Mini Galaga MAME Cabinet (approx 3/5th size)

[InsaneDavid]

After spending the past weekend out at my parent's place I finally had a chance to finish up my mini Galaga. The cabinet began life housing a 13" TV and a Jakks Pacific TV Games joystick wired to arcade controls. The school where my girlfriend teaches had three of these mini cabinets: two Galaga and one Pac-Man, all three had fallen into disrepair. I offered to repair them in exchange for taking one of the cabinets home and that's exactly what I did. (mentioned back in the November or December 2009 finds thread) The cabinets were labeled internally corresponding to the phonetic alphabet, leading me to assume they were professionally manufactured in small batches. Construction is very professional and arcade quality.

My intention all along was to remove the TV and Jakks Pacific electronics and turn the machine into a mini vertical MAME cabinet. I decided to use the hardware that was in my previous MAME cabinet (Pole Position DX) simply because it was super stable and would do exactly what I needed. I used an Ultimarc I-PAC for controls interface. The display is a 17" LCD panel. Originally I wanted to use a CRT but a 17" CRT was simply too deep to facilitate clean work inside the cabinet. The display is coated with a panel of smoked glass which works out great, as I don't need a monitor bezel - all you see is the screen. The LCD panel is mounted to the original TV monitor shelf with plumbing strap and surrounded with black duct tape - again, totally invisible beneath the smoked glass.

I'm running Win98SE but I'm using DOS MAME v0.60 and the DOS build of Game Launcher as my front end. I tried things different ways but the current setup is what worked best and the cabinet is 100% solid. I ran the cabinet constantly for 36 hours without a single problem. A wireless mouse is used to load Game Launcher and also to shutdown the computer.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga004.jpg

The marquee was custom printed from EMDKAY.net for $20.75 shipped. Turn around time was less than one week, no extra charge for custom size.

I ran out of cable clips so the cable management isn't as clean as I'd like (or as it will be later) but it's not bad. There's a PS/2 jack on the back of the cabinet to allow connection of a keyboard without having to open the cabinet. The switch turns on the internal power switch, the red button turns the computer on.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga003.jpg

The display is absolutely as large as will fit in the cabinet and fills the display area nicely. It looks like there's a lot of space in a couple pictures but there really isn't.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga005.jpg

Lastly, when I first got the cabinet there was confusion over the size of the machine since it's fairly accurate to the official arcade cabinet. Here's my brother playing the machine.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga006.jpg

The Pole Position conversion is covered up in the background. I really no longer have the space for it so I'll be removing the glass, control panel, pedal and coin door and selling the empty cabinet this summer. Anyone in the central valley want an empty Pole Position cabinet for $20 - $50? Truth is, I feel more comfortable with arcade stuff these days and would like to try my hand at maintaining an original Pole Position cabinet eventually. Remember, that cabinet was a thrashed lost cause when I originally purchased it.

Here's a quick video of the Mini Galaga...

Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO_ZeYrDFwM).

Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK3aotztswQ).

The only future change would be installing a joystick that can be 4 / 8 way changed through the top of the panel, rather than having to open the cabinet up and flip a switch inside as it is now.

[Foxglove9]

Simply awesome!

[intvsama]

That's what it looks like when I sit in front of a normal-size Galaga. 8*(

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Looks absolutely amazing David. Love the power cord and PS2 ports on the back. How many games do you have on it? I had missed the original find thread on this game, and had always assumed you had made it custom. Really unique- wonder who made it (and was it an official Midway release)? Was it originally made with a Jaks Pacific joystick?

Anyway very cool. I too am becoming more interested in arcade stuff, and can't wait until I get my Asteroids up and running in a few weeks.

[InsaneDavid]

Looks absolutely amazing David. Love the power cord and PS2 ports on the back. How many games do you have on it? I had missed the original find thread on this game, and had always assumed you had made it custom. Really unique- wonder who made it (and was it an official Midway release)? Was it originally made with a Jaks Pacific joystick?

The story is they were donated to the school years ago, no one remembers the source. I don't think they're official since there's no copyright anywhere, no maker's mark, nothing at all. All the parts for each one were labeled in pencil using the phonetic alphabet (this one is "Golf"), the other Galaga was "Hotel" and I think the Pac-Man was "Charlie." All three had been dead or had problems for about a year when I offered to repair them. TV people didn't want to touch them because of the non-standard case, amusement repair people didn't want to touch them because it's not really an arcade cabinet. Problems varied: one just had a blown fuse, the Pac-Man simply needed a new "menu" microswitch, and the Galaga I ended up taking had 101 grounding problems in the control panel. I also replaced all the switches in each one, made sure the connections were sound, retuned the picture on the TV's, etc.

Here it is on the night I hauled it home...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga007.jpg

I actually ended up using the original speaker as is shown there, just hardwired to the amp board out of a set of computer speakers instead of a TV.

The original panel...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga008.jpg

The wiring hackjob around the switches is the quick fix to get it working until I bought it home (although the original wasn't that great either). I wanted to at least have something that worked for awhile before I could get around to doing the MAME conversion. The Jakks TV Games board is mounted and an AC adapter is hardwired to it. The connections run to a CAT5 cable, through a coupler, to another and then to the controls. The menu, fire 1, fire 2 and joystick directions are wired to arcade components. The original Jakks TV Games joystick assembly is mounted to the left side and a knob is attached to it. This particular Jakks TV Games version is the one with the twist joystick handle for Pole Position - that's what the faux spinner was used for. All this was removed and where the "spinner" once was, is where the start button is now.

Here's the original marquee and a shot of the original 13" TV with no back...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga009.jpg

As you can see, the cabinet was made for a MAME setup with built in power and plenty of space.

Another shot for size comparison, this is back from when I brought it home in December, ironically enough I'm wearing the exact same thing as when I shot the video of the MAME conversion this past weekend.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga010.jpg

[Baloo]

Awesome looking cab, nice job!

[InsaneDavid]

The only future change would be installing a joystick that can be 4 / 8 way changed through the top of the panel, rather than having to open the cabinet up and flip a switch inside as it is now.

Well I'm a freaking moron since the stick that is already installed is a top panel 4 / 8 way switchable Mag-Stick Plus with the optional ball top. You pull up on the stick and wiggle it around a little to engage a U bolt around the 4 / 8 way actuator, then twist the stick to switch between modes.

[mrmark0673]

How rare is it nowadays to see someone actually do a MAME cab the RIGHT way?

Absolutely beautiful cab man, looks like an American candy cab :)

[RadiantSvgun]

That looks great. It was probably easier and probably cheaper to get the lcd in there than try to mess with a tube monitor. That almost looks like it could be a factory made cab. That will look nice next to your Galaga Table.

On a side note, I'm a bit sad to see the pole position go, that was a great way to restore an old machine without the cost and hassle of getting all the parts.

Great job on the cabs man,.

[InsaneDavid]

Thanks to everyone for their comments!


That looks great. It was probably easier and probably cheaper to get the lcd in there than try to mess with a tube monitor. That almost looks like it could be a factory made cab. That will look nice next to your Galaga Table.

I really wanted to put a CRT in there all along but a 17" tube made the working environment in the cabinet too tight. I also got a little worried about having to beef up the monitor shelf with the added weight, which would kill the modular slide out design. The cabinet is built so that removing two screws allows the control panel runners (which run the entire length of the cabinet and support the bezel glass) to pivot down, allowing the smoked glass to be removed. Then two more screws are removed and then entire monitor shelf slides out. It's a pretty ingenious way to lock parts against one another and secure everything 100% with minimal fasteners. Considering not a single thing budged when finessing the cabinet in and out of the back seat of the car (not to mention hauling it two hours away), I'd say it's going to hold up for a long time.

I'm shocked the picture looks as good as it does considering I'm running DOS MAME on an LCD panel. I miss the scanlines but they just don't look right with the old MAME via LCD and the smoked glass does a good job of making up for it in the authentic display department. The fact that it weighs about a quarter of what the equivalent CRT would have is another big plus.


On a side note, I'm a bit sad to see the pole position go, that was a great way to restore an old machine without the cost and hassle of getting all the parts.

It was a tough decision to make. In fact up until about two weeks ago I was kicking around ideas about reworking and expanding the Pole Position cabinet to play more games and use more modern hardware, restoring the pedal to full analog, putting in a "proper" steering wheel encoder, etc. I was thinking about putting in an Atari four switch four gear shifter (reverse N) to allow more flexibility, lots of stuff.

But the reality of Pole Position uprights being huge and heavy kept overshadowing any of my new plans. The truth of the matter is that I'd probably almost never move the cabinet out here and it takes up too much space where I have it stored presently. It was a great project, a lot of fun, very rewarding, and got me into the arcade cabinet hobby. I suppose I really couldn't ask for more, considering the cabinet was basically free after I sold the non-working boards. (about $100 total materials put into it to get it MAME'd out)

But as I said, I'm going to strip it out, pack away the marquee and bezel glass. Put the pedal assembly, populated control panel, cockpit shroud plastics, and coin door into storage. Then sell the completely empty cabinet for peanuts, just going to wheel it out front next time my parents have a yard sale, try to get $20 for it - probably give it away if there aren't any takers. Nice, clean, empty cabinet ready to go for a ground up rebuild or more standardized MAME conversion. Amazing to think of the horrible smell it had and the sad condition it was in when I bought it. LOL Then after I rebuilt it, the couple months it spent located in the backyard while we enclosed the patio, gave a bit of a The Last Starfighter vibe running out there.

So the next Pole Position cabinet I acquire will be one purchased in working condition and maintained as such. I have a few years to find one - I really won't have the space until then anyway. LOL Pole Position was really the game I played most on the cabinet - Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat is only fun so many times with one player and Championship Sprint is another cabinet I'd love to own one day, so it'll all work itself out. :)

[MachineGex]

That is soooooo nice. The machine really pops. Very eye-catching! Well done, you always do nice work.