The Search is on: Color XY Monitor Wanted

[RetroJames]

I am starting my search for a (preferably working) Color XY Monitor for a
Vector Mame cabinet.   Any leads or suggestions you can throw my way would
be appreciated.

[HaRuMaN]

Good luck with that!   

[KSKID]

i am actually starting to gather pieces for a vector mame also, maybe we can kind of help each other out. what i already have include the WG 6100 color xy monitor, space duel wiring harness, space duel power supply, space duel control panel and marquee., what i need to do is purchase the Zecktor Vector Generator, find a  fast enough PC and build me a cabinet to the same size/dimensions of a real Space Duel, Gravitar, Black Widow Cabinet, so i am looking currently for the measurements for this cabinet.

[ChadTower]

Heh... I actually am planning on the same thing, and have everything but the ZVG. 

[RetroJames]

I have the ZVG need monitor....

KSKID and ChadTower - If you don't mind me asking, hw much did you pay for the monitor?

Have you done any repairs? Upgrades?

[ChadTower]

The monitor came as part of a working Space Duel, and is still part of a working Space Duel.  I believe I paid $660 for the cabinet, a star wars yoke, and a bunch of misc populated panels with good leaf switch parts.  That was a delivered price.

[DarkKobold]

The sad thing is, Vector monitors are worth their weight in gold. For example - A Tempest cabinet with a working monitor on Ebay sold for around 500 in my area. Someone posted a working vector monitor on Ebay that sold for ~400 dollars. The monitor is 90% the worth of a machine. Until someone makes a sub $300 replacement vector monitor (read never), We are going to watch the values keep climbing.
Paige said it best, parting vector games to fix other games is a reduntant cycle of destruction. One cabinet saved for another dead. For each vector mame created, techinically it is one more cabinet that can't be restored. Now I'm not going to be like OMG D0NT DO IT CUZ YOU BE DESTROYING ANOTHER CABIZNET. Just an interesting perspective on the issue.

[ChadTower]

Well, I'm not going to destroy mine, I'm simply going to make reversible alterations so that I can swap panels.  that's pretty much the only change I'm going to be making that's not simply swapping the board for a PC.

[XtraSmiley]

As the owner of a played under 2500 times, home owned, excellent condition Gravitar, might I make a suggestion?

Check out what a black and white vector game looks like first.  The color vectors are nice (my Gravitar is my BABY), but the display on Asteroids is ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- hot.

Now I realize for a Vector MAME, color maybe what you are shoot for, but that b/w screen looks so much sharper.

Good luck guys.  Some time down the road I'm planing on getting a VectorMAME myself, although if funds allow it, actually two of them, a color and b/w.

[gnateye]

ive seen afew of these on ebay in last couple of days....

[RetroJames]

ive seen afew of these on ebay in last couple of days....

There was a b&w that ended yesterday, no others recently though.  (well there was a color that went for around $360 a week or two ago.)

[KSKID]

i agree that the B&W vector monitors display at a higher resolution than the Color XY"s this is all disclosed on the Zekctor web site., but why on earth why would you take a game like Tempest, or Space Duel and play it on a black and white monitor??, you might save maybe perhaps $100.00 to $150.00 on the overall project cost by going with a black and white monitor but in the end your not totally going to be satisified with the graphics on some of the color vector games.

To be quite hones the only true way to make a mame vector is to have one with two monitors, a black and white and a color or two entirely different cabinets, its really hit and miss with a mame vector, then youhave to worry about Veritcal Vs. Horizontal Orientation not to mention all the different control panel configurations, like Star Wars, etc.

to be realistic, for persons doing this project you should sit down and really come up with what you want to achieve with such a project come up with the games you want to absolutely play, and then come up with a game plan to come up with a control panel layout that will work for all the games on your list without having to swap around so much stuff.

the zecktor card is great,  and it will allow you to play all the vector games, BUT not without pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to make the controls all work to pull it off., and if you dont do a good job witht the controls, then you have lost the battle....since it will not be fun to play or wont be like the real arcade game.

some of the games to me that would require a complete totally different control panel would be the Empire Strikes Back/Star Wars and then Lunar Lander. (whens the last time you seen a lunar lander control panel up for sale to rob parts from for a mame project/??)

it has its challanges but without making a completely huge ungodly looking control panel even if you were to play all atari vector games only there is NO WAY you could make a single control panel to play all the individual games, its definately going to be a chore to come up control panel.

i guess we all need to brain storm this (for those of you who are interestedin doing this project)

[KSKID]

Well, I'm not going to destroy mine, I'm simply going to make reversible alterations so that I can swap panels.  that's pretty much the only change I'm going to be making that's not simply swapping the board for a PC.

Chad would you mind getting me some measurements off your space duel cabinet?, if you just give me the dimensions of the sides i think i can pretty much come up with the rest that goes in between.

thanks

[KSKID]

I have the ZVG need monitor....

KSKID and ChadTower - If you don't mind me asking, hw much did you pay for the monitor?

Have you done any repairs? Upgrades?

i have been arcade collecting for 6 years or so, and i have accumulated quite a few parts over this time frame, the monitor i have for the project was in on a deal with some other vector stuff, i had to do some work to it, but up front i probably wasnt into the monitor more than 50 or 60.00, i bought a working black and white vector monitor here a couple months ago for 100.00 as you can tell i dont shop on ebay..

[ChadTower]

Chad would you mind getting me some measurements off your space duel cabinet?, if you just give me the dimensions of the sides i think i can pretty much come up with the rest that goes in between.

Tell me what you need and I'll get it.

[ericball]

For a summary of vector game requirements, see:
Vector Game Monitor & Controls list

[KSKID]

For a summary of vector game requirements, see:
Vector Game Monitor & Controls list

thanks for the link that is very helpful info, better than piecing together your own list off the KLOV.

[rchadd]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3945&item=6150688016

[RetroJames]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3945&item=6150688016

Looks like a good one, new tube and all, but shipping would sting if it even made it to the US alive

[KSKID]

just wondering if anyone attempting this project has even put together a control panel yet, if so was wondering if you could post some photos.

thanks

[ChadTower]

My plans revolve around swappable panels... not MODULAR, I'm going to make them swappable with ease.  There are really only 6-8 different panels you need to play nearly all vector games.

[RetroJames]

I am still sketching designs, but I think they can be covered in 3 panels with an additional modular yoke that would attach to one of the panels.

[ChadTower]

I had thought about that... not my style, though, I'd rather just have a bunch of panels with layouts as close to the original games as possible.  I tend to play games for quite a while, I'm not the type who would switch from game to game every few minutes.

[KSKID]

i thought about taking my space duel control panel to metal fab shop and have about 4 or 5 more blanks made, i do believe you would need at least 3 or 4 seperate panels to pull it off.

[ChadTower]

That's not cost effective or good design.  You can't easily swap the regular Space Duel panel, nor is the Space Duel panel suitable for all control layouts.  I'm likely going to put some rails and such inside the cab similar to Doc's modular panel design, but altered enough that it's appropriate for whole panels.  The key is to be able to swap panels without opening up the cab.  It's not like this is going on location and you have to be wary of vandalism or cash inside.

[KSKID]

That's not cost effective or good design.

[ChadTower]

I don't argue with any of that, but the original CP design was not built to be swapped on a regular basis, nevermind to be swapped constantly.  It wouldn't last, it would be a total PIA, and you'd have to have all those CPs built but each would have a different hole pattern in it.

You could easily build plywood panels that lay in nicely and don't appear unnatural at all.  I'm probably going to do custom artwork for each as well, including each appropriate game somehow into the CP overlay.

[KSKID]

where is the in depth info on Doc's modular panel, i guess perhaps i dont know exactly what you were talking about when you mentioned this.

[ChadTower]

http://www.beersmith.com/mame/

[RetroJames]

one thing I am wrestling with in the design phase is the monitor.  A couple games need underlays, (Omega Race, Asteroids Deluxe, Warrior) while others need overlays (Armor Attack, Star Castle).  In order to be able to do both, you really need to mount the monitor down low and use a reflective glass to project the images as you would in an Omega Race cabinet.

Also, I think you have to have a rotating monitor. 

Thoughts?

[ChadTower]

I think the rotating monitor is a bad idea, given the fragility of a vector monitor.  You'd just have some black letterboxing, and since the 90% of the monitor is dead black, it shouldn't be a problem.

As for the overlays/underlays... I don't know that that is much of a real issue either, since they're just artwork, not critical to gameplay.

[RetroJames]

I think the rotating monitor is a bad idea, given the fragility of a vector monitor.

[ChadTower]

Right... I'm not familiar with either of those games and KLOV's images aren't serving.  That's really where it comes down to the usual "what games are you going to play most" and "how much of your design do you want to dedicate to the most demanding possible game".

[RetroJames]

 Warrior Pics:

[ChadTower]

There's no practical way to do that, given that they're physical overlays.  My best solution, for myself, would probably be to leave those to a raster MAME cab (that can simulate overlays) and do the rest on the VectorMAME.

[RetroJames]

There's no practical way to do that, given that they're physical overlays.

[RayB]

IDEA:
Create a series of overlays on clear acetate, have them connected end to end... Then you have 2 rollers. The idea is that you motorize the rollers such that they move the overlays until the correct one is in place. (Think conveyor belt). It would likely have to be done by hand so it's positioning is perfect.

[ericball]

The only vector games which require an overlay are Armor Attack and Warrior.

[RetroJames]

Ok, check this out.

[RetroJames]

Another pic of the same concept