Shuttle Invader cocktail cabinet

I swore I wasn't going to get another cabinet, but then a friend of mine arranged for me to obtain a cocktail cabinet. I had mentioned a while ago that I might be looking for one, yet I was really thinking "Taito" then looking at the prices (around £500 in some instance) I thought "Nah!"

So, when I was offered an Omori Shuttle Invader cocktail (without the PCB) for £15.00 I thought, why the hell not.

I'll tell you for why! It's arrived looking like fire fodder, that's why.

Suffice to say it was worth £15.00, but probably not much more. So, what to do? I initially thought about dragging it into the yard, striking a match, pouring some flammable substance on it and waving it bye, bye!

Then a funny thought occurred, which was "I wonder whether I can get this running?" What an idiot I am.

So it arrived thus:


Monitor cables all cut and chopped off, plastics all chipped or shattered, the glass intact, the locks missing, the PSUs fried, the monitor chassis looking rather old, but perhaps workable, none of the buttons matching and most of them ratty, however it was £15.00 what did I expect?



Pick a button, any button and add it, even if it's the wrong size or doesn't match!



So this was what was salvaged and cleaned up (de-spidered actually etc)



And a lot of sanding later. I still have a pile to do on it though.

I know, I know, this IS the last one! Actually, I am going to give this one to my son.

 

P.S. I was sold with the added feature that someone had already applied "wood stain to make it more attractive".

No, no, no! Wood stain is meant to be liberally applied and carefully worked into the wood. Instead, you can apply it so that it is uneven and streaks like back bacon. You can also ensure that you've caked it in so much wood stain that it looks like a plastic coating. I'll let you decide whether it was the "attractive" finish as advertised or "caked".

As I said, it was £15.00 I am just bitchin', I don't blame the seller for trying to make it seem more prepared for service than it is / was.

So, if anyone has the plastic surrounds for the control panels lurking around I would love to know. I have 1 that might be useable (one corner chipped) and another that is so broken up it's useless.

 

If it was me, I'd ditch the original CP and start again.

Build a pretty box for a new one facing up rather than sideways, and get a new CPO designed and a piece of plexi to go over it.

Other than that, sanding off the stain and varnishing the wood is about as far as I'd go, it was only 15 sheep after all.

Assuming you can get the monitor working of course, personally I'd tackle that first before sinking a huge amount of time on anything else

 

The good thing about these are the number of monitors available and their cheapness. I could also simply Mame (oooooooo, I can hear every Jamma+ member turning in their future-retro graves) it and sink a PC monitor into it.

After all, as you say £15... also it's for Ethan so as long as it plays something he'd be happy.

I even thought about putting his LCD monitor in under the glass. It fits perfectly!

I also thought about the building out the CP. There are a few companies that sell something suitable, but at a silly cost.

The sanding continues.

 

Hmmm, another option I just realised is making it a 1 player cabinet as I don't as yet have any 2 player cocktail PCBs. Also, Ethan mostly plays these things when he doesn't have friends around.

Hmmmm? Workable! I can install a vent where the other CP was.

Win! :thumbsup:

 

I've never heard of or seen one of these things before. Post more pics when you're done, I'm having a hard time getting my head around what it's meant to look like.

 

I was gonna suggest MAME, I'm a lot less keen on it than I used to be though.

But it's not a bad idea in the circumstances, one of those nice old 17" Sony Trinitrons would look superb in there *cough*

What state is the table top surface in?

 

I'll take more images if you both want.

The table top itself is awful. Full of chips, woodgrain and dings. I was considering removing it completely and cutting a completely new MDF one as that would paint up beautifully, be cheap as all hell to purchase.

The original game "Shuttle Invaders" is utter garbage and not worth hunting down.

No, I am not so keen on Mame having tried it out. Perhaps that Blue Elf if it has any vert shmups?

As for the Sony 17" monitor I actually threw it out as it was getting in the way, but I have a smaller (but screen is 17") IBM one lurking in the attic, also an Atari monitor, an Amstrad monitor.

I could insert a tape driven Amstrad CPC 464 into that unit and play Arkanoid Revenge of Doh :lol:

 

The Blue Elf does have vert shmups, sadly they play horizontally :banghead:

 

Kapow! End of that idea lol :033:

Okay, I was just thinking of it's size as there's not much room inside this cabinet. Physically it is smaller than a Taito cocktail cabinet.

Twimfy, when complete it would look similar to this:


This is a Taito Arkanoid unit.

 

The space on the right of the empty cab looks like it would be big enough for a PC or whatever

 

If I put in a TFT then there would be oodles of space underneath. I have decided to take it even further to pieces and sand each piece of wood right down. It's not exactly amazing wood, but the coating on it is awful and really needs so additional work.

I know it's probably not worth too much attention, but then again if a job is worth doing then it's worth doing well (as they say).

 

Has to be a CRT then m8 :thumbsup:

TFT for retro = puke

 

Is it rubbish with Mame then is it? Bah, ok!

 

Really bad

 

Ugh, okay, well I am sure I can sort out a CRT for it.

I just ripped it too pieces, deciding to fit an entirely new base. You are looking at no more than £5 worth of MDF so no big shakes. It is better to start with a new base as it was beginning to split and that metal frame on the bottom was clearly too heavy for it.

 

Lolz, when I saw that first pic of the bonfire pile I thought frustration had got the better of you!

 

He will light it on fire, I know it

 

Ha ha, yes we had a bunch or termites move in during the night! ;-)

As for the pile of unwanted wood... :flamethrower:

 

It's sad that a lot of these machines are being skipped, or canbalised as they aren't very common. Shuttle Invader maybe a rip off of Space Invaders but it does have very different hardware and the control panel is very Japanese. The chances of finding a working shuttle invader board would be 10,000 to 1 but that's no excuse for killing the poor unit.

I was sad that I couldn't rescue a Sega Galaxian tabletop last year due to finances. T_T