So I have finally finished this project.
I was inspired by John's videos over at John's Arcade on YouTube first. I don't even know how I ended up watching them... just googled arcade games or something. I still watch all his videos. Love that dude. Absolutely excellent, very entertaining, great guests. Adam seems like a great guy. Love watching his videos. Thanks to John, I am also keenly aware that blue paint should look blue. If it looks brown, don't be fooled, no matter what angle you view it from or how many times, it stays brown. Even stirring it doesn't turn it blue. Sometimes when you buy blue paint, they give you brown. Nasty trick.
And then I was just googling different cabinets and thought "Man, wouldn't it be cool if you could put multiple light gun games in one cabinet?" and googled THAT. I ended up in Bimm25i's thread about building his multi gun cabinet using jamma extension harnesses.
That thread can be found here: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=271012&highlight=multi+gun
On the one hand John's videos showed me that working on these games was totally something I could do, and then on the other hand Bimm25i showed me that the technical side of this idea had solutions too, and that was it, I decided to take a crack at it.
I went to ebay (craigslist didn't occur to me.... like I said I've learned a lot since 2013 lol) and found an Area 51 in a showcase cabinet. Snagged it.
I should mention that this is the first cabinet I've ever owned. I am thinking it might have been a bit much to start with, but I learned a LOT.
In reading and researching different switchers, I was turned off by the major downsides that come with the chinese 6 way switcher, and stumbled onto Clay Cowgills website. I decided that his 8 way switcher was a better fit, and went ahead and ordered it.
I also quickly realized that I would need a multi sync monitor if I wanted to mix CGA and EGA games. So I grabbed a 33" D9200 to fit in this showcase. Actually over the last 4 years I was able to find 2. So I've got a backup. Cap kits on these things are no joke by the way.
After completing the cabinet once, and not liking my power distribution setup, or my solution for having so many power supplies, I pulled it all out and started over. I redesigned the power distribution system and found a better way to mount all the power supplies, and bam. Ended up where I am now. My point in this thread is two fold. I would like to share what I did from a technical standpoint, along with the pros and cons of what I ended up with, and I'd also just like to share the final result.... all the work that went into it. It was a seriously long haul, with a lot of tedious moments. So anyway, I'll get on with the pics. I'll follow up with another post comparing all the pros and cons, and my future plans.
Enjoy! I hope somebody out there is able to glean a little insight in their own project, and if I'm really lucky, maybe some of that inspiration that the guys mentioned above gave to me will rub off on somebody else.
A pic of what I started with. Wish I would have done a better job documenting the damage to the cab, but I didn't. Anyway there was a bunch. Busted corners, etc.
I was inspired by John's videos over at John's Arcade on YouTube first. I don't even know how I ended up watching them... just googled arcade games or something. I still watch all his videos. Love that dude. Absolutely excellent, very entertaining, great guests. Adam seems like a great guy. Love watching his videos. Thanks to John, I am also keenly aware that blue paint should look blue. If it looks brown, don't be fooled, no matter what angle you view it from or how many times, it stays brown. Even stirring it doesn't turn it blue. Sometimes when you buy blue paint, they give you brown. Nasty trick.
And then I was just googling different cabinets and thought "Man, wouldn't it be cool if you could put multiple light gun games in one cabinet?" and googled THAT. I ended up in Bimm25i's thread about building his multi gun cabinet using jamma extension harnesses.
That thread can be found here: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=271012&highlight=multi+gun
On the one hand John's videos showed me that working on these games was totally something I could do, and then on the other hand Bimm25i showed me that the technical side of this idea had solutions too, and that was it, I decided to take a crack at it.
I went to ebay (craigslist didn't occur to me.... like I said I've learned a lot since 2013 lol) and found an Area 51 in a showcase cabinet. Snagged it.
I should mention that this is the first cabinet I've ever owned. I am thinking it might have been a bit much to start with, but I learned a LOT.
In reading and researching different switchers, I was turned off by the major downsides that come with the chinese 6 way switcher, and stumbled onto Clay Cowgills website. I decided that his 8 way switcher was a better fit, and went ahead and ordered it.
I also quickly realized that I would need a multi sync monitor if I wanted to mix CGA and EGA games. So I grabbed a 33" D9200 to fit in this showcase. Actually over the last 4 years I was able to find 2. So I've got a backup. Cap kits on these things are no joke by the way.
After completing the cabinet once, and not liking my power distribution setup, or my solution for having so many power supplies, I pulled it all out and started over. I redesigned the power distribution system and found a better way to mount all the power supplies, and bam. Ended up where I am now. My point in this thread is two fold. I would like to share what I did from a technical standpoint, along with the pros and cons of what I ended up with, and I'd also just like to share the final result.... all the work that went into it. It was a seriously long haul, with a lot of tedious moments. So anyway, I'll get on with the pics. I'll follow up with another post comparing all the pros and cons, and my future plans.
Enjoy! I hope somebody out there is able to glean a little insight in their own project, and if I'm really lucky, maybe some of that inspiration that the guys mentioned above gave to me will rub off on somebody else.
A pic of what I started with. Wish I would have done a better job documenting the damage to the cab, but I didn't. Anyway there was a bunch. Busted corners, etc.


