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Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

I think those bootlegs would be the only way to

Really, havn't you got a deep hatred for repros?? Suppose if there's no flash alternative repros are the only choice in this case

o1s1n

EnterNow wrote: »

Really, havn't you got a deep hatred for repros?? Suppose if there's no flash alternative repros are the only choice in this case

Yep, and I feel like a total hypocrite saying it!

I'd normally never dream of buying bootleg games - they're worthless. Either emulate with a flash cart or buy the original.

however this is literally the only way of playing these games bar emulating them. (I've no idea how good Atomiswave emulation is, maybe it's ****e)

They look to be of a very high standard.

Do feel sorry for the people who shelled out for originals though.

Optimus Prime

Does anyone know where i can get a speaker for an arcade cab? one of the ones in this one i got doesnt seem to have any sound coming out of it. I disconnected and reconnect it but no joy. I cant seem to find speakers on Gremlinsolutions or ebay.

Got the marquee light going though earlier, new starter and light, the hardware place down here had the tube light in stock for 5 euro. not bad.

purplec

Halfords, they are just standard speakers.

Also is anyone interested in a repo atomiswave control panel overlay?

Steve X2

I came across a very interesting and recent book on how to build your own arcade machine. Lots of good info and pics inside it's 554 pages.

The bestseller returns—completely updated to include the newest hardware, software, and techniques for building your own arcade

Interest in classical arcade games remains on the rise, and with a little money, older computer hardware, and a little effort, you can relive your arcade experiences by building your own arcade machine. The hands-on guide begins with a description of the various types of projects that you can undertake. It then progresses to a review of the audio and video options that are available and looks at the selection of game software and cabinet artwork. Ultimately, you’ll learn essential troubleshooting tips and discover how to build arcade controllers and machines that you can enjoy at home with your PC.

• Serves as a soup-to-nuts guide for building your own arcade machine, from the sheets of wood to the finished product
• Addresses the variety of arcade controls, including joysticks, buttons, spinners, trackballs, flight yokes, and guns
• Explains how to interface arcade controls to a computer
• Shares troubleshooting tips as well as online resources for help and inspiration

Project Arcade, Second Edition helps you recapture the enjoyment of your youth that was spent playing arcade games by walking you through the exciting endeavor of building your own full arcade machine.

.

Steve X2

After having a good read of that arcade book I think its pretty good and definitely worth a look. I've ordered a hard copy from Amazon for about 15 Euro which is decent.
Of course, you can get it for free via other retro sources and I recommended you do so you can see it's worth buying.

unky chop chop

I dunno Steve..downloaded it a while ago and didn't find it great.
Wasn't put together well and I thought you'd learn more
on the likes of any arcade forum like arcade controls.com.
Maybe 2nd edition is better

Steve X2

unky chop chop wrote: »

I dunno Steve..downloaded it a while ago and didn't find it great.
Wasn't put together well and I thought you'd learn more
on the likes of any arcade forum like arcade controls.com.
Maybe 2nd edition is better

Yeah, The second edition is a completely different book.
1st edition was from 2004 and this is from 2011. Still its not perfect but definitely worth a look for people who haven't a clue on what to do and even people who do know a bit.

.

unky chop chop

Ahh good stuff..I'll give it a bash so
Seven years should make a difference I'd say.
Shouldn't really though since its about building 80's/90's arcade cab.
Nothing has really changed bar a progression in emulation/front end software and a wider range of ultimarc I/O products

Steve X2

unky chop chop wrote: »

Ahh good stuff..I'll give it a bash so
Seven years should make a difference I'd say.
Shouldn't really though since its about building 80's/90's arcade cab.
Nothing has really changed bar a progression in emulation/front end software and a wider range of ultimarc I/O products

I think the guy who wrote the book has fine tuned it a bit. I'm not saying its the only thing people should look at but its another point of reference to go to as well as all the other guides/sites/forums out there.

The guy seems to be a bit overly fond of Happ buttons for some reason from the bit I've read of it.
One thing I did find in it was a bit about Billabs LCD arcade monitors which was something I'd not seen and was quite interesting.

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unky chop chop

Steve SI wrote: »

The guy seems to be a bit overly fond of Happ buttons for some reason from the bit I've read of it.
.

He must be a yank so!..Why the majority of them adore them I don't know.
It actually bugs me.FFS try a Sanwa or Seimitsu with out judgment.
Why put a concave recess in a button and make it harder to press..
It's just makes you exert more energy and makes it less of a "button"...it doesn't make you more of a man

Steve X2

unky chop chop wrote: »

He must be a yank so!..Why the majority of them adore them I don't know.
It actually bugs me.FFS try a Sanwa or Seimitsu with out judgment.
Why put a concave recess in a button and make it harder to press..
It's just makes you exert more energy and makes it less of a "button"...it doesn't make you more of a man

Haha, never quite heard it put that way before
Happ are pretty nasty, I've 8 Happs in my iCade and they are ok for about 5 mins and then it just gets annoying.
I really must swap them out for Sanwa or Seimitsu buttons as it's certainly doable with a bit of Dremel work. I opened the iCade a good while ago and replaced the generic Happ style buttons with actual Happs as they just dropped in without any real work.




.

o1s1n

I don't get the American love of Happ either? I guess they just all got brainwashed growing up with those buttons.

Got the new Seimitsus installed in my own cab this morning. Looks like a proper SNK/Neo Geo machine now!

Not sure what colour to go with for the start buttons. Yellow maybe?





Haven't gotten the shaft covers install yet - my mam gave the package to my sisters to bring out last night and to save space, combined it with the Gamestop package - She threw the shaft covers in the bin thinking they were rubbish

They've since been fished out!

Casey120

Looks great , I really like that chrome CP surround and the original marquee holder .

I added a strategically placed little led strip that shines right on the marquee front to add to the ambiance .

o1s1n

Definitely have to get myself some kind of LED to light that up. Your one looks great - where'd you get that if you dont mind me asking?

One of the lads over on AO said that Stellar stainless steel cleaner (shiny) works well on chrome. I'm going to get a bottle and see if I can get that control panel really sparkly.

Casey120

For chrome nothing beats Mequiers metal polish imo , I did the foot rest on the Aero and its like a mirror now , I bought it for the chrome on my retro scooter .

Got the led light from Ebay if I remember correctly , bought two and put the other one on the Cute , the batteries on these things last forever .

Optimus Prime

Looking for some advice on this..

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221040180587&fromMakeTrack=true

Baed on reading that, is it 6 buttons per player or six in total, ie 3 for each player?

Will that work with the pcbs i have, it says 28pin edge, is that what im looking for? Thanks!

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Looking for some advice on this..

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221040180587&fromMakeTrack=true

Baed on reading that, is it 6 buttons per player or six in total, ie 3 for each player?

Will that work with the pcbs i have, it says 28pin edge, is that what im looking for? Thanks!

Well the JAMMA standard gives both players 4 buttons, games that need six button operation require a seperate 'kick' harness, which attaches to buttons 4, 5 & 6 usually, & then connects directly to the game pcb, bypassing the JAMMA harness.

I'd say that'll work fine, but you'll need a seperate harness for any 6 button games & they're usually platform specific eg there's a CPS1 kick harness, a CPS2 kick harness etc ect

Optimus Prime

Ok cool, would i be right in saying that, currently in that machine i have a standard jamma harness like the one there and i probably already have a Kick harness in there too because of the fact there are six buttons on that cab?

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Ok cool, would i be right in saying that, currently in that machine i have a standard jamma harness like the one there and i probably already have a Kick harness in there too because of the fact there are six buttons on that cab?

If your running an SF2 CE pcb then it's Jamma alright, as to how your extra buttons work...you'll have to trace the wires coming out of them & see where they're going. Not sure how it works on the bootleg pcb's, but on the Capcom boards the kick harness terminates in a little white plug that plugs into the very top of the board...

Optimus Prime

ah ok, ill have to have a look later. ill do some reading up on it. Does the jamma harness plug into the screen too?

I know its a long shot but i was kind hoping that maybe the connection between the board and screen is just not working, because of the fact one of the speakers is not getting sound off the jamma harness in it at the minute too.

Long shot i know...

Does anyone know what a crt screen in a cab does if you turn on the cab with no pcb connected? does it do anything.. or just sit there as if it was turned off?

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

ah ok, ill have to have a look later. ill do some reading up on it. Does the jamma harness plug into the screen too?

There are wires that come from the JAMMA connector, & break off and connect into the monitor chassis yeah, all the video signal wires.

I know its a long shot but i was kind hoping that maybe the connection between the board and screen is just not working, because of the fact one of the speakers is not getting sound off the jamma harness in it at the minute too.

Long shot i know...

It's possible I suppose. Check all the pins in the JAMMA connector & make sure they're all ok & not touching any adjacent pins.

Does anyone know what a crt screen in a cab does if you turn on the cab with no pcb connected? does it do anything.. or just sit there as if it was turned off?

Generally I think it's not advised to do so, something about no load on the PSU or something

Optimus Prime

Thanks a lot, ill check it out.

Currently the screen does nothing when its switched on, so i was just wondering if it displayed anything if there was no pcb or even flashed. Im pretty sure its making a noise though when switched on. you know that faint sound you hear when a crt tv is on.

Here is the million dollar question, to remove the jamma harness wire from the crt do i have to discharge the screen?

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Here is the million dollar question, to remove the jamma harness wire from the crt do i have to discharge the screen?

I wouldn't think so, the wires should be in a block connector near the front of the chassis that simply plugs out. Be very careful that you don't touch anything else though while the monitor hasn't been discharged

Optimus Prime

EnterNow wrote: »

I wouldn't think so, the wires should be in a block connector near the front of the chassis that simply plugs out. Be very careful that you don't touch anything else though while the monitor hasn't been discharged

haha russian roulette with an arcade cab. I dont have the nerve for this haha.

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

haha russian roulette with an arcade cab. I dont have the nerve for this haha.

Ah it's nothing to worry about at all provided you know whats what & take the proper precautions. You'll rarely ever have to go near your monitor/chassis anyway...but it's handy to know about them when it comes to fixing little niggly bits etc.

What are you gonna do re the screen anyway, replacement chassis & go from there?

Optimus Prime

well im going to get a new Jamma Harness anyways, just to have a new one. it will sort out the speaker issue without having to buy new speakers and it will at least be ruled out as the reason why the screen isnt working.

am i right in thinking the the screen is seperate from the chassis, so either one or the other isnt working. maybe both i guess.

So get a new chassis first and see if that fixes it? I might have to wait a few months until after the wedding before getting into that as it will cost a few quid id say.

In the meantime, I have new buttons, Tmolding etc. I picked up some paint the weekend and have woodfiller, so im going to fill in some holes and just paint over them and do the tmolding in the meantime.

I have all the artwork for SF2 CE ready to print in high quality. a lad i know works in a printers and is going to print them all off for me when he gets back from his holidays. So i guess ill work on the look of it for now and try sort out the actual workings of it down the road, unless i manage to get lucky in the meantime.

Casey120

As long as you don't stick your finger under the rubber anode cap on the back of your monitor tube you are pretty safe .

Why not contact someone like Craig walker on giz10p.co.uk and if it's your chassis just send it to him for repair , de did my Cute chassis and it came back perfect .

o1s1n

I read that through the magic of science, you can buff chrome and remove rust with some aluminium and water.

Decided to give it a go - and it works!

You can't really see the chromed effect properly in these shots for some reason. If you look into the CP it's pretty much a mirror. But you can at least see how it's cleaned it up a good bit.

You can still see a bit of a mark where the sticker was - I think wear and tear over the years stripped some of the chrome off. Still, looks a bit better now.

Before -



After -



.







This underside of the CP had quite a bit of rust, discolouring and was dull. Fixed it right up in a few seconds

Casey120

You can properly comb your hair in it now