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Dave_K.'s Japanese Shooter cab (pics inside)

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Dave_K.:
Let me start by saying I was never really interested in Japanese sit-at style cabs until 2 years ago when I saw one at a local Super Auction.  It was a blue fiberglass cab with huge 29" screen turned vertical and setup with a dual PacMan, Galaga jamma setup.  At the top of the cab was a lighted "Namco" sign.  Unfortunally I arrived at the auction too late, as the cab was already sold.  Afterwards I searched google and found out it was a Namco 29" Exceleena Blue. 

http://www.highway.net.au/parts/machine/1807.html

It was maybe a month later when I found out a BYOAC member (MadSmurf) finished a mame project with a japanese sit-at cab, and it too was an Exceleena Blue cab.  Man what a beauty!

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/madsmurf/es2a.htm

From that point on I was determined to find me an Exceleena Blue.  Turns out, they are kinda rare, and the only place I could find them was coinop express, and the austrailian website above.  I even emailed MadSmurf asking if I could buy his cab (nope he said it cost way to much).  Coinop express had it listed for $558 for the cab only (without monitor) and it would cost another $800 or so for shipping and taxes and crap.  Man was I depressed.

Ok, now fast forward to September of this year, just on a fluke I typed "Namco 29" in ebay, and an Exceleena Blue came up!  I did an immediate "buynow" at $450, and paid an additional $150 for shipping.  I was so excited I was finally getting one (and in nice condition too from the description).  A couple days after sending payment, the guys ebay account got suspended because of some transaction over german watches.  Oh man what did I get myself into I thought.  To make a long story short, the seller was a huge flake, and has a load of "bad trader" msgs on usenet (I didn't know his email/name until AFTER I bought it!).  It took many emails and eventually a long phone call to get him to ship it to me a full month AFTER he received my payment.  What I eventually got was a poorly packaged cab with fibgerglass sides mearly taped to the frame, and strapped to a plastic pallet with NO protection around the cab at all!  By some miracle, the cab did not get smashed to bits (must have been the oversided plastic pallet that kept other packages away from it).  I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I finally got it into my garage.

I completely disassembled it, and cleaned all sorts of crap out of the metal frame (including leaves!?) .  The fiberglass was in pretty good shape but had lots of glue residue left over from the rounds of clear packing tape used to secure the body to the frame.   Thankfully I found a plastic bag inside with all the bolts need to secure the fiberglass body to the frame (like it should have been before shipped!).   The marquee holder (on the top) was bent like a horseshoe probably from the guy using it as a handle to tip onto its back wheels.   There were also a couple miner cracks in the fiberglass, but nothing a little adhesive cauk couldn't fix.

Coming up next, all my mods, and finally some pics.  Sorry I didn't have a digital camera before so I don't have any before shots...I had to borrow a camera just to take these completed pics.

Dave_K.:
After hooking up my Dreamcast to the monitor at 15khz, I found a strange vertical ripple running through the picture.  Great I though, the guy wrote in the ebay auction that the monitor was a perfect 10!...what a load.  Another annoying thing I noticed was sitting this close to a huge rotated monitor at 15khz ment looking at a lot of ugly flickering scan lines.  Its definately not as noticeable when the monitor is oriented horizontally.  Around this time I read Kevin's review on the Betson 27" monitor and decided I'd get one (especially since the Betson West location was only 50 minutes from my home).   ;D

You all can read the problems/issues we discovered with these monitors in the monitor forum.  But after going back up and talking to the tech, I decided to stick with the monitor, and was able to get it calibrated to a playable condition, and am actually very happy with it now.    One thing I did have to do was transplant the tube and PCB into the original rotating chasis/frame.  Thankfully I was able to secure the PCB onto the frame with the help of a couple oversized washers. 

Next up was replacing the Seimitsu LS-40 joysticks and buttons.  The left joystick was pretty worn and the right one looked brand new.  I don't mind the sticks, but they felt kinda weak, and looked cheezy.  The buttons were an odd combination of yellow and red with some that made no click when you press them, and other that did.  Very strange.  I believe they are Seimitsu buttons as well as they do not have sanwa written on them.  I'll take a closer picture of the buttons later, so if anyone wants japaense style buttons that click when you press them, they should look into getting these.

I replaced the joystick and buttons with new Sanwa parts.  A pair of JLF-TP-8Y sticks and standard Sanwa buttons.  These are the very light feeling buttons that make no click at all.  It takes a bit to get used to, but I think is a neccesity if playing shooter style games as you don't want your fingers to get tired constantly hitting the fire button.  Another nice little hack was securing the JLF-TP-8Y sticks to the original LS-40 mounting plate.  My only options were to buy new mounting plates or drill holes in the LS-40 plates.  I figured out that 4 other holes (not the original mounting holes) on the JLF-TP-8Y sticks *almost* lined up with the LS-40 standard holes.  I then got the idea to take small zip-ties and run them through the holes to secure the stick at the 4 corners.  It worked like a charm!

Since the original monitor was gone, I had no need for the japanese 100W power supply.  That also ment taking out the ajoining stereo sound board.  I then hooked a powerstrip up to the mains just after the AC ripple/noise filter, and use a RadioShack SA-155 amp to power the 8ohm speakers.

After wiring up the sticks/buttons to a standard 15 pin molex connector, I was in business.  The cab can now play any of my consoles (Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox) in either 15khz or 31khz, and I can also play Mame via my laptop (although currently only at 31-38khz).  And let me tell you, playing Dreamcast shooters (Ikaruga, Psyvariar 2, Shikigami Noshiro 2) at hires is a sight to be seen.  This is the way true Naomi games are ment to be played at 31khz.

Dave_K.:
A closer look at the panel.  At first I wasn't sure about the green stick and buttons in a blue cab, but now like the way it looks.  It actually matches the color in the 100 Yen sticker on the right.  ;D

Built in cup holders are a bonus.

Dave_K.:
A closer look at the monitor.  Notice the two metal handles used for manual rotation.  Its a heavy monitor, and a pain to rotate, but I can actually do it myself.  There is a long bolt in the back of the monitor frame that goes into a groove in the back of the cab.  All you do is lift slightly and pull, then turn while it pivoits in the groove.  The frame originally was built to rotate clockwise only (from the horizontal position), but since that was the wrong way for Ikaruga, I took the frame apart and put it back together in reverse so it would turn the other way.  Its now a little clumsy turning since I couldn't reverse the hand-holds, so my arms kind of cross when doing it.  ;D

Dave_K.:
A close up at the CP wiring.   So pretty  ;D. Those are a pair of hacked Dreamcast Madcatz pads.  Notice the orange zip-ties that secure the Sanwa sticks to the LS-40 mounting plates...sure beats drilling new holes!

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