Monaco GP

My first cockpit game! Always wanted one. The big problem (no pun intended) is that this thing takes up a ton of room! This is a top down racer that is really fast! It was the game released by Sega just before Turbo. It is also the last of the discrete circuit style arcade games that don’t have a CPU. It uses individual circuits to manipulate each item in the game.

My kids have always loved race games. I think the girls’ favorite has been Turbo, so I jumped at the chance to get this one. A friend from work told me that she saw this game at an auction she worked part time at. It was around Christmas time so I figured I would never afford it if I went to the auction. Well, it didn’t sell that night, so the auction owner sold it to me directly. I was really excited because I was told it was working. Well, it KINDA was working. Here’s a video of the rescue car problem. The game’s collision detection wouldn’t let you go past it, so it would constantly wreck your car.

If you’ve ever seen the schematics for this game that are widely available on the Internet, you’d know how much of an uphill battle I was going to face. They are badly written, and copied, hand-drawn schematics. At least they were mostly written in English. I had to narrow down a few of the chips on the PCB that were bad based on the schematics. I then ordered some chips from Bob Roberts to replace them. Also had to get some bulbs for behind the display panel. Well, got the game working after swapping out the first two 74157’s I removed. Then I had to move on to the sound. The rear speaker was not working at all. Checked and double-checked all the wiring. Once I opened up the rear speaker cover, I knew what was wrong. There as a big mouse nest in there, made of paper from the speaker cone. It was completely chewed away. At least the tenants moved out long before I got the cabinet!

Finally, the side console with the coin slot and shifter was really torn up. Looked like it was knocked completely off at one point. I tore it back off, cleaned up the joints, then replaced it properly. It now looks much better. Need to clean up inside the console a bit more, and use some wood filler on some of the outside surfaces, but overall it’s pretty good.

Monaco GP Links

KLOV Monaco GP