Arkanoid 2 MAKEOVER! (picture heavy!)

jimbodeanny

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Back in 2006, I bought a $50 Pac-Man cab that had been painted black and converted to Speed Rumbler. I threw my Revenge of DOH pcb, side art, bezel and marquee in there. I couldn't find an original CPO (and nobody repros them) so I put the white alternative one on there, but never really liked it. I also was still very knew to the hobby and made lots of mistakes.

For years, I've wanted to give my Arkanoid 2: Revenge of DOH a makeover of sorts. After years of searching for a CPO, I finally found two (yes TWO) NOS cpos, so I was motivated to get going on this, and had some time to do it, (and do it the right way.) Since it's a kit game, I was excited by the creative freedom it encourages.

Here are some before pictures of the cabinet…




 
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The first thing I wanted to do was replace that ugly CPO.



As usual, I stripped it down to bare metal and patched any holes. This time I used pennies to cover the tiny holes and super glued them in place.







Then I painted the panel. Since I ran out of black on the bottom, I used some blue I had laying around that seemed close to the blue in the CPO. I thought that was appropriate.




Unfortunately, I had a hell of a time with the NOS CPO. The 30+ year old adhesive wasn't real strong so I had to use a little heat and LOTS of clamps.





The real problem, however, was around some of the title/lettering. As I was peeling the CPO from the backing, some of the blue surrounding the letters began delaminating and lifting. This happened around the left "ROMSTAR" and in a couple of tiny other areas. Luckily it was only the surrounding blue. It's not real noticeable but definitely there. Still, I was happy with it, just not the happiest and I don't feel bad because I sent the other NOS CPO off to Rich at thisoldgame to repro it. In the end, it looked WAY better than that other CPO.


 
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Before sending the coin door off to the powder coater, I decided to touch up the black on the midway plate. Some tedious masking and spray paint, and things look a bit better.

Before:



After:
 
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I decided to redo the entire cabinet with laminate. I was sick of black and wanted something that really brought out the artwork in the theme of Arkanoid. After looking at a ton of samples, I found a really cool (but not cheap) Wilsonart laminate called "Morphscape" that contained a light blue & white grid pattern with 3D-like shapes. It really matched what I had in mind. I sanded the cabinet smooth and the laminate went on pretty easy. The trickiest was the kickplate. Since I couldn't easily remove it, I had to cut the laminate perfectly to size before laying it on. I got lucky and things went smoothly. I love the way the laminate looked on the cabinet.


Prepped cabinet on my balcony:




Getting set up:





Laminate on kickplate:





Coin door test fit:

 
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The inside of the cabinet was grossly dirty so I gave everything a good cleaning.

Before:



After:

 
I decided to go white on the coin door and marquee brackets, and rather like the way they turned out. After getting those back from the powder coater and throwing everything back in, Revenge of DOH is DONE!




 
Before/After shots:





All in all, I'm pretty damn happy about this one. I love Arkanoid and it's always bothered me that it wasn't in a dedicated cabinet. It deserves something other than boring black and it was fun brainstorming something for it.

I recorded a few videos which I'll be editing & uploading soon.
 
Looks Great, but I actually liked that control panel shame to tear it all off like that

Oh interesting. It was WAY too busy for my liking. I much prefer the original that matches all of the other original art.

Those custom white third party Arkanoid CPOs are available all over the place so it didn't hurt my feelings one bit :)
 
looks very nice.

why go with those 1990's new-style happ buttons instead of the cooler retro leaf-style buttons like all arcade classics have?

10-x-Durable-Red-Happ-Arcade-Video-Game.jpg
-vs-
LeafSwitchButton.jpg
 
looks very nice.

why go with those 1990's new-style happ buttons instead of the cooler retro leaf-style buttons like all arcade classics have?

10-x-Durable-Red-Happ-Arcade-Video-Game.jpg
-vs-
LeafSwitchButton.jpg

"Cooler?" Biased much? I don't recall seeing in the kit manual where it calls for leaf buttons ;)

But to answer your question, I've played Arkanoid with leaf buttons and don't like the feel of them when firing the lasers. Just a personal preference of mine, but there are plenty of situations where I prefer microswitch buttons over leaf.
 
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"Cooler?" Biased much? I don't recall seeing in the kit manual where it calls for leaf buttons ;)

But to answer your question, I've played Arkanoid with leaf buttons and don't like the feel of them when firing the lasers. Just a personal preference of mine, but there are plenty of situations where I prefer microswitch buttons over leaf.

yar, i'm very biased. my mind doesn't accept anything that happened after 1989 :p
 
yar, i'm very biased. my mind doesn't accept anything that happened after 1989 :p

But the thing is, LOTS of "classic" games actually did use microswitch buttons. Did any Nintendo games use anything BUT microswitch buttons?

ANYWAY... :)
 
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looks great man. I appreciate you sending Rich the cpo to repro, ill be needing one eventually. Did you happen to send him the spinner and button decals?
 
1. That turned out awesome.
2. I love the custom touches, (because imagination is awesome)
3. That laminate is intense, I think my blood pressure went up looking at it. :D
4. Always impressed you do these restores in your living room!
5. I miss you.
6. Ken House would use kids scissors to trim his laminate, to bad you have to use a router.
7. Look forward to your next restore!
 
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