aug 20

Why the lack of updates for the last couple of months?

If you’re sensitive, you might wanna skip the next paragraph.

Well, on March the 9th, I was in a really gruesome accident at work that almost claimed my left hand as I got it stuck between a pair of very heavy duty tracks (I think this is the word for them) that crushed my hand severely, so bad in fact, that amputation of my left thumb was on the table as I was rushed in to Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. Luckily for me, the doctor’s cold nerves had them hold the cutting to the bare essentials, and we just gave my poor, crushed limbs a chance to recover.

The accident I had in March, described above, has left me with a functionally compromised left hand, and a slightly smaller thumb that is sensitive and awkward, thus doing hobby stuff is now really frustrating, having to put many cool projects on hold and really straining the amount of cash I can spend on this hobby. Simple stuff like just changing a joystick in a panel or rotating the screen of an EGRET II is something I now have to think twice about doing.

On the upside, I can still play arcade games – with a stick, thank God I’m not a pad player – solder and now actually write quite well on a keyboard again. My thumb is short and skinny, my middle finger is crooked in more than one way and my index finger does not point as well as before, but I have at least one more operation to go before the doctor’s ”happy” with my hand, but I try to keep busy and at least I’m back at work full time, but just don’t expect to see a lot of new artwork being uploaded here for a while, I have lots of other projects to catch up on, so unfortunately, Photoshopping move strips’ll have to take a back seat for a while.

Cheers
Jorgen

jul 29

Darwin 4078 get! Also, fixed some layout issues.

Last night I had a small shmupmeet at home and one of my guests presented me with a very nice gift – a Data East ”Darwin 4078” PCB! He knew how I had longed to own this game, but it really never pops up for sale, so he gave me his board. Thanks a lot, Sticky!

darwin4078_PCB

Darwin 4078 PCB (click for higher res)

As I added this game to my list of vertical games, I noticed that somehow the page’s layout has been messed up, so I fixed it.

In other news, I’m almost done with the supergun I’m building, so I had it running all of last night so my guests could play horizontal games on my TV without me having to rotate my screens. It was quite a success, I’m happy to say. I’ll do a write-up of my supergun buil when I’m 100% done with it along with a list of used components.

BONUS! Here are a couple of Youtube videos from my shmupmeet last night:

jul 13

TAITO arcade stool refurbish

I got myself a pair of pretty sad looking TAITO arcade stools a couple of months ago but hadn’t had time to get them looking good until now (currently on vacation).

I took a photo of one when I got them, thinking the fabric was orange, but now in the process I actually noticed that these where red when they left the factory. :/ Japanese ass-sweat™ can do that I guess.

Here’s the picture:

Before_Picture

I then opened it in Photoshop and played around with the colour until I made my mind up to have a purple fabric to match my EGRET II’s:

Photoshop_test

At the start of this week, I began the work on removing as much rust as possible from the legs, but having removed the worst, I still have a bit to go, so to keep myself motivated to continue, I took a break from polishing and began re-upholstering the cushions today.

Chrome
(Before the steel-wool, sweaty workout on the left side, pretty awesome stuff)

Left to do on the legs is using Autosol chrome buffer to get a high shine. But now let’s go on with the cushion work for now.

new_fabric

Got myself some cheap, but nice velour fabric to use. It’s quite thin, so I used two layers on top of the foam I used to stuff the cushion.

original_colour

I took the above picture to show off the difference between the original red and the orange, but it’s not that visible in the picture, sorry. You can see the particle board used in the seat though.

foamcorners

The one responsible for assembly of this stool used some extra pieces of scary foam as padding on the screws, but I just used a thicker, nicer foam instead.

scary_foam

Scary, huh? It’s pretty thin as well, I wonder what it looked like when it was installed.

gross

Gross.

new_foam

The new foam. I’ve seen people use the old foam as a reference, but mine just disintegrated so I binned it ASAP.

new_fabric_applied

I hurt my hand a while back in an accident at work, so doing this was a bit tricky. I know it’s not perfect but I think it looks OK.

lining

I then re-used the lining that was originally on here, but tried to align the holes a little better. Looks better in real life.

done

Et voilá! I took a couple of more shots as well:

done2

done3

done4

I’m off to the post office now to pick up new plastic feet for my stools. These are known as ferrules should you need some and can be bought from ebay etc. You’ll want 19 mm ones and plastic, not rubber or they will break on you. I might do the other one later today.

EDIT:

Picked up the ferrules and they are awesome.

ferrules

done5

jul 01

360 Video settings – Mushihimesama HD

I just updated my 360 Video settings page with Mushihimesama HD (scroll down to the bottom). I also noticed (with this game)that at least using the Ultracade Universal Video Converter, the backgrounds will wobble (tearing) terribly unless SMOOTHING is enabled. I don’t know if you’ll get the wobble if you use a native 480p (or higher) display, but you might give the SMOOTHNESS setting a try if you have issues.

I wanted to add video settings for Under Defeat HD as well, but the 4:3 mode is currently in need of an update patch so I feel I want to wait and see what’ll happen.

jun 13

More on the Super 138-in-1 MVS cart

Took a couple of pictures (good ones this time) and here they are:

Full KIt

Full KIt

 

Cart

Cart

Menu PCB

Menu PCB

I still haven’t had time to really dig into this cart. :/ When I got it, my screens were both vertical, my two player panel was lent to an arcade and now that I’ve got the panel back, I lent my MVS mobo to a buddy. When the stars align, I’ll do a little review or something.

jun 13

NAMCO Classic Collection Vol.1

Finally found one of these! I tried Galaga Arrange once in MAME and I just had to have it!

NAMCO Classic Collection Vol. 1

NAMCO Classic Collection Vol. 1

Feels like way too long ago I picked up a new PCB.

jun 05

Multi-Cart ”Best Of AT#1” sold

Removed this from my MVS collection as I got a Super 138-in-1 cart instead. This is very nice as it has a dedicated menu PCB (you sandwich mount this between the mobo and the JAMMA harness) that lets you edit the game list shown which lets you remove all of the silly hacks, fighter revisions etc.

Gonna snap some pics of this and update my MVS page as soon as I’ve snapped some decent pics of it.

mar 03

Japanese Battle Bakraid move strip added to artwork

Get it here: https://emphatic.se/?p=807

mar 02

NANAO MS9 screen flip switches

Blingstix_yoke_flip_harness

Blingstix MS9 Yoke flip harness

I got a couple of these this week, and finally got some daylight in which to work, I can finally play with my  games from www.cozino.com/se/roulette-games/. Working on a monitor chassies is fiddly work, at least for me, so I always try to have the best possible conditions. I’m going to install the pictured one in my 24kHz EGRET II tomorrow along with a…

24/15kHz switch, also made by Blingstix aka FrancoB (Arcade Otaku, BYAC), just need to sort out a connector for the +12V that switches the relays from 15kHz (basic operation) to UVC mode 24kHz with the +12V coming from my JAMMA fingerboard that already powers my UVC. Read more about the UVC in the Articles section of this site.

The 24/15kHz switch is a small adapter that you put between the chassis’ hZ jumper wire (the MALE 4 pin connector) and then the FEMALE connectors each get one spot on the chassis hZ connectors. When the relays get +12/GND on the set of white wires (bundled up nicely in the below picture), the hZ connector is switched from which ever one is the default (no power) to the powered one. Very convenient. I hope my description is understandable. 🙂

franco_hz_switch

Blingstix 24/15kHz switch


Installing the Blingstix MS9 yoke flip switch

1. Make sure you can get to the wires marked in GREEN and RED on you chassis. These are the yoke-wires that decides whether or not your picture is mirrored or upside down. Some games don’t come with a flip DIP on the PCB, thus making it very painful for consumers with cabinets at home. To get a good view of my chassis and these wires in particular, I had to remove the screws that hold the chassis on my EGRET II’s chassis shelf, then unplug the power wire (on the right side above the PCB particle board when looking into the back of the cabinet) to be able to rotate the chassis.

MS9_yoke_flip

MS9 yoke wires

3. The wiring harness from Blingstix have matching connectors for each connector/wire, so you can’t connect them to the wrong part of the chassis. This guide should remove all doubts though. Start by pulling the wires gently from the chassis, gripping the connectors and NOT the wires themselves as to not strain them.

4. Put the Blingstix wires on the chassis connectors, look at the picture below to see which goes where



5. Put the ends with metal prongs into the NANAO wires that you’ve removed from the chassis’ connectors

6. Put your chassis back into it’s original position on the chassis shelf in the cabinet (if EGRET II), then connect the connector above the PCB particle board

7. Power on your cabinet and check if the picture is the same way, mirrored or flipped. If the picture is the same way it was, power off the cabinet, then flip these rocker switches (both of them):

8. Power the cabinet back on and now the picture should be flipped!

feb 19

Ketsui get!!!

Finally I own this wonderful game!

 

I am a happy camper.