Author Topic: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)  (Read 17591 times)

DarthNuno

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[WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« on: July 19, 2015, 04:35:36 PM »
...and following this road trip done almost 8 years ago  :P  :arrow:



...it's time to do 'something' on that game!  ;D

Ok, few months ago I checked what's wrong on that one, and what a deception when I sized all the problems so far :

- main board has problem (but I already knew that when I bought it)
- power supply problem
- monitor not working anymore

Now regarding the cabinet, in addition of the side arts to replace, I've also discovered that the bottom/side of the cabinet is damaged!

Well, with the very less time I had now for the hobby, and although I really love that game, I didn't have the motivation to start a massive work on that and spend too much time/money to restore it in its original form. In addition, Spy Hunter is also well know as an horrible game to maintain working...  :-\
I eventually put that one for sale...

BUT

I remembered that I bought 6 years ago a interesting device called "Led Wiz", and I remembered the idea I had in mind back then...

And what If I could emulate Spy Hunter? Sure this game can be easily emulated, but I would like to emulate it in the real cabinet, with all the it specific features: lights, yoke, pedal, shift, RGB display....and all of this of course in a non destructive way : not a single cable must be cut! All the modification must be reversible!
To have no regrets, I would still try this way before selling it...

OK, among the list of the Spy Hunters specificities, only one bothers me : how to pilot -over mame- the real 'weapons/van' light on the control panel? I've seen on the web few similar projects but none of them were clearly documented... so I'll do it here!

To resume, on a software side, I must use a mame version:

- that can send 'output' signals to a device that will light on/off the right bulbs the control panel
- that can manage the two positions (low/high) shifter on the control panel + the driving wheel /gaz pedal

On an hardware side :

- a device that can drive lamps : I have it... it's the "Led Wiz" board
- a device that can hook the original controls to a computer : the  U-HID Universal Interface Board will do the job with no problem

So I wanna see if the main thing that bothers me can really & easily work as it should be! Let's install the "Led Wiz" board, and do a basic thing... Hello World, just light one led please  :)  :arrow:



Ok, so far so good! Now let's install mame & Spy Hunter.
Now I need a software that 'captures' all the output signals produced by mame during a Spy Hunter game, and send them to the "Led Wiz" board. And the program to use is called MAMEHOOKER.

Holy shit, after few configuration attempts, it works!  :arrow:



In Spy Hunter, when the Weapons Van is coming, the "Weapons Van" button lights, and this is exactly what happened here!

The test results was the green light for me. Let's remove my 'Spy Hunter for sale' topic and continue the 'experiment'!  ;D

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2015, 05:16:49 PM »
Cool !  i like it   8)

Robinholland

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2015, 04:19:06 PM »
Cool !
Spy hunter are a GREAT game !!
I love my spy hunter game  ;D

DarthNuno

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2015, 10:38:46 PM »
OK, now that my 'proof of concept' has been successfully done regarding the control panel lightening, let's work on the cosmetic part of the cabinet.

Here's the starting point :





 :arrow: The entire 'full' sticker on both side have to be replaced by new ones.

The worst is inside!  :-\  :arrow:



An hole in state of a back wheel in the bottom of the cab  :?  :arrow:



...and the piece that maintain one side of the cabinet against the bottom is detached...



...and also the back is partially detached, I can move it see  :arrow:



Ok, first a good cleaning... what's that...shit?  :-X  :arrow:



A proof that this cabinet was UK operated  8)  :arrow:



The tools/parts to repair the bottom :


zamoth

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2015, 01:25:04 AM »
Cool Bruno good to see that

neocps1

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2015, 05:23:08 PM »
love it  :)

DarthNuno

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2016, 10:53:31 PM »
Let's remove the side art :



Done :



The other side :



...and as you can see, badly damaged :



Done... quite easy with the use of an hair dryer :



Next step, clean & fix the small damages on the sides before applying the new side arts...

old school

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2016, 05:47:38 PM »
Great game
good to know it's in good hand

come on clean and fix this baby

 ;D

"Winners Don't Use Drug " but to loop Ghost & Goblins it help !!

DarthNuno

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2016, 10:49:41 AM »
Now, let's repair the sides.

The tools of the day :



The first side... mhhhh... not to much to do on it...



...yeah, probably here  ::)  :arrow:



...but well, I'm here so let's fully repair that side  :arrow:



OK, now let's fix the other one...



Yes, clearly much damages on this one!  :arrow:





The best way to fix the bottom of a side imho is the use of perspex, like this  :arrow:



Et voilĂ  :



Andreas_AUT

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2016, 04:23:36 PM »
I have that Bosch tool too, its really awesome ( you can even cut door frames and wooden floors with it ).

Nice clean work, good to see the work is going on. Some day, I have to play Spyhunter too ( not sure if I did at the arcades ).

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2016, 07:21:39 PM »
Looking good Bruno !  :spaceace:

DarthNuno

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2016, 10:21:31 PM »
Now the side arts... well, it's still a little bit 'scary' for work with huge stickers like that, but these ones coming from thisoldgame are great quality... no problem to do it :



The best moment...slowly discovering the beauty of a brand new side art... but also so stressing ...how many bubbles will I find?  ::)  :arrow:



Nice!  :-*  :arrow:





 8)

Q*ris

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2016, 11:12:53 PM »
beautiful!!!

ricky2001

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2016, 10:49:12 AM »
 :o This looks perfect, how do you cut the edges so perfect?

Rick

devpsx

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Re: [WIP] Midway's Spy Hunter...finally! :-)
« Reply #14 on: March 10, 2016, 11:17:24 AM »
Now, let's repair the sides.


The best way to fix the bottom of a side imho is the use of perspex, like this  :arrow:



Et voilĂ  :




Hello Bruno,

Could you explain this part please ?

Dev