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Using Smash TV cabinet for a MAME system
paigeoliver:
General rules have exceptions. The "don't rip up dedicated cabinets" rule has a two main ones I can think of.
Rule 1. Pole Position.
This is the most unreliable widely released game ever made. It took 8 sets of Pole Position boards to piece together one solid reliable set for my Pole Position cockpit. I have a second Pole Position in my shed. Just turned down a bulk buy of 5 more of them for $200 total. There just aren't enough working boards to go around and oftentimes warehouse pull and bulk buy poles won't have any boards in them as they already got pulled years ago.
Rule 2. Vector games missing the monitor.
There aren't any spare vector monitors out there. Not sitting on warehouse shelves, not anywhere. 90 percent of the time when a color vector monitor comes up for sale the seller also happens to be selling the rest of the Space Duel he pulled it out of (except for the cabinet, it seems like they just burn those). If it is a black and white one then the seller usually seems to have the rest of a Battlezone or Star Castle available.
--- Quote from: Nephasth on August 22, 2012, 07:35:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: paigeoliver on August 22, 2012, 06:57:39 pm ---...but if you aren't in America then it is the arcade history of your country you are destroying, not mine. :burgerking:
--- End quote ---
Oh boy. ::) It's not "yours", Mr. There's A Million Pole Positions Waiting To Be MAMEd. Guess it depends on what side of the bed you wake up from... :P
--- End quote ---
boerbiet:
--- Quote from: Well Fed Games on August 22, 2012, 09:38:33 pm ---
--- Quote from: Mat on August 22, 2012, 09:35:44 pm ---
--- Quote from: dgame on August 22, 2012, 04:46:12 pm ---My advice would be to build a completely new control panel and leave the original guts intact so you can switch it back.
--- End quote ---
Exactly. If you absolutely have to use this cab, remove the old control panel and put it in your closet. Build a new one that's the same shape. Mount it to the cabinet using the factory hardware. Try not to drill any new holes or make any new cuts to the cab in the process.
--- End quote ---
This is true, as you already will have a kick ass twin stick shooter control panel. The good news is the Smash TV panel (if it is the same as mine) is one flat peice of wood/metal... easy to duplicate with a router.... hmm that gives me ideas...
--- End quote ---
This is what I wanted to hear. I have yet to see the cabinet but was hoping for an easy way to take off the current control panel and place a new, custom one myself, storing the original in some closet.
But that raises a new question: will only the JPAC suffice or must I combine it with an IPAC? If I read correctly, the JPAC offers 5 connections for custom buttons and 3 for the built-in ones (per player). Can I also connect 8 custom buttons, or is this where an IPAC would come in, leaving the JPAC there for the video and audio to be connected to?
I also noticed the cabinet has only one speaker. I'll have to hear how it sounds, but I may add a second one / replace the single speaker with two new ones.
Thanks for all replies thus far, some were quite helpful ;D
Well Fed Games:
--- Quote from: boerbiet on August 23, 2012, 02:14:38 am ---
I also noticed the cabinet has only one speaker. I'll have to hear how it sounds, but I may add a second one / replace the single speaker with two new ones.
--- End quote ---
If it is like mine it will have two behind the Williams logo/speaker grill, one larger and one smaller, possibly a full-range and a tweeter, I believe. Would be easy to replace with your own, the speaker area is very modify-able.
CheffoJeffo:
That raises a couple of good points:
1) JAMMA is mono (which may or may not bother you)
2) JAMMA includes amplified sound, so you will have to amplify the output from your soundcard (I use a cheap amplifier kit for this)
MaxVolume:
Damn... just wrote a long post about this and lost it. :badmood:
The gist of it was that this isn't our cabinet, nor is any dedicated cab, working or not, that someone wants to MAME. Sure, it sucks when they just get bored with it later and you see Franken-cabs for sale on Craigslist that you know will just go to the dump or be a giant headache for anyone who is brave/foolish enough to think they can still be restored, but unless someone is prepared to not only step up and buy the cab but also provide an alternative that suits the needs of the builder as well or better than the intended victim, then we should just all shut up about it.
:soapbox:
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