I made some more progress on Moon Patrol. While some of the things I’m doing now may seem a little out of order, I’m doing them that way because I’m waiting to save a little money for the parts I need.

OK…check out the nasty speaker board this game came with:

Where do I begin. Let’s start with the bare wood. That should be covered with speaker cloth. Then there is that unsightly metal vent crap that they’ve screwed over the speaker hole. I think I just threw up a little. Based on some recommendations in posts in the RGVAC newsgroup, I headed to Ace Hardware to look for some special heavy duty replacement screen material called “Paw Proof”. It is designed to keep these from ripping your screens to shreds:

I couldn’t find one specifically with that brand name, but I did find a roll of what must have been the same stuff. It was $3.49 a foot, and came in a 36″ roll. I bought 4′ to have some extra. Here it is after I sprayed the board with some black rustoleum and covered it with the screen:

I just folded it over the back and stapled it. I really like the way it came out. Thanks go to whomever suggested that material.

I started wiring up the cabinet. I installed a new marquee light, the marquee, a switcher, and a custom wiring harness that I put together. Here are some picks of the back. Keep in mind it’s not done, and I need to vaccuum out the inside a bit.

If you’ve been reading my other posts, you may be wondering if that monitor will work after I hosed it down with a garden hose. I hooked it up, and it was deader than a door nail. It turned out that the fuse 601 was blown, so the problem had nothing to do with my heavy duty cleaning. I messed around with the monitor, trying to figure out the best way to mount it. This was clearly not the original monitor. This one is a Kortek KTA-915, and was designed to be mounted vertically. I was able to situate it in a spot so that the back door should just barely close, and the bezel around front should just barely fit. Before I went through the effort of trying to mount the monitor, I wanted to make sure it was going to work.

My wife got me a set of Randy Fromm DVDs and his big blue book. He has monitor flow charts to help troubleshooting monitor problems. According to the one for this monitor, if fuse 601 is blown, it is usually due to someone hooking it up without an isolation transformer (more than meets the eye). It said that when this happens, the bridge rectifier may be shorted. I tested it, and it didn’t seem to test right. I pulled it out of circuit and it tested fine so it went back in. He also says to check capacitor 602 for a short, but it wasn’t shorted. So, the problem may actually just be a fuse. I didn’t have one that fit, so I ran to Ratshack expecting them not to have it, and expecting them to try to sell me a cellphone. I was very shocked to find that they actually had the right fuse, and didn’t even ask for my name or phone number when I checked out.

I put the fuse in, did a cap kit, and it fired right up! Here it is from the front.

I was able to play a few games by touching the control panel wires together. It should be a lot easier to play once I actually have a joystick and buttons hooked up.

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment…