I've dabbled in basic electronics for a while now, mainly with old music gear and computers and I have a few semi / non working cabs as on-going projects. but this is the first cab I've "brought back from the dead" as it were and wow it feels good
I got this from Astro City in Southend a while back (check my mini op-raid story for more details) and was aware it had a PC installed so I knew roughly what to expect although the keys were lost and I didn't have a drill at hand.
When I got it home and drilled the locks it was pretty much what I expected, although it had an original power brick and what looks like monitor too
No original logo joystick though, ah never mind. Here's some pics of it:
Apart from some scarring & a bit of discoloration on the sides the cab is in great shape, the marquee is a little faded but super condition, I love it!
the control panel has had a bit cut off the front (presumably it was peeling) but the bezel is superb and overall its a properly nice cab.
Sadly the upper back door is missing where the serial number should be but that single coin slot door gave me suspicions this might be an Irish cab - my Euro Millipede has the same arrangement...
The Atari Ireland serial numbers on the power brick seemed to back that up:
Also, on the end PCB this looks like the Shamrock symbol from Atari manuals:
Hopefully they confirm its origin, and make it easier to find out its history.
I wasn't going to do anything to the cab until I got a PCB for it, which aren't the most common ones to find, so when I saw Bloodflowers for sale thread listing a board I bit the bullet and bought it.
It's a very cool early world location test version which was used for the dump in mame, and what's more I found out Bloodflowers works across the road from me so I got hand delivery included. Thanks very much James
I love this PCB
Here's all the stuff I took out of it (there's a massive graphics card too that I've since given away):
Namco System 1 machines are Jamma, and very neat and tidy inside... once I got rid of all this junk I took stock of what was left and was pleased to see that almost all the original wiring had survived minus the control harness.
The first job was to check the power supply and voltages etc. there was no way this board was going anywhere near a faulty supply so I bought a manual, downloaded the schematics and got to work checking out which bits go where.
Luckily all the connectors are there and they are the type where you push in the bare wire straight into the connector, so a pretty quick job.
I also removed the switching part of the supply and re-flowed the capacitors, some of which were a little bit wobbly.
The control panel was hooked up to a ipac thingy so the loom for that is gone, but I knew the cab was getting mains and the monitor worked, if I could get the power supply working then I could at least test out if the board works.
After I got it all back together, tidied up the wiring and with the voltages checked out I nervously powered up, this was the result...
Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!
Sounds in attract mode had been enabled so it was busy playing "wakka-wakka" and the other cool noises, and the monitor is nice and crisp with great colour, even better
Coining up doesn't work, it looks like a more modern mech is installed but it credits up with the switch on the end PCB, hopefully all I need now is a molex connector and pins to wire up the controls then I'll have a fully working game - can't wait!
I got this from Astro City in Southend a while back (check my mini op-raid story for more details) and was aware it had a PC installed so I knew roughly what to expect although the keys were lost and I didn't have a drill at hand.
When I got it home and drilled the locks it was pretty much what I expected, although it had an original power brick and what looks like monitor too
No original logo joystick though, ah never mind. Here's some pics of it:
Apart from some scarring & a bit of discoloration on the sides the cab is in great shape, the marquee is a little faded but super condition, I love it!
the control panel has had a bit cut off the front (presumably it was peeling) but the bezel is superb and overall its a properly nice cab.
Sadly the upper back door is missing where the serial number should be but that single coin slot door gave me suspicions this might be an Irish cab - my Euro Millipede has the same arrangement...
The Atari Ireland serial numbers on the power brick seemed to back that up:
Also, on the end PCB this looks like the Shamrock symbol from Atari manuals:
Hopefully they confirm its origin, and make it easier to find out its history.
I wasn't going to do anything to the cab until I got a PCB for it, which aren't the most common ones to find, so when I saw Bloodflowers for sale thread listing a board I bit the bullet and bought it.
It's a very cool early world location test version which was used for the dump in mame, and what's more I found out Bloodflowers works across the road from me so I got hand delivery included. Thanks very much James
I love this PCB
Here's all the stuff I took out of it (there's a massive graphics card too that I've since given away):
Namco System 1 machines are Jamma, and very neat and tidy inside... once I got rid of all this junk I took stock of what was left and was pleased to see that almost all the original wiring had survived minus the control harness.
The first job was to check the power supply and voltages etc. there was no way this board was going anywhere near a faulty supply so I bought a manual, downloaded the schematics and got to work checking out which bits go where.
Luckily all the connectors are there and they are the type where you push in the bare wire straight into the connector, so a pretty quick job.
I also removed the switching part of the supply and re-flowed the capacitors, some of which were a little bit wobbly.
The control panel was hooked up to a ipac thingy so the loom for that is gone, but I knew the cab was getting mains and the monitor worked, if I could get the power supply working then I could at least test out if the board works.
After I got it all back together, tidied up the wiring and with the voltages checked out I nervously powered up, this was the result...
Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!
Sounds in attract mode had been enabled so it was busy playing "wakka-wakka" and the other cool noises, and the monitor is nice and crisp with great colour, even better
Coining up doesn't work, it looks like a more modern mech is installed but it credits up with the switch on the end PCB, hopefully all I need now is a molex connector and pins to wire up the controls then I'll have a fully working game - can't wait!
