Arcade Projects
Jr. Pac-man delivery progress
Well, as I thought, things started late and slow, but finally some progress has been made. The truck is moving through Missouri tonight and probably stopping there somewhere. The loop is pretty grand, I would have to doubt that the truck would make it to our place by next weekend, but still, whenever it happens, it is an awesome deal.
Here is the progress the guy who is orchestrating the trip posted tonight.
Finally time to sell the R-Type
I think it is time to sell the R-Type. With the possibility of getting the Jr. Pac-man late next week, I will need the monitor from the R-Type, and I think it just feels like time to sell it. I can put it on the Mame machine. I can move the Pac Mame machine out, put a monitor in it and get all of the parts inside and maybe finally finish that project up.
I looked in back of the machine tonight and…no isolation transformer. I emailed Bob Roberts, he confirmed this. So, I will need to put one in. There is also a switching Power Supply already inside, but it doesn’t have the screw tops, but a molex system instead that I have not the foggiest how to hook up power to the monitor.
So, yet another issue to deal with, and I would like to have the game gone before next weekend. Either I would have to do an abridged auction on ebay, or wait longer.
Some days I hate arcade games
The Pengo board came today in the mail. I double checked my voltages, I was getting 5.12 V and 11.98 V from the Power Supply, and 5.01 V and 11.89 V on the traces on the board after the edge connector is attached.
I got in one game….sort of. The sound seems to be bearable, it doesn’t seem to be as loud so I may have fixed that. But putting it a whole bunch of coin ups will reset the game, and half way through my game when I lined up the diamond blocks, the game reset. I also noticed that I had unlimited guys in the lower left, but I did really only have three lives. Then once the game reset, I noticed some of the characters were messed up.
I thought I saw a ROM 1 error flash on the screen briefly. After I turned the game on and off again, I was getting garbage on the screen. So, sweet. Now what? Am I getting wrong voltages? The ones I read, are those wrong? I don’t think so.
I was toying with the idea to buy a brand new monitor to get rid of the old crappy G07 that is in there now, and getting rid of the isolation transformer in the Pengo machine too. Then I could easily put in a switcher for the Power Supply and see where that leaves me.
I am going to try to research what ROM 1 is in terms of Pengo and go from there. But, basically, the game still isn’t working and is taking up space in my basement.
Pengo board arriving today.
I am pretty pumped, I hope everything works just fine.
I took the time last night to do some more cleaning that somehow I missed when I brought it into the house. There was still some dry junk inside the coin door area up front that I vacuumed out. I also took a look back at previous emails with Bob Roberts about what to do about the sound issue.
He said it was probably just a bad connection, that the pot doesn’t usually go bad. Just check the wires back to the board. Well, it is a short trace, the connection goes right to the harness behind the separating board. I looked at the molex connector, and noticed that some of the pins were sunk back a little more.
I took a screwdriver and pushed the pins down so they should make a better connection. I also took that same small gauge screwdriver, and pushed it around in a circular fashion inside each of the female pin connections. This widened them just a little, not enough to make a bad connection, to make the molex connectors fit better and easier. I had such a problem with a tight fit with those Pengo molex connectors, and I felt like this was the best way to loosen them up.
I really hope that fixes my sound issue, and if my sale goes through this weekend on another machine as planned, I am going to immediately order that kit from Prok. I am so pumped to think about having Pengo working perfectly.
Pengo board shipped!
My pengo pcb is back on it’s way to me from Pittsburgh via ground. It should work from what I hear.
I need to double check my power supply. It was fine when I looked at it before, but it is always good to double check. If I felt more proficient I would probably look at a switcher instead.
Supposedly the board didn’t have a chip that was fully seated, or a leg was bent or something. I tried reseating them myself, and didn’t notice a change. I was also really careful about the legs, so I don’t doubt it was bent, I just wish I knew how it got that way.
Got plywood board for Tetris
Last night I took a trip to get a “free” plywood board to mount the 19″ monitor in the Tetris. Granted, it cost my gas, and it was in Avon area, but still a bit cheaper I suppose than buying a whole sheet new. It is 25 x 36 x 3/4″, which should be thick enough to support a monitor and I held it up last night, it is big enough to fit in the space I need.
Now I just need to get some help making it fit the Tetris, with the holes cut for the monitor and bolts. I am going to try to secure some help Friday for the next week.
Now I have to test that monitor’s diodes in the basement:)
Jr. Pac-man might be on it’s way to me
It may take three weeks, but it sounds like I may be able to have it delivered to my area, which would be just amazing. I will post updates as I get them here, of course. But…the countdown is on.
