Topic: Arcade 1up 3/4 scale retro coin op cabinets

[Clonehead]

About weekly if we can manage. The largest bragging rights are usually observed when someone gets their name on the board on the Star Wars Pinball machine. I’ll go down everyday but I get as much fun working on the games as playing.

Let’s take a break from the custom cab work for a bit so I can show my new purchase. Not my most frugal game pickup this year but it was discounted.

The biggest release of the year, marvel vs capcom 2, has been sold out most everywhere despite being a new game and demanding a higher price point.

In my searches, I found an open box version on Best Buy’s site that was described in “satisfactory” condition for about $130 off of msrp after taxes.

I had it in my cart for like 4 days as I mulled it over. I would rather wait for it to go down some more in price but couldn’t be sure if they would produce any more or not.

I finally pulled the trigger yesterday and had it picked up before lunch.

The open box description was because of some damage the box had suffered during transit. Inside, the components were unharmed.
Assembly time.

[Tamer]

Nice. Another one for the collection. How many do you have now?

[Clonehead]

Shawn, it’s fluctuating. This makes 20 stand ups and 3 pinballs in our current configuration.

Not in use are 1 cocktail and a partycade which are for sale currently. I let the other cocktail go last week to someone who wanted it for his wife.

I don’t quite know what to think about the random fire sale of these items at half off prices these last few weeks. One thing that always gets me is a discount, especially a deep one.

A few more pics of MVC2 and I gotta go to work. Take note of that faux coin door. I’m going to do a quick mod to light up those coin slots during assembly.

[Clonehead]

I gotta say at some point that this is the best light up marquee that Arcade1up has ever done. There for a while, they were including a light
Box with a sticker slapped onto a piece of white plastic over an array of leds that almost always came off looking washed out.
  This version is back to old school with the translight piece mounted in the front of the box with the array in the back and distance between. I won’t be replacing this one.

So, during assembly, when it came time to Instal the coin door piece, I first pulled the white stickers out of the inside of the coin buttons. Then I measured to locate and drill two 1/2 inch holes with a butterfly bit right behind where the coin button will be on that lower kick panel. On the backside, I just grabbed a color change length of light tape and mounted it so that one bulb would shine through each drilled hole to illuminate the coin buttons. This string is USB powered which I plugged into the handy USB port on the games PCB to power.While in red plastic, the coin button can be a variety of hues with alternate colors behind.  If I go to add under and behind lighting to this cab, I would go purple light this time. If I make the coin door lights blue, they would look fairly purple to continue the theme.

Oh, and the fire sale continues. Last week, sams club put their NFL Blitz cab on liquidation. Been out 3 months, online, lit marquee, riser, 4x the company’s brand new and improved 49 way joysticks, msrp $600

They marked em down to $300 on their site but if you are able to find one in a store right now, I have heard a report of $214 and even $174 for this $600 4 player online cab. Plus, this sams club bundle”bigger box” includes a stool as well. I think they charge $80 for those sometimes.

This comes after a week and a half early Black Friday sell off of Big Blue “that’s what they call that tall street fighter stand up” at $200 off, T2, Simpsons, turtles, rage racer, $300 off, I think dig dug,tron,dragons lair and a few others went $250 off. Blitz was $100 off. And since then, the prices have fluctuated up and back down for some. Crazy times

Sams club marked down the Ultimate Legends cabs also. The legends ultimate  is $350, the legends mini is an eye catching $200, and their crown jewel, legends pinball, is $400. That one alone is marked down by $333

It is a larger, nicer machine than my tables and I never picked one up because it cost so much more. Awful tempting stuff. I have to keep an eye open, for the next crazy markdown.

[Tamer]

That went together well Clint.

Sounds like you are gonna be adding some new stuff too.

[Clonehead]

That would be a correct assumption, Shawn. Got the sams club Blitz still in its box, waiting for love right now.

Marvel Super Hero’s  got its new graphics upgrade yesterday. Two pieces sent, on for the kick panel and one for the riser. That kick panel graphic had to first be measured and cut in two pieces for that leaning upper panel below the control deck and then rendered on individually. Bad old Thanos’ ugly mug will be greeting us from now on. If you are wondering about the defender marquee, I will show that I had replaced the marquee in the defender cab with a more factory accurate looking one that wasn’t washed out like this light box graphic is. I have a replacement, printed slip on graphic piece coming that will just snap on over this marquee after I peel the defender marquee decal off of it. There was a version of the marvel cab that included a lit marquee much like this one so, the power supply needed was already there on the game’s PCB

Notice the purple coin buttons on MVC2?  Multicolor strand turned to blue and shined through the red plastic.

I think I will give that one a purple glow today and see how it looks.
 

[Clonehead]

Here is a shot of the defender with its replacement marquee. I’m still fiddling with getting it dim enough. Light shading

And, some shots of MVC2 with some new Monster brand led bars for under and over/behind lighting. Not shown was the Logitech Pc sound system I also put in it. I split the main feed to give half the PCB Audio to the stock speakers behind the marquee and the other half went to the sub amp for the sun and another pair of logi speakers, all of which I crammed into the riser box this time. Since you can regulate how much power the amp puts out independently, you can balance between levels of stock speakers and aftermarket amp to your preference.  This cabinet has a great soundtrack and it is loud and proud now.

[Tamer]

That Thanos graphic is just outstanding.

[Clonehead]

I think so also, buddy. Sure spruced up the marvel cab. Can’t wait to get that marquee squared away.

So, during the liquidated sams club Blitz cab assembly, although I want to rob these faux coin doors for other cabs, I figured I would go ahead and light em up while still worn by the Blitz cab.

Using some craft tape to measure and mark where I wanted the holes to be, I used a 1/2 inch butterfly bit and bored holes behind where the coin buttons would be. I also dug the white Stickers out of the back side of the coin buttons.

[Clonehead]

Using a roll of tape light leds from that same RGB set, I just powered the roll using the USB port in the games PCB and used packing tape to mount them so 1 bulb would be at the center of each of the coin button bored holes.

[Clonehead]

The result is quite satisfying.

As I mentioned before, I plan to rob these coin doors to mount on Ridge Racer and T2 and will slap a nice blitz aftermarket graphic on the front to color it up and to cover the holes.

I had snagged another translite blitz piece in case the stock one looked horrible but i think it will pass and have stuck that graphic in an overhead beam and shined an LED light on it for an extra decoration. I think I’ll fab up some kind of light box up there for it.

I think this is a pretty looking cab and that control deck is just stunning. Those joysticks are the much improved 49 way version and top the sticks on any other cab that they make.
  I understand it is pretty fun to play online, especially if it is with friends.

Playing this one with the son in law last weekend was a blast. We had that cabinet rocking around like a music box clown on a spring we were so passionate about our games. I may have to bolt the thing to the floor.

[Tamer]

I am telling you this is better than any arcade I went too while I was young, and we had a place called Funland that was awesome!

[Clonehead]

Shawn, I remember this place in KC called Malibu Grand Prix that had a great arcade built in top of a pretty cool go cart track.

The second crazy sams club item marked down by $330 or so that I caved on arrived this week. The At Games Legends pinball machine. I hadn’t picked on up yet as they are normally more expensive than the other pinballs that I have gotten.
  This thing is bigger and badder than my other pinball machines and is quite upgradable and expandable allowing for download of other tables, games, game streaming, online play and leaderboards.
  I have about 40 tables on it currently and have ordered a zip drive from an Etsy seller for $40 that has over 700 arcade games on it with a vertical build configured for this machine and it’s beautiful 32 inch vertical playfield display.

Yes, there is an optional control deck for the pinball machine that would work well for this that I have already ordered although, I believe you could connect an old USB controller, like the ps3 controller with its charging/data usb connection.
  With the controller board attached, you may be able to use another USB controller for a second player position while playing games on this build.

As you can see, Shawn, fed ex left the box a bit scuffed when they dropped it off but thanks to the excellent factory packing by At Games, I think this thing could have fallen off of a moving truck and still be alright.

A couple of notes, these used to be delivered in two separate boxes but they have since combined into one.
  Also, I believe in the past that downloadable content like game packs used to be loaded into a partitioned USB Zip drive and loaded onto the machine from there but now, there is 10gigs of internal memory allotted for this

[Tamer]

Another nice addition. Me and my aunt played the heck out of space invaders back in the day. Awesome they made a pinball out of it.

[Clonehead]

That machine, Shawn, is on a whole new level.
I need to make another thread for that one.

Atari 12 in 1 and Final Fight got the last of their graphical upgrades yesterday.

I was kind of on a roll. Applying these graphics doesn’t scare me anymore.

I thought the look of both cabs were wrapped up nicely when I was done.