DK control panel and controller

If you look closely at this control panel you'll notice it has several things wrong.  I'm certainly not a Donkey Kong expert, but I can see that the jump button is all wrong.  The other thing missing is the clear disk that sets under the controller.  I think it's called a joystick guard.  The eight tiny bolts that hold the plastic overlay in place are completely rusted on the tops.  Lastly the joystick is rusty and shabby looking.

I started by disassembling the joystick.  It was really dirty and rusted inside.  Adding some white lithium grease and cleaning it up made a world of difference.  I was a little concerned because the joystick was seized up in a strange manner.  My first thought was that maybe there were some parts missing, but everything was there and in order, just dirty.  I guess these little Nintendo joysticks are very robust.

Mike's Arcade sells all the parts you will need to rebuild one of these.  If you're doing a restore, please don't toss out the original controller.  They can be refurbished and if you don't want to do that, then post it up for sale on KLOV or even eBay.  I need to order the clear plastic joystick guard, so I'm thinking about ordering a replacement shaft and spring.  This one will work fine, but I'd like the control panel to look as good as possible when I'm finished.  And let's face it, the controller is a main focal point.  It's important to get this bit right, as the controller is the game so to speak.

I plan to replace the missing orange button, the rusty bolts, and the instruction card.  Once I had the buttons off and the bolts out, the control panel overlay slips off and you can see the result of all the years of spilled soda.  This part I cleaned carefully, you don't want to scratch the back side of this as it will show through.  Once all this is cleaned up, I could see that I had lots of cigarette burns.

Fortunately none of them are really bad.  I dug out a headlight restore kit that I had on hand, and used it to polish up the panel.  It did an okay job, I guess if I wanted to get it perfect I could spend hours polishing this thing, it looks good enough for me at this time.

Sanyo 20-EZ gets a cap kit

I think this is either my second or third cap kit on a 20-EZ.  The one thing I remember is there is nothing EZ about removing the chassis from the monitor frame.  This thing has cables and cable clamps a plenty, and it's a real PITA to remove.

After getting the board out and blowing away as much dust as possible, it's a bit daunting when you look at all the numbers on the board.  However once you adjust your eyes a little, you'll see that the majority of the capacitors are indicated with a circle on the back side of the board.

I used to have a large piece of styrofoam that I would push the capacitors into as I was putting them in order. Somehow that isn't around anymore, so I did my best to line them all up on my work bench.  I do this and double check the values of each as I go.  I like to take my time, put on some music and pretend this is a leisure activity. =)

There are a bunch of caps in this kit!  After getting it all done, I like to wipe down the wires and anything else that can be cleaned with some Simple Green and a paper towel.  Before returning the chassis to the monitor frame I cleaned it up as good as possible.  For me it doesn't have to be spotless but getting rid of the majority of the dust and grime makes the whole thing look better and certainly smell better.

So here it is, a thing of beauty!  Indiana Jones would say, "It belongs in a museum"!

Cap kit for Donkey Kong audio amp

The parts I ordered for the DK were waiting for me when I got home on Tuesday.  So I wasted no time getting started since I had both the little audio amp board and the Sanyo 20EZ to repair.

The little Nintendo audio amplifier board is mounted beside the monitor chassis.  It's easy enough to rebuild with one of the many kits available, or you could just source the parts yourself.  I ordered my kit from Arcade Shop, just for convenience.  This is such a simple job, I think it should be a first for anyone looking to start doing their own repairs.

Take a photo of the board with the cables connected before removing it from the game.  There are two cable that can be crossed or plugged back in the wrong spot, and a photo should help you from the mix up.

My kit came with a handy diagram, so I would think just about anyone could get this job done in less than an hour.  Line up the components in the same order as the instructions, and check and double check their values. Replace them one at a time making certain the negative line on the capacitor matches with the line on the top side of the board.  On this board, the capacitor numbers are clearly labeled for each.

While replacing the caps on this board, I found three that had one leg entirely corroded away.  Here is a shot of one of the bad capacitors.  This wasn't obvious from looking at the board prior to removing.  So having found those problems, I'm pretty certain it was a good idea to go ahead and re-cap this board.

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My kit came with replacements for the two transistors, and they are easy to replace also.  Remove the screw, and un-solder the three legs.  I had some thermal compound handy from another project so I used a little of that between the transistor and the heat sink. 

So here it is, all clean and ready to go.  I'm already looking forward to hearing that iconic Donkey Kong intro music.  I wonder if it would be too much to add a subwoofer to the cabinet?

First Steps on the new DK!

First stage is to see what I have here to work with.  The cabinet is delaminating a little.  I'm going to try gluing that back together before I add body filler.  I'm tempted to wash down the entire cabinet as it has that dusty smokey bar smell.

Today I stripped it all down and boxed up the parts.  I removed the monitor and hauled it up into the attic where hopefully it will be safe.  I left the power supply and harness inside but I'll likely remove those also.

The coin box shelf had been unscrewed on one side and had been pushed back, I guess to make room for the bogus front panel that someone added.  I'm guessing the original operator kept the coin door when he sold the game, and fitted it with the red plywood panel and credit button.  Fortunately that was an easy fix, the missing screws were in the bottom of the cabinet so it's back in place now.  I ripped off the thin plywood front panel and tossed it in the trash.  I've got to start looking for a coin door now and I'll need to cut out a new front panel.

Donkey Kong Project

Our DJ at work offered to sell me a Donkey Kong over a year ago.  I really didn't have any use for yet another game in my garage, so I decided to let it go.  For whatever reason, this week I decided to give him a call to see if he still had it available.  A few hours later he texts me the address and it was only a few minutes down the road from the resort.  I drive over there and it appears the game had been setting in a storage shed for decades.  So here it sits.  I'm actually somewhat excited about working on a new project.

As Donkey Kong cabinets go around here, this is a pretty nice one.  The back door is still there, the edges of the cabinet are in reasonably good shape, and almost all of the artwork is intact.  Sadly the front panel was replaced with a thin sheet of plywood and the coin door is missing.  The orange jump button is missing and was replaced with a standard, and too large red button.  The t-molding is gone, and the joystick is seized up in a strange way.  When I attempted to power on the game, it played the jump sound and the monitor buzzed and displayed garbage.  How nice.

Here are a few shots of the game as it sits now.  I took a little time today to vacuum out the insides of the cabinet.  I ordered a cap kit for the audio board and monitor from www.arcadeshop.com on Friday before I left work and it should be here sometime soon.

Anyway, I got a good deal on the game, and I'm actually jones'n to get started.