US to UK Conversion?

[Silas (son of Silas)]

I have been nosing around the US arcade market and I have come to the conclusion that we here in the UK will never have the sheer volume of classic arcade machines for sale that you guys have over there. Some games NEVER seem to come onto the market over here, so this got me wondering....

The previous company I worked for used to ship huge items routinely across the Atlantic to the UK, and surprisingly the rates aren't 'too' bad. I was wondering... what would it take to make a US arcade machine run in the UK?

Our voltage is 220v - 240v, so that would need to be resolved (change the power supply?) ... anything else? Has anyone here ever done this?

[Level42]

Sure, there are lots of US machines in operation over here. My friend Luc has a couple.
The power is the only "problem".  In the US it's 120 VAC being used. There are two possible solutions:

1) Use a step-down transformer. This will allow you to connect it to the Europe mains voltage of 230VAC
However, these are pretty expensive and in almost all cases you can opt for option 2)

2) The machine's voltage input can be set to handle 230VAC directly. F.I. Atari cabs use a jumper connector that has some wires connected in a certain way to let it run on all common mains voltages. The Irish built cabs came with a number of those connectors, the US built often only have one. Depending on the wire color you can determine for which voltage that certain connector is. The manuals of the game have that info.
I've "converted" both a SW upright and cockpit this way, works like a charm.

At other cabs you may have to move a wire on the first (main) transformer. Sometimes these wires are connected with plugs, sometimes you will have to solder them from one lug of the transformer to the other.  Of course if you do this you will either have to use an adapter that "converts' the US plug into a UK plug, or (better IMHO) install a UK plug directly on the wire.

It's as easy as that.

I know there are also people that either have or are planning of importing a container load of machines.
This is by far the least expensive way. F.I. I know someone imported a SW cockpit from the US and it cost him about 1600 bucks. I once asked about the BARE shipping price of a 20' container from NYC to Rotterdam and it was about 1700 Euro.

[WunderCade]

You obviously need to spend an entire Summer in the US doing nothing but buying arcade machines, then arrange to haul them back with you. 

[Level42]

I've toyed with the idea of doing a group-buy but I really got enough projects already

[ArcadeAddict77]

You know I was just thinking about this kind of thing myself. Growing up in the back woods of Essex I remember playing video games such as ghost n' ghouls, 1942, golden axe, snowbros etc but for the life of me I cannot think of ever being blown away by the design of the cabinets themselves. They all just looked like generic cabinets. These days I realise they probably were, just with different boards etc swapped out as games came into and went out of fashion.

I just took a look recently on ebay and boy was I amazed a grand for donkey kong, fully restored and working, but wow. 

Kinda makes me wish I could move to the US to start my collection, given I doubt I will ever own a house large enough to accommodate my list of must have cabinets. 

That said I have seen a lethal enforcers and gauntlet which would have required some major TLC in a second hand warehouse, but are long gone now.

[grantspain]

i would always suggest using an external stepdown-just in case the monitor is running through a 120-120 iso transformer

[BobA]

Remember that there is a line freq difference as well.   US is 60 Hz vrs UK 50 Hz.  This could affect your monitor.