ALRIGHT! about time for an update!
So let me ATTEMPT to outline what i've done so far, I'm not very good with logging my projects....
let me please first warn you, some of these are really poor cell pics, so bare with me, they're mainly for representation.
Cosmetic:
I WORKED this machine over... It had some sort of counter top laminate over the original artwork when it was converted to MK2. Unfortunately, it had managed to crack all the way down the side...
Using a crowbar, rubber mallet, and patience, I peeled it all off after unsuccessful attempts to hide the crack. Then I took a flat blade razor and peeled off the original turtles artwork (it was beyond messed up from the laminate glue).
Then took the belt sander to it and did my best to flatten out all the gashes in the surface that I then filled with a combo of wood filler and bondo. All of this worked out pretty well for me not having any experience. Then i primed and painted both sides.
Not bad huh?! Just awaiting some artwork, which i'll wait till i finish the project to dump money into
On the backside and front side, i repainted some of the black. The backside was sanded and completely repainted, but the front was touched up on the scratches with velspar satin black. Actually matched original paint pretty well. I then replaced all the t-molding.
(I included the untouched-at-the-time back panel for comparison, big difference!)
Computer:
Instead of using a computer case, I build a mounting plate from some left over sheet metal and standoffs.
This way, the motherboard gets all the air it needs inside the cabinet without the loss of the earth ground the case provides (i have a grounding braid going from the mounting plate to the psu.)
Got clever with the psu and mounted it with plastic straps that i think are used to hang ventilation. Just unscrewed a few of the psu's case screws, attached them, and bolted them to the bottom of the cabinet.
I then bolted a drive holder i cut from an old computer case for the hard drive. Worked out really well... If I decide to add a DVD drive, i'll have access through the coin door
Also custom fabricated a little rig using one of the original cherry power switches to power on the PC. (Pic of this later)
Specs of computer:
-
Intel Pentium E5200 2.5GHz Dual-Core Processor-
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler-
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 Dual Channel-
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L ATX Intel Motherboard-
CORSAIR 400W Power Supply-
Western Digital Caviar 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive-ArcadaVGA card hooked into the original monitor (really like the vga break out cable they offer by the way, didn't expect it to plug right into the monitor board like it did)
Marquee: Replaced the fixture with something a little custom since it was making a lot of noise. Mounted a piece of scrap mdf behind where the marquee would sit and mounted 6 cold cathodes that will come on when the power supply is booted.
Control Panel: Ah... now heres the main project
The original was just all sorts of mess. Bunch of non-working buttons including some on the joysticks, and only 2 players. The joysticks and everything were in there, I was just poking around so i removed them.
I redesigned one with 4 players with a trackball
...SUPA re-enforced....
...and even entirely detachable so its easy to move (I'm a college student so it'll probably see a few different apartments in the next few years).
Having the overlay made soon and should be finishing this up soon.
OH, and changed the theme to miller lite
Other little things:
-Swapped the twisty feet things for casters
-swapped all the locks
-tweaked coin doors a bit to work better, a sort of tune up
-I cut the connector out of an old power supply so I never have to worry about a dragging cord. Actually killed two birds with one stone, I cut the cable coming from the power strip in half, on the half coming from the strip i soldered the connector, the other side that would plug the strip into the wall was soldered to the end of my monitors power supply.... maybe the pics will explain better...
Where I need help:
I really need help finding a solution to audio.. Originally I intended to use car speakers because of the quality and output, not to mention its just a matter of punching the speaker holes and mounting them from the outside. Because of a budget change though, I'm looking for something cheaper. Also, since its a conversion project, i can't really mount the speakers from the inside, so I need a solution where i can mount the speaker from the outside. Any suggestions? The original speaker still works great and I'm more than willing to use that, but i'm having trouble finding an 8 ohm 10w amplifier or something similar to power it. Right now its plugged into the motherboard directly and it sounds good, but WAY too quiet. Any help?
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Topic: TMNT (converted to mk2) to Mame/Jukebox conversion (Read 6722 times)
