Zoo Keeper is in the house

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 3:40 pm

Exactly. I'm pretty much out of space, but I don't feel too lousy about it, because I could spend years trying to make the ones I have as minty as possible.

The Q*bert has terrible, fraying side art and almost the entire cab needs to be sanded down, primed and painted. Enough to keep me busy for weeks. It's probably next on my agenda, as they really look great in nice condition. But yeah, most of them need something.

by **Flack** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:04 am

That really does look great.

I regret buying as many games as quickly as I did. All of my games need work, so I never know quite where to start.

by **Jack Straw** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:24 am

For good reason, it looks great man!
Better than the museum piece, and that says a lot. Good work.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:16 pm

I contacted the vector arist & printer, prok, over at the Killer List of Video Games site, and long story short, my pic is up on his site for the kick plate art.

http://www.gamestencils.com/index.php?c ... how_detail

Of the 20 proudest moments of my life, Zoo Keeper is involved in like four of them. And this is one of them!

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:23 pm

I applied the kick plate art a couple days ago. I really like it when people post step-by-step instructions on how they did a simple arcade task. I only remembered to take four photos, though.

First, here's what I got from gamestencils.com:

I opened the cylinder and set the art down on my drafting table:

I didn't want to mess around with the art - I removed every nut, bolt and screw from the front of the game, practically shitting myself when I got towards the end, hoping the entire front wouldn't fall off.

I sanded down the front of the cab as well, to give me a nice, clean, flat surface on which to apply the art. I ended up moving the coin door through the hole and placing it on top:

Annnnnnnd then finally, I applied it. It really does look substantially better. I don't have enough space downstairs to have lots of games with their side art facing, but kick plate art is always visible. Zoo Keeper is now dead-center when one walks down the stairs.

So yes, I am thrilled. The kick plate art is gorgeous, and that shade of orange really stands out.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:26 pm

Havin' a shitty week, so I tried retail therapying up with the Zoo Keeper kick plate vinyl repro!

I am going to kick the living shit out of my kick plate door.

by **bruce** » Sat May 23, 2009 11:02 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:His initials were... RYE

Of course they were.

Bruce

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri May 22, 2009 11:59 pm

AArdvark wrote:You can really get high score patches for video games?

... No =(

Not any more.

Activision used to give them if you got good scores on their Atari 2600 games. It involved taking a photo of the TV screen, shooting photos to fill the roll, sending it out and then hoping that your photo of your TV was legible.

My friend could flip the Asteroids counter pretty much at will. This was back in the days when he washed dishes at his uncle's restaurant and they had the game in the bar.

Note! Asteroids, by default, flipped at 99,990. Pinback has two high scores on mine at 150,000+, since I put in the high score kit. His initials were... RYE

by **AArdvark** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:38 pm

You can really get high score patches for video games?

My friend could flip the Asteroids counter pretty much at will. This was back in the days when he washed dishes at his uncle's restaurant and they had the game in the bar. I'd get a patch for him in a minute if I thought it would mean anything to him. He also did that to another game at Putt-Putt in Greece, but I'll be gosh darned if I can remember what it was.
All I remember is us having to wait some twenty odd minutes for the game to kill off all his extra lives. He had the score almost all 9s and didn't want it to roll over so he could get in the top slot. We guarded the machine against all comers until the game was over.

THE
NOT DEXTEROUS
AARDVARK

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:11 am

Yeah, I haven't been able to top it.

Tried to make a run at your Frogger score last night, by the way. Let's just say I shouldn't be ordering any hi-score patches for my KNAPSACK any time soon.

by **pinback** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:21 am

Current high score? Still that 700,000 gem you put up whilst I was watching?

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:52 am

For the record, the stencils for Zoo Keeper ARE out.

They are also $175.

I want them very badly! I would love it if my Zoo Keeper were orange, instead of the generic Taito-gray it is now. Guess I ought to start saving up for it.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:14 pm

Oh yes, an update! I grabbed some 12 volt lamps and plugged one in. Hasn't killed it yet. I hope it's close enough?

Also, I think I may paint the sides orange. The real Zoo Keeper in a dedicated cab looked like this:

Mine is a converted Qix, and just has the gray-and-black Taito logo on it. On one hand, that's why it was only $500. On the other hand, it'd be nice to paint it.

There is a guy working on stencils for the lion art you see above, but it is a painstaking process. I might just paint the thing "Zoo Keeper orange" in the meantime, so I'd be ready and honestly, it wouldn't look any worse than the bog-ass boring TAITO gray shit on the side that it currently has.

by **AArdvark** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:09 pm

Simon says just move the 14V wire to the 5V tap and keep the #47 lamps. Of course this is not 100% OEM so it may not be what you want.

THE
MODIFICATIONS
ARE GOOD
AARDVARK

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:46 pm

Cute as a button!

For my own purposes, I need to write down what kind of bulb the coin door takes in the Zoo Keeper cab. It is a "1892" bulb. For some reason, they shot 14.4 volts into the coin door lamp. This means the steady diet of 5v "#47" bulbs I was feeding it were blowing their shit in an evening.

I have no idea why they didn't tap into an existing +5 stream for the coin door lights. I mean, I am sure they have a reason, I just can't fathom it.

1892 bulbs are out there, just not at the arcade distributor everyone uses (The Real Bob Roberts). He's got like every other bulb in the world, though.

by **bruce** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:42 am

Vitriola wrote:I'll wait until I have it set up before I post the pics of what you bought me :) Hint, aquarium. Not so much hint as giveaway, but still, I could not be more pleased. And I'm listening right now to the mp3 player you got me, also :)

Y'all are so cute I could just retch.

Bruce

by **Vitriola** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:07 pm

I'll wait until I have it set up before I post the pics of what you bought me :) Hint, aquarium. Not so much hint as giveaway, but still, I could not be more pleased. And I'm listening right now to the mp3 player you got me, also :)

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:02 pm

Here is why my gal is the BEST girlfriend in the world:

She got me a Zoo Keeper marquee from mamemarquees.com!

Pic:

It doesn't totally come across in photos, but it looks a million times better than the flaking one that originally came with the machine. I couldn't be more thrilled. Thank you, sweetie!

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:16 am

Here is an interesting development! The stages go as follows in Zoo Keeper:

1 - Brick
2 - Brick
3 - Platforms
4 - Brick
5 - Brick
6 - Platforms
7 - Bonus Keeper Stage (Two Levels)
8 - Brick
9 - Brick (First Appearance of the Lion)
10 - Platforms
11 - Bonus Keeper Stage (Three Levels)

... and that is as far as I had ever gone. Until tonight. Stage 12 is another brick stage, and the first to have two nets.

Er, not that I got that far. The outside border FLASHES LIKE SOME POKEMON SEIZURE SHIT. It was like this:

I lost all three lives I took to that board. I could technically get there with up to five, since you can win a keeper in each Bonus Keeper stages. But while I might have five lives going into the goddamn LSD light switch level, I will end my own life outside of the game, so the net loss is: all of them.

by **Vitriola** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:48 pm

Yes, that's what churches are kinda for. They used to be unlocked all night, 24-7, for those in need, but vandalism took care of that. Masses are not a Safeway membership, you can just go, they don't even ask your zip code.

What I said before about the chip thing: breakers are numbered 1-whatever down the left side, and then whatever to whatever DOWN the right side, too. That was not an intuitive arrangement.

Zoo Keeper is in the house

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