The Canucks Cocktail Cabinet

[opt2not]

Begin renovation:
I ended getting my grimy hands on a cocktail table today! I was scouring craigslist for a while, looking for a decent priced cocktail unit that I can restore and update, and was lucky to come across one that was marked at $300. Though it was posted from a city across the border...From the pictures the seller posted, I countered his price with $150, then we settled on $175.



I'm posting this in Project Announcements instead of Restorations because I'm planning on making this a renovation project. I was thinking about stripping the wood-look and going with a more brighter modern finish. Really, I'm not found of the antique wood finish, I'm into a more colourful and fun looking cabinets. I'm thinking about updating it to my favourite hockey team's theme, the Canucks, with a nice deep blue look and white trimming. My reasoning behind this is that I want to have Hat Trick playing on this thing primarily, so I would be creating a Hat Trick - The Vancouver Canucks Edition. But seeing that I cannot find a working Hat Trick and Sente PCB, nor do I want to fiddle with a non-Jamma board, I'm most likely going to put a PC in this thing with a small list of emulated games.

This cabinet was 182km away (113 miles) from me, and required me to journey into the land of the fast-food haven, the US of A.
I didn't really have a lot of time this weekend, because it's Canadian Thanksgiving so I had to somehow "ninja buy" this machine in the morning and come back before the family woke up for the day.  So, at 6am I headed down south, embarking on a 2hr drive to check this thing out and ultimately purchase it. Of course, hitting a fast-food fav along the way --- mmmm, Jack 'n the Box tacos!

Here it is, purchased and fitted into the back of the coupe! Snug!

Coming back into Canada the border crossing was fairly empty, and when the Customs Officer learned about my purpose for being in the states, we ended up talking for 10 mins about games. He was the nicest customs guy I've ever talked to!

Ok, on to the slew of photos!

The cabinet is in rough physical shape, nothing that can't be fixed with a little filler action. Like I said I want to repaint this thing with a nice finish anyways.


...but the real kicker for me was that it held 2 spinners and a newly restored monitor. As well as looking like it being an original midway cabinet.




The Monitor is bright and doesn't have a lot of burn-in. Pretty good IMO!


Currently it has Arkanoid in it, and the seller included 2 extra PCB's of the same game thrown into the deal. He said one was working, and the other wasn't, but didn't remember which was which...so I'll have to test them both when I get a chance. I think it was a good buy, and with a little love I can restore and update this thing to a great cabinet state.


Here's a shot of the glass w/ my flash on, you can see the small scratches more here. It's not as bad as the camera makes it look.


Original Coin door...yes! Just need to clean and restore it a bit.  Speaker grills and a red button. The button is hooked up to the coin slot, so that the original owner could just hit this button for credits. I will be removing this one for sure.


Looks like a Midway Kit, but I don't really know, I'm not very familiar with these cabinets. I was expecting this to say Galaga, or Pacman...but it's #326!


Here's a few shots of the innards. It has an RCA tube, with Electrohome chassis it seems. Desperately needs a good cleanin'!  Notice the new flyback.


I'm pretty happy with grabbing this machine. I've always wanted a cocktail table, but I didn't want to buy a newer one because I'm sort of hooked on the idea of going through a full restoration process (it's Level's and Spyridon's fault, their resto-posts got me hooked!) and this is a good small sized machine that I handle. This is going to probably be my last cabinet project for a while, so I wanted to get something that is smaller than a stand-up to really theme out. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the current setup in there, all I know is that so far I'm thinking the CP's will have a joystick, a spinner and probably 2 buttons max.  I'm not planning on making this an "every game" cabinet, just a handful of the classics that would work will on a cocktail. Arkanoid will stay on the list, but just from a different source than a PCB. It's definitely going to have Hat Trick, Tempest and a few more spinner classics.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

*edit: adding to-do list to keep track of tasks*

Tasks 2-Do!
- disassemble and clean cabinet
- strip laminate off main cab
        - wood fill & sand
   - prime and paint main cabinet blue
- purchase 25 cent coin inserts
- purchase CF to IDE PC card
- remove cabinet t-molding
- disassemble and clean coin door and speaker grills
   - scrap rust off coin door and speaker grills
   - paint coin door and speaker grills
- paint CP sides blue
- paint coin door parts
- make Canuck logo stencils
- paint green and white stripes on main cab
- paint main canucks logo onto main cab
- purchase t-molding
- paint johnny canuck logo onto main cab
- add thicker white outline to main logo
- clear-coat main cabinet
- restore cabinet legs
   - apply felt pads to legs
- remove monitor from cab-top mount
   - strip laminate off monitor side piece
        - remove t-molding
   - sand cab-top
   - paint monitor side piece blue
- clear-coat top piece of cabinet
- strip paint from glass-top
   - paint glass-top (leave areas for artwork prints)
        - paint green outline
- purchase PC interfaces
- apply t-molding
- drill additional button holes in metal CP
   - cut plexi for CP
- print tabletop artwork
- paint metal CP
- reassemble monitor & power, reinstall into cab
- mount PC parts inside cabinet
- build switch box interface
- wire up controls to switch box
      - wire up minipac to switch box
      - wire up spinner to optipac
- setup PC software
- print CP artwork
- buy replacement LED lights for coin doors, CP lights, wire up
- purchase KVM\VGA switch (integrate into switchbox?)
- install speakers - short term solution for now
- install one more case fan for heat distribution
- Change Advmenu colours to better reflect cabinet
- wire up replacement LED lights for coin doors, CP lights
- polish off scratches from glass surface
- Re-compile Advmame to optimize for AMD and omit warning messages on game start-up NOT NEEDED see here.
- Game list update
- DC: apply 15kHZ hack to VGA Box
- purchase new optic boards
- Get spinners working!
- Reconnect service button in switchbox
- Purchase new midway face-plate
- Re-wire for Jamma
- cap-kit monitor


- New art for CP's and Glass.

[saleem]

you lot from over the sea are soo lucky.here in uk expect to pay (well its hard to find these cab types) but,i would say £300+ easy.convert that to dollars!

on side note,nice find and hope to see lots of pics of your project,unlike mine cos i am lazy bugger.

[Epyx]

Love the local border run

How far down did you go? Im thinking between Bellingham and Everret?

[opt2not]

on side note,nice find and hope to see lots of pics of your project,unlike mine cos i am lazy bugger.

Thanks saleem, no problem I will definitely document the process as best I can.

Love the local border run

How far down did you go? Im thinking between Bellingham and Everret?

Yeah it was in Everett. It's not a terribly long drive, but it feels that way when you do it solo. At that early in the morning, I didn't want to rope anyone into losing sleep over this hobby/obsession. 


After doing some more investigation inside the cabinet, I found a tag inside the coin box:


...and KLOV's Wizard of Wor page states:

http://www.klov.com/W/Wizard_Of_Wor.html
The cocktail is a standard Bally Midway cocktail from the era. However, Bally Midway did a very strange thing for this game: the monitor is rotated 90 degrees from how it is normal viewed on the upright (a person playing the upright sees the monitor horizontally oriented; a player sitting at the cocktail sees the monitor vertically oriented). So basically, on the cocktail, you have to play the game sideways!

So there we have it, this was an original Midway cocktail with Wizard of Wor originally installed, then converted over to Arkanoid.

Here's a photoshop'd starting point of what I was thinking of how the look of the cabinet will be. The colour scheme goes with the Canuck's home jerseys. I wanted to incorporate all 3 canucks logos on the cabinet in a way that's not too intrusive.  Keeping them small is the key, since I don't have a lot of space to use.
I can really see this being in my living room, and I'm sure I'll be playing it during hockey game period intermissions! (or during the game if the Canucks are losing badly )
Comments welcome!


As for controls, like I said earlier I'd like to stick a joystick and 2 push-buttons on there, though it may be a bit cramped. I'll have to measure them out with proper dimensions to see how much space I have to play with here. I will also need to figure out what games are going to be on this thing, whether they merit the need of 2 push-buttons. The CP artwork hasn't crossed my mind yet, but it'll be more detailed than just a flat colour, most likely going to use the white and green more here not to mention labels for the inputs.  But here's a rough concept regardless:


I was also thinking if there was enough space internally to put the spinner on the front of the CP. Not sure how comfortable it would play though, but it *could* be an option...here's a concept (this time with green!)



More to come...

[Hewskie]

Wow, that concept art looks great. I'm from surrey so you know I'm going to love this cab! For your cp art, have you seen what this guy's done? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97074.0

A nice picture of the inside of GM Place would look really cool there. Just an idea.

Keep us posted

Hewskie

[Billy_Goatfeet]

  Nice buy!  I was going to make a comment about your team but considering I am a Leafs fan, I don't have a leg to stand on!!  Damn those Sedins!! 

[opt2not]

Wow, that concept art looks great. I'm from surrey so you know I'm going to love this cab! For your cp art, have you seen what this guy's done? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=97074.0

A nice picture of the inside of GM Place would look really cool there. Just an idea.

Keep us posted

Hewskie

Yeah, I was thinking about that. It's a good idea, I might have to rip it off!

  Nice buy!  I was going to make a comment about your team but considering I am a Leafs fan, I don't have a leg to stand on!!  Damn those Sedins!! 

Yeah, but at least the Leafs have seen a Stanley Cup! I'm hoping the Canucks will eventually, in my lifetime... 

[dkssprs]

I love the colours you choosed for the artwork!! 

I will be watching your progress 

[Nogginboink]

This is brilliant!  "Canucks Edition" gave me the best idea yet:  A "Stars Edition" game just *might* have the WAF to be allowed into the house! I'll have to try that...

[opt2not]

Today I took apart the control panels to give them a good cleaning and figure out how to fix the noisy arkanoid spinner.


Got to remove the adhesive from the CP laminate that was on there. While cleaning the metal CP, I just ran it under hot water and peeled the laminate off. 


After disassembling the spinner, cleaning it then putting it back together, I noticed that noise is being caused by the gear shafts vibrating in their slots. Nothin' a little grease can't fix! After greasing their holes, not only has the spinner quieted up, it also has made the turning friction a lot more loose! It feels really great, I'm glad that this was a small and cheap fix.

Cleaned & quiet spinner


An assessment of the space in the CP has me to believe that I might not be able to fit the spinner on the front side of the CP, which  I wasn't too sure of in the first place. As well, I'm skeptical of fitting all the controls on the top of CP, so I might need to re-think my layout. Tomorrow I'll continue the disassembling and and cleaning of the cabinet, not to mention start up on stripping the laminate from the wood.

Do you guys feel like I do when you find old dried gum stuck to the bottom of a CP?  It's so disrespectful!  Gah! I hate cleaning up gum.

Stay tuned for more!

[Billy_Goatfeet]

  Nice buy!  I was going to make a comment about your team but considering I am a Leafs fan, I don't have a leg to stand on!!  Damn those Sedins!! 

Yeah, but at least the Leafs have seen a Stanley Cup! I'm hoping the Canucks will eventually, in my lifetime... 
[/quote]

  I think you guys will get there before we will.  You've got the right goalie.  I'd be happy just to see my team in the finals in my lifetime, haven't had that.  Are you sure you don't want to go with the old 80's 'reese's pieces' colour scheme for your machine.  Those were beauts!

 

[opt2not]

 I think you guys will get there before we will.  You've got the right goalie.  I'd be happy just to see my team in the finals in my lifetime, haven't had that.  Are you sure you don't want to go with the old 80's 'reese's pieces' colour scheme for your machine.  Those were beauts!

eww, don't remind me of those jerseys
Actually the colours might look really nice on furniture, and would go well with my living room walls (burgundy), I may have to photoshop it up and see how it looks. Though it's not the current Canucks scheme, which is what I wanted to go with. Also, if I decide to sell this down the line, it would be easier to do so with the current colours/logo.

This is brilliant!  "Canucks Edition" gave me the best idea yet:  A "Stars Edition" game just *might* have the WAF to be allowed into the house! I'll have to try that...

That was the only way I could convince the wife to allow it in the living room!

[Benevolance]

Jack in the box is my favorite part of visiting the states.

I really like your design mock-up. It is a superb choice of teams, and I like how you've applied the colour/logos. I'd vote against putting the spinner on the front, though. I don't think that would be very comfortable to use.

There seem to be a lot of us in the surrey/langley region. We should form a union. Or at least meet up for beers somewhere.

[opt2not]

Today I did a little work with the dremel, cleaned up the CPs and spinner rust:



Also worked on getting the laminate off the wood, I used the old hot iron and putty knife technique.


It's all turning out well!
Next up: the coin door!

[opt2not]

Alright, daily updates continue!

Today I removed and disassembled the Coin door, removed the speakers and speaker grills, and disconnected the power supply.

For the Coin door, I cleaned up the parts and took my trusty dremel and wire-wheel to it's rusted dirty carcass, preparing it for priming & painting.


I use little baggies to separate all the parts into their relative areas (coin door gets it's own bag of nuts and bolts, cp mounting as well, etc..), as you can see by the picture I'll need to clean up the rest of the parts from the coindoor and the speaker assembly.


Inside the coin door there was a tag that said vibration switch:

Does anyone know what this is? There was a leaf-switch in there as well that I believe was attached to the coin lock screw...

I used my drill and a thin-bit to get the rivets off the coin door to remove the Midway plate. The plate itself will need to be replaced with a new one, I kept the rivets and am going to see what I can use to replace them, because I don't think I will be able to find official replacements. I'm also missing one 25¢ coin door insert, as well as the brace that holds it in place. Since thisoldgame.com only ships a pair, I will be replacing the single 25¢ insert with the 25 Cent one because I like the retro look of the word spelled out.  As for the brace that holds it, I might have to come up with a make-shift solution that'll keep that insert in place.

Tomorrow I'll continue cleaning the rest of the coin door parts with my dremel, as well as tidying up the speaker stuff. Then I'm going to remove the glass top and see what kinda restoration I'll need to do to it. I might be able to polish out the minor scratches in it, but I'll assess that then.

 

[Trebeck]

Another Vancouver-ite raising his hand 

Nice grab btw

[opt2not]

There seem to be a lot of us in the surrey/langley region. We should form a union. Or at least meet up for beers somewhere.

Another Vancouver-ite raising his hand 

I'd be down for beers, and talk all that is retro arcade glory.  Though it'll have to be somewhere more neutral than Surrey

[Chicken McNobody]

Inside the coin door there was a tag that said vibration switch:

Does anyone know what this is? There was a leaf-switch in there as well that I believe was attached to the coin lock screw...

I think that is a tamper kill switch.  If you were to shove the machine, or perhaps kick it when you are mad for loosing a life, it will reset the game and remove any credits.  My Space Invaders cocktail has that as well.  Also, some uprights have a kill switch also, but it totally cuts the power, and needs to have the back panel removed to reset for powering back on.  but the upright one may be so you can work back there with less risk of shock.

Maybe an expert will chime in here. . .

Oh, and good work on your progress so far, I loves me a good cocktail table.  I love my Space Invaders table, but hopefully will eventually have a MAME one as well.

[opt2not]

I think that is a tamper kill switch.  If you were to shove the machine, or perhaps kick it when you are mad for loosing a life, it will reset the game and remove any credits.  My Space Invaders cocktail has that as well.  Also, some uprights have a kill switch also, but it totally cuts the power, and needs to have the back panel removed to reset for powering back on.  but the upright one may be so you can work back there with less risk of shock.

Maybe an expert will chime in here. . .

Oh, and good work on your progress so far, I loves me a good cocktail table.  I love my Space Invaders table, but hopefully will eventually have a MAME one as well.

Very cool! I won't be installing it, but that's good to know.  Thanks for the praise as well!

Today's update:

I spent today frivolously grinding off all the rust on the coin mech parts, as well as the speaker grills. Man, what a pain in the butt those speaker grills are. The worst is having to get in-between the little grill areas and remove all the rust that has formed there.  Anyways, I got it cleaned off and ready to be re-painted.


Here's how the coin mechs look now:


The speaker grills before:


and after:


I also removed the glass top to see what was underneath and needed restoring:

Looks pretty good, though the wood top could use a repainting. Now you can see the burn-in on the monitor a bit more, it's under smoked plexi.

Here's the glass:

As you can see, the paint on the bottom of the glass will need to be re-applied. I'll have to get paint thinner for this, but I'm glad the inserts were only taped there, which is awesome for removing!

All in all, I'm pretty happy with today's progress, I got a lot of the hard stuff out of the way.
Next up: removing the rest of the innards within the cabinet!

Stay tuned, same bat-time, same bat-channel. 

[opt2not]

Hang-over days are always unproductive, so I figured I'd get as much as I can done while waiting for my body to return to normal. 

Today I pulled the rest of the innards out of the cabinet, and cleaned the dust and dirt inside with soapy water. After that, I pulled off the crummy old t-molding, and did an assessment of where to wood needs filler.


I then proceeded to remove the laminate by taking my iron, heating up the laminate and peeling it underneath with a scraper.  Works well, but it's tedious work.

One side done, 3 more to go...

I'll finish up the other sides, then work on cleaning off the remaining adhesive left by the laminate (using goo-gone and some patience). After that I'll start applying the wood filler, before I hit this thing with the sander.  Though, the way I'm feeling now I'll probably do this tomorrow. At least I got something done today!

Cont...

[opt2not]

Monday's update:


Got the rest of the laminate off this weekend, which seemed like forever to finish, but I just kept at it till it was done. After it was removed I went around the cabinet and applied wood-filler to all the gashes, cracks, and chips this cabinet had.

The bottom corners were in pretty rough shape, so I had to use a bunch of filler to reshape them. I nailed some scrap hardboard I had sitting around here to keep the corner filler straight.  This filler will take about 8 hrs to dry solid through, so I'm going to let it be for today and carry on tomorrow.




Some of the edges were a bit chipped off, not terribly, but enough to merit applying filler.


Tomorrow's tasks (the fun stuff):
- Sand off the remaining adhesive left from the Laminate
- Sand the dried wood filler smooth
- Clean and Prime the surface for painting!

[opt2not]

Did a little work sanding down the cabinet today.


Man I love wood filler.
I cleaned up the wood filler and sanded it down evenly, it's looking really good, but I knew from my last project that I would need to do a second application of the filler. As i was sanding the press-board, the dried up edges tended to chip away, so I ended up going around the entire cabinet and (very anally) filling up the parts that chipped away. Not a big deal really, and the outcome will be rewarding with nice solid edges!

The corners turned out pretty well. Instead of keeping them 90 degrees, I ended up using my palm sander and curving them round. I like the way they look, and I think it'll look pretty classy when all's said and done.

I'm going to let the filler dry for the rest of the day, and move onto something else this afternoon. Most likely prepping my control panels.

[opt2not]

I did the ol' cardboard control panel mock-up test, and have hit a wall. My goal is to reuse the existing metal CP (for budgeting reasons) and try to fit in the controls while using the holes that are there.
My features plan includes:
1 joystick (old mag-stik+'s i have sitting around)
1 spinner
2 play buttons (pulled from a madcatz arcade stick)
1 start button
1 "exit game" button

I've got all the parts already, mostly stuff I had laying around, but I'm having a heck of a time figuring out a layout that is comfortable.

See here:

Here's how cramped it looks from the back:


The joystick is using the hole the spinner originally occupied, and button 1 is also an existing hole. I'd have to make new holes for the spinner, button 2, start and exit buttons.  The buttons are fine, and feel ok that close to the spinner, but the joystick doesn't. When you're playing on the spinner, you keep hitting your hand on the joystick!  


So I think I'll have to space them out a bit, and try not to care about the holes being mangled.

I might not move the joystick over that much, because I'm worried about fitting your hand on the stick comfortably without hitting the wall on the left-side of the CP...but you can get the idea.

here's an animated gif of it as well, to give you the contrast:


To even further the investigation, I could also angle my buttons a bit more to save space, then shift the spinner over more. This way I can save 25% of the distance a single button would take up if in-lined with the other.
Like so:

Spacing of the buttons is going to be more trial & error with this above example, so I think I might have to do a bit more investigation on what feels best.  
But I would love any comments or suggestions from you fine folks.  

[Epyx]

Opt2not,

Take a look at the CP for my 1st cab in signature. I personally like having the spinner to the outside and the joystick to the inside. The joystick grip is a grip that tends to stay on the shaft whereas the spinner one involves a lot more wrist action and might therefore be better served on the outside for less knuckle obstruction.  Just a thought!

[emphatic]

You haven't considered having an easily swappable panel setup and have one panel for joystick, and one for spinner? The hardest part would be figuring out the panel lock mechanism.

[opt2not]

Opt2not,

Take a look at the CP for my 1st cab in signature. I personally like having the spinner to the outside and the joystick to the inside. The joystick grip is a grip that tends to stay on the shaft whereas the spinner one involves a lot more wrist action and might therefore be better served on the outside for less knuckle obstruction.  Just a thought!

Thanks Epyx!
I tried that option as well, but my problem with that is that the joystick is a bit too close to the buttons to be comfortable. But, I think I've found a good layout that is acceptable:

In this picture I'm using the original holes that were in the CP, and will only need to punch holes for the buttons!  The joystick and spinner do have enough space between them now, and as you can see I've duct taped the sides to the CP to see if the buttons feel ok that close to the corner. I think it does!
I also put the EXIT button in the middle of the spinner and joystick, because I felt that it is in a awkward enough spot that it wouldn't get accidentally hit. Also the start button in the top right felt more natural for me as well.

You haven't considered having an easily swappable panel setup and have one panel for joystick, and one for spinner? The hardest part would be figuring out the panel lock mechanism.

I really haven't considered going with a swappable method, mostly because I wanted this cabinet to be a fuss-free machine. I want it to be simple and easy to step up to and be able to play any game on it right away. Having to swap out CP's is just too much hassle for me.

[opt2not]

Priming begins! I had half a liter of acrylic Primer from my El Diablo Mechanico cabinet that I figured I'd use up, no need to buy more!
Not posting pictures of it yet because it's just a boring primer application to the cabinet.
I went and picked up my paint materials today, here's what I got:

- 1 spray can of Rustoleum Satin Black (for coin door, CP and glass clamps)
- 1 spray can of Rustoleum Satin White (primary Canucks logo white)
- 1 spray can of Rustoleum Metallic Titanium Silver (coin door parts, silver parts in the Canucks logo)
- 1 liter can of ICI/Glidden eggshell Pure Blue Latex
- 1 liter can of ICI/Glidden eggshell Royal Garden (green) Latex
- Foam rollers
- Paint pans
- 220 grit sandpaper
- 320 grit sandpaper

After cleaning out my closet (wow I'm a packrat), I was able to put together a machine of old PC parts I had just laying around.
I've got an old AMD 1500+, 512MB RAM, an old Geforce4 Ti, and a Sound Blaster Live which will be donated to this cabinet. No hard-drive unfortunetly, but that's not needed. My plan is to buy an IDE to CF card and run this machine off a 1gig Compact Flash card. It's going to be DOS-based, and will only be playing classic games. No need for a faster computer for that. The reason I'm going with DOS off a CF card as my hard-drive is because I want to be able to power up the machine quickly, and without worry about my hard-drive deteriorating over time. Also, less heat and noise generation.
As for interfacing, I'll be picking up an Opti-PAC, and a J-PAC from Ultimarc. Both those cards combined, I should have enough button inputs for my needs. The Opti-Pac has 2 buttons per player (labeled mouse buttons) and the J-PAC supples 3 buttons per player.  

I haven't thought about software too much, but I've done a few searches on this forum and found that there are others who have setup a DOS-based cabinet that I'll take my queues from.

For now, I'll worry about the construction side of things, and put the hardware/software stuff off till later.

[saleem]

is your cab jamma based then?

i can only assume it is if you are getting a japc as that is for hooking jamma setup to a pc.

[opt2not]

is your cab jamma based then?

i can only assume it is if you are getting a japc as that is for hooking jamma setup to a pc.

Yup!

[opt2not]

I've sanded down the primer, then applied my second primer coat, then sanded it down again using 100 grit sandpaper.
Then I meticulously wiped down any dust that may have settled onto the cabinet, and applied my first coat of paint!



Just from the first coat, the blue is lookin' really nice. Obviously it's a bit light right now because of the white primer under it, but as soon as I throw on my second, third and possibly forth coat, it'll come out darker and closer to the colour I'm looking for. After this coat dries (6hrs), I'll sand it down with 220 grit sandpaper and hit it up with the second coat.

[opt2not]

Sanded down the first coat with 220 grit sandpaper and applied the second coat. I really like how it's turning out, the blue is really nice looking, and a couple more coats and sanding will really smooth it out.

Here's a couple pictures, the flash makes it look brighter than it is, and without flash makes it dull looking. In real life it looks much different...hmmm, perhaps it's my crappy camera.

[push2reject]

I'm seriously impressed with the spinners.  I don't think you could buy a nicer one new.  I would have replaced them if it were me, but after seeing this that would have been a mistake.

I'll be watching this one.  Nice job!

[opt2not]

Sanded down the second coat with the same 220 grit sandpaper to get it more even, since I felt it needed a bit more attention to the layer thickness in some areas. Third coat has been applied and is drying now!  After it dries, I'm going to hit it up with a 320 grit dry sanding, then apply my last coat and wet-sand it with 1000 grit.  But so far, the surface is starting to look really even and smooth!  Yay!  

With flash:


Without flash:

I'm seriously impressed with the spinners.  I don't think you could buy a nicer one new.  I would have replaced them if it were me, but after seeing this that would have been a mistake.

I'll be watching this one.  Nice job!

Thanks push2reject! 
I figured $175 for a cocktail unit with a good condition monitor and 2 spinners was worth the cost! When I picked it up, the spinners made a "wrrrrrrrrrrr" sound when spun, especially when trying to crank it faster than normal usage would ensue. But when I took it apart, cleaned up the dirt, and re-greased the gears and gear shafts, the spinner stays nice and quiet and has a good smooth rotation to it.  It's hard to explain through text dialog, but it has a real smooth feel of friction and feels really nice to play with.

[opt2not]

Third coat sanded with 320 grit sandpaper. Applied the forth and final coat!!
This baby is looking so good that I don't think I need to wet sand it after this. I'll wait to see how the drying turns out, but from what I see after putting on the last coat, it's pretty smooth and even in colour and texture. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Here are some pictures, again, the blue isn't as bright in RL.








I'm going to let it dry overnight, then I'll move it to a safe-keeping spot so that it can cure for 4-5 days before I start with the stenciling of the logo and the green and white trim. Next up is the coin door, coin door parts, and CP flap painting! Stay tuned!

[tomdotcom]

You still have a chance to change it to an Edmonton Oilers Cocktail instead. Do the right thing hehe...Big oilers fan here, although we live in BC now (Kamloops) The GF loves Vancouver..

[opt2not]

You still have a chance to change it to an Edmonton Oilers Cocktail instead. Do the right thing hehe...Big oilers fan here, although we live in BC now (Kamloops) The GF loves Vancouver..

Nooooooooooo!  Though, my brother lives in Deadmonton and he wouldn't mind it being an Oilers cab...but damned if I would allow it in my house! Nothing against the Oilers though, I liked them, better than the Flames at least (who really likes the Flames anyways?). But I gotta stay true to my Canuckleheads, even though they're crap. Eventually something will spark them to go all the way, maybe this cabinet will be their lucky charm!

[tomdotcom]

Pretty damn hard to cheer for the Oilers lately as well. No superstars ever want to stay in Deadmonton And yes the flames are the suck!

[dafelandry]

SIIICK cocktail..... Comming from Regina, Sask..... Lots of love for the Canucks... (AND RIDERS HELL YEAH TIED FOR 1st).... Looks sweet definatly going to watch this!!! Good luck and again SICK!

[opt2not]

Small progress lately, I'm trying to get over a cold, so I haven't had much energy to work on the cabinet this weekend. But I did get to order a few things online while laying around.

- 20' of White 3/4" t-molding (t-molding.com)
- 11' of White 1" t-molding (t-molding.com)
- 25 cents coin door inserts (thisoldgame)
- CF -> IDE Adapter card (ncix)

I'm going to leave the PC cards for now, till I can see if I can get a cheaper deal on an JPAC and OPTIPAC off ebay or elsewhere.
I was also able to spray paint the coin door and speaker grill, which I'll post pictures of later.

[Billy_Goatfeet]

  All you guys complaining about your teams!  It's not so bad...my team just picked up their first win of the season.  That says it all.  In fact, every team in my city is TERRIBLE!!      CFL/MLB/MLS/NHL/NBA...tough times.   Anyhow, it's coming along nicely opt2not!  Keeping my eye on this one!

[opt2not]

  All you guys complaining about your teams!  It's not so bad...my team just picked up their first win of the season.  That says it all.  In fact, every team in my city is TERRIBLE!!      CFL/MLB/MLS/NHL/NBA...tough times.   Anyhow, it's coming along nicely opt2not!  Keeping my eye on this one!

Awww, poor Toronto.  Hey, at least you still have your b-ball team! Ours sucked so bad they moved out to another city quick! And now there's talks about getting another NBA team back here! 

As promised, a few quick shots of the spray paint job:
Speaker grills now:

And how they looked before:


The coin door:


I didn't go with the Hammered black paint, even though I had the option to. I kinda like the Satin finish, because it's cleaner looking and smoooooooth.
Oh btw, I added my task list on the first post of this thread, to keep track of what I need to do. It's a first pass of stuff left to do, but I'm sure I'm missing stuff in it.

[opt2not]

After letting the coin door parts dry after spray painting it with Rustoleum Metallic Titanium Silver, I reassembled the coin door and placed it on the cabinet to see how it looks.



I really love how it turned out, but it'll be better when I get the new coin inserts and midway faceplate.

[opt2not]

Today I finished up the main canucks logo stencil, and spray painted the layers onto the cabinet:


It's not perfect, but it's pretty decent IMO.

Basically I separated the colours in photoshop, printed them out onto regular paper. I then glued that paper to poster board, and used my utility-knife and cut out the lines.
This was a simple stencil with only 2 colours needed  (silver and white), since the blue was already used on the cabinet.
Here's a shot of the silver stencil being sprayed. I used pennies to keep the stencil down while I sprayed.


Here's what the first stenciled art looked like afterwards:

I later filled up the separated lines, then proceeded to paint the white onto it. Easy-peasy!

Next up is the green and white lines at the base of the cabinet, then the second logo!

[Hewskie]

wow! that stencil looks great!

Keep up the good work

[opt2not]

wow! that stencil looks great!

Keep up the good work

Thanks Hewskie, having compliments from you guys really helps push me along in getting this thing done!
I'm currently working on painting the stripes at the base, then I'm onto the second stenciled logo of the Johnny Canuck vintage symbol:


I was wondering if I should put another logo on the backside of the cabinet. In my currently design, the side with the coin door has the two logos, but the other side doesn't have anything. I was considering putting the old-school hockey stick "C" logo on it:


What do you guys think?

[Hewskie]

I like the hockey stick logo, but isn't the side opposite the coin door the back? Are you having that side up against a wall? In your original concept art, I liked how you had the hockey sticks on the top. I'd leave it like that.

Hewskie

[Epyx]

The coin door turned out fantastic and I love the Canuckleheads logo

Speaking of which...Salo "the glassman" returns tonight...

[opt2not]

I like the hockey stick logo, but isn't the side opposite the coin door the back? Are you having that side up against a wall? In your original concept art, I liked how you had the hockey sticks on the top. I'd leave it like that.

Yeah, the cabinet will be up against the wall for now. But in the future I may have it in a spot that's more in the open. But heck, maybe I'll just keep it at my original design. I was thinking that the hockey stick logo might be bigger on the other side, because it would look weird if it were the size of the other logos. But then, it would also look weird if that logo was bigger than the others! So, in the end of all this, I'm scratching that idea entirely and leaving the backside as is.

The coin door turned out fantastic and I love the Canuckleheads logo
Speaking of which...Salo "the glassman" returns tonight...

Oh man, thank goodness, we need all the defensive help we can get. Too many chances were given in that Detroit game, and losing to LA is just shameful

[opt2not]

During the intermissions of the Canucks game tonight (yay the canucks won in a shoot-out!) I did some small touch-ups of the stenciled main logo using a fine tip brush. Some of the lines weren't as crisp as I would have liked, so I fixed that up. Notice that I left the eyes a bit "hazy" from the spray, I kinda like it, makes it seem mysterious 


After that, I put tape down for the green line at the bottom of the cab, and applied 3 coats of green paint while sanding in-between with 250 grit, then twice with 350 grit sandpaper.
I let the final coat semi-dry then pulled off the tape. With the paint not completely dry you can get a cleaner line when pulling the tape off (found this out the hard way when I was painting my home). The outcome was pretty nice IMO.




I'm going to wait for the paint to dry overnight a bit more, then I'm going to cover the green and paint in the white lines. As well, I've started cutting out the stencils for the other logo and will apply it when I'm done with the white application.
More to come!
 

[tomdotcom]

I LOVE their old style hockey stick logo. My oilers won in a shootout tonight as well! Woot woot..after blowing a 5-1 lead..ouch haha

[opt2not]

Taped off the green and sprayed the white stripes! The white really "pops"!





After seeing it like this, I'm thinking about not putting the second logo on. It resembles their jerseys really well as is, and adding the extra logo might be a bit overkill.
When the white t-molding arrives, it's going to all come together really great. Can't wait!

[opt2not]

I can't decide on which theme for the CPs I want on this thing. I narrowed it down to two possiblities:

1. The stadium theme (GM Place)
Player 1 side:

Player 2 side:


2. Net-camera theme
Player 1 side:

Player 2 side:


Both of them are good!  I can't decide, what do you guys think?

[emphatic]

I like the second one better (with the net camera), but I think that the photo overlays does clash somewhat the the very clean graphics on the rest of it. If you could have it vectorized to lessen the photo feel of it all, I feel it would more "arcadeish" as well.

[opt2not]

I like the second one better (with the net camera), but I think that the photo overlays does clash somewhat the the very clean graphics on the rest of it. If you could have it vectorized to lessen the photo feel of it all, I feel it would more "arcadeish" as well.

Hmm, interesting. I agree with your point about the button labels clashing with the photo underneath, but I do like the idea of it being photo-looking because of the details of the arena as well as the expression on the player faces. I could play with the button labels more to make them stand out against the background, perhaps something with the box outlines.
I'm leaning towards the net-cam photos, but the gm place photos are great too!  I love the picture of gm place from the outside, because of the two people with a Linden and Luongo jersey (both my all-time favourite Canucks), and of course "towel power" in the other one...
But the net-cam photos are just so dynamic!

Gah, I'm torn.

[opt2not]

I'm finally finished with the painting on the main cabinet! *phew* it took a while, but I'm happy with how it turned out.
Today, I took some of my own advice about following-through and kept with the initial plan of adding the second logo to the main cabinet. I'm really glad I did because it turned out looking nice!




Also, I noticed that I made an error with the main logo's stenciling. My original stencil was based on the Canuck's logo from last year, this year their logo has a thicker white line surrounding it. No biggie though, I added it to the cabinet and viola!


I'm going to let it dry overnight, then clear-coat this badboy tomorrow.  Go Canucks GO!!!!!

[opt2not]

Phase 1 - complete!



Today I was happy to have finished the aesthetics of the main cabinet. After letting the new logo paint dry overnight, I broke out the clear-coat and applied 4 coats to the cabinet.


The clear-coat I have is a semi-gloss, water-based one. The finish of the cabinet now has a slight sheen to it, which I've tried to capture for you all to see:



without flash (sorry, my camera isn't the best):


While I let the clear-coat dry for a few hours, I took out my speaker grills and coin door and got them ready to install. But first I needed to clean the rust off the old bolts, so I put each one in my drill, and followed spacies guide to polishing bolt heads. I then installed them all onto the cabinet. Here's how they look now:




Did you notice the extra bolt just sitting beside the small speaker grills?  Well that was the old coin button the previous owner installed. I totally forgot to fill it up before I painted it, and noticed that after I started the painting process. Doh!  Oh well, it looks fine as is, especially being a polished bolt but I might use it for something later (perhaps a volume knob?).

Lastly, I cleaned the rust off the old cabinet legs, stuck felt pads on the bottoms and installed them under the cabinet.


Here's the other side of the cabinet, now sitting in my living room waiting for the next steps!


Next up: I've got to work on the top piece now, removing the monitor from it's bracket then sanding down the top and repainting it. I'm still waiting for my t-molding to arrive, so once that gets here I'll apply it right away.  Can't wait!

[emphatic]

That's gonna look so great with the T-Molding on. 

[Chicken McNobody]

Admittedly, not a fan of sports themed cabinets.  But you are doing a very nice and aesthetically pleasing job, you are showing it can be done well. 

Keep it up!

Still loves me a good cocktail cabinet!

[Epyx]

Looking fantastic...Has anyone done a sports theme with Locker art on the inside? 

You know you open the case up and you are in the locker room. /sigh

[emphatic]

Looking fantastic...Has anyone done a sports theme with Locker art on the inside? 

You know you open the case up and you are in the locker room. /sigh

That almost sounds like a quote from A Night At The Roxbury. Is your name Butabi by any chance? 

[opt2not]

That's gonna look so great with the T-Molding on. 

Agreed! I ordered it from t-molding.com more than a week ago, so it should be here soon!

Admittedly, not a fan of sports themed cabinets.  But you are doing a very nice and aesthetically pleasing job, you are showing it can be done well. 

Thanks Chicken! I too wasn't a fan of sports themed cabinets, and before I decided on doing one I did a search to see what people have done, not really finding many I liked. I figured this would be a good challenge to do one up right!  We'll see how it turns out!

Looking fantastic...Has anyone done a sports theme with Locker art on the inside? 

You know you open the case up and you are in the locker room. /sigh

Perhaps I could throw a sweaty towel and my athletic cup in there, for good measure?

Ok, on to the update: 
Today was a slow one.
I unpacked the monitor section/table top part and began to disassemble it. Looking at the monitor from the burn-in it looks like the previous owner took the tube out of a Zaxxon cabinet.

I removed the monitor from it's mount, and cleaned off all the dirt that was resting underneath it. 

After stripping the laminate from the other side of the monitor-mount top piece, I started to sand it down with my palm sander and about 10 seconds into it the sander died.  I knew it was coming, because the switch on it wouldn't turn it on sometimes, I would have to wiggle it to get it working.  Admittedly I could have hand sanded the rest, but I couldn't live with a broken tool in my arsenal!
I took a couple hours out of my time to take it apart and ascertain the situation. I knew the problem was centered around the switch, so i took it out of the sander and hooked it up to a voltage meter.

Just as I thought, the switch was broken inside. Double 
I didn't have a replacement on/off switch handy, so I looked in my spare parts pile and found an old PC microswitch from a case I had a while ago.

With a little MacGyver'y I wired it up to the sander and it turned out to be a cool upgrade and repair all in one!  I now have momentary microswitch control of my sander! It's actually a lot better than an on/off switch, since i have to hold the button to run it.  I used some electrical tape to placed it in the spot my thumb would be and presto!


It's working better than before, and I can now continue with the sanding before I prime it and paint.

[opt2not]

Today's log:

I clear-coated the painted the CP parts,  let it dry all day and placed it on the cabinet temporarily.

Got a nice picture of the semi-gloss shine:


Last night I threw some wood filler on the top piece and finished up the sanding this morning, got rid of a lot of jaggies along the edges. Sprayed a few coats of Satin Black onto it, then sealed it up with a couple coats of clear.


After that I applied the paint process to the back-end side of the top piece, 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of blue with the same sanding in-between.
After letting it dry, I placed it on the cabinet, looks good!

It's just resting there, I haven't bolted it to the cabinet yet.


It does seem a bit bare without any kind of logo, but I could care less about it since it's the backside. I was thinking I could have put some "vancouver canucks" text on it, but that would have a bit too in-your-face. I want the aesthetics of this cabinet to not be too abrasively a sports cabinet, but still seem like one. If that makes any sense to you  guys.

Tomorrow it's glass restoring time! I'm so excited! I got some paint thinner made specifically for glass surfaces so I can strip the black paint under it. Once I get all the paint off, I'm going to tape off for re-painting the black and my green outlines. After that, I'll polish the top to get some of the small surface scratches out.
Once the glass is done, and some minor part restorations for bolt heads and brackets, it's pretty much onto the mechanical and electrical segment of the project! Weeeeee!

[emphatic]

It does seem a bit bare without any kind of logo, but I could care less about it since it's the backside. I was thinking I could have put some "vancouver canucks" text on it, but that would have a bit too in-your-face. I want the aesthetics of this cabinet to not be too abrasively a sports cabinet, but still seem like one. If that makes any sense to you  guys.

Less is more. Way to go!

[Ryglore]

  Nice work! Keep it up!

[opt2not]

Fast update while the early Canucks game is on:

Cleaned off the paint and dirt that was on the glass:

This was awesome, I've never had to remove paint from glass before, this was so easy!
I used some methyl hydrate (aka wood alcohol) to get the paint off, that stuff is awesome!

Basically I poured some of this stuff onto the painted surface, waited about 15 secs, then scraped it with a plastic scraper. The paint came right off with very little pressure needed and the consistency of the paint felt gooey...like scraping honey on bread.

After tonight's game I'm going to mask it off with tape and spray paint the new black onto it. I'll update later!

[Turnarcades]

I've never understood this very-American-and-Canadian compulsion to plaster their arcade cabs with sports related themes. Whenever I see English footy fans putting team stickers and other fan crap in their cars it just makes me think "what a chav...". Thank god no-one's sickened me enough by emblazoning their cabinet over here with Wolves-related shite or Old Trafford pics, though I suppose at least you guys have sports teams with pretty cool names and logos.

Nice resto work on the cabinet though and at least you've looked after the cabinet, rather than just throwing on a load of stickers.

[opt2not]

I've never understood this very-American-and-Canadian compulsion to plaster their arcade cabs with sports related themes. Whenever I see English footy fans putting team stickers and other fan crap in their cars it just makes me think "what a chav...". Thank god no-one's sickened me enough by emblazoning their cabinet over here with Wolves-related shite or Old Trafford pics, though I suppose at least you guys have sports teams with pretty cool names and logos.

Nice resto work on the cabinet though and at least you've looked after the cabinet, rather than just throwing on a load of stickers.

Hahaha, thanks I think. Couldn't figure out whether that was a compliment till the second reading. Brit-subtlety sometimes goes over my head 

But you're right, it is a very North American thing. Usually sports-ridden crap is tacky to me, another reason why I didn't want to get overzealous with pushing logos all over it, but I was somewhat compelled to doing it. I just felt that a cocktail unit is a good candidate for putting sports themes on, since it's a cabinet you'd most likely see in bars or in a frat-house.

btw, what's a "chav"?
Is that the British equivalent to being a "---meecrob---"?

[Turnarcades]

It was a compliment and also a bit of a rant - it's difficult to see past the English side of things when you live amongst it. Personally I hate football as I think it's just a hooligan's sport, and blokes only get 'patriotic' over it as it's something simpleton's can get their heads together about and use it as an excuse to fight. Every ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----thick football think's they're being 'proud to be English' by hanging flags from their house Windows on council estates, putting the St. George cross all over their cars or bodies by tattoo when all they do is look a dick and represent everything that's wrong with this country.

Oh, and a 'chav' is a more recent term that came up in the last 10 years to describe low-lifes who live scummy lives on benefits, have low intelligence, low standards, low manners and usually criminal lifestyles, yet use their ill-gotten gains to dress in what they consider cool - Burberry check, caps, expensive trainers and gawdy gold, which is ironic as they usually drive round in £50 ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----heaps that are about 1 flat tyre from being scrapped, drink on the streets, get seriously under-age girlfriends pregnant and live in homes on estates that make beirut look like the bahamas.

Grrrr.....   

Check out this pile of tat and read the wikipedia entry. I guess you might compare it to 'poor white trash', only much worse and 'in your face'.



and here it is in one handy board game:

http://bo.gs/photos/albums/blog/chavopoly.gif

[Trebeck]

Now THAT was a good rant!

 

[spOOf]

I love how this is coming together.  If you're still looking for input on the CPO, my vote would be for the stadium theme.  While I love the action shots of the net cam, I don't like where the controls (and labels) line up on the photo.  You're right on top of faces (and a near "crotch" button) in the net shots.  The stadium shots just work better.

Both are great themes, I just like how it lays out better in #1.

[opt2not]

It was a compliment and also a bit of a rant - it's difficult to see past the English side of things when you live amongst it. Personally I hate football as I think it's just a hooligan's sport, and blokes only get 'patriotic' over it as it's something simpleton's can get their heads together about and use it as an excuse to fight. Every ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----thick football think's they're being 'proud to be English' by hanging flags from their house Windows on council estates, putting the St. George cross all over their cars or bodies by tattoo when all they do is look a dick and represent everything that's wrong with this country.

I didn't know football (or soccer as we call it here) was considered a patriotic sport over there. That seems weird to me, since the origins of football wasn't even created by the English, but modernized and organized. But then, what else would be considered an English sport? Cricket, rugby?  Yeah, I'd take soccer over those two any day.  But I still can't stand soccer/football either, but only because it's FRICKEN BORING. It's like 2 hours of a bunch of "geezers" (see what i did there? ) running around, with the occasional "sliding trip" and/or/maybe a goal. zzzzzz...

In Canada here, ice hockey has been brain-washed into our minds as kids that it's the Canadian national sport, and Canadian pride. There are people here that resisted that suggestion as kids, but a vast majority of people here are hockey fans. I'm definitely one of them, as I sometimes get cranky if I don't get my hockey fix. It makes sense though,  since it was actually an invention by Canadians (native or first-nation people created it). Though there's argument that it may have been a variant from field-hockey...but i digress. It's the one things that we pride ourselves for creating, as all the other great ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- Canadians created barely gets mentioned or is even known about (like: the zipper, the telephone, the wonder-bra, the pacemaker...the list goes on).

Oh, and a 'chav' is a more recent term that came up in the last 10 years to describe low-lifes who live scummy lives on benefits, have low intelligence, low standards, low manners and usually criminal lifestyles, yet use their ill-gotten gains to dress in what they consider cool - Burberry check, caps, expensive trainers and gawdy gold, which is ironic as they usually drive round in £50 ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----heaps that are about 1 flat tyre from being scrapped, drink on the streets, get seriously under-age girlfriends pregnant and live in homes on estates that make beirut look like the bahamas.

Haha, I think I get it. It's like you say, white-trash/trailer-trash...or even worse IMO: white-trash and like to act like African-american gangstaz. We call them "wiggers", a play on the "n" word...(is that derogatory? my apologies if it is...)
I asked my english buddy about Chav, and he gave me kind-of the same answer.  Though he mentioned that fruit machines and also those pub trivia arcade games are more likely the chav choice of pub gaming, rather than a retro arcade cabinet. That was funny to me, I was like "wtf is a fruit-machine?? does it give you fruit?!"...later learning that it's like a gambling machine, or slot machines as we call it here. I "busted my gut" over that one   We have a lot of people here from the UK, and it's always great learning new English terms.
In any case, awesome rant Turnarcades and thanks for the compliment!

I love how this is coming together.  If you're still looking for input on the CPO, my vote would be for the stadium theme.  While I love the action shots of the net cam, I don't like where the controls (and labels) line up on the photo.  You're right on top of faces (and a near "crotch" button) in the net shots.  The stadium shots just work better.

Both are great themes, I just like how it lays out better in #1.

Thanks for the input spOOf. I might play around with the net-cam images a bit more, as well, I'm thinking about using clear buttons with continuing artwork in them to keep the cp overlay showing.  I might get rid of the button labels, or perhaps place them into the clear button cutouts. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it (hopefully soon!)

[Epyx]

In Canada here, ice hockey has been brain-washed into our minds as kids that it's the Canadian national sport, and Canadian pride

Amen Opt2not...about the only time when I get mildly excited about soccer is if my parents teams are playing Amsterdam Ajax/Holland National or Borussia Dortmund/German national team.

Other than that my focus is pretty much hockey obsession...the game is quick, exciting, strategic and actually makes the perfect arcade cabinet theme (my opinion)...as opposed to Football/soccer which at times is akin to watching paint dry (again my opinion)...10 minutes of watching guys chase the ball up one end to have the keeper kick it back to then watch them run the other way for another 10 mins...all in the hope of a at least one goal sometime within the span of the game...zzzzzzz....zzzzzzz

Anyways...I love your theme but then im a fellow local boy and I can't wait to see it done! 

[Benevolance]

10 minutes of watching guys chase the ball up one end to have the keeper kick it back to then watch them run the other way for another 10 mins...all in the hope of a at least one goal sometime within the span of the game...zzzzzzz....zzzzzzz

Hey, that sounds an awful lot like watching a Timbits hockey game.

Opt2Not, I'm really digging the understated look of the cabinet. It's obviously a Canucks themed cabinet by the colours, but it doesn't go over the top with logos plastered on every available spot. It doesn't look kitschy, in other words. I like it.

[opt2not]

Anyways...I love your theme but then im a fellow local boy and I can't wait to see it done! 

Opt2Not, I'm really digging the understated look of the cabinet. It's obviously a Canucks themed cabinet by the colours, but it doesn't go over the top with logos plastered on every available spot. It doesn't look kitschy, in other words. I like it.

Thanks for the kind words guys! If you liked it before, you're going to really dig it now...

Yesterday I got a couple packages in the mail, one was the t-molding, and the other was the new 25 cent inserts!


I applied the t-molding to the cabinet, and I gotta say it really looks awesome with it on there:







I like how the t-molding lines match the painted lines on the cabinet.
Another thing I wanted to mention is I decided to buy the 25¢ inserts. I figured I should keep it modern looking all together, rather than having the written retro look of the 25 cent ones.

Another decision I made was to not go the jamma route with this cabinet, as it would be easier and slightly cheaper to wire my PC and Dreamcast separately without worrying about the Jamma harness adaptation.
I've already bought all I need for the wiring, I just have yet to get the cards needed. I'll be ordering an DC VGA Box to hack up, an Optipac, a keyboard interface, or a video amp adapter (using a hacked VGA cable like I did with El Diablo Mechanico), and will be hacking up official dreamcast controllers and hooking it all up to a DB25 switch. I haven't decided on an Ipac, or a Keywiz for the PC control; it really all depends on the cost, since I've used both before and like them equally.

Tonight, I'll be continuing to tape off the glass-top design for painting, that should be done today! Can't wait to get paint on it!

[Ryglore]

I like the theme as well, I also think that it's best that you did it with a cocktail though. Mostly because I don't think you'd have gotten the same look with a full cabinet. The logos look great and the use of the team colors is really done well. Take that and add the T-molding and it really sets it all off.   

[Chicken McNobody]

Wow, with the T-molding and the fresh pain and inserts.  This thing looks hot!

Great job!

[emphatic]

I haven't decided on an Ipac, or a Keywiz for the PC control; it really all depends on the cost, since I've used both before and like them equally.

First of all: I think I've never seen T-Molding do such wonders to a cab design before. 

May I suggest something a bit unorthodox for your PC controls? If you get MadKatz 360 controllers and hack them, you will end up with PC compatible controls along with plug & play for an XBox 360 all in one. They are pretty cheap and quite easy to hack as well.

[Shortbus]

Why do Canadians like 'doggy-style' ?? So they can both watcht the Hockey game...OOOOOOOOOO

kidding.

very cool.....maybe I outta do a bruins one, the black and yellow would look great......This thing looks great and I wish I could find a deal like you did, I keep my eyes open on craigslist.....

excellent job on the thread, great pics and explanations. I like this alot....Outstanding work! Thanks for sharing....

[tomdotcom]

Turned out awesome, except for the whole Vancouver sucks thing haha Shoulda made it an Oilers cocktail like I told you before hahahhahaha

Make me an oilers one and I'll forgive you

[opt2not]

Thanks for the compliments guys. The t-molding totally makes this thing pop! I originally thought of going with the Chrome t-molding, I really loved how El Diablo came out because of it, but I couldn't find any at 1" for the top piece. t-molding.com only has a few choices for 1" molding, and white was the only one that made sense. I'm glad I went with the white regardless, it all goes together well with the high contrast of the blue.

I like the theme as well, I also think that it's best that you did it with a cocktail though. Mostly because I don't think you'd have gotten the same look with a full cabinet. The logos look great and the use of the team colors is really done well. Take that and add the T-molding and it really sets it all off.   

Thanks Ryglore. Though I should thank you for your SHMUP cabinet, it really inspired me to get back into vertical shooter games. It's the reason i decided to breathe life back into my Dreamcast (best console ever!) by putting into this cabinet as well as my PC. I figured I should really take advantage of the vertical display. The shooters on that system are awesome, I love how their games support vertical rotation!
I've got an idea on how to wire it up while using a DB25 switch box so I can flip back and forth easily/quickly. I was able to find a local computer shop that has new ones for $7.
It's a 4 port one, I'll be using 2 for the PC and DC, with also an option to add more consoles later (I'm thinking eventually my old PS2!)

May I suggest something a bit unorthodox for your PC controls? If you get MadKatz 360 controllers and hack them, you will end up with PC compatible controls along with plug & play for an XBox 360 all in one. They are pretty cheap and quite easy to hack as well.

emphatic, that would be good but my PC is going to be running a simple install of DOS so a USB support is going to be iffy. I want to be able to turn this cabinet on and have it boot up as quickly as possible, as well as having it run off a small CF card.

I decide to go with the Optipac (through powered serial) and the standard version mini-pac (ps/2). It's the cheapest solution for the amount of buttons I need. I guess I could have got an old gamepad that hooks up to the joystick port on my sound card, but I wanted a cleaner solution than that. Besides I'm hacking up a DC controller already, and only really want to do one...

 

[Ryglore]

Thanks Ryglore. Though I should thank you for your SHMUP cabinet, it really inspired me to get back into vertical shooter games. It's the reason i decided to breathe life back into my Dreamcast (best console ever!) by putting into this cabinet as well as my PC. I figured I should really take advantage of the vertical display. The shooters on that system are awesome, I love how their games support vertical rotation!

Nice! I never owned a Dreamcast, I really should get on it and try to find one around here.

[opt2not]

This took awhile, I carefully taped off the glass for the black and green lines, also keeping spaces for the tabletop artwork inserts.


After painting the black, I pulled the line tape off and painted the green, letting it dry for a little bit, I then proceeded to remove the rest of the tape.


As you can see on the right side, I accidentally pulled off a bit of the black from the Player area. I'll have to tape that part again and repaint it, as well as cleaning up a bit of the blotching that happened around the glass. Overall it turned out nicely, other than the one mess-up...it just took a lot of time.

[Billy_Goatfeet]

I can't decide on which theme for the CPs I want on this thing. I narrowed it down to two possiblities:

1. The stadium theme (GM Place)
Player 1 side:

Player 2 side:


2. Net-camera theme
Player 1 side:

Player 2 side:


Both of them are good!  I can't decide, what do you guys think?

  I would go with the first set, the stadium theme.  There's something about the second set that bothers me, can't quite put my finger on it....


Go Leafs!!   


Hehe....

[opt2not]

I would go with the first set, the stadium theme.  There's something about the second set that bothers me, can't quite put my finger on it....

Hah!  I think it's perfect!  

I did some small tasks today which included polishing a wack-load of bolts:


Aside from that, I cleaned the smoked plexi, reinstalled the monitor, printed out the table top artwork and painted the monitor clips. I painted them white to match the molding. After letting them dry, I installed the glass and all clips onto the cabinet. Here's some pics:



Here is Player 1's view angle, and the player insert art w/ Canucks classic "c" logo:


Tomorrow I'll polish the glass scratches out, and will be working on the hole-making in the  metal CP, then moving onto the plexi. I hope to get the controls wired up by the weekend.

[emphatic]

 

That looks very nice.

[Ryglore]

Oh, wow. That looks excellent! Have you printed off test versions of the CP art to see which looks better? Now would be the time to test them out, since the outside of the cab is near complete.

[Franco B]

Wow, I've just read through the whole thread.

I think you have done a fantastic job, It looks lovely!! 

Probably the nicest custom renovation I have seen, kudos 

[Chicken McNobody]

Looks great, not a sports fan here, but I wouldn't complain if I had that cab at all.  I love the coloring and simple yet effective design approach.

It looks very sharp!

[opt2not]

That looks very nice.

Thanks emphatic! Admittedly I was a bit unsure about the glass painting at the start. I was going to just use a poster board cutout for the black, because I read and have been told that the paint won't stick to the glass. But I figured I should try it out first. My trusty can of all-surface Rustoleum paint seemed to work wonders on it! And because it's not going to be touched by anything, it should last a while.  My only complaint is that I messed up a couple spots on the paint job, a few parts the lines aren't as clean as I would have liked. But I don't think it'll be noticeable by other people.

Oh, wow. That looks excellent! Have you printed off test versions of the CP art to see which looks better? Now would be the time to test them out, since the outside of the cab is near complete.

Yessir! That's the plan. Today is CP work, so after I do the mods to the metal panels and prep the plexi (try saying "prep the plexi" 5 times fast ) I'll assemble the controls with the test art on it and see which one looks better.

Wow, I've just read through the whole thread.
I think you have done a fantastic job, It looks lovely!! 
Probably the nicest custom renovation I have seen, kudos 

Looks great, not a sports fan here, but I wouldn't complain if I had that cab at all.  I love the coloring and simple yet effective design approach.

It looks very sharp!

Thanks for the kinds words, friends! I'm really proud of how it turned out. Going through a restoration and renovation process was actually a lot of fun, and has really made me learn a lot...and that's just from the construction side of things. I still have some funky wiring to do, and making sure the monitor plays nice with my setup.
I think the hard part is coming up!
 

[Ryglore]

a few parts the lines aren't as clean as I would have liked. But I don't think it'll be noticeable by other people.

Ya, That's how it is with my side art on SHMUP. But I decided that it looks good overall and you can only notice the jaggys when you are up really close and looking at them. Maybe when I get a place with more room I'll fine tune the lines, but really... there is only so much we can be perfectionists about. And right now I'm more worried about making sure the cab runs games without a problem rather than a little imperfection in the lines. 

[opt2not]

Ya, That's how it is with my side art on SHMUP. But I decided that it looks good overall and you can only notice the jaggys when you are up really close and looking at them. Maybe when I get a place with more room I'll fine tune the lines, but really... there is only so much we can be perfectionists about. And right now I'm more worried about making sure the cab runs games without a problem rather than a little imperfection in the lines. 

Ha! It doesn't even look like you messed up at all. From those pictures, the lines look pretty clean to me.

Today's progress: Control Panel

Worked on drilling the holes in the CP, then the plexi. This is the first time I've drilled into metal, so I was a bit nervous at the start. But it turned out pretty easy. I bought a bi-metal hole-saw, first drilled a pilot hole, then while greasing the saw with some WD-40 I applied a light amount of pressure and let the saw do the rest. It didn't take long at all.

I decided to change up my layout as you can see (the blue button is just for testing). The reason for this is that I felt that Button-1 (blue) should be on the right-side of the joystick, yet on the left of the spinner. Most spinner games were originally setup to have the fire button on the left-side anyways. AND, being able to fit the spinner mount beside 2 buttons on the right was just not enough room to be comfortable. The distance between the two buttons aren't too bad. I can hit Button-1 with my index finger and Button-2 with my ring finger.

For the plexi I used my forstner bit (best. drill-bit. ever.) and holed it out for the buttons. I scored and snap the pieces, then used my round-over bit to make it more comfortable to rest your hands on.

I spray painted it and will let it dry over night, before wiring it up tomorrow!

[Epyx]

  Looking fantastic! Now if the Canuckleheads only knew this existed they may have won that game in St. Louis

[opt2not]

Looking fantastic! Now if the Canuckleheads only knew this existed they may have won that game in St. Louis

That was a sad game. It was pretty downhill after the second goal...weak goals, penalties, fights...just a gong-show! I'm hoping when this cabinet is done, the mere awesomeness of it's Qi will seep out into the city and somehow, on a cosmic level, make the 'nucks play like champions! 


After doing some print testing, and some thinking, I've decided on the CP overlays.

Player One:


Player Two:


I loved both themes, so instead of choosing one or the other, I picked the best from both. I think they still go together as their own theme, and both are equally good pictures.  Player 1's side works well because it's the side that has the additional button for EXIT. Player 2's image is much more strong now without the obstruction of the extra button on the Jumbotron.
The red circles are the new button positions and eventually I'm going to buy transparent clear buttons with the artwork inserted into them, so that I can retain the image. Also note that the button labels are now going to be inside the transparent buttons now!

What do you guys think?

[opt2not]

It's been a couple weeks for an update on my cabinet, so I figured I should get you all up to speed.

After the construction completion, it was time to start wiring. I started off with the controls, and the switchbox setup for PC and Dreamcast control changes.

1. I took a DB25 switchbox, removed the casing, and drilled 2 holes out of it.

2. & 3. My plan is to have one hole be a lit-up indicator that the PC or DC is selected using a piece of plexiglass as my window. I am then going to print out 2 vellum images (vellum seems to be the trend now, thanks Gamester! ), and have separate LEDs stay consistently lit depending on what device is selected, of course divided in the middle with something to block the light from each other.
Like so:


4. The other hole is going to be a service button, in Mame's case assigned to "tab". I've also wrapped the box in some scraps of textured vinyl I had laying around. This box will be placed on the inside of the cabinet, accessible from the coindoor.

I then moved onto the interface wiring, and DB25 connections.

1. This picture shows my Minipac (which I regret not buying the wiring harness for...), my Video Amplifier, and my Compact Flash to IDE boards mounted onto a piece of hardboard. You'll notice the DB25 connection outputted from the terminal strips. That was fun

2. Here's a reverse angle shot of everything mounted in the cab. The wires are a bit messy right now, but I'll clean that up when I'm done with the setting up of everything. The 48MB CF card is right behind the coinbox and is easily reachable to pull out whenever I need to update the rom list.

3. Here's a shot of the Optipac hidden in the corner. This corner, when everything is turned on, is the hottest in the cab. I will need to install another fan for this area to dissipate the heat more, since there isn't much room there for circulation.

4. A shot of the PC mounted to the side. The overall heat in the cabinet isn't bad because I'm not using crazy heat-generating parts...but I would like another fan just to be safe.  The PC is an AMD 1500+ (1.3ghz), 512MB, Geforce4 Ti, 48MB Compact Flash hard-drive and an Sound Blaster Live.
I'm running a pure Dos setup, which requires very little hdd space, but massive amounts of setup!
That was actually a real pain to get going, because I haven't used DOS in about 12 years.

After doing some research, I found that my best choice for a setup was to use Advancemame, Advancemenu and it's utilities to get this "general-user friendly". The Advancecab utilities have a VGA and VBE video driver that can force my graphics card to output 15kHz, but learning how to set it up wasn't that intuitive. Nothing is intuitive for DOS I'm afraid. It took me a while, but I finally got it going, and using AdvanceMenu and AdvanceMame is a dream!

Here's the loading image on boot up that displays:

It takes me about 12 secs to get to the Front-end from power-up, and I never have to worry about shutting down to turn it off!

I'm still having difficult getting my serial port connected Optipac to recognize my Spinners, which I've contacted Andy at Ultimarc for help. I've pretty much tried everything I can think of/found on the net, but haven't been able to figure out why my spinners aren't being recognized. I've narrowed it down to 3 things:
- Driver might not be configured correctly
- Optipac board might be faulty
- Both of my spinner optic-boards might be faulty
I'm waiting on Andy's response to see what he might think it is.

continuing on:
I then moved onto setting up the CP's.

1. Here's a picture of the CP wiring. I'm using Sanwa JLW's (wish I had JLF's to save space, but these joysticks were laying around not being used...), my Arkanoid Spinners originally from this cabinet, and temporary Happs pushbuttons.  I want to replace the buttons with clear ones, with inserted artwork, and have all my microswitches changed to the silent Micro-Leaf and Versa-Micro ones eventually, but I'm strapped for cash atm so that'll have to wait till later.

2. Here's a shot of the coin door access to the switchbox. I still have to hack up my dreamcast controller and attach them to the DB25 connectors, which should happen this week. I've also got my hands on a VGA Box, which I'll be hacking up tonight and connecting it to the monitor via a 2-way VGA swithbox. That'll sit right next to the "controls switchbox" here. note: the video amplifier is there temporarily while I attach my DC's VGA box to test.

3. & 4. Shots of the control panel artwork installed. I think it turned out well! It'll look better with the clear buttons, but for now the white and blue happs ones will have to do. I will have to look into getting shorter joystick shafts, since I feel that these ones are just a bit high for the space in there. That's on the list!

Next on the list for the CP's is the back-lit plexi installation. I picked up an 12v LED strip that I'll be connecting to my PC's power supply, and wiring it throughout the cabinet. Going to use it for the CP's, coindoor inserts and perhaps leftover lights for some funky cabinet under-lighting!

[opt2not]

Here's a shot of Advmenu's default screen:


I'm using Advmame, which I really love for all the options available within the games.
My current game list is:

- Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh
- Burger Time
- Donkey Kong
- Donkey Kong Jr
- Free Kick (awesome arkanoid soccer game)
- Galaga
- Gyruss
- Hat Trick
- Ms. Pac-man
- Pinbo
- Pacman
- Raiden
- Raiden II
- Redline Racer
- Space Invaders II (cocktail vs.)
- Super Sprint
- Tempest
- Time Pilot
- Twin Cobra
- Vs. Hot Smash

I can still add a bunch more older games, but I'm reserving some room on my CF card for more SHMUPs. I have to go through Maws and figure out which ones would be good on a vertical cab.

Here's a bunch of low-light photos we can all drool over:
Pacman


Galaga


Tempest,Twin Cobra, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders II (cocktail vs), and Gyruss


For Tempest, I played around with the rendering features of Advmame to get it looking like a pretty convincing vector monitor display.
My settings are:
Line intensity = 1.3
Jitter = 10
RGB Filter = triad16dot
The lines are pretty crisp on my monitor, and with a very subtle flicker created by the combination of the triad16dot and Jitter settings, it gives it a very nice effect overall.

Another thing to mention: In the Gyruss photo, I captured a shot of the Pause screen when you hit Exit. I think this is an awesome feature for Advmame, it's like having pause and exit functionality wired to the same  button! It keeps the game paused in this confirmation box while you decide to exit or not. Perfect for a minimal CP setup like mine!

The next tasks I'm moving onto next is the LED light installation, and DC wiring, connection and testing tasks. I also want to re-compile Advmame to get rid of the warning screen that pops up when running a rom, as well as optimize it for AMD cpu's. That should sew me for time up till Thursday, and hopefully I'll hear back from Andy with a possible solution to get my spinners functional. My tempest is dying to be played properly!!

[emphatic]

Awesome setup. Make sure to put Flying Shark, Tiger Heli and Halley's Comet in that cab, as they're awesome old school shumps and will fit your cocktail cab nicely (AFAIK they all have cocktail screen mode and two buttons each).

[opt2not]

Awesome setup. Make sure to put Flying Shark, Tiger Heli and Halley's Comet in that cab, as they're awesome old school shumps and will fit your cocktail cab nicely (AFAIK they all have cocktail screen mode and two buttons each).

Yoink!  Adding them now.  Thanks emphatic!

[Ryglore]

Daioh (Though it uses 6 buttons for the various guns)
Strikers 1945 II and III
Gunbird and Gunbird 2
1944 and 1943 Kai.
Batrider

[opt2not]

Daioh (Though it uses 6 buttons for the various guns)
Strikers 1945 II and III
Gunbird and Gunbird 2
1944 and 1943 Kai.
Batrider

Thanks Ryglore, adding these to the list (except for Daioh).

Today I did a couple updates to the cabinet. I was able to find a spare Sanwa JLF in my pile of parts, so I figured I'd at least put it in one control panel for now, till I get another one (if I get one). I drilled some holes to mount it since the JLW and JLF don't have the same mounting specs, then created a "spacer" out of some spare plexi I had (quickest material to work with) to sandwich between the CP and joystick plate. This is so the joystick sits lower in the panel. From the CP surface to the top of the balltop it measures 2 inches, which IMO is a perfect height for a cocktail unit. I created these spacers for both sides. I also had a octo-gate for the JLF as well, so I figured I'd give it a try on this thing. I'm not really happy with the square gate when playing SHMUPs, and an octo one just feels more eloquent to me when playing. I get a bit more control over the directions especially when dodgin' bullets quickly. It's also a bit better when playing 4-way games, rather than with the square gate, though not as perfect as a real 4-way would feel.

After messin' with the joys, I moved onto getting the lighting done for this thing.


I sliced up my LED strip, and distributed it around the cabinet for my CP lighting, and coin-door inserts. This picture below shows the locations of the lights, as well as my newly installed blue-lit fan (which I also had laying around) for additional PC cooling. Sorry, it's blurry.

I used the original light holders, and didn't modify them at all. I felt that I wanted to do as much of a "non-destructive" installation as possible, in case I ever wanted to replace these parts with better solutions later on, and sell these off to the fine arcade restoration folks.    This goes for pretty much everything in this cabinet, except for the surface outside. I haven't destroyed any parts, not even the power supply, and have tried to use everything that originally came with the cabinet. Even down to the PCB mounts and molex connectors!


Here's a shot of the strip I used for the CP backlighting. I just used cable-ties to mount them; they're on there pretty tight, and won't move.


3 LED's for each coin insert lighting.

Here's how they look after installation!




Next on the list of things to do is a re-compiling of Advmame, to get rid of the game warning messages at boot-up. Then I'm onto hacking my VGA Box and Dreamcast controller.

I'm still going back and forth with Andy at Ultimarc to see what I can do to get my spinners working, but I did some voltage testing on my optic-board and I *think* the boards might be shot itself. Though I'm not completely certain.
I'm going off this site to help debug it. Here.
It says I'm supposed to be getting 0v on the K connections, right after the resistors, but my multimeter is reading 1.6ish volts at that connection. So I'm thinking that my resistors aren't actually resisting...
Anyone have any experience with the Taito Arkanoid optic boards? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[emphatic]

Dodonpachi looks great in your cab, but it's really a 3 button game.

[Ryglore]

Dodonpachi looks great in your cab, but it's really a 3 button game.

Yes, but the Rapid Fire button is disabled by default.

Oh and if you can find the Japanese romset of Daioh, I read somewhere that apparently it's a 2 button game and actually set up differently. With power ups for each gun, rather than having everything off the bat, and I think different enemy patterns.

[opt2not]

Dodonpachi looks great in your cab, but it's really a 3 button game.

Doh, Ryglore beat me to it!

Dodonpachi looks great in your cab, but it's really a 3 button game.

Yes, but the Rapid Fire button is disabled by default.

Oh and if you can find the Japanese romset of Daioh, I read somewhere that apparently it's a 2 button game and actually set up differently. With power ups for each gun, rather than having everything off the bat, and I think different enemy patterns.

Oh sweet, Daioh looks like a game I'd like. I'll look into the Japanese rom.

I can't wait to see how Under Defeat and Ikaruga looks when I finish with the Dreamcast hacking. Those are also my favourite SHMUP games, and playing them on a  vertical setup just gets me giddy.  

I finally got the cocktail clone of Tetris running on this thing. Had to use my .106 parent rom, with a later 1.28 version of the clone rom, but it runs and runs well!


Tetris battlin' with the wifey is ON!

[Ryglore]

I can't wait to see how Under Defeat and Ikaruga looks

I'm still looking into why my Ikaruga rom won't work. Though I do have it on the 360's Live Arcade... but I keep wanting to spin my TV vertical...

[emphatic]

I can't wait to see how Under Defeat and Ikaruga looks

I'm still looking into why my Ikaruga rom won't work. Though I do have it on the 360's Live Arcade... but I keep wanting to spin my TV vertical...

I think it's not properly emulated in MAME. There are others emulators for NAOMI and DreamCast though. But having a real DreamCast is much better IMHO. I got mine for $50 shipped with 2 controllers and a Memory card. I hooked it up to a 22" LCD last night with my Dreamcast VGA box and Zero Gunner 2 looked stunning!

[opt2not]

I think it's not properly emulated in MAME. There are others emulators for NAOMI and DreamCast though. But having a real DreamCast is much better IMHO. I got mine for $50 shipped with 2 controllers and a Memory card. I hooked it up to a 22" LCD last night with my Dreamcast VGA box and Zero Gunner 2 looked stunning!

For me, the VGA box really renewed my DC. I even loaded up Code Veronica again (best RE game in the series IMO) and Crazy Taxi, I was floored by how crisp it all looks on my living room's LCD.

I'm definitely going to install the switch to go from 15kHz to 31kHz, outlined here, just in case I want to pull the Dreamcast out and play some horizontal orientated games on the big TV.

Long live Dreamcast!

[Ryglore]

I even loaded up Code Veronica again (best RE game in the series IMO) and Crazy Taxi, I was floored by how crisp it all looks on my living room's LCD.

I played HOURS of Crazy Taxi in the arcade! Especially loved it when "All I Want" by the Offspring popped on. Code Veronica was pretty killer... though I have a hard time deciding which game in the series I like the best

I think it's not properly emulated in MAME. There are others emulators for NAOMI and DreamCast though. But having a real DreamCast is much better IMHO. I got mine for $50 shipped with 2 controllers and a Memory card. I hooked it up to a 22" LCD last night with my Dreamcast VGA box and Zero Gunner 2 looked stunning!

Ya I'm not too worried about it, since I have it on my 360. One day I will get a Dreamcast though and I'll be collecting a few SHMUPs on that system... I hope.

[Ryglore]

I've been playing Skull Fang by Data East a lot lately. You should check it out.

Edit: I just realized it's a 3 buttons shooter. buttons 1 and 2 and both shoot (but the do the same thing, which is retarded) and the 3rd button is a special. Though I think you could get away with adjusting the button 2 input in the game settings to the "special" button no problem.

[opt2not]

Looks interesting. I'll check it out after the Canucks game

Been playing a lot of Flying Shark lately, I'm really lovin' that game! It's nice and difficult.

[emphatic]

Looks interesting. I'll check it out after the Canucks game

Been playing a lot of Flying Shark lately, I'm really lovin' that game! It's nice and difficult.

Yes, and the music is totally awesome. Did you get it setup for cocktail mode so it flips between players?

[opt2not]

Aww, I'm using v.106 (the last advancemame version for DOS), so the sound in Skull Fang doesn't work for me.
I also didn't see any dip-switch settings for cocktail mode. Oh well, cool lookin' game regardless.

[Ryglore]

Aww, I'm using v.106 (the last advancemame version for DOS), so the sound in Skull Fang doesn't work for me.
I also didn't see any dip-switch settings for cocktail mode. Oh well, cool lookin' game regardless.

Bah, that sucks. The sound is classic in that game, full on voice overs from the commander too. haha

I saw in one of your pics that you have an upright cab in the back ground.... perhaps load it up on there?

[opt2not]

Aww, I'm using v.106 (the last advancemame version for DOS), so the sound in Skull Fang doesn't work for me.
I also didn't see any dip-switch settings for cocktail mode. Oh well, cool lookin' game regardless.

Bah, that sucks. The sound is classic in that game, full on voice overs from the commander too. haha

I saw in one of your pics that you have an upright cab in the back ground.... perhaps load it up on there?

Yeah, that's my GalaXbox (linked in my sig). I can load it up there, but the display is horizontal so it wouldn't have the same vertical display real-estate. I haven't updated that rom list on that machine in a while, but I plan on taking out the vertical games and have that cabinet dedicated to horizontal displayed games only. I believe I'm running v.128 on that cabinet...

[opt2not]

Happy New Years all!

Yikes, I've been really busy in the last couple months!
It's been a little while since I've been able to update this project, but I've still got the drive to get this baby to 100% complete!

Over the holidays I ordered a couple replacement Optic Boards from fixumdude, off our BST forum here. They came in just after New Years, and I got to say they are pretty. This is some quality work, and I wanted to show them off (and put in a plug for fixumdude) before I installed them.





These boards will be replacing the old taito ones on my arkanoid spinners.  I wanted to keep the arkanoid spinners because I really love the size and weight of the dials, and with such an affordable cost, why the heck not?
Here's what the old ones look like:


After painstakingly debugging these things, I found out that they aren't putting out a strong enough voltage to interface with my Optipac.

Here's a comparison shot of them both:


As you can see, the new boards are slightly smaller, and less square than the originals. It's hard to tell by the pictures, but the IR readers are just a wee bit smaller as well.

I plan on installing these sometime this week if I can get some time in the evenings after work.

On the Dreamcast front, I still haven't figured out what to do about the amplification problem. My VGA box doesn't want to play nice with the Video Amp I got off Andy from ultimarc, but without the Amp, the signal comes in too dark.  I might have to cut the idea of getting my DC working on this cabinet...  or wait till my arcade monitor dies on me, and I replace it with an LCD down the road. Another option is to nix the VGA Box, and go the route of hacking up a DC VGA cable and seeing if the amp will be nice then. Time to do some research!

[darcyp]

as a flames fan it hurts me to say that this cab is absolutely beautiful.

[Kman-Sweden]

as a flames fan it hurts me to say that this cab is absolutely beautiful.

+1 

[opt2not]

as a flames fan it hurts me to say that this cab is absolutely beautiful.

Thanks darcyp, sorry I haven't replied till now, been really busy with all the Olympics stuff going on. Too bad about Kipper's last game, that was a rough one on him. 

The cabinet has been playing well, I've got the spinners working and have been enjoying tempest and arkanoid 2 a lot. I still have a few finishing touches that I have to do, but have put those on hold due to work and other projects on the go. I'm currently working on a Blanka wireless fight-stick for both the XBOX 360 and PS3 (using a switch to go between them), and have plans to put orange fur along the top!  I'll post the pictures once there's something meaningful to show. 

[Epyx]

Almost wishing you had made this a Team Canada theme

[brock.sampson]

How did you attach your joysticks?  I'm not seeing any bolts on the top.

[opt2not]

How did you attach your joysticks?  I'm not seeing any bolts on the top.

That's what one "feature" I wanted to make sure I had, a subtle one, yet pleasing to the cleanliness of the CP: no bolts showing.
I picked up a box of 3/16 x 3/4" Flat Socket Head Stove Bolts from my local hardware store...


...and used a round file to shave the holes in my metal CP, so that the bolts would lay flat in the hole yet still have enough surface area to rest onto. The CP art and plexi lays on top, while the only thing holding the plexi in place are the buttons. 

It seems to do the trick well enough.

Almost wishing you had made this a Team Canada theme

Me too! Perhaps a second cocktail cabinet is in the works???  (oh man, the wife would kill me)

[BurgerKingDiamond]

This cocktail looks awesome. You need to get an NES emulator and play some serious Ice Hockey (if anyone isn't familiar, that's the actual name of the game). That and Tecmo Super Bowl. Although they're not meant for a cocktail setup... I guess 1 player would work, but two player Ice Hockey is the best. Me and my friends have had some very intense games. GO SWEDEN!

[apfelanni]

well done dude. it inspires me on renovating something very similar. i got an old empty astro invader shell in bad shape on ebay for 1 euro . i would have hated to see it trashed so in a moment of mercy i placed a bid and won the auction. next day i took it home . it was nearby in the neighbourhood  maybe 10 km . to say the truth : i dont really like those table cabinets with a glasplate over the controlpanel . and i see us ebay flooded with cheap pacmanstyle repros .  i m not quite sure what to do with my table or what colour to paint it. maybe pacmanyellow black or neogeored . guess i ll mount a 2o inch rgb tv with a sega saturn . found a fully working tv with flat philips tube in a electronic trash container . all i did so far was ripping of the damaged laminat , sanding it , filling countless holes and scratches and prime it.  


ps. i dont like renovations coz they always turn out to be more expensive in time and cash than a custom scratch build .

ps2. didnt u replace the old tube ? here in my arcade junkyard monitors with such burns always end up in a trashcan within minutes. in my city u can grab tv tubes of any manufacturer for none. so reusing something like that would never be an option for me .  

ps3 thanks for the tip unlaminating with a heat iron . i abused mommys 30 year old one and it worked great. 

[opt2not]

well done dude. it inspires me on renovating something very similar. i got an old empty astro invader shell in bad shape on ebay for 1 euro . i would have hated to see it trashed so in a moment of mercy i placed a bid and won the auction. next day i took it home . it was nearby in the neighbourhood  maybe 10 km .

Hey apfelanni, thanks for the comments. 
Glad to see that you're inspired to do a reno yourself, and that your saving that Space Invaders cabinet...I really like the shape of those cabs, they seem slightly smaller and more square than the Galaga/Pacman ones. I especially love the curved edges along the sides. Good choice.

to say the truth : i dont really like those table cabinets with a glasplate over the controlpanel . and i see us ebay flooded with cheap pacmanstyle repros . 

Honestly, I would prefer no plexi on the Control panel, but then I'd have to have the bolts showing from the top, so Plexi was my best bet. It also makes it cheaper for me to put artwork underneath it. I just printed the artwork out on card-stock paper and affixed it under there.

i m not quite sure what to do with my table or what colour to paint it. maybe pacmanyellow black or neogeored .

If you're looking for my advice, both Pacman Yellow/Black or Neo Geo Red would be cool. I've seen another project post of the Pacman colours on a cocktail cabinet here somewhere, I don't remember who did it, but it looked pretty nice. You might be able to find it through the search engine here. If you went with the Red, I'd recommend using chrome t-molding for the trimmings. One of my other cabinet renovations has that nice saturated Red (and additional artwork) with the shiny chrome t-molding, and it turned out looking really really nice. Professional and slick looking.

You said you're going to put a Saturn in there, sounds like you got a plan already. A saturn cabinet would be great, and there should be a plethora of Shooters for that console that would play nice on a vertical display. Are you planning on keeping it a vertical display cabinet?

ps. i dont like renovations coz they always turn out to be more expensive in time and cash than a custom scratch build .

True, but I do like the idea of taking something old and polishing/updating it and making it new again. No need to kill more trees!   Besides, all the figuring out dimensions and the major wood cutting is already done for you.

ps2. didnt u replace the old tube ? here in my arcade junkyard monitors with such burns always end up in a trashcan within minutes. in my city u can grab tv tubes of any manufacturer for none. so reusing something like that would never be an option for me . 

I didn't replace the old tube, as I figured it was still good enough to play on. I'm going to wait till it completely dies on me till I think about replacing it with another one.

[emphatic]

guess i ll mount a 2o inch rgb tv with a sega saturn . found a fully working tv with flat philips tube in a electronic trash container . all i did so far was ripping of the damaged laminat , sanding it , filling countless holes and scratches and prime it.

It would be awesome if you would make it a dedicated Garegga Cocktail. That way have it looking rusty and with nails and whatnot would fit with the steampunk of the game.

[apfelanni]

garegga style finish sounds like a good idea. perhaps i can hammer in some rusty nails into the control panel 4 pleasure and pain .

[Santoro]

Nice work, that looks amazing!

[Phreakuency]

Finally got around to clicking your sig and reading the whole thread... amazing job mate!!

And I can see why you suggested I sand in between each layer of paint. Looks great!!

[opt2not]

Finally got around to clicking your sig and reading the whole thread... amazing job mate!!

And I can see why you suggested I sand in between each layer of paint. Looks great!!

Thanks!  There are  a few low-priority finishing touches that I need to do to it, but I'm putting those on hold for now till I can get a couple other projects out of the way first. 

[opt2not]

Since the Canucks have passed onto round 2 of the playoffs, I figured I'd update you all on the cabinet.

I've decided to not go with the Dreamcast addition till my arcade monitor dies on me. When that happens I'll be replacing the monitor with another one that works happily with my DC.

Other updates: both spinners are working well now. I've tweaked them a bunch for multiple games, and I've achieved what i think feels well for most games that use it. There are 2 games I'm hooked on at the moment:

Free Kick (bootleg set 2)

Really awesome soccer variant on the Arkanoid gameplay style.  Ridiculously hard too! (I know, it's not hockey, but as soon as I find a hockey game that uses the spinner, you bet your pants it'll be on this badboy!)

...and of course, my beloved Gyruss.


I picked up a few  Micro-Leaf switches from jasonbar (here's a plug for ya buddy ) on the cheap, and it has really made my shmup experience so much better. The action on those switches are great, and silent!

So that's pretty much it. All that's left to do is a smartstripe hack, and a couple small wiring things. One of which is wiring a new fan that runs a bit more silent. Right now the fan buzzes quite a bit, but again, that's another small thing.

I'd say that this cabinet is at 95%!

GO CANUCKS GO!


edit: been looking around, and found this great mod that Ond did a while back. I will probably do this to my JLW's in the near future. Silent action ftw!

[Epyx]

I picked up a few  Micro-Leaf switches from jasonbar (here's a plug for ya buddy ) on the cheap, and it has really made my shmup experience so much better. The action on those switches are great, and silent!

Ya, I love the Micro-Leafs and really notice the difference over my old micro switches. And of course GO CANUCKS GO

[chopps]

checking on the hype for tonights game, and stumbled across this....   your cocktail is getting some love on canucks.com!!

http://forum.canucks.com/topic/274216-canucks-cocktail-arcade-machine/

[opt2not]

checking on the hype for tonights game, and stumbled across this....   your cocktail is getting some love on canucks.com!!

http://forum.canucks.com/topic/274216-canucks-cocktail-arcade-machine/

NICE! Thanks for the link!

I'm glad the Canuck fans out there like it. Interesting what that one guy said about putting it in pubs around the city....hmmm, business opportunity there?

Sweet sweet redemption time for us in this round. Just like Team Canada in the gold metal game against Team USA, the Canucks get a crack at revenge for last year!
I'm going to make sure I'm running the cabinet during intermission, it's always a blast to get in 15 mins of retro gaming while waiting for the next period to start
I got my beer, my arcade games, and my hockey...I am one happy canuck.

GO CANUCKS GO!  

[tjterrill]

Hey Opt2Not,

   I just sent you a PM... I building a SJ Sharks themed cab.

[opt2not]

I just picked up a new Midway logo plate for my coin door, from arcade shop.


I don't have the original rivets that came with the cabinet, and I know that acquiring them is difficult. Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative way to mount the plate? I read a few threads in the past of people trying to find replacements, but it seems that there was no resolution yet.

With this addition, and a smart-strip hack installed, I'm that much closer to being 100% complete with this project!

[Rick]

That cab looks AWESOME...  It just ... needs ... SOMETHING...  Can't quite put my finger on it...



Ahhhh, there we go.

 

(Top notch work there, man.)

[opt2not]

  them's fightin' words...


There we go, the world is right again.

[Rick]

GAH!!!  MY LEAFS CAB!!!  My beautiful, beautiful Leafs cab...

 :'(

[StuDaBaker]

I just picked up a new Midway logo plate for my coin door, from arcade shop.


I don't have the original rivets that came with the cabinet, and I know that acquiring them is difficult. Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative way to mount the plate? I read a few threads in the past of people trying to find replacements, but it seems that there was no resolution yet.

With this addition, and a smart-strip hack installed, I'm that much closer to being 100% complete with this project!

I plan on replacing the one on the Ms. Pac cocktail I've got, and I've been thinking of using 3m double sided automotive molding tape. If both surfaces are clean when applied, that stuff will hold probably long after you and I are gone. Plus, it would look pretty clean without the rivet heads on the front of the plate, nor would you have to worry about carefully drilling the holes into that new plate you just bought.  IIRC, the last time I bought some of that stuff it cost about $5 - $6 usd for about 5' of 1/2" wide tape (I use it occasionally at work), that would be more than enough to apply the plate, and 4 strips 6-1/4" long would cover the entire backside of the plate, which would be plenty strong to hold it in place. If you didn't get it positioned exactly where you wanted it the first time though, you'd have to be careful not to bend the plate while removing it to re-align, it's not going to turn loose easily.  Then I'd recommend removing all the tape and starting all over with fresh tape. It may protrude further though, ever so slightly, because it's kind of a squishy foam like type of tape. It's a gray color and comes on a roll with a red plastic peel-off backing.

Here it is at amazon, but it's probably available locally in most places at an automotive store: http://www.amazon.com/3M-03609NA-2x5-Molding-Tape/dp/B001B0QC3M

[opt2not]

Interesting idea. Thanks for the suggestion!  I'll look into it. 
Though I do like the riveted original look of the logo plates...

[opt2not]

OMG THE STANLEY CUP FINALS!!!         

[yotsuya]

Glad you took out the Sharks! Good luck!

[alfonzotan]

 

[BobA]

Go Canucks 

[StuDaBaker]

I'm hoping for the Lightning to get past Boston and meet them there, if they can. Go Bolts! 

[Benevolance]

Me, too. I'd much rather the Canucks play Tampa Bay than Boston. And it will mean the eastern conference went 7 games.

Go Canucks!

[alfonzotan]

Incidentally, here in Atlanta they just announced the Thrashers' new fight song:

   

[opt2not]

Game 7!!!!!!!!   GO CANUCKS GOoooooooo!!!!!!

[ChadTower]

Great cab!  Love the workmanship.

Too bad they have to lose tonight. 

[BadMouth]

I was waiting for this thread to get bumped. 

[opt2not]

Great cab!  Love the workmanship.

Too bad they have to lose tonight. 

Thanks for the kind words ChadTower. But your negativity isn't going to phase me.

Win or lose, I'll be happy to have every second evening back to concentrate on more arcade-related stuff.
Besides, I think I aged an extra 10 years during this playoff. In both health and mind...

[Benevolance]

Know what you mean, Opt2not. I wasn't expecting to still be watching hockey 5 days short of the summer solstice. I've got a half-disassembled cab in my ktichen right now, waiting on new wiring.

[Hewskie]

 

[opt2not]

Well, it was a sad night for me. A happy night for some...
I congratulate those who were cheering for Boston, it's a nice feeling to have your team win the epitome of the sport.
It was a tough series for my beloved Canucks, but in the end when it was all on the line, the better team won. Throughout the season I rooted for Boston as well, even chose a lot of Bruin players in my pool. I even predicted a Boston-Vancouver final...well at least I got $100 out of my playoff pool.

Just like the changes the Canucks have to do next season, I too am making some changes to this project.
I've been thinking about it for a while, and my first plan is to remove the dials. Dials are nice for a few games, but I find that they don't get much use (from myself as well as guests) and they take up a lot of CP space for both players. I want to change my CP's to have 4 buttons, and a joystick only. This will give more opportunity to play games that require 2+ buttons.
With this change, my mame options need to be updated. Currently I have vertical games loaded only, but I want to utilize the split screen mame options and have horizontal games loaded.

Artwork-wise, the CP image idea is going to change to something more artwork related. As well, I'm not too happy with the top glass artwork. The painted plan didn't really turn out as crisp as I wanted it, so I've decided to go with a printed image plan, with something I can put together in Photoshop/Illustrator.

I'll be me making these changes sometime this year.

[Puck]

Will your machine loot a Sears?

Seriously though, I like the machine.

[Dazz]

Will your machine loot a Sears?

Seriously though, I like the machine.

What about looting a Tux store?

The cab looks great.  Sorry about the team and even more sorry about the idiots out rioting...

[kingchimp]

Did you see this?  Seems like you guys know how to party. 

http://deadspin.com/5807325/the-canucks-fan-who-drove-1000-miles-for-a-game-partied-with-the-owner-drank-with-beautiful-women-nearly-died-and-got-comped-for-game-5

[Puck]

Just one more comment to add about the rioting...

[opt2not]

Did you see this?  Seems like you guys know how to party. 

Hahaha, that's a crazy story!

Just one more comment to add about the rioting...

Nice. They should have done worse to these idiots.

[ChadTower]

He wasn't hit by anything.  He was just that happy to see the riots.

[Benevolance]

He was obviously diving to try and draw a penalty.

[opt2not]

They should have sent Tim Thomas out into the riot. He was stopping everything in Vancouver that night.

[Benevolance]

I spat water on my keyboard thanks to that.

[opt2not]

How about this one:  if that kid was Luongo, that smoke grenade would have passed right through his legs!

[Malenko]

Great cab!  Love the workmanship.

Too bad they have to lose tonight. 

Its not like we bumped your completed cab thread when the pats lost. Wheres the link to that project thread again?

[ChadTower]

Its not like we bumped your completed cab thread when the pats lost. Wheres the link to that project thread again?

I'm not really a Patriots fan.   I just live here. 

I stopped posting project threads a long time ago.  I'm a restorer, not a builder.  Several completed projects since then.  Just finishing up a Red Baron right now.  Have a nice weekend.

[opt2not]

Bumpin' my old project, again. These things are never really done, are they?

I've been looking for a tube to swap onto my G07 chassis for a little while now. The current one has enough burn-in that I figured it was about time for a fix. Unfortunately, finding a replacement tube hasn't been easy. But, I got lucky and was offered a free working Wells K7689 19" monitor off Craigslist!



The monitor has your standard dirt and grime buildup, but just has some faint burn-in, much better than what my original one has. I didn't see any physical damage to the tube, or chassis, no burns or cracks. The previous owner said it was working when he pulled it from a TMNT cabinet. His cabinet must have been a conversion, since original TMNT cabs were those Midway ones with a 27" monitors and 4P panels. Though, perhaps there is a 2 player TMNT? Anyways, I plan on swapping this in, as well as Jamma wiring the cabinet so I can put swap in real boards here and there. I've been looking at jamma switchers too, so I can permanently have a Mame PC in the cab, but have an optional original board in there as well. Why would I do this?  Well for one, I love real hardware...no fuss no muss when it comes to configuring (especially through Jamma)...you get the right frame-rates, no emulation bugs like sound emulating and the sort. Two: I've been going a bit crazy with buying original boards...some vertical some horizontal. Making this change will give me the most options and flexibility. Mame helps me "sample" games before I pull the trigger to buy them.

edit: here's a comparison shot of the monitor I have with the burn-in. Big difference:

[opt2not]

Swapped my monitors out tonight, and I'm really happy with the visuals. The image is sharp and bright, but there is a bit of discolouration on one side of the screen. I degaussed it as best I can, but it looks like this thing could use some new caps.
I had to put the new monitor into the cocktail's frame, that was a pain, as well I mounted the remote board onto it too. The old chassis had different mounting screw-holes, so I had to make a few new ones and utilitized the old bracket holes for the remote board.




Here's how it looks without bezel, the tinted plexi and top-glass installed. You can really see the discolouration on one side of the screen:


With it all put together...


Here are a few close-ups of Dragon Blaze's title screen. Very clear bright picture I must say. The scratches are from the top-glass, not the monitor (i'll replace the glass eventually, but I'm in no rush):




It's really nice not having any burn-in staring me in the face, but the final step will be to pull out the chassis board and apply a cap-kit to get rid of the bad colours.
But hey, I'm happy!   

[emphatic]

Lookin' crisp! 

[Seith]

Sweet pics.   

[Entropy42]

As a hockey fan, gotta say this is an awesome cabinet.  Kinda sad to see an Arkanoid dismantled (I have this same Arkanoid cab at home), but at least you did a top-notch job with the conversion.  Maybe it will motivate me to clean up my own cab a little bit.  Great work, great documentation. 
Did you ever try to buff out the scratches in your top glass?  If so, how?

[opt2not]

As a hockey fan, gotta say this is an awesome cabinet.  Kinda sad to see an Arkanoid dismantled (I have this same Arkanoid cab at home), but at least you did a top-notch job with the conversion.  Maybe it will motivate me to clean up my own cab a little bit.  Great work, great documentation.  
Did you ever try to buff out the scratches in your top glass?  If so, how?

Well originally this wasn't an Arkanoid, it was already converted from a Wizard of Wor, so I had no quams with maming a conversion. But like I said, my plans are to update the cabinet to a Jamma set-up so that I can swap original boards in from time to time. A Mame-PC will live permanently in the cabinet (connected via j-pac), but have a jamma switcher to go from original boards to mame. Already have a 2-in-1 en route. There are still some games that mame hasn't emulated perfectly yet, and I've been collecting some original boards here and there.

I haven't done anything with the top glass yet. Later on I'm probably just going to replace it with a newly made one. There is a glass-shop right across the street from me, and I was quoted at $60 for them to replicate the one I have.  I've decided it's cheap enough for me to take that option at a later date.

On another note, I got new Control Panels, and my monitor's cap-kit in the mail today!

Picked these up from Steven over at arcadeshop, multi-cade 2 button panels.
I'll be pulling out the spinners, and only going with a 2-button and joystick set-up. I find I don't play spinner games as much as I thought I would, and the extra CP space is going to be a much added relief when playing. Earlier in the thread you'll notice I was struggling with a layout with the spinners anyways, so the decision was made to just pull 'em. This cabinet mostly sees the classics and shmups played on it, with regular plays of Hat Trick.
I rebuilt those spinners with a new optic board, and will probably put them up for sale when I get around to the CP changes.

[Gaaargh]

Great cabinet!

What did you end up doing for the Midway plate?
2-sided auto tape is a little thick, but carpet tape is wafer-thin.


On the top piece, where did you put the seam in the t-molding?

[DillonFoulds]

*Bump* I know this one's pretty much finished, but it's a nice read-through from time to time. Really love the work on this one.

Also, interested in the monitor bit. Give us a follow-up!

[opt2not]

Thanks!  I've actually been meaning to update this thread, but there's a lot to cover so I've been putting it off lazily.

<inhale>

Part 1.
Ok since the last time I posted on this, I just received new CP's and a cap kit. So let's close that off:

Installed my controls into the CP's. I'm going with a Sanwa JLW's because I like the feel of it for classic games, which this cabinet will be primarily used for, and it's tight enough for shmups. The buttons are Sanwa as well. I like them for their light action and quiet operation. I haven't cleaned up those bolt heads yet in this picture, they were pulled during the initial renovation and untouched since because of my first panel having a plexi cover. I'm not going with the plexi now, but instead I'm going to do some art on one of those tough adhesive polylaminate CPO's and apply it to the surface. It'll be cleaner looking, and I never really liked plexi installed on CP's anyway. Shaft cover and dust washer are Qanba, bought from canadianjoysticks, a local parts dealer.


Here's the wiring, 3 bundles with connectors. One for the controls, buttons and p1 start. One for p2 start (I'll explain this one later), and the last one for the panel lighting *note: I'm using the old bulb sockets, properly wired to the cabinet's power rather than feeding off a PC's power supply. People have done wonders with LED bulbs these days, the pinball guys know what's up. Nice and clean wiring now. Also, the JLW's are fitted with octo-gates, and I used the same old method of sandwiching my cut-out pegs of plexi for mounting it a bit lower so that the balltop is sitting at the correct height.

Ready and working to get hooked up, as well as an art treatment. Stay tuned for that.

Ok now the monitor.
Pulled the chassis off that replacement monitor I got. I hate dried up bug carcasses:


Cleaned it up with a little patience and isoprophenol, at the same time replacing caps:



Re-installed onto the frame, lookin' good. Still undecided about the remote board, I have enough slack in the harness to mount it close to the coin door opening, but I haven't figured out where exactly is a good spot to reach to, but not be in the way that it might get accidentally get adjusted. On the frame suits fine for now.

[opt2not]

Part 2.
Save the Jamma fo yo mamma.

I wanted a cleaner solution for the wiring, and I wanted the versatility of installing boards as well as mame. Jamma is the way to go for this. I also wanted to know more about the jamma converting...
First, prep the Jamma wiring loom.

I followed Bob robert's guide on his site about bundling the connections so that the wires that are relevant to the area they're routing too. So here was my first mess-up, bundling the P2 start button with the P2 Controls instead of the P1 Controls is what forced me to add another connection to P1's CP. I didn't realize it till after the loom was installed and I went to connect the CP. Bob's guide is based around stand-up machines, not cocktails! *smacks forehead*
There are 6 bundles:
        Power
        Audio
        Video
        Coin Door
        Player 1 Controls
        Player 2 Controls

Like I said in Part 1, I want to wire this baby up properly, that means safety's first.

The power cord's lacking of a grounding pin needed to be addressed, so I disconnect the old one from the distribution block, and cut open a spare PC power cord I had and gave it the old connector. It's just a 3-pin molex.

We now have Earth Ground access <phew>.

After that was prep'd, I needed to gut out my old sloppy wiring and PC components out of the cab. Everything's got to go:


Earth Ground was then distributed throughout the cabinet's metal parts). Fan re-installed, the power switch, the Switching Power supply installed behind the cash box area, jamma loom installed and connections fastened to their respected areas. That bundle in the cash box is the coin-door I've yet to wire up. It has wires for the switches, the lighting, and the coin meter connections. PCB's or Mame hardware is going to be mounted on the side wall where my hand is closest to.


Here's the view of the CP's hooked up using Molex connectors. Nice and neat, easy to disconnect at the times of maintenance.



After all the wiring was settled, it was a manner of going around affixing connections, then it was time to power it up and check/adjust voltages. After that, I had to see this thing running so I plugged in a jamma board and gave it a test run.


Pretty cool, but I need a vertical game. Ahhhh Raiden II:

Even though Raiden II is not a cocktail game for two players, it's pretty darn good for one, and I still got to test the controls out for both. Everything works! 

The monitor looks bright and crisp, and there's no more discolouration. Cap kits are such a huge bang for the buck and it's just what this monitor needed:




Next up is what I did to improve the audio, but it's late here and I'm going to crash now. Stay tuned for the next part of this Jamma Re-wire!

[Woodshop Flunky]

Your arcade looks great! 

Raiden turned out to be my son's favorite game on his cab.  I didn't know about Raiden II... I'll have to check it out.

[opt2not]

Thanks! Your cab looks great also, I'm a big fan of the American Ace!
Unfortunely Mame does not emulate Raiden II or DX properly in its current state. The work-around without getting the actual PCB's is to get a PSX emulator and run The Raiden Project. It has both games and I've read it runs pretty decent. I also have a DX board as well but it's currently in repair. Great games.
 

[Woodshop Flunky]

Thanks!

After I saw your post, I was really excited about Raiden II.

Oh well, thanks for the tip.