Star Tech Journal

STAR*TEcH
CID
March 1996
Journal
CONVERSION TIPS
MAKE THE MOST OF V OUR KITS
Kerry Messana
Games Technician
Syracuse, New York
CONVERSION NOTES
Since the days of Mr. Do we have
been graced with conversion kits.
These kits allow us to update our
old cabinets so that they may be
useful and make us money again.
It is a great concept, but in order
to get the most out of a new kit
we should follow certain guide-
lines. I have put some of these
suggestions to paper and will list
them below.
CABINET SELECTION
Selecting a good cabinet is prob-
ably the most important part to
the conversion. Of course, moni-
tor orientation is very important
but many conversion cabinets al-
low for easy changeover from
horizontal to vertical and visa
versa.
If you are working with a cabi-
net with this feature then you
have no worries but if you are
working with a cabinet that has a
dedicated mounting situation for
the monitor then select the cor-
rect one for the kit.
Bigger is better in the game
world. New kits almost always
look better on a 25 inch screen ver-
sus the older 19 inchers. A good
way to approach this is to look at
the dedicated model of the game
at your distributor and see what
is used in it.
While you are at it, you might
want to look over the front panel
as well. This is another area of
cabinet selection that gets over-
looked. There must be enough
room on the front panel to install
all the controls.
I have found through experience
that the front panel must mimic
the original dedicated games
front panel. Players get used to
the panel layout and find it un-
conformable to play the game
when the controls are in the
wrong place. After all, the name
of the game is replays and play-
ers will tend not to put more
money in if it doesn't feel "au-
thentic". Most kits come with a
panel template so follow it to the
letter!
One other factor to be concerned
with is the coin door. Some games
require separate coin inputs for
each player. If the PCB from the
kit requires this then you must
also come up with the right coin
door.
Although this may shrink down
the amount of cabinets suited for
the job, most game boards have
provisions in their programming
to accommodate either separate
or standard coin inputs.
Appearance of the cabinet is im-
portant as well. No player wants
to put money into a game that
looks like it is going to eat his
quarters! Painting or formica
might be theanswer to giving that
cabinet a face lift. Fix any dents
or chunks missing from the cabi-
net before putting a finish on it.
CABINET ELECTRONICS
There are several areas to discuss
here. First, the power supply. The
power supply that you ultimately
use must be able to provide the
right voltages and have a high
enough current rating so it
doesn't bum out.
The older games came with lin-
ear power supplies and may still
have them in there. Many have
been switched over to the famil-
iar switching power supply, how-
ever.
If you have a linear supply con-
sider either replacing it or clean-
ing it up - this would include a
good visual inspection for
cracked solder joints and burnt
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