Turbo cab!

[Sadler]

I was lucky enough to pick up a TurboGrafx cab today from a craigslist deal. Huge thanks to xele for the help moving this thing! Anyway, the whole experience was pretty awesome. I thought the seller was quite a character, but I'm probably basing that entirely on his mustache. I asked about other TG marquees or TG/PCE hardware he might have lying around. Turns out the guy has a laseractive! He didn't seem to want to let it go though, and I don't blame him. Anyway, as far as history on this cab goes, apparently it was a Galaga '88 cab converted for United Artist movie theaters. I think the guy said at one time he had two jamma tg's (actually I think he said PCE), but I'm not sure. Anyway, some pics:

Open cabinet:


Controller:


Marquee:



Galaga sticker:


Coin mechanism:


Random wires I don't understand. Presumably video and audio are somewhere in here:


Way up in the cab. Power supply and some other stuff?


I'd really like to get this thing up and running again. Presumably my first goal is to figure out the wiring inside the cab so I can make a jamma harness for it?

[CPTRAVE]

Cool, can't wait to see it put together and working. Is that the one you found for USD 100?

[SignOfZeta]

So...it doesn't actually have a TG-16 in it? It also looks semi-proprietary, which is odd for something from that far into the JAMMA years.

Well, it doesn't appear to have much rot/squirrel shit in it, so that's good.

[Deletion]

Very cool. Can you post a pic with the marquee and controller in place?

[DrBread]

Oh man! This thing is beautiful! I would honestly have ruined jeans after obtaining one of these.

[Sadler]

Cool, can't wait to see it put together and working. Is that the one you found for USD 100?

That's the one, although by the time truck rental was through I was out quite a bit more than $100.

So...it doesn't actually have a TG-16 in it? It also looks semi-proprietary, which is odd for something from that far into the JAMMA years.

Well, it doesn't appear to have much rot/squirrel shit in it, so that's good.

No TG nor harness in it, it's just the cab. Fortunately rodent excrement is minimal.

Very cool. Can you post a pic with the marquee and controller in place?

Sure can!

[FiftyQuid]

That thing is awesome!  I would love to see a picture of it even mockingly put together!  $100 is a steal.  If I was anywhere near you I would have helped you move that piece too.  Very nice!  

[EDIT] Ninja'd.  Thanks!

P.S. - Was that cat in the cabinet or does he belong to you?  

[Sadler]

That thing is awesome!  I would love to see a picture of it even mockingly put together!  $100 is a steal.  If I was anywhere near you I would have helped you move that piece too.  Very nice! 

"Assembled" pics just above your post.

P.S. - Was that cat in the cabinet or does he belong to you? 

Guy only wanted $5 for the cat, so I figured I'd go for it. J/K that's Bruno

[BlueBMW]

Some of the connectors in there look similar to the connection that were on the harness attached to the original UA TG16 jamma unit I had.  Calling it JAMMA wasn't quite right.... it used some JAMMA like parts, but it really didnt connect plug and play to a jamma cabinet.  It had to be wired in.  Though you could wire it to a jamma fingerboard and make it a jamma compatible unit.

Oh and, while the cabs were pitched as TG16, it is actually a PC engine system used.  They just sold modified game hucards to run US games on it.

[roflmao]

That is freakin' AWESOME, Sadler!

[CPTRAVE]

Awesome, it looks fantastic put together.

[Sparky]

Very cool and have never seen.... Is there anything that goes over there screen/tv?
There are screw holes

[Sadler]

Thanks eveyone! I'm downright stunned that this thing is in my basement right now. I can't believe everything worked out! I know next to nothing about arcade cabs, but my feeling is that I've got quite a bit of work ahead of me to get this thing functional.

Very cool and have never seen.... Is there anything that goes over there screen/tv?
There are screw holes

Yeah, it needs a bezel. My understanding is that I can get a piece of plexiglass cut to fit in the notches, then use poster board to mask the edges. It'd be cool to incorporate some art in the bezel, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what would be appropriate. Bonk doesn't seem like a bad choice.

[BlueBMW]

You need the dude from the tg16 box on the bezel yelling at you whil you play.

[roflmao]

You need the dude from the tg16 box on the bezel yelling at you whil you play.

Haha!  That made me lol.

[T2KFreeker]

Nice man. Our arcade had one of those when I was a kid. Got to play a couple games on it and that's another reason I got into the system. Aliens Crush was weird with the joystick though!  Really bad ass score there Sadler.

[Tatsujin]

Choose a dark bezel

[Gogan]

Great score there! Man, I'd like to come across one of these, or them in-store kiosks.

[hoobs88]

Nice! I got the marquee for this cabinet a few years ago but never saw a complete one. I planned to make my own cabinet/kiosk but never found any other components.

[NecroPhile]

Pretty sweet, Sadler!  Are you sure it's a converted Galaga '88 cabinet?  The layout is wrong from the ones I've seen (button layout, monitor orientation, and speaker location), so maybe it's an original cabinet that was originally set up as a Galaga '88 huey.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

That's amazing Sadler!!  Great score mang, however I think you stole my socks....

/20r9ppx.jpg

[SuperPlay]

Nice pick up :@)

[guyjin]

awesome find!

[Sadler]

Pretty sweet, Sadler!  Are you sure it's a converted Galaga '88 cabinet?  The layout is wrong from the ones I've seen (button layout, monitor orientation, and speaker location), so maybe it's an original cabinet that was originally set up as a Galaga '88 huey.

Well, I've spent some time trying to figure out exactly what I've got on my hands. It doesn't help that I know nothing of arcade games, but I've found some interesting stuff. First, here's a link dump:

neo-geo forum thread with great pics
Manual for hardware
PCEFX thread from some guy that apparently got some portion of the hardware
Most recent PCEFX thread

To address the cab itself, you are right, I don't think this is a Galaga '88 cab. Google image search doesn't show anything like what I've got. What is clear though, is that at least some of this is the United Amusement stuff (more speculation on this later). Compare the controller in these pics:



to my controller: /2u6phz6.jpg

The button layout is the same, apparently left/right handed? My controller has a green stick, but that seems pretty minor. My marquee doesn't seem to match the marquee in those pics though.

Anyway, moving on to United Amusement. Anyone know more about these guys? The Galaga sticker on my cab reads "United Artists Theatre Amusements". Is the similarity in name just a coincidence?

/2uemdc1.jpg

[henrycsc]

Drool city Sadler.  What a super sweet find!

I recently contacted the former owner of United Amusements to ask him if he still had any info or specs on the cabinet & monitor.  Unfortunately, he no longer had any of that info.

Would you mind posting model & part numbers for the pieces that are still installed?

[Sadler]

Drool city Sadler.  What a super sweet find!

I recently contacted the former owner of United Amusements to ask him if he still had any info or specs on the cabinet & monitor.  Unfortunately, he no longer had any of that info.

Would you mind posting model & part numbers for the pieces that are still installed?

That's too bad the guy didn't have any more info! But yeah, I'll post everything I can as I bring this thing back to life!

[TheClash603]

Nice!  Never saw one of these before.  Great find at a good price!

[csgx1]

Nice find!  That's an awesome looking cab.

[swiss780]

very jelaous... I wonder where i can find one in canada.

[SMF]

Awesome find, I would have grabbed it for that price also. Worse case you can't ge it workng toss in a old TG16 and wire that bad boy up.

[Terminarcade]

Wow, what a badass find sadler! Even that cat is speachless in front of that sexy marquee.

[Samurai Ghost]

Nice buy! With a little TLC that thing will be looking and playing great.

[420GOAT]

hows the progress?

[Bardoly]

Wow!  This looks nice!  I don't remember ever seeing anything like this before. (Turbo that is.)

[reno5]

Very nice. I have some spare place in my basement where it would fit perfectly ;)

[PunkCryborg]

Sadler said I had dibs on it if he cant get it going 

I promise I didn't make that up 






 

[soop]

The actual PC Engine unit that you can see at the bottom of the French magazine scan, I saw on ebay once in 2002 ish.  I believe it was being sold as a PC Engine Jet, and iirc it was going for £150, and it was in Germany.  Never seen one before or since.

also, from http://nfggames.com/games/pce/

Secret 31:
Several Japanese (And possibly other) companies produced adaptors that would allow the PC Engine to function in an arcade cabinet. These would typically include a timer that reset the system when no additional money was inserted before it reached zero, an audio amp, and little else. The unit I have used a large elastic to hold the adaptor to the PC Engine, and with the addition of a few extra parts could function on a megadrive as well. Curiously, it supplied power to the PC Engine through the rear port, not the AC port. Also, it would flash the screen red when the timer was nearly out by maxing the red RGB channel. Obviously this required no changes to the software running on the system.

Secret 32:
If you supply power to the PC Engine or CoreGrafx through the rear expansion port it will bypass the power switch, and you can't turn the system off. This will also bypass the regulator and fuse, so use caution!


*edit* a quick google of "PC engine jet" reveals: http://turbo.mindrec.com/digest/file.php?yr=TURBO.2001&issue=01.TURBO.0134

That might actually be the same one I saw!

And you might want to talk to this guy: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~wizkid/arcade/pcjet.html

[420GOAT]

dude, i want one so bad!!!!

[esteban]

Some of the connectors in there look similar to the connection that were on the harness attached to the original UA TG16 jamma unit I had.  Calling it JAMMA wasn't quite right.... it used some JAMMA like parts, but it really didnt connect plug and play to a jamma cabinet.  It had to be wired in.  Though you could wire it to a jamma fingerboard and make it a jamma compatible unit.

Oh and, while the cabs were pitched as TG16, it is actually a PC engine system used.  They just sold modified game hucards to run US games on it.

Do you still have this? It sounds like you no longer have it

Anway, I'd love for you to decide on the best way to describe this beautiful beast. Is "TG-16 Jamma*" and then a disclaimer to accompany the asterisk the best way to go?

The reason I'm asking is because MANY MOONS AGO I took  your old, fabulous thread on the TG-16 Jamma Unit  and made it into a nice page:


United Artists TG-16 JAMMA

THE PROBELM IS THAT I NEVER FINISHED THE END (I tried to write up a section about United Amusements and the owner and blah blah blah).

SO IF ANYONE CAN HELP ME FINISH THIS, I would be eternally grateful.

I totally forgot I had done this until seeing this thread.

Also, I couldn't believe that BMW's great thread wasn't listed yet! WTF??!!

FINALLY: I am totally envious of everyone!

[Drakon]

Great piece of history for sure!  Too bad these were made using particle board..

[BlueBMW]

The TG16 Jamma unit I had is now in the hands of turbo museum curator henrycsc as his collection was far more deserving of such a piece.

You might contact him and see if he has any more info on it.

[GameFreak]

Is this the one that has been posted on craigslist in Colorado forever without pics? Either way.....holy f****** s***, NICE SCORE!

[Sadler]

Not much to report yet. I got a JAMMA harness in, and a US Duo that I've sent to BMW to be JAMMA-ized.

/ojgz2c.jpg

esteban, that's a great link, thanks!

GameFreak, I suspect that's the one. Can't imagine there are that many TG cabs floating around CO!

[esteban]

This cabinet is simply too awesome. I can't express its beauty in words, so I won't.

[Bardoly]

Well, since you reminded us of this thread..., how's this project coming along?

[Duo_R]

Did we ever get the Jamma harness made? Can we share that info with the community? Too awesome!

[Sadler]

Sadly the Duo hasn't been Jamma-fied yet. *pokes BMW*

[PunkCryborg]

If Sadler doesn't hurry up and get that cab together I'll be required to take it with force 

[esteban]

If Sadler doesn't hurry up and get that cab together I'll be required to take it with force 

Excellent. Then I will stealthily sneak into your home at night and extricate the cab without any disturbances.

[Jack Burton]

I'm guessing you're going to get the duo rgb modded so you can use one of VileTim's rgb to jamma adapters from the shmup.com forums.  They work great.