2010-12-23

So, last week my harddrive gave up. Naturally this has taken it's toll on the site updates, even though I really haven't had anything to put here.

In case you've missed it, there are some awesome new additions to MAME since last week. Ketsui,
Do-Donpachi Dai-Ou-Jou (including Black Label) and ESPGALUDA. Initally the last one wasn't playable, but just wait for MAME 0.140u3 or so for a working driver and game rom to appear on the Internet.

Here's a clip of me playing Ketsui in MAME:



The emulation is very good already, especially considering how long some people have been waiting.

2010-12-04

As a small Christmas present for my visitors, I've made a small page with XBox 360 Dashboard theme backgrounds like the one in the news item below. Click the banner below to go there:

          

2010-12-02

I was kinda bored today, so I made a background image for my XBox 360 dashboard to fit my EGRET II as it's more or less a "dedicated" cabinet console.

Looks nice:



Close up and horizontal view (please don't laugh at my measly gamer-score):



Background image can be downloaded from here

2010-11-29

Finally had a fitting moment to pull the Gemini Wing bootleg I bought back in March out of storage to snap a picture of it. It's now added to the GAMES page on this site.

2010-11-20

I been making lots of posts over at the shmups forums about the Ultracade Universal Video Converter (discontinued) that I use to display my XBox 360 games in my EGRET II. The thread has lots of useful info on this, so I went ahead and copied all of the useful data over to a new page that I've made here should the info disappear sometime. The original thread got deleted by mistake once, and I don't want to go through with another re-write. Click the banner below to read.



2010-11-18

    

Made a little guide on how to upgrade the speakers in your EGRET II (should work well for any type of JAMMA sitdown really) to a 2.1 stereo set, allowing easy console, PC or a stereo source, line output arcade system. The guide describes what's needed, and how to do the switch in three ways.

I've also completed a small project of turning a HORI Tekken 6 wireless stick (for the 360) into a Guwange stick.

    

2010-11-11

Today I got some shiny new glass holders for my EGRET II's. Looks great:


 


2010-10-28

Aaaand here's the mysterious B-board: Progear No Arashi (bootleg). This is a Euro cart converted to run the excellent CAVE title normally only available on Japanese or US carts.



2010-10-28

Picked up a CPS2 mobo locally. Just waiting for that special B-board. Yesterday I received a Papst fan that I'm gonna put in the mobo to make everything quiet and nice.

2010-09-20

Bought some nice stuff for my cabinets, since game releases are a couple of weeks away. Still waiting for the pre-orders to open up at my favourite web-store for Do-Donpachi Dai-Fukkatsu 1.5 and Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets.

New buttons for the panel where I put Sanwa RGs before. I went with Seimitus with clear plunger instead:







I also bought some more of those lovely Dark Hai meshballs, as they're a perfect fit for any EGRET II panel and fit them onto my SUZO 500 custom shaft as well as my 2-player panel.



I also made a little experiment that seems to have worked for the better. I bought a Seimitsu LS-56 8-way restrictor gate and fitted it onto the SUZO 500 and the fit was perfect! At least that's what I thought, but further testing showed that the LS-56's screw holes doesn't line up with the scewed ones on a SUZO 500. I'm gonna have a restrictor made by a friend who's like an Acrylic magician. :D





Buttons, balls and LS-56 gate was purchased from Akihabarashop, as usual. :D

2010-07-22

Been a while since the last update. I've today sold my Rampage World Tour PCB because it's kind of a nuicance getting it to run (demands -5V, but might even be broken, buyer was aware though). Not much else is new, I've been putting all of my time into playing Ketsui on the 360 and finally got the 1ALL on one credit. I can't really afford the PCB's I would wanna buy, so I keep buying nice 360 ports instead, Ketsui and DeathSmiles 2X are the latest ones, but I haven't played DS2X at all.

2010-04-07

Last night I finished the new 1L5B-panel for the new EGRET II and I am very pleased with the look and overall greatness of it. :P

I wanted to try out some new stuff, so I've modded an Seimitsu LS-32 joystick with an LS-40 shaft. This is also known as the LS-36 (not an official product). Unfortunately I forgot to buy a washer for it, but I'll hopefully get hold of a custom transparent one from a nice guy in the UK known as FrancoB who does lots of great stuff for us arcade buffs. I added a pink shaft cover, and a "Dark Hai" Meshball to it as it'll match the EGRET II artwork perfectly. The pink buttons are Sanwa RG ones, and the white start button is also a Sanwa one. The reproduction artwork are from MCS in Florida and the blank panel I got from Starcab in France. Connectors (as well as joystick Mesh ball, shaft parts + buttons) I got from Akihabarashop (highly recommended, the service goes above and beyond with this shop).

I also bought some OMRON microswitches from Akihabarashop that are now installed into the SUZO 500 I have in my other EGRET II. I added some electrical tape as a spacer, as the SUZO's does have an unfortunate gap behind the microswitches that'll ruin the experience if you install the stick and make a tiny mistake in the switch placement. Pictures below:

The finished panel:



OMRON switches (are listed as Sanwa JLF switches I think), elecrical tape added by me):



Washer prototype (I cut a CD-R tower protective washer with a scissor just to see what it'll look like:





2010-03-14

Picked up my second EGRET II today:



(Sorry for the iPhone picture, I didn't have a lot of time tonight).

It does have some scuffs in the bezel and surrounding body, but just some fast touching up with some appliance paint really made a whole world of difference right away. Already ordered parts to assemble a 1-player panel for this one as well. I will probably use the Seimitsu buttons that came with this 2-player panel for it, or give the Sanwa RG's a try. Some speak highly of them, so why not give them a try. Earlier in the week, a Gemini Wing bootleg PCB arrived, but I think I'll try to get rid of it rather swiftly, as it displays upside down, and lacks a screen flip option. I know that because of that, I won't be playing it, but run Gemini Wing on my MAME PC instead. :(

When time allows, I'll snap a couple of better pictures of these beauties!

2010-02-27

Finally sourced and bought another EGRET II. As soon as the weather allows, I'll go get it and post some pictures of it as well. Will be great to play some ESPGALUDA in it, and ESPGALUDA II (360) in my other one as that'll be arriving this week.I have something else coming as well. Been a while since I actually bought a PCB.

I also got my grubby hands on a one-of-a-kind wall scroll:



This will be up on the wall behind my 24kHz EGRET II ASAP. Look at the TAITO ashtray as a size reference, it's 1x2 meters, so pretty big, printed on canvas.

2010-01-30

The JK cabinet was picked up today, so now I only have my EGRET II. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another one to show up.

2010-01-24

The removal of arcade stuff is ongoing in my life at the moment. We've moved to a new apartment, and I can no longer fit three cabinets, so moving stuff that doesn't get enough use is crucial. The JK cabinet is now sold (sadly way too cheap) and is awaiting pickup next weekend. The search for yet another EGRET II is now on, and hopefully I will get that this spring. Apparently, the EGRET II is going up in price in Japan (are they starting to run out of these?) so hopefully I won't be paying too much for it.

My current EGRET II has the Nanao MS9 monitor set to display at 24kHz for my XBox 360, Dreamcast or whatever other high res source I would want to feed it, so this other one will be my dedicated 15kHz machine for PCB use (I will put my Ibara board in first I think, or maybe ESPGALUDA). I've played my last credit on the JK today (Strikers 1945) just to check the functionality of it, and it's really great for playing older games.