The Q&A video is available here on my second channel: ua-cam.com/video/WMlVX17989A/v-deo.html If you wonder something about the hardware in these I have a feeling I may have answered it there!
check that the focus pin on the neck isn't bent and it is properly aligned with the socket on the neck board. It is possible for the pin to get deflected and not actually go into the socket. Specially if you're getting no response from the focus adjustment on the FB.
24:54 It's crazy hearing all the sounds in the game so clearly, usually you're experiencing it at max volume in a room flooding with other arcades playing at max volume as well.
Not sponsored, but I get my monitor cap kits from “arcade parts and repair”. They have a Wells Gardner K7500 kit with nichicon caps available for $20. They give you a reference sheet showing which cap goes in what location. Very easy to follow. Highly recommended.
Keep in mind it has to be a crossover cable and you may have to make them yourself today. The reason is, modern networking cards will if you couple them together with any ethernet cable, figure it out and work even if the cable isn't crossover. But Ethernet cards from this era will not, it is either a crossover cable or go home.
Oh man, that VGA capture is a thing of absolute beauty 😍 I don't think I've ever seen such crystal clear footage of the actual arcade cabinet before. It'd be interesting to see some side-by-side footage of this next to the Dreamcast and PC ports to see if there's much difference (I know that just between the DC and PC ports themselves there are a few). As a huge Hydro Thunder fan, I've really enjoyed watching this!
@@superepicjuce I think so. Obviously it wasn't made by Midway and in a lot of ways plays a lot different, but it 'feels' very Hydro Thunder with the wacky stages and the return of the iconic boats. If anything though, H2Overdrive by Raw Thrills (made up of ex-Midway devs) feels far more like a _true_ Hydro Thunder sequel.
@@superepicjuce I never played any Hydro Thunder game bevore, but i got myself a very well self-made arcade cabinet und got a Xbox 360 Racing Wheel with it. Because it has Force Feedback i wanted to try it out and got a Xbox 360 with Hydro Thunder Hurricane...And I have to say: It is SO MUCH FUN! The (relatively cheap) official Xbox 360 Wheel with the pedals and the Force Feedback are really worth it. The only downside: The wheel works with Windows, but it just got rumble, there is no force feedback (you can only get it on real Xbox 360 Hardware).
Glad to see the results. Also pretty cool to see that version 1.00D got preserved. Also thank you for your effort for preserving everything even including the schematics for the analog board. I wonder if the MAME Contributors can work with this data. Can't wait for the next Video
Amazing! Your cliff hanger in the previous episode is even more impressive knowing now that you got both machines at the same time. Thank you for these excellent videos.
You know what I would love to see, if you could do some sort of network capture with a LAN tap or something, I'd love to see how these two devices talked to each other. Did one host a server? Did they hard code in IP addresses to talk to each other, etc. I think it'd be so cool to capture a PCAP of the two computers syncing up with each other, what does it look like when the computers send packets to wait for each other, etc. Also if there's any error messages when one loses network connectivity with the other one could be interesting, I wonder if it'd crash, if the games fell out of sync, or had any sort of weird unique errors. Edit: I JUST Watched the FAQ Question video and it sounds like this is exactly what you did, any chance of releasing a PCAP for those academically curious.
I was thinking the same thing. It would be pretty easy to capture. Replace the network switch with a hub, connect a PC to the hub, then run Wireshark on the PC and enable promiscuous mode.
Your sense of drive and commitment is so inspiring, as are your problem solving capabilities. This has been my favourite video series of yours by far. Well done mate, keep up the incredible content.
Hydro Thunder was one I always ran to first as a kid when hitting the arcade (next to Time Crisis of course.) So cool man. And I agree, one was great. But there's TWO!
I have always wondered on these old Voodoo arcade cabinets what would happen if the Voodoo2 was swapped out for a Voodoo3. V2's were standalone 3D accelerators and V3's had the integrated 2D as well, but part of me is super curious because I'd like to believe that the graphics are done with that GLide API that 3Dfx had instead of straight openGL, which should be compatible with the V3's and even the V4's. Some day I will have to track one of these cabinets down and find out!
By far my favorite thing about these videos is just how much he's enjoying his game cabinets. Dude's having so much fun owning some arcade machines, it's great.
It would be interesting to know how many games use the same base hardware, and if there are several, you could put a Compaq Flash access on the front to change games in the cabinet :) Nice video!!
if i recall from my research way back, there's virtually no other systems that can run on hydrothunder's architecture (quicksilver core). the same thing happened with star trek voyager, and the last metal slug. some of those cabinets internal workings were like 1-off, or barely moreso.
Those cool old Quantum 3D machines that power them :3 Those video cards are pretty cool. Also when it's just 2 machines networked some of them are completely fine with just having a cross-over cable between the machines, the switch is more handy when you have more than 2 cabinets. Wouldn't be hard to test and see if they are happy with it like most modern machines and even ones of that era were.
Yep. I think this era might be a little before his time with networking: “It says you need a crossover coupler or a concentrator hub..” ... and that would be correct. Those old cards probably won’t link with a straight-through cable between them (no auto MDI-X), and a “concentrator hub” is just a clumsy name for a hub, which is what we used before switches were cheap and ubiquitous. So yeah ... that’s 100% accurate, just of-the-time.
it's so trippy to think I probably have played on these exact machines!!! I used to go to golf land pretty often with my dad and this was one of my favorite racing games to play!
I have a memory of playing a boat racing game on a strange console with a friend as a kid. I am beginning to think it was Hydro Thunder on the Dreamcast.
I love your enthusiasm on this. Been watching your videos for a while but it doesn't happen often you get THIS excited. It's lovely to see. ❤️ Keep up the good work!
The focus issue on your monitor, I would check focus wires solder joint/connection to the neck board's CRT socket. I have repaired 2 arcade monitors in the past that had horrible or questionable focus and it ended up the focus wire broke free from the solder lug in that socket or it had a bad connection. :)
The focus knob on the fly back does make changes, just only worse from there. But when I get the boards out I'll definitely be sure to check that! I've recovered a number of things failing from cracked solder joints myself and that would be an easy fix
The reason your CRT is out of focus on the right machine is usually just the pots on the flyback starting to drift. This happens from years of heat cycling, and you might even see cracks in the plastic right where the FOCUS knob is. This can also happen to the SCREEN knob, in which case you'll see changes in brightness. Leaving the machine on for hours with the back door on might get it warm enough to see some focus changes, or pressing hard on the knob might have a temporary effect. it's also possible the CRT itself or the neck socket (on the neck board) can cause this, but it's far less likely to be either of those things than the flyback. You could swap monitor chassis between machines and see if the focus issue follows. Very common issue. You'll need to replace the flyback transformer, since you cannot just replace the pot block on it. HT uses a Wells-Gardner K7500 monitor, which is a medium-resolution only display (24khz, also called EGA in old-school computer terms). K7500 flybacks have been sold-out for most of the last year and are largely unavailable at the time I write this, but many arcade suppliers will be getting them back into stock soon from what I understand - the Chinese supplier that reproduces them is making them available again. Google "WG K7500 flyback" for suppliers and keep an eye out for when they are back in stock. Also, if it was capped 8 years ago they should be fine, but I do see a weird mix of caps on there, including the bright green Xicon (Lelon) right where you hand is, which are not great quality. It might be worth replacing the caps again to something better, but caps will not be the reason your tube is out of focus. Source: have rebuilt thousands of arcade monitors.
Congratulations for the mathines, taking care of them and for the video! 13:30 I may be wrong but i understand these things about the network/link: A: the required crossover coupler is probably a cat5 crossover ethernet cable (endings A and B) that can only conect a pair of machines (not more). B: To set a network (more than two machines up to 8, but there is only 4 available ids as said on the other video) a hub is needed. The video brings an update to a switch, that when the machines were build, used to be a lot more expensive and would bring no benefit over a hub. The kit brackets and spacers would be only to mount and hold the machines in place with recommended spaces I guess. C: Just a description of the cable. My observations: The requirement for a crossover cable is probably because the network cards didn't used to have the function to auto configure as newer ones. A connection direct to anoter netword card would be done with a cossover cable (A-B) and a connection with a hub would be done with a parallel cable (preferably A-A, but could be B-B). The network card also has a BNC conector, that I imagine would work if properly conected, not needed, just a coment. I remember to see 8 machines of Virtua Racing from Sega and on the middle of them a CRT that has like a TV broadcast of the race, narrator included! It would be nice if there exists a software that connected to the same switch does the same for Hydro Thunder.
makes sense that they would do some weird hack like using the end of the drive, especially since they aren't even using a DOS (the "ETS Monitor" and DISKMON clue in on this a bit, but the actual Phar Lap brand name seems to be "TNT Embedded Kernel", which is just as hard to find any information for. Rather interestingly, the TNT libraries actually implement a fair chunk of the Win32 API, and the Monitor is not at all picky, as it seems like it'll load Win32 PE files from any subsystem.)
Thanks to person's like you that share manuals, technical information, and experience to the community. It eventually comes full circle and helps everyone, and then some.
One of my favorite games at the movie theater as a kid! Super neat to have two that spent their life together. Based on the black control panel system being "player one" and some of the wear high up on left side art of the one with the aqua panel, I'd imagine they probably spent their life with the black one to the left of the aqua one
Thank you for posting all this info on these cabinets. I also have two Hydro Thunders that I absolutely love. Although much of what you are talking about is way over my head, I am glad to see you documenting this and will definitely use these videos for reference in the future. Mine were both working good before I moved, but now only one works ok with a blurry screen.
Expert. Highscores, Could be a check sum or just a 0d0a Hex line feed thing. Check to make sure your data segment size your pulled is the same size when you send it back. But you probably already know this. Love this work you did. What an awesome reverse engineer project. I bet you are going to get them talking.
When I was a kid I played this game at a Chuck E Cheese. I can't remember if they had 2 of them networked or not. Super cool seeing hardware like this being preserved. I miss arcades.
I really like your reasoning that the two had spent their lives together, were made close to each other, therefore probably had an unshakable bond you should not break. Well done, they will live on together ;)
I really enjoyed both videos. You are living you're childhood dream and the passion you have for doing this shines through. Keep that passion and thank you for posting✌️
Yet again nice1! keeping the 2 swans together and the pash you have I can see how many yeas of fun you 3 will have together. And also thank you fo preserving the good times and memories.
This is so cool. This is one of my favorite arcade games of all time, right there with SF Rush. Getting it at home on Dreamcast was a (no pun intended) dream come true as a kid. Having a networked pair of cabinets at home, amazing.
Great video! It's actually a nice idea that they only write to the end of the disc and outside the filesystem which is hopefully read only. So that the hard power off switch/power cuts don't corrupt the filesystem bricking the machines. And the checksum prevents corrupt high scores messing up the game!
Not sure if you're actively planning on doing so, but I'd love to see you get the dual cabinet topper at some point! Interesting that it seems to network to the machines to actually indicate who's in the lead
So, weird flex, I have a family member who's been directly responsible for some of the hardware design in both Offroad Thunder and Hydro Thunder cabinets.
im so glad u looked at the hard drive contents and where the hi scores were kept, i knew it was gonna be something interesting and it is indeed, real nice setup u got btw, they look sooo cool together and im glad you went through the effrot to vga capture it and to capture the 2d output, is nice to see someone who is into both retro arcades and retro pcs do botht things for these later arcades that were basically pcs, really glad both versions of the game have been archived and all the documentation too! I love that it's all preserved now
I haven't watched in a while, but wanted to drop in and say this was absolutely my favorite arcade game at the roller rink when I was a kid. Watched the video front to back. I had no idea they were networking capable, but it isn't too much of a surprise to me. I've played this game so much, even though it gave no prize tickets. Loved it so much that my parents ended up letting me rent Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for the GameCube from Blockbuster multiple times since it had Hydro Thunder on it. I have no idea of the quality of that port, it is a pretty fuzzy memory, but all happy memories. When I got an X360, it had Hurricane pre-installed as a demo. I bought the full game and still have it in my Windows Store library and can play it on PC. I think the original has so much more character. Been playing the DC port on PC for a few years. Would really love to pick up a DC just to get this game. Having a cabinet is a dream for some day when I can finally have a house of my own... Thanks for sharing the adventure with us, enjoy the heck outta those units!
The 1.00d disk image does actually contain both copies of the raw highscore data in the unused disk area, it's just at a different offset, your tool only needs the offset changed and then it works perfectly, and it's not default data but user scores from when the machine was used.
Weird, I was basing that comment on the real machine seeming to reverted everything when it started with it...oh...duh. It went to the end of the 8GB CF card I used. I should make another tool for the repo to wrap dd to copy just the end to the actual end of a drive as well.
@@TechTangents 0xC06CE970 (into the image not from the end) is the offset I've been using for your tool to read the 1.00d high score data (the two regions are identical), it's only 11 bytes further into the image than your original image, presumably their 3GB HDD was 11 bytes larger. I don't remember but in the streams were we changing the highscore data on an image of the 3GB HDD or an image of the 4GB CF card after it wrote default data?
Jeez these videos are making me want to get a pair of cabs too. I played this game all the time at my local laser tag place when I was a kid and I want a pair now.
Very interesting to see arcade repairs covered by a channel that doesn't typically do that. A lot of the arcade repair channels get bogged down in doing the same things in the same style over and over again. You should buy several more. You know, for the channel.
Man i really love this channel. When I first found it there was just so much positive things I noticed. I love how you genuinely seem excited about the computers and all the tech you encounter. Your passion for this stuff really comes through in the videos. I like how you don't do the fish face most people use for thumbnails. If you ever do one day I get it, but still its refreshing to just see you smile or pose. IMO. I feel like I'm learning a lot while watching your videos. I keep saying to myself that you would be one of the greatest teachers if you ever end up going down that route in the future. Like if you taught kids I feel like more of them would actually care and learn more about the subjects. You seem like such a chill person. Would be a real treat to just hang out with someone like you. Keep up the good work. And I'm really excited to see what stuff you come up with next. Until then ill be watching the rest of your videos I haven't had time to see yet. I followed you on twitch. Keep up the good work and keep being you man. You deserve a much bigger audience but I'm sure that will come eventually. Stay safe.
This is super fun im loving this series.I still think ti would be cool to have monitors or something on top of the units that mirror the onscreen video, for bystanders to watch. Some machines had that in arcades and I always loved that. I wonder if you can put custom tracks and vehicles in the game... That would be cool.
The wait for the operator could be like an old GameWorks-type setup with a bunch of machines in line and a person on a mic announcing the race...Thanks for the nerdiness. I have always been curious about the networking standard and such.
Can absolutely recommend LED converting marquee panels on a whim; half the time it tends to look better than the original one, saves the pain of having to bother swapping out a fluorescent tube and you probably won't have to touch it again for a quite a while, and most games pretty much have 12v running through half the cab anyways so it's not like it's too tough to just tap a strip onto that at some point :p
Subbing for a fellow hydro thunder nerd! I feel super lucky to have a machine at my local theatre, but the vibration can make the screen shift to yellow sometimes for some reason lol I used to spend like $20 at a time on vacation to play Hurricane as a kid because the arcade by the beach had it set to like a dollar per play, and finding it on xbox was a revolution, brought back so many memories!
The game saves records in clear text into sectors at the end of the disk for a reason. Physically, the beginning of the disk is the outer edge, the last sectors are closest to the disk spindle. If the power is lost, or if the disk receives mechanical shocks, which is normal for arcade machines, the disk has a much better chance of surviving them when the heads are not in an area of high turbulence. Almost the entire game is cached in memory, missing files are loaded before the race, after which the game immediately directs the disk heads to read the high score section, and keeps them there the entire time.
Yup! I remember playing hydro thunder on a cruise ship. It's damn sad that they got rid of the arcade dungeon. It was just a magical place and every machine was free to play.
I wanted to drop another comment and mention I re-watched Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and in their Baxter Office they had a Hydro Thunder cab in the background! When I saw it I just exclaimed "Hydroooh Thunderrrr!" and my dad just looked back at me knowing full well I like arcades too much.
Buying a racing cab that isn't a pair or more just feels like a crime haha. Actually never played these thunder series of games but they're not as common here. In Asia/Oceania it's more common to play the more JDM type games like Initial D and Wangan Midnight 💙 Anyways Arcades rule and racing games are awesome (can't you tell I like 'em too much XD) Also I must commend the effort to archive materials and make this video which will definitely help operators, restorers and fans to keep these machines alive. Long Live The Arcades! 🕹 Btw you got a sub my dude
Its so weird how both of your machines are literally the same i play on at a local arcade. One has a sharp looking image, sometimes the CRT browns out and the other has a focus issue on the CRT. Quick edit on this, you cannot imagine how happy i was to hear AxlThunder's name in there and just realizing that this whole time you've been hanging out in the community server where everyone posts their times for Hydro Thunder! But if you want a time to try and beat. Lost Island in 1:36:96 with Rad Hazard which i got this past Sunday
I have tried many times to run this game in 86box, and I have got the “transferring control” screen but never knew why exactly it should just stop. With your video, this has answered a lot on the games behavior after this screen. I have always kept my hopes low in the game actually booting in a VM but I feel accomplished in some way knowing the game successfully boots in a VM.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who streams from Ubuntu! And very oddly, I also have the exact same shoes you’re wearing. (I only noticed because the very bottom grip layer of mine are starting to peel away, so I’m looking more often.) Glad I found your channel! I have a pair of pins and was looking to get into a pedestal arcade unit.
13:30 The "crossover coupler" is referring to an ethernet crossover cable, which reverses some of the wires. It lets you connect two PC's directly without needing a switch.
HydroThunder is such a great game. I've got a pair as well over at the arcade and it's still one of the most popular games. Thank you so much for preserving the manuals! btw, mash the red view button on the boat and track select screens to unlock some secrets ;)
I would measure the voltage on the CRT focus pin, compare the range of voltage adjustment possible on each machine. I suspect each machine will have a similar voltage adjustment range. If so, capacitor swapping is not going to fix the focus problem. It's more likely to be a bad CRT. If however the voltage range is different, though capacitors could possibly make a difference, I would suspect the flyback transformer first.
The Q&A video is available here on my second channel: ua-cam.com/video/WMlVX17989A/v-deo.html
If you wonder something about the hardware in these I have a feeling I may have answered it there!
well now all you need is h2overdrive by raw thrills....the sequel to hydrothunder and a awesome game!
check that the focus pin on the neck isn't bent and it is properly aligned with the socket on the neck board. It is possible for the pin to get deflected and not actually go into the socket. Specially if you're getting no response from the focus adjustment on the FB.
Do not pin
THIS IS SO COOL! Probably your best video to date!
Are you the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln?
and
Did you build the hydro cabin?
The magic of buying two of them is truly a wonderful thing.
@TechnologyConnections agrees
cathode ray dude does too
There are two of us. (Aly? Or Aly's Sister?)
24:54 It's crazy hearing all the sounds in the game so clearly, usually you're experiencing it at max volume in a room flooding with other arcades playing at max volume as well.
it's missing the rumble from the seat and bounce of the handle 😂
Not sponsored, but I get my monitor cap kits from “arcade parts and repair”. They have a Wells Gardner K7500 kit with nichicon caps available for $20. They give you a reference sheet showing which cap goes in what location. Very easy to follow. Highly recommended.
For networking the machines, I'd just get a cross over cable so you don't need an active switch between them.
I agree, no switch necessary. You can make one with your crimper.
Up to 4 machines can be networked, so if he ever gets the other two... :)
@@cricalix MADLAD
My thought exactly
Keep in mind it has to be a crossover cable and you may have to make them yourself today.
The reason is, modern networking cards will if you couple them together with any ethernet cable, figure it out and work even if the cable isn't crossover.
But Ethernet cards from this era will not, it is either a crossover cable or go home.
Oh man, that VGA capture is a thing of absolute beauty 😍 I don't think I've ever seen such crystal clear footage of the actual arcade cabinet before. It'd be interesting to see some side-by-side footage of this next to the Dreamcast and PC ports to see if there's much difference (I know that just between the DC and PC ports themselves there are a few). As a huge Hydro Thunder fan, I've really enjoyed watching this!
If you are a fan, is the sequel (Hydro Thunder Hurricane) valid?
@@superepicjuce I think so. Obviously it wasn't made by Midway and in a lot of ways plays a lot different, but it 'feels' very Hydro Thunder with the wacky stages and the return of the iconic boats. If anything though, H2Overdrive by Raw Thrills (made up of ex-Midway devs) feels far more like a _true_ Hydro Thunder sequel.
@@MrThunderwing so HT Huricane is more of a "Home Console" Release?
@@superepicjuce Yeah, that's not necessarily a bad thing though.
@@superepicjuce I never played any Hydro Thunder game bevore, but i got myself a very well self-made arcade cabinet und got a Xbox 360 Racing Wheel with it. Because it has Force Feedback i wanted to try it out and got a Xbox 360 with Hydro Thunder Hurricane...And I have to say: It is SO MUCH FUN! The (relatively cheap) official Xbox 360 Wheel with the pedals and the Force Feedback are really worth it. The only downside: The wheel works with Windows, but it just got rumble, there is no force feedback (you can only get it on real Xbox 360 Hardware).
Glad to see the results. Also pretty cool to see that version 1.00D got preserved. Also thank you for your effort for preserving everything even including the schematics for the analog board.
I wonder if the MAME Contributors can work with this data. Can't wait for the next Video
Through the magic of buying two of them!
Technology Connections has entered the chat...
Amazing! Your cliff hanger in the previous episode is even more impressive knowing now that you got both machines at the same time. Thank you for these excellent videos.
The previous episode where he said in the cliff hanger that they were a total pair for their entire life?
Love how he rushes to upload .pdfs just to get some preservation out there asap. I'm sure lots of people were waiting on those 25 year old game docs!
Game version mismatch screen was epic! Rare sight to see
That motherboard brings back memories. I had an Se440bx-2 in my first "real" PC, it was an 350mhz P II with a Millennium G400.
You know whats better than 2 hydro thunders networked together?
4 Hydro thunders networked together and streaming in ur upstairs office.
^.^
You know what I would love to see, if you could do some sort of network capture with a LAN tap or something, I'd love to see how these two devices talked to each other. Did one host a server? Did they hard code in IP addresses to talk to each other, etc.
I think it'd be so cool to capture a PCAP of the two computers syncing up with each other, what does it look like when the computers send packets to wait for each other, etc.
Also if there's any error messages when one loses network connectivity with the other one could be interesting, I wonder if it'd crash, if the games fell out of sync, or had any sort of weird unique errors.
Edit: I JUST Watched the FAQ Question video and it sounds like this is exactly what you did, any chance of releasing a PCAP for those academically curious.
I was thinking the same thing. It would be pretty easy to capture. Replace the network switch with a hub, connect a PC to the hub, then run Wireshark on the PC and enable promiscuous mode.
With the software being from the late 1990s era, I'd recon it could be IPX and not IP. IPX was used in a lot of DOS games of that era.
Your sense of drive and commitment is so inspiring, as are your problem solving capabilities. This has been my favourite video series of yours by far. Well done mate, keep up the incredible content.
I love your passion bro! This was so much fun! Love this game in the arcade as a kid!
Hydro Thunder was one I always ran to first as a kid when hitting the arcade (next to Time Crisis of course.) So cool man. And I agree, one was great. But there's TWO!
I have always wondered on these old Voodoo arcade cabinets what would happen if the Voodoo2 was swapped out for a Voodoo3. V2's were standalone 3D accelerators and V3's had the integrated 2D as well, but part of me is super curious because I'd like to believe that the graphics are done with that GLide API that 3Dfx had instead of straight openGL, which should be compatible with the V3's and even the V4's. Some day I will have to track one of these cabinets down and find out!
By far my favorite thing about these videos is just how much he's enjoying his game cabinets. Dude's having so much fun owning some arcade machines, it's great.
It would be interesting to know how many games use the same base hardware, and if there are several, you could put a Compaq Flash access on the front to change games in the cabinet :) Nice video!!
In a few years it might even be possible to make new games.
if i recall from my research way back, there's virtually no other systems that can run on hydrothunder's architecture (quicksilver core). the same thing happened with star trek voyager, and the last metal slug. some of those cabinets internal workings were like 1-off, or barely moreso.
Those cool old Quantum 3D machines that power them :3 Those video cards are pretty cool. Also when it's just 2 machines networked some of them are completely fine with just having a cross-over cable between the machines, the switch is more handy when you have more than 2 cabinets. Wouldn't be hard to test and see if they are happy with it like most modern machines and even ones of that era were.
Yeah, crossover cables are just a pre auto MDIX thing and a card with a BNC connector on is def pre auto MDIX.
Lol I thought exactly the same thing about the 2 with the xover.
Yep. I think this era might be a little before his time with networking:
“It says you need a crossover coupler or a concentrator hub..”
... and that would be correct. Those old cards probably won’t link with a straight-through cable between them (no auto MDI-X), and a “concentrator hub” is just a clumsy name for a hub, which is what we used before switches were cheap and ubiquitous. So yeah ... that’s 100% accurate, just of-the-time.
I wonder if emulators like MAME or etc. can network to the real thing with the PC's network jack too, would be cool to see _that_ in action
it's so trippy to think I probably have played on these exact machines!!! I used to go to golf land pretty often with my dad and this was one of my favorite racing games to play!
I have a memory of playing a boat racing game on a strange console with a friend as a kid. I am beginning to think it was Hydro Thunder on the Dreamcast.
wow, it's so cool without the networking, with it is monumentally cool.
I love your enthusiasm on this. Been watching your videos for a while but it doesn't happen often you get THIS excited. It's lovely to see. ❤️ Keep up the good work!
The focus issue on your monitor, I would check focus wires solder joint/connection to the neck board's CRT socket. I have repaired 2 arcade monitors in the past that had horrible or questionable focus and it ended up the focus wire broke free from the solder lug in that socket or it had a bad connection. :)
The focus knob on the fly back does make changes, just only worse from there. But when I get the boards out I'll definitely be sure to check that! I've recovered a number of things failing from cracked solder joints myself and that would be an easy fix
The reason your CRT is out of focus on the right machine is usually just the pots on the flyback starting to drift. This happens from years of heat cycling, and you might even see cracks in the plastic right where the FOCUS knob is. This can also happen to the SCREEN knob, in which case you'll see changes in brightness. Leaving the machine on for hours with the back door on might get it warm enough to see some focus changes, or pressing hard on the knob might have a temporary effect. it's also possible the CRT itself or the neck socket (on the neck board) can cause this, but it's far less likely to be either of those things than the flyback. You could swap monitor chassis between machines and see if the focus issue follows. Very common issue.
You'll need to replace the flyback transformer, since you cannot just replace the pot block on it. HT uses a Wells-Gardner K7500 monitor, which is a medium-resolution only display (24khz, also called EGA in old-school computer terms). K7500 flybacks have been sold-out for most of the last year and are largely unavailable at the time I write this, but many arcade suppliers will be getting them back into stock soon from what I understand - the Chinese supplier that reproduces them is making them available again. Google "WG K7500 flyback" for suppliers and keep an eye out for when they are back in stock.
Also, if it was capped 8 years ago they should be fine, but I do see a weird mix of caps on there, including the bright green Xicon (Lelon) right where you hand is, which are not great quality. It might be worth replacing the caps again to something better, but caps will not be the reason your tube is out of focus.
Source: have rebuilt thousands of arcade monitors.
A packet capture of the 2 cabinets communicating would be interesting to see even if it is just a bonus vid on your second channel.
Yeah the PCAP would be interesting. Though might just be IPX or NetBEUI so there would be no configuration required.
Congratulations for the mathines, taking care of them and for the video!
13:30 I may be wrong but i understand these things about the network/link:
A: the required crossover coupler is probably a cat5 crossover ethernet cable (endings A and B) that can only conect a pair of machines (not more).
B: To set a network (more than two machines up to 8, but there is only 4 available ids as said on the other video) a hub is needed. The video brings an update to a switch, that when the machines were build, used to be a lot more expensive and would bring no benefit over a hub. The kit brackets and spacers would be only to mount and hold the machines in place with recommended spaces I guess.
C: Just a description of the cable.
My observations:
The requirement for a crossover cable is probably because the network cards didn't used to have the function to auto configure as newer ones. A connection direct to anoter netword card would be done with a cossover cable (A-B) and a connection with a hub would be done with a parallel cable (preferably A-A, but could be B-B).
The network card also has a BNC conector, that I imagine would work if properly conected, not needed, just a coment.
I remember to see 8 machines of Virtua Racing from Sega and on the middle of them a CRT that has like a TV broadcast of the race, narrator included! It would be nice if there exists a software that connected to the same switch does the same for Hydro Thunder.
So cool you got the pair! Separating would've been like separating twin orphans.
Man your genuine enthusiasm is a pleasure to see. Would love to see more arcade build/repair/customizations like these! Subscribed.
makes sense that they would do some weird hack like using the end of the drive, especially since they aren't even using a DOS (the "ETS Monitor" and DISKMON clue in on this a bit, but the actual Phar Lap brand name seems to be "TNT Embedded Kernel", which is just as hard to find any information for. Rather interestingly, the TNT libraries actually implement a fair chunk of the Win32 API, and the Monitor is not at all picky, as it seems like it'll load Win32 PE files from any subsystem.)
As a person who has never seen this game before (too old, not too young) I can say the black looks way better than the blue.
Thanks to person's like you that share manuals, technical information, and experience to the community. It eventually comes full circle and helps everyone, and then some.
One of my favorite games at the movie theater as a kid! Super neat to have two that spent their life together.
Based on the black control panel system being "player one" and some of the wear high up on left side art of the one with the aqua panel, I'd imagine they probably spent their life with the black one to the left of the aqua one
these machines must be super happy to be there in your hands!!
Your enthusiasm is contagious, great video.
Thank you for posting all this info on these cabinets. I also have two Hydro Thunders that I absolutely love. Although much of what you are talking about is way over my head, I am glad to see you documenting this and will definitely use these videos for reference in the future. Mine were both working good before I moved, but now only one works ok with a blurry screen.
Expert. Highscores, Could be a check sum or just a 0d0a Hex line feed thing. Check to make sure your data segment size your pulled is the same size when you send it back. But you probably already know this. Love this work you did. What an awesome reverse engineer project. I bet you are going to get them talking.
95% of this video isn't even for me, but it's impossible to not appreciate the majesty in these two videos. True tech nerdvana.
All you need now is a friend. 😂
Nice job on the pair. Looks like a lot of fun to be had.
When I was a kid I played this game at a Chuck E Cheese. I can't remember if they had 2 of them networked or not. Super cool seeing hardware like this being preserved. I miss arcades.
This is a great video. You have really good explanations and stories. Love to listen to you. Thank you
I really like your reasoning that the two had spent their lives together, were made close to each other, therefore probably had an unshakable bond you should not break. Well done, they will live on together ;)
I really enjoyed both videos. You are living you're childhood dream and the passion you have for doing this shines through. Keep that passion and thank you for posting✌️
Yet again nice1! keeping the 2 swans together and the pash you have I can see how many yeas of fun you 3 will have together. And also thank you fo preserving the good times and memories.
This is so cool. This is one of my favorite arcade games of all time, right there with SF Rush. Getting it at home on Dreamcast was a (no pun intended) dream come true as a kid. Having a networked pair of cabinets at home, amazing.
so glad i found your channel! seeing your enthusiasm and knowledge at work is inspiring. keep it up brother
Great video! It's actually a nice idea that they only write to the end of the disc and outside the filesystem which is hopefully read only. So that the hard power off switch/power cuts don't corrupt the filesystem bricking the machines. And the checksum prevents corrupt high scores messing up the game!
Not sure if you're actively planning on doing so, but I'd love to see you get the dual cabinet topper at some point! Interesting that it seems to network to the machines to actually indicate who's in the lead
So, weird flex, I have a family member who's been directly responsible for some of the hardware design in both Offroad Thunder and Hydro Thunder cabinets.
Up
Down
“My father works at Midway”
You're just jealous.
😂
This was by far my favorite game when I went to the arcade as a kid. It was always the first one I went to.
im so glad u looked at the hard drive contents and where the hi scores were kept, i knew it was gonna be something interesting and it is indeed, real nice setup u got btw, they look sooo cool together and im glad you went through the effrot to vga capture it and to capture the 2d output, is nice to see someone who is into both retro arcades and retro pcs do botht things for these later arcades that were basically pcs, really glad both versions of the game have been archived and all the documentation too! I love that it's all preserved now
I haven't watched in a while, but wanted to drop in and say this was absolutely my favorite arcade game at the roller rink when I was a kid. Watched the video front to back. I had no idea they were networking capable, but it isn't too much of a surprise to me. I've played this game so much, even though it gave no prize tickets. Loved it so much that my parents ended up letting me rent Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for the GameCube from Blockbuster multiple times since it had Hydro Thunder on it. I have no idea of the quality of that port, it is a pretty fuzzy memory, but all happy memories. When I got an X360, it had Hurricane pre-installed as a demo. I bought the full game and still have it in my Windows Store library and can play it on PC. I think the original has so much more character. Been playing the DC port on PC for a few years. Would really love to pick up a DC just to get this game. Having a cabinet is a dream for some day when I can finally have a house of my own... Thanks for sharing the adventure with us, enjoy the heck outta those units!
This has been such an enjoyable series for me, i adored this game as a kid so to see it again in full glory is amazing!
The 1.00d disk image does actually contain both copies of the raw highscore data in the unused disk area, it's just at a different offset, your tool only needs the offset changed and then it works perfectly, and it's not default data but user scores from when the machine was used.
Weird, I was basing that comment on the real machine seeming to reverted everything when it started with it...oh...duh. It went to the end of the 8GB CF card I used. I should make another tool for the repo to wrap dd to copy just the end to the actual end of a drive as well.
@@TechTangents 0xC06CE970 (into the image not from the end) is the offset I've been using for your tool to read the 1.00d high score data (the two regions are identical), it's only 11 bytes further into the image than your original image, presumably their 3GB HDD was 11 bytes larger. I don't remember but in the streams were we changing the highscore data on an image of the 3GB HDD or an image of the 4GB CF card after it wrote default data?
love the Brother laser printer on the stack in the background.. damn thing is a workhorse. Amazing work on the cabinets!!
Jeez these videos are making me want to get a pair of cabs too. I played this game all the time at my local laser tag place when I was a kid and I want a pair now.
Very interesting to see arcade repairs covered by a channel that doesn't typically do that. A lot of the arcade repair channels get bogged down in doing the same things in the same style over and over again. You should buy several more. You know, for the channel.
Man i really love this channel. When I first found it there was just so much positive things I noticed. I love how you genuinely seem excited about the computers and all the tech you encounter. Your passion for this stuff really comes through in the videos. I like how you don't do the fish face most people use for thumbnails. If you ever do one day I get it, but still its refreshing to just see you smile or pose. IMO. I feel like I'm learning a lot while watching your videos. I keep saying to myself that you would be one of the greatest teachers if you ever end up going down that route in the future. Like if you taught kids I feel like more of them would actually care and learn more about the subjects. You seem like such a chill person. Would be a real treat to just hang out with someone like you. Keep up the good work. And I'm really excited to see what stuff you come up with next. Until then ill be watching the rest of your videos I haven't had time to see yet. I followed you on twitch. Keep up the good work and keep being you man. You deserve a much bigger audience but I'm sure that will come eventually. Stay safe.
Seeing that razor sharp capture is amazing.
*HYDROOOOO THUNDERRRRRRRR*
Man this game was awesome to play. I loved using the buttons to unlock the hidden boats :-)
That's awesome and interesting how they sync up, will make for some fun gaming with a buddy
This is super fun im loving this series.I still think ti would be cool to have monitors or something on top of the units that mirror the onscreen video, for bystanders to watch. Some machines had that in arcades and I always loved that.
I wonder if you can put custom tracks and vehicles in the game... That would be cool.
The wait for the operator could be like an old GameWorks-type setup with a bunch of machines in line and a person on a mic announcing the race...Thanks for the nerdiness. I have always been curious about the networking standard and such.
I'm so happy for you, and proud of you. That's fantastic.
cant wait for the livestream of you and drauga1 playing these bad boys
I also have 2 of these and was thinking about streaming. Thank you SO MUCH for this video!!!!
This introduction is really similar to my thought process of buying two enterprise grade hard drives for cheap recently.
Can absolutely recommend LED converting marquee panels on a whim; half the time it tends to look better than the original one, saves the pain of having to bother swapping out a fluorescent tube and you probably won't have to touch it again for a quite a while, and most games pretty much have 12v running through half the cab anyways so it's not like it's too tough to just tap a strip onto that at some point :p
I like that the coin tray from unit A is marked "RUSH", which probably implies it came from one of my OTHER favorite arcade cabinets. :)
I love HydroThunder! I have 3 networked together! My friends and kids love it! Sadly I don’t have room to hook up a fourth… yet! Great video.
My favorite arcade co-op game next to Arctic Thunder and TimeCrisis II.
Awesome, great to see everything in action and that you were able to get the older version of the game running!
Subbing for a fellow hydro thunder nerd!
I feel super lucky to have a machine at my local theatre, but the vibration can make the screen shift to yellow sometimes for some reason lol
I used to spend like $20 at a time on vacation to play Hurricane as a kid because the arcade by the beach had it set to like a dollar per play, and finding it on xbox was a revolution, brought back so many memories!
It makes sense that the unit labeled as player one would be the one in worse shape. That's probably also why had to replace the dashboard.
The game saves records in clear text into sectors at the end of the disk for a reason. Physically, the beginning of the disk is the outer edge, the last sectors are closest to the disk spindle. If the power is lost, or if the disk receives mechanical shocks, which is normal for arcade machines, the disk has a much better chance of surviving them when the heads are not in an area of high turbulence. Almost the entire game is cached in memory, missing files are loaded before the race, after which the game immediately directs the disk heads to read the high score section, and keeps them there the entire time.
Yup! I remember playing hydro thunder on a cruise ship. It's damn sad that they got rid of the arcade dungeon. It was just a magical place and every machine was free to play.
I wanted to drop another comment and mention I re-watched Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and in their Baxter Office they had a Hydro Thunder cab in the background!
When I saw it I just exclaimed "Hydroooh Thunderrrr!" and my dad just looked back at me knowing full well I like arcades too much.
I'm glad that you saved hydro thunder arcade game machine hard drive contents so you can put it on ss hard drive
As a fan nerd, seeing the glorious, and frequently loud, Sunon fans is also a nostalgia inducing sight.
One of your best video series yet. Love it so far!!
Buying a racing cab that isn't a pair or more just feels like a crime haha.
Actually never played these thunder series of games but they're not as common here. In Asia/Oceania it's more common to play the more JDM type games like Initial D and Wangan Midnight 💙
Anyways Arcades rule and racing games are awesome (can't you tell I like 'em too much XD)
Also I must commend the effort to archive materials and make this video which will definitely help operators, restorers and fans to keep these machines alive.
Long Live The Arcades! 🕹
Btw you got a sub my dude
Its so weird how both of your machines are literally the same i play on at a local arcade.
One has a sharp looking image, sometimes the CRT browns out and the other has a focus issue on the CRT.
Quick edit on this, you cannot imagine how happy i was to hear AxlThunder's name in there and just realizing that this whole time you've been hanging out in the community server where everyone posts their times for Hydro Thunder!
But if you want a time to try and beat. Lost Island in 1:36:96 with Rad Hazard which i got this past Sunday
I have tried many times to run this game in 86box, and I have got the “transferring control” screen but never knew why exactly it should just stop. With your video, this has answered a lot on the games behavior after this screen. I have always kept my hopes low in the game actually booting in a VM but I feel accomplished in some way knowing the game successfully boots in a VM.
So the 1.0 image just so happened to be released recently?? What luck! Great job on this video, really happy for you!
Man, I would LOVE to experience this in multiplayer again.
I love that , U switched them to be in the right order from 1st to second ;)
This game still gives me goosebumps. They don't make games like this anymore.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who streams from Ubuntu! And very oddly, I also have the exact same shoes you’re wearing. (I only noticed because the very bottom grip layer of mine are starting to peel away, so I’m looking more often.)
Glad I found your channel! I have a pair of pins and was looking to get into a pedestal arcade unit.
Love Hydro Thunder. I have Cruis’n USA cab and wish I had 2 for the system link. Great to see you enjoy these.
Such a cool project! Might be cool to upgrade the two to SSDs and see if the boot times etc are much faster
13:30 The "crossover coupler" is referring to an ethernet crossover cable, which reverses some of the wires. It lets you connect two PC's directly without needing a switch.
HydroThunder is such a great game. I've got a pair as well over at the arcade and it's still one of the most popular games. Thank you so much for preserving the manuals!
btw, mash the red view button on the boat and track select screens to unlock some secrets ;)
When I saw your first video I was like “too bad you don’t have a pair to link them”. Now 😂 How’d you even think of picking up just one. No brainer
I would measure the voltage on the CRT focus pin, compare the range of voltage adjustment possible on each machine. I suspect each machine will have a similar voltage adjustment range. If so, capacitor swapping is not going to fix the focus problem. It's more likely to be a bad CRT. If however the voltage range is different, though capacitors could possibly make a difference, I would suspect the flyback transformer first.
I love this game in thearcade also for Dreamcast it felt like you were actually in the water
This is awesome! Congratulations on getting 2 😮😎🙏
24:55 for all your HYDRO THUNDER needs.
Be aware, focus issues like this can be caps, but it could also be the flyback.