OK, here's the plot... 11th of September 2004 [ sad birthday date, bad coincidence ] I bought four arcade games cabinet at my local arcade game shop : AB Cop, NBA Jam, Virtua Fighter and GAUNTLET Legends, for a real nice deal. All perfectly working and great condition ! Especially the Gauntlet Legends.

Ok, I Already have a Mame/Daphne cabinet, but on a generic arcade cabinet...  



The fun is present, but the cabinet isn't spectacular... and it is too small for me, the control panel isn't accurate, and not finished at all...  

SO it's time to build my definitive Daphne/Mame cabinet... and the Gaunltet Cab' look perfect for that job  

Ok, back to the local shop, here's the Gaunltet Legends, waiting for a decent house, mine    


And the three other games :


Ok, fine to buy arcade games, but how to bring them at location    :

Charlxy, a friend of mine ( drummer in my band 'Vaselyne Connexion @ http://www.motherfucker.be ) was the solution. Thanks for help buddy ...    

Here's the man in action      

What a beast isn't it ?      

And the others...


It was like an old drem, bringing back arcade games at home... fun to see people wondering what the F@# on the behind the car            


OH my god, these cab' are so loud        It was pretty easy to load them, but what a shame to install them on location in my house         I hope never doing that again soon  


Ok, now let's just focus on the main purpose : GAUNTLET LEGENDS      :! ...the others games will have their own threat soon ...

Ok, the general condition of the cabinet is great, I give it a 9/10  

See :

Only the control panel have some scratch on the corner on the side...





The control panel is PERFECT :




The game running fine, all joysticks / push buttons work perfect.

The only problem is the monitor  

It's a Wells Gardner 27K7501, 27" 25Khz medium resolution.

When playing the game, you don't see the problem, but when I go to the test mode-> monitor test, I've got a convergence problem, seeing at top left and in the down of the picture :



It's not notifiable when you're playing Gauntlet Legends, because it's a modern game, full of color and animation, but I wonder how it will looks when I'll play some old games with static display, and basic shapes  :  

Living in Belgium isn't cool for few things.... :  :  :  buying an arcade monitor brand new by exemple      
I can of course buying an Wells Garder from US but shipping cost is (price give by Wells Gardner directly) :

Door-To-Airport: $258.00
Door-To-Door: $358.00

Oppps      And for my project, I would like to use modern arcade monitor, with a VGA input connector.... and the best option is the Wells Garnder D9200 27".... It will perfectly fit in my Gaunltet Legends.... But as you know all, the D9200 has a lot of problem, even brand NEW      So, I'm really not confortable for paying so much, and receive a defective one  

OK, then I call Happs control UK, and they are able to provide me a D9200 monitor but the price raise up... matter of taxes, import, blablbabla... ok  :x    

Ok, I don't have to be so hurry... monitor is the most expensive part of an arcade game... expect the Jamma+ Gauntlet Legends game itself...

So let's check if I can find others kind of arcade monitor in europe  

      YEEEESSSSS    an HANTAREX monitor distributor is located in... BELGIUM       and they sell the ultimate arcade monitor : The  famous POLOSTAR... but no luck for me : there are a 25" or 28"        no 27"      

The 25" will look to small inside the cab, the 28" won't fit at all !!! Sad !!!


So I try to found other alternative   :idea:   found a TV CRT to put inside the cab  :   It's a serious option... but I decided to choose something else first :

The Universal Video Converter from happs


It allows to get a signal from a VGA 15 pin connector and convert it to display on the 25Khz monitor.

Remember my convergence monitor problem... It maybe won't be too notifiable on most of game, so before changing my monitor, I prefere to check it first with the UVC convertor.

      Ok, before knowing that my monitor was a 25Khz and not a standart 15khz, I have ordered an ARCADEVGA card + JPAC from ultimarc. Here's the order :





Well, it will be useful for another cab'        

OK, now the great DEBATE : preserve an original game, or MAME the cab  :    

BOTH !!!

I won't destroy that wonderful cab', but I really want to use it for all my others games ( Daphne, mame, PC or even PS2... ), so what to do  : ...

The Control Panel is perfect, and it will be a crime to modify it    

My first idea was to buy a brand new QuaD SlikStick pannel :
, but :

1) It's expensive, even if the quality worth it, because, as always the shipping cost for Beglium are huge
2) Without control panel overlay, the Gauntlet Legends won't be Gauntlet Legends anymore...
3) many adaptation have to be done to fix the SlikStick Quad on the Cab.


So.... What to do  :

The solution is EBAY... The FORCE is with me :

Here's the magical parts :

1)Midway Gauntlet Dark Legacy control panel that is complete and in excellent condition :





Thanks Garth for shipping it from Canada ;-)

2)Midway Gauntlet Legends metal control panel  :




Thanks Kyle  for shipping it from US ;-)

I've won these 2 items last week, so I'm hardly waiting the packages      

I won't touch to my original Control Panel, so I'll preserve the original !

I'll transform the Dark Legacy Control Panel, adding buttons, spinner, trackball, ...

The order to happs are already done... now I'm waiting for :

- IPAC4 ... hey, I'm a Gauntlet owner, so it must be 4 players pannel !!! ( to order )
- SlikStick Tornado Spinner ( order has bee done, on the way... )
- Dark Legacy Complete CPO + Gauntlet Legends Overlay ( from ebay, on the way ... )
- UVC + pushbuttons from happs ( order has been done, on the way... )

- Trackball ( to order )
- 4 joysticks 8-ways ( to order ). The original Gauntlet Legends joysticks are 49ways optical... I'm looking now if it's possible to use them as a 8ways... any ideas ?

... to be continue