MMP Galaga Mini

The following will detail the conversion/restoration of this cabinet.

Okay, this one is a rush job, trying to get it done as a birthday present From Dan to his wife (isn't that nice?) So let's see if I can get my ass in gear and help keep the marriage together! :) It's the cabaret style, which means it's a nice compact unit.

PERCENT COMPLETE


		The original boards have been looked at by a repair shop, and they are in need of replaced chips and a full diagnostic. That company specializes in the newer games, so they weren't too anxious to work on this. I'm going to put the boards as-is on ebay, and maybe someone out there is willing to go to the expense of repairing it and getting a few more years of life outta them. Oh and don't send hate mail, I'll leave the cab in restorable condition!

		The monitor is going to be a headache. The original is so tiny! I'm trying to get a 17" in there, but it looks like it was originally a 13", so it's going to be a tight fit, might have to go with a 15", but I'm going to try and avoid that if possible!

		I'm leaving the wiring harness intact, but I'm going to replace the original 2 way joystick with a refurbished leafswitch red balltop from the one and only Bob Roberts. That way the machine can be used for more than just a galaga...it will also play a lot of one player games. As you can see, the original joystick has seen better days!

		The control panel is in fairly good shape. It could stand to see a new overlay applied to it, but it's in a lot better shape than most! I'll try and give it a scrubbing to see if it'll clean up.

		The marquee is lit by these 12V lamps. I'll check them all and wire them up to the computer power supply. There should be plenty of juice to get these shining.

		Here I'm trying to place the new joystick. Looks like it will work, so off to the drill press for 4 more small holes. If this was restored, the overlay would cover the new holes, or they could be filled.


	The marquee looks good, and is in extremely good shape! I'm going to give it a light wash in warm soapy water to get rid of the surface dust, but really this looks like it was made yesterday.


		Here is the newly restored panel, with 8-way control. I had to find a new red fire button for this, the old one was pretty grimy and worn. Wiring I'll do tomorrow, it'll be pretty simple on this. This is reminding me a lot of my Zakk-pac, although this will play a lot more games than that one.

		It -looks- like I can get a 17" monitor in. However it will be set horizontal, and will mean that the bezel glass will have to be reproduced to show more screen area. Here you can see the Dell monitor with the plastic casing removed to more closely resemble the look of an arcade monitor. I will have to fabricate some kind of custom mounting bracket for it, but it should work just fine!

		The bottom is in a bit of a state. I'm going to check out how sturdy it is after I scrape off the rotted bits before I mount some casters. Two fixed casters in the rear, and a 2X2 riser in front will maintain the look of the cabinet, while making it nice and mobile. Plus it keeps the rusty levelers off the flooring.

		I picked up some heavy duty brackets today. I'll size them up and get them mounted to the monitor so I can get it placed in the cabinet. UPDATE: The mounting system is turning out to be more difficult than I thought. I have finally figured out a hanging system for the front of the monitor, and I'll use these brackets for the rear. I'll get to that tomorrow. Stay tuned!

		The back door fits! I need to do a little adjustment, but the back door closes with the monitor in place, that was one of my biggest worries. The wiring harness for this is being preserved. It would take only a few minutes for a skilled technician to restore this to a true galaga (with working boards and probably a new power supply). It makes me feel better to know that this machine will see use, and that it can be restored someday.

		Now this is a bit of an exciting shot! It's the first game of galaga on the new cab! Of course the controls, coin door and marquee aren't connected, and the interface isn't set up and I haven't even begun to deal with the issue of the sound, but hey, it's a good step forward!

Here's another pic after I wired the marquee lights into the computer power. You can see the windows setup screen. It will boot right into Mamewah when it's all done.

		The system is an HP Celeron 677 with 128 meg ram and a 6 gig hard drive. It will play a lot of the games made into the late 90's. I set up Mamewah to display non clone games only, leaving approximately 1600 playable games. The control panel is wired up and ready to go. According to the tracking number, the i-pac is 200 kms away, so it should be here early next week. I do love Ultimarc shipping, if only they didn't always stick me with a brokerage fee on top of shipping, I'd have no complaints! :)


		I-Pac is here, and installed. First test worked out well, as all the controls work. Shift functions seem to work as well, so they will be able to pause in the middle of a game. So one evening of good old fashioned play testing, and this girl is good to go! Next pic will be the final shot.
		Here she is all loaded up for transport. The only real modifications I made to this cab cosmetically are the two bolts through the side to retain the monitor, and the slightly larger hole for the joystick. Notice to the bottom right that I am keeping the original bezel glass with the cabinet, and made a new one for use with the new horizontal monitor. No use wrecking a hard-to-find piece of glass art for nothing! Happy birthday week to the new owner!!! :)