Monsterclip
Beginner
Hello! I've been spending the last few months getting my new, and first, New Astro City up and running with a game (or 2). Most of that time has been waiting for things to arrive in the mail.
I've built a handful of multicades before so I had an idea of what I was doing, but I was totally green with anything JAMMA and only had a little knowledge of CRTs (I have 2 for retro consoles).
Since I've sourced/troubleshot quite a bit to get to where I am now (playable!!), I figured I would give back to this forum that was so useful in research and document stuff for future newbies that might need to solve similar things.
CABINET
I bought my cab from Chris at Hadouken Arcades. Very nice guy who communicated well.
I live in Seattle, and luckily his warehouse is here too. He "currently" (as of November) has a bunch of Astro and New Astro City's in his warehouse that is he trying to get sell.
He let me tour the place and pick out the cab I wanted. Since we were local, he delivered it to my place for a small fee. So I don't have any experience with shipping something like this.
Overall, very good experience and I would recommend others use him if you're down to get something in its "used" state and fix it up.
This is what it looked like when it arrived at my house. Mostly in pretty good shape! Very dirty. I was a bit surprised at first that he doesn't clean them up, but afterwards I think I get it. It's part of the experience.
I had selected this one from Chris's warehouse because the CRT was in really good condition (we tested it there on site) and honestly it was mostly in good condition on the outside. Some scratches and discoloration that I will repair in time.
The inside is caked in dirt and shreds of the manual that was rotting inside.
I bought a document protector to store this thing in because I just think it's so cool. Like most people I use a pdf if I need to look something up.
The coin counter was respectably low I think - under 30,000. (look how nasty)
So my first goal was to get this playable with one of my favorite fighting games. Tekken 3, or a Marvel/SF CPS2 game.
I went on a big learning journey for these things and still have a lot to go. It continues to be an extremely rewarding hobby.
I figured the best post would be to list what I sourced and where I got it from, in case someone is starting to do something similar and could use some links.
I'll put a full shopping list at the end.
CONTROL PANEL
So I needed a new control panel to get 6 buttons for fighting games. I learned of alberto1225 on this forum, who makes reproduction panels. I just cold DM'd him here and he was super friendly, hooked me up with what I needed quickly. Here's his inventory:
alberto1225 store
I ordered an NAC 2L12B, with a set of locks/keys for the control panel (I was missing keys and just replaced the locks with the new keys).
The CP was beyond my expectations. High quality and looked perfect.
MOUNTING PLATES
When the control panel arrived I realized the joystick mounting plates were not compatible.
I ordered Siemitsu S Mounting Plates from Focus Attack based on alberto's recommendation. They currently seem to be out of stock, but alberto also sells them, so do better than me and add them to your order from him.
JOYSTICKS
I was keeping the original joysticks. I took them apart and cleaned them. This was easy to do. Just put them back together the way you take them apart. I learned what all the parts do, which was a very useful learning experience.
I used Multi-use CLR to soak the metal pieces that were covered in rust, then scrubbed them with these brushes. They came out nice.
You also need to lube the parts back up when you put them back together. This synthetic lube should cover me for the rest of my life, ha.
I ordered a green balltop and a pink balltop from Focus Attack
BUTTONS
I ordered green buttons and pink buttons from Amazon.
I reused the start buttons from the original panel even though they aren't as bright as I would like.
After some cleaning, the finishing control panel is looking nice.
The coin door is currently removed as I research how to whiten it up.
KICK HARNESS
I didn't have a kick harness or the harness for the kick buttons in the control panel.
If you're learning about this stuff like I was, the kick button harness is inside the control panel, and connects the kick harness to the buttons. Mine was missing because the original panel didn't have kick buttons.
I ordered the button harness from this ebay seller.
They are in France and I'm in the US, so it took a few weeks to arrive.
This is the connection I'm talking about. It goes from here to the 6 new buttons (3 per side - not pictured)
I wanted to play CPS2 games first, so I ordered this Sega Astro City CPS-II Arcade Kick Harness from misteraddons.com
POWER
I'm in the US, and I was told I did not need a step down to run the 100V cab. I plugged it in and it worked fine.
However, I was just a little bit paranoid considering I had just dropped a bunch of money on this and wanted to take no chances.
I am using this stepdown convertor, even if it's just to give me peace of mind
STOOLS
As much as I would like some original stools, the price to get an original or even a reproduction stool was a bit silly to me.
I got these stools - they are the right height, and comfortable, and I like the color!
JAMMA KEY
Plug this into your JAMMA edge so you don't accidentally plug it into your games upside down and send power to the wrong part, frying your board (or so I've heard).
I didn't want to fry my boards, and it's such a cheap addition to the cart if you're already ordering from the mister site.
CLEANING
I used Zep Citrus Degreaser from Home Depot and gave it a good wipe down. Some areas took a few reps and some elbow grease but most of the nicotine and ancient Japanese curse came off.
Eventually I'll want to dismantle the whole thing and clean out the inside, and repaint it. But that's for the future. First order of business is to get it playable!!
GAMES
My holiest of holies is Marvel vs Capcom 2. But, I wanted to stick with JAMMA for now to get my feet wet, so I went with a very good alternative - X-men vs Street Fighter.
I found it on ebay. It came with the A + B board, the battery removed, and an arduino installed. I also picked up a Street Fighter Zero B board so I could swap them out.
I still need to find a way to mount this giant thing in there.
ART
Lastly, I wanted some control panel art, and art for the plexi topper. I found this on ebay and it looks/feels pretty good.
TROUBLESHOOTING - UPSIDE DOWN PICTURE
I turned it on and it was glorious. But the picture was upside down!
When the cab was delivered to my house, the monitor was vertical. With Chris's help, we flipped it horizontal.
I opened it up and verified that we had rotated it right side up (based on a stick on the front, and a video online), and we had. There was no room in the cables to rotate it 180 degrees.
Doing a little research I found out I could "swap the yokes" for the vertical and horizontal video feed.
Of course I didn't know what that meant. A very nice redditor helped me out. Here's the link to the conversation.
I'll recap in case someone finds this in the future:
My best guess is the previous owner had rotated it the wrong way for the vertical set up, and had just swapped these as a quicker way to solve their problem instead of rotating the monitor again.
A few screws were randomly Torx Security 20, which I didn't have the bit for, so I had to go shopping for a TR20 screwdriver.
They were on the back panel that gives access to the CRT.
Based on my reading, I'm not sure these are original. No one seems to mention them.
But, if you're starting out, do a quick check on all the screws and make sure you can adjust them.
Some people say you need a JIS Japanese standard screwdriver set, but so far I haven not found that to be necessary and I haven't even come close to stripping anything, etc.
TIME TO PLAY!
I've had a few sessions now and it plays like a dream. I'm in love.
Still a bunch to do to get it looking new, but for now I am happy I get to play it.
I hope this helps someone in the future!
TL;DR SHOPPING LIST
I'll update this post if/when I go to the next stages of getting all the front doors fixed up, the pcb mounting, and the cleaning/repainting!
I've built a handful of multicades before so I had an idea of what I was doing, but I was totally green with anything JAMMA and only had a little knowledge of CRTs (I have 2 for retro consoles).
Since I've sourced/troubleshot quite a bit to get to where I am now (playable!!), I figured I would give back to this forum that was so useful in research and document stuff for future newbies that might need to solve similar things.
CABINET
I bought my cab from Chris at Hadouken Arcades. Very nice guy who communicated well.
I live in Seattle, and luckily his warehouse is here too. He "currently" (as of November) has a bunch of Astro and New Astro City's in his warehouse that is he trying to get sell.
He let me tour the place and pick out the cab I wanted. Since we were local, he delivered it to my place for a small fee. So I don't have any experience with shipping something like this.
Overall, very good experience and I would recommend others use him if you're down to get something in its "used" state and fix it up.
This is what it looked like when it arrived at my house. Mostly in pretty good shape! Very dirty. I was a bit surprised at first that he doesn't clean them up, but afterwards I think I get it. It's part of the experience.
I had selected this one from Chris's warehouse because the CRT was in really good condition (we tested it there on site) and honestly it was mostly in good condition on the outside. Some scratches and discoloration that I will repair in time.
The inside is caked in dirt and shreds of the manual that was rotting inside.
I bought a document protector to store this thing in because I just think it's so cool. Like most people I use a pdf if I need to look something up.
The coin counter was respectably low I think - under 30,000. (look how nasty)
So my first goal was to get this playable with one of my favorite fighting games. Tekken 3, or a Marvel/SF CPS2 game.
I went on a big learning journey for these things and still have a lot to go. It continues to be an extremely rewarding hobby.
I figured the best post would be to list what I sourced and where I got it from, in case someone is starting to do something similar and could use some links.
I'll put a full shopping list at the end.
CONTROL PANEL
So I needed a new control panel to get 6 buttons for fighting games. I learned of alberto1225 on this forum, who makes reproduction panels. I just cold DM'd him here and he was super friendly, hooked me up with what I needed quickly. Here's his inventory:
alberto1225 store
I ordered an NAC 2L12B, with a set of locks/keys for the control panel (I was missing keys and just replaced the locks with the new keys).
The CP was beyond my expectations. High quality and looked perfect.
MOUNTING PLATES
When the control panel arrived I realized the joystick mounting plates were not compatible.
I ordered Siemitsu S Mounting Plates from Focus Attack based on alberto's recommendation. They currently seem to be out of stock, but alberto also sells them, so do better than me and add them to your order from him.
JOYSTICKS
I was keeping the original joysticks. I took them apart and cleaned them. This was easy to do. Just put them back together the way you take them apart. I learned what all the parts do, which was a very useful learning experience.
I used Multi-use CLR to soak the metal pieces that were covered in rust, then scrubbed them with these brushes. They came out nice.
You also need to lube the parts back up when you put them back together. This synthetic lube should cover me for the rest of my life, ha.
I ordered a green balltop and a pink balltop from Focus Attack
BUTTONS
I ordered green buttons and pink buttons from Amazon.
I reused the start buttons from the original panel even though they aren't as bright as I would like.
After some cleaning, the finishing control panel is looking nice.
The coin door is currently removed as I research how to whiten it up.
KICK HARNESS
I didn't have a kick harness or the harness for the kick buttons in the control panel.
If you're learning about this stuff like I was, the kick button harness is inside the control panel, and connects the kick harness to the buttons. Mine was missing because the original panel didn't have kick buttons.
I ordered the button harness from this ebay seller.
They are in France and I'm in the US, so it took a few weeks to arrive.
This is the connection I'm talking about. It goes from here to the 6 new buttons (3 per side - not pictured)
I wanted to play CPS2 games first, so I ordered this Sega Astro City CPS-II Arcade Kick Harness from misteraddons.com
POWER
I'm in the US, and I was told I did not need a step down to run the 100V cab. I plugged it in and it worked fine.
However, I was just a little bit paranoid considering I had just dropped a bunch of money on this and wanted to take no chances.
I am using this stepdown convertor, even if it's just to give me peace of mind
STOOLS
As much as I would like some original stools, the price to get an original or even a reproduction stool was a bit silly to me.
I got these stools - they are the right height, and comfortable, and I like the color!
JAMMA KEY
Plug this into your JAMMA edge so you don't accidentally plug it into your games upside down and send power to the wrong part, frying your board (or so I've heard).
I didn't want to fry my boards, and it's such a cheap addition to the cart if you're already ordering from the mister site.
CLEANING
I used Zep Citrus Degreaser from Home Depot and gave it a good wipe down. Some areas took a few reps and some elbow grease but most of the nicotine and ancient Japanese curse came off.
Eventually I'll want to dismantle the whole thing and clean out the inside, and repaint it. But that's for the future. First order of business is to get it playable!!
GAMES
My holiest of holies is Marvel vs Capcom 2. But, I wanted to stick with JAMMA for now to get my feet wet, so I went with a very good alternative - X-men vs Street Fighter.
I found it on ebay. It came with the A + B board, the battery removed, and an arduino installed. I also picked up a Street Fighter Zero B board so I could swap them out.
I still need to find a way to mount this giant thing in there.
ART
Lastly, I wanted some control panel art, and art for the plexi topper. I found this on ebay and it looks/feels pretty good.
TROUBLESHOOTING - UPSIDE DOWN PICTURE
I turned it on and it was glorious. But the picture was upside down!
When the cab was delivered to my house, the monitor was vertical. With Chris's help, we flipped it horizontal.
I opened it up and verified that we had rotated it right side up (based on a stick on the front, and a video online), and we had. There was no room in the cables to rotate it 180 degrees.
Doing a little research I found out I could "swap the yokes" for the vertical and horizontal video feed.
Of course I didn't know what that meant. A very nice redditor helped me out. Here's the link to the conversation.
I'll recap in case someone finds this in the future:
This board is located under the CRT tube. I had to access from the back panel, and it was tricky to reach the cables because of the chassis. But, I was able to swap both to invert my picture back to the correct orientation.
My best guess is the previous owner had rotated it the wrong way for the vertical set up, and had just swapped these as a quicker way to solve their problem instead of rotating the monitor again.
A few screws were randomly Torx Security 20, which I didn't have the bit for, so I had to go shopping for a TR20 screwdriver.
They were on the back panel that gives access to the CRT.
Based on my reading, I'm not sure these are original. No one seems to mention them.
But, if you're starting out, do a quick check on all the screws and make sure you can adjust them.
Some people say you need a JIS Japanese standard screwdriver set, but so far I haven not found that to be necessary and I haven't even come close to stripping anything, etc.
TIME TO PLAY!
I've had a few sessions now and it plays like a dream. I'm in love.
Still a bunch to do to get it looking new, but for now I am happy I get to play it.
I hope this helps someone in the future!
TL;DR SHOPPING LIST
- New control panel for 2 player, 6 buttons / new control panel locks and keys / joystick mounting plate for original sticks (contact user alberto1225 on this forum)
- Siemitsu S Mounting Plates from Focus Attack (to match alberto's panel. Currently out of stock but alberto sells them too)
- Green Balltop and a Pink Balltop from Focus Attack
- Green Buttons and Pink Buttons from Amazon
- Kick button harness on ebay
- Sega Astro City CPS-II Arcade Kick Harness from misteraddons.com
- 100v Stepdown convertor (probably not needed if you're in the US)
- Stools
- JAMMA key
- Control Panel and Topper art
- Synthetic lube for joysticks
- Plug in LED for marquee
- Cleaning supplies
- Zep Citrus Degreaser for the white plastic panels
- Multi-use CLR for rusty metal pieces
- Wire brushes to clean rusty metal
I'll update this post if/when I go to the next stages of getting all the front doors fixed up, the pcb mounting, and the cleaning/repainting!
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