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It's Astro City Time!


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I've wanted an Astro for a long time. I have an Atomiswave, Exceleena and Lindbergh cabinet and I love me some candy cabs.

 

An Astro appeared on Gumtree a couple of weeks back, 45 minutes drive from me. I got in contact with the seller and he said the monitor was dead. Because of this, he had it advertised cheap at $250. I said I was keen to grab it regardless of monitor issues. He then got back to me saying he was going to try to get it working before sale. I told him to let me know how he goes and gave him a bit of advice. I never expected to hear from him again, we all know flaky Gumtree sellers.

 

Fast forward a week or two and he gets back in contact with me saying he could not make it work (no surprise) and did I still want it. I jumped at the chance and got out there to pick it up tonight. For an old Astro it's clean as a whistle. No cracks and no major damage anywhere. The best thing is, no ciggie burns or yellow stains. It has a Japanese no smoking sign on it, so it must have lived for a while in a no smoking arcade.

 

Artwork is all intact, albeit a bit faded, but nothing too bad. It has a solid state multiboard in there of some description, when the cab is turned on, you can hear it boot, so at least I know that's working. Locks are intact and it came with keys, so that's a bonus as well.

 

Got it into the garage and now time to pull the chassis and send it off to Joey. I hope it's just a chassis fault but even if it's not, for the price I paid I can invest in a universal chassis and new tube and still not be over capitalising.

 

I'm stoked :)

 

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Edited by namastepat
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Nice score ! amazing how much is saved by buying non working cabs

 

Indeed, here's hoping it's only the chassis and Joey can work his magic. I had a look last night, it has the original Nanao chassis and Toshiba tube. Very limited burn on the tube, can barely see it, but it is there. Will not be able to see it when the monitor is switched on and running a game.

 

I'm just so bloody happy the body of the cabinet is in such good shape. I bought it based on photos alone so I was lucky that they told the full story and that there was no hidden damage. It's going to look great sitting next to my Atomiswave :)

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And so it begins. Monitor removed and given a quick wipe down, it was bloody filthy. It will get a proper clean at some point. Nanao chassis removed and looked over, blown fuses and very shabby looking. It has an upcoming date with Jomac and will be posted off on Monday.

 

I moved the empty cab shell into the lineup and I can just squeeze it in. Here's hoping the monitor is repairable. I plan on rotating the monitor and getting a vertical SHMUP to put in it. @Frank_fjs sadly, there is no original instruction card. I will get one printed up by Mamepatrol I expect. Will see what happens when the chassis comes back from Joey.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pulled the chassis out last week to send off to Joey. He got the chassis on Tuesday and had it fixed and back in the post by Thursday. Now that's good service! :) It was the filthiest chassis I've ever had to remove. My hands and arms were covered in black grime and even Joey commented that he could have planted a crop of potatoes in it. God knows how it got so dirty, it was truly something else.

 

I got a message from my wife today saying that the chassis had arrived on my doorstep. I am stuck in a bloody meeting until 5pm this arvo, but I am desperate to get home and install the chassis. Posting this message is stopping me from passing out from meeting boredom.

 

I will crack a beer tonight when I get home and get installing. If it works, I'll throw up some photos and have a small celebration of another working candy cab. If it doesn't work, I'll start sending some people messages to figure out what the issues could be.

 

Here'e hoping I have a working Astro City going by the end of this evening.

 

EDIT: WOOOO!!! The monitor is working. Thanks once again @Jomac. I can't be assed moving the monitor back into the cabinet tonight, too tired after work. It's hooked up on the floor and running fine. a Couple of nights this week will be set aside for some serious monitor tweaking and adjustment.

Edited by namastepat
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Bloody hell! It's raining cheap Astro City cabs in Brisbane at the moment. I was lucky enough to grab these two today, there was a lot of competition for them, so sorry guys :) I had to drive to Samford, get my sister's trailer, then drive back to Carindale to pick them up. They were previously sited in the kids room at the Carindale Golf Club. They have been sitting in an equipment shed for god knows how long. One of them has a Neo Geo board with an unidentified game because it's written in Japanese. The other one I don't know yet, as I have to drill the locks :) I am stoked. The guy got offered twice what I paid, but he honoured the original deal at the price we set. I was the lucky one as I said I could pick up today and I made it clear that I would be there on time, with no issues.

 

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The cabs are dirty as all hell, but they should clean up nicely. They are complete, which is the main thing. One of them even has the original Astro City manual in the back of the cab :)

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Well I just booted up the horizontal cab. The Neo Geo single slotter boots fine and the cart is Captain Tomaday, which is pretty cool as I do like shooters. Good result for just plugging it in and flicking the swtich while standing a long way back and crossing my fingers :)

 

The second cab has a severely damaged 240V power cable, so I will not be putting that anywhere near a wall socket until I get it repaired. I can't even get into the back of the cab because the original weird ass Astro screws are securing the back panel and I have no screwdriver to fit them. The other one had philips head replacements and the locks on the CP were busted, so I could get into it to have a look easily.

 

I really want to find out what is in the second cab, but I will need to find time to drill the locks and work on it properly. Never drilled a lock before, going to be interesting.

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I've got one of those. You can swing by and grab it and the topper if you want

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

Thanks Andy, will try to do that sometime this week, maybe even tonight if I get the chance. I really want to get the back off that second cab and see what board is inside. It's vertically oriented, so I have hopes that's it's a cool shooter and not a bloody 60-in-1 :)

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@raysco, I will try to snap a photo tonight after work. They look like a star with a round bit in the middle.

 

Yes mate, I have a set of those :D

Will catch up :D

Only just read Andys post. How come everyone has these tools except you :laugh:

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Yes mate, I have a set of those :D

Will catch up :D

 

Thanks Ray and also Jono. I may grab them from Andy as he is just down the road. However I would like to get some assistance in replacing the 240V lead. I reckon I can do it myself, but when working with 240V, I always like to get a second opinion. I just plan on cutting an extension cable, stripping the ends and hooking them up to the power inside the cab. However, I want to make sure I do it 100% correctly and safely so that no one dies :) I'll chat to you something this week.

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