Mortal Kombat Mame Project!
When I first purchased this cab, I thought I would fully restore it and just keep MK1 in it. I had planned on acquiring another 3-4 cabs and having the whole MK collection. But situations arose and I had to move into a smaller apartment. Namely getting laid off and scrambling to find something to keep the lights on.
So I've had to adjust my goals for now.
The Goal: I want to play as many games as possible on this cab without destroying the overall aesthetic of the cab, and to make it easy to convert back to jamma when the day comes.
So far:
I've stripped the t-molding off, stripped the artwork off of the sides, front and top of the control panel because they were ripped, they had been drawn on and had some crusty gum spots on it. Though I've cut a separate top board that I'm gonna use for Mame only, so I can just swap panels back to the original when I convert it back to jamma.
I had to strip all of the wiring out because it was a rats nest of crimps, splices and spiders that looked it could have caught fire at any time. It was at one time converted to a Street Fighter 2 I think. Thankfully they left the artwork for the most part. I've gotta fix the wiring coming from the monitor because it was yanked while I was de-tangling and cutting out the rats nest of wires. Pics will be below.
What's Needed:
I'm not 100% sure if I want to reprint the side art. I kind of like the worn look, but would also like to see it look brand-spanking new. I'm gonna have to think about that. One side is faded a good bit, but the other side doesn't look bad at all. So...I don't know.
Need to replace the coin door lights. Which I think these are hopefully the right ones. The original ones have "C 555" marked on them.:
BULBS!I may need to find a replacement control board for the monitor as well. The guy I bought it off of said some of the pots had been snapped or broken.
I've got a windows pc with a ArcadeVGA card in it that I'd like to use. I've already got it setup with MaLa and a custom skin I put together. Gonna run the controls and coin mechs through an i-pac. The coin door lights and marquee light I'm gonna run to the PC's power supply. The cabs speaker(s) are going to be run to a amp so I've got volume control independent from the computer.
How I'm hoping it'll power up, I'm gonna extend the power button of the PC up either next to the original switch, or close to the coin door on the inside of the cab. Use that button to power the PC & lights, and then the original switch to turn the monitor on and off. I'm just not sure how to wire all of that. I'm confident enough to wire everything up but the monitor. So any suggestions or help with that would be great and definitely appreciated.
Now onto the photos:
The serial label in the cab-
Right side of the cab (faded)
Left side
Back of the monitor
Monitor cable I need to fix
The transformer? Yeah. This thing kinda scares me.
The monitor control board
The power supply
New control panel artwork
Monitor board
Speaker amp
Clean board for mame control panel
Clean mame control panel with artwork on it
Coin door light bulbs
I think that's about it.