Disclaimer: Is this a restoration in the classic sense? Perhaps not. But I post regardless as perhaps somebody might learn from my experience cleaning up this Dynamo HS-5.
After completing my
first and
second restorations, I started thinking about what I would work on next.
I have a short list of machines I would love to have in Tron, Tapper, Sinistar and Pole Position, but unfortunately they are all out of the price range I have set for this new found hobby. I made an agreement with my significant other at the start of all this that I wouldn't spend more than $300 on a machine.
(Let is not speak of the additional hundreds if not thousands of dollars in tools and materials it takes along the way to getting these things looking decent.)
Number 5 on the list of most wanted games would be Mortal Kombat, followed closely by Mortal Kombat 2.
Fortunately, I posses the boards for each. I just needed homes for them.
I came across the
2wayEZ MK multi JAMMA kit from
@RiddledTV . PERFECT. I could put my two favorite MK's in one cabinet!
My preference would have been to have found an MK1 cabinet with its cool angled kickplate, but I would have settled for an MK2 or similar standard Midway shell of the era. Unfortunately, in months of watching various for sale posts, auctions, and so on, it was clear I wasn't going to be able to stay in budget.
That fact, along with the thought that since I was going to be putting two MK's in one machine, theming the cabinet graphics in either the MK1 or MK2 style didn't seem right.
I decided I would take some other cabinet and do a custom MK theme suitable for both games.
During this time period, I came across a custom job somebody had done taking a Golden Tee "tuxedo" cabinet and converting it into a pseudo big blue and putting a Street Fighter in it. It looked pretty darn good! And seeing as how at the end of the fighting game era many of those games were converted into Golden Tees, it seemed like just desserts. Perhaps I could do the same for MK?
The tuxedo cabinets are actually really nice: large CRTs, large control panels more than ample to support two players. I started to keep an eye out for cabinets in that IT tuxedo family of the early to mid 2000's, pre LCD vintage. Cabinets falling into this category include Golden Tee Golf, Silver Strike Bowling, and early Bags machines.
Having 2D and 3D art skills, I started mocking up different graphics treatments in Unreal Engine. I modelled the GTG cabinet and made a little Unreal Engine app that allowed me to customize each aspect of the machine and try out different looks. I made a few in the vein of the original MK1 cabinet, and a number of others with pure custom designs.
A Silver Strike eventually came up not to far away in my price range. Untested, but with a working CRT with minimum burn. I drove the 3 hours out to see it.
The cabinet was in good shape, for the most part. There was some obvious control panel box damage that had been repaired with a handful of drywall screws, but other than that, seemed ok.
But wow, I forgot how heavy these beasts were. and I had not anticipated how difficult it might be to remove and work on the blue "wings" of the Silver Strike cabinet.
After hemming and hawing for a bit and ensuring the seller this wasn't a negotiating tactic, I decided the beast was too much for me to deal with, and I declined the purchase.
The search for a new cabinet continued...
Red laminate on the sides and OG style graphics Looks pretty cool, right!?!