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!

 

New Acquisitions for RGP

Quick shot of two new machines for the RGP collection; Pole Position and Super Hang On.

Both immediately attracting a crowd at the JAMMA+ stand at Replay 2011.

Thanks to the play-testers!

Mini Star Wars Anyone

Very impressed with this little star wars machine. Makes me want a proper one even more!

Jamma+ 8th Birthday Party Video

On 1st October 2011, the Arcade Video Game Collectors forum, JAMMA+ (http://www.jammaplus.co.uk) celebrated their 8th birthday, thanks to the organisational skills of one member, bensonrad, a group of specially selected members congregated at the UK’s premier place for retro arcade gaming, Arcade Barn in Exeter.
Some 30 members and 20 on the sunday, ate dots, battled the invaders, drove down roads, threw discs, drank coffee, digged and blew up things in a gaming marathon.
One member, rogueio (Martin), gave the high score tables some serious punishment as well as claiming bragging rights by showing us proof on some of his major, and well deserved achievements from back in the day.
I was lucky enough to be a part of that group and as well as thrashing Pac-Man and Mr Do, I shot some film of the weekend.

Hope you enjoy.

Arcade Barn Video Imminent

Been franticly trying to edit together all the footage from the JAMMA+ 8th Birthday party at Arcade Barn on 1st/2nd October but been having some major headaches with Final Cut Pro 10 – it keeps crashing.

You zoom in, cut a piece, zoom out, click something else and the program freezes about 1 in 4 times and as it is progressively saved, it sometimes doesn’t remember where you were upto when you reopen.

Hoping to do the last few tweaks tonight then watch my MacBook Pro crawl to a halt while it renders the 10 minute piece.

Fingers Crossed!

Hardcore Gamers Till The Power Switch Gets Thrown

The birthday bash was going well all day and we were strong in numbers but around 5pm many took to the dark side and were seduced by the pub. A select few remained true to the rebellion and returned to the barn for more night time gaming.

The atmosphere changed, the lights came down, 80′s music projected from the speakers and a disco ball lit up – we had recreated arcade nirvana.

The Streetfighter machine got the board ripped out and R-Type made a momentus appearance and once again we set to war with the invaders.

Above are the survivors of the night, there till the end, until the power switch was thrown and abruptly, the sounds ceased!

Arcade Personal Hi Score Update - Part 2

Managed to upgrade a couple of my live personal bests over the weekend, Managed to get 128,350 on Mr. Do! and 139,590 on Pac-Man.   The Pac-Man score certainly isn’t the world record, but it’s my personal best on an arcade machine in public.  It’s also one of the higher “non-stoodley” scores at the barn.