1980's Atari Pole Position PC mod

[DaMulta]

Project Logs

[/U] Work in progress ideas are more than welcome.


I would like to say thanks to Cyber who got me out working on this old box.

First off it was well buried LOL

And need to get all the guts out of course before I can even start thinking about how to do what inside.

    

    



    

Door rads should fit right on, or anything else I might want to install

    

I could rig these up to an old controller for racing games....thinking about it


Money box is being a pain to remove
    

All this has to come out
    

Monitor 4 screws and it popped out VERY EASY steering well and gear ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- also the same way.
    

Old school Hmmm could replace with new

    

Test fit with a 24'' lcd might use a 19 for this dont know yet....
    


More to come first day

----
latest updates
03-16-2009, 03:16 PM


A little help from old tires LOL

    
Cut me a hole

    
 
   

    
Sub fits JUST RIGHT!!

In between the cubit is a channel for speaker wire/ echo for bass
    

    

Going to keep the original outside as much as possible. Still debating it, but I think it's the right idea.....

-----
03-16-2009, 08:30 PM
Installed
    

Space
    

wires to front
    

Hmmm on top
    


LET ME JUST SAY OMG

OMG

and OMG

IT POUNDS HARD

Really I have never hear that 5.1 system sound so good. I'm highly impressed with this old cabinet so far.
---
03-30-2009, 03:31 AM

Ok funds have been slowing this down....


Plans

I am painting it black. Old school is going out the window.

Now I want to make this a AMD Machine. I'm thinking of Ruby on the back, and a spider on the side. I want some kind of window to look into the machine to see the hardware, and thinking of making a giant falling rez ontop of the machine....

Also I would like to find some PCI-E ribbon extenders for this mod.

OR

AMD in a 2 level res one to trace out AMD and behind it the other color to balance out the logo.


I'm thinking of having a sticker made IDK....or drawing it in some fashion....


---
Old  04-02-2009, 09:26 PM
Found some cash to buy a can of paint today.....only did one side so far.

Speaker cables I was talking about are the rear.....

Anyways as you can see it's going to have to be sanded down from the primer paint.

    
    
The bubbles are from the duck tape that I thought I had removed....
---
Update
04-14-2009

    
My lights for running boards:)

I think they are going to work great
    
The new 24'' LCD installed
    

in action
    
From behind
    
PS3 test machine


Someone told me that I should post my build here. I have had a log going on here
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=86827

Let me say that FEAR 2 is SCARY AS #@!%! in this thing LOL

Black lament and then having some professional stickers made(I'm going for an AMD look) seems the best way to do the doors in my head now. I do want to cut out a section on the wall so that you can see the PC inside.

I just don't want it right next to the wall. More or less a tunnel look into it in the center. IDK I'll have to work it out.

There is much more in my build log, and I will look and answer this thread just as much. Any ideas are more than welcome. This mod is taking me some time due to low funds ATM which should be ending soon.

[ivwshane]

Man I wish I had more space for a driving cab!


Looking good!

[SavannahLion]

[DaMulta]

What's the face drop for?

What I did to this machine ?LOL

[RayB]

You had classic original artwork in decent condition and thought painting it black was an improvement. 

[DaMulta]

You had classic original artwork in decent condition and thought painting it black was an improvement. 

You don't realize how many other machines there are(MORE RARE THAN THIS ONE)...My dad used to run a arcade business in the 80's

I'm not done yet....I'm going to have some stickers made to match what I'm going to do to it.

[RayB]

Help us out then, there's a whole "Arcade" sub-forum here with people looking for original cabinets and parts. 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=collapse;c=8;sa=expand#8

[HaRuMaN]

 

[Silhouette]

why would you do this

[Keroppi]

Going to keep the original outside as much as possible:

...fail.

[pinballwizard79]

WTF is this?

[thatpurplestuff]

I totally respect your enthusiasm for this project and it is clear that you're wanting to build a sweet gaming setup.  That being said, I've gotta agree with the general sentiment here and say that I cringed when I saw pics of an original Pole Position cab in pretty good condition getting gutted and painted all black.  I am a bigger video game nerd than I thought, since I actually got sad while seeing some of those pics.  Anyway, good luck with the build and hopefully you'll make it worth it in the end.  To each his own!

[DaMulta]

So here is the backboard

    

The original speakers are gone....They mounted on more or less backwards from what normal speakers mount like. I had to make room for the new ones to fit in this manor

    

My trace

    

My not so perfect cut

    

    

A little off but you can't see it, and I don't think it will really matter

    

    

You can only see threw the grills with the flash.

    

So in my world what I did works


-------------
I love when people say fail to something that is a work in progress.

kind of like my white 790i motherboard.


Which turned out great because the whole board glowed

sadly I killed the board swapping out CPUS I bend and broke 3 pins......O well

Next week the sides will look a lot better! With the lament installed, then I need to find someone to make me a Dragon sticker to slap on it.

    

Something like that but not that.

[escher]

I love when people say fail to something that is a work in progress.

I'm pretty sure the "Fail" comments have nothing to do with how your project will turn out.  They're made because you destroyed a good quality Pole Position cab.

[CheffoJeffo]

 

[SavannahLion]

 

A modification of a well known quote:

(He was) so preoccupied with whether or not (he) could, (he) didn't stop to think if (he) should.

Or as a girl I had a crush on once said about ten years prior:

Just because someone thinks it's a good idea doesn't actually make it a good idea.

If I had known there was a sit down Pole Position, I would have gladly bought the $75 sit down After Burner on CL and sent it to them as a straight trade.

[CheffoJeffo]

I'm not so broken up over the death of the PP cab as there are more cabs than boards out there and the boardsets are a real PITA to keep running.

If Dad was an op, then he is probably less attached to cabs in good condition than we are (although I think it is safe to say that we *do* realize how many other cabs there are that are more rare  ).

I think ricing it out is a little much, but hopefully he will end up with a result that pleases him.

[DaMulta]

More rare to be is Black and White games, or games as Jack and the Magic Bean Stock, StarWars..blablabal and more

Anyways

infinity speakers in the back = win

a lot of win! I wish I had two more for the front.....but I don't:(

----
Playing Fear 2 in this box is way better than the original game anyways:p and the game that I AM SAVING is Tron! My sis has one of the SNK games before NEO-GEO, and a few others in working order in her personal bar behind her house.
----

My plan is to make this into a giant AMD PC to take to Lans. That's why the original art work had to go! Believe me I thought about it long and hard!

[Gatsu]

I can understand some of the sentiments on here about covering up the original art and whatnot. But its his cab. He's doing what he wants for his particular project.

I think it'll be a cool cab once its all finished. Hopefully you'll be able to pull off what you want for the project.

[Malenko]

if hes posting here he should be expecting feedback; and there's nothing wrong with not liking the fact he killed a sit down pole position. And he did fail at keeping the outside looking as stock as possible. Unless hes going to strip the black paint he put on it, repaint it white/laminate it, then put NOS/Repro art on it, its going to stay in failed state.

the black paint looks like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and the red lights make it look worse (didnt think it was possible) Restoring a Tron doesn't give you the right to think what you did to the SD-PP is acceptable. Hope you like your final product, and just because YOU do doesn't mean WE will. kk thnx bai

[Gatsu]

no need to be an ass about it either though.

[DaMulta]

if hes posting here he should be expecting feedback; and there's nothing wrong with not liking the fact he killed a sit down pole position. And he did fail at keeping the outside looking as stock as possible. Unless hes going to strip the black paint he put on it, repaint it white/laminate it, then put NOS/Repro art on it, its going to stay in failed state.

the black paint looks like ---Cleveland steamer--- and the red lights make it look worse (didnt think it was possible) Restoring a Tron doesn't give you the right to think what you did to the SD-PP is acceptable. Hope you like your final product, and just because YOU do doesn't mean WE will. kk thnx bai

The black paint was primer, but I am going to get some laminate tomorrow. Paint was just the first way I was going to go untill I releaed that the sticker on the Cab is more than one level, and painting it would be a big PAIN! Then I'm going to start hunting down someone to photoshop me a Dragon to go across the side, but well I would like to install the doors on it first before having that sticker even being made.

I really thought about it before I started, and yes I cried a little when I did it.....

I'm going to get some lawn Chair fabric also to install inside the cab, and the lights will go around that. I just kind of threw them in to see what they would look like inside.

I hope I do pull it off and a lot of people like it in the end.



I did except the bad feedback from doing it:) Also it's part of a project log when it's a work in progress. I used to restore natural gas comprossers for a living(just for example) They would come in just looking like total ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, and in the end after  a month or so they would leave looking new again.

Good things take time, and I have had little funds for this.

-----------

Tonight when the new AMD 955 is released I'm ordering that, and a GD70FX for the hardware that will be used inside to run the system,

[GAJoe]

I converted a gutted Venture cabinet to Mr. Do! MAME myself, but the original artwork was long gone.  I'm not a bleeding heart for every old cabinet, but when I saw that you painted it black I actually involuntarily yelled, "Nooo!" outloud. I thought you were going to restore it to a Pole Position with MAME under the hood, so it caught me off guard.  Do you have something against classic 80s arcade artwork?

[DaMulta]

I converted a gutted Venture cabinet to Mr. Do! MAME myself, but the original artwork was long gone.  I'm not a bleeding heart for every old cabinet, but when I saw that you painted it black I actually involuntarily yelled, "Nooo!" outloud. I thought you were going to restore it to a Pole Position with MAME under the hood, so it caught me off guard.  Do you have something against classic 80s arcade artwork?

NO I don't have anything against classic 80s arcade artwork. My mom took a look and said I should do the sides with the dragon like planned, but keep the back orignal to know where it came from. I have no plans to run mame under the hood. All it needed was a new power supply and it would of worked. The problem is that these old games are a pain in the ass to keep running, plus I waned to play other games in it.

We have been playing PS3 in 1080p non stop in it for the past few days lol......

[TOK]

Well, at least your mom didn't tell you to paint flowers and unicorns on it.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

...My mom took a look and said...

Ah... That perhaps throws some light as to why you did this. If you are young enough that your mom's opinion still influences you enough to make you paint your cab black then I would guess you are also young enough to not realize the significance of what you have permanently  done to this cab.

It's your cab, so hey, do what you like to it (like you need me to say that?) but don't be surprised if people don't share your tastes. That's what makes this an interesting place; we all have different tastes and opinions.

The problem is that these old games are a pain in the ass to keep running, plus I waned to play other games in it.

Well... yes thats true. an old cab can be tricky to bring back to life and keep it running. Perhaps this isn't the best audience to air that particular train of thought tho'? For many of us, that's the part of the hobby that attracts us to it; like car enthusiast who derive equal pleasure from restoring cars as they do driving them.

By the way.... Hello everyone this is my first post. I was just lurking until I had some pics of my MAME cab project I am building ready for posting.

Silas 

[RayB]

Darn kids these days!   

Get off CheffoJeffo's lawn!

[Barry Barcrest]

I'm not so broken up over the death of the PP cab as there are more cabs than boards out there and the boardsets are a real PITA to keep running.

This is true, but are you including sit down pole positions in that? I'm not sure how rare they are but that one looked in good condition. It's not the maming that bothers me it's the fact he just painted it black and thinks that it's an improvment when it quite clearly isn't. Then he doesn't get it when people say FAIL.....

Bah, wht so i know i'm off to play my marble madness on my black painted, mamed missle command 

[Silas (son of Silas)]

I just smiled to myself.

I wonder if this cab will be back on this forum in years to come under new ownership as an amazing restoration thread that we all follow in awe as some skilled artisan meticulously removes the black paint, carefully fills in the holes and we will all stand back in amazement at the transformation?

[M.Lanza]

I don't see a problem with it.

If someone were to bastardize a mint radarscope, mario bros., or popeye,
by converting it into a donkey kong, they would be hailed on this forum as a hero.

[escher]

If someone were to bastardize a mint radarscope, mario bros., or popeye,
by converting it into a donkey kong, they would be hailed on this forum as a hero.

Not sure where you're coming up with that one...

[TOK]

I don't see a problem with it.

If someone were to bastardize a mint radarscope, mario bros., or popeye,
by converting it into a donkey kong, they would be hailed on this forum as a hero.

I don't agree with what you're saying at all, but swapping a board, marquee, bezel and to do the conversion you're talking about is a far cry from whats happening here, anyway.

[Boz]

If someone were to bastardize a mint radarscope, mario bros., or popeye,
by converting it into a donkey kong, they would be hailed on this forum as a hero.

No... they'd still be called an idiot just like this guy.


Ignorance is not bliss -- ignorance is ignorance.

[GAJoe]

Name calling isn't going to restore the cabinet.  It's sad to see the sideart go, but who are we to call him names and judge him for doing what he wants with his own property?  It could be worse.  At least he didn't try to MAME a working, mint condition Smash TV and put pink, fluffy clouds on the side of it.

On the subject of Pole Position being hard to work on, I can attest to that having seen piles of fried out PP boards in the workshop of a dealer for whom I once worked.  They were too hard to fix and maintain, so they just piled up.  There are some great memos at Andy's Arcade http://www.alsarcade.com/Andy/arc/atari/ from Atari Ireland, where the engineers are working frantically to keep the machines in the field from failing.  They resort to installing a bunch of small fans inside the cabinets to keep them cool.

[Spyridon]

You should introduce yourself to the guy parting out the Star Wars over in the B/S/T forum.  You guys would probably get along well.

[CheffoJeffo]

who are we to call him names and judge him for doing what he wants with his own property?

Welcome to the Innernets!

This reception is warm compared to the beating he would take over at KLOV or on RGVAC. 

It could be worse.  At least he didn't try to MAME a working, mint condition Smash TV and put pink, fluffy clouds on the side of it.

Or a mostly-working Star Wars !

 

EDIT: Damn -- Spyridon beat me to it!

[Namco]

This would have been a much nicer thread to read if it had been made into a modern driving sim cab at least, but spray painting over sideart in good condition and cutting it open is just too much. That and cramming a monitor, computer and a PS3 in the poor thing while it's still dirty from many places. I mean, sweep it out, sand & prime, clean it up a little bit. Between the dirt, uneven black spray paint, fingerprints, holes badly cut into it, discolored wood, random brick-a-brack from around the house crammed in there it's just sad, man.

You could've just sat down in a lawn chair in a dark garage to the same effect. It certainly would be a more comfortable seat. But that's just my opinion, it's your cab and you can do what you want with it. I can't wait to see the dragon stickers stuck on there, find a good spot on the black primer where it's even.

EDIT: edited to not sound so vitriolic.

[RayB]

To be honest, when I saw that dragon image up there... I thought it looked kick ass.

[Namco]

Eh, I wrote a pissy post sorry. But do yourself a favor and do it right. After you're done mocking it up, remove all the parts that you intend on keeping and scrub that thing clean, sand, strip, paint, replace worn rubber, add modern amenities, and get some good artwork. I'm sure it'll look great with laminate on it too, but not if there are still signs of age like rust and dirt. Build something you're proud of and take your time.

[SavannahLion]

...My mom took a look and said...

Ah... That perhaps throws some light as to why you did this. If you are young enough that your mom's opinion still influences you enough to make you paint your cab black then I would guess you are also young enough to not realize the significance of what you have permanently  done to this cab.

I thought the use of, "LOL," five times in a single thread as of this posting was a dead give away.

Damn you, you just screwed up my averages.