How to: MAME a Mechanized Attack

[BigCurtis]

Mechanized Attack. A huge cabinet, one off for a light gun game. It truly is ginormous, and on top of it's size, I'm not sure if the one that landed in my collection had the lower frame with casters or if that was added by a good intentioned fellow along the way.

Here's the original flyer for reference:


And here's a shot of mine with the control box pulled out, the electronics drawer removed, and minor disassembly in prep for working the beast:


The first question a lot will have is: Why?
1) I have the machine.
2) It's missing the monitor, and (it appears) some of the monitor mounting bits. (I do have a 25" NIB CRT, but it's going in my Simpson restoration)
3) The side art is in really good shape for a game of this age. A few scratches, but rather bright and popping otherwise.
4) MAME exists
5) I need room in my garage, and I don't like selling people junk - so a quality MAME-ification is the way to keep this alive a bit longer.
6) I appreciate a good challenge

Here's another shot pre-activity that gives you an idea of the other projects on my plate:


That is two rough Tron's, an original speckled Pac-Man, and a CAPCOM big blue with Super Street Fighter II lurking in the shadows behind the green beret cocktail holding up my table router & junk.

While I've made some progress, and have more pictures to share, it will be in a follow up post. More to come!

So here's a (not great) picture where you can see as I received it, it stands taller than the Capcom Big Blue behind it:

[ppv]

That is a beast of a cabinet!

[yotsuya]

If you left the red part off, you'd probably have a pretty decent cabinet. Please tell me you went that route in your design.

[BigCurtis]

Here are a few pictures of the process more or less to this point, though this is after I already replaced the 9 undersized (and highly damaged) casters that were there from a previous owner:

I decided to chop it off right above the electronics drawer:



I then knocked the side bits off the bottom, and cut some 1x2's to re-use the pre-existing mounting holes to the base, and sank a potentially excessive amount of screws into the side:


Also, a close look at "my" control box out of the machine, compared to the one in the publicity photo up at the start of the thread, has very different angles. Also interesting is that they went with fancy laminate on plywood for the from pieces they had to mitre (and then covered it all with a red plastic laminate - removed from mine in these photos):




Regardless, this is the route I'm going on the main cabinet, keeping the "theme" while losing a lot of bulk:





Exact controls & layout is still "under review" - certainly a 2P cab, not sure if adding a trackball would be of any benefit. A small part of me wants to keep it and do a MAME setup with two AimTrak guns, but even after I clear out all the cabinets on my property, I've another 11 Pole Positions and a few other randoms down in a buddy's garage in SC.

[BigCurtis]

So it appears within the  mess I have a complete SNK Mechanized attack UZI, and a SNK Beast Busters UZI (nearly identical on the outside, BB uses potentiometers instead of a light module)...

Inside the MA gun:



Inside the BB gun:



For longevity and supportability down the road, I can't see any other plan than using two of the OEM AimTrak kits to convert these, lose the heavy bases, and have them as "free hand" corded guns, and seeing if anyone with a dedicated SNK of some kind needs any of the leftover parts or wants them as spares.

The harnesses from the guns...


Fits these LS-30's well:


So I'll likely poach those for Project F. and, it appears Ultimarc is getting some more business from me.

UPDATE:

I've stripped the guns down to the bits I need to clean up and build on top of the OEM AimTraks. Left over are all the base plate hardware and mounting bits, including the two potentiometers from the BB gun, the optical board out of the MA gun. If anyone in the Raleigh/Durham/RTP area has a MA/BB dedicated and use for these leftover parts, hit me up and they're yours.

[BigCurtis]

The guns are cleaned up pretty nicely, and I also saved the two base buttons (not exactly where I'll use them yet):

Though one concern is that the metal frame within the main gun is still significantly weighty. I imagine using this single handed would fatigue you rather quickly, so am considering chopping a huge chunk of that main bar, and replacing it with something more lightweight (perhaps wood).

A set of seven Atari lighted volcano buttons and harness from an old (scrapped) Atari Anti-Aircraft makes a cameo on the right, waiting to be repurposed.

[BigCurtis]

The fun new bits from Ultimarc arrived a day or two ago, and I started some test fitting of the OEM AimTrak kit.

Here's the little AimTrak board with the optical sensor:


Looks like it "just fits" with the original lens cones intact:



As I am shooting for a "true cabled arcade gun" feel, I ordered a set of the integrated cables from Andy at Ultimarc as well, so test routing the cabling needed to happen:




Everything looks good on the snaking the cable front... up the shaft, alongside the trigger, up through the gap, and Bob's your uncle!

Next step would be soldering the cable:


That's where I've stopped for the moment, as I'm going to have to come up with my own circuit to drive the original solenoids that will also be compatible with the core AimTrak module. On the off chance anyone out there has done this with the 12v SNK recoil solenoids, please point me to any pre-existing efforts (my extensive searching came across a few recoil mods for other guns, but nothing directly applicable).