1943 arcade cab project (UPDATE: 2 PLAYER WORKING!)

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:46 am

Well, it seems my search for some arcade cabs has made an interesting turn. I haven't had the chance to go look at my local arcade distributors, but tonight, something very cool happened. I was at my church helping them rnovate the kitchen and some of electrical and such. We got done working and went into the annex (a seperate building with some classrooms). I got in there, and saw the two cabs our church has (I know, odd, but it's for the youth group). It's cool to have arcade games for the kids, and they aren't too bad (1943, Capcom Bowling, and Snow Bros. 2). So anyway, I peeked in the room real quick, and the 1943 machine had a piece of paper that said "out of order". Well, the youth pastor and I are good friends, so I asked him what the deal was. He said "It's old". Don't you love it when folks aren't educated. So before I could even ask, he said "Do you want it?" I'm going, alright sure, sounds good to me. So tommorrow I'm going to pick me up a 1943 cab that is in nice condition. Here's some pics:

First of all, sorry about the crappy picture quality. The cab is in really nice condition, and while I'm not sure what's wrong with it, I figure I could work on it and fix it up. The marquee is in great condition, the joysticks and buttons are solid, and even the cabinet art on the sides is in great condition. The screen (last time I saw it on) didn't have any burn ins, so it should be a nice fixer uper. So, I'll get it home tommorrow and see what's up. I love people who have no idea what's wrong with something and just say "It's old". Living in Kansas where no one gives a crap about an arcade cabinet is great.

BTW: What are my options as far as other shmups I could put in this cab? Is this cab JAMMA and could it play say Dodonpachi? I'll update as I get more info and I'll need some help with the technical aspects of the cab as I have never even seen the insides of an arcade cab.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:05 am

Very nice find! First thing you should be checking are the fuses, and power supply. Bad power supply could do damage to both the PCB and monitor, so be carefull NOT to try powering it on with the board and monitor hooked up (at least not at first). If you are not adept to working on such things, ask someone who knows about electronics for help. In fact, if you ask out on the arcade newsgroups, you may find someone local to you that will come take a look at it for free.

Regarding your other questions, since 1943 is a jamma game, you should be able to put other games inside (like DDP). But it looks like you only have 2 buttons, so no autofire for you!

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:36 am

Dave_K. wrote:Very nice find! First thing you should be checking are the fuses, and power supply. Bad power supply could do damage to both the PCB and monitor, so be carefull NOT to try powering it on with the board and monitor hooked up (at least not at first). If you are not adept to working on such things, ask someone who knows about electronics for help. In fact, if you ask out on the arcade newsgroups, you may find someone local to you that will come take a look at it for free.

Regarding your other questions, since 1943 is a jamma game, you should be able to put other games inside (like DDP). But it looks like you only have 2 buttons, so no autofire for you!

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into the arcade newgroups and see what I can find. I'll take a look at the fuses and power supply and see what's going on. I'm no expert at arcade machines, but I know my way around electronics and such pretty decently. Thanks for the help. Any other advice would be appreciated.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 4:32 pm

you lucky lucky man. the closest i've come to such a find, is wanting to liberate a 1942 from a local roller skating rink. the cab is dirty, coin slots are jammed and the 1-up joystick is broken such that only left and right work. also the fire buttons are irregularly functional, it was indeed a sad sight.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:53 pm

a free 2 player jama cabinet is nothhing to sneeze at, and you can always drill holes and wire up more buttons.

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:08 pm

Alright, I picked it up today and things went smooth. I think I found out what was wrong with it. As I was loading it up with my friend, I looked at the power cord, and it was cut.

There was no plug in and bare wires. I think this is what he meant be "It's old". I can't believe it, what an easy fix (if that is the only problem). So, I think I've found my problem. I'm in the process of fixing it up, and then when that's finished, I should be good to go.

BTW: If you have any tips about a good cords to splice with this one, or tips in general, I would be open to such a thing.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:37 pm

suggest tearing up a heavy duty extension cord to do it, as arcade cabinets suck a fair amount of power.

kemical · Post by **kemical** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:34 am

if that was at the end where the plug would be.. you could get one of those large round yellow replacement ends from a hardware store and use that.. just make sure to match up the hot, earth ground, neutral wires.

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:54 am

Thanks for the help so far folks. I still haven't gotten a chance to unload it yet (as I'm wating for my lazy friend to get over here and help me) as it's too heavy for me to lift myself. I think I'll go down to Lowes and get the end of the cord and see if that fixes things. Keep the advice rolling folks. The more the better.

superhitachi4 · Post by **superhitachi4** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 4:16 am

Lucky bastard. Enjoy the cab.

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:29 pm

I betcha it works fine with the new plug.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 8:29 pm

Please be carefull as I've seen techs remove the power plug for a reason (like to prevent a fire because the power supply is toast. Just take it one step at a time, fix the plug, unplug monitor and jamma PCB, and measure output of the PS and isolation transformer. Then hookup monitor, test again, then hookup PCB.

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 9:12 pm

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

Well, things are working pretty smooth now. I just bought a plug for the end of the cord, and what do you know, it works. It's nice to have a father who an electrical worker at Boeing for over 25 years too. Well here's the pics.

Got it all fixed up and wired properly

Here's the cab in action

So everything is going well. The screen does have a bit of burn in. I'm guessing because the words '1943 Battle of Midway' are always there in attract mode, they never shut it off. Also, the second joystick barely responds and the buttons don't really work. Other then that, things are pretty good.

So if anyone has any advice on getting burnt in pictures out of your arcade monitor and advice on cleaning or replacing buttons, it would be most appreciated. I need to know how to get acess to the underneath of the control panel so I can clean it up. I also need to know how I can get a key to acess the coin door, back door, etc. Thanks for the help so far and I'll be updating you as things go along.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:42 pm

replacing buttons is pretty simple, you just buy new button switch, open panel up, detach wires (sohuld be clipped on) remove button mount, remove microswitch, insert new microswitch, reverse the process.

Sometimes it's not the switch, but the palstics of the button themselvees that is broken. either way, the fix is pretty simple. arcade buttons aere fairly 'plug and play"

a similar principle applies to most joydticks, but depending on it's design it may be a lil trickier. those look like leaf switch jouysticks. I'd suggest replacing them with a microswitch based one, but you ma have diffccult mounting it in. hard to say without the cabinet in front of me, but it's not rocket science.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:20 am

FYI, that cab looks pretty complete, from side art, to bezel, to marquee, to control panel. Please don't mod it by adding buttons or swapping out sticks/buttons with sanwa and such. If you don't want to play 1943 on it anymore, at least keep the original stuff on the side somewhere so you can restore it again. You should be able to find a SFII panel in that same shape for that style cab no problem.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 3:07 am

Very nice.

Don't put in Dodon just yet, 1943 is a great game.

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:57 pm

You pull off the control panel by unclamping it from the inside- you'll see the levers.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:05 pm

my bad, that's actualy an original panel. yeah, buy a replacement panel for when you put other games in it.

1943 is not the greatest game, bu tyou can do aLTO worse. not bad for a non-manic vert shooter.

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:34 pm

dpful wrote:You pull off the control panel by unclamping it from the inside- you'll see the levers.

Ah, alright, gottcha. Also, where would I find a key to access to coin slot door and back panel of the machine? Would I have to go to an arcade distributor or what?

Post by **Dave_K.** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 7:54 pm

Jedah Doma wrote:
dpful wrote:You pull off the control panel by unclamping it from the inside- you'll see the levers.
Ah, alright, gottcha. Also, where would I find a key to access to coin slot door and back panel of the machine? Would I have to go to an arcade distributor or what?

Just ask a locksmith to open up all the locks for you, then remove them and replace with your own set of locks (I believe home depot should have the same type barrels). I've had to pick the locks on just about all my cabs at one point or another (either to lost keys, or never having them in the first place).

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:40 pm

Dave_K. wrote:
Jedah Doma wrote:
dpful wrote:You pull off the control panel by unclamping it from the inside- you'll see the levers.
Ah, alright, gottcha. Also, where would I find a key to access to coin slot door and back panel of the machine? Would I have to go to an arcade distributor or what?
Just ask a locksmith to open up all the locks for you, then remove them and replace with your own set of locks (I believe home depot should have the same type barrels). I've had to pick the locks on just about all my cabs at one point or another (either to lost keys, or never having them in the first place).

Hmmm sounds like a good idea (and easy to boot). Thanks again for the help. I'll look into getting the burnin of my screen sometime.

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:39 am

Alright, I spent a good part of the day trying to replace the locks, as I don't have the keys to the old ones. I picked the bottom lock where the coins fall into the bucket, and replaced it with another one:

Easy enough, so I was trying to pick the top lock where the actual coin shoot is, and I worked on this thing for hours on end. I picked and picked and tried some more, but to no avail. After about 4 hours of trying, this is what it looks like:

I know the lock is gone and not worth picking. I was thinking about getting a carbine or hardened steel rotary file to just get the lock off. This lock has been a pain in my side, and I'm ready to just get it off.

If anyone has any tips for getting a destroyed lock off of an arcade cab, it would be much appreciated. Well, to sleep now, and I'll get back to it this weekend hopefully.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 5:41 am

When I said I picked the locks on my cabs, I ment with real lock picks, not a screwdriver and hammer.

Diabollokus · Post by **Diabollokus** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 12:14 pm

Drill the lock, good ole diamond tip through it, quick painless, easy. just don't go to far into it.

lock smith is the best option.

Pity its not a fork ka. fiat punto or nissan micra I can brake into either of em inside 40 seconds with no damage to the car.

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:21 pm

The way I've done it is with a crowbar or two screwdrivers to just pry the door open. You can bend the metal back OK (still gets dinged up, but not much worse than yours). The arm on the lock mechanism isn't that hard to bend, that's why games often have a big metal bar with a padlock on it. Then you just take the lock apart from the inside.

If it's the top door, then you can take that apart from the inside anyways, (not inside a metal case, right?) just climb in the back and undo the bolt/screw on the back of the lock.

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:55 pm

dpful wrote:The way I've done it is with a crowbar or two screwdrivers to just pry the door open. You can bend the metal back OK (still gets dinged up, but not much worse than yours). The arm on the lock mechanism isn't that hard to bend, that's why games often have a big metal bar with a padlock on it. Then you just take the lock apart from the inside.

If it's the top door, then you can take that apart from the inside anyways, (not inside a metal case, right?) just climb in the back and undo the bolt/screw on the back of the lock.

Well, what do you know, it worked. Hell, I would have done that last night had I known. Thanks for the tip.

I took off the door and took off the old lock and put the new one on. Now both doors are good as new. I bents a small part of the door back into place, and it looks just like it was. Now my only question is how to access the actual joystick and buttons of the machine. I thought you could get to it from under the coin slot door, but I'm not sure. Any tips on that, adn I'll be yet another step to getting this things restored. Thanks for the advice so far. It's been invaluable.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 5:46 pm

There are usually two latches that hold the control panel in place. Feel around underneath on left and right sides. The panel when unlatched, should tip down so you can access/replace the buttons.

Regarding the screen burn-in, you are out of luck. You'd have to replace the monitor or tube. But honestly, all these old games have burn-in to some degree (its expected). You usually don't even notice it when the game is on (only when off). All my old games have burn-in. It usually not worth replaceing unless you get a new Jamma PCB and you can now see the burn-in of the other game while playing the new one (rare, and only if the burn-in is really bad).

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 7:09 pm

If you can't find the latches (they're there, and designed to be reacheable from there), you'll find them if you take the back of the cab off.

Jedah Doma · Post by **Jedah Doma** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 7:50 pm

dpful wrote:If you can't find the latches (they're there, and designed to be reacheable from there), you'll find them if you take the back of the cab off.

Yep, found the latches, and cleaned up the joysticks and such. The problem withthe two player side was that the connectors were just loose and the metal plate weren't close enough together to make contact to complete the circuit, so I fixed that. Well, that's really about it for now. Next on my list will be to find some new side art, if I can, and replace the old. This way it will look much nicer. Then, later on, I'll get some new plexiglass for the front, as there is a tiny crack at the bottm. It's no biggie, like I said, later on things. Thanks for the help so far guys.

Next I'll be looking for some good JAMMA 2 button shump PCBs. If yuo all have any suggestions, let me know, I'll be more then happy to listen to any advice.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:56 pm

Jedah Doma wrote: Next I'll be looking for some good JAMMA 2 button shump PCBs. If yuo all have any suggestions, let me know, I'll be more then happy to listen to any advice.

Right now, here's my list of what I'm looking for (I've also got a 2-button vertical cab: )

Currently have:
Strikers 1945 (came with the cab)
Raiden DX

In the mail:
Donpachi

Other 2-button (or less) vertical games:

Gunbird (Gunbird 2 seems to be 3-button)
Samurai Aces\Sengoku Ace
Dodonpachi
Other Seibu shooters (Viper Phase 1 and the Raiden Fighters games)
Dimahoo, 19xx, 1944 (CPS2)
Flying Shark/Sky Shark (as well as other Toaplan stuff)
Dragon Saber
Time Pilot\Time Pilot '84 (the first one may have been one button. These would require an adapter for JAMMA though)
Galaga '88
Ikaruga (of course, you need a Naomi for that)
Mahou Daisukusen (Sorcerer Striker)
Pacman/Ms. Pacman
Galaga (These would need a JAMMA harness of course)

Three button games:

Most Raizing games (Battle Garegga\Bakraid\Batrider)
Most Cave games (I think just about everything after Dodonpachi is three button
newer Psikyo games (although some use the third button only as autofire)

The problem is that vertical monitor and two buttons greatly limits your selection. It is for that reason I plan to eventually add the third button to each side of my control panel (My cab's a conversion anyway, so I don't have any concerns about original condition.) I'll also probably get a second cab for horizontal games as well at some point.