Gauntlet Restore +

jsunperry

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I took about 5yrs off all video games after burning out on GTA and my interest didn't return until almost 2yrs ago. While nostalgically looking up old arcade machines I came across the MAME cabinet concept and knew I'd have to give it a shot. I planned to do something Gauntlet-inspired from the ground up but things got busy and everything was sidelined. Last summer, while scrolling through craigslist, I came across a Gauntlet cabinet that had been converted into a High Impact Football game. I figured it'd be nice to have something to start with and thought having it take up room in my garage might motivate me to get started on my abandoned plans. I was also stoked to see it had the original Atari joysticks still in good shape.

So I brought it home and it looked like this:

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Cabinet was a bit beat up but sturdy. Monitor had some screen burn-in on the right-hand side due to the static Gauntlet scores but once you started playing you didn't notice. It sat in the garage for a few days before I started picking at it and realized the CPO had been pasted directly on top of the original Gauntlet art. It took me about 3hrs to peel off the High Impact art and for it to look like this:

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and it probably took another 3hrs of goo-gone'ing and magic erasering until I could get all the stickyness off.

Things started looking quite a bit better after I sprayed the cabinet back to black and attached the first sticker:

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I didn't take many pictures until finished but here it is in my basement:

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So not that different from some of the other Gauntlet restores I've seen here but restoring the original wasn't my initial plan and was only part of what I wanted to do. Having four players is great but it's definitely limiting to only have two buttons apiece. Some of my best arcade memories are playing Atari's originals that deviated from the standard joystick+buttons setup and created their own unique controls. So to change things up I also updated my cabinet to allow for swappable control panels. The control panels go in and out via USB and a few cat cables and it's pretty painless. I can have a new panel on in less than a minute.

720 was a must and I have fond memories of my friend and me playing two-player Marble Madness. Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat were also requirements. I mapped things out and it seemed reasonable they could all fit on a single control panel but when it came time to start drilling holes I realized there were going to be issues with mounting the 720 controller. It mounts from beneath and unless I wanted it to be recessed the depth of the wood, and essentially lose 3/4" from the shaft, I had to come up with another method. I tracked down a friend who's an expert with this sort of thing and he was able to laser cut this 1/16" metal for me:

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And to match it beneath, this wood:

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I wanted the control panel to match the design of the original control panel but with my own personal familial flourish and contacted Vlad who I found from GameOnGrafix. Vlad was a total pro--quick to respond and his work came out incredible. He took the original Gauntlet CPO image and redid it with the faces and names of my own family:

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That's a 720 controller in the middle I found on eBay and refurbished, two trackballs for Marble Madness, and two joystick/6buttons setups.

The next panel I did is another favorite from my past. I'm not sold on the contrast of colors but hey, you're delivering papers in your own basement:

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I was able to interface the Paperboy controller I found on eBay to my computer via USB using 1UpArcade's Sidewinder hack. Works like a charm!

Most of other stuff I did is basic to all of you. I had the coin doors sanded and powder coated, I'm using Maximus Arcade as my front end, the majority of my hardware is from Ultimarc and the fighting sticks are Happ Competitions. Side art was done by the venerable JP1.

Most of my ideas have been stolen from the big names here at KLOV but I hope I've been able to add some panache to the proceedings. Doc's MAME page(at beersmith.com) was the first I saw to use cat cables for swappable panels. The only thing close to an innovation I came up with on my own was using a wireless number keypad to control some of my main functions(ESC/add credits/player starts) shown in the above picture. I had read quite a bit about button placement and didn't want to have to drill extra holes for buttons that weren't part of gameplay. The wireless keypad is small, tucks away easily, and doesn't get in your way while playing. I can't be the first to come up with the idea.

Huge thanks to Brandon for the the CAD control panel design/manufacture and a special thanks to the gentleman who sold me the original cabinet, alerted me to the Paperboy handlebars on eBay, and was super-responsive to all my noob questions. And again, Vlad!
 
Gauntlet project

Looks fantastic great work my man!
Glad I could help out with art!!
:)
 
that original art is definitely nice!

i like the customization of the mame cp (especially that you made a separate one). Always good to have friends who have specialty skills.
 
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