Dedicated Point Blank machine

[mR_CaESaR]

A dedicated Point Blank machine has been in the "want to buy" for many years. I can now officially say, one of my last grails has been purchased! Time Crisis 1 can now be sold off and this will replace it.

Got delivery of this cab last a little while back and when I checked it out, there wasn't much to it, the game was working, the guns were firing and it was "solid"

The cab currently has "Gunbarl" artwork on the side, on the marquee. For those that aren't aware, Gunbarl is the Japanese release of Point Blank 2. The arcade pcb inside the cabinet is the English version.

Once it arrived, the first thing to do was turn it on and have a couple of rounds as this is one of the grails! I was excited... sadly, I was present with this upon starting up - a loud squeal that wasn't present when I inspected the machine

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jTA6WS_kSkE


Oh well, it is what it is. Issue 1 identified. The good thing was, the game still ran as expected.

Next on the list was just to check out the overall cab and how much work was required. When I checked the cab out, I guess the excitement/adrenalin was too much and I didn't really do an objective look at the cab.

The good thing was it's a Toshiba A68KJU tube which is the same that's on my Astro City

The "bad" thing was, it's not a direct swap for an MS9 as the yoke would be different. No major biggie, the Toei chassis that's on it is the same as the one that's on my Time Crisis and I can't complain about the image quality.

Chassis is a Toei TC-A292N 3

Being a dedicated Point Blank cab, the burn in on the tube is expected and can't be seen during gameplay (like most burn in tubes, it's only on white you generally see it).

I will swap the tubes with the time crisis cab as it seems to have a better tube and I want this cab to have the best possible tube it can.

On to the power supply - this is definitely a new one for me

When I inspected the cab, I did a terrible job at being objective, I noticed the psu initially, but I didn't really take notice as the solenoids were working. It was really only after closer investigation I realised the 24v solenoid psu looks like it's a complete DIY or a "let's get it working as an operator" solution as it's definitely not how the stock PSU is.

Fortunately, I have a complete spare PSU setup and I will most likely revert the machine back to factory Japanese 100v using the correct PSU (provided it works) which looks like this

Whilst there's not "much" to do, there's still a few things I would like to do.

Internal to do:

• Send PSU to JOMAC for maintenance - hopefully he can get rid of that squeal
  
• Switch Tube and chassis with Time Crisis
  
• Revert back to 100v and use the original PSU
  
• Replace Solenoids. Solenoids are solid and work fine, but I have a couple of new solenoids so I might as well use them
  
• Trace out wiring on the machine as none of the manuals online seem to match what I have. Most manuals I've seen seem to be the UK variant, but I'm pretty sure this is a Japanese variant of the machine

Externally

• Since I've always wanted this machine to be what I played on (Point Blank 1), it's only natural that I want to revert it to that. So I need to replace Control panel artwork with Gunbullet (not Gunbarl)
  
• Replace Header with Point Blank/Gunbullet
  
• Replace monitor bezel with Point Blank/Gunbullet
  
• Replace hose cover with newer ones
• Replace Gun Shells with newer pink and blue. Over the years, I've collected namco guns in the hope that I would be in this position. I only have one "good" blue shell, but I have a couple decent pink shells but need a couple of triggers

Overall, given the machines age, the side art and overall shape is probably one of the better conditioned machines I've seen over the years that have popped up for sale. Sadly, I probably paid a little too much for what I would've liked, but this cab was purchased as a grail and nostalgia and I am very happy with the purchase which is all that matters

 

[mR_CaESaR]

I had a couple of hours Saturday morning to get the tube swap going.

First order of business is to put the cabs side by side so I can just slide the frame from one cab to another

Slide the tube from the Point Blank cab, placed it on the eski and then slid the time crisis tube onto the point blank cab

Since the tube, chassis and frame were exactly the same, there was really no need to swap frames over. This way was just easier

Frames swapped! Literally a 10 minute process once the cabs were side to side - 2 connectors unplugged, 4 bolts and slide

Now it's a matter of playing the waiting game as these are the things I am currently waiting on

• PSU to be repaired from JOMAC
• Control Panel artwork
• Monitor bezel artwork
• Point Blank PCB
• NOS solenoid for the gun
• New gun harness cover
• Point Blank marquee header

Hopefully most if not all those things arrive in the next couple of weeks

 

[mR_CaESaR]

This has slowed down a little as I haven't really had the chance to do much to it. Work and life has been a little crazy since getting this cab.

I've managed to do a few of the cosmetic items. Collected my point blank header from and it's night and day from what is currently on the cab.

The original Gunbarl one

Vs the newer Point Blank one

I received my gun cable covers from Zax, so I also did the gun shell replacement and solenoid replacement.

There is a system in this organised chaos

The before and after for the blue

And for the pink

I also got my point blank 1 pcb and it doesn't have a cage like my one, but it still has the filter board. In theory, I could probably stack it on top of the cage and figure out some sort of switching mech, but that's a later on down the track project

It fits perfectly and just clears the tube by doing it this way in the cab. I can then have gunbalina/point blank 3 in the base if I ever decide to get that.

I got my fixed PSU's from JOMAC and sadly only one could be repaired, the other one was FUBAR

Unfortunately, caps had leaked already and when I tried cleaning this myself, a whole heap of traces came off.. she's definitely screwed! haha

The repro control panel artwork and bezel was received, but I'm not the biggest fan of it. It's definitely not 1:1 from the japanese one as it doesn't have any cutouts or what not and the bezel art is on the "short" side. It doesn't match exactly the width of the cab - it's probably about 10mm short on each side?

Regardless, it'll have to do as I already commenced ripping off the artwork on the CP, what a massive PITA of a task that has been!

I'll most likely paint this because she's quite yellow on certain parts and has quite a bit of scratches and rust.

Now onto the biggest set back of this cab... The damn Monitor! When I did my enclosure swap with the Time Crisis cab, you would think it's just a simple swap and go.. the connections were the same, the tube was the same, the chassis was the same and even the frame was the same. So it should've just been a swap and go. But nooooooo, nothing is ever that simple for me haha.

When I got my PSU from JOMAC and connected it all up, I was greeted with this weird issue:

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VZTSSK4Ficc


At first I thought it may have been a chassis issue and needed to be serviced by Joey, but after reaching out to him, he's quite adamant that it's a sync/grounding issue.

I have been at it for a number of hours but can't figure out where the issue lies.

The following has been done trouble shooting wise:

• When I unplug the monitor from the game board, there is no short (continuity) from GND to the RGB lines of the connector
• The moment I plug in the monitor connector to the game pcb, the short on GND and RGB occurs
• GND on the PSU is continuous with VIdeo GND
• PSU is reading 5.0v and there is sound and video (albeit syncing inncorrectly)
• Tried rigging up the game pcb to my E2 but sadly, it also had some sync issues (i think I will need to play around with the HH.15 pot, but I'm not sure if that's the issue)
  
  
  

• If there's still no issue, the only other thing I can think of is to test a different power supply. At this point, I'm not too fussed if the cab is no longer OEM with the PSU, I know I've already paid a decent amount getting the psu fixed up, but I may need a brand new one instead

This cab was supposed to be a turn key very minimal issue cab, but I don't know why it's turned into this annoying setup. I'll get there eventually, it's just so damn frustrating

 

[mR_CaESaR]

An update about "no updates" LOL


I've spent hours and hours on this and sadly nothing has changed!


Here's what I've done so far

• I totally forgot I had a TPG (Test Pattern Generator) and connected that. When a tpg is connected to the monitor, sending a 15khz signal works - so this means the monitor works

​

• When I wire up a jamma edge to the psu, and take out the Namco emi filter pcb, I can get an rgb image (monitor needs some major calibration)

• When I connect point blank 1 on the filter board, I don't get a proper image
  
  
• When I connect point blank 2 on the filter board, I get the image like in the original video
• If I connect both those pcbs outside of the filter board, I get perfect image on my astro city I've swapped 2 different filter boards with the same results.

• I've replaced the rgb connector with newly crimped wires and it has the same results.
• I've tried outputting the RGB signal to an Astro City and to my Atomiswave, but sadly I couldn't get a perfect image

• If my monitor wasn't grounded properly, I wouldn't think I'd get an image with a JAMMA edge or a TPG right?
• My issue seems to stem from the game pcb outputting rgb to a source using the filter board, but I've tried using another board and I find it hard to believe 2 have issues. What I really don't understand is how and why it changed the moment I used a different monitor - of which is exactly the same tube number, chassis, frame and connector.

My next test is to bother @DRAGONKZ and connect both my Point Blank 1 and Point Blank 2's with their respective EMI Filter Boards and see if it also exhibits the same issue to completely rule out the EMI Filter boards being the issue.


This issue has been the biggest pain in the arse in all my years of fixing crap up and I must say, I'm completely stumped!

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Another journey mate - to rival the Blasts. I’m sure you get the bottom of it.

 

[mR_CaESaR]

Another journey mate - to rival the Blasts. I’m sure you get the bottom of it.

Yeah definitely another journey. I'm hoping it's just a faulty EMI filter board - but who knows.

 

[jimche]

My point blank machine out of nowhere made a buzzing/arcing noise and just disconnecting and cleaning the flyback which is plugged into the monitor fixed it.

 

[mR_CaESaR]

After finally admitting defeat the other day, I started thinking about how to install the game using JAMMA. When I purchased a Point Blank PCB, I was also given a Point Blank wiring harness with the JAMMA edge connector so I thought I'd use that and retro fit it into the cabinet somehow.

As I started tracing out wires, I came across this little pcb on the harness which had what seemed to be video related wires connected to it (r g b sync and vgnd). It's a bare basic pcb with 3x 100 ohm resistors on the rgb lines, needless to say, it had official Namco silkscreen on it, so I assumed it was "legit"

So I figured... What the hell? Why don't I wire it up and see what happens. What else have I got to lose at this point?

I rigged up the "IN" header from the monitor/chassis and "OUT" header to the Namco emi filter board.

When I turned the cab on, I was expecting the same issue as I've been receiving, but to my absolute shock, I was greeted with a stable image!!

Monitor needs calibration but at least I'm now getting perfect sync!

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/aky-95GLt2E


After looking at my reference pics, it seems the old tube/chassis combo I had was a TOEI TC-A292N 3 and the one I have now is just a TC-A292. I'm assuming the N 3 model was updated so it didn't need the inline resistor pcb? I have no idea. Someone much smarter than me will have to explain as I can only assume that the RGB lines out of the EMI filter board is sending out a higher voltage than what a regular jamma monitor is expecting because the issue only occurs when the EMI filter board is attached.

I have a 75 ohm sticker on my current monitor connector and I'm not sure if the previous monitor also had this 75 ohm on the sticker.

Lesson of the day folks: don't worry about screen burn and make sure you test before selling the cab you installed the burnt monitor .

I was so fixated on having a "burn free" tube and when I swapped tubes, I didn't bother swapping the chassis as I initially thought they were the same chassis. I also didn't do any tests to confirm this burn free monitor would work in the Point Blank cabinet because the PSU was sent to be serviced and couldn't test. I made a terrible assumption that because it worked on my Time Crisis cab, it should also work on this cab - here I am thinking it's a simple plug and play - it's only two connectors! How wrong was I?!?

Now that the sync issue is finally out of the way, I can now focus again on a few of the aesthetic things.

The other day, I got delivery of NOS JPN artwork as I didn't really like the one I originally purchased. The OEM cutouts on this new set will make installation much easier.

As we are going for the original gunbullet control panel art, here's the comparison of the two I have

The art itself is very good and pretty close to the original, the major differences are obviously the cutouts and the texture. Colour reproduction is pretty close

The repro I got is highly textured vs the NOS one being smooth (I guess that could be fixed up by using a smoot matt finish vinyl). The material on the NOS decal feels slightly thicker too

I've managed to get the panel to bare metal and will need to do the other side to get the rust out and then prep for primer

The start button decal also came through and whilst it doesn't look all that bad, it's actually pretty good if I'm honest, but I figured I'm already paint the control panel, might as well do the start button section white like what it's supposed to be.

Next steps are:

• Calibrate monitor
• Make proper connectors for the inline resistor pcb so it connects to the EMI filter board and Chassis properly
• Prime and Paint control panel and start button plastic
• Install NOS decals
• Remove test PSU and respective wiring ie. JAMMA edge
• Re-install control panel with guns
• Get some high scores in game!

 

[jimche]

I'm also in the process of restoring my point blank machine which was about to be thrown out from the previous owner. It was in terrible shape, cigarette burns, damaged cabinet/decals, screen fuzzy and guns not firing. Lucky for me it was simply a wire plugged incorrectly that got it working again.

In the process of bogging, sanding and painting while waiting for new decals to arrive.

 

[mR_CaESaR]

I'm also in the process of restoring my point blank machine which was about to be thrown out from the previous owner. It was in terrible shape, cigarette burns, damaged cabinet/decals, screen fuzzy and guns not firing. Lucky for me it was simply a wire plugged incorrectly that got it working again.

In the process of bogging, sanding and painting while waiting for new decals to arrive.

Looking good mate.
The start buttons plastic panel you have doesn't match the metal control panel your showing as it doesn't have the extra mounting screw holes for the plastic bit.

Artwork alone is going to cost a decent chunk.

Have you got the completer header?

 

[jimche]

Thanks.

Oddly was attached with a bit of glued plywood, might drill a hole and mount with a screw.

Working on the header, needed a lot of glue and mesh to hold it in place.

Yeah, decals and marquee were not cheap that's for sure.

 

[mR_CaESaR]

Interesting with the plywood.
Looks like the marquee header is also made out of plywood.
Looking at the green speaker grill, it seems like it was originally a point blank 2 or 3 cab.
What artwork are you going for?

 

[jimche]

I should've mentioned it's a point blank 2 arcade, going for the original artwork that was previously on it.

 

[mR_CaESaR]

I'm sure I saw that pic on AA fb group the other week!

Pls lemme know if you want to let go of the monitor bezel art.

I'm not happy with the one I got.

 

[jimche]

First time I've posted this machine, monitor art was glued on good and had to tear it out. Where did you get your artwork from?

 

[mR_CaESaR]

Ahh I thought it was this cab

I got my art from a dude down in Melbourne.

I didn't like the cp so I ordered the NOS one from ebay.

I'm trying to find a nicer monitor marquee now though for Pb1

 

[jimche]

Good eye that is my arcade, can’t recall posting that pic online.

 

[mR_CaESaR]

Spent some time the other night calibrating the monitor. I don't know if I'm going to bother with corner convergence, I've been down that route before with the Blast City and it's one quite annoying job

You can clearly see corner convergence being a problem

After enough time with the screen pot, rgb cut off, rgb gain, brightness and contrast pots, I managed o get to this which I think is as good as I can get it (looking at it again - i could probably push the green level a little more, I just remembered I needed to push a little more blue)

Some in game pics

Went through the beginner course to confirm functionality and also check for any "sync" issues I've been having and it ran perfectly fine!!

Here's the before and after

I can safely say, the monitor is now perfectly working - for Point Blank 2 only. Point Blank 1 still has some interference :mad:

On the control panel side of things, two coats of primer has been applied and wet sanded ready for paint. I'll leave it for a week or so to let it cure - that's what the label says for plastic which I never previously did

 

[mR_CaESaR]

Let's now talk Point Blank 1 and this damn stupid sync issue!

This is how I know I have sync issues when I play Point Blank

Notice how the squares aren't square?

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/Z1r_nSIiWy0


When I use the EMI filter with the resistor pcb 'out' going to the game pcb and 'in' to the monitor, interference is crazy

When I use the EMI filter with resistor pcb but in reverse of above, the interference isn't as bad (not this is the default way I'm using it for Point Blank 2 and it's working perfectly fine)

When I use the EMI filter without the resistor pcb, I get the sync issue as expected like the first time I exhibited this issue

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j-CZF3E9mR4



When I piggy back 5 wires on the jamma edge before the emi filter board without the resistor pcb, video colour settings is blown out and needs re calibrating. Still a tiny bit of interference.

You can see from the Point Blank logo that all the reds are bleeding out and colour is just not right

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/daDM345Lju0


When I piggy back 5 wires on the jamma edge before the emi filter board with the pcb 'out' going to the game pcb and 'in' to the monitor, video was well and truly out of whack. I have no idea why, as I didn't think there was any polarity of resistors so I honestly didn't think it would affect which end had "out" and "in". You will see colour is definitely off and for some reason Green and Blue became aqua.

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7O-GDYcjI94

Last test was piggy backing the 5 wires on the jamma edge before the emi filter board with the pcb 'out' going to the monitor and 'in' to the game pcb.

I knew immediately that we had perfect sync when I went into the convergence test and saw that all the lines were squares and not jagged like in the video in the first test.

WE HAVE SUCCESS!! Perfect sync and colour!

Also managed to see the Xenon lights working. I'm not 100% sure though if this only works in attract mode or if it's supposed to work during the game as I can't seem to get it flashing during the game. This is only specifically to PB1, nothing happens in PB2

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OKbOl9Q_Bbg


Once I confirmed the sync issue resolved, it was time to rig up the proper connectors. I'll have this pcb inside the cab, probably drill some holes in the cage to mount this straight on top so if I ever want to swap games, it's just a matter of unplugging a few connectors.

The one thing I really disliked about the Point Blank 1 pcb is how loose the gun I/O was. The issue was quickly fixed with a couple cable ties!! Voila! No more loose IO and it never feel off

Refelecting back, it's well and truely obvious that the chassis from my original Time Crisis 1 wasn't designed for this cabinet, which comes across as weird since TC1 was released in 1995 whilst PB1 was released in 1994. One would assume TC1 would have a newer revision chassis. If I can go back, I would've kept the burnt tube/chassis combo that was originally on this cab.

Either way, even though I have to piggy back the video wires on the jamma edge for PB1, I'm still OK with doing that since I can play both PB1 and PB2 in the same cab whilst still using the OEM 3x connectors. Switching games would just be a matter of unplugging 3 connectors and switching it to the next game.

I'm glad I found that little resistor PCB as there is no way in hell I would've known to use resistors on the RGB lines to figure this issue out.

 

[jimche]

Got a problem with my point blank pcb, it's showing a bit dull and the screen has a flicker. Could replacing the removable ic's fix this?