Wednesday, November 29, 2006

New Arcade to Restore!

My brother got another Street Fighter cabinet at another garage sale a couple months ago. I thought I'd post some pictures. This time it's X-Men vs. Street Fighter and it's in much better shape than the SF:CE cabinet he already got, plus it was only $100. The only strange thing about it was that the button configuration was backwards with two columns of three buttons instead of three columns of two buttons. That's kind of a problem, so he found another control panel for a dynamo cabinet on eBay which he'll use instead. here's some pictures of the cabinet.

Here's a fully body shot, really minimal work to be done.


Here you can see the strange button configuration and crappy CPO. That will be remedied.


No sideart, so hopefully he adds something nice.


The marquee is in nice shape, but the Revolution sticker will have to go.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Buttons & Joysticks Arrive

Well I just received some parts for the machine. I bought all new Happ Competition Arcade Buttons with washers and microswitches from eBay. Upon research on Happs website ( http://www.happcontrols.com/ ) I found these to be the best (http://www.happcontrols.com/pushbuttons/5896xxl.htm ). On eBay it only cost $1.49 per button/washer/microswitch of any color. Also included in that package was the One and Two Player buttons with the men printed on the button. That came to a total of 14 buttons (6 for each player and the 1&2 player buttons) for $20.86 + $4.05 for shipping = $24.91

I also purchased 2 Happ Super 4 & 8 way joysticks (http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/super_joy.htm ) for $19.99 on eBay as well. Shipping was $6.00 which brought the total to $25.99 for the joysticks. These are the nicest ones Happ offers.

Both the buttons and joysticks were bought on May 21st and I got them on the 24th. That is $50.90 for brand new top-of-the-line parts for this amazing machine. That is a great find with speedy shipping.


Here are the Happ Super Joysticks from eBay.


Here are the buttons, micro switches, and washers that I got off eBay. The button press feels very solid.


Here is a stock photo of the Happ Super Joysticks. Just wanted to show them assembled.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

So Far...

From my brother: "So far the only thing done to the cabinet is the t-molding has been taken off and trashed. we ordered 20 feet of the black rounded (non-nintendo size i think it's 5/8th). We plugged up two of the bolt holes on the side panels. and we lightly sanded one side panel and put wood putty in some of the gaps. Also put putty on that one [messed up] corner. The putty and the sanding will definitely have to be done more seriously when we actually start the project."

There you have it. I'll post more pictures later giving better detail of the highs and lows of the machine. We probably won't do too much restoration for another month because of the other machines we are building.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Another Project...

Well,
My brother couldn't live without a $150 Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting arcade machine that a friend told us he saw at a garage sale on his street. A couple weeks after the sale, we found out that the machine was still for sale and so my dad and I drove out and picked it up with a little help from our friend (thanks Brady!). The machine had some cosmetic problems, but if we could build a couple of arcade machines from scratch, some minor restoration wasn't going to be a problem. When we got it home, we were pleased to find that the board inside was pristine. That was so important because from a previous experience (namely and Exidy Crossbow/Cheyenne machine), we know that a bad board can be a money pit. Also the monitor was crisp with no burn-in. So here's a laundry list of things that need to get done:

  • General cleaning of the cabinet inside and out
  • New t-molding
  • Patch gouges/scratches in sides of cabinet
  • Fix bottom back corner
  • Put wheels on the bottom of the cabinet
  • Repaint cabinet (black or yellow or...suggestions?)
  • Get a new bezel
  • Get new buttons/joysticks
  • Get new locks for coin door/back door
  • Get new control panel overlay (possibly)
  • Make new interior bezel (black bezel that outlines the monitor)
  • Get side art for cabinet
That's all I can think of now. Shouldn't be terribly expensive (except for the artwork). Anyway, here are some pictures to get you started. I'll post more later.


The cabinet from the side. You can see some big gouges that someone tried to patch up in red. We patched over some of those and sanded it flush.


You can see that the marquee has been cut off a little on each side, leading me to believe that this is a modified cabinet that housed another game (and the cabinet was thinner than the SF cabinet).


The bezel is very faded. It is also cut into 4 pieces with some text hidden behind the sides. Clue #2 that this is a modified cabinet. Clue #3 is that behind the SF bezel is a Final Fight bezel.


The control panel overlay is a little yellowed, either with age or with smoking. Also one of the buttons doesn't work and the right joystick doesn't snap back to center. The joysticks don't match either.


You can see the yellowing better in this picture.


Here's the other side with some patched holes.


We'll probably repaint the coin door, but it's in pretty good shape.