Coming Soon To A Games Room Near You

Working Final Fight $50 !
Thanks to buddy of mine this Saturday I'll be getting this awesome Final Fight cabinet.
This is one of the games I remember pumping quarters into as a kid.
Really a game I often play on various Capcom to collections via some of my many consoles.
Every now and again I fire it up in MAME and give it a go also.
Really it was one of my holy grails of gaming. Thanks to the generosity of a fellow gamer  who knew I loved this game I now own it. Sergio thank you again sir for really hooking me up with this. This was like a grand slam !

I don't think I'll work on it til the other projects are sold, but I'm happy to say it doesn't need any parts that I can't find. Monitor will need to be capped, body will need to be stripped, sanded, patched and painted. I'll also need to order some T-molding, but that's it.

MameMania and 60 in 1 Project

So as I said I managed to buy back two projects I had sold almost two years ago.
With my collection finalized (at least what will make it into the house!) and nearing completion I got the "bug."

I needed some goodies to work on and I'm excited to wrap these up. I've completed the body work, which is not flawless, but good enough for cabinets I don't plan on keeping. One is going to be DK blue, the other a nice bright yellow I picked up yesterday.

The master plan MAMEMANIA, a pure wrestling cabinet featuring MAME and console emulation.
Games ranging from Atari titles all the way up to and including some Dreamcast and PS1 titles.
Yellow paint, red t-molding ! Think Hulkamaina !

**** Right now in Ajax (Ontario Canada) its way too hot to paint. I'd love to be outside doing that now, but I've opted to chill in the AC ****

New Projects....More Info To Come !

Donkey Kong Jr MAME - DONE !
Donkey Kong 60 in 1 (jamma) - DONE!
Popeye Jamma w. Bad Dudes & Wrestlefest - DONE! ....and awaiting monitor swap.
Mario Bros MAME - PC still a work in progress

** My Mario MAME is coming along well but the summer months leave me with less and less time.
I've got pretty much everything done with the Mario Mame less the PC.
Setting up the PC with all the ROMS and emulators takes time. I'll do it, I want it done, it just takes time.
With that said I took on two new projects !

About two years ago when I got what is now my Donkey Kong Jr I picked up three more cabinets in the deal. One turned into my buddies Street Fighter II MAME and two I sold at cost to a co-worker.
Fast forward two years, most projects done, my NEO GEO sold, my MAME sold, my Virtua Cop 2 cabinet sold, and my Outrun cabinet spoken for I have a void !

I was able to buy the cabinets back at cost plus $20 to deliver.
One is going to be a 60 in 1 that I will sell and use the money to support the hobby, the other a custom Wrestling cabinet done Hulkamaina style !

A Few More Photos

Just a few photos of some of the work. Added a power and credit button to the underside of the Mario Machine. You can see the iPac wired using the Jamma standard. Also included an image of the monitor installed....well partly installed. Lastly a picture of the volume control mounted. Love the small touches, really looking forward to wrapping this up. I'm looking for a second pair of GunCon, or even GunCon2. Would like to paint them red and add them to the machine.I plan on using MaLa to do some lists and refine the games by genre, adding gun games for any console that supported gun games. Duck Hunt on Mario cabinet................so awesome ! so

New News

I haven't shared any info on my blog for quite awhile now. I've been slowly making progress on my machines, and I'm happy to say that all 4 machines are almost at %100. I've found out about some cool products and some cool tips. I thought as always I would share the info on my blog. My DK JR is %100 complete ! Everything working well and configured how I like it. The PC isn't the most powerful but it does the trick. I've hooked up everything to a smartstrip powerbar, I picked these up for $20 online at Best Buy Canada. These things are awesome, I actually got a second one for my Mario Bros. They have a "master" that once turned on turns on its "slaves." I have my master as the PC and the slaves are the marquee light fixture, speakers, and monitor. For the fourth open connection I decided I'd wire DK into it. The smartstrip is awesome because it kills the power to everthing and doesn't require me to turn on and off the power bar. Highly suggest that people get these for MAME projects. My DK is also %100 complete. It is wired for Jamma and features a 60-in-1 game board. As mentioned above no power switch was added to the machine and reaching inside and to the back (or around) wasn't really an option. I've plugged this into the smartstrip so when DK JR goes on this does also. For the DK I used a standard Home Depot light fixture, I actually use the same one in all my machines. The cord wasn't long enough to make it into the powerbar so I hacked a dollar store extension cord and tied the fixture into the power supply. DK now %100 done and loving it. My Popeye machine is wired Jamma and layed out with a two player, two button per side layout. I have an original Popeye control panel also, but the two player two button layout gives me so many more options. I actually have Bad Dudes in this machine and that was one of my favorite games. I also picked up WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestlefest for this machine. I'll slowly build a board collection if the price is right. I'd like to even add a Jamma switcher to it, but I'm in no rush. The Popeye is not yet at the %100 mark, however it is wired and ready to go. The monitor was very dim and a friend of mine has capped it for me. I haven't yet picked it up, but I'm sure its awesome. All Popeye needs is the monitor installe, a new bulb for the marquee and hooking up the -5V for Bad Dudes. Now onto Mario.....oh Mario............oh oh oh Mario. A friend of mine gave me his old PC, a nice dual core machine with a nice videocard and a ton of ram. It's a nice machine but it's giving me trouble. I've had to format the thing 3 times. Can't get the audio to work, nor can I get the videocard to work. I've decided to walk away from the PC and slow it down a lil, no rushing, no rushing. Do what I can when I can. With the PC becoming an issue I decided that I would walk away from it and do some of the stuff I had put off. The machine was painted and ready to go, molding installed, side art purchased, and honestly everything just waiting on the PC. I had it in my head that I would do the PC and then bang out the machine in one day. When I realized that wasn't an option I decided I would do things out of sequence and add the PC when done. That was the best thing I could have done ! This weekend I managed to install the marquee, install the speakers and mount the volume control to the inside of the coin door. Honestly I've noticed that the small things make a big difference. The powerstrip is awesome, as is the volume control on the inside of the coin door. So cool, for $20 this Logitech 2.1 system I got was well worth it. So marquee is in, speakers are in, iPac is wired using a hacked Jamma harness and color coded as per Jamma standard. It makes things so nice and clean. I also added an extension cord to extend the marquee light cord. This machine will also be hooked up using a smartstrip. Lastly I managed to test fit the monitor. I'll be adding a few more supports this week, perhaps forming a bezel. This pretty much brings me to a complete stage pending the PC install. The only thing I don't like is my control panel, I kinda rushed and dont like how it turned out. I'll redo it shortly. Fingers crossed the PC comes together !

Moved Out.....Then Moved In !

Been awhile since I updated the blog last.
Lot's has gone on. I'm proud to say my "man cave" basement was started and completed.
I'm really excited because my basement has really turned into a space that I love.
It's something I wanted for years.
Also very happy to report that I now have a fourth Nintendo cabinet.
This will be the final cabinet that I keep (for the near foreseeable future that is!).
It's going to my Mario Mega-MAME Machine. It will feature a MAME PC with full console emulation, tons and tons of ROM sets, and even my two Aim Trak GunCon2's.

Anyway, the low down on what has gone on. DK JR has been put back together. It's tested and working again. And I'm very happy to report it's loving it's new home.
DK & Popeye are restored and also moved into the house. They just need to be wired up. I've purchased all the parts I need including a 60-in-1 Jamma board for DK.
Popeye will feature a two player VS. style control panel and be the proud recipient of my Bad Dudes board. In fact if all goes well DK and Popeye should be wired this weekend.

Now for Mario! I just so happened to be the recipient of some good karma and was able to pick up this gutted Nintendo cabinet for FREE!. (Well not FREE...... I had to enlist the help of my brother! Between lunch and some computer parts I bought him it was $75. Still I can't complain as I've paid about $100 in the past for a cabinet in the same condition/state) I picked this cabinet up about a month ago, possibly two. It stayed at my brothers house while my basement renovation was being completed. However while waiting for it to arrive I was proactive and ordered my sideart, t-molding, joysticks, buttons, etc. Thanks to my buddy "Bobby Drama" I got an amazing FREE PC he was tossing out. I was able to order the brackets, bezel, and marquee from KLOV. Locally a auction regular had an amazing control panel for me at an amazing price. The cabinet came together part wise really well. I'm excited to start this project this weekend if I can find some free time.

I'll post some pics later.

Coin Door Progress

Some pics of the newly painted coin door.