Modifying a Beast Busters: Second Nightmare cabinet

fingle85

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Modifying a Beast Busters: Second Nightmare cabinet

Hey guys,
I'm new to these forums, but definitely a fan of the arcade games of my childhood. I'm working for a TV show that has recently purchased a working Beast Busters: Second Nightmare arcade cabinet. Unfortunately our legal deptartment can't get a hold of SNK to get clearance for our show. We still want to use the Beast Busters cabinet, but want to change the game displayed on the screen. Is there any way to patch a different signal into the monitor?

I know the construction guys just want to tear the back of the console out and put in our own monitor. But that would probably ruin the machine entirely! I'd hoped to purchase the game once production is over, but if it gets gutted, it probably won't work anymore.

Any ideas on how to circumvent this problem?
 
Changing the video displayed on the screen is incredibly easy. The monitor is a standard resolution arcade monitor and as such accepts 15.75khz RGB video (NTSC rates). It's compatible with pretty much any other video game of the era, and can even be wired into a Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, and several other consoles with very minor work. You can also swap the game board out with another game - just find another game board with the same pinout.

-Ian
 
Wow that sounds great. Does anyone have pictures of the connection to one of those monitors? So I can see how the hookup would work?
 
Each monitor's connection looks a little different, and I don't know exactly which monitor is in your game. But it's usually a row of molex .156 header pins on the board - Red, Green, Blue, Ground and composite sync. It's usually even marked on the board itself - and the wires leading to it are color coded. Look at the metal frame of the monitor for a model number - it's probably a Wells Gardner something-or-other, and you can even download the manual from the internet if you want.

Just remember - when powering an arcade monitor, always power it from the cabinet - they need the isolation transformer in the bottom of the game to work. Powering a monitor without it's isolation transformer will fry it.

-Ian
 
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