Mayday (Defender Bootleg)

[Paranoid]

I just picked up an upright Mayday in fairly beat up condition... but it works. It is in the original cabinet. I'm missing the marquee and the locks for the back and the coinbox have been stripped out. I'm not sure if the graphics are glitchy or not. It seemed that it looked a little less vibrant on the game than it looks in MAME. (I had never seen it before, so I downloaded the MAME rom once I got home just to compare).

 

So... I see that it is a pretty rare unit, with only 2 known examples of collectors who have it... one of which is a collector who has the entire machine, the other is a collector who only has the board.

 

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=M&game_id=8646

 

The woodgrain side is all beat up and chipped... and it is missing the t-molding on one side.

 

I'm on the fence about keeping it as it is or stripping it out and making it a MAME cabinet. I'm wondering what an example like this is worth. If I strip it, it'll be pretty extensive... I'm going to repaint the sides and replace the T-Molding, remove the current control panel and rig it to let my X-Arcade sit in that area...

 

Thoughts, advice? Any information is appreciated.

Edited February 16, 2006 by Paranoid

[Crimefighter]

I'd keep it as is, but maybe fix it up a bit...

[tillenterprises]

I have a friend here in the Milwaukee area, who actually has one in great condition- (I think he actually had two of them at one point) He might be able to help you out on yours, too. His website is: http://www.hermitcreek.com/Arcade/default.asp

[SteveW]

I'd keep it and find another common machine to convert. Since it is so rare, it would be a shame to take a functional arcade game out of circulation.

[Paranoid]

I'm so on the fence. On careful inspection, it is in fairly bad shape. The monitor is bad... it looks like one of the guns is dead, most likely and my understanding is that arcade monitors are not cheap or easy to find. If I restore it, it won't be for my personal collection, it will be for sale, for a profit. And deciding to RESTORE it means that it will be that much longer before I have an actual MAME cabinet of my own.

 

I'll try contacting this guy in Milwaukee and see if he can provide me with some more information. Thanks for the tips. I do hate to butcher a classic and rare arcade cabinet to make it a MAME machine... but... Defender isn't my game... and this is a single direction side-scrolling Defender bootleg... Having it sit in disrepair in my garage isn't ideal, either.

[Paranoid]

My post to rec.games.video.arcade.collecting

 

Hello everyone. I've been looking for a cheap cabinet to gut for a

MAME project for awhile, and recently acquired a pretty beat up Mayday

Defender bootleg. The unit powers up, the game plays, and all the

controls work, but there are some pretty serious problems with it. I

understand this is a pretty rare game, and I also understand the

reasoning why a lot of classic restoration buffs get upset when guys

like me hack any old classic (let alone a rare one) to make a MAME

box... so, I've got an offer...

 

 

First, let me describe this machine. The paint on the control panel is

in bad shape near the joystick. There are some minor scratches and

scuffs on the bezel. It is missing the marquee. The woodgrain is

chipped, scuffed, and defaced by graffitti. The keylock for the

coindoor slot has been removed, and the keylock for the back of the

cabinet is there, but the wood around it is broken. The coinbox is

there... but the actual box that the coins fell into is missing. The

power cord is frayed near the plug, and the power supply works, but you

have to play with the switch a little bit to get it to trip. The

T-Molding on one side is missing completely, and on the other side it

is pretty dinged up (If you replaced one side, you would want to

replace the other side, too, or it wouldn't look right). The big

problem is that the blue gun on the monitor is not firing. I'm not sure

if the gun is out, or if it just needs some adjustment, or some minor

repair (like, a cap kit has been suggested). It is the Sanyo 510UTB22

(Nintendo 100v EZ monitor). Larry Carpenter told me that the monitor

can be replaced with a standard 110v monitor... it doesn't REQUIRE this

particular monitor... but the plug in the power supply that the monitor

goes to is a 100v outlet... so you would have to work around that.

 

 

I personally do not have the money, technical experience or skill to

restore this machine... especially for the value it will have once

restored. I don't have the space to have multiple full uprights in my

game room, either... which is why I want a MAME machine. But I don't

want to gut and convert a rare classic if I can avoid it when I know

there are a lot of people out there who would love to have this as a

project.

 

 

So, here is where one of you can help me, and save a classic retro

machine from becoming a generic MAME conversion.

 

 

I'll trade this machine, as is... straight across, for a suitable

empty MAME cabinet. Here are my base requirements...

 

 

Wood in good condition... preferably painted or with decent side art,

bezel, t-molding, marquee, etc. Able to accomodate somewhere between a

17" -21" SVGA monitor (in the case, not naked). Control panel would be

a plus, but isn't a requirement. Ability to shoehorn an X-Arcade dual

joystick into the control panel area, otherwise. I'm ok with an

assembled DIY template MAME cabinet, or a gutted (less rare) arcade

cabinet with nothing in it. I'd like to have a coinbox. It has to be

within the Northern California area where I can pick it up (and drop

off mine), or vice versa, you can come to me. I do have a full sized

truck. I can't justify the shipping costs of items this big, for this

project. Anything from Bakersfield to Marysville along the central

valley is within reasonable distance to me, and as far as the Bay Area

to the west and the Foothills to the east.

 

 

Again... other then the cosmetic problems, and the monitor (which

might be a cheap fix), the game works fine... Everything that is wrong

with it would probably be pretty minor and inexpensive for someone

skilled to repair.

 

 

If you have *anything* that sounds even remotely similar (I mean, if

you've got a gutted cabinet with some wood damage or bad side art, we

can certainly talk), and this sounds like a deal you might be

interested in, let me know. I'm not a hardcore collector, and on a

personal level, if it were up to me, I'd just gut the thing and start

converting. But I understand that it upsets a lot of the passionate

people in this community when guys like myself hack a rare, classic

machine to make a MAME box, so I feel like this is the right thing to

do. I figure once I put this offer out there, if nobody wants to take

me up on it, I can go ahead and hack this box without feeling a lot of

guilt. I want to point out... I *could* hack it, and probably eBay the

parts inside for *more* than I paid for the whole unit... and have a

MAME cabinet and some extra cash in my pocket. I'm not doing this for

personal gain, I'm doing it because it seems like the right thing to

do. So this is an opportunity for the people who get upset when a rare

classic gets converted to step up and prevent this from happening. I'd

honestly *love* to see this go to someone passionate who will restore

it and make it a prized part of someone's collection, but if nobody can

help me, it is going to get converted, and the parts left over are

going to go up on eBay.

 

 

Pictures of the cabinet are available here...

 

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b172/Par...s/Tech/DSCN34...

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b172/Par...s/Tech/DSCN34...

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b172/Par...s/Tech/DSCN34...

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b172/Par...s/Tech/DSCN34...

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b172/Par...s/Tech/DSCN34...

 

 

The way I'm looking at it, if it looks too far gone for one of you to

consider restoring it, then it is too far gone to be restored, and *is*

a viable candidate for conversion to a MAME cabinet. I'd certainly like

it if one of you proved me wrong.

 

 

Please feel free to repost this at other classic gaming forms, or link

to this message, if you think there might be other people who aren't

here who might be interested.

 

Thanks

 

 

Donovan Colbert

[MayDay]

huh?! there's a rare 80's arcade game named after moi? Just thought I'd point out this game isn't where my handle comes from...

 

As for the cabinet, if it's not in great condition to begin with, why would you want to keep it for a MAME? Of course, if you got a different one in better shape, that still leaves you with this one. I would say take this cabinet and sell it in some form to finance a different one. That is, unless someone takes you up on your offer to trade them straight up.

 

-JD

[Crimefighter]

I think you can get a generic cabinet to make your MAME machine, there's a number of those type dealers out there.

[Paranoid]

huh?!  there's a rare 80's arcade game named after moi?    Just thought I'd point out this game isn't where my handle comes from...

 

As for the cabinet, if it's not in great condition to begin with, why would you want to keep it for a MAME?  Of course, if you got a different one in better shape, that still leaves you with this one.  I would say take this cabinet and sell it in some form to finance a different one.  That is, unless someone takes you up on your offer to trade them straight up.

 

-JD

1020029[/snapback]

 

Well... because I figure the labor in converting this one is going to be less than the labor involved in building one from a template... and I'm honestly having a HELL of a time finding a gutted cabinet locally. This one, once gutted... would need some shelves for the monitor and maybe PC, sanding and painting of the sides, and new t-molding (already routed)... and maybe some wood repair/patching here and there. Ideally, I would like to have one in far better condition. I swear, though... everyone around here thinks that entry level for an arcade cabinet, regardless of condition, is about $350.

 

I'm actually working on building one from a template, too...

 

My ultimate goal is to have one housing a MAME and emulation PC... and another that holds all of my consoles... (A 2600, 5200, PS1, Sega Genesis, XBox, and Flashback 2), sitting side by side in my game room. I think it will actually consolidate the floorspace that these units take up (as opposed to having the MAME PC with a complete desk, and the consoles scattered around in front of a TV. And I'll tell you... by the time you get all the materials new and all the special devices you need (like router bits for the t-molding, and the t-molding itself)... building one from scratch isn't cheap... and it is taking me a lot longer than I wanted, because my father-in-law got involved. He made it far more complex (and well engineered)... but he doesn't have a lot of spare time when we can both get together. I still haven't even got to the plexi for the bezel or the marquee.

[Paranoid]

 

Mayday has been spared. I ran an ad on Craigslist and came across this great guy who hooked me up with a local company that was throwing out cabinets. Got one for myself, one for a friend, and I've got a source on a replacement monitor ($100 installed) for the Mayday cabinet. I feel pretty good about all of this.

 

I'm still considering if I want to leave this one alone like this or modify it to fit my 20" monitor. I'm still building my own cabinet from a template, so I might just make that one take the 20" monitor and leave this one as it is (well, other than the touch up work the cabinet and control panel tray needs).

Edited February 23, 2006 by Paranoid