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Cabinet Conversion opportunity...

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NOkontrol:

Hi guys, I have an itch to build a MAME cab and have been doing lots of reading up and checking out some of the amazing work that some of you guys have done...
I'm having a hard time deciding whether to pick up a used game and convert it or to start from scratch.. I would probably have to borrow or buy some tools and time is money for me. I'm definitely going to build a custom control board and am thinking that a two player board done in kind of a standard Lusid/slikstik/Kinevel inspired layout will suit me just fine.
I spotted some local opportunities but am not sure how good of a deal they are (haven't seen them in person either.)
Anyway I'm looking at these working games...with descriptions as follows.

"I have for sale a Defender coin-op arcade game in great shape, and great working order. Right now it is set to free play, but it can be changed to take quarters to play. Asking $300.00"

"soul calibur arcade game, works as shown
coin op or free play
$300"

"Altered Beast - Everything works except for the sound $150" 

There are others but these caught my eye and were the cheaper of the ones that weren't too beat up.
Any opinions? Trying to figure out if I should be looking for a certain cab style to accept my plan for a control board or just get a cab I like and assume that I'll be able to mod it however I want without too much trouble...
Sorry for rambling, I've been reading for days and dreaming of mashing buttons my head's spinning. Super eager but I want to do this right the first time.


Beretta:

i'd say keep looking but i dont know what the economy is liek where you're at.

anyway definitely have an idea of what kinda cab you want.

if you convert one it's good to start with something close to what you want.. rather then trying to hack and mod the cabinet to make it something else.. surely it can be done but it's more work and less likely to be happy with it unless you're good at wood working.

have an idea of how many players you want, how many controls you want, which do you prefer? horizonal or vertical games? also how big of a monitor would you like? 19? 25? 27... MORE?

how do you prefer your monitor to be angled?

get an idea of what you want, what you can live with, and what you can't..

the less compromises you have to make the happier you will be.

mvsfan:



try to find something that is Jamma and make sure it has a working monitor ask them to play a game on it if possible.

Then order yourself an opti pac to plug into the jamma and youll be way ahead of the game.

otherwise your gonna have to do some figuring out and some rewiring also.

if you want to get this thing up and running as fast as possible thats the way to go.

CrazyKongFan:

The other 2 are probably already JAMMA, but please don't ruin a good working classic like Defender by converting it to MAME. If it was already gutted and not working, ok, but not one working and in great shape. This has been today's public service announcement ;D

GaryMcT:

If you end up converting a classic (like Defender), please don't do anything irreversible to it.

I made a generic control panel for my Defender, but I'm on the verge of putting it back stock and using a bombed out cab as a basis for a Mame/JROK Multi-Williams machine.

Everytime someone ruins a classic machine, Jesus kills a kitten.

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