Generic Cocktail to Donkey Kong Theme

[tomstewdevine]

So I originally bought this for super cheap off Craigslist expecting to work on it and restore a cabinet instead of just making a Mame cab. But it was too far gone.  Here is the original post in restorations:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,145390.0.html

So since then my buddy bought it from me, and wants a mame cab.  I'm doing the conversion for him. I know its looked down upon to hack up a old cabinet, so I don't mind if you let me have it. 

I did a lot to find out what this cab was, but the board wasn't original, the monitor was broken, all the documents that came with it were not for this machine.  I did keep all the parts and if anyone ever needed anything I would totally give it to them for free.


Here is my progress so far.  I started by taking everything out of the cab and cleaning the whole thing. I got a 6 year old Dell for $30 off craigslist and set up mame running through Atomic FE. I broke down the pc and installed all the components in the cab.


I have a bunch of lcd monitors people have given to me for free so i picked one that I thought looked the best from the sides.


I then made my own control panel that would work, the original one had a sheet metal overlay, but since I don't have any metal skills but I have a lot of plexi in my garage I used that.





So then it looked like this:


I then needed to cut the hole for the bigger monitor, the black line is the hole for my monitor:




Then I took the old coin mech out because I couldn't get it to take quarters, must be set up for tokens? And I mounted a button that can be used as the coin up button, and when you press the button in the middle of the coin mech it will coin up the game:




So this is where I sit as of today:


I still need to fully mount the monitor, it's just kind of stuck in there. I need to get new glass cut. I need to design and print CPOs. And I still need to wire all the controls to the ipac, first time I'm using an ipac instead of the cheap one from china.

[tomstewdevine]

Here is the progress I made over the weekend. I still need to finish wiring, installing art, painting glass/paint glass brackets and cleaning up the game-list/switching settings to cocktail.

I got the monitor mounted with some wood I had around the garage, also mounted a fan on the monitor frame because it is the perfect spot once the lid is closed.  Also reinstalled the hinges and kickstand things that hold the lid up.  They were all stripped out of the wood like someone just forced the lid off and ripped the screws out of the wood. Also replaced the locks on each side since I didn't have a key, got replacement locks at Ace Hardware, they were not a perfect match but I made them work.







Also installed the power button, menu/exit button and player1 & player2 buttons:





Replacement glass will be ready February 5th, Getting my artwork printed through coree@Make-It-Mine.com his printing is great and way cheaper than any other place I have found.



I have had fun with this project so far, and I'm on the home stretch.

[tomstewdevine]

I got the art, it all looks good. I started working on it and did one side but didn't finish it because I got an air bubble and was pissed about it and decided to finish it up tomorrow.

Here is the printed art.


Mounted the small logo.


Player 2 control panel.


Player 2 Mounted.


Need to finish up the other control panel and get it all wired to the ipac. Then need to redesign the Layout in Atomic for Donkey Kong vertical. Also need to sand and repaint the chrome parts of the cabinet, I think I'm going to paint them a satin metal spray paint color,  the chrome is all rusted and it would be nice if it looked a little better.  The chrome parts are the brackets that hold the glass, and the bottom legs. Need to paint the glass and after all that is done I will get the perfect cocktail game list put together.

[tomstewdevine]

Snow day from the kids school yesterday, so I didn't go to work and got a lot of work done on this conversion.  Had to work inside, far too cold out.

Got all the graphics on and put the unpainted glass on it to make sure it fit and to map out what needs to be taped off.





Finished the wiring to the ipac, forgot to take a picture of it after I did player two.


Have it running Atomic, and I think the menu screen looks pretty good. Here is where it sits right now.


Need to give it a solid game list and change all the dipswitch settings in mame to cocktail. I have only done it on the couple games I have been testing with but it does work great. I also will be touching up all the nicks and dings around the cab, and giving is one more full cleaning.

Now I'm debating painting the chrome base legs, and the chrome glass brackets.  They are all scratched up and kinda rusty. Not terrible but now great either. I was thinking of painting them black, but I think what will look ---smurfy---.  So then I was thinking just painting them with that metal color spray paint, but I don't know if it will look good or not. And the third options is just leave them the way they are. Input welcome.

[vwalbridge]

The title of your thread reads: "Donkey Dong"

[tomstewdevine]

  as I run away into a dark empty cave and live the rest of my life there.

[Brizzle]

I think it looks pretty cool.  Those old cocktails aren't always very popular restored.  Some people LOVE them... but they are a small few (original I mean). 

As for air bubbles, use a spray bottle with a little dish-washing liquid mixed with water.  You'll push the water out, and when the vinyl dries, the adhesive will still be sticky.  It's how window tint is put on and how a professional vinyl printer said he puts side art on, especially since side art normally doesn't have adhesive (and you can't push very hard with your vinyl/felt tool). For persistent air bubbles, take a pin and try to poke a very small hole.. and try to get the air pushed out slowly.  Be sure to try to poke on a line or something not as obvious if possible.  I usually just use my razor blade and cut a super small line (maybe 1/16") on a spot where two colors meet.. it's barely noticeable.. or at least less noticeable than a bubble!

[tomstewdevine]

I think it looks pretty cool.  Those old cocktails aren't always very popular restored.  Some people LOVE them... but they are a small few (original I mean). 

As for air bubbles, use a spray bottle with a little dish-washing liquid mixed with water.  You'll push the water out, and when the vinyl dries, the adhesive will still be sticky.  It's how window tint is put on and how a professional vinyl printer said he puts side art on, especially since side art normally doesn't have adhesive (and you can't push very hard with your vinyl/felt tool). For persistent air bubbles, take a pin and try to poke a very small hole.. and try to get the air pushed out slowly.  Be sure to try to poke on a line or something not as obvious if possible.  I usually just use my razor blade and cut a super small line (maybe 1/16") on a spot where two colors meet.. it's barely noticeable.. or at least less noticeable than a bubble!

Great advice, I'm nervous to do that because you would think the water would ruin the vinyl but I have an extra so I'm going to give it a shot.  And yeah I can see why the cabs are not well liked.  When the controls are mounted like that its not as easy to play, but still a fun project. And it will look pretty sharp after I get that top glass painted.

[tomstewdevine]

I'm Finished!

Painted the glass this last week. I think it turned out pretty great. First I taped off the spot for the monitor and the two stickers





Then painted it black, did two coats, peeled the tape off and let it dry.  Then flipped the glass around and mounted it. I think it turned out great.











Then I played some Volfied.



Thanks for checking it out. Now time to finish my Lifeforce Bartop. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,147751.0.html

[dmckean]

The first few posts in this thread were a little painful, but this did end up turning out really nice.