Arcade project I've been working on...

[obitus1990]

My love for 70s/80s tech goes beyond just the Amiga and Commodore 64. My latest hobby is building reproduction arcade cabinets, which run the original hardware when possible. Right now, I am working on one of my favorite games from the early 80s, Konami Track & Field. I've many memories of playing this against my brothers at Showbiz Pizza Place BITD.

I cut all the parts out 2 weeks ago from 3/4" baltic birch, then laminated them with formica. Last weekend, I assembled it, and it came out pretty nice. I have to do a little paint work, then I'll have my brother print out the artwork for me. I have to get myself a metal bending brake to make the control panel and also a set of metal cutting dies to cut the button holes in the metal panel. I have a coin door on order to make it a true coin-op game. Once I get all of that, I'll install the original Track and Field PCB stack in there and invite my brothers over to kick their asses like it's 1984 again

Unfortunately, I think I will have to use an LCD panel for this build, as I cannot get my hands on an arcade CRT locally, but, I will at least install some kind of scan-line simulator inline between the game board and monitor to make it look more CRT-like (I'll probably build another GBS-Control modded GBS-8200 for this).

Here's my progress so far...

[BloodyCactus]

Very cool. I have several arcade PCB's around, and a NAOMI setup I need to build out.

Very nice looking cab!

A Track and Field pcb stack is a crazy thing. like 3 pcb stack or something sandwhiched together from memory. not the most fun thing to troubleshoot and fix.

[obitus1990]

Track and Field is a 2 PCB stack. One is the sound board, and the other is the CPU/MPU/graphics board. Not too terrible, but, just like Amiga, there are custom chips that can fail, rendering it useless. Thankfully, though, FPGA based clones are available for some of them, made by a fellow in Italy.

Now, old Williams board stacks on the other hand...what a nightmare...3-4 PCBs all daisy chained together with ribbon cables.

[obitus1990]

Just about finished this project now. All I need is the glass over the screen and the $ide artwork.

[intric8]

That looks SO fantastic!

Man, I have some weird memories with that game. BITD I remember seeing some "pros" play that at an arcade in ways I never would have dreamed of on my own. One guy used a thin plastic comb he pulled out of his back pocket and used it like a see-saw to press both buttons as fast as possible while slapping only one button. Another guy used a ballpoint pen (like a Bic) in a similar fashion. They'd weave them through their fingers; it looked kinda painful. This allowed them to use one hand to beat a button and let the plastic rock to the other button somehow and produce impressive speeds.

For me? I totally sucked at that game but always like watching the pros. The eye-hand coordination it required was brutal for my dorky self. I remember the graphics being really top notch back then, and kind of funny (like, I seem to recall my character almost looking like a 70s version of Mario).

But one year I got for Christmas a mobile LCD clone version, called Track Star. I still have it in my collection. In fact, it may very well be the oldest digital anything from my childhood still in my possession that somehow I never lost or gave away or sold or trashed. And I used to be pretty good at it. I call it a clone, but it was actually licensed by Konami, who also made Track & Field.

I was sad to discover I was missing a foot on the bottom of this old friend tonight. I keep it next to my vintage computers on a shelf so I can easily see it. But I haven't played it in years. 1983 FTW!

IIRC at the end you "win the girl" with a kiss on the trophy stand. I think I'm remembering that right. It takes 2 watch batteries to run. I should get some and see if the LCD is still looking nice.

I guess, in a weird way, this is the only Tandy game I can remember ever owning. I never owned any of the Tandy computers, either.

[fxgogo]

That is an impressive build. Are you building it to be a replica of an old unit?

[obitus1990]

That is an impressive build. Are you building it to be a replica of an old unit?

I'd say it's probably a 90% replica of the real thing. The coin door on US models wasn't the over/under model like what I used, but, getting the raised letter, standard Centuri coin doors these days is next to impossible. Sadly, it also is using an LCD, and, I'm using a JAMMA adapter versus a real harness that worked with this game only. Authentic PCB, however.

[obitus1990]

That looks SO fantastic!

Man, I have some weird memories with that game. BITD I remember seeing some "pros" play that at an arcade in ways I never would have dreamed of on my own. One guy used a thin plastic comb he pulled out of his back pocket and used it like a see-saw to press both buttons as fast as possible while slapping only one button. Another guy used a ballpoint pen (like a Bic) in a similar fashion. They'd weave them through their fingers; it looked kinda painful. This allowed them to use one hand to beat a button and let the plastic rock to the other button somehow and produce impressive speeds.

I'd love to see how that is done. I searched for Youtube videos, and nothing came up. I always wondered how people were getting sub 10 second 100 meter dash records and 10 meter long jumps. The only places I ever played this game as a kid was at Showbiz Pizza Place and Putt Putt Games and Golf and there were no "pros" there, playing at the kind of level you describe -- just button mashing kids like me.

But one year I got for Christmas a mobile LCD clone version, called Track Star. I still have it in my collection. In fact, it may very well be the oldest digital anything from my childhood still in my possession that somehow I never lost or gave away or sold or trashed. And I used to be pretty good at it. I call it a clone, but it was actually licensed by Konami, who also made Track & Field.

That's pretty cool. I still have my childhood Tommytronic PACMAN, TRON, and Coleco Donkey Kong handhelds (tabletops, really).

[austin90]

My love for 70s/80s tech goes beyond just the Amiga and Commodore 64. My latest hobby is building reproduction arcade cabinets, which run the original hardware when possible. Right now, I am working on one of my favorite games from the early 80s, Konami Track & Field. I've many memories of playing this against my brothers at Showbiz Pizza Place BITD.

I cut all the parts out 2 weeks ago from 3/4" baltic birch, then laminated them with formica. Last weekend, I assembled it, and it came out pretty nice. I have to do a little paint work, then I'll have my brother print out the artwork for me. I have to get myself a metal bending brake to make the control panel and also a set of metal cutting dies to cut the button holes in the metal panel. I have a coin door on order to make it a true coin-op game. Once I get all of that, I'll install the original Track and Field PCB stack in there and invite my brothers over to kick their asses like it's 1984 again

Unfortunately, I think I will have to use an LCD panel for this build, as I cannot get my hands on an arcade CRT locally, but, I will at least install some kind of scan-line simulator inline between the game board and monitor to make it look more CRT-like (I'll probably build another GBS-Control modded GBS-8200 for this).

Here's my progress so far...

IMG_2014.jpg

Just stumbled upon this. THAT IS SO COOL! would love to see how far the progress has come?

[obitus1990]

Just stumbled upon this. THAT IS SO COOL! would love to see how far the progress has come?

The last picture in the thread is the most recent. I haven't added the side artwork...I can't justify spending $200+ for something that no one will see when the cabinets are all lined up side to side.