Figured I'd finally post some pics of my project to be... bought controls a few years back for a MAME cabinet but didn't get around to getting the cabinet built. Bought a house, had some kids, and I'm
finally getting around to the MAME cabinet. With kids in the house and my not being power tool inclined (she owns all the power tools), I figured that it'd be easier/quicker for me to buy a cab and modify it rather than building a cab from scratch.
Managed to find a whopping
two arcades on the island here, both of which were stocked with nothing but Dynamo cabs, and even then they'd want several hundred for an empty one of those.
One of the owners said he had a sweet looking Gauntlet Legends cab in his warehouse which'd basically sat there for the better part of its life. He said that he had regular problems with the monitor not working and so the game never saw much rotation at all.
A few calls later, I'd managed to convince him to sell me the cab. Yay! Ended up being more than I originally wanted to pay, but he'd include everything except the dead monitor and PCB, and he'd deliver it to my door and help me get it set up in the house. Ok, now I was sold; it'd save me from having to buy a bunch of extra bits that I'd want to put into a skeletal cabinet, and delivery to my door would save me from having to rent a truck to go pick it up.
Delivery was a cinch; he drove his truck right up to the front door of the house (gotta love living in the country), and we loaded all 300 odd lbs of the cabinet down into the basement. He walked me through what he considered the finer points of the cab, and we both died laughing when my 3yr old came running into the room with his stool, dropped it in front of the machine and yelled "Dad! Dad! Plug it in! Plug it in!". Gee... apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
So, now I've got a Gauntlet Legends cab. Here's the plan....
I'm
NOT going to strip the artwork, change the marquee, the bezel, or repaint it. Its a
sweet looking cab and it'd be a crime to change any of that. Heck, my wife even agreed that it'd be a shame to take the artwork off..
I
am going to build a new CP to put on it. The original CP is in good shape, but I'd like a few more controls than just the four sticks. My plan is to go with a 3" trackball, a spinner, a pair of U360s, and 6 buttons per stick. Also plan on putting some buttons on the sides of the new CP for pinball. I'm keeping the original panel and will probably try to get the 49way sticks hooked up at some point, if I can get RandyT to send me some docs so I can build a Linux driver for the GP-Wiz49. Hmm... suppose I'll need a
set of GP-Wiz49s too..
The in-laws were over last weekend to visit, so I had a chance to grill my father in-law about some of the finer points of woodworking; he's a master wood carver and, uh, knows just a
little bit more than I do about woodworking. Ok, maybe a
lot more, but that's why I figured I'd talk to him about my plan.
After an hour or so of questions and discussion, he looked at me and said, "Ya know, for you this is a serious project, you could be weeks putting this panel together in your spare time. For me, its just a box with a fancy lid. Why don't we take some measurements, and I'll phone you when its finished." At this point, I'm more thrilled than disappointed... sure, I'd love to build the CP myself, but I know it'd take me a whole lot longer and wouldn't turn out anywhere near as good as if he built it. So, we took some measurements and I sent him home with a bag of buttons/sticks/controls to use for measuring things out. Gawd, you gotta love it when family helps out.
Now... I want the panel to look as authentic and original as I can get, but need some help finding some artwork to put on the panel. I've dug around looking for a replacement CP overlay that doesn't include any of the text on it but have come to the conclusion that there is no such beast. At this point I'm left to conclude that I'm going to have to redo all of the artwork for the top of the CP myself, and hope that I can get it close to the original. I'm also having trouble finding the stickers that go on the front+sides of the CP, and would appreciate any pointers/leads if anyone knows someone that has them available.
WTB:- sticker for front of CP (third image)
- stickers for sides of CP (fourth image)