The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Manufactured by Sega © 1997

It was probably, oh, a good 8 to 10 months ago when fellow KLOVian (and AHA member) Hucklebuck contacted me asking if I was interested in a Sega Jurassic Park: The Lost World cabinet. After confirming we were talking about the standard upright version, not the huge sit-down "mini room" version I mentioned that I potentially had interest, depending on price of course.  Hucklebuck told me he THOUGHT it was mostly working but there may be a gun issue… that he would check things out and get back to me.  A little later I received a PM explaining that the guns won't calibrate properly… neither of them.  I told him I'd get back to him and set out to determine the potential issues I may be looking at if I picked the game up.

It didn't take long to determine that "gun issues" was the number one issue plaguing The Lost World.  Sega had decided to use a LED sensor/transmitter based system,  similar to what you would see with the Nintendo Wii,  rather than the HAPP lightgun type system that the majority of the industry used.  The Lost World uses 12 LEDs that surround the monitor while other games may use 8,  like House of the Dead.  The system,  when it works,  works well enough… and has the benefit of being able to be used with LCD based and projection monitors as well.  Unfortunately there are issues inherent in the design.  Sega DID address some of these issues and the updates DID help a bit,  but you will still find that the number 1 issue with The Lost World arcade machines are still the guns.  Issues include the LED transmitter PCBs going bad… the wiring harness going bad (pins pulling and shorting,  even the wires themselves pulling out of pins and shorting at both the gun and inside the cabinet (evidently these Sega harnesses are well known for their shoddy construction)… and even the sensors in the guns themselves going bad.  To compound the "hurt",  all these parts tend to be quite expensive,  especially when compared to the HAPP system.  The LED trasmitter PCBs commonly go for $20-$30 each on ebay.  There are 12 of these buggers surrounding your monitor and they are sensitive to voltage.  Gun shorts will cause them to light up and burn out and oftentimes this happens in multiples.  The guns themselves go for HUNDREDS of dollars new and even in the realm of $120-$150 used.  Updated harnesses can be found,  but they too are expensive when you can find them.   You can pick up a gun update kit which includes guns and harness ONLY … no sensors for the monitor… for about $450-$500.  Crazy when you consider the game pcbs can be had for about $100-$150 on ebay.

Once I learned about the potential issues this game could be suffering I asked Hucklebuck to check the LEDs to determine if he could see some issues … and sure enough,  Huck found 2 LEDs that were bad at the time.  I explained to him about the potential money pit he was looking at and politely declined his decent offer for the game.  A couple days later he asked if I would be interested in it if he got it fully working.  I said I would be… and we left it at that.

Flash forward about 5 months or so.  Fall turned to winter… winter turned to spring… and brother Hucklebuck shoots me another PM asking if I was still interested.  Evidently he'd acquired 2 sensor PCBs.  He really didn't want to mess with the game but he would offer it to me at a fantastic price … 2 replacement sensor PCBs included … with the full understanding that not only was there possibly more issues,  there was LIKELY more issues.  The price was one I couldn't refuse … the weather was much better … AND I was really really a-hunkerin' for an In-n-Out Four by Four burger.   So I accepted the offer and we made plans for me to drive to Utah to pick the game up in about 3 weeks time.  During that time I flip-flopped from wanting to take my open trailer to renting an enclosed one… when we got a week out and there was a 20% chance of rain the day I was to pick up the game,  I made the decision to pick up a U-Haul enclosed trailer.  Originally I reserved a 4×8… I figured I would put the game on it's back and it would be no big deal.  When I picked the trailer up I took a look at the door and my concerns grew.  I knew it was wide enough (the door was 3' wide)… the game is only 31" tall… but the door was only 42" tall.  I wasn't sure how deep the game was so off to the net I went where I determined that the game has a 48" depth.  OH CRAP.  The game wasn't going to fit.  It was already 5PM by this time and U-Haul was about to close.  I called them and got an answering machine.  CRAP!  I dialed again,  the lady answered >WHEW!< and I explained my situation.  Not only was she nice enough to hang around until I came back to swap for the 5×8 trailer,  she actually refused to charge me more!  Now,  the 5×8 trailer has a door that was over 4' wide and about 52" in height… plenty large enough to fit the cabinet.  I sure am glad I realized the issue while I was able to swap trailers… had I drove to Utah with that 4×8 I would not have been able to get the damn game in it… period.  That would have sucked.

Anyway,  I left at 5AM Saturday.  It took about 5 and a half hours to make it to my destination.  Hucklebuck and his wife were helping a neighbor move.  After a few minutes talking we loaded the game up,  i acquired all the additional parts,  paid for the game and set out for In-n-Out.  Originally Huck was supposed to join me,  but he was helping a neighbor and we both felt it would have been awkward for him to leave.  After dialing up the closest In-n-Out up on my GPS I was off to pick up some Four x Four love.  Having finished my burger and fries,  I ordered two double-doubles,  one of them "travel style".  If you order the burger to travel they will put the burger, cheese, and bun separate from the lettuce, tomato, onion… and then they will give you packets of their burger sauce.  I brought a mini ice-chest,  bagged the burger up in zip-locks and cold-stored them for the wife.  The 2nd double-double was for me down the road and wouldn't need to be refrigerated as it would be consumed within the hour.  Damn I love me some In-n-Out and since they don't have them in Idaho I take any chance I can to have a burger when I am in an area of a store.

The drive home was uneventful … another 5 and a half hours or so.  I managed to finish my audio book (the 18th book in the Myth series by Robert Asprin and Jodi Lynn Nye).  It had been quite the day and I was a bit road-weary but my day wasn't over when I reached home.  I still had to get the game out of the trailer and return the trailer.  Extracting the game wasn't as difficult as I anticipated.  This is probably because the monitor sits low (and bounces off a mirror) so the weight was balanced lower than many games.  After a quick test at home to determine if the game made the trip any worse for wear (It didn't … it was fine),  I returned the trailer,  made it back home and relaxed.  By this time it was about 6PMish… I had been up since 4.30AM and on the road for a good 12-13 hours in total… give or take.

After a few days I managed to find enough free time to take a look at the game.  Physically the cabinet is in pretty damn good shape.  Sure,  there are nicks and scratches here and there … what do you expect for a nearly 20 year old machine,  but overall I would give the cabinet a solid 8.5,  maybe even a 9/10.  The monitor appears to be in very nice shape with just a HINT of "high score" when the screen is lit up all white.  Like I said,  the guns only partially worked… I could get a 'semblance' of tracking,  but nothing solid.  It is missing the back part of the marquee,  but I am not 100% sure if all games came with it… most of the used machines I see out there don't have it… I have no idea what material it was made of.  I will have to look in to that.  The marquee lamp was missing as were all 3 locks on the front.  That said,  Hucklebuck was nice enough to give me two locks separate with the deal.  Of course the stock Sega 50,000,000 RPM fan is installed… typical Sega… over-doing the cooling… they've been putting these super high CFM fans in thier machines since the Outrun days.  That will be replaced eventually.  Overall,  looking at the cabinet it's a very nice example of a Sega Lost World machine.

Diving in to the gun issue,  I noticed that two of the 12 transmitter PCBs were not lighting up and one only lit up one LED.  I replaced the two sensors that were not lighting up at all and fired up the machine.  To my dismay I now was getting THREE OTHER transmitter PCBs not lighting up.  The two I replaced were lighting up fine… but now the three BETWEEN the two I replaced (including the one sensor that had a single LED lit) now were dead… gone.   >ARGH<  After confirming that sometimes these sensor PCB's will take out other transmitter PCBs "down line" from them,  I was on a hunt for 3 more transmitter PCBs.  I already accepted the fact that I was looking at spending $60-$90 or so to "hopefully" fix this issue when a fellow KLOVian (and AHA forum member) by the name of SgtSmackaho stepped up and offered up some transmitter PCBs he had 'hanging on his wall' gratis.  Needless to say I was all over that… dude even refused to allow me to pay shipping.  What an awesome community we have (especially the AHA forums!). So it was a waiting game until my package arrived from Sgt… when it did,  I as blown away.  He'd mentioned the PCBs were untested so to make sure I had 3 that worked the man sent 6, along with their harnesses.  He even includes a freakin' T-Shirt for my wife (it was too small for my gut).  Dude… again… thank you.

After testing three units per the instructions I read on KLOV (basically I tested them as the only PCBs in the string) I determined the first 3 I tested worked.  I wired them up to the locations that were now bad and fired up the machine.  SUCCESS!  All 12 transmitter PCB's were lighting up both LEDs each.   After calibrating the guns I was able to play my first real game of The Lost World.  Oh,  I forgot to mention?  Yeah,  I'd never played this game before.  It is every bit as kick ass of a game as I've read about though.  I am thoroughly enjoying it.  All I have left to do now is try to source the background portion of the marquee if possible and MAYBE replace the T-Molding (the T-Molding is jacked up on the BACK of the unit… the front looks fine).  It was well worth the drive and effort to pick the game up… and I plan on keeping it for some time to go.  Now if only I had more room…

By the way,  if you have a chance to pick one of these units up,  and there are gun issues (or even if there aren't),  you are going to want to check to make sure these fixes are in place.  First off the gun hose themselves should have an additional bracket added to prevent people from pulling the hose out of the machine.  The hose comes out of the unit,  loose,  then goes through this bracket which holds the hose firm. Next you will should find an additional little PCB, called a Gun Input Protect PCB, added to the gun circuit that was added later in the run to prevent voltage spikes from killing the transmitter PCBs. It might also be wise to check your gun's connections for loose wires and loose connectors, etc.  You would want to check the guns and hoses especially if the machine you get doesn't have the tension protection bracket I mentioned earlier.  Also,  if you end up with what looks like a bunch of things going wrong with the gun system of your Lost World,  there IS a way to convert the system to HAPP type guns.  You will have to do a search on KLOV (and other locations) for instruction,  but it invoves picking up a House of the Dead gun PCB.   I was happy to determine I didn't need to go that route with my machine but it's definitely a viable (and cheaper) option if you have lots of issues with your IR based guns.  Good luck!

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