"Tonight I Dine On Turtle Soup"

[MK3FAN]

Hey everyone. Been absent from the forums for a while. Been spending all my time over on KLOV. I thought I'd share my most recent project here as well. Here's the back story first....

I posted an ad on Craigslist offering my services as an arcade repairman. I was contacted by a local car dealership owner who said he needed some repairs. Turns out he had a Golden Tee '99 installed in an original TMNT cabinet. I told him I had a Golden Tee 2005 in near mint condition that I was trying to sell and it was a much better version/game than the '99 version. I told him my price and he couldn't say "yes" fast enough, but to quote him further, "...only if you haul this one away." (pointing at the GT '99). "No problem," I said. So long story short, I sold my GT 2005 to him and got his GT '99 in a TMNT cab for free!

The cabinet was painted black and had an LCD installed so none of the original CRT mounts were there. I had to get a bit creative when it came to re-installing a CRT. I got the cab home, got everything ordered and began the restoration. I decided to make the game a TMNT/TMNT Turtles In Time combo. I was able to use a custom marquee that a great KLOV member was kind enough to provide to me and with the use of a Mike'sArcade 2-in-1 switcher, realize my goal. I also had to get a whole new control panel machined for me due to the original one being so hacked up from the GT '99 conversion. I also had to basically re-wire the extire cabinet from scratch because NONE of the original TMNT harnesses/wiring was there.

Here are the library of pics. Opinions (good or bad) are always welcomed. Thanks for looking...
































































































Had a couple friends stop over to help break in the machine...





And a couple videos talking about some problems I ran into...

[Nephasth]

Zenomorp! Don't think I've ever seen you around these parts... Always in awe of your row of Midways. Nice TMNT/TIT!

[Malenko]

Great job Mike, I changed my avatar and tag line like 2 weeks ago, and now I get to see this 

[DarakuTenshi]

Very impressive... so, is this something you picked up as a hobby or are you an arcade repairman by trade?

[hanzo_hasashi]

Beautifull TMNT

Off TOpic: MK3FAN do you happen to have all MK cabss? It seems you have too War Gods, Bio Freaks too?

[Malenko]

Beautifull TMNT

Off TOpic: MK3FAN do you happen to have all MK cabss? It seems you have too War Gods, Bio Freaks too?

You can see the War Gods in the pix above, Bio Freaks never had an arcade release AFAIK, but the prototype rom was dumped for MAME.

[MKKhanzo]

Beautifull TMNT

Off TOpic: MK3FAN do you happen to have all MK cabss? It seems you have too War Gods, Bio Freaks too?

You can see the War Gods in the pix above, Bio Freaks never had an arcade release AFAIK, but the prototype rom was dumped for MAME.

Oh well I thought in MK3FAN in the last pic you can see the dedicated Bio Freaks arcade cab? Or Area 51?

Also:

http://gamesdbase.com/game/arcade/biofreaks.aspx

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7119

BTW Malenko I will pm you about something! 

[Malenko]

your KLOV link says Cabinet Information: No dedicated cabinets exist
 

Wikipedia says release was scrapped, I think some prototype cabinets were made but it never got released. Its a pretty terrible game 

PM away!

[MK3FAN]

your KLOV link says Cabinet Information: No dedicated cabinets exist

There was a dedicated BioFreaks at Midwest Gaming Classic last year (I am currently looking for the picture) so they DID make SOME cabinets but they were all prototypes just like Tattoo Assassins.

MK3FAN do you happen to have all MK cabss? It seems you have too War Gods, Bio Freaks too?

I have ALL the 90's Midway fighters that were released (MK1, MK2, MK3, UMK3, MK4, KI1, KI2, War Gods, Mace: The Dark Age and WWF Wrestlemania). BioFreaks was never publicly released. I also have the non-fighters that were released in the same 90's Midway cabs (Radikal Bikers, War: Final Assault). I'm still looking for a 2-player NFL Blitz, NBA Showtime and a Skins machine, then I'll have EVERY machine ever produced that used the 90's Midway fighter design. I can post some pictures when I get home from work.

Very impressive... so, is this something you picked up as a hobby or are you an arcade repairman by trade?

Thanks! It's mostly a hobby but I have done some repairs for people too. I have been collecting/restoring arcade machines for roughly 10 years now. I have 30 machines in the house currently (26 arcade and 4 pinball). Here are a couple examples of some MK restores I did...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,85022.msg890982.html#msg890982

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,119001.msg1260361.html#msg1260361

Zenomorp! Don't think I've ever seen you around these parts... Always in awe of your row of Midways. Nice TMNT/TIT!

Thanks! Yeah, like I said, I've been away for a while. Since most of what I've been doing has involved restoration and not building/creating my own stuff, I've been over on KLOV for most of my absent time here. 

[matt4949]

Looks great. I liked your FB page.

[MK3FAN]

Looks great. I liked your FB page.

Thanks!

[Malenko]

me too, even shared that awesome pic of jax and kano dressed as TJ Combo and Jago 

[severdhed]

Awesome job...I am jealous

[ark_ader]

That cabinet looks fantastic.  Great job on the artwork. 

[stigzler]

Looks great. Handsome 4 player cab, that!

[MK3FAN]

Thanks guys!

I recently added some custom sideart to the TIT side of the cabinet. The details can be seen here...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,139099.0.html

After work today, I thought I'd try something different. Added Purple T-Molding to the TIT side. Opinions?

[ebarlow99]

nice control panels!! 

[pbj]

Looking good.  I dragged a couple of friends into the dungeon and we played TMNT.. I was shocked at how short that game is, I think we blitzed through it in 20 minutes.  Was also shocked at how many credits that thing sucks down. 

 

[MK3FAN]

Looking good.  I dragged a couple of friends into the dungeon and we played TMNT.. I was shocked at how short that game is, I think we blitzed through it in 20 minutes.  Was also shocked at how many credits that thing sucks down. 

 

Thanks! I can usually beat it in 1-2 lives. It's actually quite easy once you learn how the AI reacts.

[pbj]

Yeah, sorry, I ain't buying what you're selling.   

[mattgold]

I think the 1/2 and 1/2 looks awesome.  I was gonna make the suggestion on just the side art - but also doing the T-molding is great.

[MK3FAN]

Yeah, sorry, I ain't buying what you're selling.   

Watch this series. I use this guy's tactics. They work great...