What to do with Z Back type Cabinet?

[Peabo]

I just picked up a Z Back Cabinet with Toki installed in it for a song.  It also came with PCB's for Golden Tee 97, Capcom Bowling, Crazy Bowl, Robocop and Surf Planet.  Now the question is, what do I do with it?  Do I make it a 2 Player mame cabinet, which I don't currently have and would like.  Or do I clean it up, install one of the PCB's and try to flip it?  Is there value in a Dynamo conversion?

[Slippyblade]

Not sure what that cab is, but it sure ain't a regular Z-Back.  Any labels or ID plates?

[DudeRegular]

Saw that one on craigslist too. First thing I would do is check all the jamma boards to verify functionality since you have a functioning jamma setup as is.

[Peabo]

Not sure what that cab is, but it sure ain't a regular Z-Back.  Any labels or ID plates?

No labels on the cabinet anywhere.  Looks identical to this one:

I'm not able to find anything on the net as to who made this cabinet.  It looks similar to a Dynamo, but the top is squared off and there's a door on top with a key lock.  The back doesn't open at all and the control panel slides up and out as one unit.  The monitor is attached to plywood face that can be easily rotated between vertical or horizontal configuration.

[Peabo]

Saw that one on craigslist too. First thing I would do is check all the jamma boards to verify functionality since you have a functioning jamma setup as is.

Are you near Raleigh?

Anyhow, checked out the boards.

Toki works (checked before I bought it)
Surf Planet works (checked before I bought as well)
2nd Toki doesn't work, boots to a solid red screen and no sound.  Static from the speaker though
Capcom Bowling boots up and sound works, video constantly scrolls
Crazy Bowl boots up and has sound, seems to be working
Robocop boots up, sound works but video is a static image after post and doesn't acknowledge coins or button presses
Golden Tee boots up and seems to work

The trackball doesn't seem to work, I'll look into that and try swapping in another trackball that I have tomorrow.

[harveybirdman]

 Whatever you do use the CRT,  don't go shoving a LCD in there.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Those are great cabs for a switching JAMMA setup since they load from the front. I'd fix it up and use it as a Vertical JAMMA Shmup cab if you asked me.

D

[DudeRegular]

Are you near Raleigh?

I am down in Fayetteville. Being that the cab is what it is, I wouldn't feel bad about making it your mame box. Get a pc in there and run groovy mame since the crt still works.

[harveybirdman]

Do you want trackball support for any games?  I'd probably stash the trackball for another project and maybe sell the PCBs to finance the cab renovation.  Although, in the interest of full disclosure, most of those boards can be had for less than 70 or 80 dollars.

So 2 player MAME makes sense, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no one is looking for a cab dedicated to any of the boards you have so have at it, just make sure you do your best to use the CRT.

[Peabo]

Do you want trackball support for any games?  I'd probably stash the trackball for another project and maybe sell the PCBs to finance the cab renovation.  Although, in the interest of full disclosure, most of those boards can be had for less than 70 or 80 dollars.

So 2 player MAME makes sense, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no one is looking for a cab dedicated to any of the boards you have so have at it, just make sure you do your best to use the CRT.

Yeah, I'm going to agree with you on this.  Selling the PCBs is sounding like the best thing to do.  I doubt that any one of these games in a dedicated cab would fetch more than a few hundred. 

Now the question is what do I need to be able to use the CRT with a PC?  Is the Arcade VGA card the only/best route?  This CRT is a little fuzzy and a bit washed out on the color, so i'm going to have some reading to do on what needs to be done to correct it.  I'll have to grab the make and model off of it.

[harveybirdman]

It might be the easiest, I don't know that I'd say it would be the best.

You could also get a supported ATI card and a transcoder.  Review the Grooymame forum closely.  You will want to read heavily there to determine if that's the best route for you.  The results possible with the transcoder method are pretty damn impressive.

Cap kits are not as hard as you might think (I did one without much experience), so whatever you do don't let the CRT intimidate you.

[Peabo]

Tipped the monitor out enough to take a pic of the label



Found this paper stuck under the coin box:

[big10p]

That pic of the CRT just tells us about the tube - we need to see a pic of the chassis. I'm guessing it's an MTC 9000 (very common).

To hook it up to a PC (assuming cab is JAMMA wired) you'll need a J-PAC and one of the following:
- ArcadeVGA
- Use Soft15KHz app
- Use crt_emudriver + GroovyMAME + compatible Radeon GFX card (this is the best option, IMO)

[Peabo]

Alright, pulled the monitor all the way out and found the chassis tag.  It's a Hantarex MTC 9000.



If I've read posts correctly, I can use the Ultimarc video cable/amp along with an ATI HD4350 that I have to connect this monitor to a pc using the crt_emudriver?

http://www.ultimarc.com/vidamp.html

I already have an Ipac, so a Jpac isn't really needed

[Locke141]

I already have an Ipac, so a Jpac isn't really needed

The Jpac only lets 15kz signals pass from you PC to the CRT. That's why you want one, to protect your CRT.

[DudeRegular]

I havent used that so cant comment directly. The idea with the jpac though is you keep all your jamma stuff in there and just plug into it. Might not be a big deal to you though if you are going to bump up to a 2 player setup with more buttons. In that case you will end up doing a bunch of wiring anyways.

I am running a 4350 and groovy mame and crt emudriver on my crt cab. It works just fine. No issues at all with mame stuff. Also check out the modded bios that calamity has for those cards. It will let you boot windows without throwing your arcade CRT kut of sync with different uncontrollable resolution at bios and windows load. Really cool.

[big10p]

The J-PAC has a video amp built in, too.

[Peabo]

Success!  Got the monitor connected to a PC running Mame, only a bazillion steps to go...  I should start a build thread on this beast now.  Thanks for the push to use the arcade monitor!

[big10p]

Cool. Can't beat a proper CRT.

What did you use to connect to the monitor, in the end?

[Peabo]

Ultimarc video amp, ATI HD4350 and crt_emudriver.  There's still tweaking to be done, but I just wanted to get it working before repairing and painting the cabinet. 

[yotsuya]

Yep, nothing beats a  nice looking CRT. Good for you!