RF Generation Message Board

so i'm making a weekend project out of my neo geo arcade cabinet, and i have some questions if anyone here has much arcade knowledge. or links to some good sites...i looked around and couldn't find too much on the specific problem i'm having.

the neo geo motherboard is original, but the cabinet and i'm fairly sure the screen as well as maybe some other parts are all Galaxian. it works fine after a while, but the main problem is at first, while it warms up, the screen is constantly rolling. it eventually slows down and stops rolling, but takes up to about 5 minutes to settle. i heard it's the vertical sync, but i can't figure out which dial to adjust for that. and i'm not really sure if that would do anything, considering it stops scrolling on it's own after warming up. the screen also has a slight warping effect at the top, like it's pulling the picture to the side within the top inch of the screen if that makes any sense. it's not too bad but it is noticeable.

I would start with klov and read the parts and operating manual: (If it is the original monitor)

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7885 (Page 6)

If it isn't the original monitor Google the model number and your should be able to find the manual.

http://www.klov.com

Check out www.arcaderepairtips.com

They have some nice videos to help you out. A lot of these old monitors have failing capacitors in the chasis, so you might want to get a cap kit for it and replace them.

thanks for the info! i had found that site before but not the galaxian page, the picture of the inside looks exactly like mine in every way except the neo geo board replacing the galaxian one. i'm surprised they were compatible.

i also just tried the coin mechanism for the first time (up to this point i had always used the free credit button on the inside) and it worked perfectly so that's awesome. the only thing is it's really rusted, so the coin return button is jammed on both sides.

the video guides on this site look really useful, thanks!

ok...so while trying to figure out the colour issue i had (that i fixed before posting here), i was fiddling with the knobs and adjusting various things because the ones labelled as RGB didn't seem to do anything. and now after having it off for about 20 minutes, i turned it back on and the rolling screen issue is mostly gone. it seems to barely move a little, and then it pops back into place, but it's hardly noticeable. i'm going to leave it off for a couple hours to see if it works when it's cooled down, but i'm thinking i accidently fixed it while adjusting something.

Galaxian predates Jamma so they aren't compatible. The only things that would be compatible between the two standards would be the monitor and the coin door. This should give you a good overview on Jamma:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamma

Glad to hear you are making progress and hope you fixed your issue!

weird, some of the stuff in the galaxian internal pictures i saw looked exactly like what i see in my cabinet, the only different being the motherboard. also that everything but the motherboard looks like it could be old enough to have been original galaxian, whereas the neo geo motherboard looks new

Most arcade internals are cross compatible with all the rest to be fairly easy and cost efficient to repair. Later machines may have more advanced power supplies, and JAMMA makes it easy to swap boards, but these cabinets were designed to be swapped to different games easily.

When I got my arcade cabinet, I discovered nearly every part inside was from a different machine, as evidenced by little tags that said what game they had come from. I think finding a completely original cabinet is about as common as finding a car from the same era that is completely original.

I would second this. I have been working my way through all of the arcade repair tips podcasts. I'm almost certain if you asked them your question they would say to get a cap (capacitor) kit and replace all the caps. Sounds like doing this is an inevitable part of working on arcade machines and is a perfectly normal part of maintenance. It does require soldering parts on a circuit board.

Is there where I get to brag that the owner of my previous machine got his direct from factory? :P

it seems to be working fine now...tried it about 4 different times, giving it time to cool off for a couple hours in between. still works fine, no rolling screen and no colour issue anymore. i'm not sure exactly which dial it was, but one of them must have fixed it because i didn't do anything but fiddle with the dial adjustments. thanks for all the info anyway everyone! i'm sure it'll come in handy in the future if i do need to get into replacing capacitors or anything like that.