The allure of the free cabinet

[SCT74]

Long time reader, first time poster
First off, this community is amazing, I always find myself back here researching and reading.

So, a friend of mine has given me his Mortal Kombat cabinet because it didnt suit the decor of his new house .. so I said sure, ill give it a revamp and a new home.
The allure of free stuff, it always seems like a good idea at the time.  This thing weighs a ton.  I pretty much powered it up to see what this thing is like and it probally hasnt had any effort put into it in 15 years

I've been doing a ton of reading and a ton of testing but would like advice on the best way to give this a birthday.

It has a Toshiba 9509 CRT
Some garbage old PC in it, onboard video, PS2 keyboard and mouse 
and a ton of circuits I havent had a change to pull apart yet
 
He seems to have spliced a VGA cable onto existing cables (badly I might add)
Running winxp

So the setup basically works, its clunky and ugly

I have a few rPI's and tried to decipher the world of groovymame as crt+groovy+rpi would be ideal as a starting point.  I couldnt get this going and think I need additional hardware
It seems to want additional hardware for MiSTER FPGA, im not really understanding this and need to research more

So I'm thinking
Grab a newer pc than whats in it
Run XP+groovymame to get the crt res
Rewire this PS2 keyboard nightmare somehow
Replace the marquee at the top because it freaks me out somewhat
Replace the speakers because they sound garbage
Im not sure what the giant holes are drilled in the front are for, maybe a light gun holder or some such

Any thoughts of comments would be appreciated.  Attached are some pictures, I would love some feedback
Thanks again

[Fursphere]

CRT is worth more than everything else combined.   

You're going to need a video card cable or driving that CRT, lots of them are 15hz, but I really don't know about the specific one you have.  You'll have to find the specs on it.  (might be on the CRT itself)

Once you figure out how to 'drive' the CRT with a more modern PC, build the PC around that.  I'd probably rewire the whole control panel myself with an Ultimarc IPac or something too.   

Then again, if what you have WORKS, just play it.  When you find some game that you absolutely have to play that won't work on it, then work on an upgrade.   (Like modern Teknoparrot Arcade PC based stuff or something)

[SCT74]

Thanks for the reply, its appreciated.

Excellent suggestion on the IPac, this will be first off the list.
I have given it a go just to see what has been setup, its ok but I usually spend more time upgrading and building than I do playing 

The PC itself isnt anything special, onboard video  NVIDIAŽ MCP61 (P/S/V) (6150SE)

Now the fun really begins

[ericball]

I'm with Fursphere - just use it if it's functional.  You'll discover what you like, love, dislike, hate, want & wish about it.  Then you can start to plan what you want to do.  Spend time & brainpower before you spend $$.  (i.e. why spend $$ on an iPac if the current controller works?)

As Fursphere mentioned, that CRT is a little bit of an unknown.  A simple test might be to plug in another PC/laptop via VGA to see whether works.

Also, before replacing the PC, set up the replacement and get the software running the way you want.  That way you can still play games during that time.

[nitrogen_widget]

check out the bit kit?
https://craftymech.com/bitkit-arcade-fpga/

it will hook up directly to the monitor.
not all the games though.

[jtslade]

Can definitely attest to the "How many games does your mame cab have?"

Me "like 6000 or so"

"OK so how many do you play"

Me "Besides TMNT, like 15"

BTW been a minute since I posted.. lol

[delta88]

Aww man!  A keyboard hack!?1  I love it. thats a real classic right there.

[SCT74]

Yea, the ol keyboard hack ... hardcore PS2 goodness right there.

So threw that away and whacked in an iPac
Found some buttons online, but they were way to big 100mm, found some 60mm
Drilled a few test holes as the existing one was a bit too small.  Left it for a day or so, grabbed the wrong drill and cut a hole, way to big 
So patched that back up, redrilled the correct size and painted.

Rewired the power and the VGA connector, did it properly.  Wired it all up, turned the power on and a massive flash happened.
Turned everything off and walked away, right away.  Came back and replaced the broken fuse and fixed my mistake 
Replaced the Marquee with a different print .. its ok, gotta stop focussing on the small stuff.

Anyway, fixed as much as I can be bothered at the moment, been a good experience to make things way harder than they should be.  Here's a few pics

[Zebidee]

I restored a couple of MK cabs about 15 years ago - I recall the control panels are a PITA to work on because you have to unscrew it to get underneath.

On the other hand, the MK control panels are very cheap and easy to replace as they are just a rectangle of steel with holes.

So yes, I've replaced the control panels before and have some matching art somewhere, I can probably find the digital files if you are interested.

I'm also pretty sure I have a spare and untouched "new" Ultimate Mortal Kombat marquee, printed specifically for backlighting, looks pretty cool when lit up. Interested? A matching marquee would make this cab pop.