Racer-X Sitdown Multicab (Cruis'n Conversion)

[Darien]

Hey, gang.  Long time collector, First time racer.

A few weeks ago I finally found the "arcade machines found on the side of the road" that everyone else seems to find. Only took me 12 years of collecting.



As you can see there is a Cruis'n on it's side there. It is a Cruis'n USA sitdown (seat included but not shown) That had been converted to Cruis'n Exotica.  Someone left the boards but took out the wiring harnesses and power supply (A thread coming on that).  I didn't have much faith in any of these cabinets, expecting to part them out.  I grabbed a PSU and a Jamma harness and thought i'd see if anything came up.

The marquee light came on. The monitor hums to life. The buttons don't light up but who cares?  Cruis'n Exotica starts it's rom test and passes. And then asks me to calibrate. Well at this point I have to stop because none of the interconnecting cables exist.  I spent two days looking at both manuals, Usa & Exotica. There isn't a wiring diagram in the Exotica KIT manual it just tells me to attach the "included" cable to your original USA drive board. I digress...

IN THE MEANTIME I have a j-pac and a mame-puter in my Astro City. Scrap it, It's race time. I make a new a TinyXP hard drive for the racer. Install Soft-15khz, Mame, Model2Emu, & HyperSpin.

I order a MS Sidewinder Dual Strike off ebay for $10 with shipping (so I don't have to change my 5k pots.) Perform the hack (with my less than awesome solder skills). and we're up to today.

Still to be done?  Force Feedback, Replacing pots,  I have purchased the same Logitech Driving Force EX that TheSharkFactor used.

[Darien]

Done:

• Unique Theme
• Sidewinder Hack
• Shifter hooked up to JPAC
• Model 2 install & config
• Purchase Logitech Driving Force PS2/3/PC Wheel

In Progress:

• Mame install and config
• admin panel
• 100k + 2x50k High Quality Pots
  
• Force feedback brush servo motor

[IG-88]

Nice find!! 

Did you grab all the cabs? You got quite a ways on the cruisin cab for what ya started with. Nice to see it saved!!

[Darien]

Almost. Story....  ok, on the left there's cruis'n behind that is a Crisis Zone which was completely empty and frigteningly rickety. I can see why they took the monitor out it wouldnt have supported it.

 Then there's a complete Dynamo Showcase

 which I always thought would make a great mame cabinet which had been converted to House Of The Dead. In front of the control panel for that is a very large tri-sync that had been used with Golden Tee 2010. The white cabinet is a Virtua Fighter 2 which had also been converted to HOTD. and last a Killer instinct (http://www.arcade-museum.com/images/118/118124212411.jpg) which has a giant detachable control panel but has been converted to fishing... some kinda fishing.. I dunno.  There's a couple other large tri-syncs but I only got the one (you'll see why)

The only thing I didn't get was the crisis zone. I took the glass and rails and the random boards out of it.

Between a buddy and I, we get the Cruisn and the Dynamo panel in the first load. Come back the now empty crisis zone is missing.  We're standing there figuring out how to move this stuff in two SUVs and a couple of crackheads (i'm not being colourful here, it was a BAD area) walked up asked if they could have the tv and we said "SURE" because we were busy enough as it is and they were frightening looking. I hemmed and my friend went "let them have it and we'll be rid of them"

They took a pick and mallet (they JUST happen to be carrying) to the case, crack the top vents, & steal the yoke....

*blink blink*

Given that most of the things I've tested from the haul so far have WORKED that means they probably ruined a perfectly good 42" tv for the copper in the yoke... It also scared me because I've been as careful as can be every time i've changed a chassis. rubber shoes discharge tool rubber gloves. *POP* these people just reached in there and broke the damn thing with a hammer.

At this point, I'm no longer curious why my Crusin' lacks all of it's interconnecting (copper) cables... but not the fully working boardset you can make a pretty penny for on ebay? I would say the most harrowing part is not the heavy lifting or the speed of moving when you lack a pick up and uhaul is closed,  it's dealing with people asking me what I'm doing.   *SCREECH TIRES*  Hey What are you doing?  "I'm moving my arcade machines." So you scrape these for metal? "No I collect arcade machines... besides they're not metal...." *guy keeps driving*  *five minutes later* Hey! whatcha doin' scrapin' metal?  "No these are arcade mach---   And so on.

a large (I dunno bigger than 33"...36?) tri-sync monitor, Two HOTDs (with boards and 3 guns), Fisherman's Bait (two marquees, manuals, CD and Key but not a konami 573 to test it on) and a complete cruis'n sitdown with an exotica boardset.

Not bad for a Sunday.

[Darien]

Update:

You know what's annoying?  a medium resolution monitor.  

You go in you set up the cabinet, you set up hyperspin, You get Mame and Model2 whittled down to just the playable racers (ftr you don't have the PS 2.0 support for Model 3) you look good playing daytona and Well how about that Crusin'... then you read BadMouth's list and you really want to play Outrun 2006.  It won't even install because you're at 512x384. (seriously windows won't install games at less than 640x480 even if the games support lower resolutions) So back to the drawing board you go and you suddenly understand why a lot of these cabinets use a telly.

I replaced it with a spare 25" CRT Television which I decased and put in a spare 25" chassis from an old WG. The clarity suffers but I can now run PC & PS2 games.

I've replaced the control panel for the time being with a Logitech Driving Force EX PC/PS2/3 wheel as seen here.  Which I purchased with the intent of converting it to use my Happ FFB wheel that came with the cruisin' but I have to buy the amp and the pots to make it work.

Not even close to finished with my sitdown I have a stand up Outrun cabinet in my garage I'm thinking of restoring/linking.  Anyone know where I can get a stand up outrun bezel and control panel... Real Cheap? you know the cheesy grey parts?

Attached: Outrun 2!