Chase Altered Beast Restoration & Emulation

MastrChase

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Hi all! This will serve as my place to post my project progress.

The Plan:
I plan to restore the cab to as close to original that you might find (since there were no dedicated Altered Beast machines, as I understand it) and to set up a modern tv and emulator WITHOUT modifying the cab. Since I bought this cab without PCB and internal components, I want to play a huge library of games, while preserving the purity of the history in case I chose to restore it to an original arcade machine configured to Altered Beast.

The History:
I recently bought my house and moved back home to Florida, and had the idea floating around my noggin to have an arcade machine or two in my garage. Maybe even make a mini arcade corner and decorate it like my childhood arcade in Gainesville FL, Aladdin's Castle. I found this cabinet on Facebook Market place for dirt cheap, $75, in near by Orlando and picked it up. It's in really rough shape, but I think it's salvageable. Really the only thing that makes it Altered Beast is the single sticker on the side and the generally correct controller lay out. But none the less, that's how I got it and that's how it's going to live its life, as Altered Beast.

The Good & Bad:
It's got a full cab, has the complete controller config and wiring, a coin slot and change machine, what I think is a power supply, and some other as-of-yet-unidentified component. It has one Altered Beast sticker on the side with minor damage, the correct controller layout with labeling, a single old speaker, marquee light fixture and a lot of wiring. I'm going to have to shave off a lot of the wood and fill it, since it has a lot of new and old water damage.

So Far:
I've started cleaning it up and doing research on it. I have not restored or worked on an arcade machine before, so this is all new. However, I have restored other things, like my prize 1994 Mazda RX7.
- I bought a new backlit vinyl Altered Beast marquee off eBay. We'll see about the quality.
- I've picked up a controller to USB adapter to try out from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K517WSC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) OR http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html
- I've got an old laptop to convert to an emulator, but will look into RasberryPi too.
- Randomly found an Altered Best FunkoPop figure at GameStop for $5 to keep the cab company ^_^
- I bought a cheap $35 flatscreen TV off FB Marketplace but its way too big. What I need is an OLD style flat monitor. Like one of the old crappy SQUARE Dell monitors. I'm hunting. The biggest that would fit seems to be about 22" x 22".

Next:
- I want to by the reproduction of the original screen bezel next and probably either cut it to widescreen format (vs square), or configure the monitor to a square display space/resolution (this is a better idea since the games were all square).
- Buy plexiglass and have it cut for the screen and marquee.
- The controller doesn't look quite right and requires more research. I know there's a graphic that goes over it, but the indention in the metal/plex is odd. I may just apply a vinyl wrap with a heat gun with the original art.
- Clean it up! Scrub the mold out.
- Put new speakers in and maybe a small subwoffer for ompf.
- Maybe add an ambient sound track to the arcade machine to sound like you're in an arcade with other machines and low chatter for effect.

Thanks for reading!
 

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Control to USB with cables, Funko Pop figure, power supply, and unknown component.
 

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images
 
If the cabinet goes unharmed, I see no problem.

I appreciate the support :) The emulator will be removable and will not modify the cab, wiring, or anything. Worst case would be a support piece of wood added.
 
This may be of interest, just released:
https://www.retrorgb.com/jamma-rgb-pi-board.html

The RGB-Pi team just released the highly anticipated Jamma RGB-Pi board for the Raspberry Pi 2b, 3b and 3b+ models.

This add-on (also named "hat" in the RP world) is a double-sided PCB that sits on top of the Pi's GPIO pins and turns the tiny computer into a fully functional device that can be used inside arcade cabinets or with a supergun setup.

The new Jamma hat eliminates the need for a separate power adapter as the host setup's PSU now serves as the main power source for the Pi. On the video side of things, RGB signal, without any conversion, will be directly fed into the arcade monitor (or any RGB monitor). The most exciting feature, for me personally, is the ability to use Neo-Geo controllers (or a custom-made stick with a db-15 connector) through my H.A.S, instead of going down the on-board USB ports route.

D_gaQV5XkAIyXvw-768x432.jpg
 
I bought a cheap $35 flatscreen TV off FB Marketplace but its way too big. What I need is an OLD style flat monitor. Like one of the old crappy SQUARE Dell monitors. I'm hunting. The biggest that would fit seems to be about 22" x 22"

I've got some experience with this. The largest consumer 4:3 (square) LCD monitor made was the 20.1" Dell 2007 FP and 20" Dell 2007 FPb. There might have been a few others of the same size, but those are the most common and readily available.

Don't let anyone troll you about making a multicade out of a real cab. There are some purists, but if you're restoring the cabinet itself back to original condition, then who cares? If you ever sell it, the next owner can pull the PC out and put a CRT and original board in if they want, and would have a nice cabinet to start with.

Do your thang, OP.
 
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