Neo Geo Gold Arcade Restoration Bandit Style!

Electric Grave

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OK this is picture heavy, also if I'm suppossed to post this somewhere else let me know.

Well I found this cab in Springfield MASS, and at first I wasn't that exited about it, because I've never seen a Neo Geo Gold Arcade in person just pictures, but once I saw it all rusty and beat up it was love at first sight! "This thing grows on you" (Shidecepticon's words!) I must be frank though it really wasn't that bad at all.









The process took 3 days, mostly sanding and painting the metal parts, cleaning the fake wood laminate which was nasty, but in good shape for been a 16 year old machine.





I gave it a plexi cover to preserve the overlay which is not mint at all, but it will do for now, I got a new overlay on the way.





One big fuckup was titening the speakers grills, I went too far and they sucked in, I was pissed! I took them out and bend them out which worked somewhat, but after seen one of the fellow members had the same problem (You know who you are!), I don't feel that bad anymore, live and learn right?





There's another thing, I fixed the power supply which wasn't shown, the previous owner broke the plug off and did a "tape-o-magic" which sucked! other than that just the usual suspects new sticks and buttons, but I preffer them all black to keep the theme going, and no chrome shafts because nothing else is chrome here except for the key holes.

I like Happ's super joysticks above all, I'm not to proficient with anything else, plus I used the shorter shaft for a better throw, button wise I have Happ's convex for P1 and Happ's concave for P2 until I decide which is better for this application.

A little off the subject, this ebay sellers claim to sell Happ's parts but it's all knock offs, I only buy direct, so whatch out the difference is worlds apart! Look for the "IL" Industries Lorenzo ingsignia.



...and there it is! I think it came up pretty good, I'm still dwelling to get the black T-molding that has a gold line in the middle, but I'm not sure yet. I didn't show pics of the board, because I'm working on painting the cover gold, but I'll leave that for another post.
 
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sliceypete

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shit looks HOT:buttrock: nice work on the control panel(wish i wasn't so lazy so i could fix mind lol)
 
N80G80

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Yeah that looks good! I love the black buttons on the cp, that really makes the cab look kinda tough!
 
Electric Grave

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N80G80 said:
Yeah that looks good! I love the black buttons on the cp, that really makes the cab look kinda tough!
Click to expand...
I was hoping for classy, but tough is great! Nice custom CP on the Q25 by the way, that's just freaking inspirational!:drool_2:
 
Electric Grave

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sliceypete said:
shit looks HOT:buttrock: nice work on the control panel(wish i wasn't so lazy so i could fix mind lol)
Click to expand...
Thanks! C'mon man it pays of in spades once is done, post some pics when you're done.
 
SNKJorge

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Good job. I don't like the black buttons, I would have gone with the orignal
r,y,g,b, but great job.
 
Electric Grave

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SNKJorge said:
Good job. I don't like the black buttons, I would have gone with the orignal
r,y,g,b, but great job.
Click to expand...
Thanks!

I was going to throw r,y,g,b, but the colors just kept screaming against everything else, so I opted for black to keep it elegant. I was going to mix black rings with white buttons, but it seemed to cheapo. Someone mentioned that this cabs where made as cabaret for bars and such, and I wanted to keep that feeling.

Who knows maybe I'll change my mind in the future.
 
Electric Grave

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Couple more pics after the fact, I forgot to take a pic of the inside after restoration, so there you go.


Like I said, I'll get to the board later, you'll see!
 
The Chief

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Very nice job on the restoration;) Always nice to see some Gold Cab love.
 
chris1

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And..

If you want to save the bottom edges of your cab from getting messed up from..Feet,moving the cabs around and vacuum cleaners.

I use this stuff..
ebayhandhelds008.jpg



Home Depot: It's like $3-5 for a long piece of it(that'll you'll need to bring something to cut it)....(it can take a good whack too,it's pretty strong.)
I think it's used for stairs,they have other types and can be painted,if not found in black..



ebayhandhelds005.jpg
 
Electric Grave

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chris1 said:
And..

If you want to save the bottom edges of your cab from getting messed up from..Feet,moving the cabs around and vacuum cleaners.

I use this stuff..
ebayhandhelds008.jpg



Home Depot: It's like $3-5 for a long piece of it(that'll you'll need to bring something to cut it)....(it can take a good whack too,it's pretty strong.)
I think it's used for stairs,they have other types and can be painted,if not found in black..



ebayhandhelds005.jpg
Click to expand...

You're my hero right now!!

I was thinking of doing something about that, but I wasn't sure what exactly. Thanks a million, I will paint them though, I also have a chop saw, so no problem there. Perhaps I'll do the back sides as well, just because the edges are starting to flare up a bit.

Hey what do you think of Black T-molding with the gold line in the middle?, I'm tempted, but the authenticity will fly even farther.
 
billd420

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So what about the monitor? Whats that lookin like?

-B
 
Xian Xi

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looks fuckin sweet. i love the look of the woodys. i've never seen one in hawaii.
 
Electric Grave

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Xian Xi said:
looks fuckin sweet. i love the look of the woodys. i've never seen one in hawaii.
Click to expand...
Thanks man, I knew you'd end up in here sometime.

I was replying on the MVS insert thread about some re-edited templates I made in case you're interested, needless to say you're welcome to them.
 
LameKat

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Holy hell you work fast! Did'nt that auction end just a few days ago? I was temped by that cab but I don't have any more room. Nice job on the restorations.
 
Electric Grave

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LameKat said:
Holy hell you work fast! Did'nt that auction end just a few days ago? I was temped by that cab but I don't have any more room. Nice job on the restorations.
Click to expand...
Yeah I was really planning for a 4slot Big Red, but that ddin't come thru so I had an open schedule when this puppy showed up.

You know, not for nothing, but sometimes when you're winning something for cheap money someone goes and post the links to the auction, and then boom you're fucked, but hey that's life I guess.

That happened to me with the overlay I won for this, but I haven't got it yet, I'll just keep it aside and put it on later. The original has a small cigarrette burn bellow the "N".

Holy Cow! You're in Rockland, me and Decepticonzero are in Weymouth, We should meet and make a go of it!
 
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chris1

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I have to say,that cab is in Awesome Shape....

That overlay is in amazing shape...If your getting a repro,you'll be happier with "that" original..

I'm a sucker for the original r,y,g,b,button color layout BUT I love the way the Black buttons look on this/your cab..(Yes it does look elegant like that)
Funny thing is I have a set of the black buttons and never thought about doing something like that...I keep looking over to my woody cab and thinking,damn those black buttons would look cool in that cab(after seeing yours)..Me goes fooling around today mixing black buttons with white rings and I'm dying to see what that'll look like..But I do agree it would look to cheapo..instead of how elegant it looks now.

When I went to get the metal for the bottom of the cabs the first time..(hilarity carrying this around the store=bend it in half-they will NOT cut it for you)..I got it outside and bent it in three to get it in a small car,leaving enough room to cut out good spots in-between the bends.
The second time I took a Hack saw and took the elongated piece outside,but as easy as it seamed to cut,it was a bitch to do with the hack saw,holding it without a vise.
The next time I just took a good set of metal snips,pliers and they cut right through it...Only because I was fitting it in a small car and was buying other types for other things I was doing.
the next time I went to get some,after I got the Big Red two slot..the particular type I wanted with the thick front-top for stairs was now cut to smaller pieces at home depot and some lengths were even wrapped in plastic...They Raised the price..So three pieces cost me way more money then the original long pieces used to cost.
Now they keep changing things so you still may find the original long pieces or now may be looking for wrapped smaller pieces.
Within home depot I found the stuff to put on stairs in three different places...

"I like Happ's super joysticks above all"..Me too..


"Black T-molding with the gold line in the middle?", ..Hmm,I dunno....I really like the way it looks right now..It's smooth and sleek like---elegant.
Got a pic,link to the Black T-molding with the gold line in the middle?

I need to replace mine..I have a bad spot near the control panel..I'm just to LAZY to do it..Plus I need to figure out the right width,size to buy as the original is not wide.
http://www.happcontrols.com/interactive/accessories/49099900.htm
 
Electric Grave

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Oh man...what a bad day I had, I received that overlay today, and to tell you the truth I could of done a better job than that, the print is all sploochy on regular paper, and then laminated, I have to say that although I thought of doing something like this for a friend's stick, the only value I get out of this is learning that I can do it better.

Are you using this thing on your cab? If you hold it in the daylight you can see the red between the lines, also you would have to cut the red squares to get the counters to show through.

I feel for you if this is your situation, but there's light at the end of the tunnel I can make you a better one with all the holes cut out and ready to go, just look at the repro I did for my friend's 4 slot.





There's a couple things I could of done better, like to match the font on the Black area perfectly and I could of put red celophan paper underneath the square cutouts for effect, but the truth is that my friend didn't mind, and simply put it looks proffessional. I did apply plexy on top, because I didn't laminate this, I felt that plexy is a better application.

I bought this goldie overlay under the assumption it was old new stock like stated on the auction, 50 bucks is just obscene for this thing. I'm gonna try to return it.

chris1 said:
I have to say,that cab is in Awesome Shape....

That overlay is in amazing shape...If your getting a repro,you'll be happier with "that" original..

I'm a sucker for the original r,y,g,b,button color layout BUT I love the way the Black buttons look on this/your cab..(Yes it does look elegant like that)
Funny thing is I have a set of the black buttons and never thought about doing something like that...I keep looking over to my woody cab and thinking,damn those black buttons would look cool in that cab(after seeing yours)..Me goes fooling around today mixing black buttons with white rings and I'm dying to see what that'll look like..But I do agree it would look to cheapo..instead of how elegant it looks now.

When I went to get the metal for the bottom of the cabs the first time..(hilarity carrying this around the store=bend it in half-they will NOT cut it for you)..I got it outside and bent it in three to get it in a small car,leaving enough room to cut out good spots in-between the bends.
The second time I took a Hack saw and took the elongated piece outside,but as easy as it seamed to cut,it was a bitch to do with the hack saw,holding it without a vise.
The next time I just took a good set of metal snips,pliers and they cut right through it...Only because I was fitting it in a small car and was buying other types for other things I was doing.
the next time I went to get some,after I got the Big Red two slot..the particular type I wanted with the thick front-top for stairs was now cut to smaller pieces at home depot and some lengths were even wrapped in plastic...They Raised the price..So three pieces cost me way more money then the original long pieces used to cost.
Now they keep changing things so you still may find the original long pieces or now may be looking for wrapped smaller pieces.
Within home depot I found the stuff to put on stairs in three different places...

"I like Happ's super joysticks above all"..Me too..


"Black T-molding with the gold line in the middle?", ..Hmm,I dunno....I really like the way it looks right now..It's smooth and sleek like---elegant.
Got a pic,link to the Black T-molding with the gold line in the middle?

I need to replace mine..I have a bad spot near the control panel..I'm just to LAZY to do it..Plus I need to figure out the right width,size to buy as the original is not wide.
http://www.happcontrols.com/interactive/accessories/49099900.htm
Click to expand...
 
soulthug

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Looks very nice, but i expected a one armed bandit converted into a neo cab :emb:
 
Electric Grave

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soulthug said:
Looks very nice, but i expected a one armed bandit converted into a neo cab :emb:
Click to expand...
Maybe next time, I can see it already; Neo Gold Raided Bandit Style!!
 
themisterfalcon

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The wood grain looks so nice and clean on the sides. Is that actual grain on those or a laminate?
 
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