Phetishboy
Well-known member
Back in 2004, when I first started collecting, the first game I purchased was a Ms. Pacman. Well, the second game I ever purchased was a Vs. Dr. Mario. At the time, I paid way too much, drove way too far and the cabinet was in a lot worse shape than it had appeared in the dark and blurry pics. Over time, I changed the cabinet into several different Vs. games (Gradius, Castlevania, SMB, Ice Climber), then finally converted and restored it to a Donkey Kong Jr. and sold it. Well, 15 years later, I decided the wife needed another Dr. Mario. Not sure exactly where I should start, I kinda waited for the right cabinet and the right time. Well, the time is now, and the cabinet I chose currently houses my Popeye.
Before you get up in arms about me converting a Nintendo classic to a Vs. system game, let me give you some additional details. I picked this Popeye up from my uncle about a year and a half ago for a decent price. It had been purchased for him by our mutual cousin back in 1997 at a garage sale for $75. He had kept it in his "Popeye" room up until late 2017 when he asked me if I wanted it. I said yes, agreed on a price and picked it up. That was when I first realized that this Popeye was actually in the American-built particle board cabinet. It also had a few blown out corners and didn't have any side art, other details I never really noticed in the 20 years of him owning it. Knowing that I wanted my Popeye to be in the plywood cabinet, I was kinda bummed, but what do you do? That's when I remembered that some years earlier I had picked up an empty/ converted Nintendo plywood cabinet and it was still sitting in my storage shed. All the Popeye guts could go into the plywood cab, and I was now free to throw all the Vs. system parts into the particle board cabinet. I started with the control panel.
This was one of Rich's overlays he had sent me years ago as a gift. I had stored it away and all but forgotten about it. I then remembered having stripped and powdercoated a Vs. Panel blue several years back. I never really knew what to do with it, so I figured it would work perfectly for my Dr. Mario panel. Over the course of 2 or 3 days I located the buttons, switch holders, brackets, joysticks, bolts, wiring harness, etc and assembled it all together using an original Vs. Panel as a guide:
Before you get up in arms about me converting a Nintendo classic to a Vs. system game, let me give you some additional details. I picked this Popeye up from my uncle about a year and a half ago for a decent price. It had been purchased for him by our mutual cousin back in 1997 at a garage sale for $75. He had kept it in his "Popeye" room up until late 2017 when he asked me if I wanted it. I said yes, agreed on a price and picked it up. That was when I first realized that this Popeye was actually in the American-built particle board cabinet. It also had a few blown out corners and didn't have any side art, other details I never really noticed in the 20 years of him owning it. Knowing that I wanted my Popeye to be in the plywood cabinet, I was kinda bummed, but what do you do? That's when I remembered that some years earlier I had picked up an empty/ converted Nintendo plywood cabinet and it was still sitting in my storage shed. All the Popeye guts could go into the plywood cab, and I was now free to throw all the Vs. system parts into the particle board cabinet. I started with the control panel.
This was one of Rich's overlays he had sent me years ago as a gift. I had stored it away and all but forgotten about it. I then remembered having stripped and powdercoated a Vs. Panel blue several years back. I never really knew what to do with it, so I figured it would work perfectly for my Dr. Mario panel. Over the course of 2 or 3 days I located the buttons, switch holders, brackets, joysticks, bolts, wiring harness, etc and assembled it all together using an original Vs. Panel as a guide:
