Superman; the birth of a Multicade

TheDrewster

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Donor 2012
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So, heres what I started with. A trashed Superman in an early Dynamo cabinet. Moderate water damage and panels falling off. It was just plain UGLY.

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The past couple days, I have been putting some work into it and making it pleasing to look at and fun to play. So I started out by repairing the damaged speaker panel.

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Next, I stripped the old torn side art (the one side that had it at least) and the faded, cracked, and peeling vinyl. I also sanded down the swollen parts and used wood hardener and Bondo to patch any damage.

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I discovered some AMAZING product called Con-Tact. It is a vinyl woodgrain covering meant for shelves and cabinetry. It has a deep oak color (though the camera sort of washes it out) but it looks identical to Atari cabinets. It is SUPER easy to manage, bubble-resistant, stretchable, and yields AWESOME results.

Here it is roughly laid out before cutting
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After cutting, trimming, and replacing the molding:

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Next, I capped the monitor, re-mounted it vertically, and installed the 60-1 board.

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So here is how it stands as of tonight. More updates to come.
 
Nice work. Contact paper is great. We use it all the time. What did you do to the Superman Bezel and marquee?

The marquee will go with the PCB when I sell it. Right now I have a marquee on the way from MameMarquees. The bezel was stapled to a black wood frame that looks just fine as is. I am going to use the faded Superman bezel as a stencil in case I would ever have to cut my own shroud or something.
 
Hey Drew....You mind telling me where to find that woodgrain? That would look sweet to restore Centuri cabs. Looking good BTW. :D
 
Hey Drew....You mind telling me where to find that woodgrain? That would look sweet to restore Centuri cabs. Looking good BTW. :D

Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and I would imagine Target carries it too, but I havent checked. 1 roll will do the entire cabinet if youre conservative enough.
 
I discovered some AMAZING product called Con-Tact. It is a vinyl woodgrain covering meant for shelves and cabinetry. It has a deep oak color (though the camera sort of washes it out) but it looks identical to Atari cabinets. It is SUPER easy to manage, bubble-resistant, stretchable, and yields AWESOME results.

Dude- that wood grain is the shizz... I might reconsider using that for my Time Pilot instead of just painting it. Nice work! :thumbs_up:
 
Got the new marquee from Mamemarquees GameOnGraphix and I certainly cant wait to put it on. I love it!. I will be getting some new plexi cut and as soon as college finals are over, the project will resume!

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i like it! you actually improved the machine instead of down grading it like so many multis out htere on craigslist and ebay
 
I had some extra time today and did some more work. I had a custom plastics shop cut me a new marquee and CP plexi. So I went ahead and installed the new marquee to test the fitting. Looks sharp! I dont know why the 'lit' picture turned out green, but its not green haha.

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Then I stripped the CP and the vinyl off the front of the cabinet. A heat gun made mincemeat out of that old CPO.

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And to wrap up for the night, I painted the front of the cabinet, speaker panel, monitor bezel, and the inside edges. The paint is still wet in these pictures.

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Got the new marquee from Mamemarquees GameOnGraphix and I certainly cant wait to put it on. I love it!. I will be getting some new plexi cut and as soon as college finals are over, the project will resume!

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Haha. You had to bust out an NES cart to hold down the new marquee.

Lookin good though.
 
Alright! She is FINISHED!! And I am thrilled with the output. The only parts I do not have photographed is the installation of the new coin door and the application of the new CPO.

Taking a wire wheel to the CP. Clean as a whistle.

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After applying the new blank CPO, I decided to eliminate the 2nd player controls and go with an uncluttered, simple and easy to figure out layout. I decided to do this because I felt there were way too many buttons previously, and since 2 player gameplay is only alternating turns and not co-op/competitive for 99% of the games, I figured it wouldnt be a bad idea to keep it simple. The only problem is that I wasnt aware of the small dents on the control panel until after I applied the CPO. Oh well...

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And for my last trick, I replaced the old tiny, tin-sounding speaker with a 5" Williams Pinball speaker and the sound quality is ridiculously better!

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So Viola! The transformation is complete. These are terrible evening pictures, so I will be taking more tomorrow morning.

Before:
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After:
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