Afternoon chaps. Posted this over the road, and thought I'd share it here.
Bit of an odd one this. I've been wanting a Robotron Cabaret for some time. Just missed out on a NIB one a few months back which was a shame. The Robotron cabaret never made it over here in the UK, but for the uninitiated, here's what it looks like:
That's what I'm looking for as a finished product.
So given that these things are very rare over here in the UK, and never come up for sale, I had to think outside the box a little. Enter a Streets Stargate which came up on Ebay. Got my bid in and won. Here's what arrived:
Not a bad looking cab. As you can see, it is based on the shape of the USA Williams cabaret cabs that house the iconic Robotron game (along with Stargate I believe). It was complete, but not working. The previous owner told me he had attempted repairs by literally guessing where wires went. Not the brightest idea. Pulled the monitor out and rigged it up to my Centipede cabinet and managed to get a picture which was something I suppose. So we are good to go on the monitor front.
There will always be opinion on these things, but in my view, given that the only real character to the cab is the marquee, CPO and bezel, I don't feel too bad about gutting it and changing it totally. The rest of the cab is so bland looking - it's really the style that has potential. I got to work on getting everything stripped out. Managed to sell on the boards (which netted down the cost of the cab quite significantly).
After removing the damaged wood panels, I was left with this shell:
As is always the case with Arcade Voodoo 101, it looks alright from a distance. But get up close, it's a bit of a basket case. Those front and back "doors" were all bent out of shape and don't close properly. There's quite a bit of wood damage, especially to the corners. The edges of the cab have taken a few knocks over the years, and some dodgy repairs have been carried out at some point during its life. There's a distinct "wobble" when you push the side of the cab. Making cabs out of particle board is great if the cab is treated well - that doesn't appear to be the case here though. The old girl has had a tough life. Oh dear.
But, after a few words of advice (actually a kick up the arse) from resident resto-ninja Jon Stoodley, who keeps reminding me that "everything is fixable", I felt slightly better about taking on this mammoth task. So what the hell, let's have a crack at it. Clearly, this is going to be a big job to take on - I've done a few cabs now, but this is the biggest challenge yet for sure. There is a lot of woodwork to do, which I'm not too confident about at all; also filling, sanding and paint work. Not to mention, artwork, boards, sticks etc, etc, etc. This is almost a "from scratch" build!
So got down to the builder's merchants and got some wood panels cut to size - pretty easy job, and I had nice new wood ready to install where the old damaged stuff was. To prep for that, I got some support beams made up and screwed them in after measuring out where they needed to be:
These small beams will give the panels something to be secured to and add rigidity to the cab hopefully. I used a similar technique on the inside corners which solved the "wobbles".
Next up, a trip to Homebase to pick up some Wet Rot Wood Hardener and Ronseal Wood Filler:
So after brushing all the exposed damaged wood with the hardener and leaving to dry for a few hours, it was time to break out the filler.
Hate this job. Don't know what it is about filler, but it always seems to go around the hole you're trying to fill, rather than in it. Not to mention the mild panic you have thinking about how long you have before it all sets - literally minutes. But after getting into a rhythm of making up small amounts at a time, I got the job done in a couple of hours or so.
Some of the damage required quite a lot of filler; so to ensure a good "key" with the surface wood, I used small 10mm screws, leaving the heads proud. This should add strength to the filler (or so I'm led to believe) making a more secure repair, as it gives the filler more surface to do it's stuff on.
(that's half way through that particular fill just to show the technique!)
There are some areas that I'm not too sure about where I've added filler, so there may be more repairs to come where I've currently filled, but let's see how it turns out. So long as everything is solid, I'm not planning on OCD levels of perfection with this one.
Anyway, as messy as it looks, everything is filled, with a good amount of excess (as you can see!), ready for sanding.
I've got the other panels to add, so will do that also to get the cab sanded and prepped for paint.
I should mention parts at this point. I've decided to go down the JROK route, and have acquired one of the latest firmware boards ready for install. Jamma loom and switching supply also (in a box somewhere).
Joysticks! Being a twin stick shooter, these need to be good and accurate. I wasn't convinced that the expense and difficulty of sourcing genuine Robotron sticks was the right thing to do (given the whole thing is a scratch build/repro anyway). I've decided to go with a pair of Super Pro Leaf 8 way joysticks from the guys at GroovyGameGear.com over the pond. These are a modern interpretation of the traditional leaf switch sticks of old. Played with some in the US last year and they are fantastic.
Clearly those shafts aren't even close to the originals, so I've added a pair of Versi-ball adjustable shafts with candy red balltops. These are fully compatible with the Super Pros, so hopefully we'll end up with a good result for the controls. I'd really like the controls to be as close to the genuine Robotron experience as possible.
Artwork is ready to be printed - I have vectors of the CPO, Bezel and marquee. I've also got a stencil on its way of the cabaret-sized US Robotron sideart, so that should be here when I'm ready to start that job. Not decided yet on whether to roller paint the silver sides and black front or go for spraying.
Need to find a pair of start buttons and a coin door. And need to read up on Jamma looms and how to wire one up.
So an interesting project to get my teeth into during the coming months. The positive thing I suppose is given that this is pretty much a "build" it does give me some slack in the process and I don't have to be too worried about 1000% accuracy - there will be some variables (coin door construction for example). Given that, I'm pretty comfortable using JROK and modern joysticks.
I'll update more progress next week gents.
Cheers
TT
Bit of an odd one this. I've been wanting a Robotron Cabaret for some time. Just missed out on a NIB one a few months back which was a shame. The Robotron cabaret never made it over here in the UK, but for the uninitiated, here's what it looks like:
That's what I'm looking for as a finished product.
So given that these things are very rare over here in the UK, and never come up for sale, I had to think outside the box a little. Enter a Streets Stargate which came up on Ebay. Got my bid in and won. Here's what arrived:
Not a bad looking cab. As you can see, it is based on the shape of the USA Williams cabaret cabs that house the iconic Robotron game (along with Stargate I believe). It was complete, but not working. The previous owner told me he had attempted repairs by literally guessing where wires went. Not the brightest idea. Pulled the monitor out and rigged it up to my Centipede cabinet and managed to get a picture which was something I suppose. So we are good to go on the monitor front.
There will always be opinion on these things, but in my view, given that the only real character to the cab is the marquee, CPO and bezel, I don't feel too bad about gutting it and changing it totally. The rest of the cab is so bland looking - it's really the style that has potential. I got to work on getting everything stripped out. Managed to sell on the boards (which netted down the cost of the cab quite significantly).
After removing the damaged wood panels, I was left with this shell:
As is always the case with Arcade Voodoo 101, it looks alright from a distance. But get up close, it's a bit of a basket case. Those front and back "doors" were all bent out of shape and don't close properly. There's quite a bit of wood damage, especially to the corners. The edges of the cab have taken a few knocks over the years, and some dodgy repairs have been carried out at some point during its life. There's a distinct "wobble" when you push the side of the cab. Making cabs out of particle board is great if the cab is treated well - that doesn't appear to be the case here though. The old girl has had a tough life. Oh dear.
But, after a few words of advice (actually a kick up the arse) from resident resto-ninja Jon Stoodley, who keeps reminding me that "everything is fixable", I felt slightly better about taking on this mammoth task. So what the hell, let's have a crack at it. Clearly, this is going to be a big job to take on - I've done a few cabs now, but this is the biggest challenge yet for sure. There is a lot of woodwork to do, which I'm not too confident about at all; also filling, sanding and paint work. Not to mention, artwork, boards, sticks etc, etc, etc. This is almost a "from scratch" build!
So got down to the builder's merchants and got some wood panels cut to size - pretty easy job, and I had nice new wood ready to install where the old damaged stuff was. To prep for that, I got some support beams made up and screwed them in after measuring out where they needed to be:
These small beams will give the panels something to be secured to and add rigidity to the cab hopefully. I used a similar technique on the inside corners which solved the "wobbles".
Next up, a trip to Homebase to pick up some Wet Rot Wood Hardener and Ronseal Wood Filler:
So after brushing all the exposed damaged wood with the hardener and leaving to dry for a few hours, it was time to break out the filler.
Hate this job. Don't know what it is about filler, but it always seems to go around the hole you're trying to fill, rather than in it. Not to mention the mild panic you have thinking about how long you have before it all sets - literally minutes. But after getting into a rhythm of making up small amounts at a time, I got the job done in a couple of hours or so.
Some of the damage required quite a lot of filler; so to ensure a good "key" with the surface wood, I used small 10mm screws, leaving the heads proud. This should add strength to the filler (or so I'm led to believe) making a more secure repair, as it gives the filler more surface to do it's stuff on.
(that's half way through that particular fill just to show the technique!)
There are some areas that I'm not too sure about where I've added filler, so there may be more repairs to come where I've currently filled, but let's see how it turns out. So long as everything is solid, I'm not planning on OCD levels of perfection with this one.
Anyway, as messy as it looks, everything is filled, with a good amount of excess (as you can see!), ready for sanding.
I've got the other panels to add, so will do that also to get the cab sanded and prepped for paint.
I should mention parts at this point. I've decided to go down the JROK route, and have acquired one of the latest firmware boards ready for install. Jamma loom and switching supply also (in a box somewhere).
Joysticks! Being a twin stick shooter, these need to be good and accurate. I wasn't convinced that the expense and difficulty of sourcing genuine Robotron sticks was the right thing to do (given the whole thing is a scratch build/repro anyway). I've decided to go with a pair of Super Pro Leaf 8 way joysticks from the guys at GroovyGameGear.com over the pond. These are a modern interpretation of the traditional leaf switch sticks of old. Played with some in the US last year and they are fantastic.
Clearly those shafts aren't even close to the originals, so I've added a pair of Versi-ball adjustable shafts with candy red balltops. These are fully compatible with the Super Pros, so hopefully we'll end up with a good result for the controls. I'd really like the controls to be as close to the genuine Robotron experience as possible.
Artwork is ready to be printed - I have vectors of the CPO, Bezel and marquee. I've also got a stencil on its way of the cabaret-sized US Robotron sideart, so that should be here when I'm ready to start that job. Not decided yet on whether to roller paint the silver sides and black front or go for spraying.
Need to find a pair of start buttons and a coin door. And need to read up on Jamma looms and how to wire one up.
So an interesting project to get my teeth into during the coming months. The positive thing I suppose is given that this is pretty much a "build" it does give me some slack in the process and I don't have to be too worried about 1000% accuracy - there will be some variables (coin door construction for example). Given that, I'm pretty comfortable using JROK and modern joysticks.
I'll update more progress next week gents.
Cheers
TT
