martimagico
Member
My Quest to create a Cabaret. The Custom GNG Build!
So ever since me and my kids went to disneyland early this year i had been wanting to build a cabaret. i loved the size of the neo geo they have in tomorrowland. anyway after a pretty long search i called a local op i buy from. i asked him if he had any mini cabinets and right away he said "sure, i have this old raiden cabinet, come check it out. it comes without the pcb though"
i looked up cabarets and couldnt find anything that mentioned cabaret raiden, so i went down to see it anyway. to my displeasure it was not a "mini" or cabaret, it was a very tall but narrow cabinet with a vertical 19" display (non op) and a modified CP that was hacked into what ever the cabinet originall was adding about 4" per side. the bottom had a 2" thick and wide pedestal which was also about 4 longer than the cabinet on every side. either way i took it loaded it up and prayed i could make some thing out of it. this was early september.
so after doing a lot of scratching my head and looking at it i decided that i would further hack it up. since the control panel was already cut into the original sides and there was no chance of repair i figured "what the hell"
so i measured it all up then i compared it to the mini neo geo. the cab was narrow, but again way way tall!
my first step was dismantling, i identified the cabinet!!!
the back door had Atari Assault guides on it. too bad it was hacked up!!
i took the vert screen out it was a ez20 sanyo, i recapped that and saved it for my nintendo fix it felix
the next step was shortening it, so i measured it and the coin door were long but it was just enough to take 2" off by pulling the platform underneath and then i cut 4" of the bottom all the way around giving me a good 1/2 from the coin door to the bottom.
i then measured it again. i didnt like the height or the shape of it, at this point i still wasnt sure what i wanted to do so i took a picture of the side....
i ms painted them to see a few variations of the possible cuts i could make...
cabaret style....
pac full size style rounded....
i stuck with the rounded, i then measure it all up cut the forward front edge the the rounded top.
then i measured the opening for the screen. this was originally vert so it laid low rather than upright, i figure by now i wanted it to be horizontal and a 19 in 1 so i foun that the 17" lcd from holland computers was the best fit, i relocated the glass shelf and supports to be more upright as well. the cpo was also cut goofy and was not lined up right so i knew i needed to cut a new one but would keep the expanded style box to simplify this. the cp was alo too short to the glass now that it was upright buy 2" or so.
by this time i decided to go with ghosts n goblins. it was one of the games on the 19 in 1 and has awesome graphics, the fact that Halloween was coming also played in.
i email a few companies and Todd at arcade overlays hooked it up. i needed all the graphics custom sized to fit the cab from the expanded out of scale cpo to the shrunken down side art and elongated custom bezel it was no problem. pricey but worth it and the quality is unbelievable! better that any oem!!
after painting with color matched paint, rewiring, new glass, new CP, wiring all the buttons and recycling the harness and coin door service panel, wiring a cool strobing blue led in the speaker and installing all decals and molding it finally made it into my son's bedroom!
i even threw back panel cabinet rollers by midway from suzo happ on the cab to ease the moving around!
so what do you guys think?
So ever since me and my kids went to disneyland early this year i had been wanting to build a cabaret. i loved the size of the neo geo they have in tomorrowland. anyway after a pretty long search i called a local op i buy from. i asked him if he had any mini cabinets and right away he said "sure, i have this old raiden cabinet, come check it out. it comes without the pcb though"
i looked up cabarets and couldnt find anything that mentioned cabaret raiden, so i went down to see it anyway. to my displeasure it was not a "mini" or cabaret, it was a very tall but narrow cabinet with a vertical 19" display (non op) and a modified CP that was hacked into what ever the cabinet originall was adding about 4" per side. the bottom had a 2" thick and wide pedestal which was also about 4 longer than the cabinet on every side. either way i took it loaded it up and prayed i could make some thing out of it. this was early september.
so after doing a lot of scratching my head and looking at it i decided that i would further hack it up. since the control panel was already cut into the original sides and there was no chance of repair i figured "what the hell"
so i measured it all up then i compared it to the mini neo geo. the cab was narrow, but again way way tall!
my first step was dismantling, i identified the cabinet!!!
the back door had Atari Assault guides on it. too bad it was hacked up!!
i took the vert screen out it was a ez20 sanyo, i recapped that and saved it for my nintendo fix it felix
the next step was shortening it, so i measured it and the coin door were long but it was just enough to take 2" off by pulling the platform underneath and then i cut 4" of the bottom all the way around giving me a good 1/2 from the coin door to the bottom.
i then measured it again. i didnt like the height or the shape of it, at this point i still wasnt sure what i wanted to do so i took a picture of the side....
i ms painted them to see a few variations of the possible cuts i could make...
cabaret style....
pac full size style rounded....
i stuck with the rounded, i then measure it all up cut the forward front edge the the rounded top.
then i measured the opening for the screen. this was originally vert so it laid low rather than upright, i figure by now i wanted it to be horizontal and a 19 in 1 so i foun that the 17" lcd from holland computers was the best fit, i relocated the glass shelf and supports to be more upright as well. the cpo was also cut goofy and was not lined up right so i knew i needed to cut a new one but would keep the expanded style box to simplify this. the cp was alo too short to the glass now that it was upright buy 2" or so.
by this time i decided to go with ghosts n goblins. it was one of the games on the 19 in 1 and has awesome graphics, the fact that Halloween was coming also played in.
i email a few companies and Todd at arcade overlays hooked it up. i needed all the graphics custom sized to fit the cab from the expanded out of scale cpo to the shrunken down side art and elongated custom bezel it was no problem. pricey but worth it and the quality is unbelievable! better that any oem!!
after painting with color matched paint, rewiring, new glass, new CP, wiring all the buttons and recycling the harness and coin door service panel, wiring a cool strobing blue led in the speaker and installing all decals and molding it finally made it into my son's bedroom!
i even threw back panel cabinet rollers by midway from suzo happ on the cab to ease the moving around!
so what do you guys think?
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