| Sean McVeigh's MAME
Cabinet Project see MAMEWorld to figure out what on earth I'm talking about |
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| Introduction Design Cabinet Controls Interfacing PC Guts Audio Video Links |
Video I acquired a 25" Wells-Gardner monitor tube and electronics. The tube has lost its vacuum seal, so I'm on the lookout for a replacement. Perhaps ordering a new tube wouldn't be all that bad, as it is only about $150 I believe, and it would come with a warranty. I already have the yokes, deflector board, and chassis from the old set. After some intense contemplation ....  Fortune is on my side. I contacted a sales rep from Wells Gardner and inquired about refurbished monitors. She told me that she could sell me a refurbished D9200 for $325USD. Now, the replacement tube for the 7400 was going to cost about $200, and the D9200 retails for $495 new, so this seemed like a great deal. The specs on the D9200 are available on the Wells Gardner site here. Turns out it will fit the cabinet perfectly, and I won't require any special circuitry to guarantee it only powers on when the proper sync frequency is present (like the 7400 would have required). How to pay for this though? I dusted off my old R/C helicopter and put it up for sale on eBay. I have had this helicopter for about 6 or 7 years and I think I flew it about 3 times (or attempted to fly, as Evil Paul reminded me -- Evil Paul was my roommate back in university.. he works at Microsoft now, and is invaluable when it comes to shipping items to Canada from eBayers who don't want to). I paid about $700cdn for this helicopter back in the mid-90's, and put maybe an extra $100 or so into getting the required accessories for it. I was contemplating setting a reserve price of $200USD on it or so, and perhaps with an option to "buy-it-now" for $250, but I opted to take a chance and list it for $99. Man was I surprised when it ended up fetching $500USD! So owning this helicopter for 7 years cost me a total of about $100. Not bad for the conversation piece it was :) I put in my order to Wells Gardner the day I received my payment! It's been a week and it hasn't arrived yet, but I suspect it will on Monday or Tuesday. I'm really waiting on this to arrive so I can construct a mount for it and begin sealing off all of the screw-holes on the exterior of the cabinet and start painting. 2 weeks pass, and still no monitor. I phone Fedex, and they say they haven't seen it. A quick call out to Wells Gardner sorts this out. They created the tracking number, but neglected to call for a pick-up I guess. The monitor arrives 4 days later! Again, sorry I don't have any shots of the mounting right now... here is the finished cabinet with the monitor mounted:  I had nothing but trouble with my video cards I should mention. The progression was something like this:
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