Sega Blast City advice

[DeVore]

Hi all,

So after much lurking and reading on these forums I'm hoping I can get some of that good advice that is regularly given on here.

I'm currently renovating a space at home for myself and I would love to have an arcade cab for myself, I only have space for a single one. I would like to get something genuine as opposed to a reproduction, and I think a Sega Blast City would suit me perfectly, with a view to running it with Mame primarily. My space won't be ready for another few months as I'm doing it in my spare time, so want to get some facts together in the meantime.

So with that, I have a few questions:

1. Where would be a good place to try to source a machine? Are there importers of these I could get in touch with for example?

2. Are the Blast City reliable and are parts difficult to source? I presume the monitor is one of the most important bits - how do these hold up?

3. How difficult are the Blast City to set up with a PC running Mame? (I'm most into Street Fighter 2, Tekken, Metal Slug type games, not the modern stuff) I'm comfortable with wiring, purchasing components etc (although I've never done an arcade cab) and am happy to learn - in fact I think it would be part of the fun getting something like this wired and configured.

4. Anything big I should be looking out for with these? Are there any common issues/faults etc I would need to examine before purchasing? Am I missing anything obvious with these questions!

Thanks folks, and looking forward to being an active member on here.

 

[muddymusic]

There are a few guys in the UK bringing containers of cabs in from Japan now.

I'd try Japanarama UK first, he's just had a load in and I'm sure there were some Blast cabs in there.

Monitor is absolutely critical, it's the most difficult part to replace with something better A little bit of screen burn is to be expected, a good crisp picture and nice colour is what you want. Spares do show up now and then on eBay and the Arcade Otaku forum. Control panels show up frequently.

Easy to set up with mame using a j-pac. There are now raspberry pi options too. One of the members here sells a superb plug and play minature mame system that is all powered from the jamma connector - I have one myself and it's fantastic.

Missing parts would be the main thing to look out for, marquee plastics, broken bezel and things like that are really tough to replace.

 

[Flinnster]

Welcome

1. send a message to g60hot on here as he imports containers of cabinets from China, or view the sales threads daily until a blast city comes up (they do now and again)

2. all candy cab parts are getting more rare and harder to source replacements for. If this puts you off, read the forum more and look at restoration threads - owning a geniune cabinet is often more about the work required to maintain and keep it working, it's not 'just an oversized games console'. Some monitors can be a joy and never give any issues, others can be problematic and go nuts on a regular basis. Depends which tube & chassis you have and how it's been treated in it's life. Luck of the draw basically.

3. A Blast City with a tri-sync monitor will run 31Khz 640x480 output running from Mame, or a pi to Jamma board. You also have the option to run 15khz (standard resolution) from real hardware, multi-game boxes/pcbs, jamma-pi setups or a specific PC setup via a JPAC and ArcadeVGA graphics card or using CRTEmuDrivers with certain Nvidia / ATi gfx cards.

4. Cracks under the control panel, power supplies going weak and not supplying the correct voltages, monitor problems. But ... read the forum and see what other people have encountered!

Flinnster2019-07-26 11:16:46

 

[chunksin]

Some great advice here, a bit of my own to add:

A Blast City is a great choice of cab, it was my most wanted cab when I started in the hobby although I ended up buying a New Net City due to a drought of Blasts at the time but finally bought mine about 18 months ago. They are really well built, flexible cabs, if you get the 001 loom you can run JVS based systems like Naomi in there with a Sega or Capcom Jamma-JVS IO board and makes a PC easier to integrate with stereo sound directly the cabs amp.

If you're after a 2 player control panel don't be put off by a cab with a single player panel either, there are a few people making really nice repro panels now so you have a few choices if you wanted to replace it. Ideally go for a cab with an original Nanao monitor, the MS2930 tends to be a lot more reliable that the MS2931, it's a manual switch between 15/24/31Khz rather than the autosyncing MS2931 but not a big issue. Once you get your cab, keep an eye out on Yanton6262's eBay store and pick up a replacement monitor chassis, the Blast chassis come up every once in a while and if you're planning to keep the cab its worth spending an extra £120 or so for a spare.

As Flinnster mentioned CP cracks are quite common but can be easily sorted with a fiberglass repair kit, you'll probably also find that the Blast PSU is full of crud and will need a good clean out, you could have grown potatoes in mine, be sure to change the fan too. The transparent marquee holders tend to be hard to replace so try to get a good one!

If you're thinking of using PC based mame definitely use GroovyMame in 15Khz if you can, a used PC and compatible graphics card can be had for less than £100 on eBay and you can download a prebuilt image from my thread in the mame section of the forum or as Muddy suggested go for a prebuilt PC that works directly from Jamma. If you have any more specific Blast questions feel free to drop me a PM

 

[DeVore]

Wow! Thanks for all that super advice folks, really appreciated. Going to have to Google some of the terminology




@muddymusic - Could you point me in the right direction for Japanarama UK? I can't seem to find anything useful on Google.




I'm sure I'll be asking lots more questions, and hopefully my search will lead to a nice machine.

 

[Flinnster]

japanaramabananarama = g60hot on here

 

[TWB]

Japanarama_uk is g60hot's Instagram account, as said above you could drop him a message on here. TWB2019-07-26 16:47:30

 

[fire10]

Great thread guys, superb information

 

[Retro77]

I can vouch for g60hot. I have bought 2 of his Blast City cabs. They are excellent machines.

 

[tronads]

I would add...rather than regular mame, you should definitely go with Groovymame...the difference is quite significant.

 

[Fractalius75]

Hey everyone

Interesting thread!

What would be the price of a blast in correct condition (roughly)? (working fine, screen ok, few sign of use) I see a bit of everything online...

 

[Stox58]

I have a Blast City, but I wouldn’t buy one again as they suffer from convergence issues. I much prefer my New Astro City and that’s what I would recommend as a first Candy Cab.

 

[Stox58]

You can also try Ronnie at RKLOK for imported cabs

 

[Fractalius75]

Thanks Stox58

It's not the first time I heard about the convergence issue. A french guy made a video on how to fix it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Hng3U41tg

Good feedback though, deffo something I'm thinking about!

 

[tronads]

I have 2 Blasts, one has minor convergence issues, one is perfect.
I like the other Candy's but for me I went with Blasts because they are a lot easier to get through a standard house door thanks to how quick and easy it is to remove the control panel.

 

[corn]

Like Chunksin said, go for a Blast with a 2930 - the 2931's have a custom chip that, once dead, turns your monitor into a door stop.

If you are primarily running MAME, why not just get a Naomi?

 

[SIE]

They are great machines. Love mine and they are really flexible. Lots to learn with them with the famous 001 loom and the different tech you can use. You will never lose money on one as well as the price keeps creeping up

 

[trev1976]

I really like the blasts but I know they suffer with convergence issues. If I was in the market for a tri sync I think I'd go with a new net city with a PF monitor.trev19762020-12-17 08:07:09

 

[fester]

Hi,

Blast city is a great cab...I have one running Groovymame and other emulators..a key element is to flash your graphics card to allow 15khz...despite small convergence issues and black goop on the monitor board (common problem)...the machine is great