Mortal Kombat Dynamo cabinet conversion to MAME

[DFR]

Hi!

Here's my first MAME project. Eventually, I'd like to have original JAMMA MK1-2-3-4 cabs as well as a Neo Geo MVS. And a dual Hydro Thunder!

For now, a MAME project satisfies my current needs. Kinda 

This is a Dynamo HS? cabinet that was originally converted to Mortal Kombat.

Picked up the cab for cheap after a few hundred kms drive.




It was completely empty, except for a jamma connector and wiring loom in the bottom of the cab






First step: lighting up the marquee




Since I had no arcade monitor, I decided that I would use a regular CRT TV.
First, I decased it and removed all the useless junk.


Built a frame with 2x3s to support the monitor




Decided to install the monitor boards and power supply on the side of the cabinet


No sound Added a cheap 2.1 speakers kit. I decased everything but the subwoofer, which is screwed at the bottom of the cabinet.


No run button


Thanks to the Dynamo cabinet, adding buttons to the control panel is easy. Replaced all the buttons with new ones. I used the colors of the Neo Geo (red, yellow, green, blue)



Wired the buttons to the Ipac2. I reused the wires from the JAMMA wiring loom.


Needed some help from a good friend


Testing the hardware and installing the OS. I used Windows XP. PC is a P4 2.6 Ghz, 2 Gb RAM, AGP video card with composite output. 30 or 40 Gb 7200rpm IDE hard drive and a cheap ATX power supply. It runs Windows XP with many services disabled and loads directly into MALA frontend. There is no keyboard or mouse connected because I did not want it to feel like I'm using a computer. I used the IPAC2 for keyboard encoding. A VNC server runs so I can connect to it from a computer and the hard drive is shared so I can access it and drop roms whenever I want to.


Testing: it works!


Made some brackets for the power supply


All the hardware installed inside the cab


Adding lights to the coin slots:


Testing:



Final testing: it works and she likes it!


I need a monitor bezel and to do some paint touch up. I'll replace the t-moldings with red ones.

So that's it for now.  Hope you enjoy!

[bfauska]

Looks like a solid entry into the hobby. Congratulations and welcome.

[MK3FAN]

Yes, not a bad job on your first shot! If you need any MK advice, let me know. I have all the cabs...

[thomas_surles]

Yes, not a bad job on your first shot! If you need any MK advice, let me know. I have all the cabs...

I am so jealous of your collection that I find myself wishing bad things on you..

[MK3FAN]

Yes, not a bad job on your first shot! If you need any MK advice, let me know. I have all the cabs...

I am so jealous of your collection that I find myself wishing bad things on you..

haha. No worries. You aren't the first person to wish bad things on me.

[DFR]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

MK3FAN, nice collection hehe. I saw one of your videos on youtube, the one showing the MKX and MK9 builds. Great work!

I'll add one cab at a time. My wife thinks I have too much stuff in the basement but surprisingly, she never complained about my arcade cabinet. I even found her playing Windjammers a few weeks ago 

[Malenko]

My wife thinks I have too much stuff in the basement but surprisingly, she never complained about my arcade cabinet. I even found her playing Windjammers a few weeks ago 

I like her already, unrated and under appreciated game; one of my favorites.

I would have tried to sneak the run button more down and to the left. Those dynamo panels are always swiss cheese under the overlay.

[pbj]

Man, been awhile since we've seen a project like this. 

[tomstewdevine]

Nice work, it came together very nicely, and like you said, with a little paint and a bezel, she should look pretty good.

[DFR]

Thanks for the comments!

This is my first arcade project and I hope that my collection will grow in the next months. I've also been contemplating the idea of building a MAME bartop from scratch and building a replica of the Neo Geo MVS, all JAMMA. Free time is hard to find!

When I lived with my parents in the 90's, my father used to work at an arcade. He was the manager and repair man. He spend his days repairing/converting/installing machines... and playing. Sometimes he would bring my brothers and I at work with him. Since I was the older brother, he would give me the master key of all coin doors   
So we would play any available machine. That was fun. People looked at us and man, we could feel the jealousy 

One day, he came home with a MK1 control panel. Inside the panel was a power supply, a speaker, a video cable and a edge connector. All we had to do was hook up a board, the video cable to a TV and the power cord to the wall plug!

He used to come home with jamma boards such as MK1, MK2, Klax, TMNT, MJ Moonwalker and others I cannot even remember. When they were replacing part or machines, they could not keep them because they were lacking storage spage. There was no local market for these at this time so instead of trashing them, he would bring them home.

One day, he came home with a Neo Geo MVS2-mini and more than a dozen cartridges!

We even had this hockey machine with the big transparent dome!

After a few years, I guess he was tired of having all that stuff in the house.

He gave the Neo Geo cab to someone he knew... (the guy sold it full price later...)
He also got rid of all boards, MK1 control panel, (working) monitors and part boxes. It all went to the garbage bin.

The arcade he worked for moved shortly after and was converted to a sport bar/arcade with pool tables and TVs. Sadly, it closed shortly afterwards. The only things left at home from his arcade days (asides of tools) was one or two isolation transformers 

He shouldn't have thrown away all the working parts and now that he sees today's value of the parts he got rid off, he's pulling his hair, hehe.

[leapinlew]

How are you pushing video to the TV? Looks like I don't see any overscan issues, which can be troublesome when using a TV for an arcade

[DFR]

Video is fed using a component cable to the video card. Fortunately, I don't have any overscan issues but a slight tilt that was solved by adjusting the yoke.