Dynamo HS-9A Project - Street Fighter.......[Update 11-3-12]

[TGov]

I picked up a Dynamo HS-9A cab the other day off of CL for a decent price and I am now starting to wonder the direction I should take regarding artwork and theme.   It was advertised as having a 39 in 1 card in it and the ad said that the monitor 'needed adjusting'.  Turns out the ad was right as after about half an hour of messing with the monitor adjustments and the horiztonal size coil I got the monitor working pretty well.   I think I going to end up keeping this cab for my horizontal MAME machine.  I have a DK that I will be using for vertical games, but I would like to use this cab for everything else. 

The monitor is mounted vertically now, but with these cabs it is easy to switch it the other way.  The CP that is on there now isn't much good to me as I want to put in a trackball and spinner for this cab.  I am not a fan of the angled front and the angle that the CP sits either.  My plan is to build a new CP out of wood that is about 10" deep (front to back) and sits at a shallower angle.

Cosmetically the cab is in pretty good shape.  As you can see there are some corners that need fixing, but I plan on repainting the cab anyways.  I also plan to reinforce the joints while I am at it with some wood screws as I have read that these are just held together with glue and dowel rods. 

My question is, since this is a generic cab, what kind of theme artwork should I go for?  I could always go with the generic 'multicade' type artwork, but I am not a fan of that.   Down the road I might want to sell this cab and I was thinking that a fighting game theme would work well in this style of cab and those always seem to be popular.  I, however am not a huge fighting game fan, but if the theme art works out well enough I may lean that direction.  A generic NEO-GEO theme might work ok as well as this is a similar cab shape.   What do you guys think?

I will keep this thread updated as I make progress.

[TGov]

Pics kept failing to load, hopefully they show up now.

[TGov]

crap, got the pics out of order, oh well, you get the idea.

[TGov]

Good ideas.....keep them coming   

Anyways, here are a couple of quick ideas for a theme.  I think I might really like to do a Metal Slug theme as I love that series and you don't see many cabs if at all with MS art on them. 

[TGov]

Here is a Marquee idea.

[Jigenjuke]

I like the first cabinet.  The Neo Geo "replica" is pretty cool too.

Jigenjuke. 

[GibsonRiddler]

Go with Metal Slug. Always been a fan of that series. Artwork seems to fit that style of cab.

[Well Fed Games]

  I think I might really like to do a Metal Slug theme as I love that series and you don't see many cabs if at all with MS art on them.

I think that would rock.

[TGov]

Ya, I am liking it quite a bit.  What is going to be difficult is finding high res artwork for the sides.  The marquee is already high res so that is good to go.

[BadMouth]

I like the 2nd sideart, although the third one be real cheap to do.

[TGov]

That it would.  It would actually be next to free as I have a vinyl cutter, but I am not going to be as worried about the cost on this one.  I will get the sides fixed and painted and then just wait until I have the money to purchase the side art.

[Malenko]

I'll take the 39 in 1 card, Id offer you money but we cant buy those kinds of things on these boards. I'll pay for shipping though =D

[TGov]

I will keep that in mind once I get everything set up.  I just hooked up my PC with a JPAC and it is looking good so far

[TGov]

I just hooked up my PC with my JPAC and everything looks pretty good.  It still needs a bit of horizontal adjustment, but I will have to wait to get some proper tools for that.  Only problem right now is I can't get the JPAC to relay the controls to the computer.  I will have to do some research on that.  Anyways, here are some pics of it running on the PC.   

[Termin8tor]

Like the first one love the second one. It would certainly be one of a kind. 

[mgb]

I agree, the 2nd one is great.
I also like the standard mvs theme.

[TGov]

The more I am using this cab the more I like it.  The slide out tray is genius!

[TGov]

I have begun to plan the CP.  I am running into some space issues due to the fact that the CP width is only 25.5" and I also want to have a trackball in there and a Neo Geo button layout.  If I were to go with a standard Street Fighter layout it would all fit fine, but I am just not a fan of the ergonomics of that layout.  Also, since I am going with the Metal Slug theme at this point I would really like to maintain the NeoGeo layout.  I already have a Happ 3" trackball, but it is just going to be too big at this point.  I am going to have to sell it and buy a trackball from Ultimarc as it has a smaller footprint due to it not needing a mounting plate.  It even has a smaller footprint than the Happ 2 1/4" according to the dimensions I have found.

So, I have two options,  either way I only have 25.5" of lateral space to work with for mounting things.  As you can see on the mock ups below, the outlines of the 'footprints' of the various components are visible.  The thing on the top is an Oscar Vortex spinner.  It has a large footprint for what it is, but it s the best spinner and is more or less out of the way up top anyways.  I have decided to not go with a dedicated 4 way joystick up top as it will just be too cluttered with it. I will just have to deal with 8 ways for the time being.  I have an Omni2 switchable right now in my DK cab, but I am not a fan of the action it has.  I might compromise and go with an Octagonal restrictor and hope for the best.  A majority of the 4 way action will be for vertical games anyways and I have a dedicated cab for those.

The bottom image shows the a CP where the top board would sit on the side 'rails' of the cab.  Similar to the awesome Space Invaders cab by Mr. Chek here on the boards. This won't give me any more room for the components, but it will allow the artwork to breathe a bit. 

See what you think. 

[Nephasth]

Swappable panels...

[TGov]

I am not a fan of modular stuff, as you have to store the stuff not being used. 

I think I have it nailed down so everything will fit IF I use a Ultimarc UTrak trackball with it's smaller footprint.   I will have to to a test print and mount the stuff to some cardboard to see if it is still too crowded, but I think it will work.  I plan on using U360's for the joysticks as well. 

[DrChek]

I skimmed the thread and didn't see an explanation, but is there a reason for a separate SELECT button? Couldn't the start button do the same thing? How will you exit back to the selection screen (front end)?

[TGov]

The select button is to make game selection idiot proof in the front end and also the NeoGeo systems had the same thing.   I will exit the games and the front end through the "exit" button.

Also I need to thank DrChek for sending me his cp layout so I could get the correct dimensions of the components and figure out how to make everything fit.

[DrChek]

I will exit the games and the front end through the "exit" button.

Duh! I was looking at the previous version of your CP when I asked that. 

[TGov]

I made a mock up template today with my vinyl cutter and I think this layout will be perfect. The angle will be more flat than it is here, but it is just sitting in there to show the size.

[BadMouth]

Looks good, just hope the trackball housing fits in there in real life. 
Space inside a small CP disappears fast.

I like that it has a red trackball, given that the only Neo Geo trackball game (Irritating Maze) had a red trackball.
The vertical monitor on a Neo Geo cab is messing with my head. 

[TGov]

Well, the measurements should be accurate, so it should fit.   

I wanted the track ball to blend in a best so the NeoGeo hardcore guys to get too bent out of shape    As for the monitor, is will be rotated Horizontally once I take the monitor out to paint the cab. 

[TGov]

Ok, there has been a change of plans with this cab.  I was talking with a buddy of mine that owns a board game/card game/miniature wargame store and he has had a Gauntlet Dark Legacy machine sitting in there forever that is always off.  Long story short, he said he was interested in getting some late classic games mainly early 90's stuff in there as he is a big fan and thought they would do well with the clientele that frequents the store.  He was just apprehensive about buying a few machines and getting stuck with them if they don't make any money.  He has tried to get a local amusement company to lease machines, but they weren't interested.   So after we were talking a while I told him about the Dynamo cab I had and how it was originally a Street Fighter II Turbo cabinet when it was in an arcade.  He said he would love to have a SF II cab in there as it is his favorite game.  It just so happens I have a buddy that has a SF II PCB for sale on the cheap.  I told him why don't I buy that SFII board and put the cab in the store and see how it does.  There would be no risk to him and we could work out a deal on splitting what the machine makes.  The machine would be supervised and next to the counter in the store so hopefully no shenanigans would go on

I said I could make up some vinyl graphics at work since I have access to it and make the cab at least look pretty decent as it is in good shape already.  So, I ordered up some Happ Competition joysticks and Happ buttons and some white t-molding for the top section.

Here is a mockup of what I am going to do with it.  The CP will be made out of vinyl as well and have a piece of plexi covering it.

Anyways, I am looking forward to getting it in there and I hope it gets played, that is really what it is for.  He is not looking to make a ton of money wants to make enough to recoup some of the costs of purchasing machines.  Ideally he would like to have a couple of fighter cabs, a NeoGeo 4 slot and a 4 player TMNT or XMEN.  I figure if the SFII gets played any, those will do even better.

Then if that happens I will either sell the cab to the store or I will bring it back home and go with my original Metal Slug idea.

[TGov]

Well I finally got it all stickered and wired up and ready to roll   Right now I have my PC in there running Hyperspin, but the SFII board just plugs right in along with the kick harness.  Good stuff

I am enjoying having it in my office, but it going to my friends game store soon.   I had to take the monitor chassis out and reflow the solder on a lot of the connections and that fixed my flickering problem.    I still need to put the bolts back in the CP.

[mgb]

looks great. the project took a u-turn and you pulled it off nicely

[Malenko]

I love the Ryu silhouette on the sides. that cab looks SHARP, you should be proud!

[Termin8tor]

WOW, cab looks amazing. Loved the Metal Slug artwork but this looks so much better. A real benchmark build.