Archive for June, 2007
Thinking about selling the R-Type
Well, it’s sad to think about, but I have been thinking more and more lately about selling this game. I get more and more games all the time, and from what I read on the boards I get the impression that this is a common realization with collectors. They get a good amount of games, and then have neither the space or the time to have them all. Well, in this case, it worked from day one, it was all about the space. I love the game, it pains me that I will give it up and then want it back. But, I don’t play it much right now, I know that it doesn’t have a lot of value because it is a later on game, and even if I did beat it, that would just make me want it less probably.
I have had a ton of fun playing R-Type at some of my drinking parties. Wes seemed to like the game a good deal, and with the Nintendo style cabinet with the flat top, it makes a great place top put the drinks.
Who knows, maybe I will change my mind, but I doubt it.
June 28, 2007
Over the last week, I have noticed how much more barky Nokes has gotten. He still has the same amount of energy, but between barking at the neighbor dogs which run the neighborhood, at the fireworks lit off frequently on our street, at kids outside, or at us inside bouncing around thinking that we are playing, it is getting to be a touch overwhelming.
On Tuesday of this week I was playing with him, he was bouncing around and he bit at my face and got a little scrape down my nose that bled like the dickens. Not happy, especially on my face, not a good place to have it.
He has some new toys, the newest being a really large and hard Nyla Brand Bone. We got it on recommendation from the training class, and he has loved it. It is such an adjustment for me, because our family dogs rarely liked bones, so for him to be running around the house with it, throwing it around, and scraping his baby teeth against it is a weird idea.
The other thing I just thought of, we just noticed this week that he has some weird teeth. They are coming out on the roof of his mouth, inside the perimeter of his normal upper teeth. I wonder if this is breed specific or not.
Scott Evans, and getting Agent X ready to print
Talked with Rick last night. Sounds like his contact Scott Evans has the films for Agent X, for most of the artwork. He has the sideart and marquee for sure, and I think everything else (which would include the control panel) except for the kickplate. That worked out really great. Rick said it, and I agreed with him, it really would have sucked if he had the kickplate and that work had gone to waste….in a sense. It isn’t really ever wasted work, but would be better to see it put into use.
He is not going to send me Cloak and Dagger artwork to color match. The Agent X films should have the color specs on them. Now, being 20 years old, I know Pantone may have been around then, I just don’t know for sure, and even then how accurate it would be. We will have to just wait and see.
Listed Dig Dug (Second machine) on ebay
Well, even though I hadn’t mentioned it here because it is a different machine, I thought it made sense to now. I listed my other, nicer Dig Dug machine on ebay last week. Well, it didn’t turn on. So after a lot of stress and troubleshooting I figured out why. I knew the game board was not getting power, but I was sure that the main power supply was fine. Maybe the audio / power supply went bad. I swapped the audio board I had for this project into the now non working Dig Dug inside. Well, a resistor caught fire, what a fun little surprise.
Come to find out with some major help from a friend, that a bad connection can put too much stress on the resistors on that board and cause them to burn up. Sure enough, my main PCB looks great, except one finger on the main connector is fried over half way down. This probably caused the issue, I don’t know yet. I just know I took the working PCB and Audio board from this project, put it into the cab in the house and everything works fine.
So, now, I am back to a non working game in the garage. What I am going to have to do is buy a new edge connector from Bob Roberts and solder it on. I want to finish this up still, but it probably won’t be this next week. We shall see. Bums me out, but I had to sell the other Dig Dug game and I think this all worked out how it was supposed to.
Pengo cabinet inside has a fun design
Got in back of the cab last night and tried to figure out how to get at the Sound Control. I want to be able to take it off so I can work on it, take photos as needed, but I can’t figure out how. It feels as though it is riveted to the back of the coin box inside, so I thought I might be able to get at it in back.
I loosed the four bolts holding the huge particle board “L” that contains the Power Supply and PCB. I pulled it out a little bit to see that there is still a board in my way of getting at it through there unless I remove that little board. Doesn’t seem like it has much of a purpose, but I hate to go ripping apart the game if I don’t have to.
Who is the artist for the Bally Jr. Pac-man machine?
Talked with Rick last night, told him the only artwork piece I told have for a Jr. Pac-man machine is the original oversize, or small sized version, marquee. Hopefully he can take some photos of that with the flash off and I can see if I can trace it.
During the last month I have been debating about tracking down the original creators of the Jr. Pac-man artwork who would have worked for Bally. Joe said that after about 1984, most games had credits, so that is a great place to start. However, in the limited searching I have done so far, I haven’t been able to find credits for the Jr. Pac-man game. I don’t know if there is an arcade site out there that collects this information or not, it would be a good site for sure, but if anyone has any information about this please shoot me an email.
Identifying Well Gardner Monitor
Dug around in the bottom of the cabinet tonight a little more, found some more trash, but found a lot of labels including one that I hope goes to this monitor. I knew it was a Wells Gardner, but the label says 19K4635. I emailed Bob Roberts to see if he could help me identify the monitor and make sure that is correct.
