The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Arcade Collecting => Miscellaneous Arcade Talk => Topic started by: myntik1 on February 16, 2006, 01:54:47 pm
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Before I begin let me say that I've only been into this for about 3 months so if some of this is common sense that I haven't grapsed yet please forgive me
the soon to be wife has been hounding me to pick up a centipede game for her. In my area centipede/millipede game is hard to come across unless you're willing to shell out the cash. anyway I have to opportunity to pick up an Alley Master game in decent condition. Is it worth the time investment to try to convert this. I haven't looked into it too much but I'm assuming the monitor would need to be swapped. Is there some sort of old board to jamma adaptor I could buy so I could pick up a centipede/millipede/missile command board. any info would be greatly appreciated. thanks
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There is a jamma adapter for Centipede. I think two bit com sells it. You can google it for "centipede jamma adapter"
You can make one, but you have to build an outside amplifier circuit.
The monitor orientation is vertical. I don't know what alleymaster is, my guess it's a bowling game.
Then you need of course the working board. Those boards are pretty sturdy. You can pick one up off ebay or rgvac from $50 - $125.
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From the KLOV listing it looks like it's a game with a standard-resolution vertically mounted monitor. This is a good start.
The controls for alley master seem to be a spring loaded lever kind of thing and not a trackball. Trackballs aren't that hard to get and install though. Centipede used a 2-1/4" trackball.
The other thing that might be a pain is that it doesn't look like Alley Master is JAMMA. Most games from this time period are, but Cinematronics apparently had other ideas. This leaves you with two options: wire in a JAMMA harness and use an adapter for Centipede (or any other vertical JAMMA game). Or you find a wiring harness for Centipede and wire it in to use only Centipede.
It's definitely do-able. One other factor I would consider is the cabinet that Alley Master is in. The centipede artwork was made to fit a Centipede cabinet so you'll probably have a cabinet with very little centipede artwork. There are many places that can print resized repro art. This can get expensive though. How important is the artwork to you?
How much do they want for Alley Master? There are quite a few Centipede/Dig Dug/Kangaroo/Arabian cabinets that had been converted to other games. If Alley Master's cheap enough I say go for it. If they want an average to high amount for it, you might as well try to at least start with an Atari cab.