FINAL UPDATE:
It’s now 100% finished. The final side artwork arrived from Spain from the same person that made the stickers for the rear power panel, and the interior “danger” stickers earlier in the year. The quality of the prints were superb. When compared to the originals, the reprints were marginally darker (or bluer, for more of a better word), but I was still very happy with how the stickers turned out.
This afternoon was raining, so I wiped down the cabinet - it’s amazing how dusty it gets inside the house (I’m forever wiping it down). Anyway, I hung up the artwork with masking tape and marked out where I needed to install it. I peeled a small amount of the backing paper off and started massaging the sticker down the cabinet, with a soft cloth wrapped over my fingers to stop air bubbles forming. Once both sides were installed, I stood back and looked at the machine with a side-on view. It looks amazing! Even though you don’t really see the side art, especially as my cabinet is located in a small alcove, I’m super happy knowing that it’s finally done. I was apprehensive attaching the side art, but it wasn’t as difficult as first thought. Just take your time, and ensure the art is lined up 1000%. Once it is, massage away and you won’t even see an air bubble appear.
Side-on view looks great:
The colour is marginally darker than the original, but it really pops against the sparkly paint, and matches well with the new Alberto control panel:
Print quality was superb, and the stickers are very heavy duty:
How did I do with the lining up? It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close. I was happy with how the sticking application went:
Over the past couple of weeks I ordered a Neo Geo MVS (Jamma) unit, and a 161-in-1 cartridge from the sales forum on here. It arrived last week and now I can finally play the Metal Slug games perfectly from cartridge.
Test fit below:
Earlier today, my Konami Classic JAMMA adapter arrived in the post from Spain, which also has built-in button mappings attached to jumpers. It was built and sold by
@Tailsnic Retroworks via the sales forum, and it’s a really nice bit of kit. It’s well made, with good soldering. Now I can play my Nemesis PCB with the correct button controls.
Occasionally, I swap in the Pandora for a bash on Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Marvel VS Capcom, Sunset Riders or The Simpsons. I’m so impressed at that little Chinese box of tricks for the price it cost. I know it’s emulation *booo* *hissss* but for games that I just play occasionally, you can’t argue that it’s not cheap or convenient.
Having said that, swapping over the control panel from my single panel layout, over to the dual panel is a bit of a pain though, so I’m definitely going to have to find another cabinet to add to the room to keep as my 2p setup. I was able to find an original 1L6B Windy 2 panel on Yahoo Auctions, for the princely sum of just £5 (1000¥). It needs work, but I figured it’s something I can practice restoring at a later date.
Bundled in the same mail package from
Japan were two extra Konami JAMMA to JVS adapter boards for the Windy 2. I’ve got three in total now, and they stay permanently attached to the wooden boards (with game PCBs affixed to). It means I can hot-swap in/out my favourite games quicker. One adapter was already attached to Vulcan Venture (Gradius 2), the other is attached to Nemesis (Gradius), and the third is attached to the Pandora.
I had my first paying customers over at Christmas - the nephews visited along with their hard earned pocket money! Don’t worry…..I gave them a good exchange rate for their gaming yens!
They loved the fighting games the most, and Metal Slug X which we completed with 18 continues for me & 21 continues for Nephew #1:
Do you remember during the initial restoration period back in Summer I was trying to track down a scan of the instruction sheet for Gradius 4? Well, the one I found online was very pixelated despite getting it professionally printed. In the end, I used the paper reproduction that was included with the initial game board purchase from Japan. Well….I’ve been glued to Yahoo Japan auctions ever since, scouring the web for an original instruction sheet, and one finally was listed. I snapped it up straight away! It’s not in perfect condition (has one crease) and a little discolouration, but for 30 years old, beggars can most certainly not be choosers! The chap in Spain who did the sticker reproduction for me earlier, has offered to print me a repaired instruction sheet. I can scan it, he will touch it up and edit out the imperfections, and re-print it for me. I love the idea of having a mint instruction sheet, but a part of me says “it’s not original”….and I wonder if I start making everything too perfect, the cab will lose character. One could say by painting it and reproducing the side art, I’ve already gone too far in that respect, but at least the game stuff can be original, right?
You can see that there is a small amount of laminate peel on the top right corner:
The crease can be seen going through where the question mark is located:
Overall, the effect is still amazing though:
Should I keep the original instruction sheet, or get a perfect, modern day scan printed and installed?
What do you think I should do?