Street Fighter II Restoration

Mattroid

Thread Manager, Moderator: Console Section

Donor 3 years: 2011, 2013-2014
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
17,111
Reaction score
161
Location
Austin, Texas
"Restoration," huh? Can one really "restore" a conversion? Well, whatever you want to call it, it is what it is. I'm mainly posting this here as incentive to finally get off my ass and finish this thing.

A little background for those who don't know me too well since I sort of stopped posting in 2007 vs how active I was before that:
  • Growing up, I spent a lot of time playing SFII at the nearby gas station
  • At some point I told myself I would have a SFII arcade "when I grow up"
  • In 2003, it dawned on my that I could actually buy such a thing
  • That summer I purchased a Super SFII Turbo CPS-II A+B board on eBay
  • In early 2004 I found a decent looking SPII:WW cabinet in Dallas and picked it up for about $300
  • Said cabinet was pretty bad overall, but it worked, so it seemed like a good deal at the time, considering I'd been trying to find one locally for about 6 months by that point with no luck
  • Over the next few years, I slowly replaced parts that were needed, and did some overhauls to the control panel that were sorely needed
  • And here it sits, 8 years later, still with most of the original work needing to be completed

First, a shot of how it looked when I first got it (from the ebay listing):

cabinet00.jpg


Now a shot after the first minor round of "fixes," including a new bezel (which is faded), a new marquee, and a new bulb and ballast behind the marquee:

cabinet01.jpg


Not too long after this, it was evident I'd need a new monitor because the old one was just causing too much headache. I did my first cap kit on this thing which gave it a few more months of life, but continuing issues lead to me to buy a brand new Vision Pro. Needless to say, the picture on it is beautiful now :)

One thing you'll probably have noticed by now is the horrible button layout. I don't know who in the world came up with this and thought it was a good idea, but after ripping off the overlay as well as looking at the underside to identify the original button holes, it became clear why they did what they did.

I'm still not sure what this game was prior to it being a SFII, but the original control panel was cut for two buttons and the overlay I pulled off under the SFII one was a generic Tecmo overlay. I like to think that maybe it was a Ninja Gaiden at some point...

cabinet03.jpg


Anyway, I replaced the buttons and joysticks with new ones, but the layout was still a pain to use in the real world. So, the control panel was finally cut with new holes to make things much cleaner and more comfortable.

cp_fixed_01.jpg


Since then (2006), nothing has been done, really. I never got around to putting my NOS overlay on the CP, I've never rewired the monitor so that it doesn't use its own separate power cable, and the side art got damaged when moving the game in preparation for Hurricane Katrina - I bought replacement side art, but have never applied it.

So here's a short list of things on the to-do list to get me started:
  1. FINALLY apply the control panel overlay (still debating how I want to go about this and if I want to cut some plexi or not - probably not)
  2. Work on the sides and apply NOS side art - perhaps strip it a bit and see if there's any interesting artwork under that black paint
  3. Repair a bit of cabinet damage to the right of the control panel (can sort of be seen in pic 2 above)
  4. Rewire the cabinet because it's pretty damn messy...also to make it easier switch between CPS-I And CPS-II kick harnesses
  5. Replace t-molding at some point

As a note to those wondering why I'd even bother with something like this. Well, as I know many of us have run into with one of our early purchases in this hobby, I've sunk way too much money into this thing over the years to ever sell it at this point since I'd never get close to what I've paid. That and I still like SF games, and it was my first, so I'm sure I'll hold onto it as long as I'm able. I'd say that with repair costs to the original monitor that was in this thing, then the new monitor purchase, NOS artwork purchases, etc, I've put well into $1000+ already, just to give you all an idea...

Additional pics can be found here.
 
Great job. Looks VERY familiar to the one I did...
Yep, seems like it. At least your button layout was a bit more understandable and might have actually been playable.

Awesome job. I hope one day mine will catch up to yours :)
 
Personally, I would put a lexan or plexiglas over the CP, it Preserves the artwork. Can be a pain to drill holes or whatever. Machine looks great so far.
 
Personally, I would put a lexan or plexiglas over the CP, it Preserves the artwork. Can be a pain to drill holes or whatever. Machine looks great so far.
Still debating that. I have the plexi already and have planned on it.
 
WOW $1000 into this thing...

you should have really found yourself a true Dynamo 19" cab corner cut Capcom 6 CP.
over the last few years I grabbed every 6 button one I've ever seen on sale. I'm sitting on a few for future projects... you never know...
 
you should have really found yourself a true Dynamo 19" cab corner cut Capcom 6 CP.

I agree. Your cabinet appears to be a Dynamo HS-1, which is one of the "correct" cabinets for a Street Fighter II: The World Warrior kit. If you look at the back side of your bezel you'll see that it mentions the HS-1 specifically (as well as the HS-5), with guidelines for cutting the bezel to fit either cabinet.

You have the standard control panel though instead of the extended "cut-corner" CP. Oddly enough, the standard CP like yours seems to be the one that Capcom had in mind when they designed the CPO; however, the "cut-corner" version of the control panel was far more popular on SFII Dynamo cabinets in arcades, because of the extra room which comes in handy for a 6-button layout. Nearly every SFII machine I played back when the game was new was in either an HS-1 or HS-5 with a "cut-corner" CP. If I were you I'd be on the lookout for any cut-corner Dynamo CP that fits an HS-1. If you can find one with the SFII layout that would be great, but any layout could be welded up and redrilled.

Plexi on top of the control panel is "correct" for an SFII kit by the way; they came with the plexi in the first place (listed in the manual as "1 Plex Control Cover").
 
WOW $1000 into this thing...

you should have really found yourself a true Dynamo 19" cab corner cut Capcom 6 CP.
over the last few years I grabbed every 6 button one I've ever seen on sale. I'm sitting on a few for future projects... you never know...
I had a lot of issues with the monitor when I first got this thing and sent it for repair a couple times before finally cutting my losses and buying a brand new Vision Pro which I think was $400+ at the time. I'm including that in that total. I was (and still am, very limited on room. At the time, this was stored at my parents' house because I had no room in my apartment. It later moved to the apartment when we had some spare room, but I wouldn't have had any room for anything else. Same with the town house we moved into later. It wasn't until this past summer when we moved into a house that I finally have room for more than 1 cabinet :p

Keep in mind that I bought this thing before I knew what the hell I was doing. I think I became a member here around the same time I picked that up, so I didn't really have any experience or even context to go on. But because I put so much money into this thing, I doubt I'll ever sell it unless I have to.

I agree. Your cabinet appears to be a Dynamo HS-1, which is one of the "correct" cabinets for a Street Fighter II: The World Warrior kit.

You have the standard control panel though instead of the extended "cut-corner" CP. Oddly enough, the standard CP like yours seems to be the one that Capcom had in mind when they designed the CPO; however, the "cut-corner" version of the control panel was far more popular on SFII Dynamo cabinets in arcades, because of the extra room which comes in handy for a 6-button layout.
I don't care for the corner-cut CPs, to be honest. Everyone of them I've seen with WW artwork doesn't look very good, and since I (sadly) never have a second player to play against, room is not an issue. I did buy one years ago (probably from someone here) that I had planned to install and use, but it was an inch or so too wide for my cabinet and I didn't have the tools or desire to try and trim it down at the time, so I either resold it or gave it away a while later.

All good points, and I appreciate the feedback.
 
looking good so far cant wait to see the end result. I love the art on these sf2 cabinets, the whole retro bright colors and stuff!
 
Back
Top Bottom