Why not just reproduce games like Mad Planets??

SilverCoin

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Ok, so I was wondering...

Why not make new CnC Cabs, and use Rasp Pi's as pcbs?

Reprint the art, paint the cab, Screen might be LCD...

Controls.. I am sure we can find something suitable...

just with p/s's and pcbs.. theres gotta be a better way..

just a crazy thought while driving today..
 
That's being done right now --

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=406333

We are also going to start a similar project soon, with a CNC cab and a JROK board.

Its not an inexpensive project -- I just happened to have many parts that I'd be able to use already... others were recently reproduced... we like the game... there is a JROK board available (I wouldn't go through all of this trouble to make a one game MAME cabinet)...

I might do the same for Tapper some day. I have everything I need for a tapper except the cab and the brass.
 
I would want a "as close to original" Mad Planets cab to replace my original and transplant the parts. Can one tell the difference between original and the repos?

Or would that hurt the collectability? I would transfer everything over, including serial plates, etc.
 
Find a converted Q*Bert cab or repro cabs are available along with repro art, stencils, Jrok pcb, you can use a Tempest spinner works perfect, find a Mach 3 stick and your good. You could build a nice one that looks original at a fraction of the price.
 
Cobra Command would be on my list also..

For laserdisc games, I'd recommend a different hardware platform if you're going the emulation route. DAPHNE on the RasPi is a horribly broken mess - see this thread from last year that sums up my experiences with setting up a dedicated laserdisc emulation cabinet based around it. Be sure to also compare the compatibility list for the RasPi version against what's working on other platforms.

One note to the above: DAPHNE was never intended to run on the RasPi, or any platform other than Windows, OS X / macOS, or Linux on x86/x64. The port to Raspbian was undertaken by someone other than Matt Ownby, who started the DAPHNE project back in the late '90s and still (sort of) maintains it. He's not responsible for the state of things on the RasPi, so please don't bug him about it.

Something like the 2GB Lattepanda might be a good fit. It's $119, has an x86 CPU, and comes with an activated copy of Windows 10. I'm looking at this as the possible RasPi alternative for this project, but need to get my hands on one first to see if it'll do what I want it to.
 
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I'm one of several people who are currently working on a Mad Planets build. In my case, I started with a Q-bert cab that had been partly converted into a 60-in-1. It was a mess.

As mentioned above, it's still not cheap to build a good repro.
-$300 for the cab
-$300 to ship it to my house.
-$200 for the JROK board
-$250 for Art (bezel, cpo, lower cpo, marquee)
-$75 for a new control panel
-$150 for a joystick (the joystick took some time: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=400012 ).
-$150 for a spinner, stencils, jamma harness, paint, buttons, t-molding, etc.

So you're looking at ~$1,500. That's still $1,000+ cheaper than an original. The real advantage is that you can buy a little at a time so it's not such a big chunk of money all at once.
 
why not just buy a fake diamond? or a fake ac cobra?

If your point is to play the game, then go ahead and fake them. There will be a market for it. Many people would prefer a 100% fake that looked new to an original that had some blemishes.

My only issues with fakes is when someone buys a nice original just to strip it to put the guts in the fake. Do the work to find the parts before you kill a nice cabinet. If your going to cnc a cab, offer up the original to someone who may care. if your going to peel a nearly perfect CP overlay offer to trade it before you destroy it.
 
I have helped other people build mad planets before.

While I admire the work and effort they put into the game, some other collectors take liberties that does affect the game play.

The tempest spinner has a lot more weight compares to the wico version

If one were to change the encoder and match the weight of the wico, the game play should be much closer to the original.

When i started to build my mad planets, there wasn't the Jrok version out there.

I used a qbert pcb,sound pcb, a mach3 joystick, a Qbert brick and a lovely reproduction spinner interface board.
I am still lacking the wico spinner. I just need to cast it.
 
I've played both a dedicated with a wico spinner & a repro with a tempest spinner and you couldn't tell the difference, it spun and played exactly the same.
 
I've played both a dedicated with a wico spinner & a repro with a tempest spinner and you couldn't tell the difference, it spun and played exactly the same.


the wico spinner is not as efficient a design as the Atari. it has added mass to it which means you will spin it slower and it will take more effort to stop it.
 
This is just a theoretical question. I have a complete unrestored MP but the cab has had some moisture damage. I'm not interested in just replacing the cab with a generic cab and slap stencil art on it. To me, it would not be an original anymore. You're only original once. So I have to let the moisture damage slide and just say "oh well." The only thing that might come close is if markrl reproduced the cabinets because of his attention to original detail. Thus, I will probably leave the original cab alone. I wouldn't feel right changing cabs out, and losing patina. Any others with original cabs faced the same dilemma, did you end up leaving the cab alone?

Strolling through the games at CA Extreme, one does come to appreciate the originality in cabs that are unmolested, because just about every other game out there is a repop or kit.

why not just buy a fake diamond? or a fake ac cobra?

If your point is to play the game, then go ahead and fake them. There will be a market for it. Many people would prefer a 100% fake that looked new to an original that had some blemishes.

My only issues with fakes is when someone buys a nice original just to strip it to put the guts in the fake. Do the work to find the parts before you kill a nice cabinet. If your going to cnc a cab, offer up the original to someone who may care. if your going to peel a nearly perfect CP overlay offer to trade it before you destroy it.
 
I have helped other people build mad planets before.

While I admire the work and effort they put into the game, some other collectors take liberties that does affect the game play.

The tempest spinner has a lot more weight compares to the wico version

If one were to change the encoder and match the weight of the wico, the game play should be much closer to the original.

When i started to build my mad planets, there wasn't the Jrok version out there.

I used a qbert pcb,sound pcb, a mach3 joystick, a Qbert brick and a lovely reproduction spinner interface board.
I am still lacking the wico spinner. I just need to cast it.

Yes, please cast it! I am ready to buy a decent repro to replace the Tempest spinner, but I am not going to spend $500 on an original. I think there are 10-20 more people who would buy one as well.

BTW, the JROK board allows you to calibrate how the encoder reads the wheel so that a Tempest spinner can better match the action of the Wico. Not saying it's the same feel but I've heard it works pretty well.
 
This is just a theoretical question. I have a complete unrestored MP but the cab has had some moisture damage. I'm not interested in just replacing the cab with a generic cab and slap stencil art on it. To me, it would not be an original anymore. You're only original once. So I have to let the moisture damage slide and just say "oh well." The only thing that might come close is if markrl reproduced the cabinets because of his attention to original detail. Thus, I will probably leave the original cab alone. I wouldn't feel right changing cabs out, and losing patina. Any others with original cabs faced the same dilemma, did you end up leaving the cab alone?

Strolling through the games at CA Extreme, one does come to appreciate the originality in cabs that are unmolested, because just about every other game out there is a repop or kit.

I would agree with you. If you ask me, generally, repo = ass. It takes a crapload of effort to get repo right. You can get it close, but usually something is off. Sometimes it's something you can see from 10ft, sometimes you have to get close. Even all the effort done to do the robotron overlays, it's still not right. Scott's black widow overlays are actually better detail than the original, but the colors and texture are slightly off.

As for your mad planets, I would look at wood hardener and then work with some sanding, bondo, and touch up paint. Keep it original until you can find a better one. I think you should clean it up, fix damage to it, and make it work 100%. But when it gets to peeling overlays or side art, I think 75% side art is far superior to repo. 90% control panel is superior. The problem is gottlieb cabs suck. If you actually c&c a cab out of real wood, it would be better. But then it would be wrong material and fake.

I have always bought what I wanted. When I found one in better shape, I traded up. Now people will say, you have been collecting so long it as easier to trade up. I will offer up that 3 years ago I got a star castle that was in nicer shape than my personal Star castle I had for 25+ years(and I have had more than a dozen over the years). So patience can pay off.

I can't totally fault all those cabinet strippers. Fizgig offered up some of his cabs. I got his reactor. Someone got it from fix and bought it from them. I had Edgar truck it up from la and swapped the cab with my 2nd reactor. I then gave away my 2nd reactor to a fellow collector from up north that was going to jrok it. So it was a win for all.
 
If you are going to put a pi in the Mad Planets project.
Something to keep in mind.
You'll have to stick with Advance MAME or Libretro MAME 2003 to get spinner access.
And it requires some special configuration, which I posted in the pi jamma thread.

The other thing about Pi is that no matter what, you ARE going to end up with some lag due to the inherent architecture of the platform. There are things you can do to minimize it like overclocking, game settings on a tv, controller interface used....but it will still be noticeable on faster games. Slow moving games you don't notice it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

JROK sounds like a good direction since no matter how you slice it a repop project always costs a lot more than you think it will at the onset.
 
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