Jaelus' Arcade

[Jaelus]

Here's my home arcade.

Cabs:

• Super Neo 29 Candy
• Hyper Neo Geo 64 Candy
• Capcom Q25 x2
• Yaji-Kita pachislot
• Cruis'n Exotica sit down cab
• Golden Axe (has a JAMMA switcher with Final Fight as well)
• Neo Geo 4 slot big red
• Pac Man (has a ROM switcher on the board that plays Pac Man or Ms. Pac Man or the fast variants)
• Centipede
• Galaxian (also has a Galaga board - man was that hard to get working together)
• Gottlieb Amazing Spider-Man pinball

Not shown - a second Cruis'n Exotica in my workshop, as well as an Arkanoid cocktail, many pachinkos




My Neo Geo MVS collection used to be twice this size, but I cut back to my favorite games. Half of these are kits including all of the Samurai Shodown games. I also have a full set of Hyper Neo Geo 64 English kits. Not shown, I have two other shelves with capcom CPS1 and CPS2 games that I generally play on the Q25s.

 

[Neodogg]

looks great, it's a shame none of the monitors work...

 

[The Chief]

Excellent collection, that’s a really nice array of cabs you’ve got there. I know dogg likes to clown but I’m sure they look great.

 

[Jaelus]

looks great, it's a shame none of the monitors work...

Video is a distraction. I play by instinct.

 

[Samson]

Really cool collection. Love the Spider Man pinball.

 

[Jaelus]

Really cool collection. Love the Spider Man pinball.

Thanks. That was a big restoration job. I put 40+ hours into it, half of which was just cleaning it. This had been kept in a garage for over a decade after it stopped working, and mice were living in it. The displays and power board were missing and the only electronics that still worked were the sound board and one pop bumper driver. I like that this had the less common 3 chute coin door with the center slot for the new at the time Susan B. Anthony dollars. It took a bit to source the correct matching coin box with a three chute lid.

 

[Samson]

The restoration looks fantastic. A lot of the old Gottlieb pinball machines have stellar designs and artwork to them. They may take a long time to restore, but the payoff is worth it.

 

[Retro_Neo_Ness]

I wish I had the space for a least one candy cab. This is an awesome setup!

 

[theMot]

I wish I had the space for a least one candy cab. This is an awesome setup!

Don’t wish for more space, work hard and acquire it.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Very nice stuff.

 

[blakeb8111]

Nice setup and good assortment of games. Enjoy.

 

[Jaelus]

In the process of moving my home arcade to a larger space with more than twice the room.

I picked up a few more cabs that were at the top of my list: a Super Off Road with a 3P panel and a Spy Hunter.

But the best is that I finally found my grail cab:




No monitor, MVS board, or game, but I have a spare 25" Nanao MS8 and it doesn't get better than that. Also got a spare MV-1F which is what would have originally come in this cab.

I'm going to try to brighten the cpo back to white, but if not, I actually have a nos overlay for this cab that I've been holding on to for years.

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

very nice collection, congrats!!

 

[Tarma]

I wouldn't leave that Sam Sho 2 cab outside, it might get wet.

 

[gray117]

Those game specific cabs were crazy rare?... I don't think we ever got these in the UK...

Congrats either which ways

 

[Jaelus]

Those game specific cabs were crazy rare?... I don't think we ever got these in the UK...

Congrats either which ways

Well the whole point of MVS was being able to swap games, so a dedicated cab doesn't really make sense for an operator.

I'm not really sure how many were made, but I suspect many were converted to generic MVS cabs. Either way, I never saw one of these in the arcades.

 

[koki]

Nice collection!

 

[MCF 76]

Amazing collection & setup man, very nice!

 

[prof]

In the process of moving my home arcade to a larger space with more than twice the room.

I picked up a few more cabs that were at the top of my list: a Super Off Road with a 3P panel and a Spy Hunter.

But the best is that I finally found my grail cab:

View attachment 67135
View attachment 67136

No monitor, MVS board, or game, but I have a spare 25" Nanao MS8 and it doesn't get better than that. Also got a spare MV-1F which is what would have originally come in this cab.

I'm going to try to brighten the cpo back to white, but if not, I actually have a nos overlay for this cab that I've been holding on to for years.

I'd love to see an update on the SSII cab, Jaelus.

 

[sr20det510]

Those game specific cabs were crazy rare?... I don't think we ever got these in the UK...

Congrats either which ways

I saw a few in So. California back in the 90s.

 

[100proof]

I actually played a shitload of SS2 on a dedicated in an arcade in NoVA back in the day. Always liked that machine.

 

[HornheaDD]

Wasnt someone here wanting to convert his SSII cab to a "street fighter" control config? Since SSII is basically a 6 button fighter. Did he ever end up doing that?

I cant remember who it was.

 

[Jaelus]

Ended up moving the arcade down to the basement so I have more room, and I was able to fit some more games in. This is "phase 1" as I've only got games in half of the space right now.

This is a work in progress. I've got almost all of the games down in this space now, but I'm very much still setting things up and I've got a project in here, so these aren't glamor shots. I just snapped these last night.

I've got the 4 candies down here together. The Super Neo 29 has a 6 slot in it, and the Hyper Neo Geo 64 cab has a type 1 board and I've got all 4 kits. The tate Q25 is for Espgaluda/DDP/Ketsui. The other Q25 is for CPS2 and PGM games.



Since I've got additional room now I tracked down and purchased one of my all time favorite cabs, a Super Off Road 3 player. This came with Track Pak (though it also came with a box of the original roms) and the Track Pak marquee, which I switched out with a NOS original marquee. I've got my Yaji-Kita pachislot next to it temporarily.



Next up the pachinkos. This is a 1975 Ebira (from the Godzilla movies) with custom playfield art. I'm going to wall mount the pachinkos on a wall on the other side of the basement, along with a fourth "bowling" pachinko that I am restoring that's not pictured here as it's in my workshop. For now though I've got these set up on one of my extra work tables.



These two I recently restored and I've hooked up ball lifters for both as they are fever pachinkos: a 2000 Indiana Jones and a 2004 RoboCop.



Here's the SamSho II dedicated cab. I finished restoring it about a month ago, though I still have some airbrushing to do to patch up a few places on the side art. I'll follow up with a detailed post just about this cab since someone asked.



Here are the rest of the US cabs, my old Neo Geo Big Red 4 slot, which was my first restoration, a Golden Axe (I've got a JAMMA switcher in there with a Final Fight board too), Spy Hunter (this cab is a new addition), Centipede, Pac-Man, and a Galaxian. All of the cabs are set up and working.



I've got a Rowe BC-35 change machine and a pair of Cruis'n Exotica dedicated cabs here. I've finished restoring the first one, but the second one I have the cab stripped and I'm pulling off the art so I can put new vinyls and t-molding on it.



The Black Pyramid is also a new addition after I sold my Star Trip pinball. I've got this mostly restored, I just need to finish up a little air brushing on the side and playfield and I've got a new playfield glass waiting.



All the lights are changed to LEDs with some Alltek lamp driver boards, and just about everything is shopped out. Almost done!

 

[Jaelus]

I'd love to see an update on the SSII cab, Jaelus.

The biggest challenge with this cab was the MDF damage. There was considerable damage behind the marquee (the whole thing was a giant rat's nest) and I had to clean, compress, sand, and use wood hardener on that area to get it looking good again. The internal supports for the monitor and some of the wood in the back of the cab were also split in numerous places. That required a lot of bonding and clamping but it was not difficult.

The big challenge here was this front corner of the control panel. The left side was completely destroyed and was not salvageable, and considering where this was, I had to fix it in a way that could support people leaning on it, and it had to line up right and look good with t-molding since it's a major focal point of the cab. You can see the considerable missing sections here.



I cut off this piece with a hacksaw back into where the wood was solid. You can see there wasn't much here. This was totally destroyed.



Here's a new corner (.75" white melamine) based on the template I traced from the other side. I drilled this to mount with 5 dowels for support, and then I used bondo to hide the seam, sanded, and routed the slot for the t-molding.



And with the vinyl re-glued to the new piece as best I can, of course the missing pieces of wood also had missing pieces of vinyl. I'm going to try and air brush the artwork back on the white melamine since it's just black lines in this section I can block them off with frisket and cut with a straight edge and it should come out looking reasonably ok.



Here's the inside of the new corner after bonding.



The control panel was total junk. I had to strip off the old overlay, under that was a layer of plastic bonded to the metal which it took me hours and hours to get that damned plastic off. Underneath was really old adhesive and rust. I took a picture for posterity, but this was a huge pain in the ass to strip.



The control panel hinge was also really bad. I polished this up and also polished the carriage bolts for the hinge and cp and tagged them with clear satin enamel.



The panel, sanded down and repainted. Here's a pic of it curing awaiting a NOS overlay.

 

[Jaelus]

A donor 25" tube and an extra WG K7000 chassis I had. I also sanded and repainted the marquee hardware (satin finish) of which you can see a little bit here, and I installed new locks for the marquee and coin doors. I also stripped off the extra decals on the front vinyl and did as much vinyl repair as possible to the front and sides, since I can't get this artwork anywhere.



Trimming the NOS overlay was a pain in the ass. I had to figure the exact position since it was considerably oversize. They printed these overlays for conversion kits, but they are not sized for this cab. Using the remnants of the old overlay I was able to get two sides trimmed at the right point and then get it positioned on the panel to trim the other sides. Then I cut out the holes for populating the controls - here I've used new IL Eurosticks and IL competition buttons with cherry microswitches. I also had to do some rewiring of the control panel harness since it was incomplete. Luckily I had a spare MV-1F motherboard - to which I added a Unibios.

I also had a similar challenge trimming the NOS marquee bezel. The artwork was about 1.5" - 2" too wide and also the inner ring was sized for a 19". Again this came out of a NOS conversion kit. The old bezel did not look great, and also it was miscut. I discovered many (possibly most) of these cabs had the monitor bezel artwork installed upside down. The amount of room on the top and bottom was not the same, so you couldn't just flip it over and have it look good. If you look on the CP, the Sun has the "blades" extending outward in all directions, this lines up perfectly when you stand in front of the cab and back a couple feet, with the lines continuing down the front of the cab, and up into the bezel, and also to the sides. If the bezel is upside down it is rather easy to see since the blades are wider (expanding) on the bottom and contracting toward the top, which is obviously wrong. The original bezel also did not have enough room on the bottom to sit flush with the bottom of the monitor glass, so it would not stay in place when positioned correctly and had to be taped. The one that came with this cab had significant deterioration of the artwork due to the old tape, and I would assume most of this type of cab had that problem. The only way around it is to source a NOS bezel and cut it correctly yourself. Also here I've cleaned up the original smoked monitor glass, though I may end up having a clear monitor glass made like I did for my 4 slot.