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Monkey Mole Panic - 9 button panel help

Morden

Morden

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Hello! I have a Monkey Mole Panic board in the mail. It's a whac-a-mole type game, which I always thought was really cute and fun. The problem is, it has a 9 button panel with dome buttons that light up. All I'm getting is the board.

I've been trying to find some info on the control panel, but I can't find anything. No manuals, no dip settings, aside from the ones based on MAME. Nothing. I'm not worries about not being able to get the buttons to work, but if possible, I'd like to retain the light-up feature on the buttons. This is how the game cabinet looks like:

YouTube Video

And this is the board. I've taken the images from the eBay listing. The board is still in the mail:

s-l1600.jpg


The second image is showing the connector that presumably would plug into the control panel. Counting the wires for 9 buttons plus ground, that would add up. What I don't know is how the button lights are being controlled. There are two VGA style connectors on the right of the JAMMA edge. In and out.

Again, any and all info on this board is greatly appreciated, as I can't find anything anywhere, and believe me, I've tried. I'll of course poke around the board once I get it, but I figured I'll ask first. Thanks!
 

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it's more likely that the inputs are the joystick & button pins on the jamma connector and the flying cable goes to a lamp-driver pcb.
if i'm right then it should be easy to direct-drive a set of led's or make a small board with something like a ULN2008 to drive lamps.
 
D-oh! I initially assumed the JAMMA edge wouldn't have enough buttons, because P1 and P2 are in use, and we're left with four buttons per each player, and mixing JAMMA input with additional wires didn't sound like a smart solution, so I figured they just went with the wires for the whole panel, but I didn't think about the directional buttons, which give us more buttons than we need on the JAMMA edge alone.

That still leaves us with the wire which has a wire count matching the number of buttons plus ground. Is it possible it could be sending just voltage to power the lights? That would be ideal.

I wish I had the board already to test all of this out. I'm really excited about this one. I'm planning on building a panel with 100mm lit-up buttons. Control-wise, I want it to be close to the original arcade experience.
 
i dont like speculating, wait till you get it and then see where the wires lead from.
what buttons have you got in mind? got a link?
i want to see the specs on the lighting.

btw, is this in mame?
 
stj said:
i dont like speculating, wait till you get it and then see where the wires lead from.
what buttons have you got in mind? got a link?
i want to see the specs on the lighting.

btw, is this in mame?
Click to expand...
The board should be here early next week. I'll check the traces from those wires. I'll take some photos as well. One boot-up should also solve the mystery of inputs. As for the buttons, I was thinking of these. Other sellers have them in sets of 10 for less, but they are the same 12V buttons. I think there is also a 5V version, but at this point, I have no idea how much voltage the original lights needed.

I've registered an account on Dragon's Lair forum and I'll send that guy a message hoping he can provide some info, a manual, or anything really. I hope those 125-130V 15W bulbs he was asking for weren't for the buttons (!!!).

And yes, the game is emulated in MAME, and has been for at least 10 years. Also, I've noticed the dip settings available online don't really correspond to the switches on the board. Setting up modes, demo sounds, etc. will be an adventure in and of itself, unless I get a manual.

Edit: After you've mentioned MAME, I found the ROM and went into the test mode. This will be a pretty convenient way of figuring out the inputs and dips. Unfortunately, many of the dip settings are labeled as unknown. Still, you get the essentials, so that's OK. I've also noticed you can set an internal clock on this board, but the year only goes up to 2009.
 
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yes, i did some more searching.
the original machine used japanese mains lamps - so it must have had a driver board that probably used ssr's
it also used a ticket dispenser - i hope that wont stop it running.
 
btw, there was a sequal called "Animalandia Jr" from what i see in the mame driver.
 
stj said:
yes, i did some more searching. the original machine used japanese mains lamps - so it must have had a driver board that probably used ssr's. it also used a ticket dispenser - i hope that wont stop it running.
Click to expand...
A ticket dispenser? Maybe that's what the VGA-style connectors are for? And don't even joke. If the lack of one will stop the game from running, I'll be furious. Or maybe it's for linking the cabinets? The flyer says up to four machines are linkable. I wonder how that works. Are you absolutely sure about the lamps? Where did you find that information? I couldn't dig up anything.
 
the sockets are for a multi-cab link,
the mains (100v) info came from another forum where a guy with a cab was trying to find replacement lamps.

the ticket dispenser info is vague - it's probably a different cab with different software because it needs some way to translate score or whatever into prize value.
anyway, if it runs in mame then your fine - because they dont emulate one.
 
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