could make it to point 'Z' then to point 'J' with a high score of 79,360.
 I was able to acquire one from a local amusement company, only to have it destroyed by Hurricane Katrina years ago. This one was one that I had sold to the owner of a bar room in the French Quarter back in '02. He still had it and agreed to sell it to me for around $300. It developed a logic board issue that was resolved by swapping in a working spare, and also has a new repro CPO installed.

Spotlight on : Wacko

Here's one of the games in the arcade that gets regular play, a Bally/Midway Wacko. It uses the MCR-2 hardware, similar to Tron/ Kickman/Solar Fox and a few others.
One Friday Ouida and I stopped by Dee's Amusements in Mississippi to see what they had for sale, and this Wacko was sitting outside in the parking lot. Worse yet was that it was getting ready to pour down raining. The owner, Bill, said $50 and it's yours. I quickly agreed and they brought it inside until I could swing by with my truck the next day.
As for what's been done to the game, of course the G0-7 has been recapped along with Bob Roberts G0-7 trim pot kit to make adjustments smooth. Next, the linear power supply was removed and replaced with an Arcadeshop switcher. Onto the MCR-2 board stack. All ribbon cables were replaced with new ones that I built from scratch. The sound board kept throwing a 'Sound Board Interface Error', so a working spare was swapped in. A repro CPO from Thisoldgame has been ordered and I also have a trackball rebuild kit waiting to be installed. The SSIO board has r135 removed so that sound runs in the attract mode.

Time to get caught up again

Life gets busy sometimes, and it's been a while since I last posted, but now it's time to get caught up once again on the happenings in the game room. First, to start things out, here's a picture of a custom shirt that my wife got me for Christmas. She made sure that the font onthe shirt matches the game room wall lettering font!!

Board game day today

We did play some video games today, with my wife kicking my butt on Millipede.Ouida and I also competed at Tempest, Centipede, Donkey Kong Jr., and Dig Dug.  Here's her and the kids playing some Sorry Sliders:

Other new overlays

And here's three other overlays that were replaced. Here's the panels with the new overlays installed.
Qbert:

Millipede:

and Moon Patrol:

New Asteroids Deluxe overlay

We got tired of seeing the CPO on Asteroids DeLuxe all cracked up and in poor shape, so one of my Father's Day presents from the family was an overlay for this game. Here's the process and final result:

Here's the control panel stripped and ready for the new overlay:

Finished product:

Defender - What a pain to keep running!!

This Defender was one that sat in storage for 10+ years, then brought home when the game room was built. Basically 'just' missing the power supply. Put a power supply in and it came up with a RAM error. Replaced the bad RAM and it worked for a few hours. Pretty much had issue after issue since then. Replaced the CPU to ROM ribbon cable, CPI board, 2 ROM sockets, burned misc. ROMs, fixed the sound board, swapped from 4116 to 4164 RAMs, lithium battery mod for settings retention, and for now it has been working for the past few weeks. Hopefully it's the end of problems with this one!!!

Our high score board

Maybe not the most impressive scores in the world, but it keeps things competitive between us. Picked up this black dry erase board from Hobby Lobby for $24 and the fluorescent markers were a few bucks.

Omega Race fixed again

Omega Race worked for a little while, then started rebooting over and over. It would go into self test without issue, but going into game mode would cause watchdogging of the CPU. It would do this after the game warmed up. Probing the RESET NOT signal showed that the watchdog was being cleared as it was supposed to, but I couldn't lock on to a periodic signal with my scope. However, coolant spray, which would normally pinpoint the bad IC, did not work in this case. On occasion, when entering the self test, it would indicate a bad random EPROM. I went ahead and burned a new set of EPROMs and all is somewhat working. The game plays fine, but the screen 'blooms', or enlarges, when warmed up, indicating a bad HV rectifier on the monitor. As for now, at least I get this when the game is powered on, so there is some success.

Macgyver fix#1 - Swimming pool water adder

This blog isn't all about arcade games, as sometimes I'd like to post about something fixed around the house. Maybe it might come in handy to someone else. About 8 months ago, we bought an automatic water adder(Poolkeeper model 128 by Marpac) off of Amazon for $85, as our pool has a small leak, and last year the water ran so low that the pump went dry and burned up, setting me back $450. Ouch!!. Seven months later, the crappy 'Poolkeeper' wouldn't stop adding water, causing the pool to overflow. The valve had already failed. A replacement valve was $25 from Marpac. What a piece of crap. Ended up putting together an automatic water adder of my own, using a toilet bowl water valve, some PVC, and a PVC to garden hose adaptor. The end result, a $20 water adder that has a full 3 inches of adjustment. So far, so good. Water level in the pool has stayed nice and level for the past two days. Now to figure out where the pool is leaking and fix that!!!

Father's Day 2014

A great day with the family today. Everyone went in the pool, then later on in the afternoon everyone went in the game room and had a good time. On the monitors was The Last Starfighter, one of the cool movies from the early 80's. My wife destroyed the Q-bert high score for the game room, trashing and attempt for me to own that score.
On a so-so note, the Omega race success only lasted 30 minutes, lol. After warming up, the game promptly goes into resets. Probing the board shows that the Z-80 pin 26 is getting hit with resets. The watchdog circuit shows that the watchdog timer is being cleared, but not at a set frequency like it should. Appears to be thermal in nature, but 2 damn cans of component cooler from Radio Shack proved otherwise. Oh well, a project for another day.

Omega Race fixed!!!

After two days of troubleshooting, Omega Race is working again, with thanks to douglasb from the KLOV forums. IC G3 (LS97 counter) was showing an issue when checking with the HP 10529a logic comparitor. Popped in a new chip and the game is running again!!!

Omega Race troubleshooting

When Omega Race was first plugged in, it appeared to be completely dead. Checking the monitor revealed that F100 and F101 were blown. Replaced those and the game came up. The screen appeared messed up but looked playable. It would coin up but no sounds. Replaced the Z-80 on the sound PCB and all sounds were working. Now it's time to troubleshoot the messed up screen issues. Looking at the screen you can see that all vectors on the X-axis are OK, but many of the Y-axis vectors are a mess. So far the following has been done- verified EPROMs, replaced LS 245, 04, and 32 near where the battery was, and swapped out all RAMS. Next I'll move on to using the HP10529a comparitor, checking the IC's in the vertical position circuitry.

Omega Race moved into the room

Just when we thought that we couldn't possibly fit another game into the room, we brought in Omega Race yesterday, after doing some creative rearranging. It doesn't work currently, but it'll be getting worked on soon. The game worked prior to being put in storage over 10 years ago, but now does nothing but flash the start buttons when coined up. No sound or video.

Home theater section done

When we originally laid out the game room prior to building it, my wife and I had an agreement that I could have the majority of the building for the arcade, as long as she could have a small theater area for her and the kids(and me!!). Well, after a year of waiting, all of the components were ordered and installed. The hardest part was the running of cables in the attic, as everything had been insulated and decked, not to mention the south Louisiana heat in the attic. This pic is from last night, before watching Avatar.

Saturday game night

Everyone gathered in the game room tonight to play with their iDevices, but Ally wanted to play Millipede, and Alan had fun just gathering up the quarters from the games. Probably the last game night for a week or so with work. Did get a chance to go through some of the coin mechs and coin entry lights. With Alan sticking his hands inside of the games searching for quarters, we had to put locks on all of the games. While doing so, we started to make sure that all of the games could accept quarters, to help with the true arcade feel of the room. Also on the horizon in the next two weeks is a return trip to operator Bobby's barn where we picked up the Mario Bros and Super Pac-Man from, this time to hopefully pick up some no picture tube burn monitors, and possibly a mint Qix cocktail.

Abby breaks 100K on Mario Bros.!!

Today we all went to the beach in Mississippi for a few hours. ended up catching a dozen crabs by hand, and had a crab boil this evening. 

 

Afterwards, we went in the game room and played some games for a few hours. Abby broke the 100K mark on Mario Bros., with a score of 105,000!!!

Unexpected Thursday game night

Didn't plan on going in the game room last night, but our oldest, Abigail, wanted to play some Joust and Mario Bros. I couldn't say no to that, and it allowed me to finally find the right setting on the camera to take some nice pictures. Abby passed the 90K mark on Mario Bros. and continues to get better at it, as well as Millipede.

Sunday family game night

After fixing Bubbles and Stargate, we all gathered in the game room this evening to play video games, while the two little ones watched TV in the theater area. In the above picture, Abigail continues to get better at the games, this time having a go at Kickman.

A shot of one of my favorites, Mario Bros., which we picked up a while back from a barn out in the country. Next up on the repair list is Omega Race and Star Castle, which are currently in the garage area.

Stargate and Bubbles both fixed

Stargate had been working OK for all of a week, then it popped up with the vertical lines through the screen issue. Searching the forums mentioned forcing the game into cocktail mode to determine if the problem is the shift registers. I did that first, the the game did indeed go into cocktail mode, BUT, the lines were still there. The game would throw up a RAM error only in test mode but never in game mode. Swapped the RAMs and no change. Swapped video decoders and no change. Probing the outputs from the shift registers with a scope showed that 4I and 4J had outputs that resembled a clock signal, while the other 6 shift registers showed bursts of data. On a whim, I took a spare 74166 and piggybacked the register at 4I. Presto, problem solved, vertical lines all gone!!. It appeared that 4I and 4J were both bad, which is why putting it into cocktail mode didn't change things. I verified this by checking the outputs from 4I and 4J after swapping in the new chip. The output from 4I now looks like the other shift registers, while 4J's output looks like a clock signal.

As for Bubbles, it was stuck in cocktail mode, so when you'd play a 2 player game, on player 2's turn, the screen would flip upside down. Swapped the CPI board and the problem was gone, so it was probably the 6821 PIA chip on that board.  That's enough repairs for this weekend. Time to play some games!!

Game night 5/16

Everyone was too tired for video games this Friday night except my oldest daughter Abigail , so we headed out to the game room and played some classic video games. On the video screens this evening was The Neverending Story. I got schooled by my 10 year old daughter on Turbo and Joust!!!

Abby was very happy after kicking some butt on Frogger!!

The Neverending Story playing on the video screens to make it feel more like the 80's!!

Putting the lights on before shutting everything down for the night. I was victorious on Mario Bros. and Kickman, but got owned on Turbo and Frogger tonight. Stargate proves to be a pain in the butt, as it booted normally, but shortly after displayed vertical purple lines in the screen. RAM test showed a RAM error 17. Will take care of that shortly. Also, Defender cocktail wouldn't boot at all. Non stop rug pattern.

Tron erratic spinner issue resolved

When I finally got around to putting the guts of Tron back into the cabinet, everything worked well except for the spinner control. Tron's arm would swing around normally until it hit a certain position, then it would 'jump' to a few positions ahead of where it should be. The problem ended up being a bad LS244(buffer) at position E2 on the Super Sound I/O PCB. It's purpose in life is to receive the encoder signals from the spinner control and then dump them onto the data bus.

Dee's Amusement Co. - Gautier Ms.

So back in 1991 when I started collecting old arcade video games, one place that proved to be great for buying old games was Dee's Amusement Company in Gautier Mississippi. The first time I went there I was greeted by a crochety 60-something year old man with a large stinky cigar, who rode around his complex on one of 4 golf carts. There were several warehouses on the facility that were packed to the roof with games. My first 'warehouse raid' was from here. For $680 I scored 17 video games and a Kiss pinball machine. One of the games was a Discs of Tron (which I have sold since), along with a bunch of Midway cocktail games(Gorf, Galaxian, etc). I ended up going back to Dee's many more times over the course of the next 15 years. One of the memorable scores from there was actually a pinball machine score, where I got a Twilight Zone for $500, two Cirqus Voltaires for $2600 total, and more. Also made several trips just buying up video game motherboards for $5 each. About 4 years ago, I passed in front of the place and saw that it was for sale(the picture above). Tried calling but all of their numbers were disconnected. Such great collecting memories from Dee's.

Landscaping around the game room done!!

So the game room building looked really plain standing there in the middle of our back yard, so my wife spent a lot of time (and trips to Home Depot) and put in some flower gardens around the arcade. It came out really nice!!

I'm back from offshore again, so hopefully there will be some more progress made in the game room. Some things on the agenda are to fix the sound on Tron, the displays on Turbo, and get started troubleshooting the Omega Race.

Vinyl wall lettering

So before I head out for a few days, I thought I'd post a picture of the wall lettering in the arcade. Big thanks to my friend Jason at work who gave up some of his lunch time to do the lettering for me. I have some arcade characters to put up as well, but getting the lettering up took about three hours, as the letters wanted to stay stuck to their backing rather than the sheetrock!!!

Pausing from the 'cade for a few days

So my job has me going offshore from time to time. The last two days I spent on one drillship, and the next 5-6 will be spent on another, so I have to take a break from the game room for a while, and I'm unable to post from offshore as well. Anyway, there is always a long list of to-do projects in the game room waiting for me when I get back, namely an Omega Race that is acting somewhat dead. When I do fix it, it's not certain where in the game room it will go, as I don't want the room to appear crowded.
So above is a picture from December of 2012 when the arcade was being built. Baron Construction did the construction for us and did a great job. It took them about a week to do the building.

Looking back at 2009

So after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, many of the neighboring properties were demolished and the lots were sold dirt cheap. Above is a picture of the lot two doors down from our house. The red slab in the picture is the one that our family game room is built on. We purchased this property in 2009 and held onto it until we were ready to develop it into something useful for the family. It took a few weekends for me to clear the lot, as it had been untouched for almost four years. In all, I raked up over 120 bags of pine needles and debris.

Kickman sound issues resolved today!!

So Kickman appeared to be working OK, but I could only hear sound from one speaker. I put the game in test mode and Channels 1-3 were producing sound, but channels 4-6 were dead. Probing the two PSGs showed that each one was received its enable signal. The buffer at C6 showed that all channels were good as well. When I put my scope to the inputs of the opamp at D3, pin 1 input would cause speaker hiss when probed but pin 2 input produced no sound. I replaced this LM3900 opamp and all channels worked again.
Success was short lived as an hour later channels 1-3 died. I pulled the game out, got out the scope, and probed the buffer at C6 again. This time, all signals from the PSG(AY 8910) at F7 were absent. I swapped the chip at F7 and (for now) Kickman produces all of its sounds again!!!

First post to our Blog

So I've been wanting to create a blog for some time now, devoted to the hobby I've been a part of for 22 years - collecting classic video arcade games. Being a child of the 80's, I was at the perfect age when the real 'classic' games were the mainstream. In 1982, every other Saturday, I would go out for a day(and night) on the town with my grandparents. This consisted of watching a PG movie, followed by seafood dinner, and then we would visit the local mall, which housed Space Port and Tilt, two of the 'chain' arcades that were all over America. Those were the good days!!!
One year out of high school in 1991, a friend and I were driving around New Orleans when we passed Lucky Coin Amusement Co, displaying a sign that read 'Video Games $195 and up'. We stopped in and I purchased Crystal Castles(a game I still own) with my hard earned money from Popeye's chicken. It didn't take long before that one game turned into 4 games, then 20. Within the next 8 years the collection peaked at over 200 machines. After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 I sold off many of the games that survived, and cut the collection down to 60.Last year we built a home arcade on our property, bringing home all of the games from storage.
I hope to keep this blog as a way to pay homage to some of the best arcade games, and a hobby that got me into my career as an electronics technician. What I love about working on these games is that each one is unique and poses a different challenge when it comes to fixing them. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me an email at classicgames@msn.com. Thanks for stopping by!!!