## Road Trip ## GALAXIAN THEATER from NAMCO !!!

[level42]

Yeah game needs to run first of course.

I don't remember which version I played BITD. It was 1 game only in London. Back then I found all the video going on so fast totally confusing. Watching the video now it's no problem at all. Times have changed 

[uncletom]

Level42, you need to be twice as fast as the game to master it. About 2½ cups of coffee will do it.

I would try to  use the original projectors as these are CRT types and as such have the best performance compared to any LCD or DLP projectors today, even if the new projectors have better brightness and colors. The convergence can surely be adjusted if need be.

That "v-mix" PCB seems like the Gen-lock for the Amiga, I remember. A Video-mixing hardware that merges the layers together, sort of like putting subtitles into a film. The G3 is simply a dual screen laser game, and could infact be set up similarly like the Darius by Taito, that is if Bruno would like a smaller version of G3 later when he decides to open a karate dojo for girls only in his gym.

[Jason42]

Thanks guys for your support on this!  

just a question: what inputs the projectors have? i mean... the G3, a desktop with dual vga output, a couch in front of the players... space desktop (or home theater)

In very short, there are two laser disc players sending the left + right signal (via BNC) into a special board (along all the boards that run the game) called 'V-MIX'. These two laser disc players produce the background of the game (CGI graphics, at the top of the technology back in 1994).
In addition of the background image (left+right), there are 2 set of boards in charge of computing the enemy ships and all the mechanic of the game. Why 2 set of boards? Well one set per screen! Left and Right! So each set of boards are sending the images processed (via usual RGB signal) into the same 'V-MIX' than the one used by both laser disc players. Do you still follow?  
OK, so the purpose of that unique 'V-MIX' board is ... to mix the images sent by the LD player and the images sent by the two set of boards, and produce two final video signals to send to the 2 projectors. The input of the projectors are 4 BNC for a native RGBS signal coming twice from the V-MIX board.   A true piece of technology at the time!

Looks like the V-Mix board just use SCART signals for the game and Composite for the background, and giving SCART signals to the projectors... Yep, a true piece of technology.
(in case of debug, you can make a BNC to SCART, it may work...)

Love that tech stuff.

So, do you plan using the original projectors or are you going to try and hook up some new one's ?

I guess at least the light intensity would be a lot better on new one's. Also the CRT one's can have convergence problems and they eat a lot of power....

Do you even know if they still work ?

Normally I'm all for keeping things original, but I played Daytona2 on the full-motion version and that one had the projectors replaced by modern day beamers and the picture was simply amazing....

(Sorry if any of that info is already on here....I love this thread but some things I forgot/didn't read   )

I don't think there's modern projector that use SCART input (and, making a upscaler to use VGA inputs are really costy and painful (if you want to do it yourself)) (you maybe want to take projector you can mod, it may save a lot of money by not buying 2*$300 of lamps each 2000hours )

Level42, you need to be twice as fast as the game to master it. About 2½ cups of coffee will do it.

I would try to  use the original projectors as these are CRT types and as such have the best performance compared to any LCD or DLP projectors today, even if the new projectors have better brightness and colors. The convergence can surely be adjusted if need be.

That "v-mix" PCB seems like the Gen-lock for the Amiga, I remember. A Video-mixing hardware that merges the layers together, sort of like putting subtitles into a film. The G3 is simply a dual screen laser game, and could infact be set up similarly like the Darius by Taito, that is if Bruno would like a smaller version of G3 later when he decides to open a karate dojo for girls only in his gym.

Or the raster bender from furrtek http://furrtek.free.fr/?p=crea&a=rastbend

[Jason42]

(oops, double-post fail  )

[level42]

I would try to  use the original projectors as these are CRT types and as such have the best performance compared to any LCD or DLP projectors today, even if the new projectors have better brightness and colors. The convergence can surely be adjusted if need be.

So If brightness and colors are better on new LCD and DLP projectors, why do CRT projectors still have the best performance ? The only advantage I see is analogue and thus infinite amount of colors, but I don't think this outweighs the disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage of these old CRT projectors is brightness, right next is convergence issues, and of course they can be adjusted, but not everybody is up to it.

Normally I'm all for keeping to CRT stuff for old games, but since the picture is projected on a big white screen, I don't really see the problem.

Finding a modern projector with RGB inputs with 15kHz sync may indeed be a challenge, and I wonder how the el-cheapo Converters would perform with this game.


But anyway, we are just dreaming up stuff, Bruno has other worries/ goals now.

What I do wonder: wouldn't it have been a good idea to first get the game running before moving and re-assembling everything....I mean.....what if you can't get it running ? Or is that simply NO option

[Etienne MacGyver]

What I do wonder: wouldn't it have been a good idea to first get the game running before moving and re-assembling everything....I mean.....what if you can't get it running ? Or is that simply NO option

Just mame it 

[mumboking]

What I do wonder: wouldn't it have been a good idea to first get the game running before moving and re-assembling everything....I mean.....what if you can't get it running ? Or is that simply NO option

Just mame it 

Or... PS1

[Luigi]

This is really exciting.....I mean the process of re-building the theater....that technical blabla is really boring   

[Belike]

This is really exciting.....I mean the process of re-building the theater....that technical blabla is really boring   

+1, pics talk.

[uncletom]

Did Bruno test the 3D game hardware at some point? I have seen him test some LD-player that worked. But not the CG stuff.

As for the LCD/DLP vs CRT projectors, performancewise I mean any panning and quick movements are shown better with a CRT than LCD.

[DarthNuno]

EPISODE 03: "Borowski? Who is Boroswki?"

Starring : Darth Nuno, the carpet seller

Before going further on the reassembling, I need to clean/restore these 6 player base supports, or named 'Gun Base Assy' by Namco in the manual.



As you can see, the '5 years hibernation' of these parts inside my garden shed causes additional damage on them :

Vinyl corrugated!    



...failed adhesively / detached...



Mhhh, no other choice than to restore them! Damn it! It's gonna be a massive *additional* work!  

Ok, let's see what I can do. Here's the front view of the first 'Gun Base Assy'  



Arf... most of the screws are ... rusted! And no way to remove them without damage them!!!



Black 'wires/connectors protection' panel removed... but now the leadscrew is broken inside!



Mhhh, let's hope I won't have too much trouble with these rusted screws...



Argh!?



No!  



So once again, no other way than to break them with a drill, like this!  



I finally can remove the back part of the 'Gun Base Assy'. It contains a tube light :



Ok, everything is now removed. Do you spot the black spots on the vinyl? Cigarette Burns...all of them!  



I cut a part of the vinyl -a clean and undamaged part- located in a hidden place, under the seat...



...let's remove it!



It's fixed with strong double-sided adhesive tape :



I use Thinner to remove it. It works great, but this liquid is very toxic! I cannot breath that for too long... It smells like hell!



No more glue!  



The back of the original vinyl ...



...and its reference I presume? Whatever...



... because I'll use the 'clean' vinyl sample in order to find a brand new one!

After several carpet/vinyl shops visited, I finally found a very close match ...in the same shop where I got my carpet!  

Darth Nuno : Here's the vinyl I'm looking for...
The seller : Borowski!
Darth Nuno : Borowski? Who is Boroswki?
The seller : It's the vinyl you're looking for! Boroswki 4604
Darth Nuno :Perfect! Let go for it!



The End

[Luigi]

OUCH...you better get rid of as much of these rusted screws as possible, Bruno. The keep rusting 'til they break

[aganim]

Great Work!

 

[ataritoobin]

 

[DarthNuno]

Episode E01 & E02 are now available in this video