X-men 4-player cabinet Restoration/Conversion

[opt2not]

Not doing carriage bolts?

Yep, no carriage bolts. I like CP’s with only controls visible on the surface. It’s cleaner looking.

Which sticks?  Wico?

Yeah, Wico’s. . $40 ea seems to be the best I can find for the new repro ones. Arcadeshop has ‘em with the coloured balltops I need for X-men.

This cab came with wico microswitch versions, but all black battops. If I could find just the ball top shafts I need, I could save a bit of money.

[Arroyo]

If I could find just the ball top shafts I need, I could save a bit of money.

Not sure if you already have the bases for the leafs, but here are some leaf sticks:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Wico-joysticks-for-video-arcade-game-2-NEW-OLD-STOCK-STICKS-ONLY-FREE-SHIP/333140652639?hash=item4d90baf25f:g:VX8AAOSw4QdaggPy

I’ve bought from the guy before and it was legit.  He has lots of colors and has more than 2 to sell.

If you were looking for microswitch versions then :

[opt2not]

I only got the microswitch version bases. If I can’t get compatible balltop shafts of the colours I need, I’ll bite the bullet and pickup the leafs.

[pbj]

Do not put leafs on a 90s fight and go right cabinet.




You were also nuts to route out the joystick placement before your art showed up.

[opt2not]

I totally agree to your first point. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
Paradise arcade has threaded Wico shafts that I can throw any ball top on, I just gotta confirm with them that they’re compatible with the microswitch Wico bases.

As for your second point, I’m pretty sure joystick positions didn’t change for all the Konami 4P cabs, just the buttons.

[yotsuya]

Not doing carriage bolts?

Yep, no carriage bolts. I like CP’s with only controls visible on the surface. It’s cleaner looking.

[opt2not]

Decided to take a chance on these joysticks:
http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=190_193

They’re similar to the Wico microswitch joys, but with balltops. I’ve searched everywhere but couldn’t find balltop shafts for these Wico’s.
The Wico leaf shafts are too thick, same with Groovy Game Gear’s versa 2 shafts — at 10mm diameter.

These Wico microswitch shafts are 8mm in diameter.

[opt2not]

Well, I decided to change my order to the Competition Balltops that TwistedQuarter offers:
http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=190_674

I figure these are familiar in feel, and I know what I'm getting into with these rather than taking the chance on new joysticks I know nothing about.

Also, I plan on doing more pass at the cabinet sides as well, filling and sand a bit more to get the surface to be as smooth as possible.  When using vinyl art, you gotta make sure the surface is without blemishes because that will definitely show through when the vinyl is applied.

In other news, I was able to source a monitor bezel for my K7000, off a facebook member in the Arcade Repair group. He should be sending it out to me any day now, so with this and the rest of the deliveries I'm waiting on, it's looking like it's going to be cutting it really close to my Dec 7th deadline.

Controls and parts should be arriving either Friday or Saturday.  Artwork is probably going to be on Monday/Tuesday.

So that doesn't leave a lot of time to finish things off, which is why I should probably start wiring and getting the power sorted out now. I might even have to get everything hooked up before the artwork arrives, then apply the artwork as the last step. 

[wp34]

That's a good compromise for joysticks if you are not going to go full-Wico.

[Arroyo]

Call me crazy but I thought I remember TMNT and other fight and go rights had Wico leaf sticks?  I don’t remember the microswitch sound or feel

[yotsuya]

Call me crazy but I thought I remember TMNT and other fight and go rights had Wico leaf sticks?  I don’t remember the microswitch sound or feel

They did. I worked on a TMNT for a barcade and it definitely had the original leaf WICOs.

[wp34]

I always felt the Wico leafs were a bit overkill for these types of games. It especially seemed odd for games built in the 90's when everything was going microswitch.

[opt2not]

Yeah there's no way I'm putting 4x $40 Wico leafs in this thing.  Not for a 90's beat-em-up. I'd much rather reserve those Wico's for something like Robotron.

Since this is a conversion it's not completely necessary to get too OCD with the 100% accurate parts list.
 
No carriage bolts, no Wico Leafs...no problem!

[Mike A]

You keep saying "no carriage bolts" just to hurt me.

[yotsuya]

You keep saying "no carriage bolts" just to hurt me.

I no rite!

[opt2not]

Carriage bolts are just lazy...

[Mike A]

Do you really want me to start kicking puppies?

[opt2not]

Kicking puppies aside,  last night I went over the sides again with a thin layer of bondo in areas that had blemishes.

I got some primer that claims to be a 2-in-1 Sanding/Filler and Priming solution:


After sanding the bondo, and applying a single coat to the sides, it came out pretty nice!






There are still a few areas that could get smoothed out more, so I'll do another coat tonight after I do a bit of sanding, but I'm confident this will be in good shape for the side-art application.

I was also able to find a guy on Facebook that had a spare bezel for me:

[Mike A]

That's the stuff I used. It worked out well for me too.

[yotsuya]

Carriage bolts are just lazy...

Maybe so.... but they’re also authentic!

[opt2not]

Snuck out of the Thanksgiving festivities for the small task of installing the CP mounts. 

I didn't want to put any more pressure on the repaired Kick Panel so I built in a cross beam shelf to attach the CP box to.



This works for me.


Happy Thanksgiving all!

[opt2not]

Bad news. My lead on the monitor bezel fell through today. So I’m going to search for another, but in the meantime I plan on building one out of poster board or something. It sucks that some people in this hobby aren’t very reliable.

[opt2not]

Final week!  I'm shooting for Friday to be put on location (aka my living room).  That is, fully functional, lookin' and sounding good.  The wiring isn't going to be completely clean, and the coin doors aren't going to be fully functional, but that's fine, I'll do the best I can but the idea is to have this playable and looking fresh by Friday night.

After being able to peel away from the multiple family gatherings, I was able to make a bunch of progress this weekend, and hit my goal of having the cabinet fully wired with power and running the PCB on the monitor.

Did some spray painting on the CP, Power Block panel, and some bolts for mounting the marquee brackets:

I like painted undersides of a CP, as well as having the joystick holes blackened.  The marquee bracket bolts were rusted to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- , so I threw them into the drill chuck and hit it with some fine grit sandpaper before painting them.

Power block has been rebuilt (and yes, I like my pink screwdriver):

I salvaged the old isolation transformer, and EMI filter as they rarely go bad from my experience, but the fuse blocks were cracked and falling apart so I got new ones.
Originally this PSU block had 4 fuses, 1 for the monitor, 1 for the florence lamp, and 2 for the switching PSU.  I removed the PSU fuses because with newer switcher technology today, overprotection is a lot better handled by the PSU and you don't need that extra fuses mudding up the works.

The wiring in this cabinet was pretty hacked up, but I don't have the time to recreate it from scratch, so I cleaned up the original wiring, repaired/replaced broken connectors and patched some of the frayed wires.  The JAMMA harness also needed updating to support button 3 since TMNT/Simpsons only had Buttons 1 & 2, and the JAMMA loom didn't even have those pins installed:


All installed into the cab, along with the PCB:

The wiring follows the original set-up, along with door switch and main power switch at the top of the cab.
I still got to properly install the Ground Braid, and throw some more tie-downs into the cab for cleaner organization and sturdiness when moving this thing around.

After testing it one last time with my CraftyMech TPG, I plugged in the X-men PCB and voila, it lives!


I did a bit more Convergence and Focus tuning to get it a bit more sharp. I'll probably do one more pass before the party to get the image as crisp as possible, but I'm happy that it's all properly working right now:







FINAL STRETCH!
The 5-day plan this week is as follows:

Tonight - Apply Artwork
Side Art, CPO and Marquee should be arriving this afternoon.  I plan on installing the the Sides and Marquee tonight, along with the T-molding. And yes, I'm going to do it with the CRT and PSU block in the cabinet.  I'm trying to save time here, so I'll make sure everything is fastened down securely when I lay it on it's sides.  While it's laying down I'll install the new leg levelers as well.

Tuesday - Control Panel work
Drill the holes for the buttons. Install the threaded inserts for the joys. Apply artwork, and t-molding. Repair the existing control looms, including the "Alternate Harnesses" for P3 and P4, and get all the temp controls wired up while I wait for the new joysticks and buttons to arrive.  Note: in hindsight I should have paid for quicker shipping from TwistedQuarter.  They use FedEx SmartPost for their default shipping which TAKES FOREVER to arrive.  My order shipped last Tuesday, and won't be here till this Friday -- domestic shipping! 
 

Wednesday - Monitor Plexi and Bezel/Shroud
Since I couldn't find a replacement bezel/shroud to buy from someone, I'm going to cut one out of poster board and use that as a temporary solution until I can get my hands on an original bezel.  I'm going to take queues from Centipede's shroud, since I like the look of it and it doesn't seem to difficult to create:


Also, I looked into plexiglas prices recently and holy smokes! Plexi prices have gone up over the years. For the size I need, I'd have to buy a sheet, and sheets are going for $160+ around these parts. That's too much for me to spend on this right now, and since I have some Novus laying around I'm going to try to buff out the scratches on the original monitor plexi that came with the cab.

Thursday - Coin Door assembly and install
I got all the parts I need for the "facade" of the coin door, but not for functionality. I'm going to have small pushbuttons sitting in the coin return chutes, temporarily, then after the party I'll task myself to finishing off the coin doors to be fully functional.

Friday - Controls Swap, Final touches and Smoke Test
My Twisted Quarter order should be here on Friday, so I'll just do a quick swap to get them onto the completely wired CP.  After testing the controls, I'll then do one last convergence and image tuning. Then, a final wipe down of the cabinet, light polish of the plexi pieces, before letting the game run for a few hours to see how it does for prolonged play. So far I've only run the current power set-up for about an hour, but it really needs a proper smoke test.

If all goes to plan, this should just be "finished" for Saturday's festivities. 

[pbj]

My face when you didn't paint the inside of that cabinet while you had it stripped....

[opt2not]

[pbj]

The first time someone (you) dumps an entire 60/40 rum and coke on it, you'll wish you had painted it. I speak from experience. At least do something to that control panel cross brace.

[opt2not]

I know I know. I too like to seal paint the insides.

I’ll add that task to the post-party list.

[pbj]

You have time tonight to strip it and spray bomb it. It'll be dry by tomorrow.

[opt2not]

Side Art install complete!

Both sides were prepped -- I hit the sides with 400 grit sandpaper to get them as smooth as possible.  Cleaned it off with a clean rag soaked in 1 part Isopropanol and Water:


Unrolled the prints from Szabo, man, this print is amazing.  Great quality print, on fantastic vinyl material that seems a bit thicker than what I've worked with before:




I barely had to massage air bubbles out, the vinyl went on very easy and evenly:


Trimmed and applied to the other side:


Placement could have been better, but I'm satisfied with it. It's difficult with this cabinet, due to what was mentioned before about it being thinner in the middle, so I had to be somewhat creative with placement.

While the cabinet was down, I installed the new leg levelers and plates:


Stood the cabinet up, installed the Marquee and brackets, and placed the CP as a mock-up to see how it's all coming together.  I like!




I decided to hold off on the T-molding till the end. T-molding is a great final treat to truly close off a project.

Tonight will be the CP work! 

[Mike A]

 

[pbj]

You didn't paint the edges of the cabinet black before you put the sticker on?

 

[opt2not]

You didn't paint the edges of the cabinet black before you put the sticker on?

 

Yeah I should have. But again, I have no time. When one is trying to do a full restoration in 3.5 weeks, concessions have to be made.

I tested the t-molding on it and it’s not noticeable. The t-molding is yellow.

[Arroyo]

Looks great Opt, glad to hear the artwork print came out good.  This is breakneck speed, I’m impressed.

[opt2not]

Thanks for the suggestion, Arroyo. 
Szabo's prints are fantastic. The fact that he had the proper 4p cabinet side-art just shows his commitment to authenticity over the rest. I'll definitely use him again for future prints.

Tonight I'm going to tackle the Control Panel. Hopefully I can get it completely wired up and ready for Friday's delivery of the new joysticks and buttons. Looking to do a simple swap then.

This has definitely been a breakneck project. I've been averaging 3am sleep-times every night, trying to squeeze in as many hours as I can after dad duties are complete.  I regularly start working on the cabinet between 10:30pm - 11pm, and peter-out by 3.  Plus, if I need to run power tools, I only have a 30 min window before it gets into 'noise violation' territory at night. Last thing I wanna do is piss off the neighbours being a new resident of the neighbourhood.

[Arroyo]

Last thing I wanna do is piss off the neighbours being a new resident of the neighbourhood.

I’m in the same boat, I get 30-45min a night during the week before I’m in HOA territory.

I almost always wear a respirator when working, and often I’ll open the garage to dump something on the side yard.  I’m surprised the cops haven’t been to my place already as I’m pretty sure it looks like I’m cooking meth.

[Arroyo]

Just on the local CL, apparently you can get $2,500 for that bad boy:

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/vgm/d/napa-men-4-player-arcade-machine/7031317531.html

[opt2not]

Yup, these 4-player beat-em-ups are fetching a decent dollar these days. $2000-3000 for any of the big titles: Simpsons, TMNT (1 or TiT), X-men. 

Surprised to see an X-men on the market, they're usually rarer these days.  I've seen plenty of Simpsons and TMNT's though.

[opt2not]

So the arcade gods smote me yesterday trying to find threaded inserts at my local hardware stores. I went to 3 Home Depots, and 1 Lowes and couldn't find enough for all 4 joysticks. Threaded Inserts seem to only be sold in 2's! what the hell??  I was able to find some big ones, but I couldn't get enough of the size of screw I need for the joysticks.   
So after being denied from these hardware stores I conceded to having carriage bolts visible from the top of the CP.   I'm convinced Yots and Mike did some kind of voodoo hex on me. 

Well, it's happening:


I drilled out the button holes too. Didn't take a photo of it, but I'm sure everyone here knows what drilled holes look like. Then I proceeded to do another smoothing pass on the CP, then again cleaned-up with my 1-part Isopropanol + 1-part water rag and installed the art:




I only had one slip of my forsner bit on Player 4's Jump button, which resulted in slightly closer button spacing:

The buttons still fit, along with the nuts, but it's just a bit more cramped.  Oh well, one day I'll get a drill press and do these things a bit more meticulously. For now this'll have to do.

I didn't get to complete the wiring last night, which I'm kicking myself for. By around 2am I started to really slow down...after this many consecutive late nights it was bound to catch up to me.

Anyway, I started on the clean-up and repair of the "sub harnesses" for Player 3 and 4:

They're in decent shape, just a couple wires were torn and frayed. I cleaned them up and repaired the ripped wires, then added Button-3 pins to the connectors.  Tonight I'll have to get the rest of the wiring done using the old joys and buttons, then take on buffing out the scratches from the monitor plexi, and building the shroud out of poster board.

Side note, digging through my stash, I didn't realize I have a bag of Cherry switches laying around. I do tend to keep things when I do these restores, so I guess they just accumulated over the years. These will come in handy:

[yotsuya]

So the arcade gods smote me yesterday trying to find threaded inserts at my local hardware stores. I went to 3 Home Depots, and 1 Lowes and couldn't find enough for all 4 joysticks. Threaded Inserts seem to only be sold in 2's! what the hell??  I was able to find some big ones, but I couldn't get enough of the size of screw I need for the joysticks.   

So after being denied from these hardware stores I conceded to having carriage bolts visible from the top of the CP.   I'm convinced Yots and Mike did some kind of voodoo hex on me. 

Yaaaaaaaaaassssssssss.....

[Mike A]

---fudgesicle--- yeah.