Hey guys, I stopped by Acme earlier tonight to swap a working I/O PCB into Guitar Freaks, but was unable to actually turn the machine on to test it. Looks like the last tech to work on it used the power switch inside the coin door (it also has a switch on the back) to turn it off, and since I can't get into the coin door I couldn't turn it on! Here's hoping that I wired everything up correctly -- if so, it should come to life the next time someone turns it on. Fingers crossed!

I stopped by today.
Everything is in check. GF works great, same with DM.

Great news!
I will try to get Pete to swing by again (assuring him the GF works this time) and time for some V3 sessioning!

Man...what a lame time to catch a cold!

Anyway, I just have one thing to report at the moment. The Tetris cabinet has really sticky buttons on the left side. Ideally I'd like this to be checked out before Sakuracon, is that possible?

This is how things are set up on the DM10th at San Jose State. $0.75 a play, 3 normal songs, long songs count as 2.

I'm coming up to play Tetris Grand Master 3 at SakuraCon. It's going to be great, haha.

Yo Bill,
Played GF V3 today.
The sound is WAYYYYY too loud.  I don't care that it overpowers Initial D and DDR and PopN Music-in fact, I relish that.

However it really hurts my ears...like, the volume is damaging to one's hearing.

Further, it completely blocks out the song.  You can't hear the song, so really all you're doing is creating noise.

Also the right speaker is crackling.

I did not get a chance to try out session mode, but imagine the same problem occurs.

The DM V3's sound, at least playing solo, is top notch and I recommend you match the GF V3's sound to it in level and balance between SFX and background music/vocals.

--
Also your Initial D 3 is having a card reader problem.  I told the kids playing it to call your number, and they said they did, but I didn't see a tech come after 2 hours playing.  So, just mentioning...

Yeah, I was at Acme for a few hours last night and it seemed like Guitar Freaks had the bass-type noises turned up really high compared to everything else.  Songs that are primary that sort of sound seemed fairly normal musically, but lighter songs that don't have a lot of bass sounded kind of weird.  And for the most part, lyrics were completely inaudible.

I wasn't sure if it was also just really loud, or if it was the fault of the bass.  It did seem pretty loud when trying to play DM next to it.

GF, the techs turned down the volume a bit today, will see how that goes. 

Tetris was checked over, and no sticking buttons were found, but they were cleaned up anyway for good measure.  Please report on playability as SK is just about here. 

Speaking of SK, the cabinets will leave Thursday afternoon, and return Sunday night or Monday.

Bill, perhaps you posted this elsewhere, but will the GF and DM be departing for SK?
Please let me know, as I am not going to SK, and this will help me know whether or not I should stop by Acme this weekend.
Best,
C

Great news Bill!!! The buttons are totally better according to Tada. I think the leftmost button on the P1 side was just having occasional issues which were probably not enough to normally warrant a service but, given that we're gonna have a tournament, were probably enough to be checked out. Anyway, everything works great now so thanks! I'll probably see you tomorrow when everything arrives at SC...I'm event staff so yeah. Amber too...or something like that, dunno.

An update FYI - the cymbal on the DM machine was completely dead.

Argh, looks like cymbal repair time this morning.

The DM and GF are not leaving this weekend.  Acme is losing Initial D 4, TTGM, and PNM

Cymbal was perfect on Monday, so likely someone intentionally broke your cymbal, Bill.
Bill, why does ACME not have its security police such things?  It would be easy to set a camera up, catch the jerk in the act.  I don't know if the cost of litigation would make up for the cost of the cymbal, but it would certainly deter these actions.

ALSO, you have the Make a movie (or whatever that big machine is with the pop music and silly disproporitonate characters) machine right in front of the DM.  Because of this noone can really see if someone was breaking the DM machine.

This emboldens people to bash and manhandle the machine.
Is there anywhere else you could locate either DM or that machine?  I know whenever I see people manhandling your machines, I tell them to stop and they usually do.  However if noone else in the arcade can see someone doing it, they can't really accuse them.

Yo Chris,

We appreciate your concern, and everyone will happy to know that photo machine is leaving soon heading to Wild Waves.

Bad news on DM!  ARGH!  Yes, another I/O board crapped out.  This has us stumped.  In I/O test, green status indicates swith off, red indicated swith on.  Both times now with our failures, the inputs that have failed are showing a steady yellow color.  What does this mean?  Anyone have a V manual that can shed light on this?  we do not dare install another one until we figure out what is going on.  Any input appreciated.  For now, the cabinet is being picked up and drug back to the shop.  :-/

Bill:

Some bad news from the Sakuracon floor unfortunately...looks like the TGM cabinet's security dongle is on its last legs. We were getting a ton of System Error 900s today, which I looked up in the instruction manual for the game (knowing Japanese finally came in handy!) and upon further inspection turns out that this basically means the USB security dongle is removed or not functioning. After about a billion unplug-plug cycles, we finally got the game to boot. I'm just warning you about this because it seems to be very intermittently working. It might die soon, and it's not exactly a part that you can replace; they're all one of a kind. However, the good news is that there IS a way to get around the issue; like those old Capcom CPS2 boards that have dead batteries, there's a process that you can do to get around the security on these cabinets. For the Taito Type X board, all you need to do is copy a few files to the hard drive of the cabinet. We have all the equipment ready on site for it to be done (obviously backups would have to be made first, but that can be done as well), and just would need your blessing obviously to do anything. Unbelievably, we have great luck as quite possibly the ONLY person in the world who can currently perform this procedure (and has done so on other Type X boards before) is coming to the convention! Just give me a buzz on 4257361352 if you think it sounds like a good idea. Probably sooner or later if you want the machine to continue functioning it'll have to be done; try as I might, it seems absolutely impossible to get a replacement dongle.

Since it sounds like it's an intermittent problem, I'd say the chances of the dongle "dying" are low, and the chances that there's an intermittent connection on the PCB are high. This happens often when you have a part like a dongle that is removed and replaced, or any kind of disconnect (for harness connectors, etc) on a PCB. The solder joints that connect the USB socket to the PCB are probably cracked and need to be re-flowed. The fact that wiggling it makes it work on occasion is actually pretty promising.  Have you guys tried taking a close look at the joints where the USB socket meets the PCB yet?

Of course, it sounds like just doing the file-copy hack would also get around the issue.

Ah, good point Bobby. I will check that out at some point when I can. At the moment it's running so we'll probably leave it for the rest of the con unless stuff acts up, but yeah, I'll make sure to get on that after the convention.

I've been visiting Texas this week and just wanted to stop by to once again say THANK YOU for a tremendous job keeping the machines up in the great PNW.  It is 100% impossible to find a single machine with less than 3 or 4 sensors completely dead in this entire state.  I finally found a R23 upgrade cabinet with USB slots that's "only" missing 3 sensors, and they're spread out across 3 arrows... but playing bemani down here is a tedious chore, not nearly the amazing experience it is at Acme.

Looking forward to getting back in tonight so I can play on a great machine with solid pads again.  Keep up the awesome work, Bill.

Hello Bill,
I was just wondering if any updates on the DM V3.  I would bet the answer is "no" but was thinking about it nonetheless...

I can answer that -- the answer is sadly no, but we're both working on trying to figure it out. What lousy luck we've had with these V3 boards. :\

Magicker, thanks for the kind words, that's awesome!  :-)

Chris, yes, Bobby has said it all.  We are all working on it.  Discovered today what was likely taking the boards out, so I guess that is a step.  Thanks for being patient everyone. 

I finally had a chance to check out some of these machines, and for the most part, they exceeded my expectations thoroughly.  Particularly on the Tetris and Pop'n machines, the pushbuttons were incredibly responsive--so much so that it took quite a bit of time to adjust to the fact that they'd trigger if I put any weight on them at all, whereas the machines at Ground Kontrol here in Portland need to have the buttons fully depressed in order to respond.

I wasn't particularly impressed by the sensitivity of the DDR Extreme (dropped a few hands while I was freestyling, a couple holds, and one or two taps on the P1 down arrow), but I certainly am not about to complain, since I can't do hands without punching the pads full force at GK and holds are almost impossible to maintain without rolling at Tilt!.  The SuperNOVA was pretty sensitive, but I didn't spend a lot of time on it because the volume was set too low all day Saturday.

Anyway, these excellent machines really made a huge difference at Sakuracon.  Because of them, I feel like I actually got something pretty close to my moneys' worth out of it all.  Thanks Bill and everyone who helps keep this fine bastion of excellent arcade gaming alive.

Just an update - was at ACME for a bit today and it seems that PnM is still set to 75 cents for one song, probably from the con - is this intentional? :O

Just checking in on condition of the DM V3...

Pop N is back to where it should be, sorry bout that.

DM, well, crap!  We were bringing it back this morning, but discovered it has ate another board!  Not sure what to think at this point.  Something is funky with our cabinet.  But we are working on it.