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Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: redcoats on March 14, 2005, 03:00:33 am

Title: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 14, 2005, 03:00:33 am
Obviously by the shape I knew right away it wasn't a Heavy Barrel because they wouldn't put a side by side two player controls in a cab this small. I thought it might be a Galaga(hoped more like it). Turned out to be a Pacman.

I started to remove the paint to see if I could salvage the artwork it doesn't look like it is going to happen. Would it be a bad idea to sand this thing down and turn it into a galaga? Is that even possible? I know the dimensions were a little different but would things like bezels, marquee and control panel layout mount right up to it? I figured if I'm gonna spend some money on a classic I might as well go with one of my favorite cabs.

 It is now Jamma also so basically I would have to by a jamma adapter to make it pacman. I guess basically what I want to know is, would it be some sort of arcade sin to make it a galaga cab? And would I have a problem converting galaga parts into the pacman? I want the galaga to look as authentic as possible. Which it basically will be because I will be using an original galaga board.

The only good thing to come out of this is that I have heavy barrel with the working joysticks and all original leaf switch buttons. I figure I could make a swapable panel when I want to play some heavy barrel, ikari warriors and others 8).

Well I quit babbling and let you guys tell me what you think. Thanks alot and all info and critisism is welcomed.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: usedelectronics on March 14, 2005, 03:05:25 am
Wow...
I bought the EXACT same thing a while ago..
A pac-man converted to a heavy barrel...

Strange..
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 14, 2005, 03:24:26 am
Where do you live and what did you decide to do with it? If you don't mind me asking what did it cost you?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: Flinkly on March 14, 2005, 12:40:52 pm
well, i'm not an authority on this, but there sure seem to be plenty of pacman cabs out there, so i wouldn't mind if one made the switch to galaga.  as for parts converting over to a pacman, i'm not sure, gonna have to wait for the next post.  last, just to make everything kosher, i wouldn't drastically change anything, just to appease the pacman fans out there.  worste case scenario, someone could always paint the sideart back on.  good luck with everything.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: Gunstar Hero on March 14, 2005, 10:46:56 pm
Turn it into whatever you like.

It's not like you're gutting a complete Pac-Man to do it!  ;D
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: paigeoliver on March 15, 2005, 06:56:34 am
The Galaga parts will all fit, you might have to take off a tiny little bracket in the control panel area. You won't have any trouble with it.

The Pac cab has nicer lines than the Galaga cab anyway, and they are also constructed better as well.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 15, 2005, 08:25:40 am
Sweet thanks for the info Paige :)
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 15, 2005, 02:23:12 pm
Well here is some more pictures of the side. i can't get anymore paint off. Well what do you guys think? Is this side art too far gone or is it restorable? Anyone have any tips or tricks on how to restore this art?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: whammoed on March 15, 2005, 02:30:03 pm
Is that wood showing through?  Looks kinda bad :(
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 15, 2005, 02:31:31 pm
It sure is. Was damn near impossible to stop from that happening.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: RayB on March 15, 2005, 02:49:15 pm
Wow. It's like PacMan meets Silent Hill.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: cholin on March 15, 2005, 02:56:38 pm
Who am I to tell you this, but it looks like you'd be better off getting new sideart rather than restoring this one, if you even can restore this one for a good price :P  Im sure you would be happier with yourself if you went out and got some new, trimmed down, Galaga side art :P
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 15, 2005, 03:16:51 pm
Who am I to tell you this, but it looks like you'd be better off getting new sideart rather than restoring this one, if you even can restore this one for a good price :P
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: cholin on March 15, 2005, 04:24:13 pm
Well Im not sure about the dimensions of each, but assuming that pacman is smaller, it seems that way...I could be and probably am wrong.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 16, 2005, 01:49:29 pm
Well I've decided to go ahead and make it a galaga. I'm gonna completly strip the paint and redo it. I've already stripped all the wiring and hardware from it so I should be ok. I could post pictures with my progress if you guys want. I've got a couple of questions for you guys though? The wiring is a jamma I believe, it must be? I'll show a couple of pictures so you guys can tell about the wiring. Is this still the pacman wiring inside? With the transformers there? Or did they remove the pacman wiring? How easy would it be to put in a galaga board with a jamma wiring harness in it? What would I need besides the galaga pcb? Pictured is the wiring to the PCB(which is a game called Gondomania) and the wiring to the power supply and transformers. I also have one more question? Where can I get a replacement monitor for this for a good price? And will just about any 19" arcade monitor plug into it? Ok that should be it. Thanks any help will be greatly appreciated.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 16, 2005, 04:09:22 pm
Well If anyone can help me with those last questions I would appreciate it. Here is another picture of the one side stripped.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 17, 2005, 04:24:30 pm
Well I got the front a little further along? Do you guys think I should laminate the sides or just paint it? Since I'm doing a galaga machine I would just have to buy the black laminate.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 17, 2005, 04:30:48 pm
Also one more thing. I sure most wouldn't recommend this but if you want a super fast solution to stripping paint you can do what I did. I ran out of goof off so I was trying to find something else around that would work. So I used some carburetor cleaner. It stripped the front paint off in 5 minutes. You just have to make sure you're in a well ventilated area because this stuff is potent. And have quite a bit of rags. I was amazed at how it removed the paint, it was like 10x as strong as goof off. Well anyway just a suggestion and be very careful if you do use it.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: Fig on March 17, 2005, 05:30:54 pm
"So I used some carburetor cleaner"
Did it damage the wood at all? Any discoloring of the wood?

black laminate would cost alot of $$$$ but it would look and last longer then paint

Looks good so far
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: tmasman on March 17, 2005, 05:39:04 pm
Well...Gondomania is a JAMMA base game...

Get yourself an original Galaga Game board & a JAMMA adapter, or get a JAMMA Galaga bootleg board.  You should be pretty much ready to go after that. They both use the same type monitor...

Just make sure you've got the right voltages coming out of that power supply before plugging any games into it... Wouldn't want to blow out your new game board...

Make sure the monitor is powered through an isolation transformer too...

- tmasman
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 18, 2005, 01:14:50 am
"So I used some carburetor cleaner"
Did it damage the wood at all? Any discoloring of the wood?

black laminate would cost alot of $$$$ but it would look and last longer then paint

Looks good so far
No damage whatsoever. After I used it I immediately sanded. Also if you have ever used carb cleaner it dries extremely fast after you have wiped some up with a rag.

 I think I might go with the laminate but I'm afraid it won't look like an original galaga cab? I know it wont be original but I would like it to look as close as possible. Do you guys think it will take from the originality going with the laminate?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: paigeoliver on March 18, 2005, 06:23:54 am
Bootleg Galaga JAMMA boards are about $100. Post a wanted to buy post on RGVAC and someone will certainly have one (a couple people on there sell them).
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 18, 2005, 03:59:27 pm
Bootleg Galaga JAMMA boards are about $100. Post a wanted to buy post on RGVAC and someone will certainly have one (a couple people on there sell them).
Hey Paige what is the difference between the bootleg and the original? Does the bootleg have everything the original has? There isn't different wording on the screen or different stages is there?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 19, 2005, 01:26:35 am
This is probably a stupid question but what is RGVAC and is there a link to them?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: SirPeale on March 19, 2005, 07:42:23 am
RGVAC is rec.games.video.arcade.collecting.  It's a Usenet newsgroup.  You either need a newsreader (such as XNews) or you can go to http://groups.google.com to read their web version.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: paigeoliver on March 19, 2005, 01:21:29 pm
The bootleg one is just jamma, it plays the exact same game. Better for you since your game is already jamma.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 19, 2005, 05:17:21 pm
The bootleg one is just jamma, it plays the exact same game. Better for you since your game is already jamma.
Awesome Paige thanks for all your help.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 26, 2005, 08:21:04 am
Well I figured I would post a picture of my mame cabinet. I like the cab alot but I would like to get some custom sideart and marquee but I haven't thought of what to name it. I can always remove the art I have on it and change it out. As you can see I went with the "supercade" control panel. The supercade is what really pushed me to build a cabinet. I'm also running )p('s 3DArcade frontend, it is amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to run multiple emulators. I am running Mame, SNES, Nes, Colecovision, and Turbograffix 16. All the consoles are played with playstation controllers that are hidden behind the bottom of the coin door. I also laminated it with a black matte formica from home depot. It also is hooked up to accept coins. If you look at the control panel picture it looks as if the flight stick is in the way but it's not it is just the camera angle. I have a WG D9200 installed which I love and recommend(and to think I almost used a PC monitor). I only used the control panel plans from the supercade the rest of the cab was my design. Besides the art tell me what you guys think.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 26, 2005, 08:29:06 am
I also wanted to note that my digital camera sucks and the pictures don't do the actual cabinet any justice. If I had a real camera you would be able to tell it is extremely clean and professional looking(atleast I think so :)) I also wanted to note that I think I'm gonna add pushbutton tags to help people use it more effectively. I can use it fast and fine but some of my friends look at it like it is rocket science? I like having the Trackball set up as the mouse also that way if I have to change something I don't have to hook up my keyboard, and the cab is setup to boot in to 3DArcade. There is smoked glass on it also I don't know if you can tell, I used actual smoked glass instead of plexi and I'm glad I did.  Anyway tell me what you think? 8)
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: armax on March 26, 2005, 11:42:18 am
what kind of flight stick is that?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 26, 2005, 05:24:31 pm
what kind of flight stick is that?
A suncom I believe that is the brand. It originally came in a wood crate with the thrust handle that is seperate from it. I still have the thrust sticks but have no use for them. The whole unit cost me 75 dollars which is way pricey. Oh well since I put it in my cab atleast now I have a use for it. :)
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: armax on March 26, 2005, 09:51:23 pm
be interested in selling the thrust unit?  pm me.
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 27, 2005, 03:32:00 am
be interested in selling the thrust unit?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 27, 2005, 03:33:23 am
Two more pictures.

Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: redcoats on March 27, 2005, 03:44:33 am
Here is the flight stick that goes to it on ebay that someone is selling. If you can get it for that cheap of a price I would jump all over it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=74944&item=5178521467&rd=1

That flight stick would hook to the thrust stick that I own.

Here is a little blurb about ithe two sticks and why they are unique:


The Talon joystick features two hat-switches and four fire buttons, while the throttle adds a further two hat switches, numerous two-way switches and an elevation wheel. In addition, both joystick and throttle have four programme store buttons, which effectively means that four different commands can be input and saved to each button/ switch.

The keyboard emulation feature is such that each button/ switch can remember either a single keystroke, a succession of key presses or a simultaneous combination, so you can programme "ctrl-alt-page up" as easily as "space".

One unique function of this set is the split throttle, which means compatibility with simulators that allow individual control of two engines. Alternatively, the throttles can be locked together and used as one.

Anyway if you are interested in buying mine I'm thinking of $35 and how ever much it would cost to ship. Tell me what you think?
Title: Re: Just bought a Heavy Barrel Cab or so I thought...
Post by: armax on March 27, 2005, 04:00:31 am
I'll take it.  pm me the details... I can do paypal.