Fixing Crystal Castles

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Expand view Topic review: Fixing Crystal Castles

Re: Fixing Crystal Castles

by Jizaboz » Sun Dec 05, 2021 1:21 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 12:52 am I did use the original molex connector, and the game has been flawless since.
Nice. I would rather just re-pin an old one if the wiring falls apart as well.

Re: Fixing Crystal Castles

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Sun Dec 05, 2021 12:52 am

I did use the original molex connector, and the game has been flawless since.

Re:

by Tdarcos » Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:51 am

Jonsey: Have you ever read The Video Game Repair Bible, Ringo?
Ringo: A little.
Jonsey: There's a line in it, "Also, these didn't have screw terminals, so the wires had to be soldered." I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was some cold-blooded shit to say about a Crystal Castles console game before I popped a big blue cap in its ass.
- (Paraphrased from) Pulp Fiction

"And if she asks you why you can tell her that I told you, that I'm tired, of Crystal Castles consoles needing repair
I've got a dream, I want the world to share,
And broken Castles, just leads me to despair."
- (Paraphrased from) Don McLean, Castles in the Air

Re: Fixing Crystal Castles

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Wed Aug 19, 2020 2:28 pm

I swear the connector I got is like 5 millimeters too large. Eff this, I am using the original plug. What a mess.

Re: Fixing Crystal Castles

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:37 pm

They do not make it easy.

I have a molex connect coming today, but the new power cord arrived yesterday. Over lunch, I cut the old cord and attached the wires of the new cord to it temporarily, without molex, so I could make sure CC booted up. It did. So I'll unravel that and do it right when the connector shows up.

Re: Fixing Crystal Castles

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:59 am

Jizaboz wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:20 am
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:34 pm Sorry to bump this but I think it's the Crystal Castle thread.

The blue had gone out intermittently on the monitor. The tech ran the monitor for a week and there were no issues. He replaced the blue wire for the harness to the monitor.
Then I tried running today, the power cord is a hacked POS that has been in there for 21 years. It was not starting reliably. Hate that it happened after he left - anyway, I am buying a brand new power cord from Amazon.
Now I have to pin it. The original cable in there - I'll try to take a picture. There's frigging electrical tape connections in the most basic power line of all time. I think they also added an adapter to the cable. What a mess. So I'm going to try to find the right molex connector. I think it's an Atari 3 pin .093.
Ah shit. So far Bosconian is the only machine I had to replace the power cable to.. though I will probably replace Ms-Pacs too. Took me a while to make sure that I had ground/negative/positive lined up correctly so make sure you take pics of the original wiring before you do surgery. Also, I would like to see those pics..
I'll try to get a camera down to the power brick for the cocktail - they don't make it easy!

Re: Fixing Crystal Castles

by Jizaboz » Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:20 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:34 pm Sorry to bump this but I think it's the Crystal Castle thread.

The blue had gone out intermittently on the monitor. The tech ran the monitor for a week and there were no issues. He replaced the blue wire for the harness to the monitor.
Then I tried running today, the power cord is a hacked POS that has been in there for 21 years. It was not starting reliably. Hate that it happened after he left - anyway, I am buying a brand new power cord from Amazon.
Now I have to pin it. The original cable in there - I'll try to take a picture. There's frigging electrical tape connections in the most basic power line of all time. I think they also added an adapter to the cable. What a mess. So I'm going to try to find the right molex connector. I think it's an Atari 3 pin .093.
Ah shit. So far Bosconian is the only machine I had to replace the power cable to.. though I will probably replace Ms-Pacs too. Took me a while to make sure that I had ground/negative/positive lined up correctly so make sure you take pics of the original wiring before you do surgery. Also, I would like to see those pics..

Re: Fixing Crystal Castles

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:34 pm

Sorry to bump this but I think it's the Crystal Castle thread.

The blue had gone out intermittently on the monitor. The tech ran the monitor for a week and there were no issues. He replaced the blue wire for the harness to the monitor.
Then I tried running today, the power cord is a hacked POS that has been in there for 21 years. It was not starting reliably. Hate that it happened after he left - anyway, I am buying a brand new power cord from Amazon.
Now I have to pin it. The original cable in there - I'll try to take a picture. There's frigging electrical tape connections in the most basic power line of all time. I think they also added an adapter to the cable. What a mess. So I'm going to try to find the right molex connector. I think it's an Atari 3 pin .093.

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Wed May 10, 2006 10:47 pm

I can honestly say that fixing this game brings to a conclusion one of the most impossible events of my life. I feel like a man.

by Roody_Yogurt » Wed May 10, 2006 10:33 pm

Hey, good job.

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Wed May 10, 2006 8:10 pm

Recchi says, "Random question because this mud is filled with the smartest people I know, with many varied talents."
Recchi says, "I am changing the big blue capacitor in a cocktail Crystal Castles game."
Jota says, "The answer is 4."
Recchi says, "Many wires were attached to the positive lead and many to the negative."
Recchi exclaims, "I dropped the big blue and the wires are all cattywumpus. I took a picture!"
Recchi says, "http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3731/ccwires012qg.jpg"
Recchi says, "I have no idea which wires go where."

katre says, "oof"
Recchi says, "heh"
katre asks, "you didn't happen to take a before picture, huh?"
Nate says, "'cattywumpus' is the best word ever"
Recchi says (to katre), "I... ah... I have several dozen pictures of it in general, but no, not the one picture I need, unfortunately. Heh"

katre says, "I mean, I'd _guess_ that the blues are one end and the reds the other"
katre says, "but if it's a big electrolytic capacitor, it'll explode if it's the wrong way around"
katre says, "even if you got the wires into the right groups"
Recchi says, "I am with you on that, but then there is that one with the yellow end and man -- right"
Recchi says, "I threw a note on rec.games.arcade.video.collecting, so I'm hoping that's my best bet. I really don't want to go out with my head crammed up a cocktail game. I want an open casket."
Jota says, "This sounds like what you need is a bomb squad."
Recchi says (to Jota), "haha"

katre says, "yeah, asking someone else who has access to one is really the only thing to do"
Nate says, "hmm, that would be an interesting funeral"
Nate says, "I wonder if one can request that"
Nate says, "'bury me in a Defender machine'"
katre says, "that, or a long and painstaking trip through the innards to draw a schematic (ha ha)"
katre says, "good luck, looks cool"
Recchi says, "Thanks"

vaporware says, "Contact this guy: http://www.hermitcreek.com/arcade/Games/ccastles.asp

Recchi says, "I think there is a manual floating around on the Internet, but it's for the standup version."
vaporware says, "Or one of the other couple google hits for 'crystal castles' 'big blue capacitor'"
Recchi exclaims (at vaporware), "Right on, thanks for the heads-up there, looks like he replaced his in his machine too. Excellent!"

Recchi says, "A guy on Usenet said that all the purple wires go to the negative terminal, and all the orange wires go to the positive terminal, so here goes nothing."
Recchi says, "If it explodes please tell the police that I was dashing and reckless and that my friends called me "Hollywood." Actually, anything from the 'Suspect' user manual is fine"
Jota says, "We called him 'Seargent Duffy', officer. We're not sure why."
vaporware says, "He loved playing guess the verb, taking everything that wasn't nailed down... he truly had the adventurer's spirit."

Recchi says, "I put the cats in the pantry, put the game's power supply into a power cord, put that power cord into the wall and arranged it so that I could activate it with my foot"
Recchi says, "I was also covered in two blankets and my girlfriend had the cell int he other room. I wish I was kidding about all of this."
Recchi exclaims, "But it worked!"
vaporware says, "Yay Usenet!"
Recchi exclaims, "Usenet -- 30 years of geeks and electricity living together happily!"
Allen says, "Usenet won't be 30 years old for a few more years"
Recchi exclaims, "It is truly wise beyond its years!"

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Wed May 10, 2006 7:02 pm

Oh. I got the big blue out and then dropped it, so the wires are everywhere.

Image

HA. HA. Haaaaa

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:06 pm

This is coming back into the queue.

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:31 pm

Yeah, I'm trying to make a game for the website at ww.springthing.net. If I fail, well, starting April 1st I'm on CC full time!

by JQW » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:09 pm

I assume that Crystal Castles remains unfixed.

This, truly, has become the GAME OF SHAME.

Pump it up, RobB!

by JQW » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:12 am

Holy crap, wipe the vaseline off your lens before taking pictures next time!

I would guess that the guys on the arcade controls forum wouldn't be the most help, as they're primarily people building MAME cabinets, rather than working with real games. For my MAME cabs, I've stripped out nearly every original part inside to give me more room - obviously, I wouldn't need the original power supply when there's a PC in there. I don't think either one had a complete power supply in it anyways, and I doubt Baby Pac-Man uses the same style.

There may be a really good web-based forum for arcade discussion, but I'm not aware of it. Usenet is the best, from what I've seen.

I take it that it remains unfixed?

(The real frustration will be if this is replaced, and it STILL doesn't work!)

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:40 pm

OK, I can now get at it this way. I'm posting here for a record of what's going on, but I'm writing rgvac (rgavc?) next.

Image

Image

Image

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:23 pm

JQW wrote:I was going to add, "I'm going to be disappointed if this isn't fixed by tomorrow." But I guess it's too late. So, I'll now say, "I'm going to be disappointed if this isn't fixed by Monday."
You and me both!

Can you just call the guy who came and took a look at it? If it really is that simple, he ought to be able to answer "does it pull off or do I need to undo some wires?"
Yeah, I exchanged an e-mail with him last month. He was all set to come over and then stopped writing. The guy is really nice, so I suspect that he just got busy but yeah, that is an option I'm going to pursue.

You could also write on rec.games.arcade.(whatever.)
I might try there. I honestly don't think the guys at arcade controls know it's a cocktail, even though I've posted pictures and it has that term in the title. Either that, or they don't know the specific config of CC, which is totally understandable.

Some quick searching there finds, describing a non-standard cap: "Also, these didn't have screw terminals, so the wires had to be soldered." That would indicate that yes, you have to loose the nuts on the cap to replace it.

Also, "The big blue is a screw terminal only replacement, easy stuff."
Well, the replacement cap I have definitely offers no way to get the protrouding parts off. But they are grooved on the inside. Man, this is frustrating.

Let me post a new picture, because I got a front cover off it that I previously didn't know I could.

by JQW » Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:50 am

I was going to add, "I'm going to be disappointed if this isn't fixed by tomorrow." But I guess it's too late. So, I'll now say, "I'm going to be disappointed if this isn't fixed by Monday."

Can't the monitor tilt up and out of the way? Regardless, it SOUNDS like it ought to be easy peasy. I wouldn't worry about a little resistance when pulling it off - the game's 20-some years old, it'd be no surprise if it was a little corroded down there.

Can you just call the guy who came and took a look at it? If it really is that simple, he ought to be able to answer "does it pull off or do I need to undo some wires?"

You could also write on rec.games.arcade.(whatever.)

Some quick searching there finds, describing a non-standard cap: "Also, these didn't have screw terminals, so the wires had to be soldered." That would indicate that yes, you have to loose the nuts on the cap to replace it.

Also, "The big blue is a screw terminal only replacement, easy stuff."

Of course, it could be more difficult in a cocktail due to the close proximity. In a stand-up cab like your Xenophobe, you'd probably have almost two feet of empty air above the power supply before you have the monitor in the way. It probably can be done with the monitor in place, if you're clever, but if you're nervous, it shouldn't be too terrible a job to yank the monitor. We pulled the Baby Pac one when we moved it into the basement, to minimize weight. With yours, you could probably just undo the nuts then stick something under the edges (it should have a metal frame around it) to lift it a few inches without even needing to disconnect any wires.

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Thu Mar 09, 2006 7:41 pm

Son of a BITCH. I went to take the bottom off it and it won't come out. Motherfuck. I don't see any way to get to it without removing the monitor. Why has every single person told me that it's not necessary to go that way? I swear to fuck there's like three Crystal Castle games in this configuration and the two other guys are mutes.

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