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Omega MAME: Revenge of Omega Race [COMPLETED! - Work on alt. CP's ongoing!]
Necro:
After lurking, posting, and not having the space to build a cabinet for years, I've finally begun work on my own MAME cabinet project. And now, after two weeks, I've started a project page. Because I am using an actual older game cab, I ask that people please try to keep the discussion semi on topic and avoid 'Necro's The Devil because of this project!!!' posts >:D. What might have happened to the cab had I not purchased it was much worse then anything I will do to it.
Background
As I looked over other projects, I realized I wasn't interested in having a MAME cabinet that looks like all of the others - not a converted Dynamo or a BYO with black sides, etc. I wanted something that looked like something people have seen in the arcade and looked like something straight out of the arcade. A Retro-MAME cabinet, if you will. Original cab artwork became a very important item for me in my cab search - and also made the search that much more difficult. Because I didn't want to 'kill' a recoverable game, I tried to limit my search to empty or dead cabinets in good condition. Rather quickly, I found an Omega Race cabinet in my local area that was in decent condition, had all the artwork and most of the components still inside - but wouldn't power on (even the lights) when plugged in and switched on. So, for $100 I picked it up with a two-fold plan. First, any salvageable parts that I didn't need I would sell so that people could restore other Omega Race's, and second, to rebuild the cab as close to original as I could so that I could play Omega Race on it through MAME as well as a whole host of other games. Thus began...Omega MAME: Revenge of Omega Race.
The Cabinet
The cabinet was in decent condition when I received it. All the artwork was 'intact', but some had severe dings or scuff marks. Also, because of the cab being build of a fiber/pressboard type material, there were some weird 'puffed out' damaged areas. Overall though, the cab was in good condition. Both marquees and the bezel were close to perfect and were exactly what I was looking for.
Progress
To date, I've stripped the cab and taken inventory of everything that I can use. A big bonus was the mirror being intact and after a quick cleaning and demo run, I believe the cab is 100% workable with a mirror setup.
My biggest work thus far has been to clean and paint the inside of the cab. Also, I needed to restore the front decal because of the damage/scuff marks on it. See the attachments for before and after images of the art. From 2 feet away, you can barely tell it's been touched up so extensively. The flash reflects off the paint and decal differently, so the differences visible in the images is more extreme then normal.
Problems Identified So Far...
- The material the cabinet is made of is a complete :angry: to work with. Sanding it doesn't work, cutting it required a razor and being insanely careful or it makes a bunch of fibers come off and isn't a clean cut. It has a horrible texture if not perfectly smooth and I'm not sure how well it's going to hold screws if I reuse the same screw hole.
- The entire cabinet is covered in a vinyl like material. Makes sanding impossible and touching up even harder since I need to match that materials sheen as well.
- The CP is metal, and a strange design. So I either need to find somewhere to make me blanks, or make up a wooden CP that's routed all kind of weird ways to fit. (I don't want to modify this part of the cab because of the lower marquee.)
I'll be updating the post with images as I have time. I've repainted the entire inside of the cab flat black to improve reflectivity off the mirror once I begin working on the 'guts' of the cab. My next objective is to restore/repair the back door and repaint that so that I can actually close the cabinet up.
RetroJames:
Not sure if you spotted this, I built one (and still have it) a couple years ago.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=16487.0
I am using the mirror setup, really nothing to it.
I even have an extra CPO if you want a similar layout.
Good luck!
Necro:
I've definitely seen your cab - it's my inspiration and also why I didn't call the cab just OmegaMAME! :notworthy: I sent you a PM when I saw your cab, maybe I missent. I'd love to discuss how you got the CP made. Is your's metal or some kind of wood/MDF custom built job? Thinking about how to design the CP is giving me agida because of the front and back lips on the CP.
Also, I see you used the transformer or whatever the heck was on that board in the cabinet. I still have that (see attached pic). What, exactly, are the parts on this board and can I use them without blowing myself up or burning down my house? (Since the pic I've cleaned it off somewhat, but I didn't know what was safe to touch.) Also, the two LARGE battery looking things in the top corner (I believe they are capacitors)...any use for them? I'm more wary of touching them...and not totally sure how to discharge (don't know what to ground it to).
RetroJames:
--- Quote from: Necro on October 08, 2008, 01:42:27 pm ---I've definitely seen your cab - it's my inspiration and also why I didn't call the cab just OmegaMAME! :notworthy: I sent you a PM when I saw your cab, maybe I missent. I'd love to discuss how you got the CP made. Is your's metal or some kind of wood/MDF custom built job? Thinking about how to design the CP is giving me agida because of the front and back lips on the CP.
Also, I see you used the transformer or whatever the heck was on that board in the cabinet. I still have that (see attached pic). What, exactly, are the parts on this board and can I use them without blowing myself up or burning down my house? (Since the pic I've cleaned it off somewhat, but I didn't know what was safe to touch.) Also, the two LARGE battery looking things in the top corner (I believe they are capacitors)...any use for them? I'm more wary of touching them...and not totally sure how to discharge (don't know what to ground it to).
--- End quote ---
I used an original but trashed CP so the original metal.
From the guts, I used only the lights and speakers. Everything else was rewired. I had hoped to convert back to OR at some point but never found a set of boards that were reasonable and working.
Necro:
Yeah, that was what made me using this cab not all that bad - the working board cost is more then people would normally pay for the entire cab sans boards.
And I'm looking around trying to find somewhere to get replacement CPs made - my CP is still intact and doesn't look horrendous so I don't want to trash it.
And in one of your pictures it looks like the lights are still wired to the original transformer or something - did you just know how to do that or have a guide or something to assist? I want to make sure I don't kill myself.
Also, what size monitor did you end up using? Trying to decide what size PC monitor would be best...eyeing a 21" right now...but the weird reflective area dimensions make it hard to determine what size monitor I can get.
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