So who's the resident midway cocktail expert around here?

[Stobe]

Who wants to be my new best friend?

I just picked up a Midway cocktail project tonight.  Its a good start, but I'm sure I'm going to have a few questions soon.

I found (in a quick search) MikesArcade.com, he seems to have quite a few Midway parts.  Is there any other places that are good as well?

Thanks,
Stobe

[Kevin Mullins]

Depends on what parts you're looking for ......

What game is/was it?

[Stobe]

Depends on what parts you're looking for ......

What game is/was it?

I'll try to get somw pics soon.  But I was told it was a Rally X.

-Stobe

[Paladin]

I know it was wrong and I wouldn't do it again, but 3 years ago I converted a Rally X into a vertical MAME  cabinet.  You can check my website for pictures of the process:
http://home.comcast.net/~dark.paladin/cocktail/index.htm

[Stobe]

Well, I may have gotten bad information about the history of the cab.  The guy wasn't too sure what it was.

But I did notice (as I suspected) that the RallyX cab had cutouts on the top for horizontal controls.  My top is setup currently for vertical controls.

My first question is about the joysticks.  My CP "boxes" look to be around 12" wide (instead of 9" which I've heard for Ms Pc), but they seem very shallow.  It doesn't look like any joystick I've ever seen would fit in the depth.  Are the Ms Pac/Galaga reunion sticks that much shorter than others?

-Stobe

[Paladin]

Could it have been a Galaxian cocktail?  It used a unique two way knob.

[Stobe]

That's definately the style.  But its obviously been converted a time or two.  There are two cutouts on the center of the long sides, as if there were CPs there at one time.

So either it started as a horizontal and someone replaced the top and moved the CP sides to the vert possition.  Or somewhere along the way someone added CPs to the sides?

Are there any tell-tale ways to distinguish a Ms Pacman from a Galaga, or from any other cocktails?

-Stobe

[shardian]

Ms. Pacman had 9" control panels. Pacman has 11" control panels. The cabinet top has different shapes between a pacman and the more widely used Ms. Pacman. Pacman cabinets had a different color veneer, and also had a solid body construction with rounded wood edges instead of t-molding. The coin door/cutout were different/smaller for a pacman cocktail.

The Ms. Pacman cocktail is the most widely used midway style cocktail.

[Stobe]

Ah ha!  You struck something there.

My cocktail has (annoying) rounded edges rather than cut ends/t-molding.

I saw annoying because the edges are showing white like someone tried to prime them and repaint them.  Are those rounded edges actually wood or another material?

And are there replacements available for them.  They appear to be installed pretty well in a routed groove.  Don't know how easy they would be to replace.

-Stobe

[shardian]

Congratulations, you have a pacman cabinet. You are pretty much screwed in this case, as the cabinet is grooved and glued. Yes, those are wood pieces at the corners. On mine, even the control panels were securely glued in place. (I got it for free because the guy that had it before parted it out and crudely cut out the control panels. )

What I am doing for repair is evening out the cutouts, and then cutting a new piece to fit. You could also use Mike's arcade plans to build a new base. You could build the Ms. pacman style base and it would be much more builder friendly.

[shardian]

After thinking about it, I believe Galaxian also originally came in the pacman cabinet.

[Stobe]

You're right about the CP "wings".  (For lack of better word).  They are also router grooved and glued into the "faces" of the cabinet.  But my "wings" look very short.  In fact, both CP bottoms were cut (read mangled) to allow joysticks and buttons to fit for depth. 

I'm almost tempted to cut a new "hole" a little wider and deeper for the CP, and just make a wooden box rather than metal-top CP.  Is there any reason this shouldn't be an option?  (i.e. enthusiasts screaming about cutting up a classic)  (not that it hasn't been pretty well cut up already)

-Stobe

(thanks for all the info so far.  Can you tell I'm excited about jumping into this next project)

[Crowquill]

Could be a  Space Invaders Deluxe/Space Invaders II.  It has the rounded edges and a weird, shallow control panel. Control-wise, I think it uses the same swiveling lever as Galaxian. The rounded corners are constructed differently on SI than on Pac-Man and Galaxian. It also has a very different colored laminate than the other cocktails. Below are a couple pics. The first is from KLOV, the rest are pics I took through the window of a local operator's showroom. The SI is sitting right next to a Pac-Man cocktail. I was thinking about building a cocktail and took these as reference photos as to the differences between them.  AFAIK, SI was the only Midway cocktail where the back panel is built like this.

A Rally-X should be pretty easy to spot since it had a horizontally-mounted monitor--a rarity among all of the Midway cocktails.

Does yours have the 1-slot coin door?

[Crowquill]

Just stumbled onto one other possibility while looking for pics of another cabinet:

Not surprisingly, Bally Sente's cocktails are very similar to Bally Midway's. I don't know of any Midway's cocktails with the CP on the long side. Yours might've just been a weird conversion thing.

[RayB]

I refuse to comment without photos!

 

[Stobe]

I refuse to comment without photos!

 

I know I know...  I just haven't had a chance to take any yet.

I've become that booger who starts a thread.... "What kind of car is this?  Its got 4 doors, 4 tires, and oh ya.... its blue"

Pics will come soon.  Actually, once I take them, I'll start a PA thread and we can all head over there and get this baby going!

Thanks to all
-Stobe

[Stobe]

Jump to the PA thread, complete with some pictures!

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68502.0

-Stobe