Day At The New Arcade - Ben's Day

Ben Joins The Team

Long time friend Ben Ridsdale has been sequestered onto the team for a while so we gave him the camera and said “follow us around at the arcade” and here’s what he came up with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzLa9l_EHZw

Not everything was filmed or usable but we hope you like our efforts to show you what’s going on

James was investigating an Atari Paperboy machine that kept resetting itself, which seems to be voltage related at first but then has some corrupt graphics to deal with.

Also we had a look inside the Super Off Road donated to us nearly 2 years ago by Ben Roscoe (ben76) – time flies when you’ve nowhere to keep a machine that size.

The left speaker on the OutRun Deluxe isn’t working, well, you can hear the music very faintly but its hissing like it should so the amplifier is probably working but nothing is getting there.

Crazy Taxi also got a once over, the one we picked up last year still doesn’t have any top end sound working but also the test and service buttons inside the coin door don’t work so there’s probably a wiring fault – have you ever had a NAOMI upright apart?

Some cab-tris was played to get to some things, we still haven’t found Return Of The Jedi in the clump of machines – a ladder and a zoom lens did find it but we couldn’t access it – it needs its power section sorting out as it resets when warm.

And lastly, to fix some Battlezone boards we brought the cabaret cab back to the old lair, as its a full rig with vector monitor, power supply board and loom, it should make sorting the problems out a bit easier.

We’re still loving the ghetto style wiring in that machine from the Play Blackpool event – it might not be factory – but it’s original and it works!

 

Arcade Build Blog: Why we're not getting a SEGA G-LOC R360

We’ve been getting a constant barrage of emails etc about this particular game and we’d like to dispel a rumour that is going around at the moment.

We can state with absolute certainty that we are NOT getting a SEGA G-LOC R360 at the new arcade.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) Design

When the designs for the build were done, we made a decision to close the ceiling in at the standard room height of eight foot (2.4m).

The doors from our loading bay are lower than this at standard door height.

We also have a supporting beam which runs horizontally across the building and comes lower than 8ft.

2) Placement

A SEGA G-LOC R360 would therefore require a specific space and could only be in one half of the arcade which would limit us considerably as we wanted to create an environment that could be changed regularly to keep the layout fresh and interesting.

3) Public Events

We just know that events are going to want this machine if we had it – given the OutRun Deluxe take 3-4 people to move it this would mean more.

We’ve chosen not to pursue one because of the size and transport requirements involved, the more of the bigger games you take, the less variety you can have unless you use more and more trucks to move things.

4) Power requirements

These beasts are BIG and have powerful motors and require a fair old bit of electricity to throw you around on them – and given that most people just spin around in it for 2 minutes you can imagine how much power it would draw.

We have a fairly meaty power supply at the new place but you have to balance out load and that’d mean a whole extra installation.

5) Lastly, availability

Ever tried finding rocking horse poop?  Yep, these are as rare.

Like with a lot of dedicated classic arcade games, unless the cabinet could get converted to something else then in a large number of cases, the game got smashed up.  That’s why there’s not that many Space Harrier sit-ins and Star Wars cockpits about anymore.

So that’s our 5 reasons we’re not going to be having one, now there’s an official blog entry about it, anyone asking, I can just direct them here.

Hope to see you all soon.

 

Public Announcement Q&A

Public Announcement Live Q&A Session

This page hosts the public announcement question and answer session

Retro Games Party 5.5 - August 2013 Official Party Review and Video

 

Retro Games Party 5.5
They came, they saw, they played!

From all over the UK, 86 people descended upon Retro Games Party 5.5 on 31st August in Blackburn to play in total 48 video games, 4 pinballs, 1 Electro Mechanical gun game and relive an arcade experience never covered in the press any more.

Sure, we at Retro Games Party support public events like North East Retro Gaming, Revival and PlayExpo (2012) with the loan of machines but the media coverage has completely overlooked the arcade side of the retro gaming scene, instead concentrating all their sparse reviews on the pinball machines so our job is to re-raise the awareness of these classic bits of history.

We had worked very hard since our last party in April to expand the space available both for machines and visitors, fix machines that had presented problems following events, even rebuild new arrivals like Dig Dug and finally, in the last days leading up to this event, we were so happy that our Star Wars cockpit finally came to life.

Facebook has been lit up over the past few days following the party with feedback and, unlike the last few events, I managed to run around with my own camera and film what was going on.

This time we had more people from the pinball community due to our dedicated pinball room provided and maintained by Luke Wells of ArcadeUK as well as guests Melli, Bill and Matt Peakman who were winners of our competition run in conjunction with GamesYouLoved.

Chris Wilkins, RGP and Paul Hughes, 31/08/2013

Special Guests

Sometimes there’s a point comes up in doing these events that you’re really glad of a nice surprise and it’s nice when people bring people with them, Chris Wilkins of Revival Retro Events brought long time friend of his and equal retro enthusiast Paul Hughes (formerly of Ocean Software) who i’d been briefly in contact with a few years previous, having grown up with the Commodore 64 and most of Ocean’s games and then reading Paul’s site I can say it was an absolute pleasure to finally meet the man.  Anyone who ever loaded an Ocean game on the C64 from tape will know the loader – this was the guy that wrote it.  I’m not one for being a who-met-who but it’s nice to sometimes get a picture to remember things from.

Chris borrowed one of the rooms here at Retro Games Party HQ to perform an interview for a book he’s writing and I kind of barged in for a few minutes and got a bit of footage which is in the video.

Well behaved machines, well behaved players

I’m always constantly thankful that the machines live out the night, i’m not bothered if they fail the next day, at least everyone was able to play on them until they got switched off, this time fortunately everything behaved very well.  Even the newly refurbished Star Wars cockpit survived 8 hours of service, it has a few niggles to iron out like an intermittently disappearing left speaker and the control yoke wants some work doing but those are minor compared to the utter sweat poured over the monitor, game board and power supply for nearly a year by our friend Nad Parvez (aka Equites), we owe this man a huge thanks in his own right.

The only machine that we couldn’t keep working was Battlezone, it seemed to be suffering with heat related issues, normally we can work around those quite easily but because of where we had placed the machine and the volume of people, sadly we had to turn it off after a couple of hours.  It will go into the investigation pile as it had previously run for multiples of several hours.

Everyone who attends is always so pleasant to talk with, we have fans from older and younger generations who come and thankfully the old practice of slamming joysticks and control sticks about has ceased.

Below you’ll find the YouTube video but before you watch it, i’d like to say a huge thank you to the people that work behind the scenes with us to ensure the machines work and to help with the set-dressing side of it (moving the machines around, making sure we all have place to stand and talk, catering etc).

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrBtk0DDL2g

 

DECO Cassette System Conversion to Mr Do! - Part 3

Mr Do conversion takes a leap forward – out with the old, in with the new

In this instalment of our Mr Do dedicated conversion project, we rip out the old wiring on the cabinet, make some interesting discoveries inside, try to figure out what the original constructors were thinking and of course – have some fun doing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jav37-gdimw

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jav37-gdimw

Having obtained the manual for this machine, i’d had a peek inside before we got started.  The loom seemed to have been converted from the original into Electrocoin’s “unigame” pinout, an adaptor was discovered hanging off the end to convert UNIGAME to JAMMA – this is a bit of a find as it meant I wouldn’t have to make one for one of the Goliath machines at some other time.

Most of the wiring was simple to remove, just a few screws held the cable ties down and a lot of it came out.  The connector on the low voltage power supply (5v and 12v) was stuck on quite hard and needed a bit of engineering persuasion to part with it.

Along the way we make some observations and Mark finds a bit of humour in one of the parts (see end credits).

The whole teardown took about an hour, in the video it’s been cut to about fifteen.

RGP Visits Coral Island, Blackpool 2011 [Video]

A Trip To Coral Island in Blackpool – 2011

Coral Island is one of Blackpool’s iconic arcades, it’s been there certainly as long as I can remember.  I have very fond memories of spending a big chunk of my pocket money in there during the 1980′s when it was a video arcade game fans paradise.

Fast forward 30 years and I find myself in Blackpool on Friday 4th November 2011 just before Replay 2011, myself, my girlfriend and my brother decide to grab some fish & chips and have a look around the arcade.

Direct link: http://youtu.be/0xApX-d7rpw

While I accept that times have changed, naturally i’m a bit sad.  I remember where there used to stand rows of classic arcade games, particularly in Zaccaria cabinets.  Games such as Popeye, Konami’s Ping Pong, Hyper Sports all used to be beautifully lined up and seldom were they unoccupied.

Now, all the games that I remember are replaced with newer ones, at one pound a play compared to the ten pence from back then (that’s hyper inflation for you).

It’s not all bad news, to be fair, this was late on a Friday night and yet still there were plenty of people wandering about and it was nice to see the games being played.

Zaccaria Upright Cabinet in RGP Arcade

Coral Island at one point a few years ago had removed most, if not all of their video games.  Replacing them with pushers, redemption machines and of course, fruit machines surrounded by ropes and guarded with signs saying “18 only”.

Luckily they’ve seen the light and a few of the newer better games are there such as After Burner Climax and OutRun 2 Special Edition – although why it has dual steering i’m not sure.  Some fun games like Guitar Hero and Dancing Games were there as well, however, I only found one real “joystick” game which was Virtua Tennis.

While the place was clean and tidy, the machines could do with some maintenance, a number of dead screens were visible but of course, you don’t know whether they failed that day or 6 weeks ago.

I hope that eventually places like Coral Island, Mr T’s, Funland etc on the Golden Mile in Blackpool grab at least a few multi-game cabinets that will appeal to some of us retro heads.

Even though I have an arcade of my own full of the classics, you can’t beat going on a field trip to the seaside, eating street food and playing some credits on those games.

For more information about Coral Island, visit their website at: http://www.vrblackpool.co.uk/blackpool-virtual-tour/Coral-Island–Blackpool-Golden-Mile.html

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos coming soon.

 

 

Mailbag #1 - Thanks to Beaps & Vic

Mailbag 1 – 30/03/2013

A quick video of some packages that arrived in the mailbag this week, their contents and what’s happening with them.  Many thanks to Brian (beaps) and Vic (VirtVic) for supplying these to me.

In this video I receive a CPS2 kick harness adaptor and a breadbin style Commodore 64 – also known as a Mk1.

The CPS2 adaptor is needed so that I can make a Street Fighter Zero 2 work with its additional six “kick” buttons (hence why it’s known as a kick harness) and the Commodore 64 Mk1 is to replace my C64C.  While there’s nothing wrong with the other one, i’ve wanted a proper working Mk1 for a while as I just think they look the part.  I always loved my C64 as a child.

The other reason is that the SID-II chip in the early commodore 64′s have a different filter system in them which allows sampled speech to play properly.  The later models had a different chip which either muffled or entirely prevented sampled sound playback.

The samples were achieved by continuously changing the volume setting which in the older chips would emanate a ‘click’ – play these clicks fast enough and you have actual sound.

It never ceased to amaze me that mailbag episodes are so popular, a number of other YouTube and bloggers produce videos about what turned up in their mail so I thought i’d follow suit but try and show some things working or lead to progress on other projects at the same time.

Please subscribe to the youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/retrogamesparty

 

RGP Arcade Access All Areas Tour - March 2013

After many months, much nagging, a lot of hard work and some sleepless nights, it was time to upload a video of the arcade room at RGP HQ.  This is just a short video walkaround of the place with all the machines switched on in their glory.  Some 32 machines pictured here all working including the concluded recent conversion/restoration/reproduction project – Mr Do!

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdtnpNDvio

Machines featured here are (in no order): Juno First, Galaxian, Missile Storm, Zaccaria Puck-Man (Pac-Man), Zaccaria Invaders, Millipede (Euro Version), Mr Do (DECO Cassette System Conversion), Crazy Kong pt II, Namco Assault, Phoenix, 1942, Mr Do vs Unicorns (JAMMA cabinet), Williams Blackout, Zaccaria Moon Flight, 3 x Zaccaria Technoplay Universal Upright JAMMA cabs with Pac-Land, Bubble Bobble and Kung-Fu Master, Out Run, Super Hang On, After Burner, Space Harrier, 9 x Electrocoin Goliath JAMMA cabinet with Commando, Nemesis, Ghosts & Goblins, Bombjack, Frogger, Arkanoid, Salamander 2, Terra Cresta and Track & Field (switchable to Hyper Sports), a Star Wars cockpit (not currently operational), Pole Position, Road Blasters and finally Return Of The Jedi.

I also had a few computers out as well but weren’t powered up – BBC Micro Model B, Commodore 64 and an arcade supergun which had Side Arms by Capcom plugged into it.

Theres a dedicated videos page on the site where i’ll make sure all the videos are listed and organised somehow.

Please subscribe to the youtube channel and feel free to leave comments and suggestions below or on YouTube.  Check back soon for our events section, don’t be shy, come along and play the games – that’s what they’re there for.

 

Neo Geo Cabinet Power Supply Overhaul

We’ve moved on a little bit now on the Neo Geo cabinet project, the first step to take was to sort out the power supply module.

Electrocoin Golaith’s have a power chassis comprising an isolation transformer, switch mode PSU, an isolation switch, mains AC filter and fuses.  The one that came in the cab had been hacked out – the switch mode PSU was not present, the fuse holders had been put in wrong and the wiring wasn’t right.  Here’s what it looked at before:

So, the first thing to do was order a bunch of parts:

Pictured above is a bunch of AMP mate’n'lok connectors, pins, JAMMA fingerboards, edge connectors, de-soldering braid, solder, new soldering iron tip cleaner, arcade switch mode PSU’s (need one to replace in another machine) and various other connectors that’ll be needed.

So, work carried out on the PSU to make it usable again:

Trace and rewire the mains input through the filter, cherry switch to the fuse inputs.  De-solder the fuse connectors and remove and replace them correctly (they were being held in by the fuse holder rather than the flange around the barrel so weren’t making contact properly anyway).  Replaced all three fuses as a matter of course.  Replace a cut wire coming from the isolation transformer to the fuse.  Make a 6-pin mate’n'lok to a Hantarex 9110 power connector for the monitor.  Fit the switch mode PSU and ensure all earths are nice and snug.

Here’s the finished PSU:

At the lower right is a test-connector using a 3-pin mate’n'lok – on the Goliath cabinet the power is routed up to a switch on the top of the unit and then back to the power supply board.  The interlock switch has to be depressed by the back cover (or pulled out by the engineer) in order to let power flow through and for some reason, Electrocoin went a bit over the top and put fuses on both the live and neutral lines.

After testing, the isolation transformer is delivering 135volts AC which the monitor will use, 250v which will go to the marquee light and to the switch mode supply and that in turn is putting out a nice steady +5v, +12v and -5v all DC.

Job 1 done!

Next up is to get the monitor going, i’ve got a nice 25 inch tube I was given and the correct chassis for it but it’ll need a bit of tinkering to make it work properly.

Building A Neo Geo Cabinet

After seeing some nifty videos on YouTube from johnsarcade.com with the games he had in his games room, I decided i’d quite like a Neo Geo system too.  The system is fairly straight forward, you get a motherboard – they come in 1, 2, 4 or 6 slot versions, they are JAMMA wired but use some unused pins for the fourth button for each player and a select button for which game (if using a multi cartridge board) and hook up to a regular arcade monitor.

First job was to get hold of a motherboard – which one though?  I did some reading on jammaplus.co.uk as well as this guide from Arcade Otaku’s wiki and found that the 1 slot is the most reliable and the 6 slot is the most unreliable, I got to thinking about whether i’d want multiple games.

Of course, the answer to that was YES!  The whole point would be to be able to switch games quickly and I really wanted something like how johnsarcade.com has his with 4 slots and the marquee lights up for which slot is in play.  So I decided to go for a 4.

Why a 4?  Well, simple….. because! OK!  No, seriously, I could just swap the cartridges as a need for changing games happens but its so much more fun to have multiple cartridges – I can swap JAMMA game boards in my cabinets easy enough but when people come round they just see whats playing and never ask what else you have even though there’s a growing stack of PCB’s on the shelf.  So this will be a nice, player friendly addition to the games room.

As luck would have it, I found one going quite cheap on eBay but the postage was a bit outrageous, fortunately, I was over that way picking up a Defender machine from a friend so I contacted the seller and did the deal and picked up the board motherboard.

Below you can see a picture of it set up on my Vogatek Supergun MK5 on a regular 26″ LCD with a couple of games in it.  I can’t get a select button working but I think that’s more to do with where it is wired up on the edge connector rather than the motherboard.

4 Slot Neo Geo motherboard tested and working

There’s a bunch of things to do before I can get this into the games room, one of which is get hold of Puzzle Bobble and League Bowling which were my two favourites back in the arcade days of glory – I just never knew they were Neo Geo because the arcade obviously had them on a single slot board.

I need to:

• Find a connector for the remote adjustment board for a Hantarex MTC9110 chassis to go with the 25 inch tube I have.  The chasis works, it just needs the adjustment board plugging in properly.
• Clean up the Goliath MK3 that it is destined for – it needs a new loom, marquee light (well, 4 lamps actually), side art etc
• Control panel rebuilding or drilling – the MK3 has a bare control panel but needs sorting out and a bit of re-welding doing and then recovering.  I have a NEO GEO control panel that was donated to me, I wonder if it will fit the cabinet – watch this space.
• Get new or reproduction Goliath MK3 glass for the cabinet
• Physically mount the motherboard for the neo geo with clearance for changing cartridges.
• Wire up the select game switch and marquee lights etc.

Should take me a month or two and i’ll try and post updates regularly – watch this space!