What to do with a Midway mini cab?

SeanMcL

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OK, so I have this Midway mini cab that was originally a Robby Roto. I was going to make a mini Tron, but I found one before I got this one put together.

Should I:

A. Put the Tron parts in it and sell it as is, 7/10 on the cosmetics.
B. Restore it, then put the Tron parts in it and sell it.
C. Turn it into a mini Midway version of Space Invaders with custom art, and a JAMMA switcher and adapters to play SI, Galaga, Galaxian, and other 2-way stick, 1 button vertical shooter games.
D. Turn it into a mini 1943 with custom art, and a JAMMA switcher to play 1943, Raiden, SI, Galaga, Galaxian, and other 2 button vertical shooter games.
E. Something else.

Gimme some good ideas for this please. It has to look like a dedicated classic when it's done, that's the only criteria. If I could find a Midway title that came in that style of mini with 2 buttons I'd make it look like that, but I can't find one.

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Wow - intact, that would've been a rare bird. How do you know it was one; what's left?

I say option A or B.

I have the Marquee, the CP (drilled but the CPO was intact under the Trivia Whiz replacement) and the paper tag in the cab says "ROTO-MINI" or something similar.

It would be rare, but I doubt anyone but Todd Tuckey would care, and he has it on his list of Haves. The game itself sucks. I tried it on MAME and it blows big time. It would take a pretty hardened mini collector to want it.

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I vote mini tron :) . Never seen one, but sounds cool as hell!

Here is mine. They are fun little cabs, but no black lights. I want to mount some BL LED's inside the stick and under the top to make it glow, but have been battling chronic laziness lately.

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I just picked up a Robby Roto mini-myte myself. It had been converted to Konami Jail Break.

The bezel had some flaking, the marquee is near mint, the control panel is in very good condition and had 2 additional buttons added (one on each side) realy nicely, unlike most hacks I've seen.

Inside it was a rats-nest of wires, but I managed to strip, clean and reinstall and got 100% of the AC side of the wiring (both 120V High voltage, and 12V low voltage to coin door and marquee lamp bar). The linear power board and all DC wiring from that to the game board and panel was gone and replaced with their own for the konami game.

I have no intentions of restoring it to a Robby (too expensive to get the MCR and the DC wiring .. for such a lousy game). However gonna keep the maquee and bezel and panel since they're in good enough condition, and I'm almost done with converting it to an ArcadeSD system with a 49-way optical joystick and 2 buttons. Everything inside is being done to make it able to eventually convert it back should I actually find the parts cheap enough, but for now it will be an ArcadeSD system.

I considered switching it to Tron since it shares the same cab profile and marquee size and I think control panel mounts, but the costs would be too great AND I've already just went through he11 fixing someone else's full size Tron with all the tempormental board and power supply...wasn't worth it, Robby would be cheaper!. That's why ArcadeSD won, easily :)

I'll upload pics of the current/final fix later, but here is as it arrived.

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I have no intentions of restoring it to a Robby (too expensive to get the MCR and the DC wiring .. for such a lousy game). However gonna keep the maquee and bezel and panel since they're in good enough condition, and I'm almost done with converting it to an ArcadeSD system with a 49-way optical joystick and 2 buttons. Everything inside is being done to make it able to eventually convert it back should I actually find the parts cheap enough, but for now it will be an ArcadeSD system.

And until you get it running, you can pretend you're playing Ms Pac-Man :D
 
Get a new screened Ms Pac or Pac panel and make it one of those. What ever you do, has to be a labor of love. I don't think there's much $ motivation to go through the work of restoring a game these days in most cases. Pac/Ms Pac is nice in those cabinets.
 
And until you get it running, you can pretend you're playing Ms Pac-Man :D

You noticed that? So did my 4 year old as it's currently sitting on top of my Galaxian cocktail and he turned on the lights in the game room, walked by it and said "Daddy -- that's Ms. Pac-Man!" I added "burn in son, burn in". :)

Amazingly this is not the worst case of Ms. Pac burn I've had... I had another 13" with horrendous burn. I'll have to dig up the pic of that one.


Back to the original poster. Out of the options listed, I would seriously consider option 3: Make it a Bally/Midway Mini Space Invaders, one that was never made. I also just picked up a sweet Taito trimline Space Invaders -- something Bally should have made themselves. (Haven't uploaded pics yet but will shortly)
 
Here is the cab in question. Does it inspire anyone with a good idea?

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Rampage mini.

Thought of that, but the small CP means no multi-player action. Deal breaker?

What about a Bosconian mini? With 2 buttons.

Love the mini GnG, BTW. It's what gave me the idea to do something similar.

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Thought of that, but the small CP means no multi-player action. Deal breaker?

What about a Bosconian mini? With 2 buttons.

Love the mini GnG, BTW. It's what gave me the idea to do something similar.

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Hey thanks man, that little GNG cab is turning out pretty cool. I will be honest with you. No shit, 3 days before you started this thread, I had a vision of a Satan's Hollow mini in red with a red LED-lit joystick. You could have Satan printed directly onto red vinyl, or just put the red vinyl on the cab for now and have the Satan side art printed as a decal later on, when someone provides a good scan of it. Or how's about a Galaxian mini? Full side art wrap and everything. You did see that gentleman who redid his TRON mini a while back, with black sides and full artwork? That's the style I am thinking. That woodgrain laminate is the perfect surface to vinyl right over after you fix the small imperfections and any edge damage.
 
Or how's about a Galaxian mini? Full side art wrap and everything. You did see that gentleman who redid his TRON mini a while back, with black sides and full artwork?

Nope I missed that Tron mini. I love the idea of Galaxian. It did come out in a mini, Pac-Man and Rally-X style. But IIRC at least one guy here found a factory Galaxian in my style cab.

Time to mock up some pics and see what I like better.

The 3 contenders are Galaxian style, Space Invaders style, and Bosconian style.

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I gave away a Tron mini project not long ago. Gibbous did a nice job of getting it going. :)
 
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