SNESNESCUBE64

So I did a video of big kong on the Orca hardware yesterday. Reason I did such is because I was deconverting back to the original orca crazy kong set because I am gonna do the multi kit anyway. So you might be thinking, how do you convert Orca Crazy Kong to Big Kong. You just have to burn a new set of program ROMs. The only pain is that you have to run a wire from the 74ls42 decoder chip at 2E pin 5 to the sixth rom's chip select and then stack the sixth ROM on top. But anyway, everything is now working as normal crazy kong. So everything is ready for the cabinet. I also took the time to rebuild the power supply even though there is a likely chance I will be using a modern switcher since the original supply isn't the best design.

Got the board working.

You can watch the entirety of the super mario bros super show on youtube for free. I don't know which box set I have, but it has the Lou Albano segments, I'll have to see when I get home.

Bad year

Better than a button cell dying on ya I suppose.

There are a few covers that I am quite fond of.

New patch boards are on order. I managed to fit my code into the PLD. So as such I was able to remove the need for an extra patch rom.

Jamma adapter I made for bench testing since I gotta do a PCB order soon. Also made a crowbar circuit in case I use the original power supply since it is kinda crummy.

The first thing I had to do was address the half-assed monitor mounting. They used a horizontal-frame k4600, but only mounted it on the bottom. So I got brackets and used a k4600 cross bar found commonly in midway cabinets to properly mount the top part so it is safer to transport.

The sides are like a vinyl woodgrain. Both sides have intact artwork and are in fairly good shape. Couple dings and bruises, nothing worth redoing the whole thing for. There might be a little water damage on the bottom, but nothing significant. One thing about the artwork that is interesting is that there is a cutout on the top for an "orca corporation" identification. I've never seen that before, no idea what the deal with that is.

Last week I picked up a Congorilla cabinet. For those who may not know, it is a Donkey Kong bootleg. The in game title is actually Crazy Kong. If you aren't familiar with the story, it is super interesting and is something worth looking into. The TLDR with Crazy Kong is that Nintendo was struggling to keep up with demand of Donkey Kong machines, so they licensed it out to Falcon for sale in Japan. Falcon broke the license agreement and was selling these now bootlegs internationally in Europe and North America as 'licensed' units. So companies like Orca (the one who made this one) even made their own implementations of the hardware. There was lots of legal fun things and Nintendo even put ads in magazines to try to track down anyone involved in the manufacture, sale, or operation of these cabinets. Anyway, this one is in suprisingly good shape. I don't know the status of the boardset yet, I was told that it mostly works but haven't built a harness for it. Right now I am bringing up a K4600 monitor. I also made a jamma adapter so I can test the board on my bench before I address anything else. I also am debating about keeping the switcher power supply setup in it or rebuilding the original supply. The original design is kinda crappy, so I am not sure what I'm gonna do yet. The hope is to get this thing up and running sometime this summer. The control panel artwork was painted on and is worn away in several spots. It is also a bit rusty so I will have to figure out a new overlay solution. But that might be a down the road project.

Cool project, I like how it sticks out a bit more to grip it a bit easier.

I saw the detroit edition of that show. I was super excited for Elvenking and Alestorm. Hearing the song Pagan Revolution live was an incredible experience. Glyph was a HUGE suprise, I think I liked their music the best. I really liked their music and can't wait for them to do more. Alestorm was good too, super glad they brought the rubber duck. Speaking of D&D bands and whatnot, I saw Twilight Force and Gloryhammer at the shelter in detroit. They both put on a super hype show Twilight force: Gloryhammer: I got Sabaton/Judas Priest coming up next, then towards the end of may I'm seeing In Flames, then in august it's Mastodon and Lamb of God.

April has been incredibly chaotic for me, but I think things are calming down just a bit. So I've been reworking a few things: Changed up dip switch settings Increased speech options from 3 to 7 Started recording speech set 4. Everything is good minus a little bit of tweaking. Prepping for sets 5 and 6, the plan is try and get some samples of a SC-01 I do have to work in an additional bit of hardware. My speech board relies on a slightly modified sound board rom (about 28 bytes out of the 2k), most of which is new code. The only issue is I cannot sell this with the modified rom. So I am working on a hardware-based patch that switches between my code and the original. That way only the supplimental code has to be distributed, not the original. As such, I've been learning how to program for GAL16 and GAL22 PLDs. I also made a proof of concept board. The only issue is that the board is too tall, so I am working out a solution where I can do two things: Eliminate the need for an extra rom with my code (embed it into the PLD) Potentially move the patch stuff to the main speech board. The first topic I did this morning before work. It seems to be working just fine so far, but more testing is needed. Progress is still being made ultimately. I've also started writing a proper manual for this. Hoping this will be completed within the next couple months.

Just dont to behind people's back and be a genuinely plesant person in whatever community you join.

Simpsons is a fun show.

As a kid, Latios dying in Pokemon Heroes hit hard. I can't think of one that made me feel like that in quite some time.

Not actively. This is something I've been rattling around in my brain. I don't always want to show off what I doing before it's done because I don't want to get hopes up in case it doesn't finish. But I've thought about doing videos on my process. The only issue is that I do 75% of my development in discord calls with my friends while watching shows or just BSing. It might be something I do in the future. The big project I am currently working on is a speech board for the later revisions of Nintendo Radar Scope arcade pcbs. It's in the later stages of development. I also did a few pcbs for my Nintendo Head On N project. The project that I recently finished was an LED rank board mod for Gorf. The second run of those boards are about to be available for sale. I do have other stuff in the pipeline, but nothing I am quite ready to show off. I don't typically make threads for my design stuff, I do however have a blog for my arcade and pinball repairs:

Absolutely. I was once upon a time collecting for a number of things, but then I switched to collecting some NFR stuff. These days I am not actively persuing much of anything in terms of console games. Since about 2020 or so I've been primarily focused on my arcade collecting and repair projects. I've also shifted a lot of my focus to pcb design in the context of arcade and pinball. For now though, I'll really only be buying games I actively want to play.

It's been a while since I've found a side-of-the-road special. Probably gonna steal the tube for a K7400 arcade monitor since it has the same exact tube. Sprayed it with the hose since it had a nice nicotine coating.

People forget that the internet is a terrible place full of goblins who just wanna put people down. Community is everything, even to a fault. It's up to a newcomer to find a community that isn't terrible. Unfortunately reddit can be a very loud place, it's better to find the small communities in my opinion. Regarding new folk themselves, it can be a little frustrating to feild a question that would be the first result in a google search, but being nice and helping is how you integrate new people in. More importantly it gets new folk into the hobby of which might have something positive to bring in. You won't know until you find out. Basically, give people the benefit of the doubt. This whole idea of gatekeeping is incredibly toxic.

I am only doing arcade stuff these days, but if given 5 left it would probably be the following (as of right now) Bosconian Dig dug A dynamo cabinet so I don't have to switch between bubble memories and bubble symphony (my current one is Bubble Symphony themed) Tempest Missile Command Honorable mention to Space Firebird, Gyruss, and Millipede.

Only 5 left? Well then it's trying to figure out what's next. The whole point of a hobby is to keep yourself occupied and for a lot of people that's what collecting is. That or just enjoy the games that I acquired along the way.

Good work, I've done a few of those and they can be a little tricky. It's super important to get started with replacing pc engine/turbo grafix caps because they suffer from the cap plague. It seems like they didnt leak a ton, so that's good news.

Funny enough I have a table too. It's currently missing the monitor and control panels, so it's just a waiting game. I also write repair logs if that helps ya. I am really behind in writing new ones but should be soon. https://www.videogamesage.com/blogs/blog/33-snesnescube64s-repair-logs/