Trash into Treasure: emulation conversions?

mrdonut

Member

Donor 2025
Joined
Sep 6, 2024
Messages
19
Reaction score
25
Any recent trash into treasure projects with arcade cabs that are just too far gone? I just did a quick and dirty conversion. It was for a friend of mine who loves Williams games. I got a trashed Pac-Man for $100 locally. I called it the Franken-Man! or Pac-en-Stein! It was converted into an original Golden Tee in about 1990 era. They Gutted the harness and boards, re-wired with Jamma, took the original CRT and rotated it 90 deg. Then they cut huge chunks out of the sides. The control panel was hacked for the trackball. I thought about keeping the side art but they rolled on some thick clear stuff, and spray painted the edges. It looked soo bad I had to paint it black, but it was painful to do so. I put about $200 into it to make it a super cheap Multi-Willliams. I added a 19-in-1 board, Happs joysticks+buttons, painted it black, added fresh red t-mouilding, Photoshopped and printed some marquee+CPO artwork at the local Walgreens Photo center, some poster plexiglass I had laying around, added a coin lock, new power supply, 2 new LED light bulbs for marquee. The CRT is a K4600 and still needs a fresh cap kit. The screen's horizontal, as George would say, has significant shrinkage. Will need a C621 cap. Plays the big 4 Williams: Defender, Stargate, Robotron, and Joust. Robotron plays great on this. The CPO came out kind of hacky, so I will get a fresh Pac-Man steel control panel, and better CPO artwork. And do a proper translite for the marquee.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.43.06 AM.png
    Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.43.06 AM.png
    4.4 MB · Views: 51
  • Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.42.42 AM.png
    Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.42.42 AM.png
    4.6 MB · Views: 44
  • Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.42.21 AM.png
    Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.42.21 AM.png
    5.5 MB · Views: 38
  • Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.43.41 AM.png
    Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.43.41 AM.png
    5.5 MB · Views: 49
  • Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.41.58 AM.png
    Screenshot 2025-05-22 at 10.41.58 AM.png
    5.4 MB · Views: 53
I completed this one a few years back.
1747967755236.jpeg1747967741392.jpeg1747967952605.jpeg
Originally this was a Wizard of Wor cocktail but at some point early in its life it was converted to a Donkey Kong Jr bootleg.
1747967858610.jpeg1747968526796.jpeg

I always loved Galaga as a kid so I restored it as one visually. New screen printed glass top, re laminated it after fixing the rounded off corners, stripped and painted the coin door + replaced inserts, new CPs with 4-way leaf joysticks and leaf buttons, rebuilt K7000 with a donor tube. Running GroovyArcade and kept game limited to 2 and 4 way vertical games.

I feel fine with this one since it was in rough shape to start and already had its wiring harness hacked up for the bootleg board.
 
Some moons ago i repaired a handful of Area 51 and Maximum force cabinets. 2 of them were too far gone and were used for parts to salvage the others. That resulted in at least one cabinet being completely gutted. A friend of mine always wanted a sort of 'dedicated' Smash TV cabinet and doesn't mind mame.
 

Attachments

  • 20211020_172351.jpg
    20211020_172351.jpg
    398.6 KB · Views: 16
  • 20211024_143138.jpg
    20211024_143138.jpg
    428.5 KB · Views: 16
  • 20211028_182644.jpg
    20211028_182644.jpg
    228.6 KB · Views: 15
  • 20211028_183848.jpg
    20211028_183848.jpg
    278.6 KB · Views: 15
  • 20211030_163853.jpg
    20211030_163853.jpg
    264 KB · Views: 15
  • 20211101_180518.jpg
    20211101_180518.jpg
    306.7 KB · Views: 14
  • 20211101_180524.jpg
    20211101_180524.jpg
    238.1 KB · Views: 16
Great use of a Dynamo Solitaire cabinet. For my conversion, I lowered the monitor shelf to allow a larger monitor. I still think the cabinet looks off without a marquee on top (Dynamo's design, not your conversion).

Scott C.
I worked with what I had.

IMG_2043.jpeg
IMG_2045.jpeg
 
Tell me more about this grinder base/stand…
My late grandfather built it for me about 15-16 years ago. Thick steel pipe welded to a tire rim filled with cement, a thick steel plate welded to the top of the pipe for the grinder to be bolted to. It's pretty much the same set up his grinder was mounted on when I was a kid. I needed to have one just like it when I bought my grinder so I asked him to build me one. Thank God I had him do it while he was still able to. It's one of my most prized shop possessions.
 
Back
Top Bottom