Which way do i go?

kcfreeloader

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I bought another arcade machine last night. It's a Dr. Mario conversion in a Midway Cab. Specifically it is a Packman cab. Someone did a terrible black paint job. I am going to try to get that layer off first. Judging from the roughness of the cab though, i don't expect their to be anything underneath worth saving.

So here's my question.

Let's say i get this paint off and their is no salvaging of the side art. my options are:

Leave the machine a Dr. Mario (I don't really have any desire to do this)
Return the machine to a pacman (monitor is horizontal and has a crappy bezel hot glued in, cp has many extra holes in it, and then the whole side art issue)
Make the machine into a different Midway game(specifically i really have been wanting a Bosconian, I've already got a control panel for this)


How sacrilege would it be to make it a Bosconian? I don't really have much desire for a Packman.
 
if you do make it a Bosconian don't forget there isn't any repro side or kick art available and NOS is nearly impossible to find. i'm also fairly sure the bezel sizes are different. there is someone selling repro non-glass bezels on eBay that'll do custom sizes but i don't know how good the quality is.

otherwise i don't see a real problem with it. Bosconian is a great game and i'm very happy i picked mine up recently for a reasonable price.
 
The only things going for you with making it a Bosconian are that you have a CP and that the monitor is already horizontal. Without the availability of side art, you will probably end up with just a white cabinet. Pac-man is also the wrong shape for Bosconian. IIRC, its the same shape as Galaga/Ms. Pac. I like Dr. Mario and I already have a Pac, so I would probably keep it that way but repaint it. I have a Raiden in a Ms. Pac but already have a Ms. Pac, so I have played it this way happily for many years. Since, you don't like Dr. Mario, maybe there is another Vs. game you would like. Excitebike, SMB, Golf, Castlevania, ect. Theres somewhere around 50 titles. There should be something you want. The monitor is probably still mounted at an angle, so Duckhunt or Hogan's Alley would be hard to play. I personally would really like a Duck Hunt but probably not in that cabinet. There's tons of things you can do here. You can get some random ?-in-1 board or put any old JAMMA board in there.
 
Well, new twist of events.

Here are the pictures.
2011-03-16_18-53-00_712.jpg

2011-03-16_18-53-18_801.jpg

2011-03-16_18-53-36_775.jpg
 
So i recently watched one of Shaggy and Norms pinball restoring videos and Shaggy mentioned using something (goof off?) that had xylene in it to remove some old paint while leaving the original paint. Well i didn't have any of the product he was using but i did have straight xylene. So i started rubbing some on and the black started coming off. Then a thick layer of gray started coming off. The gray had a layer of yellow stuck to it.

2011-03-16_19-14-46_924.jpg


So i tried a different spot closer to the center


2011-03-16_19-14-49_948.jpg


And look who was hiding behind three layers of paint!

2011-03-16_19-29-27_923.jpg


The art work looks to be in pretty good condition too! I'll know more as i get more off, but it looks like this thing may end up being turned back into a pacman.
 
the vs games were offered as conversion kits for pac/ms pac cabs as well as dk/nintendo style cabs, so that seems to be what you have.
 
with just a rom and possibly a ppu swap, you can put any number of vs games in that cab. Personally, i'd go ahead and see what the art looks like underneath, and maybe leave it a Vs.

Good info - http://www.johnsarcade.com/nintendo_vs_ppu_info.php
Look for Dr. Mario, and by simply swapping roms, you can install any of the other games.

Having said that, i've always wanted a Bosconian, but you'll need a new CP at the very least, plus lots of art. Depends on what you want to spend i guess.
 
That was the way my Vs. Castlevania was. It was in a Midway kit.
I ended up selling most of my cab and putting the Vs in a Nintendo cab. Much better for me.
I DO have the VS CP (unpopulated) that would fit your cab if you want to keep it a VS unit. Here are some pics
 

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