Enough of my crazy ramblings after the happy juice about nonsense for the rest of the year, back to the important stuff
Not feeling to good today so unable to do much other than lie down or sit at the computer for a bit, can't stay In bed all day because of back problems so been sorting photo's etc from this project
So can't call this a Restoration, more a Renovation though it's obviously not improving it on how it should be, just from how it was.
While looking for info and pictures to assist me, I've seen far better machines than this, stripped down and the original sides replaced with new wood and repro artwork, which I think is a shame, unless it's this state leave it alone and tidy up edges. It's only original once. Suppose it depends where your putting the machines, if its in your lounge or kitchen, a beat up rotting cab don't look good, not too fused myself though, happy just to have one at all
To expensive to restore, only way this would of been worth doing is if you had all the parts from years back when cheap and even then you would have a very beat up machine, the cabinet alone would need a full restoration, basically you'd be building pretty much a new one apart from the base section (also needing repairs), roof (needs new T-moulding), you have at least the metal parts, so then it wouldn't be original in anyway so you might as well built a new cabinet completely. would sooner leave it as is, I will tidy up areas of it to make it look better eventually
Not to everyone's taste I know and I totally understand why you would want one of these running Original Hardware, after watching some videos of good players on an original machine, the game is pretty awesome and nothing replaces Vector
all my machines are original boards apart from the twin PC driving machine and now this
Seen a few other machines running on emulation, Found Bruno's thread of fitting PC in his cab, AW sold an Upright years back with PC inside and there are others out there, I bet also they are all in far better condition Cabs than this, so I don't feel too guilty beings this had been stripped out to a point you need the insides of a complete machine to restore it. The cab has been so hacked up and needs new sections of wood everywhere so Emulation is the route I'm taking
Really know how to get myself in a mess, After selling 2 of the 4 Jamma cabs I had to create space for the ones I have already own, wasn't going to buy any more machines, no more at all but typical as soon as I sell some really cool ones appear on ebay.
First was After Burner sitdown, hadn't got space but I still bid, luckily didn't win it, Then not long After this sitdown After Burner
... Star Wars comes up. I commented, Perfect I was after a After Burner Sitdown, just need to make it move, joking of course.
Original Post here http://www.ukvac.com/forum/very-confused-star-wars-cockpit_topic354577.html
Trouble is then, you put it in your watch list just to see what price it will end at, then I keep looking at it, thinking about what you could do with it. Have quite a few Sitdown machines, think there really cool, all but one are Driving games and I've panned for a while it would be ace to have an Analogue setup on a machine to play Space/Flight games.
One of the things that did put you off is the cost of getting Control Panel and Yoke, Plastic monitor surround and Marquee, they dont come up often now and not cheap if they do. Other Star Wars Cockpit cabs that were converted years ago at least still had CP and Plastic surround but often some rubbish driving game. only advantage of this was the Afterburner complete, working apart from missing buttons on control handle. I have Upright AB also so useful as not sure the Throttle working on it.
Early days of PC gaming for me was Prince of Persia, Wolfenstein 3D and Lucas-Arts Star Wars X-Wing and Tie Fighter before seeing the awesome Alone In The Dark and AITD2 which I played till completed. The Tie Figher and X-Wing games I probably would of played more if you have a proper setup with Flight Joystick, be nice to play again and good cab to do that in, then find measuring up the SW Cockpit from the flyers to see how big these are, yeah it's only size of 2 Electrocoin jamma cabs and ive just sold 2
wasn't really what I should of been thinking, should of been I've just made that space to get the machines I have already sorted
I don't plan to much to early when it comes to things on ebay because you never know if it will be removed or maybe end at £1000 so wait till nearer the time. Day it's ending, I'm watching it count down, no I'm not gonna bid, just watching then I find myself entering bid amount and hover over the mouse, all rational thoughts gone as it's still cheapish and I bid, half hoping I get outbid but no, I've win it...What have I done now, oh well too late, will have to tell the missus, so I use her love of Sci-Fi to break the news, you know how you like Sci-Fi, well I bought something for US
. Though most times she will be happy that we are going some where and 1st question is, does it mean McDonalds, as we always have breakfast in them when picking things up, sadly this time no, as it's not that far.
The ebay photo's showed the cab in a van, thought I'd ask if it's still in there and could he drop off to me for a price, he agreed which saved me hassle hiring vans, he was passing one night the next week so dropped off only it was quite late, dark and trying to rain by time he arrived, didn't want him to mess about so I said I'd move it in myself not knowing it would be quite so heavy, all the other sitdown cabs are plywood and for a reason, they are much lighter, this is near 200kg, ok there on wheels but it wouldn't move on my road as that was very poor at the time, plus my drive is all uneven so I struggled like hell with it, someone nailed on alloy strips under bottom sides, that was catching on the road and bottom of cab is dragging on floor, bits of it getting ripped off, I thought what have I done again. cab has damaged areas all over the place. Managed to drag it in, then move a few things about to get it where I need it. Oh well too late to worry, needed to get a plan of action on what to do with it.
I posted some wanted ads for Control Panel, was surprised when I got a response nearly straight away, good old backflipper to the rescue. Just like the cab the CP was from another one that had been converted and came with Joystick and buttons, kind of perfect for this cab so I snapped that up from him, he also had a nice yoke too but I wanted to keep the cost down so kindly declined as I'd already another plan for that. No luck with the Plastic surround though, kept posting wanted ads every little while, then missed one offered for sale here, shame people dont see the wanted ads always but they soon get onto page 2 or 3,
So where do you start on it.
Had to be painted sides really and outrun Artwork removal. It was being used as an outrun after Star Wars hence the artwork, has original metal plate from Outrun Sitdown cabs where original pedals fitted. Painted Blue for Outrun, then painted black when Afterburner installed It does make you wonder where machines like this are found, I asked the seller when he dropped it off, basically he imports coin up stuff from USA, if container not full they take some video games, he got told they have a Star Wars machine so he agreed on $900 for it, hadn't seen any pictures so got a bit of a shock when this arrived, shipping on top also so he made a loss on this he said, makes you wonder what it would fetch now, Risk you take on ebay though, Before stripping the afterburner out, I did have a mess about with it, was playable once I sorted handle out, but no sound. don't know what ape installed it all, but it was dangerous, the controller that weighs a lot held on with a couple of wood screws and 1 latch, the wiring was such a state, things nearly shorting out, the controller wasn't fixed in, so move the handle up all way the mech was loose and moved about too nearly shorting things out
If it was in an arcade like this then the owner should of been sued, it was so bad. Strangely, Afterburner in this was pretty cool to play specially with 26" monitor, to be honest I would sooner play it in this if was done properly than on the upright original cab.
Had a go at getting the paint off as it was but would take you months, so at weekend I went screwfix for no nonsense paint remover £4.99 500ml bottle, pays to look around though as Wilko has same stuff at only £3.49 did the job perfect and only used half a bottle on both sides. put it on, left for 10mins scrape it straight off, then used aldi cleaner to clean off the rest of paint stripper and paint remains just wipes off specially on the inserts of roof sides.
Wondering how bad the artwork would be under it, that's if it had any so was desperate to see what it looks like, But before I started on that I wanted to see what the machine had left in it that was original, there is that little bit of hope that they may have left some original bits inside maybe, under the seat? nope nothing
So what is left, basically The speakers and most of the wire to the front of cab for them, has original vents, metal marquee and roof retainers, remains of Service Panel, rear Marquee light, that's it. Check out the roof panels, that's a mix of one original top piece well scratched, rest is any old bits of plastic, so I had my fingers crossed for the Marque under the black paint, so started cleaning the paint off
no luck though, original Glass Marquee long gone, but I did get a surprising shock
So these were the Ebay Photo's in back of Van
So I had to see what was under this black paint on the Marquee, I could of just removed to look at the back it but thought I'd use some paint stripper and see whats under there
Citroen.. what
Not feeling to good today so unable to do much other than lie down or sit at the computer for a bit, can't stay In bed all day because of back problems so been sorting photo's etc from this project
So can't call this a Restoration, more a Renovation though it's obviously not improving it on how it should be, just from how it was.
While looking for info and pictures to assist me, I've seen far better machines than this, stripped down and the original sides replaced with new wood and repro artwork, which I think is a shame, unless it's this state leave it alone and tidy up edges. It's only original once. Suppose it depends where your putting the machines, if its in your lounge or kitchen, a beat up rotting cab don't look good, not too fused myself though, happy just to have one at all
To expensive to restore, only way this would of been worth doing is if you had all the parts from years back when cheap and even then you would have a very beat up machine, the cabinet alone would need a full restoration, basically you'd be building pretty much a new one apart from the base section (also needing repairs), roof (needs new T-moulding), you have at least the metal parts, so then it wouldn't be original in anyway so you might as well built a new cabinet completely. would sooner leave it as is, I will tidy up areas of it to make it look better eventually
Not to everyone's taste I know and I totally understand why you would want one of these running Original Hardware, after watching some videos of good players on an original machine, the game is pretty awesome and nothing replaces Vector
Seen a few other machines running on emulation, Found Bruno's thread of fitting PC in his cab, AW sold an Upright years back with PC inside and there are others out there, I bet also they are all in far better condition Cabs than this, so I don't feel too guilty beings this had been stripped out to a point you need the insides of a complete machine to restore it. The cab has been so hacked up and needs new sections of wood everywhere so Emulation is the route I'm taking
Really know how to get myself in a mess, After selling 2 of the 4 Jamma cabs I had to create space for the ones I have already own, wasn't going to buy any more machines, no more at all but typical as soon as I sell some really cool ones appear on ebay.
First was After Burner sitdown, hadn't got space but I still bid, luckily didn't win it, Then not long After this sitdown After Burner
Original Post here http://www.ukvac.com/forum/very-confused-star-wars-cockpit_topic354577.html
Trouble is then, you put it in your watch list just to see what price it will end at, then I keep looking at it, thinking about what you could do with it. Have quite a few Sitdown machines, think there really cool, all but one are Driving games and I've panned for a while it would be ace to have an Analogue setup on a machine to play Space/Flight games.
One of the things that did put you off is the cost of getting Control Panel and Yoke, Plastic monitor surround and Marquee, they dont come up often now and not cheap if they do. Other Star Wars Cockpit cabs that were converted years ago at least still had CP and Plastic surround but often some rubbish driving game. only advantage of this was the Afterburner complete, working apart from missing buttons on control handle. I have Upright AB also so useful as not sure the Throttle working on it.
Early days of PC gaming for me was Prince of Persia, Wolfenstein 3D and Lucas-Arts Star Wars X-Wing and Tie Fighter before seeing the awesome Alone In The Dark and AITD2 which I played till completed. The Tie Figher and X-Wing games I probably would of played more if you have a proper setup with Flight Joystick, be nice to play again and good cab to do that in, then find measuring up the SW Cockpit from the flyers to see how big these are, yeah it's only size of 2 Electrocoin jamma cabs and ive just sold 2
I don't plan to much to early when it comes to things on ebay because you never know if it will be removed or maybe end at £1000 so wait till nearer the time. Day it's ending, I'm watching it count down, no I'm not gonna bid, just watching then I find myself entering bid amount and hover over the mouse, all rational thoughts gone as it's still cheapish and I bid, half hoping I get outbid but no, I've win it...What have I done now, oh well too late, will have to tell the missus, so I use her love of Sci-Fi to break the news, you know how you like Sci-Fi, well I bought something for US
The ebay photo's showed the cab in a van, thought I'd ask if it's still in there and could he drop off to me for a price, he agreed which saved me hassle hiring vans, he was passing one night the next week so dropped off only it was quite late, dark and trying to rain by time he arrived, didn't want him to mess about so I said I'd move it in myself not knowing it would be quite so heavy, all the other sitdown cabs are plywood and for a reason, they are much lighter, this is near 200kg, ok there on wheels but it wouldn't move on my road as that was very poor at the time, plus my drive is all uneven so I struggled like hell with it, someone nailed on alloy strips under bottom sides, that was catching on the road and bottom of cab is dragging on floor, bits of it getting ripped off, I thought what have I done again. cab has damaged areas all over the place. Managed to drag it in, then move a few things about to get it where I need it. Oh well too late to worry, needed to get a plan of action on what to do with it.
I posted some wanted ads for Control Panel, was surprised when I got a response nearly straight away, good old backflipper to the rescue. Just like the cab the CP was from another one that had been converted and came with Joystick and buttons, kind of perfect for this cab so I snapped that up from him, he also had a nice yoke too but I wanted to keep the cost down so kindly declined as I'd already another plan for that. No luck with the Plastic surround though, kept posting wanted ads every little while, then missed one offered for sale here, shame people dont see the wanted ads always but they soon get onto page 2 or 3,
So where do you start on it.
Had to be painted sides really and outrun Artwork removal. It was being used as an outrun after Star Wars hence the artwork, has original metal plate from Outrun Sitdown cabs where original pedals fitted. Painted Blue for Outrun, then painted black when Afterburner installed It does make you wonder where machines like this are found, I asked the seller when he dropped it off, basically he imports coin up stuff from USA, if container not full they take some video games, he got told they have a Star Wars machine so he agreed on $900 for it, hadn't seen any pictures so got a bit of a shock when this arrived, shipping on top also so he made a loss on this he said, makes you wonder what it would fetch now, Risk you take on ebay though, Before stripping the afterburner out, I did have a mess about with it, was playable once I sorted handle out, but no sound. don't know what ape installed it all, but it was dangerous, the controller that weighs a lot held on with a couple of wood screws and 1 latch, the wiring was such a state, things nearly shorting out, the controller wasn't fixed in, so move the handle up all way the mech was loose and moved about too nearly shorting things out
If it was in an arcade like this then the owner should of been sued, it was so bad. Strangely, Afterburner in this was pretty cool to play specially with 26" monitor, to be honest I would sooner play it in this if was done properly than on the upright original cab.
Had a go at getting the paint off as it was but would take you months, so at weekend I went screwfix for no nonsense paint remover £4.99 500ml bottle, pays to look around though as Wilko has same stuff at only £3.49 did the job perfect and only used half a bottle on both sides. put it on, left for 10mins scrape it straight off, then used aldi cleaner to clean off the rest of paint stripper and paint remains just wipes off specially on the inserts of roof sides.
Wondering how bad the artwork would be under it, that's if it had any so was desperate to see what it looks like, But before I started on that I wanted to see what the machine had left in it that was original, there is that little bit of hope that they may have left some original bits inside maybe, under the seat? nope nothing
So what is left, basically The speakers and most of the wire to the front of cab for them, has original vents, metal marquee and roof retainers, remains of Service Panel, rear Marquee light, that's it. Check out the roof panels, that's a mix of one original top piece well scratched, rest is any old bits of plastic, so I had my fingers crossed for the Marque under the black paint, so started cleaning the paint off
So these were the Ebay Photo's in back of Van
So I had to see what was under this black paint on the Marquee, I could of just removed to look at the back it but thought I'd use some paint stripper and see whats under there
