Midway Space Invaders multi cab

[chopperthedog]

Ran across a "last call before part out and 60in1" ad on klov for a Midway Space Invaders cab for $200 a little over an hour drive from me. It was complete and played blind with some missing sounds. I had been looking for and SI dlx cab for some time but they don't come up at all, but this one looked like it had potential. Made contact with seller and arranged for pick up on saturday. Got to the guys place and witnessed arcade hoarding at its finest (4000sq ft worth) very cool guy with neat stuff. Got the deal done and drove home.... yay!

Original sale thread: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=302431









What I came home with.

Well, along with playing blind it would also freak out with a very loud hum and static from the speaker after being powered on at the 4 minute mark. Tried two different monitors pulling video signal from the edge connector and was getting no sign of life at all on output. Pulled the harness, power block, ps board and board set and laid eveything out on a table and did some more voltage checking and other prodding but all signs lead to deeper issues with the board set that is above my scope.

Now, I found myself at the arcade crossroads of start blindly ordering parts or send board set off for a costly repair and find myself with an extra $400 spent on something that wouldn't even fetch $400 working. That's where having extra computers, 19" monitors and ipacs laying around comes in handy. I gave the cab a good bath in simple green and a good vacumming along with new marquee and blacklight bulbs. I currently have an lcd monitor just resting on the wood mounts for the crt, perfect height and angle even the original black cardboard bezel lays over it nicely. I'm waiting for a VGA to CGA converter to come in to put a crt to use that I have sittin on the shelf. I wired a new 12pin midway molex connector to the ipac so I didn't have to touch the original control panel wiring or harness connector.

The mame config with the mirror was easy, but after a couple searches on byoac I quickly learned mala doesn't do X Y flipping . Didn't want to learn another front end just to have a list of 9 games. I then had the idea to build a layout just based on graphics created, edited and flipped so I could use mala with the mirror.






The large game titles are images created and used as "marquee pics". The 2 instruction prompts are just 2 user defined images along with game screen caps. Fire starts game / fire + start2 adds credit / 1 + 2 start exits game.









Cleaned up nicely and looks great in the line up! Glad I caught that ad on klov.



good day.

[Louis Tully]

.

[Malenko]

looks fantastic.  Can you play Arkanoid on it?

[yotsuya]

looks fantastic.  Can you play Arkanoid on it?

Can you play Galaga on it? 

Looks great, Chopper!

[Malenko]

Can you play Galaga on it? 

Looks great, Chopper!

funny enough, it'd totally be possible with the button layout. wonder how well it'd actually play like that,lol

[wp34]

I love that you kept the mirror and the black light.  It looks fantastic.  Very well done.   

[chopperthedog]

Can you play Galaga on it? 

Looks great, Chopper!

funny enough, it'd totally be possible with the button layout. wonder how well it'd actually play like that,lol

While making the game list I did launch a couple others. Galaga did look sweet in fact a lot of games looked cool with the mirror/back ground set up. The list still has 9 games though.



Got the VGA to CGA converter finally, but didn't even use it. The Vision Pro I was going to use would have required altering the wood inside the cab to accommodate the monitor frame. Recently I picked up 4 working TOEI 19" open frame crt's for very cheap that sync to 640x480. The monitors run on 100v and the klov b.s.t section paid off again with 2 midway iso transformers for $30 shipped.




The tube and frame fit like a glove without having to do anything to the cab.




Not trying to win any neatness awards here.




Upon doing some reading I learned that the SI cabs originally came with a "black light white" bulb and ordered a couple from http://www.elightbulbs.com/. The plexi planet had some warping to it that was visible with the use of the brighter bulb. I was able to get it flat again with some patience and a heat gun.




Buttons and control panel cleaned up really well.




While detailing the control panel I noticed the addition of some washers that were added under the e clips of all the buttons. I suspect this was done stock to lower the profile and shorten the throw of the button. I've asked around but it hasn't been confirmed that the washers were stock. If anyone knows please chime in.




I know they didn't light them up stock, but the 25 cent thingys were begging to be lit up. I used 2 bayonet bases and some double sided tape on the back of the coin door.

With the crt, the parallax effect is much more prominent than it was with the lcd. At this point there is nothing else to do but enjoy the cab and keep an eye out for a bezel that hasn't been sun stripped of all its red.


good day.

[Malenko]

looks great, a job to be proud of.  If you get bored and want to post a picture of galaga running, I'd love to see it.

[chopperthedog]

Trolololololo  here ya go.










It's hard to get a good pic via phone (only camera I have). There isn't a "focus on 3 varying distances and a scanning CRT filled with black light from 2ft away" setting. They look really good in person.


good day.

[emphatic]

Looks very cool!

[Malenko]

Thanks!  Galaga looks pretty great and not out of place. DK on the other hand....lol

again, great job with the cab. You *should* win an award for it....maybe next years UCAs 

[wp34]

That Galaga does look sweet.

[chopperthedog]

Thanks guys!

Thanks!  Galaga looks pretty great and not out of place. DK on the other hand....lol

again, great job with the cab. You *should* win an award for it....maybe next years UCAs 

Hmmmm... which category?
Best mame'ing of a classic...
Thank you for not cramming 2 joysticks, 18 buttons and a trackball in the panel award...
Amazing use of simple green award...
Greatest mame execution and parts archival for the next guy to dump a bunch of money into award..
 


good day.

[1500points]

Outstanding thread. WP34 led me to it.
I followed your path and love the outcome!

Picked up a Taito Space Invaders at an auction, dead/flakey PCB and B-W monitor.
I discovered that they built it so well that I could drop in a raspberry pi with no altering of anything inside the cab. 
Grabbed a bunch of the Left/Right, 1 fire button space themed games including Atari 2600 Demon Attack/Asteroids/Space Invaders.

Didn't even have to change anything on the control panel other than took off the 2 way joystick and put an 8way wico with a fresh grommet purely due to personal preference.

Thanks for the idea, it resurrected another unwanted dead classic and now it is probably my favorite "way back machine".......ah the sensory experience of sticking your face in that 3d space diorama and getting blasted by awesome 8 bit sounds and rumbles.

I'll post a list of the games I selected in the near future.

[morton]

Nice score and rescue. I have always loved that cab. One day I will own one lol.

Its one of those historically important games that hasn't seemed to get as much attention as DK... Which is fine, cuz I may still snag one cheap

Congrats on the cab. Very nice.

[NIVO]

D.K. - Save the Planet Edition

well done on the find and cleanup chopper

Turned out great

[mwhitney]

Very cool!

[wheeezy]

great !

yep galaga is perfect

donkey kong i agree "save the planet" edition 

very compliments !

[chopperthedog]

Thanks guys. Yup, still enjoying the hell out of this cab. About 6 months ago I was given a very nice glass bezel from a local collector for free. The plexi one that this cab came with had all the red sun bleached. Scroll up and you can see how that gun thingy in the lower left looks grey compared to the new bezel below.

So if anyone needs a sun bleached but still usable SI bezel in the chicago area for free give me a ring.


good day.

[1500points]

Here is my finalized project with a Taito Space Invaders.
Changed up the game list a bit and even added a couple 2600 titles via Retropie.

[markc74]

It's amazing how great other games look with a space invaders background.

Loving the demon attack too. First game i ever owned on the 2600 

[morton]

This is one of my favourite classic cabs, and was worried it'd get MAME'd and become something nasty. What you have pulled off is simply awesome. The way you implement the video and PC, it all looks very clean and proper. That background art is top notch and looks so good it don't matter what game is there. The classic shooters should all look really nice eh?

Anyone considering MAME in a classic needs to read your thread.