JT's Arcade

[Jon-A-Tron]

Here's my little collection I have in my garage at home. Still a work in progress as I have a few projects on the go so it's a constant game of cab-tetris.

My projects
Nintendo Space Fever Cocktail
Nichibutsu Moon Alien Upright
Namco Pole Position Cockpit

Full cab list
Nintendo Space Fever Cocktail
Silverline Jamma Cab (pi2jamma)
Top Speed
Field Goal Cocktail
Silver Strike Bowling
Golden Tee Fore! X2
EAsports NASCAR (single driver)
Continental Circus (cabinet to be rebuilt)
Warzaid 4-player (all parts to make new style cabinet)
Radical Bikers
Competition Foosball Table
Namco Pole Position Cockpit
Nichibutsu Moon Alien Upright
JonTron2019-06-20 16:42:30

 

[Amb47uk]

Very nice, looking great! The 80s mood lighting of an arcade is a must ;-)

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

Thanks. Its an RGB LED strip about 5m long, but the control box doesn't work so I powered just the blue LEDs. Perfect for the room. Used to turn the lights off and rely on the glow from the monitors but it was too dark for moving around. Blue is perfect.
Also lucky in that the garage is at the bottom floor of the house and is part of the 3 story house. So it doesn't get cold like some garages do. The neighbours also converted there's into a living room so that helps also.

 

[robotech]

Looks really nice with the lighting
Wish i had a garage

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

Cheers mate. That Silverline cab you gave me is so great for my space. I can swap in and out Jamma boards through the coin door. Perfect for my pi2jamma and 19-1 board.
Wasn't a fan of the purple paint job at first and was going to strip it but the blue actually goes well with the purple sides.

 

[Isgoed]

That's a nice setup, and cool that you can swap boards so easy.
Isgoed2019-06-23 09:18:49

 

[yorkshire_spam]

Really cool stuff! Great set-up!

I saw the thread title and though a ghost of the past had risen from the "grave".

http://www.ukvac.com/forum/the-man-behind-it-all_topic354386.html

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

Oh jeez, can I catch a break with my name..hahaha.
The story behind 'JonTron' is that my name is Jon and I like Tron. I started using it in the late 90's early 2000s on all the forums and chat rooms I used in them days. Think Tron was the 1st dvd I watched on my PS2 probably. Then fast forward to the ukvac meet a few years ago when we all got badges with our names on it and someone said..."not the real JonTron then?" I was a bit like "I'm real?" Thought nothing of it. Then one day I was on Steam playing something and someone said "oh wow, it's JonTron. Will we be in your next video?!" So then I looked it up and found out there was a famous YouTube channel called JonTron. Now I'm the imposter, using his name. I've had to change my Steam name to JonTurn now as it just got too much.
When naming my arcade I'd like it to be called Jon's Arcade but that's not avsilable... So I went with JT's Arcade. Now this is synonymous with this guy?
Im re-claiming it! For all the arcade collectors who don't put TFT displays in arcade games!

 

[yorkshire_spam]

No worries from my point of view JonTron! as long as you are not that JT

 

[karlcdoe]

No worries from my point of view JonTron! as long as you are not that JT

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

I moved house in February and it a has a lovely 5m X 5m garage attached to the side. For the 1st month or so everything was just dumped in there while we sorted out the rest of the house and got settled. Then the lockdown happened and suddenly I had a lot more time to spend on the space. I did about 3 moves around the garage over 2-3 weeks before finally getting a layout that works. Here's some pictures of my Arcade now.

A few things I had to take into account when finding a layout that worked for me,
1. The only wall without a window/door/garage door has all the plumbing for the washing machine and dryer so it was not available.
2. My active machines (Top Speed, Silverline, Space Fever) I needed to be able to get to the back of. To swap out PCBs and stuff. I also had an intermittent fault on Top Speed and every time I moved it it would come back. So I wanted good access to these machines.
3. I needed space to control my console collection. In my old house the consoles were in the house, not in the arcade. This meant I could hardly get to them as they were in boxes. I wanted the consoles as part of my arcade.
4. I needed to be able to move Pole Position back and forth so I can work on it. So the space behind the seat is left clear for that. It also gives some space to the Moon Alien cab for work too.
5. I have 3 trackball games which have all failed since the move. Silverstrike (pc not booting), Golden Tee (monitor failed) and PGA Tour (never worked as was missing a part when I bought it but never realised until after the move). These are in the garage as I have no where else to store them. I've had to just line them up behind the wall of console games for now. The control panels make handy shelves for now though.
The other half of the garage is full of boxes and various arcade parts. When the quarantine is over I'll be getting some racking to create some more space.

Anyway, that's my update.
JonTron2020-05-14 21:19:36

 

[big10p]

Nice setup. I haven't seen a Videopac in years!

 

[mysticmonk]

You can get lot done with limited space if you try hard enough!

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

Organised!!

Any close ups of your console games/collection? Thanks

 

[andyman]

Awesome setup...I hate organised people

Was the 5m x 5m a selling point ??

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

Intellivision

Sega Master System

PlayStation

Mix

Videopac

I rent, but let's just say I didn't need to see the rest of the house when we were doing the viewing..

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

Nice!

 

[mozie]

Wow forgot all about the videopac! That looks like a fun space

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

Yes the Videopac is a fun system. Picked it up for £20 last year. Games were really cheap too. Now they are getting expensive for some reason so I've stopped collecting for it unless I find a bundle somewhere. There was a multi-cart on eBay last month but ended up going for over £50 so I passed on it.JonTron2020-05-17 16:05:03

 

[Jon-A-Tron]

The 1st Arcade Cabinet I ever bought was SilverStrike Bowling Supreme by Incredible Technologies. Got it for £50 with monitor fault. Picked it up and found the fault quick (blown cap on chassis) and it all worked perfectly. Really got me into the hobby as I had successfully fixed my first game. The game was a big hit with my kids who were about 5-6 at the time. We played it for about a year before it started developing issues. The monitor would spark at the cap and soon the pc wouldn't boot.
The cab was kind of forgotten about as I had other projects I was into by then.
When I moved in February I tried the game again and to my surprise the monitor was no longer sparking. I'm going to put it down to my old garage being a little colder and maybe condensation getting to the tube. The pc was still an issue and looking on eBay never turned up anything in the UK. PCs in the US would be available for $200-250 so that was always out of the question.
Until last week when a listing came up for a load of untested PCs and boards. I sent an offer for the SSB pc and another PC (more on that another day) and to my shock it was accepted.
Went an collected it today (distance observed - back down Covid-watch..) and I tried it on my machine as soon as I got back.

Now I had to swap the hard drive with my original one as the security key didn't match but here we are. Nice little bonus was all the high scores the kids got back then are still in the hard drive. Silver Strikes Back!JonTron2020-05-19 17:06:10