I have soooooo many projects to chose from. But I guess I will start with this. Made an 8 hour round trip to pick up this cab. It is actually my 2nd Capcom Big Blue. In all honesty, it isn't quite so "big".
Here it is standing next to a spare Dynamo HS9 cab, sans monitor and marquee. The HS9 is your standard early 90's cab. As you can see, the Gen 1 Big Blue hasn't quite earned its big reputation just yet. Still though, the Gen 1 Big Blue > Dynamo HS9 any day of the week.
At some point in time, the operator converted this cab to play Tekken. Someone did an awful job of ordering the correct width Lexan for the job. You can see the depth of the CP really well in this shot.
Operator wiring special. Some pride will go into rewiring this CP. It will be better than factory once done.
The signature Gen 1 Big Blue fluted front is displayed here. Surprisingly, this part of the cab is in good shape. I think the depth of the CP on the Gen 1 played a nice role in keeping this part of the cab in good shape. Hardly shoe print can be found here and no wood damage. Only some fraying of the laminate along the bottom.
For some reason, the glass will not slide under the speaker grill's bottom lip. The good news is the grill is mounted to a wood slab inside the cab. It appears I can loosen the grill's fastener bolts to clear some space to slide the glass under. More good news, this glass appears to be OG, factory tinted, and free of graffiti keying!!
An OG marquee light and a AC line-in cutoff switch on the top of the cab! Makes one less hole for me to drill. I love AC line-in cutoff switches. Allows me keep certain cabs that are all connected to the same powerstrip off as the power is turned on at the main switch for a row of cabs. As for the marquee, I am going to leave it in there for preservations sake, but I won't even bother to get it going if it works or not. I am going to build a light box and line it with LED strip lights. Less power consumption. Less heat. A slight modification that will save some pennies and keep the marquee art from fading over time.
Now for some bad news. The side laminate was actually in much better shape when I got this, but I started peeling it off before I took this picture. The good news is the side panel wood is in perfect shape. A few coats of primer. A quick sand job to polish the primer. And a coat of paint or two of paint will get this back to all of its glory. I am eschewing vinyl laminate for paint as I feel paint will last longer than laminate and is more easily repaired if I ever scuff it later.
One chip in the top left corner of the marquee mount. Once the marquee is inserted and the coping is fastened down, this will be invisible. But I am too OCD to not address this with some bondo.
Some damage to the top of the back panel. Bondo this or replace? Damn my OCD affliction.
A shot of the innards from down through the CP. I believe that PSU is dead, but I am not sure. On the left, you can see the PCB mount panel. The JAMMA edge looks to have a few wires hanging loose from it. I have actually never wired JAMMA. All the cabs I have worked on have had the JAMMA wiring intact. But this shouldn't be too big of a task given my current knowledge of arcade cabs (although, I consider myself still a rookie). Going to salvage the JAMMA harness from another Dynamo cab I am converting to a MAME/HyperSpin cab for a pending MvC2 cab trade deal. Then get the wires back in proper order.
Here it is standing next to a spare Dynamo HS9 cab, sans monitor and marquee. The HS9 is your standard early 90's cab. As you can see, the Gen 1 Big Blue hasn't quite earned its big reputation just yet. Still though, the Gen 1 Big Blue > Dynamo HS9 any day of the week.
At some point in time, the operator converted this cab to play Tekken. Someone did an awful job of ordering the correct width Lexan for the job. You can see the depth of the CP really well in this shot.
Operator wiring special. Some pride will go into rewiring this CP. It will be better than factory once done.
The signature Gen 1 Big Blue fluted front is displayed here. Surprisingly, this part of the cab is in good shape. I think the depth of the CP on the Gen 1 played a nice role in keeping this part of the cab in good shape. Hardly shoe print can be found here and no wood damage. Only some fraying of the laminate along the bottom.
For some reason, the glass will not slide under the speaker grill's bottom lip. The good news is the grill is mounted to a wood slab inside the cab. It appears I can loosen the grill's fastener bolts to clear some space to slide the glass under. More good news, this glass appears to be OG, factory tinted, and free of graffiti keying!!
An OG marquee light and a AC line-in cutoff switch on the top of the cab! Makes one less hole for me to drill. I love AC line-in cutoff switches. Allows me keep certain cabs that are all connected to the same powerstrip off as the power is turned on at the main switch for a row of cabs. As for the marquee, I am going to leave it in there for preservations sake, but I won't even bother to get it going if it works or not. I am going to build a light box and line it with LED strip lights. Less power consumption. Less heat. A slight modification that will save some pennies and keep the marquee art from fading over time.
Now for some bad news. The side laminate was actually in much better shape when I got this, but I started peeling it off before I took this picture. The good news is the side panel wood is in perfect shape. A few coats of primer. A quick sand job to polish the primer. And a coat of paint or two of paint will get this back to all of its glory. I am eschewing vinyl laminate for paint as I feel paint will last longer than laminate and is more easily repaired if I ever scuff it later.
One chip in the top left corner of the marquee mount. Once the marquee is inserted and the coping is fastened down, this will be invisible. But I am too OCD to not address this with some bondo.
Some damage to the top of the back panel. Bondo this or replace? Damn my OCD affliction.
A shot of the innards from down through the CP. I believe that PSU is dead, but I am not sure. On the left, you can see the PCB mount panel. The JAMMA edge looks to have a few wires hanging loose from it. I have actually never wired JAMMA. All the cabs I have worked on have had the JAMMA wiring intact. But this shouldn't be too big of a task given my current knowledge of arcade cabs (although, I consider myself still a rookie). Going to salvage the JAMMA harness from another Dynamo cab I am converting to a MAME/HyperSpin cab for a pending MvC2 cab trade deal. Then get the wires back in proper order.
. That's the way to do it, gotta love when people use the right tools for the job. I use an Earlex HV5500 Spray Station for refinishing stuff.