Killer Instinct Arcade Restoration - Part 2!

RetroRalph·video·18m 1s·analyzed·Feb 10, 2021

Analysis

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TL;DR

Killer Instinct arcade restoration part 2: control panel graphics removal, wood repair, and T-molding installation.

Summary

Jon from RetroRalph documents part 2 of a Killer Instinct arcade restoration, focusing entirely on control panel rehabilitation. The cabinet was covered with X-Men vs. Street Fighter decals and graphics; Jon carefully removes them to reveal original artwork underneath, which he decides to preserve. He then removes the control panel, addresses wood damage on the side panels using sanding, Bondo, and Dynatran glazing putty, applies new artwork, installs T-molding, and prepares for rewiring in part 3.

Key Claims

The cabinet originally had X-Men vs. Street Fighter artwork as overlays on top of the original Killer Instinct control panel artwork
high confidence · Jon directly shows and discusses removing these decals; the original Killer Instinct artwork is visible underneath once removed
Jon uses a Darksoft CPS-2 mod that allows flashing multiple arcade games onto real hardware without emulation
high confidence · Jon demonstrates the mod board, shows Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition switching to X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and explains it uses real arcade hardware
Dynatran glazing spot putty is better than Bondo for filling small nicks and gaps in arcade cabinet restoration
medium confidence · Jon was 'tipped off by someone' about this product and attempts to use it; later switches to Bondo for larger areas after this approach proves difficult
Joe Sabo provided a tip about using staple-gunned cardboard to create proper corners when applying Bondo to arcade cabinet edges
high confidence · Jon explicitly credits Joe Sabo for this technique and describes using it successfully for the control panel corner
Jon decided to preserve the original Killer Instinct artwork underneath the X-Men vs. Street Fighter overlays rather than replacing it with new reprints
high confidence · Jon repeatedly states his decision to keep the original artwork, saying it's 'part of history' and part of the arcade's original condition

Notable Quotes

“I just can't see myself removing something that was an original part of the cabinet, even though Game On Graphics provided me a reprint.”
Jon@ 5:20 — Demonstrates Jon's decision-making philosophy prioritizing original/historical authenticity over cosmetic perfection
“There's a little tip that Joe Sabo gave me so to make a proper corner i staple gunned a piece of um cardboard and made a proper angle and then i filled in the Bondo that way”
Jon@ 11:00 — Key technical tip for arcade restoration that Jon credits to Joe Sabo; represents community knowledge-sharing
“It's been a long time since I've done it but it was really humbling it was a cool experience and I have so much more to learn but the cool thing is if I can do it you can do it seriously this stuff is not that hard”
Jon@ 16:05 — Jon's closing philosophy on arcade restoration accessibility; positions the work as learnable despite complexity
“I'm brand new to this i've never done a real full-size arcade restoration before so i'm calling up all sorts of friends asking him for tips”
Jon@ 15:32 — Jon openly acknowledges he is learning arcade restoration for the first time; establishes context for the series
“Keep in mind your t-mold if you make a couple mistakes or little tiny gap but not gaps but little issues here you can usually fix it when you you know apply the t-mold”
Jon@ 11:56 — Practical advice about T-molding installation tolerances; reassurance for DIY restorers

Entities

JonpersonKiller InstinctgameX-Men vs. Street FightergameStreet Fighter 2 Champion EditiongameJoe SabopersonMatt ScottpersonGame On GraphicscompanyDarksoft CPS-2 modproductRetroRalphcompany

Transcript

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0:00

Hey guys, welcome back! Alright, this is part two of the Killer Instinct Arcade Restoration Project, and we're going to be focused mainly on the control panel. So if you guys remember from the video before this, the control panel was pretty whacked out, right? The top of it, the artwork was actually, it had X-Men vs. Street Fighter on it, the acrylic top was pretty beat up, I have no idea the condition of the artwork underneath, and those graphics that were sitting on the top of it, I don't know if those are going to come off easily or not, but we're going to do that all in this video and the side panels they were all chunked out now this happens when you're moving these arcades around over the years they get they bump into things the wood chips off so that just happens but we need to restore that because we can't put artwork over you know messed up wood so we have to fix that so in this video we're going to focus all on that it's going to be a longer form video so just get some popcorn and enjoy and without further ado let's get started all right guys so we're going to get ready to take this control panel off because we're going to put artwork, new artwork under here. We're going to put new artwork on the sides, on the front, but there's definitely some touch-up work that needs to get done to this, so we're going to do some Bondo and stuff like that. Right now on the screen, what you see is actually the Darksoft mod that I was showing you guys for a while, so it's a CPS-2 board, and I know you guys can't see this, but this basically is a breakout box, and it says Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. Now, if I scroll up here and go to X-Men vs. Street Fighter and hit enter. What it's doing right now is it's actually flashing the board with the ROM files for X-Men vs. Street Fighter and then you'll see that game start playing. I wanted to show that to you guys real quick so I wanted to enjoy the cabinet while I could you know even though it's in rough shape. So you'll see this a load it usually takes you know less than 20 seconds but the benefit to this is you're actually using real hardware there's no emulation here so the game is going to play exactly how you remember it so we'll give it a couple more seconds this thing will fire up but there's um i can't remember how many games are on this i've got like maybe the whole cps2 collection or pretty close to that and so you'll see this will boot up exactly like a real arcade would because like i said it's using real arcade hardware so there it is you'll see x-men versus street fighter uh right now actually So there you go. So anyway, it's really cool. This is really neat. We will have to do another video on it I'm kind of like torn because it kind of want to keep it in here and play with it. But oh well I won't for right now So we're gonna do is we're gonna shut this thing off I'm gonna actually take the control panel and I made these well, that's really loud I made these labels that so I know exactly where all the buttons are so that I can rewire this later But I made all these buttons for the control. So I'm gonna flip this up I'm gonna label it all and then we're gonna take it out and do our work on it

4:15

All right, so we got all the buttons and the joysticks off and like I said I think we might be able to salvage which I'm stoked about this actually looks really nice We just need to clean it up But these were just decals or like pieces of paper that someone printed for x versus Street Fighter So providing I can get these all off which it looks like I can if I can get these all off and get it cleaned up I think we might be okay, even though I have a new reprint, we might be okay. I don't know, we'll see. What do you guys think? Do you think we should keep this? Definitely, when you watch this back and put in the comments below, let me know if you think we should keep this, or you think we should, you know, try to clean it up and keep it, or if we should just put the new artwork on and forget about it. Okay, so this process took a really long time. It seemed all simple at first, right? I just removed the stickers, and I'm like, oh, this is great, but there was a ton of adhesive, and then the parts that were kind of tucked into the buttonholes were super sticky, really hard to get off, and I was thinking, man, I've got to get this off because I'm looking at this control panel artwork going, crap, this looks so good, and I cleaned it up a little bit before I did this, and I just can't see myself removing something that was an original part of the cabinet, even though Game On Graphics provided me a reprint. And by the way, go check out Scott over at Game On Graphics if you need graphics. But man, this part, I had to take a little X-Acto knife. I didn't want to damage the artwork, but I needed to get all the paper off. And I think the end result looks really good. Like guys, seriously, let me know what you think, but I can't see myself removing this. It just looks too good. Okay, so we removed all the sticks and buttons and I'm really surprised at how awesome the artwork looked underneath the plexiglass. It needed some cleanup, but we may not have to replace this which is one less thing that we have to do So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to remove There's four screws inside to actually be able to lift this out because we do need to do some touch-up work on the side So I'm going to start to do that really quick. So we're just going to need to unscrew these four bolts Which is one two three and four

8:17

These bolts actually go on the front artwork. The front artwork's not terrible, but I just figure if I've got that really nice reprint from Scott over at Game On, I might as well just put that on there, right? Because it would, there's a couple imperfections, and I think once I sand that, it'll look really nice. So let's get these two the bolts for the latches off and then we should be ready to start sanding and getting this all ready Okay right here. I'm just removing the side bolts for these latches I have to do it on both sides because I can't sand with these screws in the way right I need a flat surface So I gonna get both of these out of there and then at that point we can start sanding these the side panels down Okay we gonna start by sanding this side panel right here Now you can see there a bunch of cracks and stuff like that that we were gonna have to you just gonna have to ignore the dogs I sorry they just won't stop we're gonna have to sort of bondo this to fix this but we're gonna sand all this but first of all get your protective glasses on oh yeah all right if you know me and power tools I always make mistakes so I was using a like an 80 grit sandpaper at first it took freaking forever so I switched over to a 40 because we're gonna need a nice clean flat and even surface if we're gonna start the bondo process but of course I didn't use bondo first but we'll get to that in a minute so I finished this side and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing now because I want to try to fill in these small gaps there's not many of them but if I'm gonna make this corner with t-molding I just want it to be perfect so I have this stuff that's called a dynatran glazing spot putty so I was tipped off by someone that this is actually a better stuff to use than bondo on these little kind of little nicks and things like that so I'm gonna try it I don't know what I'm doing like I said so hopefully I can sort of figure this out as I go cuz it's gonna be hard because I got to get make this an edge because right now there's like zero edge to this so I'm trying to see if I can do this without knowing what I'm doing but I got a good surface here to work with because I sanded it down to basically nothing so I should be able to sort of build up a corner here and then hopefully uh sand it down when I'm done but like I said I don't really know what I'm doing I'm just uh trying to learn as I go sort of thing okay rather than make you wait I used bondo okay and my camera died a bunch of times so I don't have full video of it but this worked out great and it was just the right material now i have to be careful when using bondo because there's a hardening agent you don't want to put too much of it in because it'll harden super fast but uh and make it really hard to work with so it came out really good the surface is flat there's a little pro tip that joe sabo gave me so to make a proper corner i staple gunned a piece of um cardboard and made a proper angle and then i filled in the bondo that way so you you'll see it ended up with a really good corner and after i was done sanding it it's it's perfect and it's ready uh for artwork to be installed okay so my battery died while i was applying the artwork but that was probably better than it did because i was cussing up a storm but anyways that's how i got it it looks pretty good uh now we got to cut the excess off so i have a couple different ways i do this i uh sometimes i like to lay it flat and cut around a lot of people don't do that so I'm going to try to start it in the corner over here get it going and I should be able to just ride the groove so usually just you just kind of like apply the sharp edge to the t-mold area and you usually can get it in one nice cut if you have a steady hand which I don't but keep in mind your t-mold if you make a couple mistakes or little tiny gap but not gaps but little issues here you can usually fix it when you know apply the t-mold all right that looks pretty good so far so that top edge that top top edge came out pretty good keep in mind the t-mold will be over it so these little like that's actually the paint from the top showing through so no big deal there all right after i got the artwork situated on both sides i decided to do the t-molding now t-molding if you've never done it before the corners can be a little bit tricky so you have to cut like almost these v shapes in there so you cut this little v shape out so you can make the corner now you want to be careful because those exacto knives are so sharp sharp you can actually cut the t-mold itself once you cut that little v shape out providing you cut enough of it out in here i actually didn't cut enough so i had to go back and cut a little bit more and then at that point you can make the corner easily and then you want to like sort of pull it so it's tight actually i had a little bit more i had to take off so see i was i was rushing and uh and it actually didn't do it right the first time so i'm cutting a little bit of the excess off now i should be able to round this corner no problem and then get the rest of the t-molding in and then at the end they do have these cutters but i didn't have my cutters i couldn't find them anywhere either so i just used a uh exacto knife and cut it really nice he was giving me a hard time you're gonna want to get like a rubber mallet like this get it into place and you good to go all right there it There it is that the new side panel It looks really good I super stoked So that side done And then we got our T over here and that side done So all we need to do really is get, and I kept the front, by the way, I kept the front. I thought the front looked good. I didn't want to mess with the real artwork. That's the artwork that came with it. Let's keep that original. So really, all I have to do now is really put the control panel on top, and then, you know, then we're kind of ready for wiring and buttons and all sorts of stuff. So all right, we're going to need to replace these four bolts in the front of the control panel. Now these hold the hinge that holds the control panel top into place. So we need to get those back into place, and then we're going to need to put the control panel back on. Now the control panel will slide onto these bolts the other end of the hinge will slide onto these bolts and then we'll actually tighten them from the other side now i'm going to actually take the control panel completely off after so you can see it all completed and then after that we'll do some final thoughts but we're really going to be on part three we're on part three of the next video of the series we're going to do buttons and joysticks and replace a little bit more of the t-molding and do some touch-ups to the front of the cabinet as well as the back access panel of the cabinet All right, guys. there you have it the conclusion of part two of the killer instinct restoration project it was just focused on the control panel we have so much more work to do we have to put the sticks we have to put the buttons we have to rewire everything but before we even do that we got to fix some of the team holding we're going to do some artwork touch-ups there's a couple more things we have to do but i will say this i am learning so much throughout this process i'm brand new to this i've never done a real full-size arcade restoration before so i'm calling up all sorts of friends asking him for tips and calling up Joe Sabo and said, hey, bud, how do I do these corners on the control panel with Bondo? And he gave me that tip with the cardboard. It totally helped. By the way, I forgot to mention certain things like after I did the sanding, I primed it and then sanded it again with like 240 grit sandpaper, some of it by hand. It was really tough. And I had multiple technical issues where during the recording, my camera died, had no clue that it did. But I'm also not used to doing long form content like this. It's been a long time since I've done it but it was really humbling it was a cool experience and I have so much more to learn but the cool thing is if I can do it you can do it seriously this stuff is not that hard it just takes patience time and a little bit of knowledge and calling up some friends right and actually my own arcade group on Facebook the home arcade modders and whatever the heck it's called arcade modders and enthusiasts I threw a bunch of stuff in there and they helped out a ton so just know there's a bunch of resources and people able to help you if you want to you know tackle a project like this and by the way there's been multiple contributors to the project that i want to thank i want to thank joe sabo and i also want to thank scott over at game on graphics he provided the side art he did provide the art on the top and in the front tube and i feel bad not using it but oh my gosh when you have real artwork that's there it's a part of that arcade's history it seems like a shame to sand it off the sides i couldn't really save but those things i just feel like you know what they were there originally and they're gonna stay there until you know they're just unless they get so destroyed that i gotta replace it but anyways put your comments below i hope you watch this whole video i know this is long i know it's a lot it's an investment of your time so i appreciate you doing that but put your comments below give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed content like this do you want to see more of stuff like this uh and also consider subscribing to the channel if you enjoy this content that's it for now guys i will see you on the next one