I fixed an arcade game that wasn't mine!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:08 am

The Milker is doing an amazing job making a haunted house that will be near the flea market on 88th street, just northeast of Denver. One of the scenes (rooms) he wants to do for his haunt is a grisly bar, and in that bar he'd like to have an arcade game.

The arcade game he got a hold of was "Two Crude," a JAMMA-based side-scrolling beat 'em up. (I have also seen it referred to as "Two Crude Dudes.") The power cord was missing from it, but we had no guarantees that the thing was going to work if it was replaced.

I have no idea what the thing was originally. It's a woodgrain cabinet - the monitor appeared to be in good condition, looking at it from behind (but it'll need a cap kit someday soon). The cab had a switching power supply. I tapped the new cord into it, but nothing happened. (I did unplug the PCB, just to be safe, initially.)

The interlock switch was fucked-up, and I assumed that I was going to have to bypass it. I had to do the same thing with my Mr. Do!, so no prob there.

However, the Milker dropped by after a bit, and jiggled the wire to the monitor. It was enough to get the thing to turn on. There was a loose wire that I later secured.

The buttons were quite sticky on the control panel - I think only two were actually functional. Milk threw some WD-40 into them, and that cleared them right up. We played a quick game and I adjusted the monitor - too much red, initially!

I also brought with me jrok's Multi-Williams board. Mostly because I wanted to be able to troubleshoot if the Two Crude PCB was bad, but also because if the cab DID work, I wanted to see the thing in action. (It's KILLING me that I don't have a horizontal JAMMA cab... Denver has to be the one place in the world with no horizontal JAMMA specimens. I haven't seen one on craigslist in almost a year.)

The Multi-Williams PCB is AWESOME. The guys at the haunt played some Robotron, Joust and Defender, and I was pretty psyched that the cab held up so well, after being discarded in storage for so long.

At any rate, I was pumped that the three years I've spent dorking around with these things paid off in a real way that helped somebody else.

Obviously, Two Crude is not the spookiest game in the world. It'd be ideal to have something like Ghosts n' Goblins in there... but Gn'G isn't JAMMA. Its sequel (Ghouls n' Ghosts) is, but that board was going for $250 if you could find it at all. There's gotta be a spookier JAMMA board that is affordably priced. We'll figure it out.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:10 am

Oh - the ballast wasn't getting power from the switching power supply. That's fine, but the thing wants four inputs: black, white and green I understand (hot, neutral, ground) but what on earth was the purple wire supposed to deliver? It's hooked up to the old power brick that WAS in there (now disconnected) and I have no idea what the ballast would be looking for in a fourth wire. Anyone know what ought to go to it?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:44 pm

Congrats, man! Bringing one of these things back from the dead is an awesome feeling!

I wonder if it would look scary to take a black piece of poster board and cut out a bunch of skull shapes and lay it down over the monitor. Or maybe that would just look stupid, who knows.

I wish you lived closer ICJ, I have a horizontal JAMMA cab I have no use for. I've been thinking about pulling the monitor, slapping an LCD screen in there and hooking up a 48 in 1 just so it'll be being used.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 18, 2009 2:28 pm

Flack wrote:Congrats, man! Bringing one of these things back from the dead is an awesome feeling!

I wonder if it would look scary to take a black piece of poster board and cut out a bunch of skull shapes and lay it down over the monitor. Or maybe that would just look stupid, who knows.

Haha - Milker somehow found some (homemade) cabs that he is gonna throw somewhere in his haunt, so I'll suggest that.

I wish you lived closer ICJ, I have a horizontal JAMMA cab I have no use for. I've been thinking about pulling the monitor, slapping an LCD screen in there and hooking up a 48 in 1 just so it'll be being used.

Gyaaah! I would be all over that. It never really struck me, just how kick-ass JAMMA is. Dropping the Williams board into that goofy Two Crude game was a religious experience. I mean, I knew in theory that it should work just fine, but to SEE it come right up, man. Long live JAMMA.

But yeah, I'll figure something out. There is a guy out here selling a Joust (among like a dozen other games) for $250. He said it was in "rough" condition, though. I'm not sure what he means by that, exactly, but hopefully he'll write back.

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Mon May 18, 2009 7:59 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:what on earth was the purple wire supposed to deliver?

MD 20/20.

Bruce

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Mon May 18, 2009 11:01 pm

Would you take a board that gives you more spookiness per dollar? Like Splatterhouse!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue May 19, 2009 11:11 pm

Argh, Splatterhouse was not on the list of JAMMA games I was looking at. Yeah, that was the one I was thinking about as well.

Looks like it's being sold for at least a hundred, with people reportedly making offers of $300 for it via the KLOV site.

Maybe there's a Ghosts n' Goblins to JAMMA adapter or something. Man, boards are getting pricey.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue May 19, 2009 11:12 pm

Haha, there is apparently a Ghosts n' Goblins to JAMMA adapter.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:24 pm

There is an "everything to JAMMA" adapter. When I was looking for a replacement MS. Pac-Man PCB I had a hard time finding one that didn't come with a JAMMA adapter. So many cabinets were converted to JAMMA during the mid-to-late 80s that it's easier (definitely quicker) to use an adapter than it is to rewire a whole cabinet.

A couple of years ago I decided to write a series of arcade-related articles. I stopped after one. Go me. That one was, "JAMMA conversion in 60 seconds." In this article (a pictorial, really) I swapped a 48-in-1 board into my Aerofighter cabinet. Nothing quite like playing DK on a 25" monitor ...

http://www.robohara.com/arcade_articles ... jamma_swap

Slaughterhouse is definitely collectible and will not be cheap. Chiller's another horror-themed game (the haunted house version of Crossbow, more or less) that's also somewhat expensive.

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:39 pm

Look if Milker doesn't want to take the haunted house to 120% you can stick with Two Crude Dudes, but I think 300 would easily be worth it to have Splatterhouse ... or just hook up a genesis to the monitor.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 25, 2009 11:58 pm

Flack wrote:Slaughterhouse is definitely collectible and will not be cheap. Chiller's another horror-themed game (the haunted house version of Crossbow, more or less) that's also somewhat expensive.

The guy I bought the cab from last week has a Chiller. It is delicious and minty, and I would do insane and dangerous things to acquire one (if one ever showed up for sale) but it always struck me as one of those holy grail-y games that only other collectors would appreciate.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 25, 2009 11:59 pm

Worm wrote:Look if Milker doesn't want to take the haunted house to 120% you can stick with Two Crude Dudes, but I think 300 would easily be worth it to have Splatterhouse

That's the thing: the Milker WOULD. He would totally do that. Sometimes, as someone who cares for him a great deal, I need to step in and not encourage him to drop $300 for a PCB that would provide, at most, three or four seconds of effect for the people walking through his haunted house.

We'll find something. Something EERIE!