Author Topic: [Superully's Restoration] Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...  (Read 125136 times)

Superully

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alright guys, before i get into details, let me point out first that this is going to be a long-time project, because there's so much to do and so many parts to design / create / buy ... but i will get there eventually - that's a promise!!!  :)

as i've already stated in another topic (https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=716.0), bubble bobble is one of my most beloved games. but since there is no such thing as an original dedicated bb cab and bubble bobble was only sold as a conversion kit, I will have to create one myself. i had been on the lookout for a taito cab (the company "responsible" for that perfect game) for quite a while and finally i was lucky enough to score ...

an old taito cab with almost nothing inside - but taito it is  ;D here's the damn expensive ebay auction  8)



besides the fabulous fact that i only paid 1 euro for the cab, the location of the seller was also close to perfect, because a good friend of mine lives pretty close to the game's destination. so i combined the pickup of the cab with a visit to my friend - nice roadtrip all around.

time to get started, what a horrible weather it was on that day ...



driving in HEAVY rain on german autobahns



the seller didn't want to appear on the pictures or take photos himself, so there's no picture of the actual loading process. only two of the cab already inside my car



at the end of a perfect day ...



once again, after carrying it up around 1000 stairs (at least it seems that way), the cabinet now rests in one of my "service rooms"



although the marquee says "crazy kong", there's no game inside. the game that originally was inside that cab was this: http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=9799



stratovox control panel with a "not so original" joystick



a beautiful taito coin door



one side of the cab: i love that taito logo  :-*



a lot of scratches on the sides  :'(



no monitor inside



the only thing inside is a chaos of wires and DIRT  :shock:





but behold! what kind of currency is that?  ;)



« Last Edit: February 12, 2014, 06:26:01 PM by Superully »
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Superully

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2009, 07:24:12 PM »
because the cabinet is so DAMN DIRTY ("attack of the killer grease from mars"  :twisted:), i have decided to dismantle the cab completely (which makes restoring the damaged parts much easier). following are some pictures taken during deconstruction  :arrow:













BYOTC - Build Your Own Taito Cab  ;D





next steps up on the list: clean this beast inside out, fix the damages to the wood, have the two colours (red and beige) of the cabinet scanned, create stencils for the sides (unfortunately, i haven't been able to find stencils for this type of taito cab, the only ones available are for taito cabs like this: http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=7700) and repaint it. i'll do my very best to make it a wonderful taito cab again!!!

« Last Edit: May 03, 2009, 09:09:43 AM by Superully »
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

petieken

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2009, 07:53:44 PM »
Good luck with this project!
Remember to provide lots of pictures of your progress ;) ;D ;D

Wanted: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs CPS1 Q-Sound pcb | SegaSonic The Hedgehog Art & instruction set


Superully

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2009, 08:05:00 PM »
@flip971:

thank you for the links, i especially like the license place thingy  ;D unfortunately, this won't fit on german license plates  >:(

as for the marquee: since my cab is red, i'm going to edit the existing marquee to match my cab's colour. i will also create a control panel overlay to fit the size of my control panel and a whole new bezel.

i haven't decided on the joysticks and the buttons yet. i will be getting four wico leaf switch ball top sticks from the usa soon (taken from an old simpsons game). the colours are red, orange, green and blue. my first idea was to take the blue and the green ones because these are the colours of the dragons. however, blue and green would look horrible in combination with the red and beige of the cab (at least i think so), so right now i'm leaning towards taking the red and orange joysticks (plus red and orange buttons) to keep the cabinet in one tone. since there is no original dedicated cabinet, i thought "why not change it the way it looks best?". call it "artistic license"! what do you think?
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2009, 08:08:41 PM »
Well , i think this will be a nice project because it has a lot of work , and i like to see the "work in progress" pictures  8)

First of all i like wish you goodluck !

i have one question , i guess the price was 1€ / 1KG dust ? ;D

anyway, most of the time they are "dust collectors"  so this is no exeption  ;)

Im sure you will transform it into a nice looking cab !

Greetings
Etienne

flip971

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2009, 08:17:10 PM »
@Suprelully: The plate is the best optional for a B&B fan. Everyone need one! ;D ;D ;D ;D

For the color: an "artistic license" is the best way  ;) ;) ;D ;D

Maverick

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2009, 08:41:36 PM »
Hmm,

The game inside is from a taito game of the late '70s



The coin door is widely known to be the Space Invaders coin door - Taito version


And to be more precise of the 1st since the circle on the left is yellow

(only part II has the circle was green)



Inside of the cab there is original taito transfomer


I can see the board grip, the isolator and the fusible (should be 4 and from the type we can understand which game is it, each game and version had different)

For example Space invaders part I has two types (it depends on the serial)

2A
3A
5A
1A

or

2A
2A
3A
5A

Check the fusibile order so i can tell you from which gameboard is from

The cable are widely the space invaders one with the letter at its end to match with the female of each cable


Mav

Ps= about bubble bobble in the Us indeed the game came out with a dedicated original cab


It from licensed to romstar

http://www.webalice.it/sovox70/preferiti/bubble%20bobble.jpg

Superully

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #8 on: May 03, 2009, 09:23:05 AM »
The game inside is from a taito game of the late '70s

The coin door is widely known to be the Space Invaders coin door - Taito version
And to be more precise of the 1st since the circle on the left is yellow
(only part II has the circle was green)

Mav, you really know your game. R - E - S -P - E - C - T !!!

Inside of the cab there is original taito transfomer
I can see the board grip, the isolator and the fusible (should be 4 and from the type we can understand which game is it, each game and version had different)
Check the fusibile order so i can tell you from which gameboard is from

on the back of the speaker board there are still the game instructions attached - and it talks about astronauts, so i guess the game that was inside really was STRATOVOX! right now the taito transformer is stored away in a box, but i will check order later. btw, do you have some kind of instructions / manual for the taito transformer?

Ps= about bubble bobble in the Us indeed the game came out with a dedicated original cab
It from licensed to romstar
http://www.webalice.it/sovox70/preferiti/bubble%20bobble.jpg

wasn't this also just a conversion kit where you attached those ugly romstar logos on the sides and the small labels JUMP and FIRE next to the buttons? anyway, i'm not a huge fun of the romstar version, that's why i'm going to create my own.
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

DarthNuno

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #9 on: May 03, 2009, 09:34:45 AM »
YEESSS!!! Superully starts s new great project  :) It's gonna be a great story to follow  ;) :-*

Last year, Screen worked on a TAITO cabinet too, but it was a Taito Cab from scratch... see here  :)

I've often see TAITO cabinet during few road trips or inside arcade warehouses, for example :




(I'm almost sure to have better in my 'road trip/arcade warehouses' pictures archive... will check)

A nice cab to own, for sure... Personally I would go for an Action Elevator cab, but it's just because I prefer to play EA than BB  ::) :P

Regarding the original boards, check for the 'TAITO Bubble Bobble chip' on it  :arrow:







The picture are coming from a nice post on gamoover board (in french), see  :arrow: http://www.gamoover.net/Forums/index.php?topic=18973.0

An idea for a control panel maybe? ROMSTAR powered  ::) :P  :arrow:



 :spaceace:

Sonic 1992

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #10 on: May 04, 2009, 07:31:10 AM »
Best of luck on your project!  :D   BTW: Keep that Crazy Kong marquee!  A cool game room decoration! ;D

Superully

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #11 on: May 04, 2009, 08:06:03 AM »
A nice cab to own, for sure... Personally I would go for an Action Elevator cab, but it's just because I prefer to play EA than BB  ::) :P

you know what, bruno, i'm thinking: while i'm having this cab disassembled, why not use the individual pieces as templates for building a couple of taito cab replicas  ;)? after all, qix, jungle king and elevator action are freaking great games  8). let's see ...
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

scr33n

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #12 on: May 04, 2009, 09:48:45 PM »
why not use the individual pieces as templates for building a couple of taito cab replicas  ;)? after all, qix, jungle king and elevator action are freaking great games  8). let's see ...

Superully,

I answer you here ....

begins to take a look here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=50123.0

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65678.0

and some images:







link to download more images .........maybe can help you .

TAITOCABxSUPERULLY.rar - 39.17MB

« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 07:55:07 AM by scr33n »
PROJECTS FROM SCRATCH:

Galaga - PacMan - Donkey Kong Red Cab - Track & Field Upright - Tempest - Burgertime - Gyruss - Defender - Track & Field Cocktail - Robotron 2084

RESTORATIONS:

Q*bert - Timber

Maverick

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2009, 02:09:54 PM »
The game inside is from a taito game of the late '70s

The coin door is widely known to be the Space Invaders coin door - Taito version
And to be more precise of the 1st since the circle on the left is yellow
(only part II has the circle was green)


Mav, you really know your game. R - E - S -P - E - C - T !!!


Thank you ully,
Yeah, I know these dedicated machines extremely well since I collected them for a long time to make restorations of Space Invaders' Taito cabs


For the transformer schematic I've got the original japanese manual of Space Invaders part I & II,

I'll look asap to check about it and in case to scan and post it

Mav
« Last Edit: May 05, 2009, 06:30:35 PM by Maverick »

Superully

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Re: Bubble Bobble Project - here we go ...
« Reply #14 on: May 10, 2009, 09:25:47 PM »

because the cab is so dirty and smelly (nicotine sucks big time), it will get a good cleaning.

tools of the day:



the dirty is starting to come off ...



once again, the remains of the day  :arrow:



all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!