Robotron 2084 Convert to Mame/Multi

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I've been wanting to do this since Mame came out around 1997, so roughly 16 years later, I finally picked up my empty cab.  It's a 1982 dated Robotron 2084.  came with the sides laminated in a red color formica.  Also came with the original Coin Mech Inc. coin door and mechanism, and front smoked glass.  It diid not have any control panel attached, so I was going to have to build my own.

I opted to remove the laminate since it made the sides a bit thicker and sticks out just past the existing T-molding. 

Here is a drawing I made to scale in sketchup of the cab and what I am doing for a control panel.

I'll post more pics later when I get them off my phone...

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Here is what the cab looked like when I got it.

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I took the security bars off and filled the holes, sanded and repainted blue.  I also cleaned up the coin door and mech and made my own inserts for the reject buttons....

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Here's what the cab sides look like without the laminate.  I pulled it off and have a lot of hardened contact cement to deal with, but am slowly working on it....  BTW, from what I have found...  a heat gun and scraper work better than using any chemicals, and leaves less of a mess..   

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Here's the control panel based on my sketchup drawing.  T-molding slots are already cut.  I went for a fighter type layout with buttons on the sides for pinball also.  The top is removable and I'll house the keyboard and mouse in there...  This is right after I assembed the control panel base and filled the screw holes and a few dings...

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Starting to paint the base and panel...  Not in the house.  I just brought it in once the paint had dried a bit...  It was starting to get a bit cool out there...

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Here's the panel.  I opted for the XIN-MO interface.  I should have filled the grain on the plywood, but oh well, It'll give me a chance to redesign the panel later to add a trackball.

As you can see, I tried to go as cheap as possible.  Zippyy ball top joysticks and Arcade Prime buttons.  All from Groovygamegear.com  I plugged it into my system temporarily and tested it, and everything works great.  I actually like those buttons!

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I got the T-Molding in today from gamemolding.com, a board member here.  It is exactly the yellow I was hoping for.  Matched my yellow buttons nicely..  I'll definitely order from him again!

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Here's the light for the marquee.  It's a 13" under cabinet fluorescent from Walmart for about $10.  Kinda hard to make out in the pic...

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Here's the speakers and amp.  I actually lucked into these from a friend at work.  He is a huge car audiophile.  The amp is quite a bit bigger than I want, but I got it all for free so I really can't complain.  Eventually I'll make this also into a Jukebox and add a sub...

Making a new speaker panel which I'll paint black.  The grills will be painted the same blue and the speakers are red, so it'll all somewhat match the whole cabinet color scheme..

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Here's the control panel just about done.  Still working on the sides of the cab...
The blue tape is where I'll need to trim the t-molding for the edge of the cabinet..

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No input?  Suggestions?

[Dance Commander]

I like the bright colors, makes it look like a toy box. Are the blue buttons as camouflaged as they look in the pics? They look nearly the same color as the cp.

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I like the bright colors, makes it look like a toy box. Are the blue buttons as camouflaged as they look in the pics? They look nearly the same color as the cp.

They kinda are.  After I put the buttons in, I'm starting to think about changing them to red.  I have a few spares..

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Got some more work done.  Got the sides sanded down and have been gluing/patching the bottom edge since someone apparently drug it around and some of the plywood separated.  Also got the speakers mounted and some other misc stuff...