Thinning the herd *Pac Cab Repurposing*

[CheffoJeffo]

Took some time away from the hobby to deal with RealLife(tm) and have come back around to that point I never thought I would hit.

Time to thin the herd. Get rid of the projects that will never get done and (maybe) build that MAME cabinet that I had in mind when I bought that first big blue Capcom.

My thoughts on what I want to keep run along these lines:

MultiWilliams in a Robotron cabinet

• Robotron with proper sticks ? Yeah, gots to keep that.

MultiExidy in a Cheyenne cabinet

• Chiller? Crossbow? Cheyenne? on original hardware. Keep.

MultiJAMMA with MAME / GT / Surf Planet

• I never dropped a MAME rig into this, but maybe it's time.
• Might mix up the other games, maybe a decent gun game.

Neo Geo MVS 2-25 dedicated

• Right? Solid and gets a ton of play.

Super Mario Bros dedicated

• My first "real" arcade project. 100V monitor repair. Sentiment.

Joust cocktail

• The grail. Never gonna give it up.

Battle Shark dedicated

• Sexy, sexy cabinet.
• Cracked flyback. If I have a spare, it stays for a while.

60-in-1 in a PACMAN cabinet

• Going to move existing 60-in-1 geared for 2 and 4-way to Pac Cab

60-in-1 in a generic cabinet

• Set up for trackball / 8-way games
• If a Centi cab comes up local, I will move the guts to that

Rygar in a bartop

• Monitor is ---fouled up beyond all recognition---. Alignment is all over. Trainwreck.
• Have shiny replacement monitor in my JAMMA test rig.

Dominos

• Not sure what to do about this. First of the "snake" games, in good shape and works fine.

Flight 2000

• Time to get to the playfield replacement I have been putting off for a LONG time

Which means I will have some Galaga gear (original working boardset, control panel, side art, bezel), Asteroids upright (now getting garbage on the monitor, but complete with repro CPO and new buttons), old Die Hard cab converted for JAMMA gun games, BIGass showcase with Virtua Tennis 2, along with corpses of Xenophobe, Tron, Atari Football. Some other shell cabs that just aren't worth saving and some misc gear that I will probably keep. Before you (you know who you are) ask, Galaga cabinet is not worth saving.

Thanks, saint, for keeping the lights on. Nice to be back.

[yotsuya]

Glad to see you back, Cheffo. I fell in love with Flight 2000 at ZapCon this year. Keep us updated.

[wp34]

Good to have you back Cheffo.

[CheffoJeffo]

 

F2K is a fantabulous game to play. Got mine for a good price, did some board and mechanical repairs, cleaned up the coin door and bought a repro PF. Need to sort through the boxes (and boxes) of old parts and start a real resto. Needs new blackglass, but is a solid project.

Bought stencils a few years back for the cabinet, but they weren't cut properly. 

[Hoopz]

Bout damn time you posted.  Hope the kids and Mrs Cheffo are well.

Got any nintendo four way joys?  Without burn marks and isn't broken?

 

[wp34]

Have you looked at the ArcadeSD board?   It is a nice alternative to the 60-1 although it is a bit pricey.  I think it was released while you were on sabbatical.    

I'm jealous of your MultiExidy cabinet.

[CheffoJeffo]

Have you looked at the ArcadeSD board?   It is a nice alternative to the 60-1 although it is a bit pricey.  I think it was released while you were on sabbatical.    

Thanks. I have looked at them and, now that I look again, they haven't gotten any cheaper!

The old 60-in-1 menus are really quite awful, but I can't beat the price of 2 boards already in hand from a bulk order a ways back. I'll be wiring the PAC cab as JAMMA, so if other options arise I can avail myself in the future.

I'm jealous of your MultiExidy cabinet.

It is an absolute favourite, although horribly uncomfortable to play for a long time. Was really lucky to find the cabinet and even luckier to get it running. And lucky to get a kit. I will never let it go. I desperately need to get some artwork.. I started vectorizing Exidy art a ways back but never finished.

[CheffoJeffo]

Bout damn time you posted.  Hope the kids and Mrs Cheffo are well.

Got any nintendo four way joys?  Without burn marks and isn't broken?

  Thanks. All well. Yours?

I was so weakened from my last run-in with Strongtanium(tm) that I have been too afraid to go near Ninty sticks again.
 

[opt2not]

Welcome back Cheffo! 

[Malenko]

now go get Neph and I can be happy again.

[wp34]

60-in-1 in a PACMAN cabinet
Going to move existing 60-in-1 geared for 2 and 4-way to Pac Cab

60-in-1 in a generic cabinet

Set up for trackball / 8-way games

This is good food for thought.  I've been planning a 4-way dedicated multi that is simple for guests.  One joystick and likely just one button.  But I keep getting bitten by mission creep.  Should I add a trackball for Centipede--which is a popular game.  What about 8-way games?   

The setup you described is nice because the 4-way machine can remain simple.  Having a second machine with a trackball can meet the other need without cluttering up the first machine.  I'm not sure I'll go that route but I hadn't thought of combining the 8-way and the trackball into a separate cabinet before.

[jennifer]

    That's not thinning the herd.... Your a diaper pile away from a hoard situation.

[CheffoJeffo]

This is good food for thought.  I've been planning a 4-way dedicated multi that is simple for guests.  One joystick and likely just one button.  But I keep getting bitten by mission creep.  Should I add a trackball for Centipede--which is a popular game.  What about 8-way games?   

The setup you described is nice because the 4-way machine can remain simple.  Having a second machine with a trackball can meet the other need without cluttering up the first machine.  I'm not sure I'll go that route but I hadn't thought of combining the 8-way and the trackball into a separate cabinet before.

Exactly. Game creep is a ---smurfette---, even for a limited board like the 60-in-1. Takes some discipline to avoid "just one more game" sydrome.

My current 60-in-1/4-way uses a Wico 4-way for 2-way and 4-way games. Going to use an actual PAC stick when I move it to the PACMAN cab.

The 60-in-1/8-way/trackball uses a Wico 8-way and plays all of the 8-way and 2-way games, along with Centi and Milli. If I didn't love Time Pilot and 1942, I might just have thrown a trackball into the 4-way cab.

[RayB]

I was just thinking about you recently dude! I even creeped ya on CGCC to see if you still logged on.

1. Ditch the Battle Shark. (WTF is a Battle Shark?!)
2. Always call me first if you want to ditch the Dominos. (No, not now. I'm broke). 

I know where you're at though. It's been a few years since I've done anything with the hobby. Then came the need for space and money, so I sold off Road Kings pin, a Sega Turbo mini and Ghouls & Ghosts pcb. All in the space of the last two weeks. More possibly!

Come say hi to B1 and the gang. ;-)

[CheffoJeffo]

1. Ditch the Battle Shark. (WTF is a Battle Shark?!)

Got it for $175 working from menace's brother (after menace fixed the monitor), then the flyback cracked.

Sideart is immaculate on one side, faded, but still gorgeous on the other. Periscope and alert lamps are perfect. It's a stupid MTC900E monitor, which shouldn't be a big deal, but I keep putting it off.

2. Always call me first if you want to ditch the Dominos. (No, not now. I'm broke). 

I am torn on this one -- I haven't done a single thing to restore the CP (as I had intended ... not like it needs anything else), but it is still a beautiful little cab and a really fun game if you get a good opponent. And, now that I have given up on restoring my Football (anybody need new CPs with the playbook PCBs?), it's that rare piece of (low-maintenance) (good-looking) Atari history.

Absent a serious Atari collector, I can't see myself letting it go anywhere other than back home to you.

I know where you're at though. It's been a few years since I've done anything with the hobby. Then came the need for space and money, so I sold off Road Kings pin, a Sega Turbo mini and Ghouls & Ghosts pcb. All in the space of the last two weeks. More possibly!

Come say hi to B1 and the gang. ;-)

I've also been trying to make up my mind on my Tron (which I actually think I got from B1) -- decent cab (scratched sideart, patchy shroud art), gorgeous translite, controls are solid, repro  Encom marquee). I've given up hope on the boardset (have multiples of each board, but too lazy to make new interconnect cables). The game sucks, but I just can't seem to haul the cabinet upstairs. 

[opt2not]

  Great side artwork on that Battle Shark.

[CheffoJeffo]

Was perhaps the best cab purchase I ever made (from a looks standpoint), despite the fact it weighs a ton (only my showcase was heavier) and I had to drive to Bumblefuck to pick it up.

[CheffoJeffo]

The culling commences ... sayonara Tron, Football and generic water-damaged cab. Also stripping out the guts of last unfinished MAME-in-a-Xenophobe cab.

 

[cw]

not the x's and o's   oh noo

[CheffoJeffo]

not the x's and o's   oh noo

It's a little sad. That was originally rescued (complete) from a random curb by fellow BYOACer mmmPeanutButter who passed it along to me for free (or really close to free ... can't recall). Monitor was beyond repair, top glass was badly flaked, power supply was shot, main board was kaput and trackballs needed a serious rebuild. Cabinet was solid, CPs were nive nice, playboard PCBs were good and I rebuilt the PS (even painted it all nice and gold).

I just never could get around to repair and restoration and couldn't find anybody local who wanted such a hefty project.

EDIT: Totally kept the volcano buttons.

[CheffoJeffo]

On a related note, now have a Tron CP, spinner (have to see if I can find the optic board ... I know I replaced the chip on a couple of them), original stick (including nice handle), shroud (artwork torn) and translite (gorgeous!) as well a multiple boards in the stack (status unknown and ribbon cables shot), if anybody is interested in making an offer with local pickup (or finding somebody local who can meet at an auction). May also have spare CP and front panel light fixtures.

And if anybody wants the Football CPs, including trackballs and playboards, arrange for a local pickup within 10 days and they are yours.

[cw]

do you still have cps?  Mine could be better...

[CheffoJeffo]

Sorry -- all spoken for.

[CheffoJeffo]

Took the bartop apart this weekend in order to replace the FUBAR Unknown Chinese monitor that was in there. Connected a 13" WG monitor that I salvaged from an exercise bike (!!) with nice results.



But now, I have to get all of that back into this:



The wiring is kinda ugly and the ghetto JAMMA adaptor drives me nuts, but I think I can live with it IF I can stuff everything back in the box.

[CheffoJeffo]

Welp ... monitor fits, but there is no way that I am getting that board stack in there. 



Going to have to mount it to the back door I guess. 

[CheffoJeffo]

I currently have a PacMan project cab, a dedicated Galaga and a 60-in-1 4-Way cab. My original plan was to Multi-Pac the Pac cabinet after stripping the black (and gray) layers of paint that had been so generously applied. Got most of the way through that (BYOACer swede did much of the work before I took the cab off of his hands), but there was still a lot of stripping and then touching-up to do.

New plan: take Pac down to the wood, apply misprint sideart acquired long ago from knievel and 60-in-1 that using original Pac stick. Will do custom CPO to incorporate the buttons. Use gorgeous monitor from Galaga (one of the last good new 19" monitors). Now have 1 cab in place of 3 and will have extra parts and boards to trade for stuff I want more.

Heresy, you say? Too bad.

First coat of take-it-all-off stripper went on tonight.



Can you spot this misprint?

[jennifer]

   That stripper works so much better if you stand the cab upright slide a piece of cardboard under it and let gravity do its thing, It is refreshing to see someone who is not scared to use some chems however, Bet it worked like a dream.... As for the sticker, the boxes are wrong, the swooshes by his feet are wrong, its missing the midway logo, and its a sticker, But that's not being critical only because you asked, Most people wouldn't know that and on a yellow paintjob that will look sweet!

[CheffoJeffo]

I love that I can't tell how much of jennifer is sarcasm (the subtlety is delicious). 

Strangely this stripper is all nice and enviro-friendly (and soft on my hands while I'm stripping cabs). I'm not sure gravity would help getting through original paint. And, yeah, it took it down most of the way to the wood with no effort.

I was actually thinking about the purple instead of blue, but  yeah to the rest. Also missing the paint spatter.

[Token]

I love that I can't tell how much of jennifer is sarcasm (the subtlety is delicious). 

Strangely this stripper is all nice and enviro-friendly

Now Cheffo, that's no way to talk about a lady.

[CheffoJeffo]