Killer Instinct 2 Deconversion

twistedsymphony

Well-known member

Donor 2013
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
2,023
Reaction score
79
I know a lot of you "classics" guys probably wouldn't understand why I'd put so much work into some 90s fighting game but KI2 is my all time favorite arcade game, if I could have only 1 machines, this would be it...

I'm not much of an arcade collector (This is my 4th machine) but it's the first one that I've actually bought and my first "restoration".

I could probably wait and find a mint KI2 machine for about what I'll be spending all said and done but I enjoy the the sense of accomplishment that comes from building and improving something... and I take pride that I'm able to "save" one of my all time favorite games.

----------------------
This is what I started with: it "was" a KI2 machine but it had been converted to "Turkey Hunter USA" at some point and then decommissioned and had the light gun and PCB pulled.

487989_603377509688685_2016549276_n.jpg




machine_01.jpg

Some of the paint had been removed from one side of the machine, I think the seller wanted to show that it was in-fact originally a KI2 machine
machine_03.jpg


machine_02.jpg

the holes drilled into the CP for the turkey hunter conversion make me sad

machine_04.jpg

it looks like I at least have the original button holes available which is always good

machine_05.jpg

Looking up close it appears that you can see the original KI2 control panel graphics under the camo... which seems promising.
 
Day 1 Progress:
So once I had a look at the machine I ordered up a new-old stock marque graphic as well as all new happ buttons and sticks for the control panel.

The first order of business was seeing if I could get the paint off of the side art. I did a quick search and found people suggesting "Lift Off" as a good paint remover that wont damage the graphics. So I picked up one and tested a small spot on the bottom corner. It seemed to work so I sprayed a slight larger section and I was pretty happy with the results
ki2_day1_01.jpg


after about 2 hours of scrubbing and dousing I really didn't get too far, I managed to get all of the paint off of the front and side of the control panel box along with about the top 5th of one side of the machine
ki2_day1_02.jpg


I had to stop because my hands were killing me, the stuff works but it require a ton of elbow grease, I tried using a buffing wheel on a drill in a small spot thinking it would be non-abrasive and wouldn't kill my hands but: too little pressure woudn't do anything and too much pressure burned right through to bare wood (thankfully I picked a small corner near the back to test first)...

------
I decided to turn my attention to the control panel. My first thought was to use a heat gun to soften the glue and peal it off that way (I've used this technique to de-badge cars, among other things)... This didn't work out too well, while it did help release the glue a bit it also made the overlay start to melt, even on just a medium heat... I quickly switch tactics to use an adhesive release agent; goo-gone. I was hesitant at first as I didn't know how it would effect the control panel paint but a small test showed it would be safe.
ki2_day1_03.jpg


Unfortunately, even with just a gentile pulling pressure, letting the goo-gone do it's work every so often the overlay would take a small chunk of the paint from the control panel with it... Sadly I'm going to have to find a new panel if I want the art to be perfect, but then with the holes that were drilled into the thing I was pretty much expecting that anyway. At least it's a decent placeholder until I can find a good, undamaged overlay.
ki2_day1_04.jpg


You can also see above the now, uncovered front art work... I think I should be able to fill and touch up the marks that were made for the gun holster.

----

Wanting to keep working, but my hands still cramped from trying to scrub paint I decided to check out the electronics, I mostly had my fingers crossed that the monitor worked.... absolutely every connector inside the machine was unplugged, I even had to plug in the connectors that went between the neck-board and the monitor chassis... it was as if someone was planning on completely gutting this machine and then after unplugging everything decided it was too much more work to remove all the screws and just left it.

I grabbed a broken Mortal Kombat 2 PCB I had, it boots and beeps and most of the EPROMs fail CRC, and then it tries to launch the game but then just shows some scrambled graphics and reboots. It probably just needs a fresh flash but I figured it was good enough to test this cabinet and if something goes wrong and damages the board, hey, it didn't work anyway. I tested the PCB in my working cabinet to confirm that it did what I expected it to do.

So EVERYTHING seems to be making bad noises on the machine. The power supply sounds like it has a bad fan, the monitor is making a very disconcerting buzz, as is one of the speakers. I shot a quick video since it's hard to describe noises:


I'm thinking that I should just start with replacing the power supply and hopefully at least some of the noises were just due to poor power conditioning. The monitor looks like it's in need of an adjustment but otherwise it does seem to work so that makes me happy.
 
Day 2 Progress:

So I had pulled the PSU out of the machine to bench test it... Plugging it in it was clear that the cooling fan was making the racket.
I had a box full of brand new PC fans so I opened up the PSU cut out the old fan and spliced in the new one...

noise is gone but then I tested the voltage... I was getting 5.6 on the 5V line and 11.3 on the 12V line... I should have tested this before going through the trouble of replacing the fan.

I attempted to adjust the output and as soon as I touched the pot the PSU started making this high pitched electrical charge noise, like a bomb ready to explode, :eek: I quickly shut it off and the charge noise even continued for a few seconds after the power had been cut... I'm not touching that thing, cut my losses and bought a new one.

------

since my last update all of the parts I ordered came in
  • New Suzo-Happ Power Supply
  • New Suzo-Happ buttons and joysticks
  • Cap kit for the monitor
  • Flyback for the monitor
  • Adjustment pot kit for the monitor
  • NOS marquee graphic
  • KI2 PCB with a Flash kit in place of the hard drive
  • Reproduction Lexan Control Panel Overlay (from ctozzi)
  • Reproduction Control Panel Graphics from GameOnGrafix

Using a slightly more powerful variant of Lift Off, and a plastic paint-scraper I was able to make short order of the rest of the side paint... it still took a few hours but... yeah, it looks great.

ki2_day2_01.jpg


The NOS marquee was much larger than it needed to be (presumably for use in conversion cabs) so I had to trim it down to size. I wish I took some pics of the process I used but basically, after removing and cleaning the old glass I put down a large piece of cardboard, laid the marquee on top of that, and then the glass on top of the marquee. basically a marque sandwich with the glass on top an cardboard on the bottom.

This was my procedure
  1. I eye-balled the placement of the glass over the marquee,
  2. I measured how much the marquee stuck out on each side. I took measurements on both sides at each corner to make sure it was perfectly centered left to right and that the image was going to be level and not crooked....
  3. to adjust the glass instead of pushing it, I gently tapped the glass to nudge it every so slightly into the perfect position.
  4. Once I was confident it was where I wanted it I then taped the top and bottom and remeasured to make sure I hadn't knocked anything out of alignment (measure twice as they say)
  5. I then took a new sharp razor blade and trimmed the left and right sides of the marquee using the glass as a straight edge.
  6. once the sides were cut I tapped the newly cut sides, then removed the tape from the top and bottom.
  7. I then cut the top and bottom again using the glass as a straight edge.

Had I access to a paper cutter I would have simply used a fine point marker to make crop marks at the corner points of the glass and cut that way as a paper cutter would have made nice true cuts, but this method worked well.

Now I have a new sweet looking marquee
ki2_day2_02.jpg



I went to install the new power supply and noticed there was a lot of nails and screws and the like floating around the bottom of the cab. I decided that was probably dangerous and could cause problems if the cab ever gets moved and one of those finds it way to the PCB or the power supply (or worse, the monitor) so I cleaned up all the debris inside the cab, it still needs a vacuuming but at least there are no metal bits floating around anymore.

I was informed that the original PSU mounts to the top of the metal cage at the bottom. The PSU that came with the cabinet was just screwed to the bottom board (you may have noticed in the videos above)... I figured the original PSU was likely bolted to the metal cage for grounding purposes, since the new one didn't work with the original mounting points I did the next best thing and bolted it to the cage on the side:

ki2_day2_03.jpg
.

-----------
I was planning on getting the new control panel graphics on and the control panel populated but unfortunately the graphics I bought from gameongrafix didn't fit right... I've opened a support ticket with them... this is essentially what I sent:

gog_cpo_01.jpg

^here you can see there is close to an extra inch of material along the top, also notice the scaling, the Nintendo logo on the GoG overlay looks slightly smaller than the original

gog_cpo_02.jpg

^left to right isn't as bad but you can see there is at least 1/8" of extra material along the left edge

gog_cpo_03.jpg

^extra material on the bottom, it also seems from this comparison that the CPO I received has slightly smaller print than the original too

gog_cpo_04.jpg

^Since the overlay was clearly too largeI was hoping that I could use the Lexan CPO (that I bought elsewhere) as a guide since the Lexan CPO fits FLAWLESSLY with my cabinet... unfortunately as you can see here when I line up the button holes the joy stick hole is out of line, meaning I can't use the lexan as a guide for trimming your CPO

gog_cpo_05.jpg

^interestingly the buttons on the left side still line up but the left joystick hole does not.

This is extremely frustrating because unlike the buttons, which have a lip that could hide some slight misalignment, the joystick holes are essentially naked so you'd clearly see the misalignment all the time.

Because of this I figured I'd see if I could get JUST the joystick holes lined up and let the buttons be slightly out of alignment but I found it impossible to get both joysticks to line up, they're too close together, and they're crooked causing the holes for the start buttons to end up WAY out of whack.

Rather than dealing with reproduction headaches I'd like to get a good condition Original CPO either NOS or a good condition used one. If you have one or know where I can get one let me know.

While I was cleaning out the machine I also noticed that while the original harness is still in the machine the previous owner cut all but 1 button on the player 1 sub-harness, and completely removed the player 2 harness and kick harness... I'm sure I could splice some fresh wires in there but I'd rather use original sub-harnesses if I can. I wonder if/where I can get that stuff.

I also noticed there's a panel missing from the coin door, presumably there was a bill collector installed at one point. If anyone knows where I can get a plate for that hole, I'd be grateful :)
 
ki2_day2_03.jpg


heh rip the bracket off that your currently using to properly mount it to the metal power brick box. It's held on by the 2 spot welds, don't bother trying to get screws in this side as it won't line up. (i'll take a picture of the one in my rampage if you'd like)




Nice progress. Try citristrip on side 2

 
Last edited:
heh rip the bracket off that your currently using to properly mount it to the metal power brick box. It's held on by the 2 spot welds, don't bother trying to get screws in this side as it won't line up. (i'll take a picture of the one in my rampage if you'd like)

I thought about ripping that bracket off but I didn't see any other way to secure the PSU... there are no screw holes anywhere, I'd have to drill/tap my own in the case.

I would like it in the proper factory position if possible, did your PSU have mouting holes on the other side or did you add them yourself?

also thanks for the tip on citristrip, I'll see if I can find some for the other side. Do you know where it's carried?

I've also heard that 3M safestrip works well but I was unable to find it for sale anywhere.

----

you mentioned "touching up" in your paint strip video... there are a few areas where the side art is scratched off that I'd like to touch up... (especially on the front of the control panel box) do you have any recommendations for touch ups like this?
 
Last edited:
I thought about ripping that bracket off but I didn't see any other way to secure the PSU... there are no screw holes anywhere, I'd have to drill/tap my own in the case.

I would like it in the proper factory position if possible, did your PSU have mouting holes on the other side or did you add them yourself?

also thanks for the tip on citristrip, I'll see if I can find some for the other side. Do you know where it's carried?

I've also heard that 3M safestrip works well but I was unable to find it for sale anywhere.

----

you mentioned "touching up" in your paint strip video... there are a few areas where the side art is scratched off that I'd like to touch up... (especially on the front of the control panel box) do you have any recommendations for touch ups like this?


there should be 2 screw holes on the fan side of the new happ power supply, one is higher than the other, those should line up with the holes on the right side of the original location (above where you have it mounted now).

I've heard good things about the safestrip as well, but the citristrip has done me right a few times now.

Walmart carries Elmers brand paint pens, i recommend those.
 
there should be 2 screw holes on the fan side of the new happ power supply, one is higher than the other, those should line up with the holes on the right side of the original location (above where you have it mounted now).

I've heard good things about the safestrip as well, but the citristrip has done me right a few times now.

Walmart carries Elmers brand paint pens, i recommend those.

Awesome thanks!

The Lift Off worked better once I got the hang of it. You really need to spray it on HEAVY then go do something else for 20 minutes and let it set in... I was having the same problem as you where the dark areas didn't want to let go of the paint.

Some one on another forum recommended laying the cabinet on it's side when using the paint stripper. I think this is a good idea because it will let the stripper set in evenly, I had the problem where it would come off only where the streaks had been created leaving me with this:

paint_strip_streaks.jpg

then I'd have to do a 2nd or 3rd round of the stripper to get the rest of it.
 
Awesome thanks!

The Lift Off worked better once I got the hang of it. You really need to spray it on HEAVY then go do something else for 20 minutes and let it set in...

Srsly though try citristrip gel. honest, just try it. The paint just sloughs off. It's freaking unbelievable. I'll never strip a painted cab with anything else now. Brush it on, let it sit for a few minutes, then take your plastic putty wedge to it and watch it melt away.
 
Yeah I picked up a bottle of it last night, I probably wont get a chance to work on this again until the weekend so We'll see how it goes.

I couldn't for the life of me find any of those Elmer's Paint Pens though.
 
IIRC it's with the school supplies.

I did check there but didn't see them... according to their website they're available for in-store pickup so I probably just missed them... I'll check again tonight as there were some other things I forgot to pickup anyway.
 
Twisted,
You have made excellent progress on this machine. I understand full well the enjoyment of putting the work in on a machine even though you could probably spend the same amount of money getting one already done (e.g., my MKII). When you have time and effort in a machine it just feels more like it is "yours". Anyway, nice work sir.
Dustin
 
I got the second side stripped over the weekend using citristrip... WOW that stuff works about 100X better than lift-off, I feel like a fool for wasting so much time with that other stuff on the first go-round.

I'm thinking Lift-Off might be more useful if there are more delicate original graphics, but for vinyl graphics citristrip is without a doubt the way to go.

I got a few other things done this weekend too but I spend a day, disassembling the Virtual On Twin unit I bought a little while ago and getting a bunch of people together to help me move that as well as KI2 into my basement.

I'll be starting a resto log on VO soon, not much needs to be done with that as it's complete and fully working, so I'm mostly just cleaning it up...


I'll post pics tonight or tomorrow once I pull them off my camera.
 
Nice warm weekend so I was able to get out to the garage and finish up the paint stripping. I tried Citristrip on the 2nd side... WAY better product for this than Lift Off... Lift off might be nice on more delicate paint but for vinyl graphics Citristrip is the way to go.

Before:
ki2_day3_01.jpg

After:
ki2_day3_02.jpg


Basically "painted" it on, waited half an hour, glopped off 95% of the paint with the scrapper, added more stripper to a few remaining spots, waiting another half hour and took those off... then a couple rounds with simple green to get off any remaining residue and Roberts your father's brother.

I also followed Broodwich's advice and got rid of the bracket on the PSU and was able to mount it properly on top of the metal chassis:
ki2_day3_03.jpg


This is about the time I moved the machine into the house, since the paint stripper was over with and most of the work left is electrical... I was considering pulling the monitor board to do the cap kit and realized that I would literally have to stand in a puddle in my garage while discharging the monitor... it was rather ironic considering every monitor repair video jokes about "not standing in a puddle" or discharging in the rain. So yeah... move the machine into the dry house.

Now that I had a good PSU I could test to see how many of the electrical problems cleared up... the answer... pretty much all of them, but the H Hold on the monitor was all jacked up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHxTnAhAsqw

playing around with the knob on the adjustment board fixed the h-hold... although it was super sensitive, and based on the fact that the h-hold was marked with white out, and the adjustment board was mounted with velcro for easy access, I'm guessing this machine has had some monitor issues.

ki2_day3_05.jpg


once h-hold was fixed the image was blurry a little dim and the size/position was a bit off too... most of the adjustment pots were either super sensitive or where all the way at one end or the other of the adjustment range and needed to go further. I'm hoping the capkit and new flyback should clear that up.

One of the coin mechs on this machine was missing, and the other one was broken, I had some spare parts so I fixed them up... not that I'll ever need to use them but I feel better knowing they work :p
ki2_day3_04.jpg


Unfortunately this machine used to have a bill validator so now I've got a nice square hole in my coin door, I've been unable to find a block off plate for it, I'd be happy if I could get a validator (even a broken one) to fill the hole and make it look less messy.
ki2_day3_08.jpg



I started looking at the control panel wiring as well, this is what I've got to work with:
ki2_day3_06.jpg

the previous owner tossed 2 of the 3 harnesses and the 3rd harness had all but 2 wires snipped... I found a NOS gauntlet legends control panel harness for $15 on eBay so I bought it since it has all the connectors I need. I started stripping it down and realized that it wasn't going to work out as is.

ki2_day3_07.jpg

I'll be able to use the 12-pin connectors and have all the proper color-matching wires but I'm going to need to crimp my own quick disconnects. This will probably work out better anyway since I can control the length and make everything look OEM

I measured and ordered all new t-molding, it's really not so bad but I think it will look great with fresh stuff. Next up will probably be the monitor cap kit and flyback. while I wait for the crimp on quick disconnects.
 
Nice work!

is that a 2in1 switcher in the power supply pic or just a test board?

the lift off can be useful on certain types of paint as well as in white areas and spots where the citristrip residue doesn't want to come off (even with a damp hot rag).
 
I have a untested bill validator, and if Broodwich doesn't want it you can have it for the shipping cost.

I just love watching these KI restores. You should check out Broodwich's and evilemuofdoom's restoration threads.
 
I have a untested bill validator, and if Broodwich doesn't want it you can have it for the shipping cost.

I just love watching these KI restores. You should check out Broodwich's and evilemuofdoom's restoration threads.

no need for it here :D appreciate the offer tho!
 
Nice work!

is that a 2in1 switcher in the power supply pic or just a test board?

the lift off can be useful on certain types of paint as well as in white areas and spots where the citristrip residue doesn't want to come off (even with a damp hot rag).
it's just a test board... someone from a local arcade collectors club sold me a 138 in 1 jamma board for cheap, it makes for a great test board since it's really small.

I'd love to get a 2in1 switcher and switch between KI1 and KI2... or maybe the legit KI2 board and a MAME PC running emulation for KI1 and a bunch of other 6-button fighters. I haven't found a switcher I like yet though...

I have a untested bill validator, and if Broodwich doesn't want it you can have it for the shipping cost.

I just love watching these KI restores. You should check out Broodwich's and evilemuofdoom's restoration threads.
I was looking at Broodwich's KI1 resto earlier, some great info in there. I'll have to check out evilemuofdoom's...

I'll definitely shoot you a PM about the validator too :)
 
Made some pretty substantial progress on this over the weekend.

So the monitor had some problems with the horizontal sync falling out of adjustment, in addition to a really bad picture all around. I had bought a cap kit but it was missing a few caps. I got new ones in to make a complete set and installed them along with a new flyback and a new sync transistor:
ki2_day4_01.jpg


the picture is great, really crisp with good color but the hold/sync issues have become worse :(

I decided not to dwell too much on that right now and moved on to other stuff.

ki2_day4_02.jpg

I disassembled the control panel and discovered that the Tee Nuts for the joysticks had been removed (why, I have no idea). I needed some other hardware anyway so I picked up some new Tee nuts and got those installed

ki2_day4_03.jpg


I disassembled the Gauntlet legends harness I bought and repinned 3 of the connectors to match what the original KI2 harness should have been. My fingers are killing me but now the control panel harness uses all of the proper original style connectors and wire colors.

ki2_day4_04.jpg


I got the control panel reinstalled and the newly built from scratch harness crimped and installed.
ki2_day4_05.jpg



I also received the bezel graphics I had RedicRick make for me, I had tracked down some scans and cleaned them up for print.. Rick did an awesome job.
ki2_day4_06.jpg


Of course I pulled the monitor glass and bezel and gave everything a through cleaning before reinstalling.
ki2_day4_08.jpg


To hold me over until I find proper control panel art I made a simple black overlay out of some poster-board. it's kind of MAME-ish but it really cleans up the overall look of the machine.
ki2_day4_09.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom