Project "My Ho" Status - Updated 9-12-04
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Background -
My wife emailed me some pics of 2 arcade cabinets that were not working from someone at her work. She asked me if I wanted them for free. I replied "Hell yeah". One was a "Killer instinct 2" cabinet that was complete, but the monitor was blown out and the boards didn't work. The other one was a "My Hero" cabinet (the one pictured below) that used to have a "Joust" board in it. Joust was burnt into the monitor on that one. I was originally going to use the Killer Instinct cabinet because it was in much better shape but the size of it didn't agree with our apartment. I sold the Killer Instinct cabinet to a local arcade vendor. I thought this would be too much work at first, and scrapped the idea several times. My friend Ray (who also works with me) came over to look at it and helped me take out the burnt Joust monitor and the old controls. Once we started gutting it, I immediately began to get excited about it again. I was in this for the long haul now. I went online looking for pre-wired controls that were compatible with MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. www.mame.net) and I found the X-Arcade. (www.x-arcade.com) I found their 2 player arcade quality stick to be a great deal at $149.95 with free shipping, so I ordered one up. Now I don't have to worry about wiring the original controls (phew!). The next day I jumped on Ebay and grabbed a 17 Gateway monitor to slap in the cabinet for $44. The next day after that I searched for the computer and decided on a barebones, black case, AMD Sempron 2200+ with 256MB RAM and a 40 gig HD. I got that for around $240.00. The top marquee that says "My Ho" has a light behind it which looks like it is DC powered, which should be easy to wire to the computers power supply. The Marquee used to say "My Hero" which was an arcade game from the mid '80's. I was peeling off the letters one night and peeled off the R and Piper (my wife) said "peel off the E and it will say My Ho" We both laughed and thus it became the "My Ho" project. Look below for pics and keep checking back for updates.
System will run MAME 0.86 for Windows with EmuLoader 4.6.3 Frontend running on Windows XP
Future Plans -
Painting the cabinet glossy black and maybe getting some side art.
Getting a MAME marquee to replace "My Ho".
Getting a beefy subwoofer to throw in the bottom, under the computer shelf.
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Phase 1 - Cabinet is stripped, gutted, and ready to go!
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Back of the cabinet with rear door off showing the gutted inside
Side of the cabinet showing vintage woodgrain
Front of cabinet that now resides in my kitchen. It used to say "My Hero" (An arcade game from the mid '80's. I Peeled off the E and the R making it "My Ho"
Closeup of coin slot, open, showing the shelf where the computer will go
Another pic of the front, closer up, showing the "My Ho" marquee. :)