Centipede coverted to Alcon, Can I switch it back?

[tomstewdevine]

I have made 4 mame cabs, none of them stand up, one not finished completely.  But as I got more and more into this hobby it was clear that Mame is really cool, but dedicated original cabs are much more so. For the last 6 months I have been looking at starting a project of restoring a dedicated cab. I have kept my eyes peeled but everything in my area is way too expensive. I'm looking at spending under 500 bucks total if I can.

So I saw a terrible arcade machine on craigslist in the middle of nowhere (literally no-where, the closest town was George Iowa, a placed I have never heard of even though I only live an hour away), he wanted $300 bucks for the thing, had one picture that showed the monitor, controls, bezel, and marquee for a shump called Alcon. It was working, but I couldn't tell what kind of cab it was. I checked again a few weeks later and it was still there, long story short I got the thing for $80 bucks if I could come to his place and pick it up...... I said F^<k it I'm going to do it. So on a Sunday morning I drove an hour to the middle of no where and got the cab.  It was in this guys basement, he barely helped me haul it up at all and I had to bring the damn thing up a flight of stairs (Thank God I brought a dolly). But it was heavy as hell, and I was extremely tired when I finally got it out of the house.

But I gave him my 80 bucks and didn't even really look at it when I was packing it up, I could tell right away that it wasn't a generic Taito Machine, which I was hoping it was since Alcon is a Taito game. I put it on it's side to fit into my ford freestyle station wagon and off I went.

I got it home and looked it over and this is what I got.



















So i got a Centipede Cab I think (shape and trackball hole in original CP is why I think that), but I'm no expert.  It's pretty far gone, but maybe not too far?

This would be the ideal plan, and I haven't researched any of this yet. but I could remove all the paint and bondo the bottom parts, place white vinyl on the sides and paint the front black. Get my friend to print the side art, bezel, CPO and marquee, find a track ball that works well. But I would assume the hard part is finding a working centipede board for a decent price and getting a harness for it.

I have a lot to think about but would really like some help on what other people think I should do. Or if it's even worth it.

P.S. If I did convert it I think i would take Alcon and build a generic taito cab from scratch and put it in there, because the game isn't too bad.
 

[IG-88]

I'd restore it back to a Centipede and build a cab around the Alcon. Your right it's a fairly cool shooter and definitely non-standard. But I like the weird stuff...

I wouldn't however strip the paint. Go ahead and do your structural repairs and treat the current paint as a primer. Sand it all down smooth and the repaint with a Kilz or something, then re-vinyl

Centipede boards aren't that hard to come by. Ive maybe got an extra one in my stash. If I do maybe we could make a trade for the Alcon stuff...? I'm not too far from you to the west. In Lincoln.

Anyway, how bad is the harness? Is it all hacked up? You might able to still use it. What about power supply? Whats in it now?

Monitor looks pretty good from the pic. You got your $80 out of it just in that.

[harveybirdman]

Bro bro bro, let me tell you what a score you got yourself there....

Checking around the Shmups forums, but you have one of the first ever Toaplan produced shooting games.  I'd venture it goes for no less than $200 and possibly for much more.

Centipede makes a bad ass Shmup cab, but there's no harm in restoring it back to centipede either.

Love it when peeps go original hardware, when you decide what you want to do I'll be subscribing.

[tomstewdevine]

After a little memorial day vacation I'm ready to get this project really going. I have decided to change it to a centipede cab and build a separate cab for Alcon, I've played it a bunch now and it keeps getting better so I'm going to get rid of it, but I will be on the look out for a centipede board.

The Harness isn't that bad, I can still use it ( I think ). Also the power supply is and new modern switching power supply, the old one is still in the cab, so I will try to restore that.

Very excited for this summer though....

[Spyridon]

Can it be turned back to Centipede?.....   Yes

[fcobenitez]

Alcon, aka Slap Fight, is one of my favorite old school shmups! Great score man, def. try to build a new cab around the cab bits that you already got!

[thomas_surles]

That's an amazing score. I'll give you $90 for it