2009-11-26

My beloved Xiong Ba cabinet and my Red Box multi-PCB are both sold and has left the building. I'm really happy I got the cabinet sold right now, as I was on the verge of some major reconstruction on it. Typically, I usually start stuff I really regret later on, but this time a buyer appeared and put a stop to that nonsense.

Now that I have no high res available, I've set my EGRET II to 24kHz to get as close to high res as possible now that I have an awesome Ultracade Video Converter. This cool little thing converts VGA to 15 kHz or 24kHz without breaking a sweat. And it's very tiny, so it's replaced the Emotia in the EGRET II, mostly because it can handle 24khz.

Unfortunately, the Nanao monitor can't switch resolutions "on the fly" like the Wei-Ya in the Xiong Ba cabinet did, so it's not as easy to switch back and forth. Hopefully, I'll be able to fit another EGRET II in my game room later on, and have one dedicated for 24kHz. I have a "remote switch" cable Ive made, but haven't gotten around to testing it fully yet. I really wanna keep the cab in 24kHz now as I'm waiting for the Mushihimesama Futari port for the 360 to arrive. It's gonna be so awesome.

I've also bought my first Super gun, a Vogatek III that will be a fun thing to play with. I'm gonna try to find a nice plastic box that'll fit some of my larger PCB's so that I'll have a contained system to play my horisontal games on the television.

Oh, and my 3 Wonders PCB might have suicided. :( I guess I'll have to send it to the U.K. for repairs.

2009-11-01

Took some new photos of my candy cabs. I've updated the cabinet pages, but the photos can be seen directly from here as well. Here they are side by side (using a flash). Here's a picture without flash. And here's a couple of pics of the Xiong Ba from above. All pictures are opened in a new window.

2009-10-27

Ibara PCB arrived today! It does look awesome!

2009-10-25

Trimmed the collection somewhat. Vimana and Psy-Conics Oscar are both sold, and I just traded my Raiden Fighters 2 (including the SPI mobo) for an Ibara PCB. These games are all great, but does not get enough play time from me and will hopefully end up getting more love in their new homes. Getting the Ibara PCB is nice as it'll be a huge challenge.

In other news, I'm trying to source a 1-player panel for my Xiong Ba cabinet, and I'm currently re-designing the CPO for it along with some nice marquee and top sign. I have a cool idea for the top sign. Hopefully it'll pan out.

2009-09-19

DoDonpachi DOJ-BLEX has arrived and is really fun to play. Too bad that the loading times is laughable at best, and the game isn't compatible with my hacked pad, as I have to sync it everytime I've made a choice in the game's menus. In other news, I've sold my Arkanoid PCB+JAMMA adapter, and the money got me a really cool little gizmo that I'm going to use in my EGRET II when it arrives. I have also soldered myself an adapter for my Perfect Billiards board, and it's working but currently has no sound.

2009-08-07

Time for a little update on things. I've sold my Tetris Plus 2 cart for the Jaleco Mega System 32, and now only have the glorious P-47 Aces left. I've recieved the Extron Super Emotia and successfully installed that into my EGRET II, and am currently waiting for Do Donpachi DOJ-BLEX for the 360 to try out some nice TATE action.

Death Smiles (360 version with redrawn hi res graphics) looks like this on my EGRET II low res Sanwa/Toshiba screen:



Pretty cool, huh? You can see some more fresh photos up on my pici.se galleries: Death Smiles in the Xiong Ba | Extron Super Emotia Experimenting | Mounting a SUZO joystick in an EGRET II 1P panel |

I'll try to put up links to more pictures here when DDP DOJ-BLEX has arrived, but you can check out my pici.se page yourself if you're curious. :D

2009-07-21

I've sold my Rastan PCB. Never gets played anyway, and I will rather have some nice things for my cabinets right now. Will get 2.1 speakers for my EGRET II, and a Extron Super Emotia video converter I got off eBay needs a power stepdown converter so I can play vertical high res (Japanese XBox 360) shmups in my low res cabs (preferrably EGRET II).
I also got rid of a Rygar bootleg, and Tetris Plus 2 cart for Jaleco Mega System 32.

Yes, I bought a Japanese XBox 360 and am currently enjoying DeathSmiles Mega Black Label in glorious high res in the Xiong-Ba cabinet. What a beautiful/fun game it is. Looking forward to Mushihime Futari, Ketsui, ESPGALUDA II and DeathSmiles 2 in the future. Also, I'm considering getting Raiden IV for it, even though I'm not a huge fan of the series.

I also bought a very nice reproduction overlay for my EGRET II's 1P panel from SEGAShed:



2009-06-23

Sold a couple of games and invested in a reproduction overlay for my new EGRET II 1L7B panel. Super Contra as well as Gunforce are now gone from the collection. Never mind as I never play them anyway. Someone elses treasure now, hopefully.

2009-06-13

New panel for the EGRET II has arrived and is installed. I've fashioned a harness for it, so it's completely plug 'n play with the EGRET II/Atomiswave SD standards. This panel is fitted with a Suzo 500 stick and Seimitsu pearl buttons, as that's what I've grown acustomed to. I've made an order from SEGAShed in England for an EGRET II 1P overlay, and as soon as that's arrived and installed, I'll upload pictures of the whole installing process.

Also changed the buttons in my JK cabinet to white pearl Seimitsus, and installed a custom shaft in the Suzo Inductive that lets me use japanese balls instead of ugly Suzo defaults. Now I just need some fresh screws instead of those rusty, worn down ones in the picture.

2009-05-21

Sold a couple of games: Metal Slug 5 PCB and PGM mobo with Dodonpachi 2 - Bee Storm cart. The money I get from these will go towards a new 1L7B panel for my EGRET II, and a couple of 2.1 systems for that cabinet and my JK cabinet.

2009-05-11

NEW design! The yellow and black is very nice, but I thought it was time for a new look. Kinda has an EGRET III vibe going on. Also had a look at the links on my misc page and removed those who sadly no longer work + added a few that does.

Also, during these last couple of weeks, I have refurbished my JK panel and converted it into one for 1 player only. It now has the same button layout as my EGRET II panel, and a fantastic Suzo Inductive Joystick. No new paint, but a generic overlay from HAPP. I also intend to modify this with a hand made shaft that supports Sanwa/Seimitsu ball top balls instead of the horrible Suzo design. I'm currently awaiting the shaft from Polish joystick guru, Kowal. I've documented the refurbishing process so far with pictures that you can view on my JK page.

In addition to the new panel, I've installed a fresnel lense I bought at a flea market for a lousy $4 some year ago. It really is a huge difference in screen size, if you can live with the fact that you'll need to stand in the exact same position all through your game.

2009-03-18

New JAMMA harness installed in the JK cabinet. Everything is perfectly setup and I took the opportunity of upgrading the crappy speaker to one that I found in the subwoofer of a busted 2.1 system at the local recycling station. It really sounds so much better now. The bass is now heard. Not ONLY screechy treble. Also rearranged most of the built in parts for better access.

2009-01-30

Haven't had much funds to spend on arcade games/cabinet updates lately. A very nice guy has lent me his Ketsui PCB, so now I'm learning much about this beautiful gem from CAVE.

I've devised a nice instruction card-holder to replace the totally unneccesary ashtray in my Xiong Ba cabinet. Looks really nice, doesn't it?

I've also put lot's of energy into getting the screen "right". Lots of tweaking of the chassis board setttings, and now it's actually acceptable. D