Mortal Kabinet! (finally named it)

[Malenko]

I have no pictures of when it was a Terra Cresta cab, sorry, but it was like 3 years ago.
EDIT: made a liar out of myself

there is some photoshopping going on, but it has a shot fo the Terra Cresta Cab I bought in 2002. here is the un photoshopped version of the front.





heres the pix first, details after


Lit up control panel, cant seem to capture them well, but they are bright even in the lit up room the cab is in.



Lit up coin doors, no coin mechs installed, you just push the quarter where the coin return would be for credits. Second pic is doors open, showing access to the computer, keyboard,mouse, and toggle switch for the LEDs and cold cathode. The flash makes the paint job look like crap.





MAME32 select screen from on top of the CP and My fave MK, Mortal Kombat II running from the same perspective.




One of my all time favorites (other then SF and MK), Killer Instinct 2 and it runs 100%






My buddy Sam's all time favorite King Of Fighters game



Details:
Sega/Gremlin Cabinet, Originally a Pengo, still has factory papers inside
Painted Black, new red T-Molding.

Eygo 27" VGA CRT Monitor, limited to 640x480

Control Panel is based on a HotRod SE but is slightly wider, IPAC2 encoder

14 translucent Red FXbuttons, each has a red LED inside with Cherry micro switches , red cold cathode under the coin door illuminating the kick panel

Computer is Dell Optiplex 210L 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 w/Hyper Threading  1GB of RAM, on board sound and video because its a 1/2 size case


the wiring is an absolute nightmare, if I ever redo it, I'll do it much better, I was just anxious to have it done. I took the camera, and pointed it up from inside the coin door and got this beauty:




Additional photos:

back door removed, so you can see the insides; including my drivers license from 12 years ago.


plenty of room for storage at the bottom!

[Havok]

Nice, but is that Mame32 I see? Put a real front end in there...

[Malenko]

Nice, but is that Mame32 I see? Put a real front end in there...

not only is it MAME 32, its 0.81u9 !!!!!  Also I didnt take any pictures of the marquee because its just a Super Street Fighter II one for now, I need to name it before I drop the cheddar to get mamemarquees to print one out.   Ive been eyeballing Mala but Im lazy, lol

[bfauska]

Does it play KI2 on that system? I am running an oldish PC right now, but if I thought I could run a few of the newish fighting games I may think about an upgrade.

[Malenko]

Does it play KI2 on that system? I am running an oldish PC right now, but if I thought I could run a few of the newish fighting games I may think about an upgrade.

One of my all time favorites (other then SF and MK), Killer Instinct 2 and it runs 100%

it runs KI2 and UMK3 and SFA3 and KOF2000 all perfectly at full speed (when I hit F11 it says fskip 0 100% 60/60 fps   on KI2 , same thing but 53/53 on the MKs)

I mostly play the fighters (hence the control panel layout) but who doesn't love a good game of Galaga?

[Green Giant]

Ive been eyeballing Mala but Im lazy, lol

It will probably take you about 1 hour to read the install instructions on mala, download the correct stuff, and have it up and running on your system.  Go for it, you will be happy you did.

[Jouster]

Agreed...but then you'll want to make your own art for the layout, main page...but that's part of the fun anyway.

Jouster

[Malenko]

I started looking at MALA today, downloaded  MALA and the retroGUI (that I plan to edit)

Also to note, I finally remembered what game this was when I bought the cabinet, it was "Terra Cresta"
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=T&game_id=10077

I wish I kept all the guts instead of trashing them years ago, there was nothing wrong with the PCB or the CP (and it had leaf switches!) but I was young and stupid. I actually got this cab closer to 5 years ago not 3 like I stated previously. If I keep adding to this cab I know an LED wiz and TT2 spinner are next, lol

[Malenko]

ok so now I have a few flickering LEDs and I think I may remove them and the clear red buttons, and revert back to a red white and blue SF style color theme, Im just unsure of what color to make the 7th button. I got MALA up and running with no problem, except I'm having issues with the menu, I dont want to have to scroll through 4,000+games, one at a time, to get to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , so Im workin on it.

I do plan on SEVERELY trimming down the game Menu, like removing the Majong(spelling?)  games and older titles I dont plan to play ever. Then the joys of adding SNES, Genesis, and PSX into the mix. Symphony of the Night on the MAME cab? yes please!

[Green Giant]

I do plan on SEVERELY trimming down the game Menu, like removing the Majong(spelling?)  games and older titles I dont plan to play ever. Then the joys of adding SNES, Genesis, and PSX into the mix. Symphony of the Night on the MAME cab? yes please!

Two things you will want to look at.

Take a look at the Mala tree feature.  Really good at organizing all your lists.

Then use romlister to make your lists.  It is really easy to make lists that way and the tree allows you to easily organize them.  I probably have over 40 lists in various categories on my cab.

[Malenko]

I've really been trying to get MALA to work the way I want but it doesnt like me as much as I like it, so for now, Im using an updated MAME32 (.118) with updated ROMs.

in my play Ive found I really dont like the translucent red buttons, they feel too stiff and since Im not using an LEDWiz there really isnt a point in using the LEDs considering I dont like the  translucent buttons, so out they came.... man that wiring was HIDEOUS!

This is the top of the panel, with MK dragons for dust guards, black start buttons with custom dragon start logos:


This is what it looked like under my panel:


This is the panel, with all its rats nest of wiring, on the floor:

each button had a common ground, wire for input, then another common ground for the LED and a power source for LED (and resistor)

Here it is 1/2 rewired, just player one side is done. Clear red button removed, standard red in its place, LEDs removed:


FINALLY done rewiring everything, looks SOOOOO MUCH BETTER, I used electrical tape instead of zip ties cause I ran out *shrugs*


New shot of the top panel, dust guards flipped, Im not sure if I wanna keep the dragon logos there, and standard start buttons replacing the custom black and red ones.



I still need to get scott to print me out a final version of the CPO and design a marquee and name this thing.

[Malenko]

not much to update other then I added the latest windows media player and dvd playing software to the cab.  I downloaded a huge pack of Pinball tables (future pinball), but I need to add pinball buttons to the sides. I'm considering Admin buttons along the flat panel along the top of the monitor but Im sure how comfortable it would be to use buttons there, even if its only pause and exit (and possibly menu).

I really like the coin buttons where they are even if I tend to insert coins with my knees while standing there.

I cant think of a name/theme for this machine, I like the black and red but I really need something on the sides to make the machine much less of an eye sore. I love the Ten CPO but its out of place on an un-themed cabinet, anyone have any ideas?

[dweezinator]

I am curious about your old translucent buttons.  I'm building a Sinistar themed cabinet and it originally had translucent buttons.  You said you they felt too stiff.  What brand were they?  Is there a difference in how they are made compared to your new buttons?  Any info would be great.

[Malenko]

I got the buttons from FXButtons before they closed I think the stiffness is due to the LEDs/wiring coming in contact with the springs but then again Im just weird and really like the standard push buttons. if you you're lookin for red clear buttons I wont object to selling you some.

[dweezinator]

thanks for the reply.  how many do you have?  are they all red?  I had hoped to go with 3 different colors (red, orange, blue) so if you've only got red I will look around a bit.  if I don't find them anywhere I will be interested.

[Malenko]

14 reds, as shown above.

Added some random pix of the cab, its "done" as in playable, but not done as in I have alot of little crap left to do

[dweezinator]

I have a Mortal Kombat marquee that came with my cabinet.  It would match your cabinet colors.  If interested perhaps we could work out a trade.  I believe it is in good shape and I could provide good pictures if you want.

[Malenko]

Ive actually had this name in mind for a while, but I cant pull off the art, maybe a fellow BYOAC'er can help. I've attached a smurfy mock up.

[Donkey_Kong]

Cool name man. I'm gonna add a touch of MK flavor to my cab as well.

Looking great!   

[leapinlew]

Ive actually had this name in mind for a while, but I cant pull off the art, maybe a fellow BYOAC'er can help. I've attached a smurfy mock up.

Looks good - that artwork looks good to me? What are you wanting to improve on it?

[xmenxmen]

MK inspired, but with SF in the cp and on screen 

[Malenko]

MK inspired, but with SF in the cp and on screen 

SF isnt on the CP at all, Scorpion has it on his neck too =). and the pic of SF3 was to show my buddy that CPS3 emulation was real.  Also, it was a cheapie print out at kinkos.

Leapin, the image is very rough I'll slowly work on it maybe scott can charge me a lil extra to fix it up.

[xmenxmen]

Oh.  Just thought that the red 'sky' character with the way it flash looked similar to the SF's Akuma.

Didn't know that Scorpion has such a character on him.

[Malenko]

I got it on me too


its not "Ten" (heaven) its Ou "beyond human"


yeah I know the wings need redone, Im workin on it.
EDIT:got them redone today:


Anyone have a vector of the MK Dragon?

[Akuma]

I got it on me too


its not "Ten" (heaven) its Ou "beyond human"


yeah I know the wings need redone, Im workin on it.

Anyone have a vector of the MK Dragon?

Oh really? I always thought it was "Ten" but meaning "death" in Akuma's context rather than "heaven"?

[dweezinator]

I like the Mortal Kabinet marquee.  Looks cool.

[Malenko]

Oh really? I always thought it was "Ten" but meaning "death" in Akuma's context rather than "heaven"?

Ten has no relevance to death at all as far as I know. It can mean either Heaven (the sky, not the holy land) or Imperial . Shin Gouki (Shin Akuma) has Kami (God) super imposed on top of Hito (person) meaning godly person. Satsui No Hadou Ryu has Metsu (destruction) on his back.

The only real Kanjia to interpret death is Shi, attatched.  at least the post and view counter on my project is soaring :p

[Malenko]

As boring as it is, back to the topic.

Been hammering out more artwork, heres the projected CPO. Im torn between it and photoCHOPPING the real MKII panel.

[Malenko]

i decided to keep the dragon part but make a different background.  I tried to email scott at mamemarquees to have them print it but I ended up resorting to kinkos, I gotta go pick it up sunday cause I dropped it off before close last night and wont have time to get it today.

Next up is plexiglass  for the CP, didn't wanna get plexi either, I was just going to get scott to print it with polycarbonitebut well yeah...


Also, the website is nearly done for this project

[stephenp1983]

It looks good I really like the Mortal Kabinet name, and the marquee.

[Malenko]

thanks, its starting to come together. now to figure out side art.

[severdhed]

looking really nice, i love the name.  i really like the CPO also...the MK dragon just looks awesome

[Donkey_Kong]

Did you make the dust covers?  Nice!

[Malenko]

Dust covers are made from putting a MK Dragon logo from the MK3 conversion kit onto an existing dust washer and cutting a hole in the middle.  I think I might get new buttons without dragon logos and put these dragon logo'd buttons back on the MKII machine.  I'll edit this post tomorrow with new pix.... if I can find my camera.

EDITED: Pix added. Imma hot link a couple in the game room thread

[Malenko]

Im hating these topguns, cant ever get them to fire. anyone know the way to configure the MAME.ini ? anytime I try to set the trigger via the tab menu it pick up the directional movement instead of the trigger pull

[TheDriver]

Have not looked at this thread in a while, cab is looking awesome, nicely done Malenko.

[Bond211]

Awesome work man. Looks great \m/!

[Malenko]

the cab has been dismantled and given away.

this is what it last looked like:

[GameDork]

the cab has been dismantled and given away.

this is what it last looked like:

Ok, WHY?

[bigdog1977]

Cause now he has a real MK Cabinet!