Been a while since i did a project, and to be honest I though id had my fill of them and was happy with my collection. But lockdown seemed a good a time as any to take another project on. Put the feelers out for a little cabaret sized cab as space is getting low. Muddymusic sent me some pics of a cab that might be suitable, the price was right and it would fit in the little alcove I have remaining in the gamesroom.
Im a big fan of atari cabarets, but they are out of my budget these days, this cab had a very similar profile which I was drawn too.
I Set about stripping the cab, not sure what it was wired for before, and as much as i am a fan of having drainpipes in my arcade cabs.... I thought it best to just strip it down and rewire it for jamma.
First thing was to cut a new front panel, I bought a proper coin door off olly as well so cut a lower panel for the coin bucket, and a top panel and routed out space for the new coin door. The plan was to remove those two coin acceptors and cut out that top panel some more to fit a marquee ala tempest etc.
I decided to repaint the insides and new wood with a satin black, and then cover the black parts with some black vinyl. The sides were in decent condition but i decided to go with a lighter woodgrain so, got some dc fix and some new t molding.
As you can see by this stage id already started wiring the cab for jamma, didnt have the time or inkling to start from scratch, and the jamma looms you can buy these days are of such poor quality so I bought a second hand loom off mo at videotronics, it was missing quite a lot, but allowed me to customise it to my needs and add wires where necessary etc. I also bought a used service panel, and an lpad so i can just reach in, access service and adjust the volume easily without having to go in the back at the pcb.
Coin doors and service panel were all stripped and primed and resprayed, and Rav sent me a couple of brand new coin reject buttons, thanks rav. Tony also hooked me up with some bolts and "flaps" to secure the coin door to the cab.
The control panel was a weird one, and i cant do metalwork so approached Fuzz73 to see if he could fabricate a new CP for me. tbh i couldnt have done this project at all without him, he did a great job.
Heres the original CP, weird.....
and the repro:
He did an awesome job. I managed to score an arkanoid spinner from Steve, needed a bit of resto work, but only rust and touching up some solder on the optic pcb.
I was in two minds about the artwork, i love the romstar art, and i did a cocktail up like that a few years back that danscu has now. So after thinking about it I decided to go with the Electrocoin artwork. It was much more likely that any cab we played on bitd had that art then the romstar anyway. So i Spoke to Ollyc, measured up, back and forthed a few files and got the artwork.
So rewired the cab from scratch and was pleased that the monitor fired up! bought one of kold666's taito to jamma adapters which works like a charm, rewired the CP and bought a couple of goldleaf buttons and as the Cp is tiny, a couple of small sanwa candy start buttons. its worked out nicely. and i must say im very impressed with the goldleafs!
Taken quite a while this one, i had a good plan the moment i bought it, but as usual, life gets in the way, anyway its done now. need to tweak the coin mechs a bit, but its operational and im happy with how it came out. Arkanoids such a classic and i missed the cocktail when i flogged it.
Also have to give a massive thanks to my good friend Bensonrad for selling me the arkanoid pcb, which set all this into motion, and then Porchy who fixed it for me. Quite a few vaccers have helped me along the way with this, so many decent people happy to help and lend their time and skills, and spare parts etc.
Anyway, finished. Hard to get the lighting right in photos, but im pleased with how it came out.
strykr2020-08-17 03:01:18
Im a big fan of atari cabarets, but they are out of my budget these days, this cab had a very similar profile which I was drawn too.
I Set about stripping the cab, not sure what it was wired for before, and as much as i am a fan of having drainpipes in my arcade cabs.... I thought it best to just strip it down and rewire it for jamma.
First thing was to cut a new front panel, I bought a proper coin door off olly as well so cut a lower panel for the coin bucket, and a top panel and routed out space for the new coin door. The plan was to remove those two coin acceptors and cut out that top panel some more to fit a marquee ala tempest etc.
I decided to repaint the insides and new wood with a satin black, and then cover the black parts with some black vinyl. The sides were in decent condition but i decided to go with a lighter woodgrain so, got some dc fix and some new t molding.
As you can see by this stage id already started wiring the cab for jamma, didnt have the time or inkling to start from scratch, and the jamma looms you can buy these days are of such poor quality so I bought a second hand loom off mo at videotronics, it was missing quite a lot, but allowed me to customise it to my needs and add wires where necessary etc. I also bought a used service panel, and an lpad so i can just reach in, access service and adjust the volume easily without having to go in the back at the pcb.
Coin doors and service panel were all stripped and primed and resprayed, and Rav sent me a couple of brand new coin reject buttons, thanks rav. Tony also hooked me up with some bolts and "flaps" to secure the coin door to the cab.
The control panel was a weird one, and i cant do metalwork so approached Fuzz73 to see if he could fabricate a new CP for me. tbh i couldnt have done this project at all without him, he did a great job.
Heres the original CP, weird.....
and the repro:
He did an awesome job. I managed to score an arkanoid spinner from Steve, needed a bit of resto work, but only rust and touching up some solder on the optic pcb.
I was in two minds about the artwork, i love the romstar art, and i did a cocktail up like that a few years back that danscu has now. So after thinking about it I decided to go with the Electrocoin artwork. It was much more likely that any cab we played on bitd had that art then the romstar anyway. So i Spoke to Ollyc, measured up, back and forthed a few files and got the artwork.
So rewired the cab from scratch and was pleased that the monitor fired up! bought one of kold666's taito to jamma adapters which works like a charm, rewired the CP and bought a couple of goldleaf buttons and as the Cp is tiny, a couple of small sanwa candy start buttons. its worked out nicely. and i must say im very impressed with the goldleafs!
Taken quite a while this one, i had a good plan the moment i bought it, but as usual, life gets in the way, anyway its done now. need to tweak the coin mechs a bit, but its operational and im happy with how it came out. Arkanoids such a classic and i missed the cocktail when i flogged it.
Also have to give a massive thanks to my good friend Bensonrad for selling me the arkanoid pcb, which set all this into motion, and then Porchy who fixed it for me. Quite a few vaccers have helped me along the way with this, so many decent people happy to help and lend their time and skills, and spare parts etc.
Anyway, finished. Hard to get the lighting right in photos, but im pleased with how it came out.
strykr2020-08-17 03:01:18
