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Which of these is easiest to rotate?

SailorLodestar

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Which of these cabs is the easiest to rotate the monitor on?

Astro City
Blast City
Capcom Impress
Super Neo 29

I want to play shmups but right now all my cabs are horizontal. Are any of these significantly harder to rotate than others? I heard you have to remove a bracket for the Astro city and on the Neo, I couldn’t figure out how to get the bezel off.
 
Impress is the riskiest since it doesn't have the monitor cage protecting the neck the other cabs have. You could say this is the "easiest" since it weighs less?

For the Astro-

Unscrew the rear-top speaker grille and remove it

Lift open control panel, disconnect speaker connection

Take out the screws holding down the monitor surround plastic to the frame - visible with control panel opened

Lift off the monitor surrounding plastic/bezel with speakers as one piece

Then you'll see the bolts for the entire monitor frame to unbolt it.

Can't speak for Blast/Neo 29 but they appear to have cages similar to the Astro.
 
The Astro is likely the easiest while the Blast is the most difficult. I'm not sure about the Super Neo 29 although I can ask a friend about it. I can't image it to be much easier than the Astro though.

The Astro has a ton of space to work with after you get the top/bezel off, which it isn't hard to do. The only downside is that you are working with self tapping screws instead of bolts, so screw holes will eventually wear out with continued use.

Its a real PITA to get the monitor out of the Blast City because there's very little clearance to get your hands in to lift the monitor out. I highly recommend using gloves, or the edge of the metal cage just sits directly on your fingers, and it's not a pleasant experience. You can technically take the body apart for more clearance like the Astro, but that's more trouble than it's worth, and the screws that hold the body are fragile and super easy to strip.

The Impress is kinda annoying to work with in general just because of how brittle the plastics become on much of the body.
 
Astro is easy. The monitor shroud comes off completely (as opposed to just flipping up) and there's a ton of room around the monitor. The monitor has a frame so you can rest it on the floor.

I could do a Blast the fastest, but it would involve a lot of swearing.
 
The impress has some nice brass handles on the tube. Taking the tube out is easy, but the risk of necking the tube in the process makes it super stressful.
Astro is easiest. Put the complete cab on it’s back and it’s super easy rotate without hurting your back.
 
Since everyone here has already detached them.. this isn't mentioned in the topic :)

There's several cables going to the neck board that can snag and pull on the neck. You need to check, and detach them from the anchor points in the cab if needed.
 
Astro is one of the easiest and best cabs to work on (and own). The Blast have other pros instead (like the detachable control panel) and modular PSU/Soundamp that slides right out.
 
Since everyone here has already detached them.. this isn't mentioned in the topic :)

There's several cables going to the neck board that can snag and pull on the neck. You need to check, and detach them from the anchor points in the cab if needed.

This only concerns the Impress though as the chassis is mounted inside the cab. All the other cabs have frames for the monitor and the chassis is mounted on frame.

With an Astro you just disconnect the remote and the 15-pin connector on the side.

With a Blast you disconnect the three connectors on the front of the frame and possibly a VGA connector.

I don't own a Super Neo, but I assume it's similar to the Neo 29. You disconnect power, degauss and video input connectors.
 
Chiming in to say the Super Neo is a massive pain in the ass. To remove the monitor shroud you need to take 8 or so large screws out from behind it, inside the cab. In other words, you need a long screwdriver and need to go in from the back and around the sides of the monitor. Not alot of working room. And then to make things worse, the plastics on this cab can be incredibly brittle.
 
The bolts that the monitor frame sits on in the Blast aren't completely round, but are like D shaped. The holes on the monitor frame too. It's incredibly difficult to do by yourself. It kinda sucks even doing it with two people, to be honest. I drilled the holes out on mine and it still sucks, for whatever that's worth.
 
+1 for astro. honorable mention for windy 1 as well even tho its not on the list.
 
The Blast City manual features some accessories sold separately, including some big handles to screw on the monitor frame to help moving it.
Screenshot_20250205_150155_com.microsoft.office.officehubrow.jpg


I've never seen them for real. But I've seen some home made ones for sale while ago on YAJ.

i-img600x450-166454669373qjni29850.jpg

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction...onType=browsing_history#group=nogroup&photo=0

 
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. This was all very helpful.

I'm leaning toward rotating the Astro but if I can get a pair of the Blast bars, I might rotate that one.
 
Never tried, but my guess is, those handles still wouldn't make it as easy as rotating an Astro City monitor.

Those D shaped holes are indeed a pain in the butt.
 
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Hats off to the person that can lift the monitor out with those bars with the cab standing up.
You gotta pump up that core strength nem. Always be cumming in the gym, cumming in the game center. Everyday you're cumming.

wait...no.
 
Its pretty easy to yeet an ms8 or 9 out of an astro by yourself standing upright. For rotating, I don't even bother to pull the wires off.
 
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