I know that monkey, its Donkey! [DK Scratch build]

[falcon NL]

After almost 4 years of doubting, I finally decided to make a scratch build replica of the Donkey Kong Cabinet. The real "kick"from behind was after i had seen King of Kong...men I love that movie! Im still not sure if I want a complete replica or a adjusted one for two players+ a couple of extra buttons.

Since i have been looking to start this project more then 4 years ago i knew a couple thing ahead of time.
- Nintendo coin doors aren't that easy to find
- Planning is everything
- Color Matching is hard.

I started off with buying a coin door off the KLOV forums. It was a bit pricey but i got two working coint mech's with it. Yesterday i started with buying a sheets of MDF (244x122x15) and tracing the plans of jakobud (yes i know that they aren't that accurate, but i haven't got anything better to work with..)

Im still a total noob on making cabinets, mame or restoring parts of old cabinets to there original state. But i figured, if i never try it i would never learn. Plus there are A LOT of dutch people here, so that makes this a fun project to do and maybe make some new friends along the way!

Picture time!
The coint door from the Klov forum


Cleaning up

Drawing out the first side of the cabinet


first side of the cabinet done!


and thats all for now!

[level42]

Another Dutchie !

Welcome !

Nintendo coin doors SUCK. Hard to find AND they are the weakest coin doors I've ever seen. I guess they didn't need very heavy one's in Japan... ?

What are you plans with the coin-mechs ?

[ckong]

Hi Falcon, welcome here, Dutchie. It's perhaps a nice idea to introduce yourself and tell us something about your gaming past and preferences here: https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?board=3.0

About the cab, very good choice of you to start with a Nintendo cab (ninty for some of us     )

Are you going to mame it? If I were you I would try to make it as original as possible, no (visible) extra buttons etc. Maybe make two as you are at it, one original and dedicated for DK, one possibly to Mame.  About he colors: if you choose to make it red then there are a few forum members who can help you with the paint, if you are going to make it baby blue then I can help you with the color code for an 'exact' match. You could also choose to buy 'original' colored vinyl at thisoldgame.com
And you should use flat white T-molding, perhaps you still can participate in the group buy that Level42 organized ( https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=1539.0 )

coin mechanism and parts: Asahi Seiko still makes them new: http://www.asahiseikousa.com/  They also have a UK based branch, but prices and choice of parts is better from the US branch. They however don't accept foreign credit cards, nor Paypal (strange but true), so you will need a US connection to get the parts.

Anyway, you will notice that you will find a lot of useful information on this forum.

[DarthNuno]

Welcome falcon NL 

Hey, an new 'Scratch Build Replica' builder?  Coooool 
Be sure your on the right place here for such things  Good job so far.

 

[falcon NL]

Thanks for the warm welcome Ckong and Lvl24!!

@lvl24
Yeah i know, i hate his door! It has million of dens in it, and the door won't shut smoothly. Im considering to put a layer of Bondo on to it so it will be smooth. I dont know what wrong with the door yet...Seems to me that the housing is bend (probably from taking out of its original cabinet) so i need to think of a way to solve that.
For the coin mechs, the guy that send me the door also sold me three coint mechs (those were in the deal..not bad for 40 dollars) One of them is a Asahi Seiko (i didnt knew if it was any good untill Ckong showed me ) and the other ones are original i guess...some help?


Next to that..I not sure how much t-molding I would need to offer for a ninty () cabinet and what it would cost me . And i have no idea why this is more real then the other stuff out there, other than it "flat" and "shiny", but i trust its closer to the original so...  

@Ckong
Well i was planning on making it Mame. I want to try to make one cabinet by try and error (Mame) and after that i was planning on making a true DKjr. And about the color: I know the baby blue is the original color but i like the red better, but then again it a bit early to talk about colors? Or isnt it??

And for progress...It was a rainy day so i couldn't get the second MDF board (my car isnt big enough that i can carry two of those things at the same time..).So i ended up with drawing some other parts one the left over mdf board. I also was trying to make door straigh by forcing it to a straight line...


This door is getting a real pain in the butt..Maybe i should try to heat it up?

[level42]

The doors are a pain. Flimsy as hell, no match for any burglar IMHO. Mine was dented as well and doesn't fit very smoothly either. I tried to work out some dents but couldn't get all out, yet I decided to have it powder coated. The blackness of the thing luckily hides the dents a bit.

Those two coin mechs you have there are definitely not original. Those are "hacked in" standard coin-mechs. The Asahi Seiko IS original though. Although it's a bit of a pain to get them, I too advice to get brand new faceplates PLUS the missing parts (like the return coin bugle, the return button and the mounting bolts (don't forget the last, we did, so IF you're going to order, I'd like a set of those too ) The issue is that there is a minimum order limit. However, IF you want to go 100% original you'll have to order a complete mech anyway so that will already get you close to the minimum IIRC.

The Asahi Seiko mechs are the most impressive quality mechs I've ever seen. Aluminium so no rust. The faceplates don't hold up really well though, as you've already discovered. I think it's great that they still make these unchanged today and putting those brand new parts on there is just an amazing sight. I've installed them on my door, I'll make a pic and put it up here tonight.

You will need 20 feet of the T-molding for 1 Nintendo cabinet. If you think the "regular" white Nintendo T-molding is fine for you, I have a set for a full cab here.

By the way, you posted one pics two times, guess you wanted to post another one there ?

[falcon NL]

Well I spend my ENTIRE day fixing my coin door.

First i spend more then a hour taking it apart, somehow if you want to take out the lower pin of the hinge it slams into the door itself...so after a lot of wiggling around i got it out. After that i finally striped to the bare metal.


In last picture of my previous post you can see how i bend the metal evenly.I also dented out most of the pits that where in the door. When the door was closed one part was sticking out. It took me around 5 to 6 hours to make it finally fit perfectly into the frame.

After that it fill the left over spots with bondo, sand it down with a sanding paper (grind 1000) and painted it a white primer layer.


Tomorrow one more layer of bondo, some filling paint, black paint AND work on the cabinet it self!

@lvl42
Well im still not sure what to pick when in comes down to the t-molding. I have some pictures of Mikes tmolding and the original one. Im tempted to go with the "True" t-molding...but i cant find the wide of the molding. I used 15 mm MDF for the cabinet, isnt that off?   Arrgh!! Any idea what the shipping cost are to the netherlands? Or are we taking a whole bunch at the same time and splitting the shipping costs?
About the coint mechs, you totally convinced me for the Asahi mechs! If those are the real deal, i need one more of them (plus two new faceplates and stuff). Now i need to find some cash for all of this!  

[ckong]

Nice work so far.

Or are we taking a whole bunch at the same time and splitting the shipping costs?
 

We are doing a bulk buy: https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=1539.0

You will find more info about the T-molding on KLOV.

[level42]

Here's the pics of my mech with brand new

- faceplate
- return knob (& spring, but you don't see that of course)
- return bugle

You can see the missing bolt (boohoo !!!)

With flash:


Without: (ambient arcade neon lighting only)

[falcon NL]

André they look great! Its a shame your missing a bolt, if i can get in contact with Asahi. I really want the original coin mechs+ face plate.

Update time!

I have been working a lot of thing this week to make sure she was standing up this week.
First i worked out the foot for the cabinet



I made sure to sink the bolts,so just a bit of touching up before i can paint the thing.

Saturday i jigsawed the seconded side panel and made sure they where even by sanding the hell out of it!


Assembly! Thanks to Scr33n for the L brackets idea!



Well its been a hell of a week...but she is finally standing! I



So there she is! Im not sure about the size...she looks kinda small, but its 60cm wide and 86 cm long...
Now its time to order all my stuff like the bezel, side art, retainers, buttons and joysticks. So which one is good? Im doubting between Mikearcade and mamemarquees/Gameongrafix, anyone any thought on that?

[Superully]

judging from the pics, the control panel height looks as if it were too low - very low indeed! you can play on that cabinet while sitting on the floor how inaccurate are those jacu-plans?

[falcon NL]

I have no idea , but the hight of the cabinet is 168 cm and the CP start at 85 cm

Edit: Just check the measurement of Bruno, its not that far off only 2 cm...

[Superully]

perhaps it's because of the angle the picture was taken from!

[ckong]

Looking good so far.

.... missing a bolt, if i can get in contact with Asahi. I really want the original coin mechs+ face plate.

If you do, would you then perhaps be so kind to order extra sets of bolts for André and me (3 sets of 4 bolts, one set for André and two sets for me)? We were so stupid and forgot to order them with our parts.

[falcon NL]

No problem, but im not sure if they ever going to get back to me..I signed up almost a week ago and haven't hear from Asahi since...