Tales of the HoboCop

YellowDog

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Donor 2011, 2013
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In a previous thread (link) I talked about how I acquired a Robocop that was immediately dubbed Hobocop. Well, I finally spent a little time looking it over and it doesn't seem as bad as I thought.

Initially I thought the previous owners had "hotwired" it so it had to be plugged in to get it running. I dug out an old AC harness I had salvaged from a previous cabinet and set down to install it. Once I got the requisite 7 drywall screws out of the backdoor, I was plesently surprised. The original AC harness was still there. A switcher was grafted onto it, but not too badly. Then I found the interlock switch. It was screwed in sideways under the monitor shelf. A little more investigation showed the metal plate was still there for the power switch and lo and behold! Dangling on the end of the power wires was the switch and it worked. So I screwed the switch back into the metal plate and the wiring is working as it should.

The real prize though, was on the back of the door. The original Defender backdoor sheets and they were a little dusty but mostly intact. Unbelievable.

Next I flipped the control panel over and tuned up the leaf switches. A couple of them were so out of position, they wouldn't even make contact.

Next I pulled the bezel (if you can grace a plain piece of plexiglass with the title, bezel) cleaned it and cleaned the monitor. Once I got a half inch of funk off the monitor I could see that it was covered in Centipede burn. I knew it was burned, but couldn't tell what before it was cleaned. I looked at the back and it was a G07 (not another frickin' G07 :() .

Finally, I pulled the marquee and found that it was another generic Robocop translight behind a piece of clear plexi. At least it looked nicer after all the funk came off of it.

Next will be to cut a new control panel, trick it out for two player controls and replace the JAMMA harness with one that supports two players if the current one doesn't (which I suspect it doesn't). I am still trying to decide what game to put in it.

Decisions, decisions.

It still looks a little bit ghetto, but it is a lot cleaner and the buttons work correctly now. So it is not quite Hobocop anymore, but it still has a ways to go before it is fully presentable.

ken
 
You should use it as a Jamma Cab. Swap games in and out. This is of course assuming you have enough space on the CP to support the two joysticks and enough buttons for each player.
 
Not really related but the name 'HoboCop' made me think of this:



NSFW - language. Also some scenes a bit intense.
 
You should use it as a Jamma Cab. Swap games in and out. This is of course assuming you have enough space on the CP to support the two joysticks and enough buttons for each player.

That is the current plan. There really isn't room for a full fighting game layout (1 joystick + 6 buttons per player) on a Defender control panel, unless you build an extended top for it, so I will be going with a 2 joystick + 3 button layout. This should accomodate most of the horizontal JAMMA titles I've acquired. Since I already have a 1 player layout running Karnov in a Defender cabinet, having a second one in a 2 player layout should cover me for now.

I currently have the following titles in horizontal JAMMA format:
- Crime City (2 player simultaneous)
- TMNT (2-4 player simultaneous)
- Karnov (1 player alternating)
- Mickey's Magical Tetris (2 player simultaneous)
- Gate of Doom (2 player simultaneous)
- Robocop (1 player alternating)

Hmmm. After seeing that list, I have more 2 player games. Maybe I should make 2 new control panels and set both up for 2 player. Food for thought.

BTW, Jedidentist, that was a very good pun, which is why I'm stealing it!

ken
 
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