Robotron, Joust, Defender and others

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat May 23, 2009 12:09 am

(Yeah, I have some work to do on the cabinet.)

I really had to get something that would play jrok's Multi-Williams board, after getting a taste of it in the Milker's Two Crude cab last weekend. I wrote a few mails, and the guy who sold me Zoo Keeper and Asteroids did have a spare "Dynamo" cab. (Dynamo is a type of cabinet, not a game itself, as far as I can tell.)

It had a working 25" monitor, switching power supply, and JAMMA harness. Perfect! My dad is in town, so we rented a truck and picked it up.

I brought it back home, plugged jrok's board into it, and... nothing! It sounded like the monitor was alive, and neck was lit, so that was good. Looking at the PCB I plugged in, well, it obviously wasn't getting ANY power. I looked at the power supply, and someone had cut away ALL the power lines: +5, -5, +12, ground... OK, that's all I can remember being there. It was all cut!

My dad, being awesome, got some wire for me when he went out next. I soldered long pieces of wire to the power supply, and then connected that to the JAMMA harness. Everything came alive.

I had some other issues - there was initially no sound (the jrok board has a pot that I need to turn all the way up, and then I need to have the volume pot on the cabinet up fairly far) and I couldn't understand why Player 1 Button 1 wasn't flapping wings in Joust. I did figure that out - it uses button 3, because of how things look on a "Multi-Williams Control Panel." The Joust dudes now flap!

I've got to do some cosmetic things - I like the control panel that is in the photo up there, but it's from Street Fighter or Tekken or something. I need a new bezel, since instructions on how to make fighting game a-holes do shit was permanently glued over the existing bezel. But for now, it plays great and I could not be happier. JAMMA rules.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat May 23, 2009 8:10 pm

Another game! Actually, another many games! What existing cabinet gets moved out to make room for this?

Defender was the only video game I wish I could have at home. I always knew I could be mad good at it if I could only practice. The first video game that would fire no matter how many times you pressed the button. All the games before it had ONE shot that had to hit something or leave the screen before you could fire again. And dual cannons like Galaga don't count. Gorf could re-fire a shot but the old one would disappear. In Defender you could send a Morse code of death to the invading aliens as fast as you could bang that button.

THE
TOURETTE
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun May 24, 2009 6:03 am

There's a guy here locally selling a REALLY NICE Defender for $400.

I have always secretly wished Defender had a "normal" control scheme. All those buttons make me crazy and I always end up hitting the wrong one in a crisis.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:36 am

AArdvark wrote:Another game! Actually, another many games! What existing cabinet gets moved out to make room for this?

I noticed that I had a great deal of space between games along one wall (the wall that had Ms. Pac, Mr. Do! and Tempest). I created a little more space and moved Gyruss over there... and then slid the Robotron/Joust/etc cab where Gyruss was.

Defender was the only video game I wish I could have at home. I always knew I could be mad good at it if I could only practice.

Exactly. I could never stay alive long enough to get good at Defender. I am therefore... poor at Defender!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:44 am

Flack wrote:There's a guy here locally selling a REALLY NICE Defender for $400.

I have always secretly wished Defender had a "normal" control scheme. All those buttons make me crazy and I always end up hitting the wrong one in a crisis.

Yeah, I was getting a little sick of it yesterday. The times I've had unlimited access to a Defender, I've been able to get my brain adapted to the control scheme, but it's seriously going to be a problem for me if I attempt to cram its controls on the same panel as Robotron.

I just really hate the classic Multi-Williams setup. I know you recall what it looks like, but for anyone else:

This is it on a bare panel:

And this is it populated:

It becomes one where nobody who visits is gonna be able to figure anything out. I might just keep the twin 3x3 layout of buttons on my panel and make do the best I can.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:50 am

Can't you have some kind of button layover panel that can velcro over the button board depending on what game you play? Or would that be too anal?

THE
MANY FINGERED
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun May 24, 2009 2:15 pm

Hm, I'm torn on the control panel. It might make playing the Williams games easier, but the button layout pretty much prohibits swapping other boards in and out of it. Maybe it's me, but I always look at JAMMA cabs like big video game consoles and JAMMA boards like cartridges. My JAMMA cabinet never has the back on it for that reason. Hell, I'm not even sure where the back is ...

Leaving the current joystick/button config would allow you to use that cab as a quick testing cab for other JAMMA PCBs (or for playing other JAMMA boards).

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun May 24, 2009 2:17 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I noticed that I had a great deal of space between games along one wall (the wall that had Ms. Pac, Mr. Do! and Tempest). I created a little more space and moved Gyruss over there... and then slid the Robotron/Joust/etc cab where Gyruss was.

There are two ways to fix games with bad side art. Buy new side art, or buy more games and scoot them closer together. Welcome to #2!!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun May 24, 2009 11:08 pm

Flack wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I noticed that I had a great deal of space between games along one wall (the wall that had Ms. Pac, Mr. Do! and Tempest). I created a little more space and moved Gyruss over there... and then slid the Robotron/Joust/etc cab where Gyruss was.
There are two ways to fix games with bad side art. Buy new side art, or buy more games and scoot them closer together. Welcome to #2!!

Haha, exactly. I took a magic eraser to Gyruss (which was on an edge) and it really washed out the color. I must have done something wrong, because nobody else has had a similar experience. So yeah, I "hid" it best I could.

Q*bert's facing out right now, but the cab has swelling damage, and sliced-up artwork. In theory, seeing it this way everyday will force me to clean it up this summer.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun May 24, 2009 11:11 pm

AArdvark wrote:Can't you have some kind of button layover panel that can velcro over the button board depending on what game you play? Or would that be too anal?

Welllllll it's more the layout of the buttons than knowing what is what. For instance, the Joust "flap" button is currently the lower yellow button. I said to mom, "press the yellow button to flap!" and she pressed the top one at first - I may put a unique color there, so when JOUSTING, I can just say, "press purple" or something.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun May 24, 2009 11:13 pm

Flack wrote:Leaving the current joystick/button config would allow you to use that cab as a quick testing cab for other JAMMA PCBs (or for playing other JAMMA boards).

Oh yeah, that's right! I should admit that I forgot that I can now run any horizontal JAMMA PCB until I read your post.

OK, yeah, that functionality is too cool to lose by switching to a Multi-Williams panel. I'm gonna have to keep the setup I have now and mentally re-map Defender / Stargate.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon May 25, 2009 9:32 am

That's right, Defender had that funky right hand button layout that never did me any good.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon May 25, 2009 9:53 am

This is the best thing to ever happen!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon May 25, 2009 12:14 pm

pinback wrote:This is the best thing to ever happen!

Having that PCB and that cabinet is one of the top 30 things that has ever happened to me. Are you making fun? You're making fun. Why can't you have a modicum of joy in my meager successes? Why, Pinback?

Why?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu May 28, 2009 3:11 pm

jrok's selling another batch of the kit - let me put a link here:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=86022

$165 + shipping.

hey you guys · Post by **hey you guys** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:11 pm

hows that robotrons machine doin

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:45 pm

Oh yeah, that's right.

Pinback put a score of 451,850 on my Robotron machine over the weekend! It was an absolutely amazing display. The best I've done is 144K.

I know that Pinback and I aren't the greatest players in the world or anything, but it was still interesting on how our styles of play differed.

I quickly fly into a panic, freaking out to get the Sphereoids first. I think I do that because the Enforcers that the Sphereoids create got me a number of times when I first started playing regularly. So now I am over-concerned.

Pinback, on the other hand, has clearly embraced dharma and is at peace with both himself the last human family. He just calmly walks around the board, giving himself a good path as well as obliterating the bad guys when he feels like it. Making sure never to freak out!

It was very inspiring. I am oftentimes troubled by how poor I am at Robotron 2084, and I think it speaks to what a bad person I am that I am not better.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:46 pm

savvyraven also got the #2 score on Q*bert and I lasted to the all-elusive 91st second on Sinistar. It was a good day for high score lists!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:36 pm

pinback got 985K on Robotron. Jesus Christ!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:03 pm

Even if you reset the high scores someday, I still couldn't get on the board. There's something about that game that doesn't go well with ADHD. Every time I play I'm like, "Okay here we go, there's some robots, there's a brain with legs, there's some people and WHOA BOY FLASHING LIGHTS WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK RUN AND SHOOT IN A CIRCLE OH MY GOD RUN FOR THE MIDDLE NO WAIT RUN FOR THE SIDE NO WAIT AH FUCK I'M DEAD.