New Astro City Update

There seems to have been so much work to get this thing going the way I want....

So far:
-I have reworked the wiring for the Jamma harness more than before, it's nice and clean now.
-I adjusted the +5v setting on the power supply so it's at +4.99v with a load on it, was at +4.8v before this adjustment. (doing this was scary!)
-I fixed a possible sound issue and resoldered a connection (long story, there was actually no sound issue, I was just a moron.)
-I added the PHOENIX chips to the CPS2 games (Marvel vs Capcom and X-Men vs Street Fighter) sadly busting a pin on one, in my defense it was an old crappy chip.... ordered a replacement cheap so all is good.

All I need now is to get the CPS2 Kick Harness and set it up! Any day now... can't wait!

It .... LIVES

Well, I did some serious wiring. First up was ripping out as much as possible without screwing things up too much. Here is the pile of wires I harvested....










Up next was the work, the confusing and bizarre wiring. I seriously need to take an electronics course or something to actually understand what I did. The results were actually pretty good, not as clean as I wanted but pretty decent.












and here are the results!! All I need now are the new joysticks and buttons.... sweet!!

SEGA NEW ASTRO CITY

First things first... gotta thank BEN!! Ol' SBP really came through and went beyond the call of duty and drove to Toronto and back with me taking up his entire Sunday in the process. His reward? Some heavy lift and 15 seconds of Street Fighter II. oh yeah!! It also turns out he was highly contagious and exhibiting the first symptoms of chicken pox, (just diagnosed today).

With that bit taken care.... on to the story....




I had to rent a car to make the voyage, sadly the VW just couldn't handle a load of this magnitude. So, here is the rental beast, a nice huge van. Neat story, a van like this is actually a lot cheaper to rent than a cargo van, plus you get more km's for free. Since I was going to Toronto and back I decided to spend the $5 on the 3000km package.

I picked up the car and then picked up Ben and some snacks, of course I folded up the seats so we could fit the machine, negleected to tell the rental company about that part since I assumed they would frown on it.









One million hours later we arrived in a small town way north of Toronto.

Moving the cabinet into the car was actually extremely simple, it only weighs about 250 pounds and has wheels on the back as well as handles at the back on top. The drive back home was pretty smooth, poor chicken pox boy was a bit quieter though, I assumed at the time that it must have been day 3 of a 3 day hang over.

Got home around 9:30pm I think, moving the cabinet in was as easy as could be. I was an extremely happy man.

Then I opened it up. Seems the guy I bought it from neglected to mention that the Street Fighter II board was loose in the cabinet. Frig. It seems to have bounced around, cut a few wires, made a mess of the "creative" wiring someone had done in the cabinet and possibly busted itself (won't know for a while).




So, I ordered a new JAMMA wiring harness and have been doing some reading on how to rewire this thing, gonna do it right and clean. Also will have to get some new buttons and joysticks as these are a bit sketchy. So, it will be a bit of work but the end product will be worth it for sure! I remain positive.

Once it's done I'll be plugging in the X-Men vs Street Fighter board. SWEET.

more counting chickens

I admit it rarely happens, but sometimes you count your chickens before they hatch and count wrong, but then weeks later it turns out you counted them right the first time. =)

So, a while ago I did miss out on getting this machine, the guy sold it on ebay or something while I was trying to get the cash together. BUT as fate would have it the guy on ebay never paid up so here I am... I have paid for a glorious Sega New Astro City Cabinet with a 29" monitor and all I have to do it pick it up.

Thankfully Ben has offered to road trip with me to Toronto. Gonna be a long drive but well worth it. The machine comes with Street Fighter II for some nice retro goodness and I picked up a copy of X-Men vs Street Fighter for an awesome deal so that will quickly replace the SFII.

Once I get the cabinet I'll be learning how to solder so I can phoenix the X-Men vs Street Fighter (I'll post an update on that process when I try it).

Another project in the works will be repairing a Virtual Boy, from what I've read that means I get to take it apart and bake some of it in the oven. Should be cool.