http://www.thebasementscientist.com A chronicle of my projects and wacky experiments. Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:30:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've been playing a lot of Sega Saturn shoot 'em ups lately, but I'm not a big fan of the official arcade stick for the Saturn.  I was also looking for a wood working project to try out my CNC mill with, so I decided a custom arcade stick might ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2010/07/12/custom-sega-saturn-controller/ I finished up work on the Donkey Kong last night.  I re-capped the monitor, hooked up the coin door, and rebuilt the original joystick.  Nintendo joysticks are definitely odd beasts.  The joystick that came with the DK was rusted out and pretty much beyond repair.  Luckily I had two Nintendo ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/12/29/finished-the-donkey-kong/ Finished cleaning up the inside of the DK cabinet this weekend.  She was stinky, but thanks to some advice on the KLOV forums I managed to get it under control with some Clorox Clean-Up.  After giving her a few hours to dry off I stuck on the new side art ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/12/21/new-side-art/ Cleaned up the Donkey Kong last night.  Used a heat gun to take off the side art and only had to do a little scrubbing with some Goo Gone to get the adhesive residue off.  Magic Erasers are awesome.  Made cleaning her up way easier that I thought it would ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/12/18/dk-all-clean/ My Christmas present came a little earlier than expected.  A Donkey Kong cabinet!  I was supposed to go pick it up on Sunday, but the guy was making a trip to Lincoln and was nice enough to bring it along.  She's in very good shape for a 28 year old ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/12/17/donkey-kong/ I finished up my Multi-Williams cab just before Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the finished product. I got the marquee and control panel from arcadeoverlays.com.  The monitor bezel is from arcadeshop.com.  You can't tell in the pictures, but the buttons are translucent.  I put LEDs ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/12/02/multi-williams/ I spent the last three days doing a little arcade restoration work.  I don't have enough room in Lincoln to store them all (up to 9 machines now), so I tend to wait for a long weekend to do any major repairs.  The ones that aren't at my house are ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/11/15/arcade-restoration-weekend/ After a chance visit to an old, run-down warehouse on the outskirts of Lincoln, I'm back in the arcade building/restoration business.  My first trip didn't yield anything except a pair of completely stripped Lost Tomb and Express Raider cabinets.  However, the guy having the sale turned out to be a ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/09/18/arcade-fever-returns/ In my various DIY experiments I often find that I need special parts created.  That part could be a control panel, circuit board, special bracket, or an endless number of other things that have to be custom made for a particular project.  Usually these custom parts are the most expensive ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2009/04/14/robots/ Due to a hectic work schedule earlier this year I haven't been able to use up much vacation time.  For the last two months I've been taking every Friday off to burn up some vacation days.  Instead of spending my time playing video games or working on my various other ... http://www.thebasementscientist.com/2008/12/17/brewing-overdrive/