Golden Tee 2K (2000 Incredible Technologies)
Click on Marquee for KLOV listing.
The Story: Golden Tee. Another one of those game's you'd likely find in a bar, just like my Megatouch. I remember playing Golden Tee every weekend with friend's at, well, whatever tavern we happened to visit in the Saint Louis area. It's one of those games that anyone can get the hang of in just a few short holes. The trackball controls really make this game. I would constantly try trick shots, shortcuts and just flat out slam that trackball hoping to make it past a water hazard or sand trap. We even took bets at times. Who will beat who? Will he make that shot?
Golden Tee remains a big hit even today. Now there's the "Live" series. Back when we played it all the time it was the "Fore!" series, and before that it was the classic Golden Tee Golf. That was the series I was after. Yeah sure, it lacked a backspin button and the enhanced graphics that the sqeuel's are known for. But in my mind, sometime's simple is better, and it's still a great game that anyone can have fun with. I wanted a Golden Tee in a smaller cabinet, with a simple 19" standard arcade monitor and a simple PCB. I'm not trying to bring down my fellow Fore! series collector friend's. This is just my personal preference. With that said, my preference would likely be less expensive than a Fore! series game, but also harder to find with the smaller cabinet I really wanted. Yeah, most of the classic series GT games are conversions, but most of those are still larger cabinets. I would need to be patient and wait until the right conversion came along. As luck would have it, I didn't have to wait long at all.
The Score: Another local find on craigslist. A classic Golden Tee in a former Atari Gauntlet cabinet. A smaller cabinet with a 19" screen, but with the same overall profile and large control panel as a standard GT. This is exactly what I've been looking for. The seller had this game listed for $150 with what he described as a "misaligned" image on the monitor. He also listed it as a 2001 model. Without screen shots to research, I had to take educated guesses that the monitor likely needed a cap kit and that I was acually looking at a Golden Tee Classic, which was the final release of the classic GT series. The usual negotiations over the phone take place and we settle at $120.
Upon pickup of the game I notice that the image isn't really misaligned at all. In fact, the problem was that the top third of the image was missing altogether. Either way, a cap kit should take care of that. However another thing I noticed was that this wasn't a 2001 model as stated. I was gretted to a Golden Tee '99 title screen on powerup. This isn't a dealbreaker by any means, but I was sure to point that out to the seller and he quickly knocked off another $20. We were both happy with that and the deal was made.
The Service: The monitor happens to be a Wells Gardner K4900, and I happen to have a spare working chassis for it. I will eventually repair the original chassis, but for now the spare will work just fine. The trackball was working fine but I cleaned the rollers anyway which did improve the accuracy. The next thing to address was the lack of a marquee. This was originally an Atari Gauntlet cabinet which originally had a solid marquee, not backlit. Whoever did the conversion just painted over the Gauntlet logo and left it at that. I decided to cut into the cabinet and add a light fixture behind this area. I then found a NOS marquee and cut some plexiglass to mount it. I had to cut the marquee down, as there's not much space on the cabinet for it, but I was able to squeeze the entire logo in. It doesn't look perfect, but in my opinion it looks much better that having nothing there at all. I also cut new plexi to go over the monitor, another piece that this former Gauntlet lacked. After that, this game just needed the standard fine tuning and cleanup as well as a new battery on the board. Eventually I also got custom side art printed & applied. I also replaced the T-Molding with white to give it more of the GT look.
For years, I had been running 2 boards in this game. The '99 board that the game came with along with a 2K board I found reasonably priced online. I had mounted the boards in a stacked fashion that allowed me to easily swap the JAMMA connector between the two. I grabbed another trackball connector from my stash & daisy chained the trackball into both boards, which ran for years without issues. I had always thought it would be neat to somehow run all of the classic GT boards in this cabinet. Sort of a "GT Classic Complete" if you will. If you are not familiar with the Fore! series, the last release for it was "Golden Tee Fore! Complete", which featured all of the courses from all of the Fore! series releases. Since the Classic series never got the same treatment, the only way to build one would be to run separate boardsets from all of the GT Classic games in one cabinet. But who wants to swap multiple connectors between several boardsets?
I never had luck with the remote JAMMA switchers available in the marketplace today. I had actually tried running a 2 in 1 switcher between two MK boards a few years ago and had nothing but problems. This was the main reason why I had simply swapped the JAMMA connector between two boardsets, first in MK and now in GT. I had recently amassed a ton of GT classic boards and I wanted to come up with something that would work. I decided to try a new hack on an existing 6-1 switcher. The new hack is called the Nomote. It eliminates the pesky cheap remote controller that these boards usually come with, and it's fully programmable. You can either hack a button into the panel or program an existing button (or even a combination of buttons if you prefer) to switch games by holding it down for a few seconds (which can also be set to your standards). I found a 6-1 switcher for sale on the forums which already had the Nomote installed (along with -5v and service mods, unneeded for my project, but still nice to have). Even though I was still very skeptical about these switchers, I decided I would give this one a chance.
When it arrived I plugged 6 boards into it, plugged in the JAMMA harness and programmed the Nomote to my liking. Success! All of the boards run fine on the switcher and after some brief trial & error I was able to program the start button to switch between games by holding it down for a few seconds. Now I needed to move on to hooking up the trackball to all 6 boards. I had plenty of connectors laying around, and since hooking 2 together had worked without issue for years, I had high hopes that daisy chaining the trackball to 6 boardsets would not be a problem. So I did just that and tried it out. The first game worked without issue. OK, great. I then switched to the next game. The trackball is not working. Oh well, maybe I just crossed a wire or something. I tried the 3rd game and, guess what? No trackball. OK, where did I go wrong. I went into the back of the game and quickly noticed a glow coming from right below the trackball connector on the board that was currently on. Now I am thinking "oh great, I just fried all my boards somehow". After leaving the game off briefly and removing the daisy chain trackball harness I made, I tested all boards individually and breathed a sigh of relief that they were all in working order, trackball inputs and all. I triple checked my homemade harness and found no crossed wires.
So now I am back to square one. I could use the JAMMA switcher but I am unable to hook the trackball into all 6 boards. I knew the boards supplied 5v to the trackball and assumed the JAMMA switcher would only power one board at a time. So I was baffled as to why it didn't work. I seeked advice on the forums and someone suggested cutting the 5v & ground lines from each trackball connector, then wire the 5v & ground from the trackball directly into the game's power supply. Something so simple, why didn't I think of that? Well anyway, I did just that and kept my fingers crossed. Success! The trackball is working on all 6 boards now. Mounting was fairly simple. mounted the switcher to the back wall of the coin compartment where the original board was mounted. I then used my table saw to cut a plywood platform with grooves cut in. The boards would rest on the platform mounted on the floor of the cabinet and the slots would prevent them from moving. Once all boards were in place and hooked up I tied them together using plastic spacers and a thin aluminum wire I could easily twist together & apart if needed for service.
So what is this game now? I call it my "Golden Tee Classic Complete". I am running Golden Tee Classic, 2K, '99, '97, GT3D and even World Class Bowling. All in the same cabinet and all selectable simply by holding down the start button. That only leaves out '98. Well, I guess if I somehow get bored with everything I have to choose from now, I'll swap out a boards someday. But for now, 15 courses plus bowling should keep me and my guests occupied for quite some time.
Golden Tee remains a big hit even today. Now there's the "Live" series. Back when we played it all the time it was the "Fore!" series, and before that it was the classic Golden Tee Golf. That was the series I was after. Yeah sure, it lacked a backspin button and the enhanced graphics that the sqeuel's are known for. But in my mind, sometime's simple is better, and it's still a great game that anyone can have fun with. I wanted a Golden Tee in a smaller cabinet, with a simple 19" standard arcade monitor and a simple PCB. I'm not trying to bring down my fellow Fore! series collector friend's. This is just my personal preference. With that said, my preference would likely be less expensive than a Fore! series game, but also harder to find with the smaller cabinet I really wanted. Yeah, most of the classic series GT games are conversions, but most of those are still larger cabinets. I would need to be patient and wait until the right conversion came along. As luck would have it, I didn't have to wait long at all.
The Score: Another local find on craigslist. A classic Golden Tee in a former Atari Gauntlet cabinet. A smaller cabinet with a 19" screen, but with the same overall profile and large control panel as a standard GT. This is exactly what I've been looking for. The seller had this game listed for $150 with what he described as a "misaligned" image on the monitor. He also listed it as a 2001 model. Without screen shots to research, I had to take educated guesses that the monitor likely needed a cap kit and that I was acually looking at a Golden Tee Classic, which was the final release of the classic GT series. The usual negotiations over the phone take place and we settle at $120.
Upon pickup of the game I notice that the image isn't really misaligned at all. In fact, the problem was that the top third of the image was missing altogether. Either way, a cap kit should take care of that. However another thing I noticed was that this wasn't a 2001 model as stated. I was gretted to a Golden Tee '99 title screen on powerup. This isn't a dealbreaker by any means, but I was sure to point that out to the seller and he quickly knocked off another $20. We were both happy with that and the deal was made.
The Service: The monitor happens to be a Wells Gardner K4900, and I happen to have a spare working chassis for it. I will eventually repair the original chassis, but for now the spare will work just fine. The trackball was working fine but I cleaned the rollers anyway which did improve the accuracy. The next thing to address was the lack of a marquee. This was originally an Atari Gauntlet cabinet which originally had a solid marquee, not backlit. Whoever did the conversion just painted over the Gauntlet logo and left it at that. I decided to cut into the cabinet and add a light fixture behind this area. I then found a NOS marquee and cut some plexiglass to mount it. I had to cut the marquee down, as there's not much space on the cabinet for it, but I was able to squeeze the entire logo in. It doesn't look perfect, but in my opinion it looks much better that having nothing there at all. I also cut new plexi to go over the monitor, another piece that this former Gauntlet lacked. After that, this game just needed the standard fine tuning and cleanup as well as a new battery on the board. Eventually I also got custom side art printed & applied. I also replaced the T-Molding with white to give it more of the GT look.
For years, I had been running 2 boards in this game. The '99 board that the game came with along with a 2K board I found reasonably priced online. I had mounted the boards in a stacked fashion that allowed me to easily swap the JAMMA connector between the two. I grabbed another trackball connector from my stash & daisy chained the trackball into both boards, which ran for years without issues. I had always thought it would be neat to somehow run all of the classic GT boards in this cabinet. Sort of a "GT Classic Complete" if you will. If you are not familiar with the Fore! series, the last release for it was "Golden Tee Fore! Complete", which featured all of the courses from all of the Fore! series releases. Since the Classic series never got the same treatment, the only way to build one would be to run separate boardsets from all of the GT Classic games in one cabinet. But who wants to swap multiple connectors between several boardsets?
I never had luck with the remote JAMMA switchers available in the marketplace today. I had actually tried running a 2 in 1 switcher between two MK boards a few years ago and had nothing but problems. This was the main reason why I had simply swapped the JAMMA connector between two boardsets, first in MK and now in GT. I had recently amassed a ton of GT classic boards and I wanted to come up with something that would work. I decided to try a new hack on an existing 6-1 switcher. The new hack is called the Nomote. It eliminates the pesky cheap remote controller that these boards usually come with, and it's fully programmable. You can either hack a button into the panel or program an existing button (or even a combination of buttons if you prefer) to switch games by holding it down for a few seconds (which can also be set to your standards). I found a 6-1 switcher for sale on the forums which already had the Nomote installed (along with -5v and service mods, unneeded for my project, but still nice to have). Even though I was still very skeptical about these switchers, I decided I would give this one a chance.
When it arrived I plugged 6 boards into it, plugged in the JAMMA harness and programmed the Nomote to my liking. Success! All of the boards run fine on the switcher and after some brief trial & error I was able to program the start button to switch between games by holding it down for a few seconds. Now I needed to move on to hooking up the trackball to all 6 boards. I had plenty of connectors laying around, and since hooking 2 together had worked without issue for years, I had high hopes that daisy chaining the trackball to 6 boardsets would not be a problem. So I did just that and tried it out. The first game worked without issue. OK, great. I then switched to the next game. The trackball is not working. Oh well, maybe I just crossed a wire or something. I tried the 3rd game and, guess what? No trackball. OK, where did I go wrong. I went into the back of the game and quickly noticed a glow coming from right below the trackball connector on the board that was currently on. Now I am thinking "oh great, I just fried all my boards somehow". After leaving the game off briefly and removing the daisy chain trackball harness I made, I tested all boards individually and breathed a sigh of relief that they were all in working order, trackball inputs and all. I triple checked my homemade harness and found no crossed wires.
So now I am back to square one. I could use the JAMMA switcher but I am unable to hook the trackball into all 6 boards. I knew the boards supplied 5v to the trackball and assumed the JAMMA switcher would only power one board at a time. So I was baffled as to why it didn't work. I seeked advice on the forums and someone suggested cutting the 5v & ground lines from each trackball connector, then wire the 5v & ground from the trackball directly into the game's power supply. Something so simple, why didn't I think of that? Well anyway, I did just that and kept my fingers crossed. Success! The trackball is working on all 6 boards now. Mounting was fairly simple. mounted the switcher to the back wall of the coin compartment where the original board was mounted. I then used my table saw to cut a plywood platform with grooves cut in. The boards would rest on the platform mounted on the floor of the cabinet and the slots would prevent them from moving. Once all boards were in place and hooked up I tied them together using plastic spacers and a thin aluminum wire I could easily twist together & apart if needed for service.
So what is this game now? I call it my "Golden Tee Classic Complete". I am running Golden Tee Classic, 2K, '99, '97, GT3D and even World Class Bowling. All in the same cabinet and all selectable simply by holding down the start button. That only leaves out '98. Well, I guess if I somehow get bored with everything I have to choose from now, I'll swap out a boards someday. But for now, 15 courses plus bowling should keep me and my guests occupied for quite some time.
