Arcade Cabinet Pickup - KILLER INSTINCT!

RetroRalph·video·12m 49s·analyzed·Jan 20, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

RetroRalph restores converted Killer Instinct arcade cabinet back to original specs.

Summary

RetroRalph documents the restoration of a Killer Instinct arcade cabinet that was converted to run Marvel vs. Street Fighter. The machine requires significant work including CRT repair, marquee replacement, control panel restoration with original blue buttons, and swapping the CPS2 board back to an original Killer Instinct PCB. The video includes details on arcade restoration techniques and discoveries from inside the cabinet including a 2007 auction sheet.

Key Claims

Many original Killer Instinct cabinets were converted to run other games
high confidence · Ralph states 'it's really hard to find a Killer Instinct cabinet, especially one that's running a Killer Instinct board in it, because a lot of these were converted'
The cabinet contains an auction document from 2007 showing it sold for $150
high confidence · Ralph finds and reads an auction sheet dated 2007 showing sale price of $150 and listing which components function
Original Killer Instinct arcade dust covers were mounted on the bottom of the control panel, not the top
medium confidence · Ralph references a debate with another arcade enthusiast (Chris from Killer Arcade or The Games) about dust cover placement, concluding original units had them on bottom
The fluorescent starter is a common failure point in arcade marquee lighting
high confidence · Ralph explains that the FS2 starter 'goes dead or go bad quite a bit' and provides guidance on replacement
Joe Sabo sourced an original Killer Instinct PCB for the restoration
high confidence · Ralph states 'I actually found a real Killer Instinct 1 PCB' and later credits 'Joe Sabo. He actually found a Killer Instinct board for me'

Notable Quotes

“It's really hard to find a Killer Instinct cabinet, especially one that's running a Killer Instinct board in it, because a lot of these were converted.”
RetroRalph@ 0:11 — Establishes the rarity and conversion prevalence of Killer Instinct cabinets in the arcade restoration market
“When you buy these arcades, you never know what kind of condition they're in, and a lot of times, arcade owners or operators would just put whatever they had access to into it.”
RetroRalph@ 5:49 — Explains why original arcade parts are often replaced during operation—operators prioritized functionality over authenticity
“There's a lot of history when you dive into an arcade. So when you buy a used one, it's always fun to see what's in there.”
RetroRalph @ ~13:00 — Highlights the discovery aspect of arcade restoration as a hobby
“I might actually put a JAMMA switcher in here and actually run the original Killer Instinct and then some kind of multi-board.”
RetroRalph@ 11:42 — Indicates potential future modification direction for the restoration project

Entities

RetroRalphpersonJoe SabopersonKiller InstinctgameMarvel vs. Street FightergameArcade1Upcompany MidwaycompanyWells GardnercompanyNovuscompanyDarkSoftcompanyChris

Signals

?
community_signal: Strong community knowledge sharing about arcade specifications and restoration techniques, evidenced by debate over dust cover placement with other YouTube creators
high · Reference to Chris's debate about original dust cover placement and correction of this arcade history detail
?
product_concern: Killer Instinct arcade cabinet conversion prevalence suggests original cabinets with authentic boards are rare and highly sought after
high · Ralph states 'it's really hard to find a Killer Instinct cabinet, especially one that's running a Killer Instinct board in it, because a lot of these were converted'
?
technology_signal: JAMMA switchers and multi-board setups are viable aftermarket modifications for arcade restoration projects
medium · Ralph considers using JAMMA switcher to run both original Killer Instinct and multi-board options; mentions DarkSoft mod as a significant arcade product

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.038

0:00

All right, here it is, my next arcade cabinet pickup for 2021, it's Killer Instinct. Okay, so all the arcade one-up Killer Instinct hype just got me and I had to do it. You know, it's really hard to find a Killer Instinct cabinet, especially one that's running a Killer Instinct board in it, because a lot of these were converted. Don't ask me why, but they were converted. So this one is actually running, I think, Marvel vs. Street Fighter, but we'll get into that in a second. So there's some things I'm going to need to do to restore this back to its natural state. So let's go around the front. I'm going to show you the control panel. I'm going to show you how you get access to the control panel to look at the sticks and buttons and all that. And we'll talk through some of the things I'm going to do to this cabinet. Okay, let's take a look at the front of the cabinet. So you can see here that iconic Killer Instinct logo right there in the front. And then we're going to talk more about the control panel, but you can clearly see that's not how it looked stock. So we're going to talk about that in a moment. the CRT looks like it needs a little work. It's a little dim. I'm feeling pretty good about my CRT repair skills these days, so I think I can figure out what's wrong with that. So that's going to be part of this project, so I got to fix the CRT and get it bright and tight again. So you can see on the marquee, it's actually been replaced by a Marvel Super Heroes versus Street Fighter marquee, and the cool thing is I already talked to Joe Sabo, and a new killer, killer instinct marquee is on its way. The light is also not working. So I pre-removed the screws here, but you've got this little plastic piece that you have to take the screws off of. And then the marquee here is actually a piece of glass and it's kind of wedged in there, but you can see there's a fixture there. That fixture is where a fluorescent bulb would typically be. Now what's going on with this is, now if you ever get an arcade and you pick up an arcade, something that often fails on these is this little device right here it's called a starter to take this off you just turn it counterclockwise and then pull it out so if you have a marquee that won't light and let's say it does have the fluorescent bulb the fluorescent bulb could be dead but also the starter could be dead these go dead or go bad quite a bit so just FYI if it's not working this is something for you to check and you can get these at Home Depot or Lowe's or something you just to make sure that it's the right model. This is an FS2, and this takes an 18-inch fluorescent bulb. So that's kind of cool. So there you go. So that's sort of what you need to know about that. Now, on the control panel, you'll see they put sort of this insert here for Marvel Super Heroes versus Street Fighter. Now, it looks like they ruined the stock artwork, but they actually didn't. If you look at the corner here, and I'm going to have to replace the plexi, you'll see the artwork's underneath, but that's just a decal. I don't know if you can see that. It's actually just a decal. So all I got to do is take the buttons and joysticks off, and I should be able to get that artwork off, and then I'll have the stock artwork. Now, the reason why this looks so bad is because this plexi is really beaten up I mean this was definitely in a rough area You can tell I mean look at the coin door Coin doors all have these security bars which would have had locks on them So yeah it not it not exactly in the best of shape Now Marvel Super Heroes versus Street Fighter was a CPS2 board so you can kind of see back there that there's a CPS2 board. So we'll take a look at that in a minute but I'm going to close the coin door up and here's where your coins would have all dropped into here. I think the basket would have been bigger than this. I don't think that's the stock one. I think that's just what someone threw in there. So the cool thing is I haven't opened up the back yet. So who knows what we'll find back there. It's always a mystery when you buy a machine. So let's flip open the control panel. I'll take a look at that because we definitely want to return this back to stock. We're going to use the blue buttons, the blue bat tops, which would have been how it came from the factory. And then also a little interesting thing that um chris shoot i can't think of chris's name last name or his youtube channel right now i'll flash it across the screen but i think it's killer arcade games i think is the name of his youtube channel he was debating on whether these dust covers in the original arcade were on the top or on the bottom and they're actually on the bottom there's like a floating area where they sit and i think that's so you can see the artwork on killer instinct so that's kind of interesting because usually you you would find a dust cap on top but in the stock original unit it did not have the dust cap there. There's some like crap on the control panel. We'll get that all off. We'll get it cleaned up. But right now I'm going to open this up. I'll show you. Okay, so I unlatched the control panel. So this should swing forward. Now something weird about this arcade is this acrylic when I first got it was super dirty. So I cleaned the acrylic, but there's a problem right now where the bracket that's holding it on tends to want to fall forward. So I'm going to try to do this the best way I can. So I'm going to flip this forward and hopefully that acrylic doesn't fall. So you see when I open it this way, I'm going to swing around the other side and you'll see that's the backside with the buttons and joysticks. I'm going to move the light around so you can actually see it better. But there's like this little bracket here that holds the acrylic on. I took this all off and cleaned it really nice. I'll show you what I cleaned it with. All right, so as far as the cleaner I used, this thing was pretty scratched up. So I used Novus 3, then Novus 2, and then I used Novus 1. So if you've got any kind of acrylic on an arcade, those are great products. I'll have a link in the description to those. Those will really help. Typically I'm only using 2 and 1, but this thing was really scratched up and it actually took out a lot of the deep scratches so it's pretty cool. Or at least it made them look a lot better. As far as the sticks and buttons, it looks like they're using Cherry Micro switches and it looks like that might be an IL Euro stick and the other one looks like it's a half competition stick when you buy these arcades you never know what kind of condition they're in and a lot of times you know arcade owners or operators would just put whatever they had access to into it they would definitely not focus on putting original parts usually because they just wanted to keep the game running to keep making money that's what it was about right it was about making money so there you go and we're gonna replace those too so in the next episode when I get all the parts which I already have on order we'll replace the I want to place the buttons to make this thing look a lot more like it did when it came out of the factory Okay so we in the back of the cabinet where you find the back is actually locked Now most of these arcades if they old they been at auction they've changed hands a bunch of times. Sometimes the keys are missing, lost, whatever. So a lot of times you'll be like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna get into this arcade I just bought? There's no keys, there's no keys in the coin doors. A lot of times people just end up screwing these down because the keys are lost. So don't freak out if you buy an arcade and you're like, oh my gosh, I don't know how to get into it. because typically the keys are missing or whatever. So that's it, you just take the back off. And now we'll take a look inside. Okay, we have the back open for the first time and it is really dirty. You can see on the side there's the Midway

7:02

sort of manufacturing sticker, which is kinda cool, right? It actually says warranty void if removed, which is kinda funny. But it's still hanging on after all these years, it's still hanging there. So this is the monitor chassis. So for those of you that are maybe not familiar with arcade hardware, This is the monitor chassis. This is actually a Wells Gardner K7000 chassis. I'm probably going to have to do a recap kit on this. So I know exactly what I need to order for that. Maybe on the channel we'll cover that, you know, when I get to that part of the restoration. So as we go down, you'll see that's where the Killer Instinct board would have been. But it's running a Capcom CPS2 board, which appears to be in decent shape. But, well, no, it's not. It's pretty dirty. All right. And then inside the cabinet, there's, well this is just dangling here, but this is so you can adjust your brightness and your contrast and stuff like that. It's usually hanging out somewhere in the front, so when you remove the control panel you have access to it. And there's a random piece of paper, we're definitely going to want to check that out. And then this is a classic thing that you'll find in old arcades. So it looks like the power supply died, and whoever it was decided, you know, I'm not going to take that one off and put the new one on, I'm just going to let this one sort of dangle here. So this one's like literally just dangling in the cabinet, which isn't very cool, but I see this a lot. I'll definitely want to secure that. I'm also going to check that power supply to make sure that's all good. So let's see what this paper is. Oh my gosh, this is so gross. All right. Oh wow, this is interesting. Okay, so this looks like, this looks like it was an auctioned cabinet and it's dated 2007. So that's really interesting. This thing went for $150 if that's right. Wow. But it says like what's functioning and what's not. Wow, I feel like I didn't get it for $150, that's for sure. It says Killer Instinct control panel, faded, warped. And obviously this has been a Marvel Super Heroes for a long time because at auction it says Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter. This is so interesting. actually never seen one of these inside an arcade before. What does that say? Oh my gosh, there's like a spider right there. It's like a dead spider. I don't know what that says. 20 minute inspection button change, I guess. So it's saying all the things that are broken on it. So it says Coinmex no. The Coinmex do work. There it does say no keys. So at least they were straightforward on the no key situation But yeah this is interesting guys There a lot of you find a lot of history when you dive into an arcade So when you buy a used one it always fun to see what in there There something else back there I want to see if I can grab that really quick Okay, so I'm going to attempt to grab that paper without electrocuting myself. Okay, oh gosh. Alright, what is this? it looks like a business card for a furniture store so sometimes you find cool stuff and sometimes you find really weird stuff not sure why that's there or how it got in there let's see if there's anything else down here oh look it's an fbi warning let's see what that says all right it says warning federal law provides civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction distribution or exhibitation of copy and exhibit i don't even know what that is whatever that word says, of copyrighted works such as audiovisual works and computer programs. Huh. There's a couple companies that should read this and take a really good look at it. But anyways, that's it, guys. That's all I got. We're going to do a ton of work on this. We're going to actually remove this CPS-2 board. We'll get that out of the way. We're going to remove the CPS-2 board, and I actually found a real Killer Instinct 1 PCB, so we're going to get that put in here, and we got one that doesn't have the hard drive so it'll have the memory card so it should boot up super fast should be way more reliable i don't even know if it boots faster but it'll definitely move more reliable and i don't know what i'm going to do with this cps2 board if anybody's watching and they are excited about this cps2 board and might want to purchase it off me let me know all right guys that about wraps this video up so i am super stoked about this killer instant cabinet obviously it has a lot of work we got to replace the marquee we got to see what we can do about the monitor improve the brightness and things like that so we're probably going to need to do a monitor recap. We're going to definitely need to address the control panel. We got the buttons. We need to replace those with the blue buttons that it came with, the blue bat tops. So we have a lot of work. There's some touch-ups on T-molding that need to be fixed and artwork and things like that. So this is not going to be, oh, and I can't believe I forgot, the Killer Instinct board. So thank you, Joe Sabo. He actually found a Killer Instinct board for me. Someone he knew was selling one. So that's really cool. So I kind of have another idea for this cabinet too. I might actually put a jama switcher in here and actually run the original killer instinct and then some kind of multi board i'm not sure what yet so we'll see i kind of think it'd be cool just because it has a six button layout to maybe put like some sort of some sort of multi board i have the dark soft mod which we haven't even talked about on the channel yet i can't believe it i've had the thing for like a year and we haven't even talked about it which is a really cool product a really cool arcade product where you're actually well we'll get into it in another video another time but Guys, if you enjoyed this video, definitely put your comments below. I want to know what you think. Hopefully, as we step through this process, it will help you, maybe, in your arcade restoration project. Definitely turn on notifications so you can be informed of other videos like this one. And don't forget to subscribe. That's it for now, guys. We will see you on the next one.