Search the Community

Been a while since I've posted an arcade project and I really wanted to test the new forum software. This cab has been sitting in my garage for years as a long non-started project. I recently took a couple of days off (in lockdown) and decided it finally needed some love. Originally a container import out of Italy, it arrived non working. Italian Gaming Licence ID: 0 There was no life in the 35 year old Hantarex Power Supply rattling around loose in the cab and the Orion tube/chassis would also not fire up. Knowing virtually nothing about the electronics on those particular parts, combined with the age and state of them I ended up removing them from the cabinet. 0 I gave the cabinet a thorough clean as I'd never seen one like this and I loved the artwork and style of the cabinet. I had to repair the front frame of the monitor mount. Its made out of MDF and in glued and screwed into the sides but has started to collapse. I ended up filling it with MDF glue, clamping it back into shape and letting it set overnight. I think its stronger than new now 😉 0 Unholy of holies I have a stash of 19" CRT PC monitors so I decased one and slotted it into the chassis frame. A little diligence in cutting some of the plastics and it fit like a glove. Yeah yeah I know Arcade Tubes are far and away better and several of my other cabs sport them but I was in lockdown with no access to any other parts so sue me 😉 The control panel is covered with a sheet of acrylic now as the original underneath has many marks from cigarette burns. Notice the cigarette holder on the right. That'd never fly in Australia. I gave it all a good clean, removing the rusted bolts and giving them the treatment. The treatment being locked into a cordless drill and spun against some finishing paper. Then undercoated and sprayed black. As usual they came up really well. The cigarette holder was removed and polished. The bolts for those were also rusted but I sanded them and then clearcoated to prevent them rusting up again. I'd retained the jamma harness and all of the micro-switch connections had been soldered on. Good practice but a bitch for replacement and maintenance. I was lucky in that there were no broken connections. I re-built and old Dell PC I have a few of. Windows 7, Mame and MalaFE all configured and ready to go then interfaced it all with a J-Pac. Hands down the easiest way to get your controls running. Some test drives, configuring a few of the controls at a global level and everything is working as expected. Another advantage of the J-Pac is the Shift Key function so I don't have to drill holes and add extra buttons for Exit and Coin Inserts. Further to this the coin mechs were still all wired up to the harness and dropping a 50 euro cent coin into the slots triggers a credit. Love it although I only have 5 of the coins. Thinking about modifying them to use the 100 custom tokens I have but with the J-Pac's shift keys it would purely be a novelty. Note the Price on the Inserts. I do need to replace the bulbs in there so they look nicely backlit. (Note this photo is before I cleaned it all) I've configured the PC to start up after power loss and MalaFE to start up with Windows. The cab has a power socket on the top with a fused switch. I wired that into a 4 port powerboard that I mounted inside the cab. This powers the monitor, PC and eventually a flourescent tube for the marquee. The original was practically disintegrating. Unfortunately the marquee (glass) was broken. So I scanned it with a flatbed scanner and have been restoring the image after I vectorised it. It's almost complete and I'll send it off to be printed on a new acrylie marquee to fit. Things to complete: All up this cab has 3 locks on it. The Coin Door, The door to the cointray and the back panel which is metal. I'm going to purchase 3 that are keyed alike Install marquee light Get Marquee printed There is also a mount for a volume control. I'll be installed one of DavidAVD's in-line volume controls into that in the next few days which will allow me to control the volume on the original single jamma powered speaker. There is a chunk of chipboard missing from the top. I'm of two minds on whether to repair it or not. All up I'm very happy with the result and it plays really well. I customised the Layout file with my name 😉 Note you can see the wall behind it as I haven't put the back panel back on yet. Its outside after being cleaned. Cheers, Brad

Another instance of checking an unfinished project off my list. I still have the pinball to go but this one is easy and that one is hard 😉 This one should be real quick. I bought this ArcadeWorx cab of @namastepat back in February. It's surprisingly large, taking up a lot of space on my garage floor so time to get it working and sitting somewhere else. https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/92614-Arcadeworx-Bartop-cabinet-with-19-inch-monitor-75?highlight=bartop Cabs is a little banged up with a few nicks but over all pretty good. All black and I love the Space Invaders cut-outs in the marquee area. So I thought I'd continue with the Space Invaders theme and keep the cab Black and Red. It didn't hurt that I had a pack of both red and black buttons 😉 I'd also bought a power supply and jamma harness to match the Pandora 4S I bought back in April. I installed the buttons and joysticks. Will need to check the controls for the Pandora to see if I need the other 3 holes. I'll use what I need and try to find some of those caps to cover any not used. Also the top row holes are smaller than the player button holes 😞 The P1 and P2 buttons I used (STD size) will never come out again LOL! Installed speakers inside the audio cut-outs. The IEC socket I have is not round like the hole that had been cut out 😞 Traced around and then did a little free-styling with my jigsaw. The flange on the socket hides the shoddiness 😄 Wired mains socket, power supply and jamma harness power. I then fired it up to see if smoke would come out. Success! Damn I love how fast these Pandora's boot up unlike those shitty 60-1 jobs. It was getting late so I'll finish wiring in the joysticks and buttons next weekend. One last thing was to mount the fan cover into the top. The Alien one I had suits the theme. With the top cut-out I've love to put in some acrylic and then an LED strip that swipes from left to right. Not sure how I'd do that but lit up red and sliding across would be awesome. I also need to source some black t-molding as the control panel strip is missing. I am bummed its a widescreen monitor but the bezel was cut to match and the screen came with it so I can't complain. Cheers, Brad