Goblin
11-15-2008, 11:53 PM
This morning I officially crossed that line where I can now declare myself an arcade collector, not just a collector that has a few machines.
What drives me to make this declaration is that I was willing to drive over 100 miles in the rain to pick up a cab sight unseen. I was recently offered a free SF2 cabinet, and this morning was the only mutually agreeable time to meet. Unfortunately it has been raining on and off for the past few days and the truck I borrowed didn't have a cover over the back. Despite the weather the pickup went smooth. I was told the board, cabinet, and controls were good and that the only problem was the monitor. It was also covered in about an inch of dust, who knows when the last time this was turned on.
My plan was to use this new cabinet to replace my MAME cabinet which has a few more blemishes then I want on display in my game room. That one was originally an SF2 also, and after I made it I started to make list of things I would change if I could do it over again. That was the real reason I started looking for another cabinet. I was planning to rip out the monitor, buy an LCD and start over.
When I got home I first needed to drill the lock off the back to get inside to take a look around. That allowed me to unscrew the eyelets that secured the front hasp so I didn't have to saw off the padlock for access to the coin door. Once I plugged it in a quick test of the voltages pointed immediately to a dead DC power supply. Luckily I had a spare (from the aforementioned MAME conversion) and in 10 minutes I was up and playing SF2. I then took apart the bad power supply and found a blown fuse, so this is now repaired too. Now I still need to clean off the layers of dust and there are still a few other cosmetic issues I need to address, but those should be rather easy.
Considering the condition of the monitor I think I'm going to opt for a multi board in place of the JPAC/PC/VGA monitor. The spare PC I had was really too slow and I was never really happy with the performance of it. To upgrade to a new PC and arcade VGA, would actually cost as much as the multi board. This way I can still use all the other JAMMA boards I bought over the years too. My old MAME cabinet will probably end up being passed onto a friend. I am resisting the urge to keep multiple arcade cabinets so I can keep the space free for more pins.
What drives me to make this declaration is that I was willing to drive over 100 miles in the rain to pick up a cab sight unseen. I was recently offered a free SF2 cabinet, and this morning was the only mutually agreeable time to meet. Unfortunately it has been raining on and off for the past few days and the truck I borrowed didn't have a cover over the back. Despite the weather the pickup went smooth. I was told the board, cabinet, and controls were good and that the only problem was the monitor. It was also covered in about an inch of dust, who knows when the last time this was turned on.
My plan was to use this new cabinet to replace my MAME cabinet which has a few more blemishes then I want on display in my game room. That one was originally an SF2 also, and after I made it I started to make list of things I would change if I could do it over again. That was the real reason I started looking for another cabinet. I was planning to rip out the monitor, buy an LCD and start over.
When I got home I first needed to drill the lock off the back to get inside to take a look around. That allowed me to unscrew the eyelets that secured the front hasp so I didn't have to saw off the padlock for access to the coin door. Once I plugged it in a quick test of the voltages pointed immediately to a dead DC power supply. Luckily I had a spare (from the aforementioned MAME conversion) and in 10 minutes I was up and playing SF2. I then took apart the bad power supply and found a blown fuse, so this is now repaired too. Now I still need to clean off the layers of dust and there are still a few other cosmetic issues I need to address, but those should be rather easy.
Considering the condition of the monitor I think I'm going to opt for a multi board in place of the JPAC/PC/VGA monitor. The spare PC I had was really too slow and I was never really happy with the performance of it. To upgrade to a new PC and arcade VGA, would actually cost as much as the multi board. This way I can still use all the other JAMMA boards I bought over the years too. My old MAME cabinet will probably end up being passed onto a friend. I am resisting the urge to keep multiple arcade cabinets so I can keep the space free for more pins.