Project attempt #2 - Mortal Kombat mame panel almost done

[Gatsu]

What's up guys & gals.

I've been sitting on this for a while, and it's a slow night at work so I figured I'd put together a
announcement post for my new arcade cabinet project.

Sadly it's not going to be an all custom built cab. It's gonna be mostly a pre-made kit from Recroom Masters with some modifications by me. *Queue the booing and hissing from the crowd.*


HA! None of this applies now. I'm getting an MK 1 cab to restore and possibly mame. Read on below for more info.

[Gatsu]

I'm starting to see more pictures of this thing out in the wild...and I've gotta say I'm really reconsidering buying this thing. For the kit to cost so much, and then still need to have a control panel made for it. I think I'd be better off trying to build my own again.  But can't.

But part of me is scared that it'll suffer the same fate as the previous attempt. That it'll get messed up somehow and then end up sitting in a corner for over a year and never be touched again.

What would you guys suggest? I'm honestly just stuck on what to do. I want to build, but I don't have the tools/space required.

If I were to try to build one again, it'd be either like  a1pharm's build here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,129725.0/all.html orr like Martijn's last LCD Cab http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,112721.0.html

I really could use some advice.

[emphatic]

Have you considered a Kraylix?

[Gatsu]

Yeah I thought about it. It is a really nice kit and he seems like a cool guy to deal with. I like his Mame kit. It resembles the kit I was originally thinking of getting, but a little more customizable.

Have you dealt with him at all emphatic?

[emphatic]

No, I have not. They do look nice though. If I get another cab, it'll be a SEGA built candy cab.

[Gatsu]

If I could find a candy cab locally....I'd jump on that. But in South Carolina, arcade machines in general are hard to come by.

[RetroGreg]

What about doing a widescreen bartop kit? It might not be ideal, but you could still configure the PC and most of the components you use could probably be transferred to the Vewlix when you have the space to build one. At least you could play the games you want to play now and it's probably a much more manageable project. Just a thought.

[Locke141]

I like that your wife to be is ok with "nekkid boobies" in the living room, but draws the line at a MK cab.
To bad, I love the MK cabs. Was it one of the ones thats slightly rounded in front?

I can't recall who did it, but some one on here made a sit-down cab out of a single sheet of ply. It wasn't the 4' 8' sheets either. 2' by 4' maybe? Any way, it was well documented, others here have made there own versions, seemed relatively EZ to make, and in my opinion it looks really good. Others said it looked like a door wedge. Wll see if I can find it, if someone doesn't chime in with a link first.     

Ok found it.

The vigolix by Vigo.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,119533.msg1267233.html#msg1267233

Slappyhooper made one a bit larger.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,128876.40.html

I would just make one of these. It meets all your requirements, it has a small foot print, you could make all the cuts in one go, and it would be much cheeper then the kits you are looking at. 

[yotsuya]

Search for "Urkelcade". Laugh. Then search for "Vigolix". That's the cab Locke is talking about.

[Locke141]

I was up dating as yotsuya posted.

Good memory.

[Gatsu]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Those 2 plywood cabs were pretty interesting. May be able to work with that.

@RetroGreg - That's true. Could always go small and just upgrade later. Another option to consider.

@Locke141 - the content on the cab isn't why she drew the line, it was the size. Those MK cabs take up a good amount of real estate, and I really only have room for a slim LCD style cab. She approved the naked boobies because she likes boobies.    If I go that route I'll need to draw up the plans to incorporate the tv I've already got lined up. Shouldn't be a problem though.

@yotsuya - Urkelcade was epic.

[Gatsu]

Well some really good news and some sh*t news.

Yesterday I was diagnosed with diabetes. That's the bad news.

Good news....I talked with my wife about the cabinet situation and she agreed with me about getting the MK cab instead of the kit. More cost effective, and an MK cab is essentially my dream arcade cab anyways...so it'd be stupid for me not to jump on this opportunity.

I'm working on making room for it now and will hopefully be picking it up next week.

So this thread can die and once I get the cab I'll probably start a restoration thread.

Thanks again to everyone for their input. 

[pbj]

I want to hear more about the boobs

[Locke141]

Sorry to hear about your diagnoses.

I don't want to be preachy and Lord knows you probably have people coming out of the wood work with advice, but exercise and a carefully manage diet may go a long way to helping to manage  your new found condition. I'm a PE teacher and it seems every time the benefits of exercise comes up in the professional literature preventing and management of adult on set diabetes is listed. 



That's great news about the MK cab! I love the look of the ones with 3 sides in front under the CP. Can you post a Pic? Are you still going to use an LCD? I would go to the local good will and buy an old tube TV. Unless the MK cab has a working monitor, then I'd keep that.

[Gatsu]

Yeah. I had actually started exercising and eating healthier a couple weeks ago. It should have started a long time ago, but it didn't. It just solidifies what I need to do now and no slacking off. I don't know if it's type 1 or type 2 yet. I have to have the A1C & other blood tests on Monday, then they'll put me on either injection insulin or pills. I'm hoping pills, but because my blood sugar was so high when I was diagnosed (402), they may give me injection-insulin for a short period to get it under control, then switch to pills. My fiance is diabetic so I have a wealth of experience and information there to help. And it makes things easier on both of us when we buy groceries. We're not buying for 2 different diets.

As for the cab...

The guy mentioned there is no sound and the colors are off slightly on the monitor, but everything else works. Should potentially be easy fixes. The marquee needs to be replaced with the original artwork, and the control panel needs to be redone, as you can see in the photos. There may be a couple of spots that need some paint touched up on the front and possibly the back. But that's not a big ordeal. T-molding looks alright as well.

I'm not gonna touch the side art for a while. I want to enjoy it as it is before I get them reprinted.

This will be my first real-deal cab. So I'm super excited. Also really lucky that it's the cab I've wanted for a really long time.

Here comes the inevitable question. MK1 Cabs aren't as rare as others, and I want to keep the outside as authentic as possible. But I also would like to put a mame pc in it along side the original jamma hardware. Is that possible and worth doing? Is it easy to switch between the mame & original hardware? Either way I'll need to modify the control panel slightly to have 6 player buttons instead of 5, so I can at least hook up other jamma games in it. Because this will probably be my only cab for a long time. Took too much convincing to get it in the first place. So I want to try to put as much extra functionality in it as possible without touching the majority of the outside of the cab.

I'm not gonna put an LCD in the cab if the monitor is borked. I'm gonna try to find a equal replacement or see if I can find a suitable tube tv.

These are pics of the cab off of the seller's craigslist page.

[DarakuTenshi]

I say preserve that cab. It may not be an ultra rare cab... like when that guy MAMEd a Computer Space cab  , but the MK cab is a bit more rare than the MKII, MK3. MK4, KI, KI2 cabs.

[Gatsu]

I wouldn't be changing anything on the outside other than adding 2 buttons to the control panel.

What I may do to keep it classic is have an oriignal panel with regular button layout, and then have a "mame" control panel that I can swap out.

Would that be a more acceptable solution? Again I do want to preserve this cab as much as possible, but I'd like to play more than 1 game on it.

On another note, a buddy of mine has 2 MK2 boards I think, so I may hit him up for one once I get the cab home and looked over. I'm really hoping the monitor & audio issues are easy fixes.

[Malenko]

bring it on up to delaware, I'll give you an MK3 cab for it

[Gatsu]

bring it on up to delaware, I'll give you an MK3 cab for it

Umm...no.    lol

I'll be picking up the cab this coming Thursday. I'm ridiculously excited about it.

[Locke141]

It looks great.

Don't know any thing about switching between the board and a Mame PC. You could just leave the board in side un attached. I'd post that kind of question to the mane page. Some one here will know.

Note: The monitor can kill you.

I have never owned or worked on a arcade monitor but from my Mame research I have seen projects where people have replaced all the caps on the board, used degaussing coils on the monitor, and some special equipment called a rejuvenator. People go to great lengths to save original monitors. If I was you, I'd ask for help at KLOV. You may get lucky and some one near you may be able to help.       

[pbj]

How much for that marquee shipped to 77030?

[MK3FAN]

You're not going to like the way MK looks when converted from CGA to VGA for an LCD. 9/10 times the original monitor chassis can be repaired for cheaper than it would cost you to get a converter and a new LCD. When you get a chance, post some pictures of the monitor image and chassis so we know what you are dealing with and what needs to happen. you'll be much happier preserving the original monitor.

EDIT: Also, if you want some new artwork, a while back myself and some other really great members were able to replicate all the original MK artwork. It's now all currently available from here...

http://www.thisoldgame.com/products/mortal-kombat-side-art

http://www.thisoldgame.com/products/mortal-kombat-control-panel-box-art-set

[Gatsu]

Thanks for the input.

I'll take some photos once I get the cab in my apartment. The guy Im buying it from said he will have it "running" when I get there to show the condition of the monitor and all that.

[Gatsu]

How much for that marquee shipped to 77030?

$20. 

Decided on what I'm gonna do with the cab. And I think I can have my cake and eat it to in this case.

I didn't want to destroy the cab and change the artwork and all that, because the MK1 art is what I love about the cab in the first place. So I'm going to keep all the original hardware & art, but restore & remove the original CP & board and keep it off to the side. I'll build a separate control panel (with original style mk artwork with a 6 button layout), and use a Mame PC in it until I get to a point where I can acquire an LCD style cab to run the mame pc in. Once I do that, I'll swap the panels back and put the original MK board back in and keep it dedicated.

That way I can put the cab back to it's original form once I get a dedicated mame cab that can play old & newer stuff.

I've got most of the pc parts already, but now since I'm keeping the original monitor, and I'm building a separate control panel from scratch (since that won't take too much wood work), what all will I need to make the mame pc work with the arcade monitor? Will I need just an arcadevga card? Or will I need a J-pac & i-pac as well?

[MK3FAN]

To make the PC run on the arcade monitor, you have two options...

1) ArcadeVGA + Breakout cable (you'll want the video amp too)

2) Soft15khz (depends on whether or not your video card supports it)

[Gatsu]

To make the PC run on the arcade monitor, you have two options...

1) ArcadeVGA + Breakout cable (you'll want the video amp too)

2) Soft15khz (depends on whether or not your video card supports it)

I've read in the software forum that Soft15khz is the way to go...but if I don't have a card that works with it, I may as well go with the arcadevga and the breakout cable right?

[MK3FAN]

Yup but if you are able to use the Soft15khz, you'll still want to get the video amp. The video amp is necessary because most video cards only output 1 volt and this causes the arcade monitor to be dim and you have to max out your brightness controls. Using the video amp to up the voltage from 1 volt to 4 volts helps out a lot. Here is some more info...

http://www.ultimarc.com/vidamp.html

This is of course assuming you don't end up using the J-Pac because it has an amp built in.

[Gatsu]

Would it be easier to use the J-pac? That would mean though I'd be wiring up the control panel to work with Jamma & kick harness?

[MK3FAN]

It's really up to you. The Jpac will work just fine.

[Gatsu]

So went and picked up the cab today. The guy selling it was a really nice guy. He said he was gonna Mame the cab but needed to get rid of it because of an upcoming move. So he would rather see it go to a good home and see it fully restored. He and I will be keeping in touch for sure.

The last few days I've been doing a ton of research on the hardware. MANY thanks to MK3FAN for his awesome and super informative Youtube channel. That really helped a lot. I also downloaded the manual and will probably try to print it out and put it in a binder sometime soon so I have reference.

Problems with the cab:
- Faded artwork on 1 side and on the sides & front of the control panel
- No sound (because the sound board wasn't connected at all)
- Color were off & lines showing up in the monitor
- Lots of extra wires left in from a street fighter conversion
- Marquee is missing
- Some water damage/warp on the control panel, and extra holes drilled in it
- Only one of the coin door lights light up

Not sure what else yet. I need to get a security bit set for my screwdriver so i can take the marquee out and take a look at the speakers and marquee light. I also need to test the coin door, but I don't know how to adjust it to take quarters instead of tokens.

Test switch works fine.

The roms all check out when the cab starts up. All the controls work great, though I'll probably replace all of the switches and clean the buttons off.

The sound board has a broken cap, a bad trace it looks like, and is missing the ribbon cable that connects it to the main board. A buddy of mine is gonna fix/replace the cap and take care of the trace issue.

I fiddled with the pot switches on the monitor adjustment board and got the colors looking better. Still looks like I'll need to manually adjust the RBG pots in the back of the monitor though, may be too much green or maybe not enough contrast. Will do that later on. The bezel looks like it's in good shape. I'm gonna clean it up with some WD-40 to bring out that old shine. And I'll need to cut some plexi to go infront of the monitor.

There is also a alot of spliced wires and extra uneccessary wires in the cab laying around that don't need to be there. So I'm probably just gonna replace all the jamma & kick harness wiring. Also looks like an extra audio cable was spliced for stereo sound. I dunno. That'll get taken care of as well.

It'll take some time for me to save up to get the artwork printed and get a few parts I'll need, but in the mean time I can cut the new panels and start tidying up the wiring. And at least the cab is playable without the sound. I also took a vacuum to the inside to get rid of the cob webs and layers of dust on everything. I've gotta get in there with a slightly damp rag and some soapy water to clean the caked on dirt on the bottom of the cab.

What would you guys suggest for cleaning off the sides and outside of the cab? I want to try to get this bad boy looking factory new.

Now onto the photos.




Artwork on the left side of the cab is pretty faded, but not really messed up at all. The right side's colors are spectacular, but there are some good size gouges in the artwork. So both sides are gonna get replaced. Which I'm gonna need to get some info on how to apply artwork from ThisOldGame.com. Will I need to lay the cab on it's side to get new art on it? Or can I do it with the cab standing up?


You can see the lines really well in this photo. The colors look better than that. The camera just kinda sucks. Not sure if that's the monitor, or something up with the main game PCB. What do you guys think?




See how it looks like it's too gray? That'd be the brightness and contrast that needs adjusting right?


Broken cap on the sound board.


Info on the back of the monitor. Not sure if it's the original factory one or not, but it's in good shape.


Me playing a couple round to test the controls.


Works like buttah!


And finally here's the main board. I think it's a T board. Revision 4.0. I'm gonna upgrade to 5.0 later on and snag a Turbo Ninja hack to keep things interesting.


That's it for now. I'll grab the security bits tomorrow and take the marquee area apart to take a look at the light fixture and check the speaker condition.

[Malenko]

turn down the gain on the monitor flyback, that should make the lines go away (there 2 knobs, the other one is focus)

As for the bulb, take the broken one to autozone and tell them you need a replacement bulb. If you need a security torx, I have a spare but its not a screw driver bit, its like an allen wrench.

[pbj]

Is that an actual screened marquee or just a piece of paper?

[Malenko]

Is that an actual screened marquee or just a piece of paper?

I can pretty easily create that marquee for you in photoshop if you want to get it printed somewhere

[pbj]

Yeah, so could I, genius.  If it's not vintage then I don't want it.

 

[Malenko]

Yeah, so could I, genius.  If it's not vintage then I don't want it.

 

Ive seen your work, I doubt it

[Gatsu]

Is that an actual screened marquee or just a piece of paper?

Sadly it's a vinyl decal put on a piece of plexi.

@ Malenko - I'll fiddle with those knobs (that's what she said) later on to see if I can get rid of those lines. The flyback is on the back of the monitor I assume?

[Malenko]

look for the red wire leaving the chassis, not the end with the anode cap, but the other end. the knobs are right near where the red wire starts.

[MK3FAN]

Congrats on the pickup! To properly adjust the monitor...

-) Turn the "brightness" pot on the remote board ALL THE WAY DOWN
-) Turn the "screen" pot on the flyback up until you JUST BARELY see the raster lines (the lines you are currently seeing)
-) Turn the "screen" pot back down until the lines JUST go away from the screen
-) Turn the "brightness" pot back up to desired brightness
-) Adjust "contrast" as desired.

Your colors look pretty good to me from the pictures but it's probably different in person. Post some pictures after you adjust the brightness. Also, you'll not only need the ribbon cable for the sound board but also the power cable. Here is a video I made discussing the ins and outs of MK pcb. Let me know if it helps you out...

[Gatsu]

Found the screen pot finally. It's where I thought it was, it just didn't look like it would turn.

But I did the adjustments and the monitor looks really damn good.

Lines are gone!




@ Malenko & MK3FAN - Thank you both for the info.

@ MK3FAN - Thanks for sharing the link. That was one of the first vids of yours that I watched. That and reading the manual for the cab has helped considerably.

[MK3FAN]

You're welcome. Glad to be of help.