Nintendo VS Unisystem Restore (Dr Mario, Super Mario)

Aeolus7

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Nintendo VS Unisystem Restore (Dr Mario, Super Mario)

There seem to be quite a few of these lately. This is my first restoration, so it is not perfect by any stretch, but it looks great in my basement. I took a beat up SMB VS cab (was a Popeye #000514 at some point in its life) and spent 3+ weeks transforming it into a nice vibrant orange VS with Dr Mario art. I know it is a little blasphemous to change the original color of the cab, but it needed a paint job anyways and my wife was all about the orange. Also, orange looks awesome with VS side art. And as she said: "You already have a blue one." Once it was completely finished, she played a game in my arcade for the first time ever and played Dr Mario for the first time ever - it was completely worth it!

Definitely found a lot of great tips here and a few klovers helped me out with various parts and games (thank you!) - I've never been particularly handy, but I am an expert when it comes to research, and there are a ton of great threads on here that led me on the right path. I still learned a few things the hard way...

The Pickup:

For starters, the seller described this as "very good condition" and the ad was accompanied by, you guessed it, a small fuzzy photo. Of course at that point, I had scored a van, driven for over an hour, and emotionally committed (I'm sure many of you can sympathize). This quickly went from unbelievable deal to only a good deal. Still, the monitor looked okay, everything worked for the most part, and it was a plywood cab with practically no water damage.




The Issues:

- Missing Ground Plug (cause LOUD buzz and diagonal wavy lines on monitor)
- Sound was difficult to control (way too loud)
- Missing control panel buttons
- Smoke burns & scratches on CP
- 1st player jump button barely worked
- Major Cigarette Burns, gouges on side of cab
- Flickering marquee light (120V light was used)
- Exterior service switch installed (poorly)
- No Keys! (still only found 7 cents in the cab)
- Someone carved their initials (KS) and a pretty heart on the side




Uh, and this was after vacuuming...


With a few pot adjustments, the monitor actually looked nice (aside from the grounding issue)



The Interior:

- Removed, cleaned, and rebuilt monitor
- Installed Bob Roberts deluxe Sanyo cap kit (1st cap kit)
- Installed original Nintendo light fixture with new bulbs from Top Bulb
- Installed New Nintendo power cable (Bob Roberts)
- Vacuumed, cleaned, sanded, primed, painted (foam roller for the record)
- Added games!
- Added Matt Osborn's awesome SMB high score save kit. I love it - http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=176556

The Exterior

- Used wood hardener on a couple of problem areas (worked perfectly)
- Filled in large dents, chips, lock bar holes, etc)
- Sanded, primed, painted (3 coats of Behr Orange Kumquat)
- Repainted/repaired back doors on both my machines
- Sanded, sprayed, and re-shaped the coin door & other metal parts
- Rebuilt very beat up base
- Rebuilt/cleaned control panel & joysticks (used Nerdtendo's guide: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=226360)
- NEW repro buttons and a couple extra switches from Mike's Arcade
- NEW repro VS Side Art from Game On Grafix - ink jet but really nice
- NEW true flat t-molding from Chomping Quarters (awesome stuff)
- NEW smoked plexi for the bezel from eStreet Plastics
- NEW locks for coin door and back door


Here are a few after shots. The monitor is beautiful, the sound works great, and Donkey Kong finally has a friend:










I'm also slowly acquiring games. Once I pick up a VS switcher, this will be playing Dr Mario, SMB, Gradius, and perhaps Ice Climber, Castlevania, and Goonies - still looking for the last three (**Please PM me if you have any of those 3 for sale*) Woohoo - can't wait! http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=233200
 
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Almost forgot - I had to re-cut the monitor shroud and the back monitor cover. Turned out nice. Hooray for arts and crafts!
 
Nice work man! Is that orange the same shade as on the DK Jr cabs? And good choice on the Dr. Mario art, the Vs SMB marquee looks like crap IMO
 
Thanks! - I completely agree about the SMB marquee. It came with one that had only some fading, but I still hated it.

I hope it's the same approximate color as the DK Jr. I don't have one to compare, but I used Behr Kumquat 230B-7 that was recommended from another restoration (http://www.davesclassicarcade.com/mario/renovation/mariorenovation.html). I haven't seen a DK Jr in a while, but it looks quite close to me. Either way, I won't lose sleep over it.


Nice work man! Is that orange the same shade as on the DK Jr cabs? And good choice on the Dr. Mario art, the Vs SMB marquee looks like crap IMO
 
I used the same orange paint for my restore!: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=251829

Question: How did you repaint the black on the cabinet? (The inside portions near the control panel and other places. I used a brush because of the tight spaces but that ended up not working so I sprayed.

I used a small roller for some of the broader black portions, but used a brush on some of the trickier spots. In the future, I would definitely go the spray route. The orange came out beautifully but the black around the CP and marquee just turned out okay. In retrospect, I don't actually mind a little wear on these parts, so I probably should have left it alone. It was pretty scuffed up though.

Your restore is awesome by the way. Everyone needs more Dr Mario!
 
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I used a small roller for some of the broader black portions, but used a brush on some of the trickier spots. In the future, I would definitely go the spray route. The orange came out beautifully but the black around the CP and marquee just turned out okay. In retrospect, I don't actually mind a little wear on these parts, so I probably should have left it alone. It was pretty scuffed up though.

Your restore is awesome by the way. Everyone needs more Dr Mario!

Yes, the section near the control panel tends to get roughed up quickly. I sprayed two layers of black and one layer of clear coat to prevent the paint from scratching easily (It can still scratch, just not at the glide of a finger nail).

The only black parts I rolled were the top, back, and base.

I find it cool that you painted the cabinet a different color, mine was a DK Jr. Orange (particle board version) to begin with.
 
The Issues:

- Missing Ground Plug (cause LOUD buzz and diagonal wavy lines on monitor)

How is that possible? The earth ground prong isn't used for anything when the machine is working properly. It is there to prevent an electric shock to the user if something goes wrong (i.e., if a hot wire gets shorted to the cabinet). It makes no difference with my Super Punch-Out machine if I plug it into a proper 3-prong outlet or into a 2-prong outlet with an adapter.
 
How is that possible? The earth ground prong isn't used for anything when the machine is working properly. It is there to prevent an electric shock to the user if something goes wrong (i.e., if a hot wire gets shorted to the cabinet). It makes no difference with my Super Punch-Out machine if I plug it into a proper 3-prong outlet or into a 2-prong outlet with an adapter.

I'm definitely no electrician and didn't mean to present that as fact. I've read that excessively loud Nintendo hum and those kinds of diagonal lines could be the result of a grounding issue. And I connected the lack of a grounding prong in that category. Not sure. Didn't do a control experiment since I both replaced all audio/video caps and the plug at the same time.
 
I'm definitely no electrician and didn't mean to present that as fact. I've read that excessively loud Nintendo hum and those kinds of diagonal lines could be the result of a grounding issue. And I connected the lack of a grounding prong in that category. Not sure. Didn't do a control experiment since I both replaced all audio/video caps and the plug at the same time.

Okay. Do you have a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter laying around the house? You can use it to bypass the third prong. I'd be interested to know if that would really have any effect on your particular machine. In theory it shouldn't, but who knows?

Your machine looks great by the way. I also have a Popeye machine (it is mostly stripped and is in rough shape) that I've thought of turning into a Vs. machine for a long time. I also had orange in mind if I ever did it, but my game of choice would be Vs. Excitebike. One of my favorite games as a kid was Vs. Excitebike that was in an orange classic Nintendo cabinet (originally a DK Jr. I assume). I was playing it before the NES was released in the U.S., so I thought it was an actual arcade game, rather than a repurposed console game.
 
Thanks for the compliment.

I don't have an adapter, but that would certainly be an interesting experiment.

Excitebike would be awesome and I would agree that orange would look sweet with that marquee. I would say Vs is always a good way to go. Not as valuable as say Donkey Kong or a dedicated Mario Bros, but I just like the flexibility of the system. My fav is probably Gradius right now, but when people come over, I know they're going to want to play SMB or Dr Mario
 
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