Arkanoid cab - worth trying to restore?

[chadandjody]

You can see from the pictures that this cabinet was at one point an Arkanoid cabinet.  The monitor is gone but the marquee lighting, speaker, and inside wiring look to be all there.   The spinner seems to catch a little but I actually have a working one from another cabinet.

I've done two Mame cabinets and feel comfortable working with those but I've never done a restore.  To get more to the point,  I don't even know enough to know what's missing.  There is no "motherboard" there but there is still the original power supply.

Am I looking at more trouble then it's worth trying to restore this back to normal (hard to find parts, etc) or is this something doable for a first time restore?

More pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/chadandjody/Arkanoid

[Crowquill]

Definitely not a "restoration" kind of project. It looks like the only thing left from Arkanoid is the artwork. You mention a spinner but that looks more like a joystick knob. Arkanoid used a large silver metal dial for directional controls. No joystick version is available AFAIK.

IIRC, Arkanoid was only sold in kit form to convert other cabinets. Most common is probably the Taito cabinets like Jungle Hunt and Qix. Second is probably Pac-style cabs.  It's hard to tell from the small picture, but it appears to be a Sega Convert-A-Cab. Judging by the woodgrain and start button placement, I'd guess Frogger.

No monitor, no game PCB, no dedicated cabinet, non-original controls, and a worn-out overlay. You'd be starting from scratch. Not that a Frogger cab would be bad for Arkanoid, but you really wouldn't have any head-start compared to converting any other cabinet.

[chadandjody]

Thanks, I suspected it would not be an easy restore but wanted to have an expert confirm it for me.  No big loss, I can always make *another* Mame cabinet out of it. 

[Crowquill]

My MAME cabinet that I built used a cab that was a clone of the Sega cabs. The project announcement that I never updated is HERE. It has some pics of how it started out. Turned out well in the end, I just never posted the pics. I had to take the front door off the bottom section for moving, but here's a pic right after I moved.

[sosuke]

That is a sweet Mr Driller plush, where did you get that?!

[paigeoliver]

That is certainly an early Sega/Gremlin cabinet. It could have been any one of about 20 different games, and not even the control panel is going to give you much evidence, since it might have very well been swapped in the conversion (If I have swapped panels amongst Sega/Gremlin cabinets during conversions, than operators have too).

Pick a game that used that cabinet, and go for it. Don't bother trying to make it Arkanoid.

[ElfShotTheFood]

Is that a gear shifter knob on the spinner? 

[chadandjody]

Is that a gear shifter knob on the spinner? 

Sadly, yes it is.  Complete with the 1-2-3-4 gear shift markings.   (No, I didnt put it there
  )

[FrizzleFried]

Restore it to Arkanoid...drop a 60-in-1 in there...put a spinner on the CP...you now have Arkanoid and 53 other games...now,  you'd only be able to play Arkanoid and Super Breakout if you put ONLY a spinner in there,  but drop a jstick somewhere and you are good as gold.

[leapinlew]

Here we go with the XX-n-1 suggestions again....

Here is my suggestion. Put a turbo Twist 2 on there - since it's the only spinner that I've used that plays Arkanoid as well as an Arkanoid spinner. Drop in a computer and play all the spinner games you want to.

Tempest, Tempest Tubes, Blasteroids, Puzz Loop, Arkanoid, Breakout, and a few driving games. 

[shardian]

Restore it to Arkanoid...drop a 60-in-1 in there...put a spinner on the CP...you now have Arkanoid and 53 other games...now,  you'd only be able to play Arkanoid and Super Breakout if you put ONLY a spinner in there,  but drop a jstick somewhere and you are good as gold.

He don't have an arcade monitor, so he loses the only real benefit of doing this. Much better idea to put in a pc monitor and crappy pc.

[chadandjody]

I like the idea of a 60-in-1 but the price is a little out of my range by the time you add in the board and arcade monitor.

Now crappy PCs and PC monitors I got tons of . . ..

[RayB]

MAME that piece of crap.

[BrentRadio]

I THINK Arkanoid was a kit only anyway. So it's most likely not original anyway. I wouldn't try to restore it. Although I did to the one I own.

Brent

[Crowquill]

That is certainly an early Sega/Gremlin cabinet. It could have been any one of about 20 different games, and not even the control panel is going to give you much evidence, since it might have very well been swapped in the conversion (If I have swapped panels amongst Sega/Gremlin cabinets during conversions, than operators have too).

Pick a game that used that cabinet, and go for it. Don't bother trying to make it Arkanoid.

Most of the Sega/Gremlin cabinets were white, though. The only ones in woodgrain cabinets I can find are:

Astro Blaster, Frogger, Moon Cresta, Super Moon Cresta, Pulsar, Space Firebird, and Space Odyssey

So there!...only 7! (and probably a few I missed) 

You have a very good point on the control panel. My Crazy Kong cabinet in the pic above has a Frogger panel on it and it wasn't even a real Sega cab. I also drilled a new hole for Player-2 start.

BTW, I'm revising my guess of the control panel. It matches Pulsar's almost perfectly. Even if it wasn't original to the cabinet.

IMHO, Frogger is probably the only one worth restoring out of that list.

That is a sweet Mr Driller plush, where did you get that?!

Where else...eBay. You should see the Taizo Hori (DigDug) one.

[paigeoliver]

There are other ones that are woodgrain as well, Zektor, Tac/Scan, Eliminator, Zaxxon, Battle Star, some versions of Star Trek and a lot of those super rare early sega titles that no one ever sees like 005. Granted the ones I just mentioned usually came in the OTHER shape for early Sega cabinets, but the kits would install on both cabinet shapes, and I have seen games in the "wrong" cabinet style.

[torez]

You might want to check out this Ebay auction.  It closes in about 10 hours:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290143958709

[chadandjody]

That's a really good find 

We're doing the 600 mile yard sale even in TN this weekend so I can't cough up $60 in the next 40 minutes.   Maybe I'll luck out into some rare arcade find this weekend.