So I got a Red Tent, Pic Heavy

Chosen_One

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So I got a Nintendo Red Tent, Questions for you guys

It's a bit beat up. It was nice and cheap though, $150 off of Craigslist. Trying to pick up a few games now, and start on restoring this a bit. I've not really done any restoration work, so feel free to chime in with advice etc. My first mission is to get the control panel off, (screws are stuck), hopefully some WD40 will do the trick.

Then I'm considering pulling as much of it apart as I can and having it powdercoated.

Anyways on to the pics

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Awesome, signed up on the CPO.

Does anyone know where to locate the joysticks & buttons for these. I saw Mike's Arcade has sticks but they are really expensive. These are just standard short leaf switch buttons yea, can I just replace these with standard happ or sanwa buttons?
 
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Awesome, signed up on the CPO.

Does anyone know where to locate the joysticks & buttons for these. I saw Mike's Arcade has sticks but they are really expensive. These are just standard short leaf switch buttons yea, can I just replace these with standard happ or sanwa buttons?

Nope. Nintendo buttons are smaller than regular buttons. You could grind them down, but they wouldn't look (or feel) like the buttons around them. Original Nintendo buttons are a little hard to find, but they can be found. Check Mylstar's site, he has NOS red, yellow, & purple ones. If you need blue or green, you might have to end up buying full playchoice control panels off ebay to get them.

EDIT: D'oh, here's the link: http://www.videogameparts.com/category.sc?categoryId=30
 
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Sanwa's may fit. They come in different dimensions and are also metric. IIRC, Nintendo buttons are around 28mm, but you should double check.
 
The reason I'm needing a few buttons is a few are broken underneath. So they look okay in the pics, but they don't actually press or they are cracked badly etc. I've only got one side off so far and the buttons that are shot on this side are 1 yellow 1 green 1 dark green.

Is that just plexi and carriage bolts that hold the flyers in that spot?
 
The reason I'm needing a few buttons is a few are broken underneath. So they look okay in the pics, but they don't actually press or they are cracked badly etc. I've only got one side off so far and the buttons that are shot on this side are 1 yellow 1 green 1 dark green.

Is that just plexi and carriage bolts that hold the flyers in that spot?

Congrats on the pickup!

Yeah, the colored buttons (yellow, purple, green, blue) are hard to come by if you want originals. Bob Roberts (therealbobroberts.net) sells buttons that you could shave down to fit, but it won't feel right. Your best bet would be posting on the wanted section and hope some guys have some spare ones.

Correct, the flyers are just held in by plexi and nuts/bolts.

Bummer someone drilled a makeshift credit button on the coin faceplate. It won't be easy finding a replacement faceplate either. Unless you don't mind the credit button.
 
Congrats on the pickup!

Yeah, the colored buttons (yellow, purple, green, blue) are hard to come by if you want originals. Bob Roberts (therealbobroberts.net) sells buttons that you could shave down to fit, but it won't feel right. Your best bet would be posting on the wanted section and hope some guys have some spare ones.

Correct, the flyers are just held in by plexi and nuts/bolts.

Bummer someone drilled a makeshift credit button on the coin faceplate. It won't be easy finding a replacement faceplate either. Unless you don't mind the credit button.

I've got a wanted thread going, so hopefully that works out, if not I may just get some other Nintendo colors and see what looks good.

I don't really mind the credit button it actually looks pretty good I think.

Lowe's or somewhere like that will probably cut me some plexi to fit, then I can just drill some holes and be good. Anyone have any experience with this?
 
DPtwiz makes and sells repro plexis. From what I've heard, they are top notch.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=129946

That is awesome thanks for that man. I just sent him a PM hopefully he can set me up with some.

My current goals:

Flyer Plexi and Bolts
Sticks & Buttons Cleaned & working (hopefully originals)
Replace carriage bolts all around
Clean the Coin mech panels
Find a maintence door thing
Drill out the coin door locks & replace

If I can make it through the above (and maybe one or two other 'small' things) I'm going to see about taking all the red pieces off and the control panel pieces, and having them all powder coated. Anyone done that before? I had a control panel done on my Neo Geo 4-Slot locally and it looks amazing.
 
I wonder how hard it would be to source these Nintendo buttons in Japan? It seems like there would be a decent supply of them there because there are quite a few of these machines still in operation there.

Then again, it seems like someone would have already thought of this and sourced them if they were, indeed, available in any decent quantity.
 
A few questions for you guys, first in this pic
DSCN0737.jpg


Can any of you guys who have a Red Tent confirm there is a panel or door or whatnot there? I asked a guy selling a frame on ebay about this piece and he said his doesn't have it, that it's solid all the way across other than the coin door and speaker.

As well I'm wanting to take a number of pieces off to see about powder coating, the hoods and control panels are pretty easy from what I can tell. But what hold on the middle red piece and can you take off the black pieces under the control panel? It looks like there's 3 screws holding them on but I can't tell for sure.
 
I wonder how hard it would be to source these Nintendo buttons in Japan? It seems like there would be a decent supply of them there because there are quite a few of these machines still in operation there.

Then again, it seems like someone would have already thought of this and sourced them if they were, indeed, available in any decent quantity.


yeah, i don't know. i just went to japan (for a month) and i didn't see one. and i went to a ton of arcades. i did see a bunch of converted taito style cocktails at the top floor at one vintage game store in akihabara, but that was about it.
 
A few questions for you guys, first in this pic
DSCN0737.jpg


Can any of you guys who have a Red Tent confirm there is a panel or door or whatnot there? I asked a guy selling a frame on ebay about this piece and he said his doesn't have it, that it's solid all the way across other than the coin door and speaker.
Mine doesn't seem to have that access panel but I've heard of people that have them.
 
Mine has the panel on one side, and nothing on the other.

The access panel is just so you can easily get to the ISO transformer and power supply

As for buttons. I actually got mine very quickly, and very inexpensively as well.

I had a wanted ad going, and had some awesome people help me out

Let us know how your plans to powdercoat go. I've used a shaker can on mine. Rustoleum has a near exact match. And, it's excellent paint.
 
Yeah, on mine it's only on the one side. Interesting that some have it and some don't. I'm assuming it's going to be even tougher to find. If anyone can help me out with it, I would be extremely grateful.

I wonder if it's connected to the serial numbers, like early or later ones have it etc. Mine is somewhere around the 1000 mark.

As to the buttons I should have some coming soon, and will post some pics and links etc afterwards.
 
yeah, i don't know. i just went to japan (for a month) and i didn't see one. and i went to a ton of arcades. i did see a bunch of converted taito style cocktails at the top floor at one vintage game store in akihabara, but that was about it.

Yeah, I mean "relatively" easy to find. I.E., easier to find than in an arcade in the US. I saw at least 10 Red Tents in operation in Tokyo alone.

Most likely they just mod them to fit some sanwa or seimitsu off the shelf stuff if they need to though.
 
That is awesome thanks for that man. I just sent him a PM hopefully he can set me up with some.
I *think* I just bought the last set of Plexiglas covers. I had posted another Red Tent thread in the General Discussion section a few days ago and he said he thought he had one set left so I bought it. Sorry about that.

This thread caught my eye because I'm restoring my Red Tent as well. Mine has the lower panel which gives you access to the fuses. It's only on one side of the machine though. From what you described about contacting another seller, it seems to me he was looking at the wrong side of the machine. The other side is really plain down there.

My buttons are in much worse condition then your machine and until this thread arrived, I thought any arcade buttons would work.

I'm missing a button on each side. One side needs a blue button, the other side needs a green button.
 

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