:: Workshop :: Fly me to the MOON, let me PATROL amoung the stars...

[DarthNuno]

Following this road trip'  



It's time to work on this real classic!  

As you can see the following pictures, there's nothing to do regarding the cabinet itself    





Lovely isn't it?  

Let's check its identity  



Mhhh I like to think about the history of our cabinets in the time... for this one, I can imagine hundred (thousands?) kids playing that specific game, in an other time, in other places... including North Carolina   Men, I'm sure this cabinet has a real 'soul' or something!  

OK, when I got this cabinet, I knew the monitor wasn't working, and also the original board. I also got a *spare board* but this one is mentioned at 'non working' on a sticker   So the first thing I've done is to order a *working* original board before starting to work on this cabinet.

Few weeks later... here's the box  



DOUANE means 'Customs'   ... and customs means more €€€€ after already paid a lot of $$$$   The dark side of our hobby   Anyway, the board is here :



Here's the stuff I have now :



- in the middle, the original board I got with the cabinet *non working*
- on the left, the spare (and non original) board I got, but labeled 'not working'
- on the right, an original board I've ordered, supposed working

Let's prepare my *magic* adapter 'Moon Patrol video signal from pcb' to 'SCART connector', let's plug the working Moon Patrol board... and ...  



YYYhhaaaaa!!  

Of course, I cannot resist to play games ... like this    



Well, I notice something wrong while playing the game. I cannot go 'left' (cannot slow down)... probably a bad contact on the 'left' switch? or a bad wire? Let's check the panel...





Mhhhh... everything looks fine at first sight, I'll check that later... Now let's remove the original monitor, very easy on this cabinet :



On the following picture,  you can see a new power supply is used :



For archive, here's the TV model used to replace the monitor :



Moon Patrol is a very addictive game   Even If I can slow down the car, it doesn't affect to much the difficulty... and I already played many games so far...  





OK, next steps :

- Fix the 'left' control
- Clean the cabinets (yes, not done yet!)
- Try the 'Moon Patrol' extra board I got (it's a boot I would say, and it's labeled 'not working'), but I have to adapt the connector first
- Move that stuff inside one of the lair  
- Shoot a video  
- Score!

Stay Tuned... 

[level42]

How come the customs caught this ? Was there a bill included, or a value mentioned ? DSV as the transporter ?
Always try to let the guys ship it as a gift and indicated a value of about 20 bucks or so, that way it stays under the radar. I can't believe you would have to pay import duties on 30 year old PCB !

The boards all look identical, doesn't look like there is a bootleg between them ? (Or else it is VERY alike the original).

By the way Bruno.......do I sense you are moving to original PCB hardware a bit more recently

Congrats on that game man, a lovely cab and game !

[scr33n]

Nice cab - and nice condition  Good luck with your resto Bruno

You're in competition with Superully .... Who will finish faster this resto?

 

[Superully]

You're in competition with Bruno .... Who will finish faster this resto?

i know ! bruno most definitely will, because i haven't even received all the parts needed yet - and i'm in no hurry and will probably be a little more anal than bruno is, sometimes too anal, but that's just how i am

the lunar restoration battle has begun  

[DarthNuno]

How come the customs caught this ? Was there a bill included, or a value mentioned ? DSV as the transporter ?
Always try to let the guys ship it as a gift and indicated a value of about 20 bucks or so, that way it stays under the radar. I can't believe you would have to pay import duties on 30 year old PCB !

The boards all look identical, doesn't look like there is a bootleg between them ? (Or else it is VERY alike the original).

By the way Bruno.......do I sense you are moving to original PCB hardware a bit more recently

Well I use to ask to the seller (got this board via ebay) to declare a low value on the package, but this was not the case for this one 
The bad thing with the customs : even if the object has a low value indicate on the package, if they open just for a check, they ask you 10€ just for 'administrative task'  So, from my experience... it's a total lottery 

Yes, the board on the right seems to be similar, but the first difference I see is ... the connector itself... I'll explain that in the next post.

Well spotted regarding the original PCB hardware It's effectively the case for my three last restorations : Ghosts'n'Goblins, Burger Time and now this Moon Patrol  It's always the ideal way to go but sometime it can be very difficult, it terms of money, knowledges... so, expect to see a day or an other my good old advance mame config   

You're in competition with Bruno .... Who will finish faster this resto?

i know ! bruno most definitely will, because i haven't even received all the parts needed yet - and i'm in no hurry and will probably be a little more anal than bruno is, sometimes too anal, but that's just how i am

the lunar restoration battle has begun  

LOL 

Well, you know most of my posts are not 'in real time'  I use to post often few MONTHS after doing the work ! There's no particular reason for that, I just do when I feel it 
Should I post the last picture of me, playing the Moon Patrol in the V3, just in front of the Galaxian Theater?   

[Superully]

Should I post the last picture of me, playing the Moon Patrol in the V3, just in front of the Galaxian Theater?   

then i'm going to win the battle, because i bet you won't be able to get the galaxian theater back together after all those years 

[DarthNuno]

then i'm going to win the battle, because i bet you won't be able to get the galaxian theater back together after all those years 

...mmhhhh.... Stay Tuned 

[Etienne MacGyver]

looking good bruno !

[scr33n]

then i'm going to win the battle, because i bet you won't be able to get the galaxian theater back together after all those years 

...mmhhhh.... Stay Tuned 

OMG !!! 

[vib_ribbon]

if they open just for a check, they ask you 10€ just for 'administrative task'

that's gotta be the biggest con ever!! they should just employ loads of people just to open as many packages as they can.

[level42]

I still cannot believe how that is legally possible within the EU. It's like you call in a crime with the police and they charge you for it.

Customs people get paid from taxes and.......o wait, they don't pay as much tax as we do in Belgium, that may be it......

[liquidx]

The inspection/brokerage fee is present everywhere, it's just a question of wether they choose to apply it or not. It's €13 at UPS for example.

Many packages coming into Belgium from the US have been targeted more than other origins because of all the online shopping (Asian packages fly through usually) but since the beginning of the year they've been stopping practically every single package from the US.

They're holding one of mine right now and contacted me for more details. That's how I noticed it was now a private company that the Belgian Post Office is outsourcing to, which explains the zealousness. Probably linked to the upcoming opening up of the market to competition.

[DarthNuno]

Back on the - on the left, the  board I got, labeled 'not working' and previously mentioned as a boot? It's the left one on the coming picture 



In fact, I can't tell if it's a boot or not... the components seems to be the same at first sight, but only differences I see so far is :

- the connector : the original one (on the right) has a key in order to match the original harness.
- the stickers : the original one has Williams stickers everywhere

...but the rest seems to be the same, so what?

Let's check the 'boot' closer... a broken component   



I know this board is labeled as 'non working', but I have to try it... but this board cannot be connected in the original harness without doing this to the connector 



Let's power on... nothing on the screen, no sound... nothing at all! Ok, let's skip this board for now, and go back to the working board, with the 'slow/left' direction non working. All the continuity check have been done, and I also permuted the left/right connector ... but still the same problem : I cannot slow done the car (I cannot got left)
Let's check what could be wrong on the board and measure/compare the right (working) direction and the left (non working) direction ... something wrong on the board   





There was also a 'ground' problem... got voltage on the mass wire  ... on this one 



Now fixed, but the board has been probably damaged by this (this mass wire was connected to the 'left' connector).

But I still have that 'left/slow' problem... but guess what? It doesn't seems to affect the gameplay too much because I've done a nice score 



It's time to install that cabinet inside the V2 



Hey... What's this   



An other supposed 'working board'... let's call this one the board #4 



Let's plug this one and ...



Yeah!!! 100% bug free 

Next steps :

- clean the cabinet
- shoot a video
- continue to increase my high score 

[DarthNuno]

Pictures requested by Superully 







 

[Superully]

thx a lot, bruno, unfortunately your connector seems to be wired differently than mine. just to keep you guys not out of the loop: when i removed the stuff from my moon patrol, one of the wires on one of the connectors came loose and since they were so dirty and my picture isn't good enough to show the exact position of that wire, i've asked bruno to snap a pic of his connector for me. check out my picture and compare that to bruno's - unfortunately it's not the same