Started my first cabinet! (Leaf swicth question) (8 pictures)

[Locut0s]

 I just picked up my first cabinet the other day from a guy in town for $100 CND!

This is the guy, Greg, that GGKoul pointed out to me. Thanks GGKoul!

As you can see from the pics bellow this is your typical nondescript 80s style cabinet, kind of ugly in some ways but fine for what I want to do. This was originally for some game called "Crime City" it still has the marque in it in good condition! I intend to turn this into my first MAME cabinet. It had already been gutted of most of its contents, such as the circuit boards and monitor however the case itself was still very sound, aside from some minor damage here and there. It did however still have its power supply, a ton of wiring, marque lighting, and even a speaker. Well I gutted the power supply and most of the wiring, except for the wiring harness connected to the console. I kept the lighting and speaker in case I decide to wire them up at some time in the future though I do not know how to at this point. Then it was time for a vigorous dusting and washing, this thing had a THICK layer of dust inside. Anyway after a thorough cleaning things are starting to look kind of neat As you can see the console already has 2 joysticks and 12 buttons. It seems whoever owned it last also added to small rather strange buttons on the side, I might use them for coin1 and coin2. Also it seems the last owner did some jerry rigged wiring as there is some really bad wiring here. I've never soldered much in my life and even I can tell this has been poorly done, anyway only a few really need to be redone. I'm talking about the previous owner of the cabinet, not the guy I bought it from, he's a real pro at restoring cabinets! Now I'm just waiting for two buttons and an I-PAC to arrive in the mail. I wonder how I'm going to be able to drill through that metal control panel plat? Oh and I have to save up some money for the computer to go in it

Oh and I also noticed that 11 of the 12 buttons are leaf switches! the 12th one looks like it is also a leaf switch but maybe it was broken at some time because someone has hooked up a mircoswitch to the leafswicth mechanism to pressing the button actually activates a microswicth. I was wondering, if I find that these buttons are all in good working order, which they might not be, how much do leaf switches go for, if anything? If they are worth something, even used, I might sell them and replace all of them with new switches. Yes I know many prefer leaf switches, but I'm not particular and it would be nice to get a set of all new buttons.

So what do you think, good deal or not?

(Images of the cabinet before it was cleaned up)

[GGKoul]

I just picked up my first cabinet the other day from a guy in town for $100 CND!

This is the guy, Greg, that GGKoul pointed out to me. Thanks GGKoul!

Np... let the fun begin!

[Tailgunner]

What you'd get for them wouldn't cover the cost of replacing them with microswitch buttons. You could however just replace the buttons and reuse the leaf switches and their holders. I'd replace the 12th button with another leafswitch and holder they're all the same though.

[Locut0s]

Thanks GGKoul I will indeed have fun

What you'd get for them wouldn't cover the cost of replacing them with microswitch buttons. You could however just replace the buttons and reuse the leaf switches and their holders. I'd replace the 12th button with another leafswitch and holder they're all the same though.

Yeah I thought as much, just checking. I'm going to play it by ear and see how things go. If all the buttons are in working order and I like the feel of it I'll probably leave it as is. If not I might replace them.

Oh and just for the heck of it here's a link to what the original cabinet must have looked like playing the game:

http://caesar.logiqx.com/html/games/crimec.shtml#crimec

And here's the game itself on Mame:

http://caesar.logiqx.com/html/emus/multi/mame/crimec.shtml

Looking at those screen shots I wonder if someone has modified the control panel at one time or another by adding extra buttons to bring the total to 12. Looks like the original game only used 2 or 3 buttons. That would fit with the 2 small buttons added to the side and the fact that the right joystick is a ball type while the left one is a bat style.

[Thenasty]

they probably pu some sort of a street fighter type game in there. Looking at your pics, I don't see the 12th button, its all leaft switch, did you replace it before taking a snap ?

[Locut0s]

they probably pu some sort of a street fighter type game in there. Looking at your pics, I don't see the 12th button, its all leaft switch, did you replace it before taking a snap ?

You're probably right about someone atempting to turn it into a SF cab at some point. I didn't have any good shots of the button in question above. Here is a closeup of the button I'm talking about, it's the one in the very foreground. As you can see they've mounted a micro switch sideways and modified the leaf switch so that pressing the button causes the metal arm of the leaf switch to depress the actuator on the micro switch. Kind of a jerry rigged set up. You can also see some of the bad wiring here.

[daywane]

stay with leafs. If you wanted to go to switches your button holes are not the right size. Micro switch button holes I have found out to be larger. I wanted to see the leaf turned into a switch I have not seen this.
Oops the pic did not load for me the first time. Hmm a new hack to me.
leafs can be a bit expensive if you do not shop around. I needed 4 leafs for my Tron stick and every place wanted $8.00 each. I thought that was WAY to much. I found a bag full on ebay for $4.00 . I was able to replace all my leafs on Mspac and fix my Tron stick and have about 6 left over.
also do not try to clean your switches with sand paper. I use a crisp dollar bill
put the dollar between the contacts , push the button and pull the dollar out. do this a few times and you should be fine.

[Locut0s]

stay with leafs. If you wanted to go to switches your button holes are not the right size. Micro switch button holes I have found out to be larger. I wanted to see the leaf turned into a switch I have not seen this.
Oops the pic did not load for me the first time. Hmm a new hack to me.
leafs can be a bit expensive if you do not shop around. I needed 4 leafs for my Tron stick and every place wanted $8.00 each. I thought that was WAY to much. I found a bag full on ebay for $4.00 . I was able to replace all my leafs on Mspac and fix my Tron stick and have about 6 left over.
also do not try to clean your switches with sand paper. I use a crisp dollar bill
put the dollar between the contacts , push the button and pull the dollar out. do this a few times and you should be fine.

Thanks for the heads up on the socket size being different between leaf and micro switches. And also the tip about cleaning the contatcs.

I haven't entirely made up my mind if I'm even going to keep this control panel at all. I've been thinking more and more the past few days of junking the entire control panel and building a custome one from wood, this one is metal. Not only would I get all new controls but I could customize the layout, number of buttons, and paint/(graphics art). I'll have to see how things go once I get the IPAC in the mail. I'll jook it up to the current controls and do a couple of test plays on my fathers laptop and see how things go.