The Unky chop chop "Arcade experience"

A-Trak

I was gonna start a blog purely for this as I reckon it's gonna be 100% comedy gold.

My brother, unky chop chop, has bought and paid for this:


A full sized 2 player original Midway "Killer Instinct," cabinet, weighing in at about 6ft tall and around 500lbs in weight.

His goal is to fully mod it, running some arcade boards so it emulates & plays all streetfighter games since the original SFII, (So it'll have SFII, Alpha, 3s and all of their iterations,) on a real arcade cab and he's going to replace all the stick and buttons with Sanwa parts, the full deal.
As well as this he's going to install an xbox so he can dual-boot it and play Super as well. The full package, reliving his misspent youth putting 20p pieces into an arcade cabinet and smoking fags in a bowling alley 20 yeas ago.

And he's also managed to both get the space in his house he needs for the gigantic cab, and brilliantly has managed to con his girlfriend into paying for some of it as a birthday and christmas present combined. (This combo still apparently works as a ploy when you're an adult.)

Now your first thought may be, "Play on brother, live the arcade dream," but your second thought may also be, "Hmmmm, unky chop chop is an active member of the fighting games forum, how come he hasn't been asking for advice here, is he naturally talented in modding?"

The answer is no, he's been pain-stakingly researching this project in secret.
The first I've heard about it was that I've been drafted in to help transport the 500lb monster next weekend.
He's been beavering away, reading up and contacting all manners of arcade experts over the last few months prior to buying the cab.

The reason for his secrecy?
Well despite holding a first class degree in IT as well as heading up the hardware and support area of a multinational company, he is actually quite frankly mentally lacking with anything to do with electronics.
Quite simply, anything that contains wires and electronics, once he opens it up, it never, ever ever, goes back together in a working fashion.

Laptops, xboxes, joysticks, even calculators. Once he takes out that last screw of the case, that particular collection of resistors and wires whatever it is, will never work as designed ever again.

Now with a simple arcade stick mod there's not too much that can go wrong, it simply will stop working once he's opened it.

But reading up on modding arcade cabs, if you wire certain parts up wrong you can electrocute yourself . Fatality, flawless victory.

So his goal is to eventually say in a casual manner at the next inferno "Sure I've got a working arcade, you should swing by some time and play streetfigter in it's native environment."
Where the actual experience will be of an idiot pouring money into a bunch of wires of many many months, potentially frying himself many many times.

A lesson to us all.

I'll keep this thread updated with live pics and updates

blag

That is awesome, I learned to play fighting games properly on a sit down KI cabinet and love the game. IMO just change the sticks/buttons to Japanese style and it's perfect.

Ramza

That's deadly, best of luck and hope it goes well

Sairus

Righteousness of the highest order. KI is one of the few fighters I played for decent lengths of time in the arcade so I approve of the cabinet choice. Good times!

K.O.Kiki

And it'll be doubly funny when he has to take up woodworking to make a new control panel, and ends up chopping off half his fingers!

*cough*

Dreddybajs

holy **** this sounds amazing. can't contribute anything of value except my overwhelming excitement that i can play on this thing someday soon

Ramza

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

chopping off half his fingers!

unky chop chop :pac:

Doctor DooM

I'm glad someone bought this, i'd been asked if I was interested in a pub a couple weeks back.
Good luck unky, as your fellow clumsy bastard I am rooting for you.
One thing- if you think about it, we never used sanwa in arcades in Ireland! Semitsus'd be way more authentic.

chopperbyrne

Some of us had decent arcades Doom where we had the use of proper Japanese cabinets with Sanwa parts :rolleyes:

Ry

The beginning of "Chopstone 2" ?

Orim

If that gets finished without killing someone, I'm taking up smoking again to make I can fully the arcade dream.

Placebo

HILARIOUS post paul.
Think he shot himself in the foot if he was looking for just Street Fighter,

firstly they all run on cps1 cps2 cps3 respective boards.
Killer instinct uses it own stand alone board that will not run anything else
http://system16.com/hardware.php?id=614&gid=1139#1139

secondly you will have to work wonders to get two boards running in one cabinet, wires going to tv/power/the controls?

even harder is implementing an xbox in there



also early xmas present for dave
http://killerinstinctonline.net/KIarcademanual.pdf

Ken B

That is beyond brilliant. Hopefully it contains the advert for the 'Ultra 64'!!


Ps: Just watching a show on BBC2 as I'm typing this and some blind dude is playing Street Fighter II, which character do you think he's using?



If you said Guile............

Scavenger XIII

To hell with that, use it as is.

Mmmmm, Killer Instinct.

K.O.Kiki

Xbox 1 & emulators.

UberPrinny_Baal

That's fricken sweet. I literally made best friends of childhood enemies over the KI cabinet.

My arcade growing up didn't actually have street fighter, just KI and Mortal Kombat 3, so obviously I ended up playing a lot of KI.

I will absolutely come over to Dave's at any point to try this out, even before he destroys it and kills himself.

It's a pretty perfect thing for the guy who likes his arcade stick on a flat surface.

Sisko

That's fantastic!


Finally someone in this community has their own arcade cab, we are complete:pac:

Yreval

Placebo wrote: »

HILARIOUS post paul.
Think he shot himself in the foot if he was looking for just Street Fighter,

firstly they all run on cps1 cps2 cps3 respective boards.
Killer instinct uses it own stand alone board that will not run anything else
http://system16.com/hardware.php?id=614&gid=1139#1139

secondly you will have to work wonders to get two boards running in one cabinet, wires going to tv/power/the controls?

even harder is implementing an xbox in there



also early xmas present for dave
http://killerinstinctonline.net/KIarcademanual.pdf

Not quite - the JAMMA standard was created just so that games could be easily converted in this way (the vast majority of games made in the last 25 years will be compatible). Of course, he's still going to need somewhere to store all those CPS boards, and because Capcom didn't make anything similar to those multi-slot Neo-Geo motherboards he can only have one game installed at a time.

unky chop chop

Those who dare..
That's it Waller Laugh it up. You will have to pay for every game.
Really looking forward to it,A childhood dream come true.
Actually it all seems handy enough...gulp.
Gonna keep the cabinet in original format with a Multi game board to begin with..playing all old school games(SF3,kof etc,captain commando) for the real arcade experience.

@Farz:Yreval is right.the Killer instinct board can just be unplugged from Jamma connector and any other Jamma compatible board plugged in..cps1,cps2 and cps3 are all Jamma compatible.Its basically plug and play
only change is that the 3 kick buttons will have to be wired directlly to board(normal Jamma connector only supports 3 buttons)


First time I will be able to play on a Cabinet with out a high probability of getting in a ruck with Pikeys (R.I.P Dundrum Bowl)
The only initial pitfall will be to build new control panel with Sanwa parts.
The American wooden style cabs don't fit sanwa parts and are also too thick for mounting Jap stick and buttons.Plus I hate that Happ American crap that it comes with
Gonna go with Viewlix layout.

1 plank , few holes ..bit of wiring..lick of paint,attach ashtray.piece of p!ss.
(god help us all)
Next up will be to add PC and wire all components to Jpac adaptor which is like a I/O bridge between PC and original Cab wiring
I can then Run Mame/GGPO aswell
With Jamma switch I can switch between board and PC.


Final thing is Xbox360.
Bit if a dilemma here. At the moment its not possible to interface the 360 with jamma wiring..its one or the other. So a little down the road i could mount new HD screen, pad hack control panel and connect to 360 and throw in SSF4.
Other option is when Im putting in PC i can install high spec one to Run SF4 in conjuction with jpac/ipac and original wiring,eliminating need for Xbox.
I Almost sound like i know what im doing!God bless ya Internet
theory and practicality are two very different beasts
Wish me luck because I'll bloody well need it.
Any one with any knowedge/suggestions feel free to jump in as i really haven't a breeze what I'm at.
Im sure my bro will gladly update you's on all the feck ups my ham fisted hands cause.
Roll on DAVES MEGA SUPER FUN TIME EMPORIUM grand opening...

Placebo

bagsy first

Sagat06

I got next

unky chop chop

The coin mech is working..so your gonna have to get your 20p down first.
Rules are rules;)

K.O.Kiki

Unky, hit me up if you need a hand with wiring & arcade controls, etc.

No guarantees I can build it, but I can figure out what you need, no bother.

Sairus

unky chop chop wrote: »

The coin mech is working..so your gonna have to get your 20p down first.
Rules are rules;)

I had never seen this whole putting your coin down on the machine business until 2006 when some Spaniards were on the DDR machine in Galway.
Galway is totally behind the times with this stuff.
Post up Dave's address so I can send on my 20p to you.

unky chop chop

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Unky, hit me up if you need a hand with wiring & arcade controls, etc.

No guarantees I can build it, but I can figure out what you need, no bother.

Cheers.You can probably bank on me relying on your extensive knowledge Kiki.

Ken B

Hey Dave, how are you going to get SFIII on it/ Do you have a CPS III board? Or are you going to hook it up with mame somehow?

unky chop chop

Initially gonna buy a multi board to get me going.

Basically its like a PC mother board with processor which plugs straight in with loads of games.
Something like this
http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/52-xxxx-in-1-jamma-multiboard.html
They are expensive to get a good one.Many of them on the market are dodgey and suffer bad slow down when handling cps3 games.
the cab seller has a few to recommend to me and test out

Then I'll just replace the board with my PC and MAME

Placebo

if i was on the dole

http://customvewlix.blogspot.com/

unky chop chop

Placebo

use a saw, not a chainsaw.
also your in real life cutting wood , not in kikis dream

http://www.deviantart.com/download/132501673/Chainsaw_Girl_by_ToonTinkerer.jpg

unky chop chop

Thought I'd throw up a quick vid of my arcade cab in its current state before my bro beats me to the punch and shows it with flames bursting out the back and my face melted to the control panel.

My vids aren't a patch on Misty's so be warned:pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyrnpVdEDmo

Owwmykneecap

Apart from KI it's all emulation?

unky chop chop

Yep, want do you want from me?
Its 200+ euro per jamma board Im not made of money
Its a jamma wired original cab so i can buy any Jamma arcade board eg..sf3 and just unplug multi board and plug in sf3

chopperbyrne

Awesome stuff man.

I'd love to have my own cab.

Someday...

Sagat06

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Someday...

thats the dream man :rolleyes:

unky chop chop

Follow your dreams people.I did
Now me bird hates me.She says that she hopes I die from an electric shock from it and get buried in it
So be it

chopperbyrne

It'd be a good way to go in fairness.

Owwmykneecap

unky chop chop wrote: »

Yep, want do you want from me?
Its 200+ euro per jamma board Im not made of money
Its a jamma wired original cab so i can buy any Jamma arcade board eg..sf3 and just unplug multi board and plug in sf3

Not criticizing! Just wondering!

unky chop chop

Nope your off the guest list for the grand opening tournament.:pac:

Owwmykneecap

unky chop chop

New buttons and sanwa JLW installed in cabinet.Just have to do player 2 now
Its actually a nice stick to use.
bit stiffer than jlf and a larger throw distance as it is longer.
A hell of a lot better than the Happ one that was in it.
The buttons are Happ competitions.

Let the real fighting begin