arcade machine

All posts tagged arcade machine

While I’ve been enjoying my Pole Position restoration, I have been getting the urge to construct a new machine again. I recently acquired a few different PCB’s that would go great in a new cab. I posted about the Mortal Kombat 1 set a few weeks back, but I’ve put that on hold for the moment as I’m undecided on what sort of machine it will go into (a replica upright, or a custom themed lowboy). Meanwhile, another PCB was screaming out to me to go into a machine – Arkanoid.

While I don’t find Arkanoid to be overly exciting as a game, the fact it uses a spinner makes it different to other cabs I’ve build, and some of the original Taito cabs are pleasing to look at.

Arkanoid PCB

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Something I’ve wanted to get around to for awhile was giving some attention to the pedal assembly. I mentioned in an earlier post some issues I saw with it, and figured I would make the time to deal with it now while waiting for artwork and t-moulding to arrive.

When I tested the machine out before buying it, I did some light testing of the pedals (among other things). Both pressed OK, although could use some servicing. Trying them out in game, the accelerator worked fine as I could race around the track. The brake pedal seemed to be OK too as my car would slow down, although not as quickly as I expected. The machine was being sold as 100% working, so I left it at that, with the knowledge I’d need to give the pedals a clean and some grease/oil..

After getting it home and starting work on it, I eventually got my head into the back of the cockpit and began to inspect the machine much more closely. I decide to put the game into test mode (there is a handy switch for this inside the rear of the cockpit) and test out all the controls to see what they showed on the test mode.

The brake pedal gave no response.

Strange I thought – the car slows down when I shift my foot onto the brake and slows down when pressed. I stuck my head into the back of the cockpit once more to have a look at the rear of the pedal assembly, specifically the brake. It would appear the pot that connects to the brake pedal is no longer attached and had not been attached for some time. What I thought had been the brake slowing the car down was nothing more than me taking my foot off the accelerator (which explains the unresponsive feel of the slow down).

As you can see in the image below, the pot is not attached to the brake pedal.

Pedal Assembly Start
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One game I have very fond memories of growing up with is the original Mortal Kombat. I never got the chance to play it at the arcades much, but did sink plenty of time into playing it on the Sega Master System, Mega Drive and Amiga 500. I recently came across an original arcade Midway Mortal Kombat 1 board set, with the sound board and couldn’t pass up the chance to buy it.

MK CPU board
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When I first opened the back of the machine, this is the sight I was greeted with:

Blocked

A number of things bothered me:
1) The bottom left corner of the game board was physically resting on top of the switcher. This has actually left some marks across the top of the switcher and some discolouration on the side of the pcb.
2) The middle of the PCB is physically resting on top of the fuse switch. Not a big deal but I don’t like the fact the PCB is actually resting on components of the machine.
3) The pcb isn’t sitting properly due to a makeshift foot (see the top right pcb foot), which leaves it on an angle.
4) Loose power cable hanging across the PCB
5) The frame holding the PCB in place is attached to the base of the monitor panel. While the pcb itself doesn’t have much weight (and any it does have is currently resting on the switcher) I want to reposition it so it’s away from the monitor and not in the way of everything. There is no way to access the speakers, coin mech or steering wheel with this set up.
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One of the first things I decided to tackle was giving the shifter a service. The shifter is a basic high / low – 2 position shifter. It works (at least 95% of the time), but could certainly do with a clean and re lubricating. There are a few cases where it doesn’t shift into high gear correctly, but I suspect this will be corrected with the service. To make sure, I’ll replace any mircoswitches too.

The first thing to do was split the cockpit into two parts. The base is held together with two metal plates (one on either side) and 4 bolts. The tread on the bolts has just about worn thin from age, so using an Allen key will be required. For those that are interested, you can use an 8mm or 5/16″. The plates are in decent condition, but do require a bit of a clean. I will make some time to do that before putting it back together.

cockpit plates
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