Jaelus' Arcade

[94TC]

Great craftsmanship Jaelus, clean work.

 

[wataru330]

Well the whole point of MVS was being able to swap games, so a dedicated cab doesn't really make sense for an operator.

I'm not really sure how many were made, but I suspect many were converted to generic MVS cabs. Either way, I never saw one of these in the arcades.

I talked to Nightmare Tony about this (RIP)…SamSho II got a dedicated, because it loke-tested through the roof-and SNK landed on the position that this could be their Space Invaders/Street Fighter II.

That is to say, why limit yourself to multi-slots where only a portion of the earnings could be driven by a S-tier title…when 1 slots are plentiful, and tons of old RomStar woody cabs were too.

All throughout Southern California (only place I have time period empirical evidence from) these things were in every family fun-center, laundromat, 7-11, movie theater, pizza joint, *and* arcade. It helped SNK and ops to stack more loot, than carts in multi-slots alone.

 

[TopTierArcade]

Great collection!

 

[Viewpoint]

Ok god damn I admit I'm impressed at seeing what you've done with that cab. Over the years I've seen people do some horrible shit to older arcade cabs to give it their own flair and end up making it look like a god awful mess. Thanks for actually giving a fuck to make this cab look like how it was originally made.

More people here could learn from your example.

 

[Jaelus]

Ok god damn I admit I'm impressed at seeing what you've done with that cab. Over the years I've seen people do some horrible shit to older arcade cabs to give it their own flair and end up making it look like a god awful mess. Thanks for actually giving a fuck to make this cab look like how it was originally made.

More people here could learn from your example.

Thanks that means a lot, actually. I do give a fuck about my restorations.

Some years ago someone gave me this cab that had been completely spray painted black. Everything. They even spraypainted over the coin door. The only thing it had was a non-working 19" monitor with the wrong mounting frame for the cab, and the wiring inside had been hacked to shit to work with a knockoff Galag board which was also non-working and a switching power supply. I gutted the entire thing and started from scratch but it was clear this at one time was a Galaxian so I said I'm going to bring this back.



And it was a hell of a big job, but I got this looking stock. I sourced an original backglass, original marquee, and the CPO and controls are also original pulled from another Galaxian and I rebuilt them.



Every detail in a restoration is important.



The cab is running a Galaxian AC board, stock wiring, everything correct. The only thing I changed is to add a high score save kit to the board, which is something I do with all my classic US cabs. The only thing not original on this cab is the side and front vinyls, and that's only because it's literally impossible to get NOS for this cab. The cabs were originally covered with textured white vinyl and the artwork was directly silkscreened on the cab. I ended up learning so much about Galaxian during this restore that I now co-manage a fb group for Galaxian cab owners and help others with their own restorations.



The same level of detail goes into all my restorations. My first was my big red. This cab was trashed when I got it. The front of the cab had been smashed in to get at the coin box, so the front was a total loss and I had to use new wood. The only thing I left original on this cab was the memory card sticker, which you can see is representative of the condition the cab was in when I got it. But I left it there as a reminder of the work that went into this.

 

[Jaelus]

Some updates to the arcade. I've been working on preparing for the expansion to the far wall which is going to be dedicated for pachinkos and pachislots; with the candy cabs adjacent it will be the Japanese section of my home arcade.

So I had posted about the Robocop (Monako 2004) and Indiana Jones (Sankyo 2000) before, but here they are all completed. Fixed the issues with Robocop's arm not working properly, installed card reader emulators, ball lifters, and re-wired the audio.


I also did the same for a Star Wars (Sankyo 2004). I drove up to NY to pick this one up. Quite good, the R2D2 is animatronic, and Darth Vader's lightsaber under the Star Wars logo lights up with effects (something like a dark side meter for bonus state). I've got it in a newly built pine frame here, but I've since stained and poly'd it. I'm in the process of building new uniform wall mount frames for all of these with separate attachment pieces to mount battle counters.:



I very recently picked up this Ultraman (Kyoraku 2006) which was made for the 40th anniversary of Ultraman. This game was so popular they made a PS2 game of the pachinko.



And this one is not new but I finally framed it properly with some ball management. This is a classic Ebira (lobster kaiju that fought Gojira) (Nishijin White Bird 1975). I did a full restoration and 100% rebuild on this one.

 

[Jaelus]

And here are the new pachislots:

Let's start with the Samurai Spirits and LOTR. I built a LOTR themed slot stand for the LOTR (note the Eye of Sauron knob). I had to move some things around in the arcade so this is a temporary location. The LOTR will have a prop replica of Sting mounted above it on the wall in its final place.



The one on the left above and also pictured below is perhaps the crown jewel of my slots, Samurai Spirits - Kengou Hachi Ban Shoubu (SNK Playmore 2014). This was the last Samurai Spirits slot machine they made before they got out of the pachislot business, and it is by far the most complex. I have to say it blows me away every time I play it it's just amazingly done. Both the top and bottom are LCDs and aside from many special cut scenes there are also ladder battles like with any Sam Sho game.



The one on the right in the top pic and also pictured below is a Lord of the Rings (Bisty 2006). This one has digital reels for the primary and physical bonus reels up top. It takes you through many scenes in the movies as well as battles with the Balrog and two sets of special 5 and 7 reels once you reach Mordor. The audio work is spectacular.



While not as flashy, my absolute favorite slot is this original Samurai Spirits S (Aruze 2000) which is the first Samurai Spirits pachislot made during the very brief period where Aruze owned the SNK licenses before Playmore took over and bought them back.

This game has a graphics and audio style that matches Samurai Shodown IV, but also includes the Samurai Spirits hanafuda deck for bonus scenes.



You play through the game as either Haohmaru or Nakoruru, and you have ladder battles culminating in a fight with Amakusa. I just don't have words for how beautiful a slot this is - it may not be as flashy as the 2014 version but this is the only one that really does the feel of the classic Samurai Shodown games justice:





And last I have a Fever Queen I (Daido 2001). I bought this because someone had gone through the trouble of installing a full arm kit (you can see the arm on the right in the pic). No LCD here but the bonus reels up top are quite fun, the audio and lighting is exciting and the poker theme is quite nice. This is a good machine for me to sit my in-laws in front of when they visit.

 

[theMot]

Some years ago someone gave me this cab that had been completely spray painted black. Everything. They even spraypainted over the coin door.

 

[Viewpoint]

View attachment 72222

Too Soon Mot. Too Soon....