Williams Duramold cabinets

[spidermonkey]

Has anybody ever seen one of these in person ? Or better yet has anyone looked inside of one of these to see how they're designed in terms of overall thickness of the plastic cabinet and what keeps it from being top heavy and not being tipsy during game play ? Was there some kind of weight in the bottom ? How was the monitor supports attatched to the duramold shell ? I'm assuming the material was similar to that of a pickup truck bedliner but thicker ? I was laying in bed last night and some crazy ideas were brewing in my head for my next cabinet and alot of the ideas brought the Williams Duramold cabinets to mind so I'm trying to find out as much as I can about how they were designed internally. Did they have supports molded right into the cabinet design or were they bolted,rivited to the shell ? Sorry for all the questions but I got a real itch to move this idea from paper to a reality sitting in my den. An upright cylindrical type cabinet with a control panel on both sides (each cp having different types of controls). A monitor that rotates from vert. to horz. but also can spin to face either side of the cabinet. I have tons of garage door opener moters,gearboxes,radio receivers, transmitters (remotes) laying around as I used to install them for a living so of course the monitor will be fully moterized and activated with a handheld remote. I've already gathered all that stuff together but need more info on cab design first. Thanks for any info.

[AlanS17]

Got a link?

[spidermonkey]

Dammit ! I tried to paste a link to a bubbles duramold but keep getting "An error has occured invalid referring site.   And the problem isn't with the site either. Its been happening every time I try to paste a link. Whats going wrong ?

[Raleigh]

Here is a link to a bubbles duramold, don't know why you are unable to paste a link though.

http://my.erinet.com/~jamesm/gamepages/bubbles/bubbles.htm

[paigeoliver]

I don't have much information about the cabinets for you. But I can tell you what one is worth just for the cab.

About $350. That is what the only Duramold cabinet to show up at auction in the last few years sold for. It was converted to Shinobi. Another Duramold Shinobi (maybe the same one?) was advertised for $350 about a year and a half ago (in a different state).

A Blaster Duramold with a boardset problem brought $500 at an auction in 99 (but that was when the home arcade scene was just taking off).

Also. The most common Duramold game is Blaster (black) , followed by Bubbles (Blue). There are a scant few Sinistars as well (they were probably test pieces, and were also black). Red duramolds are widely rumored, but no one can ever actually seem to produce one (they are usually rumored to be either Sinistar or Inferno).

Also, don't forget the rare Blaster caberet duramold.



Couldn't you buy a 6 foot tall, 24" diameter plastic pipe and cut your own Duramold out of it? I am sure plastic pipe that guage must exist for some commercial applications.

Also. they may not have needed to be counterweighted. The piece of wood with the isolation transformer and power supply in the bottom of most cabs rivals the monitor in weight. Now add in the coin door, coin enclosure, and boards (Williams games had several). It should be balanced. Really no different than a wood cabinet as far as weight distribution goes.

[HeadRusch]

You want to know the really freakin scary thing?

That pic of yours just made me realize that there are quite a few plastic containers that are pre-built that would make very good transportable MAME coctail cabs

Tre Gheeeeeto

[spidermonkey]

Thats a beauty Paige ! I wouldn't want to see your make shift cocktail version

[Daver4676]

I heard, via a bonus video clip on the PC version of Williams Arcade Classics Volume 2, that the duramold cabs were subject to shrinkage due to the internal heat.  The Blaster cabinet was said to have shrunk to the point where the monitor was shot out across the arcade floor (no injuries luckily).

I don't know how true it is as I take everything I hear (even from developers) with a grain of salt but it's something to think about.   Perhaps that's why there aren't too many around?

[spidermonkey]

Well.. if I do decide to make something similar I'll have to make some changes as I don't want my cab spitting its monitor onto my lap.