Bloxeed / Joust / Multi-Williams

I picked up a cabinet that used to be a Williams Joust. When I bought it it had been converted to the Sega game called Bloxeed, which is based on Tetris but with power ups. I plan on converting it to a Multi-Williams game.

Click on the small pictures for larger versions:

The cabinet used to be a Joust. The shape of the sides, and the two doors in the front match the original Williams Joust cabinet.

The original monitor bezel has had the artwork removed. I can tell it's the original glass due to the light tint and the dimensions exactly match an original Joust bezel I scored from a local collector. The control panel has also been modified.
The back of the cabinet before cleaning. The original Williams power brick is still in the bottom of the cab with line filter and transformer, but a switching power supply has been installed along with a JAMMA wiring harness. The harness has several cut wires, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to use it when I convert the game to a Multi-Williams.
At first I thought the monitor had too much burn in, but after playing Bloxeed it doesn't seem too bad. The glass is tinted though, which makes the burn less noticeable.

It lives! I've installed the Multi Williams JAMMA board made by Jrock. I wired up a quick and dirty control panel with 2 joysticks and 1 button per player until I can get a final panel made.

I know the cabinet is really ugly right now, but it will only get better from here on out.

Plans include new control panel artwork that will add buttons for Defender and Stargate, new marquee sign, a Joust monitor bezel and in the spring a cabinet restore. I think I'll stay with black sides due to the cost of Joust stencils, with red T molding. I'll also add Multi Williams side art.

I bought a hacked up Stargate panel to use as the final control panel. This way I can still play Robotron and Joust while I work on the other panel. Here's a picture of the panel after I removed the overlay. Notice that some of the top layer of plywood came off when I removed the CPO. I'm going to use Bondo to fill all the holes and level the top of the panel.
Due to the fast drying time of Bondo, I like to use small batches to get the most time to work with it before it hardens. This is a picture of the panel after three applications. I've sanded the top down so it's pretty flat, and have started filling the holes. As I fill the button holes I'll be checking for any small nicks or gouges, and fill them as well. The control panel overlay may use the same P1 and P2 start button holes, so I won't fill those until I've got a sample of the artwork printed out.
A local collector had a spare Joust bezel that he gave me. The artwork is fairly chipped, but it looks tons better than the purple Bloxeed bezel! I may end up buying a reproduction Joust bezel, although they're printed on plexiglass and aren't tinted. Also notice that I've got 4 inch long joystick shafts - the same as were originally on Robotron. They stick up pretty high off the control panel, and may make playing Defender and Stargate tough, but I won't know until I get my final control panel finished. I may end up going back to 3.5 inch sticks.

I downloaded the Multi Williams CPO from www.localarcade.com, and made some minor modifications. I then had it printed by www.mamemarquees.com. The buttons in the picture are temporary, as I'll be getting some different colors.

The colors on the artwork look a little faded in the picture, but that's just from the camera. The colors are very vibrant in person.

I've never been really good at wiring, but here's the underside of the control panel anyway. I decided to solder the wires to the switches instead of using crimp connectors simply because I didn't have any connectors on hand. I'm using Wico 8 way leaf switch joysticks with 4" shafts, and leaf switch buttons.

In this picture you can also see a 2 pin connector that isn't hooked up to anything. This connector has 12v and ground, and I'll be using it for lighting the P1 and P2 start buttons.
The position of the joysticks in the multi panel caused the right side joystick to hit the wood support that the monitor glass sits in. I had to cut about 2 inches of wood from the support, which isn't enough to weaken it at all. An example of the 'little things' that unexpectedly happen while working on projects!

This shot shows the new control panel on the machine, all wired up except for lights under the P1 and P2 start buttons. I've also removed the flaking Joust bezel, and installed a reproduction Joust underlay.

At this point, I just need to wait for warmer weather so I can take it all apart and do the woodwork and painting of the cabinet outside.

I know this looks bad, but let me explain. The cabinet was originally a Joust. It had been painted over, and there was plywood damage on the front, bottom and sides.

I had a couple choices. I could have used paint remover to take off the black paint and try to save the original art, but would then have to deal with trying to repair the cabinet damage and blend it in. I could have ordered Joust side art decals, but Joust used painted stencils. I could have ordered reproduction Joust stencils, but that would have cost $70, plus 4 different colors of paint.

In the end I decided to strip and repair the cabinet damage, then paint it black again. I've already purchased Multi Williams side art that shows characters from several of the games.

That's better! I used Kilz spray primer on the front panel, and rolled on 2 coats of Kilz primer on each side.

I now have 3 coats of black paint on the sides of the cabinet. I took this picture inside the garage with flash, so it's kind of hard to see details. There are also things that show in the picture that are from light reflections, like the apparent gray on the left side control panel area.

I applied 2 coats of primer on Sunday with a foam roller. Monday I spray painted the front panel and rolled the first coat of paint on each side. Tuesday was a second coat on the sides, and Wednesday was another spray of the front panel and the final rolled coat on the sides.

Now that's what I'm talking about! I've got the cabinet inside, and have wired it back up. At this point all that's left is to restore both coin doors, apply the side art and add lights to the P1 and P2 start buttons (I've already wired 12v to the panel).

What a difference from what I started with!
Here it is with the side art on. Somehow the art I got is larger than what I was expecting. It looks pretty good on this side of the cabinet, although I wish it was a bit higher. The other side of the cabinet doesn't look as good because the art is so wide that I had to mount it about 5 inches lower to get it to all fit on the cabinet.

This is the final product! The upper coin door is in really good condition, but the lower could have used a repaint. If I had repainted the lower I would have also wanted to do the upper so it would match. I ran out of steam and decided that it looks just fine the way it is.

This was a fun project, and comparing the first and last pictures of this cabinet really makes me feel good about how it all turned out. It was more expensive to put together than I thought it would be, but it was worth it.