Saturday, October 17, 2009

Tempest Cocktail Score

Went to an antiques auction locally. They deal mostly in furniture, art, collectibles, etc. and not really in arcade equipment, but they had a few pins and vids at this one. So I pack a picnic and take my wife and make a day out of it. We had a great time, and I got what I went there for... Here it is:



In addition to the Tempest cocktail, they had a couple of multicades, a non-working Turbo upright, barely working Galaga cocktail, and about 5 pins in various working conditions. Anyway they plug up the machines as they put them on the auction block. But they could not get the Tempest working. So I bid anyway. I am thinking these are rare, so I need to get it at any price even if it is not working.

So I get it home, examine it a little closer, the access door on the bottom is pushed in, and the interrupt switch is not actuated. The auctioneer said these games were in somebody's active game room, so I plug it up, pull the switch, and hear the fans going, Player 1 and 2 buttons flashing, could it be on free play? I press Player 1 and then fire and move the knob and I hear the game playing, then the display comes on!!! Holy crap, this thing is working!!!

The cabinet is in good shape, but it looks like some kid painted the whole thing black and then tried to mimic the Tempest nebuli motif using a sponge and some purple, white, and pink paint. It is looks like latex paint so it should strip off pretty easily. Well me wife actually likes the custom paint job, and it may be going in her computer room, so I will leave it as is for now.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Useful Vehicle Modifications

So far I have only been able to load 3 machines at a time on my truck. Last weekend I made a bed extention for my truck out of 3/4" plywood and some 2x4s.



The 2x4s help distribute the weight of the machines in the rear.














Got 4 machines on... could have done 5, but we were coming back for 3 more anyway. Plus it would have been difficult to unload 5 machines when we got to our destination.



New Record!!! Four machines at one time... let's try for 5 next time!!!

We came back for 3 more, it's nice to be able to line them up 3 in a row...

Bastard Kong!!!


Started with an orange DK Jr. Stole a Bezel from another DK project cabinet. Had a bezel laying around that was badly scratched in the middle, so I routed out an inverted trapezoid where the scratches were and bolted some clean plexi onto it. DK3 control panel that was very clean, drilled a second hole into it. Added a 19" PC monitor, ATX power supply, JAMMA harness and a multiboard... got yourself one sick bastard Donkey Kong. It now lives in a cabin up in the North Georgia

Multi Williams

Finished this MultiWilliams just in time for Preston's Arcade bash...

TWINS...

Made these two Mini-Multis for Scott down in Gainesville...

The Force is with us... Again...

OK, after I got my Atari Star Wars, I just had to go out and get this one. Apparently, it is a Star Wars Trilogy Arcade in a Virtua Fighter style cabinet, with full sideart.



And I do mean FULL sideart:

THAT'S HOT!!!


Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Force is with us...

Finally got my Star Wars!!!



May the Force be with you!!!

Friday, March 20, 2009

3/20/09

Been a while since last post. Refurbing a couple of Dynamos, used Behr Pure Black with red T-molding. One will be for Joe's Tetris that was in a Pac cabinet. That one is getting the same color scheme. Replaced bottoms on all of them. Got the Solitaire Challenge cabaret done, came out nice. Emergency network admin for my wife and Karen last night... Gotta move those cabinets soon...

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

FArkanoid is done...



Here it is!!!

All ready to strut down Peachtree Street for the Atlanta Gay Pride Parade!!!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Snow Day 2009

Rained all weekend, then started to snow today. Did mostly inside stuff. Pained the FArkanoid CP and coin door. Painted some backs. Populated the MW CP. Got the FArkanoid wired up and playable.

Tooks some video of the snow just as it had started.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Farkanoid Base Repair



This Arkanoid in a Frogger cabinet (FArkanoid) had water damage on the bottom so I rebuilt the base. Fist I cut 10" off the bottom, then rebuilt... using some creative engineering liberties...

For more pics click here.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Frogger Monitor Mounting


Got a groovy new way to mount a PC monitor in a Frogger style cabinet. It matches the angle of the original much closer to the way I was mounting 19" monitors. Where before I just used a shelf and pressed it up to the bezel. Now I just use 3 support points like I use on Pac style cabinets, and on the Make Trax as well. Block the sides in and you are ready to go!!! See picture. For additional images, go to Slideshow

Lowes Rulez


Went to Lowes for some hardware, they keep that place a lot cleaner than HD... I was actually able to find stuff... very pleasant experience.

I got some nifty right-angle brackets... check 'em out:
the small ones were only 51 cents!!! Can't wait to try them out.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Turntable broke...

Turntable in the FAC broke, only goes one way, thought it was the microswitch in the controller but not...

Painted the 2 Frogger cabinets, went ahead with the dark gray, and painted the Tmolding on the Farkanoid to see how it comes out... we are going ghetto with that one!!!

Got to try to use my time wisely, last few days I just piddled away, found some interesting videos on Youtube but still did not get shit done arcade-wise...

Shit!!! got to go get ink carts for my printer...

OK... got the printer carts, printed some ghetto-marquees for the Frogger... now the carts are really empty... could not install the printer drivers on my new XP install so I had to resort to the old Install...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

2/18/09

Primed the Frogger. Built the base on the Farkanoid and put some 2x4s and casters on it. came out ineresting. Now got to decide what color to paint it. Thinking some kind of blue to match the Arkanoid marquee and the generic bezel. The MW control panel is going to need some attention for installing the leaf switch buttons... .

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

2/17/09

Cut about 10" off that Farkanoid... made a base for it...

Mounted a monitor into that Frogger, got the angle closer to original...

Cold last night, bondo on the inner edges did not work too well... ended up just sanding the crap out of those... will prime heavily and paint...

Friday, February 13, 2009

MultiWilliams


Here is that MultiWilliams I did for Ted back in December...

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Wilsonator shipped...

Wilsonator shipped...
Good weather lately... gonna rain soon...
Wednesday already, got Tony's CP spinner to install...

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Madhouse at work!!!

Had 3 test running at the same time... that was a madhouse, and time went on by sloooooowly!!!

Got Scotts cabinet playable....

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Crystal Castles Multi

Added Marble Madness to the Crystal Castles cabinet... running desktop and CC at -r 256x240 and MM to what ever makes the characters crisp... the bottom is cut off a little but that's OK... tried a bunch of different resolutions... but it wants the desktop at 256x240 to run CC the best...

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Journey


Here is the Journey with the Wico leaf switch joystick and the NOS red balltop installed. Tuned the switches and it plays great!!!

Superbowl Sunday 09


Got the correct trackball color on the Crystal Castles. Now I just got to figure out how I want to light it up. Also put a NOS Red balltop handle on the Journey and tuned the Leaf Switches. Works great now, not that it did not before, but the handle was too tall. Now it is great.

Also went to Doug's and got some more junk, including a neat little Mr Do cocktail. That will be a fun project.

Also discovered Pedro Altamiranda and remembering the Carnaval in Colon that Marina used to take me to. And I can picture exactly what this joker is singing about!!! Because I was there, and I know the Panamanian slang that he is using...Those were some profound grooves!!! I listen now and it is like it was engrained into my psyche from a young age... I got to find more of this stuff!!!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Saturday again...

Man what a week, seemed to take for ever...
Got 11 now in the gameroom. Here is the lineup: Robotron, Asteroids, Tempest, High Impact, Centipede, Asteroids Deluxe, Tron, Phoenix, Journey, Sinistar, and Crystal Castles!!!

Got to make a video soon with that Balas song.

Going to Rosewell Street to fix a joystick...may to to the campus see if they still have that South Park.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Got thru work OK.. Ordered glass for Scott's MAME and the Joust Multi... Listening to Enigma now while loading uip some roms on Scott's PC.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Saw American Virgin last night. Good plot but very poorly executed... shame, could have been a cult classic...

Just organizing some more, gonna try to do some cabinet work today.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Good Ol' Saturday...

Man how do those weeks just zoom by... I turned my gameroom upside down to rearrange stuff and try to get a Pinball in there, but that plan was abborted... Will do it in the next house because we will make sure to get lots of space for my activities... I did manage to purge some stuff, sell on Ebay, store at work, and declutter in general... it is much nicer now, got rid of about 16 sq ft of desk space in favor of more machines. I can bring 2 back in with the current setup. I can even bring back the 27" CRT computer monitor instead of this dinky little 17" CRT.

That was a tough week at work with the Nevergo battery charger... it nevergo away the way it is performing...

Glad to be back doing MAME related activities... gonna try to get these OPPs out of here that I have been putting off, that will give me some room in the shop so I can work more efficiently in there.

Rediscovered Toddicus's blog again and my wife thinks he is absolutely charming. Elmo has a bunch more new stories to tell at bedtime by recounting Tito's blog.

Well gotta go out to the salad place, and shop for some electronics... see ya next time.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Arturos Arcade Lab History

I am a Mad Scientists of sorts when it comes to video gaming. Ever since I was young, I have been looking for ways to enhance the gaming experience at home. I started with an Atari 2600 (actually a Sears Telegames) back in “the day”. Then I got an Atari 800 home computer system, which was the closest you could get to original arcade games without actually having an arcade machine. But something was still missing…

…what was missing was… The cabinet!!! the video game ports for the Atari home computer systems were the most accurate ports for the original classic video games… Pacman, Donkey Kong, Frogger, etc… The list goes on…

Since we lived in Panama, there were very few arcades that I could visit. But we did go to the US for summer and Christmas vacation so I got to visit some nice arcades on these occasions. So I wanted to figure out how to enjoy the arcade experience more often.

Starting with simple ball-top attachments for the original Atari joysticks… you all remember those? Blister City… but we still wore those things out…

And eventually ending up with a full-size scratch-built arcade cabinet with a TV stuffed in there connected to my Atari 800XL, holding the joystick down onto the control panel with one hand, and playing it with the other… remember, this was back in 1985!!! Way before the MAME craze started…

Well now, decades later, I have been able to recreate the arcade experience at home… way beyond my wildest dreams… enter Arturo’s Arcade Lab!!!

http://home.earthlink.net/~asumner/artsarcadelab/

I currently have about a dozen “keeper” games in my collection… most of which I have done some kind of work on to make them functional and presentable. From full cosmetic restoration to complete internal overhaul, I keep experimenting and finding ways to get the most out of these machines.

Where did the weekend go???

Can't remember Thursday too much, probably got a 19" from the Goodwill on the way home...

Friday... used the new loop antenna at work... Erin, Than, and Dmesh let go... can't remember what I did after work... probably went on VSB.TV and watched the Colombian Sewer and drug documentaries...

Saturday... just watched Youtube videos all day... most watched Youtube video of all time is "The Evolution of Dance"... found out there is another live Konono album...Lubuaku... got to get it and the Coleuer Cafe as well...

Sunday went to the Sweet Tomatoes... finally got enough motivation to do some MAMEing, but it was cold out... Got the monitors in the Roby Roto and the Joust cabinets... now got to find some inside stuff to do...

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Working at ACS this morning, business as usual...

Got home, bean soup and kinda sluggish, just doing PC stuff and some Asteroids... will see how productive the rest of the night is...

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

First

Testing...1...2...3...

Goodwill after work, got a 19" KDS, saw a big TV with component RGB but already sold, Dell monitor was dark so I passed. Back to house, no Hulk, but did see A-Team at 8pm, and a Magnum PI with different theme music...
Last night I started capping an Electrohome GO7 out of the Pac Cocktail I got from Bill. Had to discharge several times. Saw Allstars of dancing, and the inner beauty reality show... somewhat interesting.

Finished recapping and tested it, still rolling vertically... can't get it to stop, gonna try to replace the Vlin and Vhold pots. Did an automatic recovery from the partition on an HP.