The Punisher Big Blue Arcade Marquee

We’ve been searching for a good scan of The Punisher big blue for a while now. Super rare game to begin with, but the CPS2 big blue dynamo even more so. Lucky for us, the good fellas at Next Level Pinball in Oregon had one, and were nice enough to let us scan it. Check it out in our store HERE, and take a look at a play through below:

2020-08-14T18:10:23+00:00August 14th, 2020|Arcade Marquee, Product Photos|

Vs Nintendo Castlevania Arcade

There’s something super satisfying about seeing a very clean Nintendo cabinet. We recently sent out some Vs Nintendo arcade marquees to Dana, and were happy to see some pics of the final product. If you are in fact in need of a vs Castlevania marquee, please check it out in our store HERE. Also, we now sell the plexi for vs Nintendo cabinets HERE. Thanks again to Dana for sending the picture, and check out this video of vs Nintendo Castlevania vs the NES version.

2020-05-08T17:59:45+00:00May 8th, 2020|Arcade Marquee, Product Photos|

10 Yard Fight, 100 Mile Journey

Received a request from Scott for some 10 Yard Fight artwork. Kind of a rare request, but thought it would be fun. Turns out his project was quite the task. Story below from the man himself:

“My story with this 10-Yard Fight cab dates back to somewhere around early 2015. I had arranged to buy two cabs from a friend and he surprised me with this in the back of the truck on delivery day. “If you don’t want it, it is going straight to the dump.” It looked like a cab that might be too far gone. For the record it had the remains of a harness, a monitor tube (no chassis), an ISO/switcher, and a special Taito embossed coin door.

It clearly had a lot of water damage, later I found out the switcher was filled with mud, so at the very least it was probably in a flood. As we got it out of the truck, while leaving a trail of sawdust, I thought to myself that it would certainly be a long term project.

Here it is a few months later, right after my friend had surprised me with a control panel for it. Nice! But you can see it about as it was delivered. (a1)

Fast forward to March 2018, right around Spring Break. For anyone interested in the time gap, I was ready to start working on this cab after it had sat through my own years long “break” from the arcade hobby. If it helps anyone, be careful to whom you send money and rare parts on public forums!

Anyhow, thinking on where to start, the easiest thing to do would be to remove the one bad side of art from the cab. It needed to go: Not only did this side of art have torn off sections, but it also had some water damage and bubbling underneath and around the sticker. The other side of art was (and is) very good. So I started, this is in progress from the picture above. (a2)

Next I tackled (ahem) the structural problems; stuff like sanding, clamping, gluing, and using every bit of amateur woodworking skills I can muster. The main problem that needed correction is that bottom of the cab had a half a foot to a foot line of water damage from the base. Here is a picture after sanding so it is clear how bad things were on the good side (a3). A few hours later I got the wood glue and clamps out to try and solidify the damage without resorting to cutting up the cabinet. The toolbox is for weight during drying and came from Dad! Vintage 1960’s he says, and it’s tools fixed many of our family cars over the years (and mine too). (a4)

There was more work here to mention, to the entirety of the cab surfaces inside and out but it was more of the same, just not as severe. We are up painting! I painted a few coats of primer after carefully masking everything off. Here is another picture. (a5)

I decided that I liked the calm dedication of a simple can of black paint and a paintbrush. An hour here and there, spread out over a couple of days while listening to the radio and drinking some iced tea. Not a bad way to spend a vacation. This will never be a pristine example, but it is mine and I am doing what I can during the two Texas seasons of “cold” and “hotter ‘n hell.” Speaking of Texas, being a collector for so long I made the decision that I like the old tax stickers to stay on my cabs. So, those were carefully masked off until I was done.

I guess this is the best place to bring up the elephant in the room. An honest question would be “Why not CNC a new cab?” Or another, “why take the effort to fix up an unpopular sports arcade game from 1984?” Or even, “why not convert this to a popular Taito game of the same time period like Elevator Action, Jungle Hunt, or even make it into a Choplifter?” Honestly, I don’t really have many answers. Perhaps the result of it being back to what it was originally that feels good. It makes a good story, I guess, like when someone pulls a car out of a junkyard and gets it on the road again. It is also very different from the normal list of titles everyone collects; the best source lists only five complete dedicated cabs worldwide (among active members). Maybe those are my reasons? Maybe this is the type of project that makes no rational sense? Here it is all painted up at the end of my time with it for that year. (a6)

Now we are up to March of 2019, Spring Break. I am excited to get this cab running again and I selected a monitor for the cab, a Wells-Gardner K4600 from the floor of my garage. This is the first time I have done any soldering work since I got the cab and I am very rusty. I catch a couple of mistakes with cap values (47uf instead of 4.7uf…my eyes!) as I am going through my cap kit. Much to my embarrassment, this cap kit takes an entire day for me to accomplish! Yikes! Good news though: it does not blow up on the bench hooked up for a smoke test. Whew!!! (a7)

Next up, I wire in a JAMMA harness (since the original harness was toast) to the controls and my newly purchased switcher. When building out a cab there are always lots of connectors to crimp, and soldering of connectors here and there. It is an economy harness, but I’ve seen worse and I’ve seen better.

At the conclusion of Spring Break 2019, my parts box is exhausted and it has taken me to this point. The build has happily reunited me with the hobby and I am delighted to find after a complete re-arranging of the games that I now have space for one more standard sized upright arcade game. That’s great news!

Soon after another friend came through with a used marquee that I buy from him. I also went by a home improvement store to have some glass cut for the bezel. Here is a picture from the best side with the monitor mounted in the cab and the marquee installed (a8). I did some deep diving into the internet and I came up with suitable images of the original control panel overlay and one of an approximation of the original bezel graphics. Arcademarquee.com kindly was able to get them printed for me using my dimensions for the CPO and my best guess for the glass bezel. I believe this is the first time ever these are offered for anyone else that has this cab. I also ordered some white t-molding since that was what it had originally; new t-molding always makes a cab look sharp and this cab could use all the help it can get!

After printing and everything arrives, and more time passes, it is now Spring Break 2020. I spent a few days preparing the panel with a wire brush this time (instead of chemical strippers, which I don’t like). Fun and relaxing if that can be believed. This is a shot of the panel before paint and the application of the CPO. (a9)

After a day with an razor blade and some careful cutting, and re-assembly with some new buttons and a stick we are complete! (b1) I would wager that this is the best the cab has looked in years. Like usual in the arcade hobby there is more to do. I could use a coin bucket, coin door trip wires, and the two boardsets I have need to be gone through to make one good one, if possible. But the cosmetics are done and that is the hard part. Almost there!”

2020-03-23T22:54:28+00:00March 23rd, 2020|Restorations|

Cody’s Custom Battle Toads Arcade

We always like seeing custom builds at Arcade Marquee Dot Com. This one really resonated with us because we used to play Battle Toads a ton as kids as well. Check out Cody’s build with the short blurb below:

“Its my first build so its nowhere near perfect, it doesn’t have T-molding because I used half inch plywood and I don’t have that tool to cut the groove along the edges yet, but I’m still proud of myself lol, I remember playing battletoads at a roller rink as a kid, and its only 3 player on arcade, didnt have $4k so i decided to make a cabinet myself (one that would fit through my door), its just an old PC and some Christmas lights for the marquee at the moment.”

-Cody

2019-10-28T20:07:17+00:00October 28th, 2019|Arcade Marquee, Product Photos, Restorations|

Scott’s War of the Worlds Restoration

We always like seeing things restored to their original state. Scott was sharp enough to recognize an incredibly rare War of the World’s in the wild and picked it up. With a little artwork pieced together here and there, we were able to get him a bezel/marquee/cpo. Good work on the restore Scott!

“I had an idea of creating a pre-production game after reading about a similar project many, many years ago. Before the supply of games dried up locally I got a deal on a Star Castle machine in a sad state. It was loaded with many wasp mud nests and some rodent droppings. I cleaned it up, clamped and wood glued the cab back together, added a back door, and set about converting what was left into a War of the Worlds. Beyond the marquee, artwork was not available. I created what I could through pictures of some of the few machines that have been found over the years. I stitched together picture of the control panel artwork from three pictures taken at angles. Blending the image into one was probably the hardest part of the project. The monitor clear “gel” was created from a piece of art hanging on my wall for years; I kept it because I thought it was neat at the time. Little did I know I would need it many years later! The city scene was created on a clear piece of classroom overhead transparency. The art from that was also image filtered, touched up, and sized as good as I could get it. I found my local Lowes could custom cut glass for the monitor bezel and marquee. The control panel plexiglass was cut and drilled by me and I also ordered a set of new clear orange buttons. For the art (the marquee, the monitor bezel) I used black electrical tape to help cushion the glass edges and also adhere the art. I cut out the monitor viewing area using an Exacto knife and I finished it up with a straight edge. I went ahead and kept the white border as I liked the look. There is still more to do, I bought a can of bondo, and the custom wired game board needs attention but the cabinet looks the part now. I am happy with the results!”
-Scott

Check out the marquee in our store HERE, and a video of the game below:

2019-06-03T18:27:32+00:00June 3rd, 2019|Product Photos|

Marvel Vs Capcom Big Blue Arcade Marquee

One or our favorite cabs here at Arcade Marquee is the Dynamo Big Blue. It’s massive, it’s blue, and it had a slew of great games that came in it. Among those were some great fighters, but not all those titles had dedicated marquees for the big marquee slot. One of those, was of course, Marvel vs Capcom. We took the liberty of making a Big Blue version of MVC. Check it out in our store HERE.

2018-10-16T07:31:55+00:00October 16th, 2018|Arcade Marquee, Product Photos|

Hunter’s Puckman Arcade Cabinet

We are always super interested in seeing some rare cabinets. One of our customers was nice enough to send some pics of a Puckman arcade marquee that we recently sent out. We asked Hunter to send us a quick blurb about the cab and some pics, so enjoy!

“I am making a scratch built replica of the original puckman machine. They were never released in America as puckman but only released as the well known “pac man”. So it’ll be an extremely rare game for me to have in my possession.” -Hunter

Thanks again Hunter!

2018-06-13T06:30:41+00:00June 13th, 2018|Product Photos, Restorations|

Ninja Baseball Bat Man Arcade Marquee

This is a pretty interesting one…. Ninja Baseball Bat Man, only a couple of these arcades made it out, right as the arcade industry was starting to tank. We were fortunate enough to get an original scan from Quarterworld in Portland. They have one of the few actual games that exist, and furthermore, one of the few that the public can go and play. Check out the marquee in our store HERE, and an emulation play through below:

2018-04-28T01:42:12+00:00April 28th, 2018|Arcade Marquee, Product Photos|

Neo Geo Marquees

We always like seeing some nice Neo Geo arcade marquees, and recently Chris from Mobius Strip Technologies was kind enough to send us some of our marquees mounted and looking great! Apparently Chris’s first arcade was a Neo Geo, which is awesome because it was our first too. Hard to beat the selection and variety you can get from the MVS system, and the feel of having one of those fatty carts in your hand. Thanks again Chris!

2018-03-30T00:08:16+00:00March 30th, 2018|Arcade Marquee, Product Photos|