"Dedicated" Aladdin's Castle conversion cab restore!

I did some touch up, looks slightly better. I was thinking about adding these capcom stickers to the sides to cover up damage from old rear lockbar holes. Good idea or bad idea? I kinda like it compared to the obvious damage. I haven't put them up yet, just taped for an idea.

Right:
HPIM1573.jpg


Left:
HPIM1574.jpg
 
Humm...time for some color matched baby blue paint then :)
 
Get someone to cut you some new vinyl. You could probably get any sign shop to do it if someone here doesn't. Prok might be able to.
 
This looks like the easiest vectorization project in the world. Have the side art vectored from photos and measurements (no need to scan, it'll look close enough), then size it up and have Rich print it out on White vinyl. In the meantime, while waiting for the new side art, strip the old side art off and prep the surface. Next, install the new printed vinyl, trim the edges and bam, you'll have a new-looking Aladdin's Castle cabinet.
 
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Today I completed the hardest part of this project: building a monitor shelf. The original monitor mounting hardware, monitor, and monitor frame were long gone. I made something custom for the computer monitor, which I ended up modifying to accommodate a G07. It is all level and is held in with wood glue and screws.

You can also see what I did with the side art. The color is slightly off but it looks good enough for me. Did I mention this is a project done on a wafer thin budget? Before I started on the side art, the plan was to paint it dark blue and have a Capcom sticker on each side for side art. I'm glad I didn't do that now.

HPIM1575.jpg


I have to order a custom marquee for SFII: CE. Does anyone have a recommendation of a shop that is both good looking and inexpensive?

I also need to find a power supply, recommendations?
 
This will probably be the last post of the season because it is getting cold out, and I hate working in the cold. My cab projects always go into hybernation around this time. My board projects will keep on rollin' thanks to my bartop. Anyhow, most of the art is in, and a local friend found a monitor frame for me. I'll be doing the final electronics work in the Spring, I also hope to have a new coin door for it by then.

HPIM1592.jpg
 
The hardest part of this restoration is over, I finally got a good monitor mounting system in the cab late today. This shelf took some thought and planning and turned out well. The monitor is right where it should be and the shelf accommodates any standard horizontal frame monitor cage securely.
HPIM1626.jpg


While at it, I added the remaining art to my cut down 19 inch bezel to make it complete. I think it turned out fairly nice. I also cleaned up the MAME era stickers and added a Capcom serial # sticker to the CP.
HP1625.jpg


Next up is harness creation out of two incomplete scrap harnesses I saved over the years. One was from e-bay, but in case you don't know, was kinda crap. Like everything else, I'll make use of whatever I can to save on parts costs for this project.

I also contacted the current owners of the Aladdin's Castle chain about the history of my cab. Namco sent me this informative little note:

"Records are not too detailed on this game, but I can tell you that it was purchased in Dec of 1989 as a Final Blow (Taito) game. In Aug of 1993, it was converted to Fighters History (Data East), and was sold by us in Feb. of 1997. It was operated the entire time in Aladdin's Castle in the Sikes Senter Mall in Wichita Falls, TX."

Very cool to be able to have a record of where my cab has been though it's life.
 
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I can now say I brought another Street Fighter II conversion into the world :)

HPIM1627.jpg


I spent nights last week building a harness for it, I had to splice in wire for every button, power, and video connection, you name it. The only thing that didn't need shrink tube was the speaker connection. All of my spare parts are gone, it's pretty amazing that I'm down to just a few lengths of cut up wire. I must have at least 3 feet of shrink tube into the harness. It is always neat going from an empty-box-to-arcade-game, I had done this once before with my Altered Beast cab. I think this is the final time for me to go through this though. An interior shot:

HPIM1629.jpg


Good thing I had my Altered Beast conversion cab to compare the ISO section to, turns out I had to create a mini harness to get that working properly. I'm running monitor power and switcher from the ISO, about 132V AC. The switcher is stealing it's power from what the fluorescent would have taken. I think I'll run it without a florescent, though I have one that could plug into the ISO tech power outlet.

I made everything come on with a flip of the on/off switch, which is my best conversion effort yet. I thought about touching up the art some more, but I am not really caring to touch it up any further right now. I am waiting on a replacement coin door and coin bucket, but I consider this project just about done.
 
I love the Aladdin's Castle side art, I'm glad you decided to keep it. Great looking game!!!
 
Thanks, it was a lot of work, but I guess that's hard to convey in a couple of short posts.

Those coin door buttons were leftovers from its former life as a MAME cab and they were used to credit games. I don't have a proper coin door (I dream of one that takes quarters) so this will have to do for coin credits for now. I'll be running any of my JAMMA PCBs in it when I feel like changing them out, so it won't just be SFII forever.

Still, nice to own one. I remember riding my bike to the local 7-11 as a teen to play this version of the Street Fighter II series.

I even got so good at it, I found a bit of an exploit. If you use M. Bison's charge back torpedo move, you can start to re-charge in mid air. Right as you touch the ground, you can usually launch again without waiting. It's a great strategy. The opponent blocks and suffers major damage. The opponent is hit and suffers major damage. I was almost beat up as a teen when suckers interrupted my game and I laid them out flat in versus matches. Punks, ha!
 
Phetishboy said:
This looks like the easiest vectorization project in the world. Have the side art vectored from photos and measurements (no need to scan, it'll look close enough), then size it up and have Rich print it out on White vinyl. In the meantime, while waiting for the new side art, strip the old side art off and prep the surface. Next, install the new printed vinyl, trim the edges and bam, you'll have a new-looking Aladdin's Castle cabinet.
Click to expand...

just finding this
would be pretty easy to do if theres any interest in this would just need to verify some measurements
AladdinsCastle.jpg
 
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