The following will detail the conversion of this cabinet.

BACK

This cabinet literally was sitting in the driveway when I got home one day. Okay the owner wanted some cash for it, but still, nice way to come home!  Black painted sides, I can tell it was once a proud centipede, now a lowly poker conversion.  Sickening.  I will try some stripper on the sides, but with the scratches and all, I don't hold much hope for the sideart.		PERCENT COMPLETE
	Step one.  I stripped out all the electronics.  I'm going to apply the paint stripper to one side now.  If I can restore the sideart, I might just keep this for my collection of "restored" cabinets.  Hopefully the paint isn't as pesky as it was on the Defender cab.
	Unfortunately, I see part of the reason this cabinet had been painted.  Looks like the artwork on one side had been totally destroyed, and the wood had been sanded, filled and primed.  I could see where the big gashes were filled.  Plus, on top of the oil based primer was a layer of green, and then a layer of black spraypaint.  Looks like the cabinet must have taken some serious damage in transit or storage somewhere.  The other side wasn't as bad, but there were still filler and sanding spots.  The sideart would have to be totally replaced to make this back into a Centipede, and at that point, it would be better to build the cabinet from scratch, or dismantle and rebuild this one, since the monitor mount is cut, the bottom needs replacing, the back door is gone, the top has gouge marks, the marquee is missing, the control panel is drilled to swiss cheese.  In short, I'm not going to restore this one.
	Marquee in place, I really like the simplicity.

	A lot of progress here. I constructed the control panel, and dry fitted the plexi, underlay and some of the controls.  Now to route out the t-molding slot,  and route the spinner and joystick mounts.  The I-pac is ordered, and the monitor support is going in tonight.  I have the trackball, but have to make the metal plate to mount it.  Computer is a 1.2 GHz AMD T-bird with 256meg ram and a 40 gig hard drive.  Wiring  will go in as soon as all the parts arrive.
	Progress is good, the I-Pac 4 arrived, and the joysticks are arriving tomorrow.  T-molding is in the hands of UPS (shudder). The monitor is mounted, and the internal power wiring is almost done.  A bit more effort, and this one is done!
	The controls are all in, and 99% of the wiring is done!  We're down to play-testing now (my favorite part!).  Everything looks good, although I'm having issues with the frontend.  I think I'll go with a straight arcade setup, with the jukebox functions controlled through the GUI desktop.   Oscar controls model 3 spinner and Happ Hi-Lip 3" trackball are wired into an opti-pac, since I stepped on the last USB interface I have.  Coin mechs are in, coindoor lights are wired to the computer power supply, and everything is connected with dedicated molex connectors (boy it's good to have an electronics supplier nearby!).

Finished!

Here are a couple of shots of the finished product.  I'll try and get a shot of it in its new home, but for now, that's all she wrote!  Of course, the cabinet could be restored to a centipede with a replacement control panel and repro sideart, but for now it will entertain perhaps another decade (or more) of gamers.  Thanks for coming out, and be sure to tell all your friends :)