Cocktail MAME Project

[cmoses]

Recently acquired my first cocktail cabinet.  I acquired it as a project and knew going in that there was some issues.  After getting it home and taking a good look at it I think I will be converting it to a vertical MAME cocktail cabinet.  The cabinet appears to have originally been a Pacman.  I found some cards stapled to the inside that reference board settings.  It has been converted to a Galaxian and has had a button added to the control panels on each side.  There are no original Pacman graphics on the overlay or the control panel.  The monitor had some burn in and upon getting the machine to turn on, has a vertical collapse issue.  The cabinet was pretty filthy inside and the wiring had been tweaked some.  The coin door is there but the mech has been removed.  There is a button that has been added to the front near the coin door, not sure if it was power or credits as it has no wiring attached to it on the inside.  I took a crack at the monitor but I think it is beyond my repair capability.  Even if the issues could be fixed I think the burn in might be too much.  The strange thing is that the burn in is unmistakably Burger Time. 

With all of this going on, my thoughts are that I am going to turn this cocktail cabinet into a vertical MAME cabinet.  I am going to remove all of the existing hardware and put in a computer to run MAME and use HyperSpin as a front end.  There is a vertical theme that is cocktail specific that really looks amazing, so I will be using it. 

My issue currently is trying to figure out what to use as a display.  I could replace the arcade monitor, but wish I could find a digital arcade monitor for ease of use, hooking up to a computer etc.  I have a WG D9200 in my other cabinet and it is great.  Finding 19" arcade monitors in general seems to be very difficult currently.  I have 2 computer monitors that I am considering.  One is a 19" and the other is a 21".  The 19" is a little small, 19" tube 18" viewable.  The 21" is a little big, not positive it will fit in the cabinet when I close it up.  I also have a 19" LCD monitor that I am considering.  It would make the cabinet much lighter but not as authentic.  I also know that they now make 19" drop in replacements for arcade monitors that do CGA, EGA and VGA.  I am also considering this but will need to look into it more.

If anyone has some ideas or suggestions or have done something similar please feel free to leave some comments.  I am definitely open to all ideas.  Also if anyone needs some original Pacman cocktail parts, power supply, cable harness, etc.  Or a Galaxian PCB let me know I will be placing them up for sale shortly.

Here are some pics.







 

[TGov]

Right on.  Where are you located?  I saw a cocktail that looked nearly identical to that recently.  Having a cocktail MAME cabinet would be really cool even though I am sure you will hear plenty of opposition to MAMEing it on here

The cocktail hyperspin theme is awesome.  It looks so good I am going to use it in my DK mame cabinet even though it isn't a cocktail. 

[cmoses]

Located in Austin, TX. 

Hopefully not to much opposition, like I said it was not in great shape, had no artwork to save, etc.  Which brings me to another question I am hoping somebody can answer.  For the most part I think the wood grain laminate is in pretty good shape so I think I am going to keep it.  I will know for sure once I get it cleaned up more and had a good chance to take a look at it.  There are two areas that I have some concern with.  One side of the control panel does have a piece of laminate missing from it and they put a hole in the front near the coin door for a button, which I don't really like.  The control panel piece will need to be replaced.  Do they still make this same laminate?  I presume I will have to take off the control panel side to re-laminate the problem area.  As far as the front I could fill it but once again I would need to take it apart to re-laminate.  I might just live with the button, maybe make it a coin button or power button. 

Yes I agree about the HyperSpin cocktail theme.  Very different from their normal theme and very well done.

[TGov]

I am not sure you would ever be able to match the laminate, but I might be wrong.  You might be better off buying a sheet of laminate and redoing the whole thing.

[cmoses]

It's been a while since I posted an update.  Been doing a little bit of work here and there but with the colder weather and holidays and everything I haven't put much time into it.

That being said this is what I have accomplished in the last couple of months.  I was able to go through and completely dismantle all of the cabinet and its parts.  Took out the monitor, power supply, pcb, control panels, coin door, etc.  The base was completely falling apart.  I have taken it off and built a new one from plywood.  It will need to be painted and I will need to order new leg levelers. 

This weekend was beautiful in Austin, so I got a chance to do some real work.  One of the control panel sides had a big chip out of the laminate.  I found someone a couple months ago selling some spare sides so I purchased them.  I heated up the the laminate on the side with a iron and was able to slowly peel it off.  I did the same with the spare and will be replacing it in the near future.  I removed all of the T-Molding from the control panels and the top.  I will be ordering replacement molding as well, 1" flat for the top and 3/4" leather for the control panel.  I masked up all of the cabinet except for the corners which were a little beat up and worn.  I then sanded them down and spray painted them black.  I also removed the lid bracket and all of the bolts holding it on.  I used a wire paint remover attachment on my drill to sand off all of the rust from the bolts and the bracket.  I then repainted the bracket the same black as the corners. 

So the project is getting back on track.  I have a computer that I will be using to run MAME and HyperSpin.  I found an amazing theme created by jeepguy81 over at the HyperSpin forum.  It is a dedicated cocktail theme and really looks amazing.  He has just finished all of the game themes and will be bundling the whole thing up shortly.  I now need to decide what controls I want on the control panel. 

[Unstupid]

cool

[cmoses]

I ordered a mini SLG from forum member CraftyMech for my LCD monitor that I will be using in the cocktail cabinet. I think the scan lines really help improve the looks of the classic games.

I will be running my HyperSpin front end in 1280 x 1024 resolution without scan lines and MAME at 640 x 480 with scan lines.


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[cmoses]

I was able to work on the cocktail cabinet last weekend. I finished up the cocktail base I built to replace the original one that was disintegrating. I took the best piece and used it as a template to create four new sides. I cut them and then routed out the cutout for each one. I glued and nailed them together. I was able to reuse the corner support pieces. Once it was built I sanded it down and spray painted it black just like the rounded corners. I was very pleased with how it came out.

I dismantled the coin door, did a little straightening out of a few areas that were bent around the door lock. I also took a wire wheel to it in order to strip as much rust and paint off it. Not sure if I will repaint it or get it powder coated.

There is a button hole located next to the coin door which I think was used for free credits. It can't be repaired easily so I think I am going to order a NovaGemCDR Coin Door Replacement button from Groovy Game Gear. It should be big enough to cover the whole and I may even flush mount it.






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[Seith]

How much did the cab initially set you back if you don't mind me asking?  Hopefully it wasn't too much, considering the shape it was in.

[cmoses]

Got it for just hauling it away. So it was a great deal. I was looking for something cheap and a project cabinet. So it worked out all the way around.


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[CossackWarrior]

You mentioned you are willing to sell the original Pacman cocktail parts.  I am doing a restoration for a raffle at a charity event.  The restoration has to be impressive.  Do you have and are you able to sell the below:

I am working on a very important restoration of an original Pacman cocktail arcade for a charity event. We are keeping in tune with having everything on this restoration FULLY original. The parts we are looking for would need to be original and in FANTASTIC condition. The parts needed are listed below:

1. Complete original power supply with transformers and board in excellent condition
2. The 2 white/opaque plexi's at control panels
3. Missing original wooden base in excellent condition (Please see attached pic to refer to missing base, and base needed)
4. The 3 original speaker plates in excellent condition.

Willing to pay top dollar, but it is for charity, so I don't wanna get hosed either if you know what I mean!

My email is sasha@phyzex.com. Please email me detailed pics, item condition, and your best price.

Best regards,
Sasha Sekretov

[Unstupid]

If you are willing to pay top dollar then you can find most of what you need at mikesarcade.com and/or twistedquarter.com

[CossackWarrior]

Yes, but that stuff is all reproduction stuff, I need original parts, and when I say top dollar, I dont mean rip me off, just a fair price.

[cmoses]

The only part of that I would have to sell would be the transformers that ran the power. I never had a Pacman PCB and I am using all of the rest of the pieces.


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[CossackWarrior]

Ya, thats fine.  I need the transformers.  Email me pics of them.  I want to check the condition, and make sure they are the right ones.  My email is:  sasha@phyzex.com

How much you want for them?

[cmoses]

Haven't put much time into this project recently.  Summers here in Austin make it pretty much impossible to work out in the garage on projects.  I am hoping to pick things up here shortly as the weather gets a little more bearable.  I did just pick up a Dell 2001FP monitor for a great price.  I had a spare 19" Dell that I was probably going to use, but it was not as nice of a display and was 5:4 aspect ratio.  The Dell has a very nice IPS screen, is bigger at 20" and is also a true 4:3 aspect ratio.  It also has a better angled view than the 19" which is important in a cocktail.  So I hope to be working on mounting it and making a bezel to work with the 20" screen as the weather gets a little cooler. 

I will be running Hyperspin as the front end at 1024x768 since that is the default resolution for Hyperspin.  I haven't decided what resolution I am going to be running MAME at yet.  The native resolution for the Dell 2001FP is 1600x1200.  I will be using MAME's HLSL settings to make the LCD look as close to a CRT as possible.  I know the higher the resolution the better for that but it also means more system resources taken up.  If anyone is running a Dell 2001FP with MAME, please share the resolution you are running at and the reason you choose it.

Thanks