So I got a Big Blue Rev 1 cab, which was in not great shape, and I'm starting to rebuild it, I've documented some of it, and there are some notable departures from the original. But I wanted to have a flexible cab where I could run all the games / boards I own, not necessarily on a switcher but on a per/board basis where I'd configure and adjust each board as needed, and then possibly keep a MIsTer-Cade in it, as a catch-all for the boards I own. Some of the boards I want to run native are: Darksoft CPS1, CPS2, & CPS3, I have a Blitz 2000, MK1, MK2, MK3, and then some 246, 256 stuff, and then some Naomi stuff which I could run through a capcom interface... but all of them have different resolution requirements and such, so I was searching for a cab that can accommodate a Tri-Sync monitor that I got which was home use on a Fast and Furious cab, which someone wanted me to convert to LCD to make it more reliable and put on-location, so I was able to snag the 27" Tri Sync WG CRT, and now I needed a cab, I wanted a Big Blue with Qsound, but this one came across my path, and it was the right price and so I snagged it, it was empty so I had the monitor transferred, and squeezed into the cab. It's tight but it's very nice.
This is the start of my journey when the cab was delivered.... I'll keep updating it as I go...
So it had some damage on the front control panel, a wooden bezel,some old stickers on the speaker grill that didn't want to let go without leaving some residue behind, as well as the obligatory gum under the control panel.
I found some peculiar issues with the power supply (no guts no glory)
Plenty of switches though!
I cracked it open, and just to try it I connected the MisTer through the VGA connector on the back and hooked some joysticks up to it, to try out the glory that was the monitor... and it was pretty cool.
I had some help with the control panel, getting the angles on the wood to be right.
I then did my first Formica Job, it turned out alright, some of the corners aren't 100% but they're below the CP, so I'm not worried... I'll know it's there and nobody else will care.
I Then went a little off the deep end, and decided to clean the coin door, sadly it had some paint that came off in the Ultrasonic, and revealed the true condition of the door, I could just paint over it again, but I had a really goofy idea... I'll strip it....
Down to bare metal, and then I'll paint it...
Well and while I was at it, I'll paint it, as close as I can with Rust-Oleom, to match the cab, and make it blue. It's not perfect, but in person it's really close especially with the shadow from the CP
I then went totally off the deep end, I have a walnut shaker / polisher for the pinball parts I work on, so I decided to polish the coin mechs...
LEFT is before Middle is after....
So once they were back in, with some new Reject Buttons this was the result...
I had to rebuild the marquee and the cab didn't come with one, no big deal one board, but I wanted to run LED strips as I find them to be more even looking when lighting up a translite....
I have the marquee and the CP Decal for SF2 New Challengers coming, as I like the artwork for that version with the world map the most.
I also painted and put some nice Alpine 4" Coaxial Speakers in there, with a little chinese (LePai) mini-amp, plugged into the output of the Mister, and Q-Sound is fantastic, I have to say with no Q-Sound amp, I can't tell the difference, in shopping for the Type(2) of this cab, I had a chance to listen to the opening and I can't tell the difference. I mean purists will want the QSound amp, and speakers, but I'm a believer, it's the position and not the speakers or the amp.
I had a smaller Dynamo Cab,
where the speakers were overhead and I heard stereo on those, with QSound, but never spacial separation, here I could swear I could hear it coming from behind and especially to the left and right of me... it's pretty shocking from my other arcade experiences....
This is the start of my journey when the cab was delivered.... I'll keep updating it as I go...
So it had some damage on the front control panel, a wooden bezel,some old stickers on the speaker grill that didn't want to let go without leaving some residue behind, as well as the obligatory gum under the control panel.
I found some peculiar issues with the power supply (no guts no glory)
Plenty of switches though!
I cracked it open, and just to try it I connected the MisTer through the VGA connector on the back and hooked some joysticks up to it, to try out the glory that was the monitor... and it was pretty cool.
I had some help with the control panel, getting the angles on the wood to be right.
I then did my first Formica Job, it turned out alright, some of the corners aren't 100% but they're below the CP, so I'm not worried... I'll know it's there and nobody else will care.
I Then went a little off the deep end, and decided to clean the coin door, sadly it had some paint that came off in the Ultrasonic, and revealed the true condition of the door, I could just paint over it again, but I had a really goofy idea... I'll strip it....
Down to bare metal, and then I'll paint it...
Well and while I was at it, I'll paint it, as close as I can with Rust-Oleom, to match the cab, and make it blue. It's not perfect, but in person it's really close especially with the shadow from the CP
I then went totally off the deep end, I have a walnut shaker / polisher for the pinball parts I work on, so I decided to polish the coin mechs...
LEFT is before Middle is after....
So once they were back in, with some new Reject Buttons this was the result...
I had to rebuild the marquee and the cab didn't come with one, no big deal one board, but I wanted to run LED strips as I find them to be more even looking when lighting up a translite....
I have the marquee and the CP Decal for SF2 New Challengers coming, as I like the artwork for that version with the world map the most.
I also painted and put some nice Alpine 4" Coaxial Speakers in there, with a little chinese (LePai) mini-amp, plugged into the output of the Mister, and Q-Sound is fantastic, I have to say with no Q-Sound amp, I can't tell the difference, in shopping for the Type(2) of this cab, I had a chance to listen to the opening and I can't tell the difference. I mean purists will want the QSound amp, and speakers, but I'm a believer, it's the position and not the speakers or the amp.
I had a smaller Dynamo Cab,
where the speakers were overhead and I heard stereo on those, with QSound, but never spacial separation, here I could swear I could hear it coming from behind and especially to the left and right of me... it's pretty shocking from my other arcade experiences....
