Midway Arcade Cabinet by Big Electronic Games

[jbserra]

So I adopted one of these and was going to replace the monitor but while I was testing it out i pressed the reset button.
once you do that the unit stops working then at a random time minutes or hours later it will start working...

any thoughts?

Has anymore made a ribbon cable to jamma adapter for this?
it seems to be a ton of the still out there lol

Keith

I haven't done it, but the buttons would be pretty easy.  You might have to add a couple for coin, etc.  You might have to swap the monitor if you're going to use VGA, though.  The "monitor" only has RCA inputs.

[livingonwheels]

I'm now also having that issue where the board won't startup all the time and it takes multiple power cycles to boot.
I've read earlier that replacing C2 (10uf @ 10v) on the board fixed that.
Where is this board located in this machine? Is it in the plastic box that also hold the cartridge? Or is it that green board located under the joysticks?
Pictures from RetroBlast:

[jbserra]

I'm now also having that issue where the board won't startup all the time and it takes multiple power cycles to boot.
I've read earlier that replacing C2 (10uf @ 10v) on the board fixed that.
Where is this board located in this machine? Is it in the plastic box that also hold the cartridge? Or is it that green board located under the joysticks?
Pictures from RetroBlast:

The circuit board is in the "cartridge" which is the top part of that picture above the blue tv.

[livingonwheels]

Has anyone here successfully removed that cartridge in the Midway machine? Doesn't seem to remove from the front of cabinet, so I removed the 4 screws holding it in from the rear of the cab (as shown in the reply above mine). Pulls out perhaps a 1/8 inch, can't get it to budge any further. If I pull any harder I feel I might break it right through the backboard. The front of the cartridge is preventing me from pulling it out from the back due to two "latches" holding it in from the front. Seems like it should just pull out from the front (to insert another cartridge, implied by the "series 1" marking on the cart), obviously no other cartridges were made though. Should I just keep pulling from the front or rear until it comes loose? Could it be inserted that tightly? I wonder if it's actually glued in due to Big Games knowing there would be a further cartridges.
I was encountering  that issue that other owners have had in this topic of having to turn the cabinet on/off a couple times until it successfully booted (you would just hear a buzzing and a non-image on the screen). Was going to replace the C2 as discussed earlier in this thread. But about a year or so ago I just wiggled the cartridge, from the front of the machine, and have had no issues the entire year until yesterday. I figured the cartridge slots might need cleaning, the reason I'd like to pull it out.

[jbserra]

Has anyone here successfully removed that cartridge in the Midway machine? Doesn't seem to remove from the front of cabinet, so I removed the 4 screws holding it in from the rear of the cab (as shown in the reply above mine). Pulls out perhaps a 1/8 inch, can't get it to budge any further. If I pull any harder I feel I might break it right through the backboard. The front of the cartridge is preventing me from pulling it out from the back due to two "latches" holding it in from the front. Seems like it should just pull out from the front (to insert another cartridge, implied by the "series 1" marking on the cart), obviously no other cartridges were made though. Should I just keep pulling from the front or rear until it comes loose? Could it be inserted that tightly? I wonder if it's actually glued in due to Big Games knowing there would be a further cartridges.
I was encountering  that issue that other owners have had in this topic of having to turn the cabinet on/off a couple times until it successfully booted (you would just hear a buzzing and a non-image on the screen). Was going to replace the C2 as discussed earlier in this thread. But about a year or so ago I just wiggled the cartridge, from the front of the machine, and have had no issues the entire year until yesterday. I figured the cartridge slots might need cleaning, the reason I'd like to pull it out.

The cartridge does NOT pull out.  It is not removable or replaceable without taking it out and taking it apart.  You have to detach it from the back and then it's in an outer shell that has to be unscrewed.  Inside the case it's the "cartridge" with RCAs for AV, a flat ribbon connection to the control panel, and power.  I also feel like there was a clip that held it in place too, but I have mine out because I replaced the bezel.  Hopefully some pictures will help.

The only "cartridge slot" is the ribbon cable/connector for the control panel.  Not sure that would affect boot up.

[livingonwheels]

For anyone still following this topic, I had made up for me new light-up marquees for both my Konami and Midway cabs. Here's a couple pictures, believe it or not they are lit up in these photos'. They look absolutely gorgeous:

https://postimg.cc/G4b7pQGs
https://postimg.cc/K4LJrV5M

[jbserra]

Those look great!  Do you have the steps/artwork you took to create those?

[livingonwheels]

Those look great!  Do you have the steps/artwork you took to create those?

Angel from "This Ability Upgrades" did these marquees for me. They came to around $70 each (which included the marquee, lightbar, hardware, and shipping). I had sent him my original Big Games marquees from my cabinets so he could make a perfect match. He has my files on record, so if you do decide to have him make them for you, you won't need to send your originals obviously. There are power strips inside these cabinets, so you'll plug them straight into the machine itself, which is great (the cabinets powers the marquees). One of the cabinets has it's power strip enclosed, so to make it easier for yourself, you can just use an outlet adapter (or small extension cord) to divide the single exposed outlet into two. If I remember correctly, I also drilled a small hole to run the marquee's light cords under the cabinet's marquee "base" in the rear of the cabinet. But I'm a perfectionist and you could just use a knife and cut a small upside down "V" on the base to run the cord. Also I preferred to make my own holes in the sides of the marquees during installation. The holes he made didn't line up as closely as I would have preferred. But it's just soft plastic so you can make those holes easily with anything, even a pointy Philipps screwdriver. Because the cabinets were not made with a lightbar in mind, I used black contact paper to block all areas where you will have "light bleed", but electrical tape would probably do just as well. I used the contact paper from the inside of the cabinet, not the outside (so it won't be noticeable). Once you turn off your room lights, and turn the cabinets on, you will see exactly where you need to apply the tape. It took me a few tries to get the correct position for the contact paper, for you need to be exact so you don't block any light from the marquee. It's around 20" from the rear of the cabinet to the marquee itself so you really have to reach. I placed the lightbar 4" from the marquee, on the top. If you decide to get this done, and you need help, just let me know and I'll post pictures of my installation, for I know some of what I'm trying to explain might sound confusing, but really it was quite easy.  He prefers to communicate via text so I'll PM you his number.

[daphillenium]

I WILL RESURRECT THIS THREAD.....lol. The warning on here is funny: "Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic." Aw heck no. We gotta keep this thing going!

Okay, so yeah, I found one of these machines for $50 on marketplace a while back. Guy said one of the movements on joystick was spotty. My kids and I haven't had that issue. We did have one of the P1 Fire buttons (the jump on rampage) not working great, but i wiggled the wires underneath and got it going again. My 5 year old loves it.

Well, I decided to start modding it. I bought A little HDMI to VGA adapter on amazon and tested it out the other day. I had a little NUC mini-PC i scrounged off amazon with some old bday gift cards for around $160. It's actually pretty decent. Using launchbox and emulators, I'm able to emulate up to PS2 so far with it. Well, we got that hooked up and tested it out. It works great. I've attached pictures. We tested out all kinds of games. TMNT, Tekken, gradius. I don't have controls hooked up yet. We just used xbox controllers to test out the audio/video and frontend stuff.

Next step now is to get the controls working with the PC. I'm going to buy two little usb encoders for PC on amazon here soon and wire em up.

However, the plan is to not lose original functionality of the cabinet. So, what I'm planning on doing, is cutting the wires from the controls to the board they attach to. Then, reconnect the wires but on the connection point, have it also connected to a new wire which I'll run to a spot on the USB encoder I'm going to buy. That way, when I'm switched over to the PC mode, the joysticks and buttons will work with my mini PC. But, if I ever want to discontinue the project or reclaim the PC for something else, the original cabinet and its board and everything will still work.

I thought about copying some of your methods here and replacing the small tv. But honestly, it's not bad. TMNT and gradius and even tekken and soul calibur look fine on it. So, Ill keep the lil 13" incher in there.

Anyway, here's to keeping this thing going!