Nintendo Red Tent Restore with vinyl graphics.

RidicRick25

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Raymond, Iowa
Picked up a Red Tent a few weeks ago, I had to have it being I have many memories when i was a child with this setup. Anyways the cabinet was in pretty good shape, it just needed a good cleaning and some paint work. Both monitors have a great image, only slight image burn in them. I got about 5 vs PCB boards and a few games with it. I am going to make one side a dedicated Super Mario Bros and the other side Excitebike. And of course I will put different games in it from time to time. So here is my small project.

I forgot to take a picture before I started to remove parts. So here it is.
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Very dirty inside, this is going to be a severe cleaning! lol
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Legs only have surface rust, easy quick job of restoring those.
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Control panel. All the joysticks are so dirty that they barely move. The buttons are old
and I will be replacing them with all black buttons. Yes I am gettnig away from the classic
colored buttons because I have another idea in my head that will work just as well. Also I
found out that my new buttons don't fit the holes, so I will be making the holes just very slightly bigger, you wont even notice.
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Yep, extremely dirty. Now you know why they don't work.
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Control panel has some surface rust, chips, and of course a few little dents.
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The dirty joystick and old school buttons, which I am going to sell the buttons if someone wants them.
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Coin mechs in good shape and working, just need cleaned.
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As you can see the Nintendo logo is wearing out. I am going to hate sanding this and the
control panel down but my vinyl graphics will cover it anyway.
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I scanned the control panel. Now I will be creating the template for my machine and then
designing a new control panel to print/cut.
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Here is the original design, for anyone who wants a near restored look.
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Done with the design. I made a new looking control panel graphic, with colored areas instead of the buttons being colored. Also did something I have never seen before. I love my Nintendo standup cab with monitor bezel so I decided why not and created little mini
monitor bezels for each side. Also created new coin door plate graphics and instruction card graphics. The instruction cards are a decal so and will be stuck right to the machine. I am having new plexi made to go over top of them. I will be offering these decal kits for other red tent owners one my new website gets up. PM me if interested.
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Super Mario Bros monitor bezel, this thing is going to look sweet!! I am known to take arcades and restore them with crazy graphics. I love taking stuff to a new level of fun.
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Sanded down these control panels. Was easy, only took a few minutes.
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After sanding I cleaned them with isopropyl alcohol and then put the primer on them.
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I have always been impressed with this brand when it comes to metal paint. If prepped right
your project will turn out amazing.
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My cheap little sander and some 50grit sandpaper. Dont be cheap on the sandpaper, get the best because it will make your life much easier.
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After a day of sitting I laminated the prints and they are now ready for the cutter.
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Finished product after running them through my machine and weeding off the extra vinyl.
I cannot wait to apply these!
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Applied the vinyl to the control panel metal plate. They fit near perfect!
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Took apart all 4 joysticks, cleaned them and now they are as good as new. I always laugh
at people who can't spend an extra hour doing such and easy task and instead go buy new replacements instead.
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Painted the metal tent covers with the same brand paint. Their red looks great. Also painted the bottom half of the tent cabinet black and now the cabinet almost looks
brand new.
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Applied the instruction card details. I made them the size of the plexi on purpose, I think they will look better this way. But.. I did forget to round the edges, so when I offer the decal kits that will be fixed.
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All the graphics applied. WOW! I cannot believe how much I turned this classic into a little
more modern version. I am very glad I came up with the monitor bezel idea, looks great.
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As you can see, the graphics BARELY cover any of the screen.
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Mario graphics look great also! And yes Mario is not currently in it, I will be putting Mario in it later today when I get the control panels finished up.
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And again, the graphics BARELY cover any parts of the screen.
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So tonight it should be completely finished. All I have left is put Mario chips in and then put the control panels back in. I will post more pics when finished and some video.

Also I am getting some rom chips from lilman573 today for this cabinet and my upright nintendo vs cabinet so that is exciting. If you need rom chips he is the man to ask, a great guy who goes above and beyond to help you out. I told him to take his time and send the chips out whenever, he made them right away and a few days later I have my chips. Great Service!! Thanks you lilman573!!
 
Thanks guys, I have many more projects I have done or currently working on that I will post soon also.

Rom chips came in!! Woot!! 1 chip to replace the broken one for Mario and the other 2 are the modded replacement chips to allow saved scores and attract mode for both my Mario games. I cannot stand the free play just push start screen. This will fix that.
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Looks really good, I like everything you've done except the CPO's. I don't hate the ones you did, I just think they look a little X-arcadish, especially around the joys. I know the originals were a little simplistic and minimalistic, but I liked the screened ink on brushed aluminum look. Otherwise, very nice, I need to get my Red Tent restored soon.
 
Wow. Usually you see somebody post about a project like this and it takes a year to get from start to finish. Seeing it all happen at once is just awesome. Well done!

I agree with Phet about the CPO's, but I still like them. The rest of the graphics look amazing. They are really clean and well designed. They look factory made. I would love to have that in my home!
 
I agree Phetishboy, the CPO graphics are a more modern busy look that I always tend to do to my cabinets. I do love the original stock look also but I just wanted something different then everyone else. :)

I make my cabinets a little more aggressive with graphics, just my style. I have a few classics like Defender, Asteroids, and Stargate that are completely origional that I will not do my own style too.
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Not a great picture of my racing cabs but the graphics are pretty aggressive there too.
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Atlas100, yeah it took a total of about 4 days of work to complete this. About 15 hours total I would say. Breakdown, design, print, paint, apply graphics and then finish it today.
 
Fantastic work! It looks amazing!
I have a Red Tent i plan to get around to fully restoring myself. Will be watching your thread closely.
Thanks for sharing the progress :)
 
Here is the Red that I used.

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Got the mario game chips in. The modded chip to allow saved scores and attract mode during free play is awesome! So much better than staring at the push button screen.
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Here is the serial number of my cab. Not sure if its considered low or high.
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Looks great, I'm going to be restoring one soon and could use some control panels and coin slot vinyl overlays. Let me know when you start selling them.
 
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