"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:
First, a shot of how it looked when I first got it (from the ebay listing):
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:
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...
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.
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:
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.
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):
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:
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...
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.
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:
- 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)
- 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
- Repair a bit of cabinet damage to the right of the control panel (can sort of be seen in pic 2 above)
- Rewire the cabinet because it's pretty damn messy...also to make it easier switch between CPS-I And CPS-II kick harnesses
- 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.

