Twin Defenders

[paigeoliver]

I just picked up a pair of Defender cabinets with full sideart. One is probably going to be a Mame powered Multi-Williams to bring to the next auction, while the other is going to be either a REAL Defender, or a Mame powered one (depending on finances and how much the other one sells for).

I REALLY want to just keep them both (I love Defender cabinets), but having two Defenders would make even less sense than having both Sprint One and Sprint 2 (which I already have!).

[hooded_paladin]

full sideart?
turn one into an authentic, dedicated machine and sell it for lots to some crazy guy.

turn the other into MAME, but of course play mostly defender on it.

[paigeoliver]

full sideart?

turn the other into MAME, but of course play mostly defender on it.

Full as in, never painted over, not sanded off, never had any stickers put over it, etc. Front art is great on both of them too.

I don't need another full featured Mame cabinet (I ALREADY have 4 of them). And a real (or Mame) Multi-Williams to keep would basically be a duplicated game since I can already play all the Williams games as it is.

But I think it would be cool to have an original (or pseudo original) Defender though, but I am not going to be able to fit the original Defender boards into my budget unless I make a profit off the other one.

[eightbit]

If the art is in good shape why would you change it? Isn't it worth more with the origanel account.

[paigeoliver]

Oh, I am not going to mess with the sideart at all (not going to use the Multi-Williams sideart). Neither of them have marquees, correct control panels or bezels right now anyway.

[Frostillicus]

defender cabs are cool.  Second only to asteroid cabs in my book.  Nice

[paigeoliver]

My goodness, there is a very slight chance that one of them might have Defender boards inside it. I never even looked inside the Arch Rivals one (wrapped it up in plastic wrap as soon as I saw it, and never unwrapped it), but the guy who gave it to me just asked me if I was going to be needing the sound board that was in there.

Of course now I will be cracking that baby open the minute I get home.

[paigeoliver]

Well, it had a complete set of boards inside, ... for Arch Rivals.  

[IceCold]

Well, it had a complete set of boards inside, ... for Arch Rivals.  

Wow, that's definitely a let down   .  But, you still got a good deal at least.

[paigeoliver]

I did a lot of work to it this week.

I spent HOURS cleaning all the contact paper residue off the cabinet (one I got from noice).

I did a little coin door bezel type work in order to use the coin door I had for it (which appears to have actually been a Williams pinball door, and not a Defender door).

I made a brand new control panel from scratch. I cut it out of wood, used an NOS Willis overlay. I modified a Wico balltop stick into a 2-way and installed that (the ball is bigger than what a Defender SHOULD have though). Since I was already using a Willis overlay, I decided to jazz it up with translucent buttons, so all 5 play buttons are translucent (all were NOS translucent leaf button assemblies).

I still do not have a proper Defender monitor glass. For right now I am using a plain piece of dark plexi with a Defender instruction card underneath.

The marquee is a new repro one. The monitor is a 21" "kiosk monitor" which actually fits nicely behind a standard 19" black bezel.

Still to do.

Wire speaker.
Replace speaker grill mesh.
Install lights under light up buttons.
Wire coin door.
Lower monitor shelf 2.5" so the replacement monitor will sit at the correct height.
Get a computer for it (been using my desktop to test things out).
Locate a real Defender monitor glass.

I played about 5 or 6 games today. My scores are already better than I have ever managed before, which is still terrible (top score 13,000).

I had planned on this switching between Defender and Stargate with a hidden button, but I just realized that Stargate has an extra button.

I will take some detailed pictures once it is finished. I especially need to photograph how I made my own Defender stick out of a Wico "microleaf". (Quick instructions, cut one corner off the base, to clear the spot where the reverse button goes, take the microswitches for left and right off, and the put them back on backwards, then cut the proper Defender slot in the wood).

[paigeoliver]

Oh, I am also making a Stargate to go along with this one. But the cabinet has been painted over (ARRRGGGGHHHHH), but I am gonna try some 3M Safest Stripper on it.

Haven't quite decided if I will run BOTH of them in my gameroom, or keep one in the basement and switch them every 6 months or so.

[paigeoliver]

1

[paigeoliver]

2

[paigeoliver]

3

[paigeoliver]

4

[paigeoliver]

d

[paigeoliver]

d

[paigeoliver]

Well, since I have begun a rather large sell off of machines this one is going to largely become my "play everything" machine.

So I am going to be making several more control panels for it.

At the moment the current (Defender) panel is wired up via a keyboard hack.

I plan on moving over to a pseudo JAMMA setup.

Going to do it like this.

Wire the encoder up to a JAMMA harness.

Wire up each control panel to a JAMMA fingerboard so that they can plug right in.

Granted, most of the panels won't use more than a couple of inputs, but I figured it would be better to go with one simple way of doing it, rather than multiple ways.

So far I have

Defender panel (complete).

Tac/Scan (Spinner) panel. I have FINALLY managed to get the darned spinner off the stupid panel it was on (only took me 8 months). I am going to attempt to remove the overlay as well so I can reuse it. Even without applying any heat it seems like it is going to peel off pretty easy, so I should be able to salvage it undamaged using a blowdrier.

2 player panel. Standard 2 player 6 button layout. Going to use half of my Road Fighter overlay for it (overlay is large enough to cover 2 panels). I may or may not use Wico sticks on this one. I prefer them, but I am out of them, and NOS ones have been getting harder and hard to find. I might just go with perfect 360s.

Trackball panel. Using my 3" Imperial PS2 trackball, and the other half of my Road Fighter overlay.

4-way panel. Using a Willis Q*Bert overlay and a used Q*Bert stick mounted in the standard manner, not in the Q*Bert manner. (at least I THINK it is a Q*Bert stick, it is 4-way, and its nonstandard center hole deally sure matches up with the overlay). I MIGHT possibly use a Happ's Universal in 4-way mode instead though, since those can easily be rotated 45 degrees for Q*Bert mode.

Asteroids panel. Using up another NOS Willis overlay for this one.

I am also mulling over a dual 49-way panel (I have the sticks), a mechanical rotary panel (I have ONE, buy I am not sure if it actually works), a Baseball panel (I have a couple of those spring loaded analog baseball sticks), a 270 steering wheel panel, and a Stepmania panel.