Buying old cab

[Chewy27]

Hi everyone.  I have been a long time lurker here and have been in the planning stages of building myself a MAME cabinet for years.  I actually have a question related to older cabs though...

I have a chance to pick up an older cab from a set of 10 (supposedly) working cabinets.  The guy has them out in a shed and just doesn't want them around anymore.  My plan is to gut the cab and install my own CP and computer for a MAME setup, but use the cab as a frame.  My question is what should I be looking at as I am trying to decide what cabinet to take.  Is there a certain kind of monitor I should be looking for that is easiest to convert?  Are there joysticks/button that are amazing and I should keep my eyes open for?  Is there one amazing old game that I should watch for and just resell?

As I have been doing almost all my reading with the idea of building my own cabinet from the ground up I haven't really put much thought into already existing cabinets.  I just wanted to pick the brains of you folks and see if anyone had any good pointers.

Thank you very much for your time.
Chewy

[DeLuSioNal29]

I'm not sure if time permits or not, but maybe you can head over there, take some picures and then post a picture of the units for us to see to give you some advice?

[TelcoLou]

Well, I myself picked up an old Centipede cab that was at one time, converted to a Neo-Geo setup. Got if for $50 sans monitor and PCB.

Here's a link to my project, so far:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=76724.0

I also got a 19" CRT monitor off Ebay for $20, so my advice on that aspect is get whatever monitor will fit nicely inside the cab

[Daniel B.]

Keep in mind what kind of cp you are going to want to use and how you would mount it to the old cab. I was sweating that on my dynamo.

[brock.sampson]

I have bought a couple old midway blitz cabinets and have had great success with them.  This is a pretty generic cabinet and was used for a some other midway games like mortal kombat, etc.  The thing I like the most is the control panel box is totally removable.  So it's easy to make a larger control panel just by making a new box.  Those were made for a 25" monitor.  I was able to cram a 27" tv in mine after I cut down the sides of the tv case.  The factory bezel fits the tv great.  I'm using a 24" tv for the one I'm currently building for a friend since he didn't want to decase or modify the tv.  I was pretty inpatient on my first build so I bought a lot of new stuff so it cost me a little more than I would have liked.  Scour you local craigslist often for parts you may need monitors, tvs, computers, speakers, etc.

[Neverending Project]

Keep an eye out for the condition of the cab, and the style too. You will be using this thing, so you want the overall look to be one that you can look at every day.

Make sure you look near the edges of the cab, and pay attention to any damage - chipping, water damage, holes - this is all stuff that will take time to repair.

And like it was stated above, look for something that will fit your ideal control panel. Some cabs have "wings", in between which the CP size is fixed. These tend to only support a fixed width CP unless you plan on cutting the wings off (more work). Other cabs have bolt on CPs, which may be best for bolting on a new, larger CP.

Unless the cab is somewhat unique, you will most likely be replacing the controls. Although some controls are hard to find (e.g. Star Wars yoke or Tron joystick), buttons and basic joysticks will most likely be replaced.

Oh, and finally, while it may seem that it is much less work to convert a cab than to start from scratch, I have found that the conversion is a lot of work too! Considering all the retro fitting, repairing and supports you will be adding, it turns out to be quite a bit of work.

Keep us posted!

[Lutus]

Try to get all 10.   

[Chewy27]

Thanks for all your great feedback guys.  Lets see if I can answer some of your questions.

DeLuSioNal29: I would love to, the problem is that I have to drive almost 3 hours to see them, so I am going to just buy one as soon as I see it.  That is one of the reasons I am working to get prepared before I get there.

TelcoLou: Great looking cab man.  Keep up the good work.

Daniel B: Great idea Daniel.  So get an idea in my head of the size/layout of my cp so I have that ready as I am walking around looking at the cabs.

brock.sampson: Great points man.  One of the problems in living in the Great White North is that the nearest point that exists on Craigslist is 3 hours away. 

Neverending Project: Good plan on the "wings" thing.  I am sure it will end up being a lot of work in the long run but I am trying to do something to get this project kick started.

Lutus: Sounds like a plan man, you float me a loan for $1000?   

The only other info I am kinda looking for is on the monitor front.  Is there a specific kind I should be looking for or avoiding like the plague. 

Thanks a lot of for all the amazing feedback guys.  I knew this was the place to come to ask the question. 

Chewy

[CheffoJeffo]

brock.sampson: Great points man.  One of the problems in living in the Great White North is that the nearest point that exists on Craigslist is 3 hours away. 

Chewy -- where are you ?

Being in the GWN is not a limitation in it's own -- hell, the biggest nexus for coin-op in Canada is a two-hour drive from here and I'm 15 minutes away from the biggest coin-op company in the country.

Where are you ? Maybe we can help ... or point you in the right direction ...

Or steal any classics from your source before anybody has a chance to do something bad to them ...

[gatordad]

The only other info I am kinda looking for is on the monitor front.  Is there a specific kind I should be looking for or avoiding like the plague. 

Thanks a lot of for all the amazing feedback guys.  I knew this was the place to come to ask the question. 

Chewy

When looking for tv's you will want one with component (the red green and blue connections) not composite or s-video as they are less desirable solutions delivering only decent quality at best. On a TV component is it (best quality). You would also want something that has a auto on after power off feature, so if you hook your tv up to a power strip you can kill the power to the strip and when the power is restored to the power strip the tv comes back on, another feature to look for is if it will remember the last input when powering back on so you don't have to fuss with a remote or menu selections.

If you have access to tv with a scart (difficult to find in the US) connection you basically have a arcade monitor but you would have to make your own custom cable according to the pinouts in order to accomplish this.

I agree that Midway cabs are very flexable you can see my converted Blitz project in the link in my signature

Good Luck
GD

[Sir Auros]

...blitz cabinets...

 I'm using a 24" tv for the one I'm currently building for a friend since he didn't want to decase or modify the tv.

I have a Blitz cabinet, and my pawn shop 25" is less than ideal, so would you mind sharing the make and model of TV you're using?

I actually bought whatever 24" TV was available at Walmart as of last summer, but found that it wouldn't have fit in my Blitz cab without some modifications. I'd be interested in upgrading since the TV I have now only accepts a composite input and sometimes has some discoloration in spots.

[brock.sampson]

The one we bought was from walmart as well, 24" RCA http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5633690.  My cab is about 25 1/8" wide and the tv is about 24 7/8".  I'm going to have to pry off the strips that support the bezel and galss to get it in but that's not a big deal.  Lowe's sells 1/2" square dowels that I'll paint and install with screws so they can be removed in the future if necessary.  I don't believe it remembers to power state but does remember the input.  On the 27" sharp tv in mine I bought a $5 universal remote at walmart and scraped the traces for the power button soldered and hot glued wires to them.  Ran those wires to a switch I mounted in the coin reject hole.  I'm going to try for something a little more automated this time around.  Thinking about hacking/building a power strip with a relay to power up everything else and at the same time trip a switch for the remote on the tv.  Not a 100% sure how I'm going to do that yet but I'm still tossing around some ideas.  I have been doing some light reading about girder and lirc remotes.

[SavannahLion]

When looking for tv's you will want one with component (the red green and blue connections)

Good luck on that. I've been checking out every TV in the shops and none of them have component RGB. It's all YPbPr.

[gatordad]

When looking for tv's you will want one with component (the red green and blue connections)

Good luck on that. I've been checking out every TV in the shops and none of them have component RGB. It's all YPbPr.

That's what you want......... the connections are labeled ypbpr and are color coded red green and blue
Sorry if I caused any confusion.
GD

[Chewy27]

CheffoJeffo -  I  live in a town called New Liskeard. I am about a 2 hour drive north of North Bay in Ontario.  So not a lot of stores that carry the kind of stuff we need for project like this up here....hehe.

Sorry guys, I didn't make myself very clear.  I understand what to look for if I am picking up a new TV for a monitor. (and that was originally my plan) but I was curious if I would be able to reuse any of the monitors that are in the cab that I am going to pickup.  And if there was anything specific I should be looking for in those as I am trying to decide which one to take.

Thanks
Chewy

[CheffoJeffo]

CheffoJeffo -  I  live in a town called New Liskeard. I am about a 2 hour drive north of North Bay in Ontario.  So not a lot of stores that carry the kind of stuff we need for project like this up here....hehe.

I know where that is (although I was REALLY hungover the last time I was anywhere North of North Bay, so my memory is vague) and ... yep, you're right.

There are some folks in Oriillia and Barrie that I know of, but I'll ask around to see if anybody knows anyone up closer.

[Turnarcades]

Difficult to advise... if you're sticking with one of the existing monitors, ideally you need a way to test it first for faults, so it's a gamble if you can't do that first. If you buy one that turns out to be decent at a bargain price, you've saved a couple of hundred on a new monitor. If it turns out crap you've gotta strip it out and on some machines you may struggle to remove them without butchering the cabinet.