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So.... I inherited an old Japanese Game Center
- Thread starter keisuke999
- Start date
ActStriker
Member
This is absolutely awesome.
keisuke999
Member
When's the latest we can let you know we're going? Also I'm frail and small so shotgun sweeping duties if I come. Everyone else can lift things ( ≖‿≖
( ≖‿≖
This isn't something formal or anything, so at the latest Saturday night, I guess.
keisuke999
Member
Post bump for visibility: See OP Update
MikeHattsu
Member
Aww :\ Too bad.
keisuke999
Member
Yeah... gunna take a lot longer with just me...
StarCreator
Member
My advice in that case:
Bring a drill to drill out locks on cabinets if grandma can't find the keys; you absolutely have to get inside the cabinets to take inventory, and you can't always work around the lack of keys with a screwdriver.
Bring a vacuum cleaner (or borrow grandma's) -and- a duster of some sort (I personally use an electric one, but a shitload of compressed air cans will do in a pinch), you're probably going to be dealing with a lot of dust and you'll need to clean off boards enough that any markings on chips and whatnot are legible.
When you take photos of boards, take a shot of the entire board, then zoomed in shots of any parts where there are legible words or logos on the board's ROM chips. That should be enough for system11 and other collectors to find out what is what in most cases.
And absolutely don't turn anything on until you're certain you've made sure every board (including the ones that make up the cabinets' monitors) is clear of dust. Excess dust causes electrical shorts, which kills equipment very quickly. When working with monitors, it -should- be safe at this point, but just in case, always work with one hand tucked in your pocket and don't touch anything that looks like it could kill you.
Bring a drill to drill out locks on cabinets if grandma can't find the keys; you absolutely have to get inside the cabinets to take inventory, and you can't always work around the lack of keys with a screwdriver.
Bring a vacuum cleaner (or borrow grandma's) -and- a duster of some sort (I personally use an electric one, but a shitload of compressed air cans will do in a pinch), you're probably going to be dealing with a lot of dust and you'll need to clean off boards enough that any markings on chips and whatnot are legible.
When you take photos of boards, take a shot of the entire board, then zoomed in shots of any parts where there are legible words or logos on the board's ROM chips. That should be enough for system11 and other collectors to find out what is what in most cases.
And absolutely don't turn anything on until you're certain you've made sure every board (including the ones that make up the cabinets' monitors) is clear of dust. Excess dust causes electrical shorts, which kills equipment very quickly. When working with monitors, it -should- be safe at this point, but just in case, always work with one hand tucked in your pocket and don't touch anything that looks like it could kill you.
keisuke999
Member
The advice is much appreciated.
How exactly do I drill out the locks? I just want to make sure I do it right.
Would Rubber gloves protect me from zaps?
Also, can you recommend what kind of vacuum to get? Like, a picture or something? I try to pick one up.
Thanks a lot for the help!
keisuke999
Member
Yup. Not the space, just the stuff inside
Cool, just want to bring everybody back down to reality. :-/
You could try to do a kickstarter if you do want to go that route though, to find a space to house the games.
StarCreator
Member
I've thankfully never had to drill out a lock, but there should be plenty of guides on YouTube and other places. Here's one I just found, though you definitely want to look at a few different ones also.
Rubber gloves are probably cumbersome to work with, and I don't know how well they'd protect you. There are only a few key spots on the monitor that have exposed high voltage, and it shouldn't be a big issue since you're only going to go back there to dust it off, which shouldn't involve directly touching it using a vacuum/compressed air combo. Nothing else in the cabinet should be harmful so long as it's turned off while you're working on it.
I just use any vacuum cleaner lying around and use either the open hose or attach a crevice nozzle.
I don't think this is a good market proposition. Small game centers have pretty much all gone away for a reason. Getting things ID'd and sold to overseas buyers would probably make the most profit from this.
keisuke999
Member
This helps a lot. Thank you
Sectorseven
Member
For the monitors I would first blast off the dust and then inspect them for loose debris that might cause shorts. The chassis is pretty safe to touch when it's off, but stay away from the anode cap at all times if you don't know how to discharge it. Also the big filter cap can have some bite if you touch the leads. Make sure the wiring looks correct, especially ground straps (you don't know if any of these were left in need of service to begin with and they could be partially disassembled). Check for cracks in the flyback and fraying in the anode wire. When it's running, check for arcs.
There's like 25kV running through the flyback to the picture tube so gloves won't be any protection. Although they will be useful for any rodent carcases you have to scoop up
There's like 25kV running through the flyback to the picture tube so gloves won't be any protection. Although they will be useful for any rodent carcases you have to scoop up
Zapperkhan
Member
Not only that, rarity on arcade-museum doesn't mean much, since it only surveys people who actually keep track of the arcades they have through the site. More than likely it's just a game most people don't want.
Ok - checking stuff out for dummies, chapter 1 This applies to the generic cabinets, not the dedicated stuff.
1) Do not power anything up yet. Never fit or remove game components with the power on. Power switch is usually at the back, it's safer to actually unplug them.
2) Hunt for the keys - there's actually a pretty decent chance that if there's a small office in there, you'll find a whole tub of keys. They're flat rectangular looking things as standard for most of those cabs.
3) No keys? You'll have to drill the locks. It's difficult, might find examples on Youtube - you need a pretty heavy duty drill and toughened bits. Even then I've ended up with shards in my leg from an exploding bit before now. Alternative: hire a locksmith to open them. The door you care about most is the largest one on the front.
4) Inside will be a circuit board (if they were left inside) - these vary from about 1 foot square upwards, sometimes multiple layer. You'll see an edge connector with a 56 pin harness on it, remove that. If you see a large plastic looking thing instead with PC style connectors, that's a JVS hookup (probably Naomi or similar), disconnect those instead. Often the boards in those cabs are mounted on wooden panels which slide out. Pay particular attention to which way up the connector is, standard 56 pin JAMMA pinout will have a key position on pin 7 - pins 1/2 are ground and 3/4 are 5v. Familiarise yourself with the pin locations on the connector. Google for 'JAMMA pinout'.
5) When all the boards are removed, as Starcreator says take good photos of them, just blow loose dust off unless you have an antistatic brush. Do not try to clean them. These are sensitive to static by the way, and physically fragile.
6) When it comes to testing the cabs there's no easy way past 'suck it and see'. You will need a multimeter and have identified a game board which is nearly worthless in the step above. First you power them up with no board installed - this is to get any potential "I've been turned off for years and plan to explode" situations out of the way first. Do this in a dark room and you should see the screen being 'not dead' but still black. If you did find the keys you can look in the back and see if the tube neck glows, it's the glass bit with a small pcb on the end. Don't ever touch the back of the screen, you're not qualified. You'll probably hear a small amount of 'popping' initially, if this calms down then you're good.
7) Multimeter time - DC volts, measure pins 1+3 on the 56 pin connector with no game board installed and power on, expect to see around 5v, if it's anything 5.8 or above you need to adjust the 5v supply - ask about that if you need to later. These run at 5v and higher is dangerous, but we expect them to be a bit higher since there's no drain with no board installed. There are no dangerous voltages on that harness, but don't go shorting it out.
8) Any that have a live screen and working 5v, plug in a test board. If you've supplied good photos to collectors to help with ID, we can probably pick out one which is almost worthless, and thus perfect for testing. Turn the game on and see what happens
Or you can roll the dice and be brave I wouldn't. If a screen blows it's not impossible for voltages to feed back down through the video ground damaging the game board. I've seen it happen, additionally old power supplies can misbehave and you don't want to cook games.
This applies to the generic cabinets, not the dedicated stuff.1) Do not power anything up yet. Never fit or remove game components with the power on. Power switch is usually at the back, it's safer to actually unplug them.
2) Hunt for the keys - there's actually a pretty decent chance that if there's a small office in there, you'll find a whole tub of keys. They're flat rectangular looking things as standard for most of those cabs.
3) No keys? You'll have to drill the locks. It's difficult, might find examples on Youtube - you need a pretty heavy duty drill and toughened bits. Even then I've ended up with shards in my leg from an exploding bit before now. Alternative: hire a locksmith to open them. The door you care about most is the largest one on the front.
4) Inside will be a circuit board (if they were left inside) - these vary from about 1 foot square upwards, sometimes multiple layer. You'll see an edge connector with a 56 pin harness on it, remove that. If you see a large plastic looking thing instead with PC style connectors, that's a JVS hookup (probably Naomi or similar), disconnect those instead. Often the boards in those cabs are mounted on wooden panels which slide out. Pay particular attention to which way up the connector is, standard 56 pin JAMMA pinout will have a key position on pin 7 - pins 1/2 are ground and 3/4 are 5v. Familiarise yourself with the pin locations on the connector. Google for 'JAMMA pinout'.
5) When all the boards are removed, as Starcreator says take good photos of them, just blow loose dust off unless you have an antistatic brush. Do not try to clean them. These are sensitive to static by the way, and physically fragile.
6) When it comes to testing the cabs there's no easy way past 'suck it and see'. You will need a multimeter and have identified a game board which is nearly worthless in the step above. First you power them up with no board installed - this is to get any potential "I've been turned off for years and plan to explode" situations out of the way first. Do this in a dark room and you should see the screen being 'not dead' but still black. If you did find the keys you can look in the back and see if the tube neck glows, it's the glass bit with a small pcb on the end. Don't ever touch the back of the screen, you're not qualified. You'll probably hear a small amount of 'popping' initially, if this calms down then you're good.
7) Multimeter time - DC volts, measure pins 1+3 on the 56 pin connector with no game board installed and power on, expect to see around 5v, if it's anything 5.8 or above you need to adjust the 5v supply - ask about that if you need to later. These run at 5v and higher is dangerous, but we expect them to be a bit higher since there's no drain with no board installed. There are no dangerous voltages on that harness, but don't go shorting it out.
8) Any that have a live screen and working 5v, plug in a test board. If you've supplied good photos to collectors to help with ID, we can probably pick out one which is almost worthless, and thus perfect for testing. Turn the game on and see what happens
Or you can roll the dice and be brave
I wouldn't. If a screen blows it's not impossible for voltages to feed back down through the video ground damaging the game board. I've seen it happen, additionally old power supplies can misbehave and you don't want to cook games.StarCreator
Member
Just to clarify, I still recommend opening the back panel for some as-hands-off-as-possible dusting to minimize chances of kablooie. Trusting the monitor to not have gathered a fatal amount of dust in the last decade or two sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
Sectorseven
Member
Oh and prepare for lots of cigarette soot.
RedNumberFive
Banned
I need to quantum leap into OPs body. This is like being handed the keys to Willy Wonkas factory.
BumblebeeCody
Member
I R JELLY!
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
i'm actually not that jealous anymore since he's got a lot of work ahead of him haha
it'd be nice if there were some sort of a video thing, but that's probably too much to ask for from just one guy.
it'd be nice if there were some sort of a video thing, but that's probably too much to ask for from just one guy.
keisuke999
Member
Ok - checking stuff out for dummies, chapter 1
snip
.
Thank you soooo much for this.
We already tested one machine (I didn't know all this info at the time...) and it worked perfectly. (It was Sega Columns... not sure if good or bad)
So, at least we know that THAT machine is working.
Right now, my plan is:
1: Clean up and organize eveything (how many machines, how many spare parts, what keys do we have)
2: Take out all the boards/cassettes and take photos of EVERYTHING
StarCreator
Member
Just make sure you have good storage for the boards. Optimally, you want something with antistatic properties (bags for PC motherboards work well, or brightly colored bubble wrap is -usually- antistatic) to protect the boards while they are away from the cabinets. Failing that, put them into separate cardboard boxes and do not use any sort of bag (plastic grocery bags for example will easily zap something, never let an arcade board touch one of those).
keisuke999
Member
Bump for visibility.
Pics have been added. Have a look
Pics have been added. Have a look
Winning the Kart race won't do us any good if we don't also win the break dancing competition.
LookAtMeGo
Member
Holy crap! What would the hydro bill look like running that place?
Another reason to do it! So it isn't that boring anymore
They have lots of schools for sure, kids love those kind of things.
keisuke999
Member
Goddamn, from some of those pics on Imgur I can only guess that that parlour is filled with either arcade Hentai games or Strip Mahjong games
It does have many, many of those. Lots of other stuff too, though.
keisuke999
Member
Quote
Member
Wow, that stuff is in great condition it looks like.
Be very careful with those loose CRTs. They should have flyback transformers to be discharging them but you can never be too careful. If you are interested in messing with them at all you definitely should look up CRT discharging tools and procedures.
So you know how much shipping would be to somewhere like Florida for an Astro?
Be very careful with those loose CRTs. They should have flyback transformers to be discharging them but you can never be too careful. If you are interested in messing with them at all you definitely should look up CRT discharging tools and procedures.
So you know how much shipping would be to somewhere like Florida for an Astro?
Goddamn, from some of those pics on Imgur I can only guess that that parlour is filled with either arcade Hentai games or Strip Mahjong games
are these things that exist?
keisuke999
Member
OH yes.... soooooo many in Japan.
In normal arcades or weird seedy ones?
keisuke999
Member
The big, major ones you would see in like Akihabara or whatever, don't have many at all.
Basically, the farther from the nearest train station, the more porn games there are.
keisuke999
Member
Machine list and Game list updated
FrostuTheNinja
Member
Best update ever. Love the pictures of all those boards.
So you must be as far away as humanly possible from any train staton in Japan
Naked Snake
Member
This
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