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It's not looking promising, I can't get the motherboard to power up, looks like the original PSU probably was OK. With both PSUs I can get them to spin up when not connected to the motherboard, but once connected they do the same as originally - the fans in the PSUs rotate about 1 degree then stop. (Edit1) If I remove the 4 pin ATX12V connector near the CPU I get all the fans to spin, but obviously it doesn't boot without that power connected. As soon as ATX12V is connected, it dies. I'm wondering if either the CPU is knackered or the motherboard? I've never had a dead CPU before but such things must exist. Replacement CPU is under a tenner so might be worth a punt. ... If it's the motherboard, it's rather in this (it's got no AGP and has ISA slots, haven't seen them for ages!). I don't expect to have much luck sourcing exact spares, and think it might become a moneypit if I'm not careful, so if it is the board I'm leaning towards replacing the PC with something different and possibly putting the IND:E SIM setup on that, hopefully using the existing touchscreen.

Just in case anyone was wondering, here's what's inside the bottom door of one of these cabinets, and what the inside of the PC looks like. First up, I'll be taking the HDD out and keeping an image of it, then I'll be taking the PC apart and giving it a good clean prior to picking up my new PSU later this afternoon. Busy day today - got in from work at 23:30 last night, and had to swap my car for a courtesy car this morning before 09:00 (so had to set off at 08:00 to get to local Mini dealer due to traffic). Pleasantly surprised with the courtesy car, a brand new Mini Countryman Cooper S PHEV. Not as sporty looking as mine but surprisingly nippy Then I've got to take mum's Mini for an MOT at 13:00, and will sort out the PSU once that's done. I'll get the PC stripped down and cleaned to pass the next 90 mins or so until I'm tied up again

If I can't get it working as then the panel would definitely be useful, could always just use it as a lo-tech fruit emulation machine, or make it a single player MAME unit? That's assuming I can't get it going though. Fingers crossed it's a simple fix. I'm getting excited about having a trivia machine

So updates - 1) Seller of iPacs, Pacdrives and lamps has shipped them today, so hopefully they will be here for Weds / Thurs. 2) Have had a look inside the INDE cabinet, can't get any life from the PC other than the PSU fan turning about 0.0001deg when mains applied. Thought it might be a BIOS issue or something so shorted the power button headers on the main board but nothing. Seller I got my 19" LCD panel for my MAME cab has now moved around the corner from me and has tested ex-office PSUs (this one is molex) for a tenner so picking one up tomorrow and if lucky that'll sort it, if not I'm going to totally strip the PC and rebuild it, and if that doesn't do it... I don't know! Only other possibility would be main board and not sure if it needs to be an exact replacement. Will be fun finding out

Sounds like it would be interesting to try and make something simple on, but don't think it's going to be up to much in the emulation stakes - could possibly do a single console, and an old one at that. Will still be interesting to see what people do with it though

The best I've had is £3 in old coins in one of my skill cabs, and my old pusher probably had about a tenners worth of 2ps fall out of various orifices once it's got it open. If there was any significant money inside I'd always contact the seller, I'm honest (or daft) lol Iike that! Just need to find some time to play with this now. Being free I'm pretty happy taking it apart and seeing what I can do, can't really make it worse It's got to be a PC issue so will get that out and check all the connections and try and diagnose it. If lucky there will be fault codes from the BIOS, if not I'll end up chopping and changing til it works

That one came up on my phone from Facebook marketplace, couldn't say no as it was under a mile away! Don't think any particular setting triggered the notification, although I do often fire up the marketplace app searching for fruit machines locally Really want to get it working, so using the cab for something else is the last resort. No idea on the hardware as I picked it up and then got ready for work (parked up at work now, start in 15). I'm assuming it's a PC and a paylink board, hopefully it's dongle free but until I have a proper look I can't be sure

Did someone say 'free cabinet'? Couldn't say no, not exactly sure what I'll do with it. According to the seller it had somewhere in the region of 15 games on it before, including DOND, Battleships, Top of the Pops. I reckon I'll just try and get it working so I have an SWP to go with my other cabs, but if I have no joy with that plan... then it could become anything As for my MFME cab - well I made a screen surround, made my own VESA mount out of MDF, and it's ongoing. The seller of the LEDs, iPac and Pacdrive has still not posted them from the look of it. Seem to recall it's the same seller of the keyboard encoder I used for my MAME build, and they were very slow then. The did say they'd run out of the LEDs I ordered and they are going to sub with something that's basically the same. Will update once the stuff actually arrives

A club machine that bucks the normal trend would be Temple of Treasure club by Barcrest, in that it offers jackpot capable (or at least high win potential) features from lower down exchanges. So you might take a win of a few quid, and it might offer the top feature from seemingly nowhere. On JPM club machines on the lower jackpots (still club machines, but on the 5p / £75 jackpot or 10p / £100 jackpot) I'd often take the Winspins at 20 or so, only had a drop in a couple of 4-of-a-kind spins and you'd be very close to jackpot. 30 Winspins would almost certainly do it. Never really bothered with the features on those, always found them disappointing, and wouldn't take less than 30 Winspins on a £250 jackpot JPM unless I was cutting and running, or it was a cheap board and I just wanted a quick profit and knew I wouldn't stay on much longer. They are pretty much considered 'classic' these days, games like Casino Crazy club, and more recent clones like Magic Circle.

I learned the hard way that some clubbers simply can't be forced out, the jackpot came around on a cycle and refusing wins did little to change them. Will never forget the time I put £1500 into a club machine (yes, real money in a real club) to find that out. Some will let you force them, and some were more profitable (to me at least) but just taking as much value out as I could by knowing where the blocks were and what state the machine was in. But basically, if it was a machine (or manufacturer) that I knew was forceable, and was showing decent signs, I'd normally just force it out, see it as a challenge and a way of passing some time. If you want easy to force machines on the emulator, look for machines by the likes of Reflex, the £2/£400 and the £1/£250 are probably the fastest to do. If you prefer older machines, I used to force QPS, Mazooma, Barcrest and JPM locally. Tended to not force Bell Fruit clubbers as much, although a local Red Mist was quite profitable for me.

Also Supernova and All Fired Up. I know there are more but can't think of them off the top of my head. I did a classic layout for Bell Fruit's Hot Rod pretty recently which also has a red and blue feature board, but it uses a bagatelle feature which is very easy to cheat on using the emulator

Thanks for the advice and ongoing discussion, much appreciated! Got to do a weekly shop shortly but will spend some time on the MDF this afternoon. Ordered the iPac and Pacdrives yesterday. Think I made a stupid mistake - the Ultimarc site defaulted to dollars so I assumed it was a US company, but it actually looks like it's based in the UK and I could have saved a little cash buying direct? Anyway, too late to worry about that now, will update later on with how it's gone. If the MDF isn't going to be strong enough to support the monitor I'll consider running out and grabbing something thicker (edit) Decided to grab some 9mm moisture resistant (green tinted) MDF, cost very little over the 6mm standard (£4 per 60cmx60cm sheet compared to £3 for the thinner non-MR stuff). Also going to grab a 25mm holesaw as having measured Monty Python's button holes I believe that's what I need to fit my Gamesman reels. Have had a play with the multi-tool, managed to make a nice window for the monitor. Surprising how little room there is to play with!! Probably could have made my life easier by going for a smaller screen but it's too late now Next up - going to have a trip to Screwfix for the holesaw, arbor, and the replacement multi-tool saw blade as I managed to drop it earlier and snap the blade... having one of those clumsy days

Cheers, was pretty happy with it in the end. There's some changes I could make to it but don't want to obsess about it too much! If it was my only machine I'd definitely go down the coin-handling route, but I do also have other machines, including Monty Python (obviously) and a sit-down T7, so can use them as moneyboxes. I left the metalwork in for the coin acceptor, which was an odd make (NRI or something?) - will try my spare C435A in there tomorrow and if that fits in the metalwork it'll give me confidence a MARS mech would also fit. Regarding the universal hoppers, there is one in each cabinet and they are easy to fit / remove (just pull out of the cabinet with the top door open). Not sure I'd get away with two hoppers in one of these cabs as they are huge! Could always go for real money and stick to £1 coin payout machines (most from my era are £1 only). Main thing for me though is the screens and buttons, coin handling would be a bonus. Bit like my arcade bar-top - playing with coins would be a nice addition but not really necessary.

Hmm... now I'm wondering about the choice of 6mm MDF. Kinda wishing I'd gone for at least 9mm. I picked 6mm as that was the thickness of the original machine glass (without the lamp holding plastics attached), but with the machine stripped down it looks like it'll easily take 9mm. I've not started cutting it yet (picked up a little handheld circular saw multi-tool thing earlier, looks like fun!) but while the monitor isn't that heavy, once I've cut a large section out of the MDF for the screen to show through, I'm worried it'll lose a lot of rigidity. Might have to brace it with something?!

You say Rio but isn't Rio the round top used from the 2000s onwards? Can't remember what these old flat top cabinets are called. As for the graphics, it would be a nice easy redraw as it's not the most complicated art. I could probably do the machine graphics but would need a nice image of the cabinet to transplant the art into. Not that I'm saying I'd do it, just that I feel I'd be capable of it. There's others that could do a better job than me (and faster too!).

Something I didn't think of was £1 entry, since I'll be going without coin handling on this first one. Bearing that in mind I'll definitely go with 9 on the bottom and 11 on the top, although one on the top will be running on the same Pacdrive as the bottom ones. Suppose I really out to get a pencil and some paper and start planning it out!

Lovely, thanks for all that I'll probably go the LED route then, the same seller does a pack of 20 for £14.99 all-in, which will cover all my needs (probably going for 10 at the bottom and 10 at the top). Looking at about £100 then for the 20xLEDs, 2xPacdrives and 1xiPac 2. The iPac will come with all the wiring for the button switches and ground, the lamps won't. Then again it'll be the same loom won't it, so I can just buy another loom? Same terminals for both lamps and switches on the button assembly so can't see why it wouldn't work? [edit] Although I have just remembered that there are only 10 lamps per Pacdrive so it would need a little bit of butchery! I'm tempted to stick at 9 buttons on the bottom and possibly go for 11 buttons on the top? I'm sure some of the DONDs for example might have 6 buttons for hi-lo (belt reel), and then possibly 3 for the DOND (play, deal, no deal), and then bonus and message from the banker for 11 in total? Could be wrong.

Well the metalwork is dry and looks pretty good! Been struggling a bit with mood again (bloody typical) but thought I'd do a nice small job and just clean some buttons, so I took the decals out of some Gamesman reels from some awful Betcom, and gave them a good clean inside and out. I've left the diffusers in. The original button panel on the cabinet is exactly 60cm, so I reckon I can squeeze 10 buttons in quite easily, I'm thinking 9 standard and 1 narrow? It does bring me to another question though... I'm wanting the buttons lamped, these are normal buttons with 10mm lamp holders. I'm hoping I can just put some LEDs in there (I'd be happy with normal tungsten but think that would draw too muc current?)... but I don't want to blow up a Pacdrive!! If it sounds like a bad idea let me know and I can scrap this plan and just grab some pre-lit arcade buttons instead

Decided to take the door off and paint it, surprisingly easy to remove the door (5 bolts). Just hope it's as easy to reattach! 5 coats of Hammerite satin black, will leave it a good 16 hours at least to let it dry now. Probably should have got the hammered texture stuff, but this should do for the moment, and it's all they had. Couldn't find any old paper or anything to lay it on, but do have some very old Christmas wrapping paper, so that'll do

I reckon I was lucky picking these cabs, they easily come off the base, and are light enough (admittedly while empty) for me to pretty easily carry about. Sure they'll be heavier with innards, but it's a nice surprise! Might have one as a bar-top and one as a full height cabinet? Who knows? I probably should have made proper plans in advance but that's not my style Plenty of dust and rust, and will definitely need the metalwork touching up. I've kept the lifters for the top door (they are the bits that look a bit like wiper arms in the middle), BUT if you open the front door with heavy glass in the cabinet does it's best to fall forwards (it would be the same or worse with MDF if a monitor was attached to it I reckon) so it'll only be used with the machine on it's back for access / maintenance reasons [edit] Bought some black 'spray over rust' Hammerite earlier, think I'll give it a shot with that. With button panels I normally strip back to bare metal but they are simple, flat things. With this I think I'll just wire-wool it and then give it a few coats. I'll hopefully get on with some of it tomorrow, if not I've got Saturday and Sunday off so will do it one of those days. Once it's sprayed and dried I'll probably move it in the house and get it to my 'project' room, which started as an old bedroom I stripped and redecorated, and has now become a warmer place than the garage for my weird projects

Much appreciated Pretty much the conclusion I came to. Don't mind splashing out on primer given the MDF itself was so cheap While on the topic of splashing, I don't expect to get direct moisture on these, so not too concerned. I'm planning on having at least one in the house and possibly one in the garage if I end up building two I think the main thing for me is to get the monitor and PC in, and a working button panel. I would like coin entry and payouts at some point but it's a fair way off. The machines both came with Universal hoppers, if I could use them that would be nice but if not I will see what others have used and source one of them

Definitely an interesting idea, something I'd ponder if the dimensions and cost were reasonable!

Decided to start stripping one of the cabs at 06:45 this morning (the least-working one, Super Skill Tower) while waiting for the courier to come and collect the T7 I had delivered a couple of days ago. That T7 didn't match description - was sold as a black PC, mentioned in description and shown in the photos, yet arrived with older PC, crackling speakers and a lot of scuffs / scrapes to chrome not shown on original photos, plus dimmer monitors and everything felt wrong, even the notey sounded a lot slower than my other T7... so not the machine they advertised but one with the same decals! Regarding this cab, not much that can be salvaged in terms of the electronics, the Pluto 5 is faulty, the coin and note mech are about 10 years out of date, I don't know if the PSU is working, although I guess I could test that in my other cabinet? Anyway, not done a lot really, just this so far. Tempted to order some wood to replace the glasses but still don't know the way to go, MDF or plywood? Still not decided on mounting the monitor, whether I attach directly to the MDF / ply (it doesn't weigh much, thank god modern monitors are so light!) or mount to the back of the cabinet or base on say a cantilever arm and line it up? Oh, I'll give the cabinet a proper clean too, it's full of 15 year old dust and a bunch of other bits that can do with being tidied up. This one has rust around the button panel, so will be sorting that out as well, and respraying (just black I think, nothing fancy!). [edit] Well, I've got a sawmill literally around the corner, so figured I may as well go and have a look. Having checked out both the 6mm MDF and 6mm ply (the original glass is 6mm thick) I opted for the MDF. The ply looked a bit fragile, especially at the edges, and the MDF feels plenty strong enough at that thickness. Plus it's nice a cheap. The top glass is under 600x600mm, and they sell 600x600mm sheets of 6mm thick MDF for £3. Can't go wrong at that price. The original glass might have only been 6mm, but there was also the lamp mask, which was at a guess 1 or 2mm thick. Didn't want to risk going up to 9mm MDF and then finding out it wouldn't fit, so have stuck with 6mm and if needs be I'll just pad the edges out with something so it's not loose when mounted in the cabinet. The sawmill offers a cut to size service, since it's a proper mill, but as they are only really open for essentials I'd feel a bit silly taking some fruit machine glass up with me and asking them to do that. Plus the more DIY it is, the more fun** it is. ** you can change 'fun' for 'frustating' depending on preference.

Happy Birthday Chris (thanks again for everything), and thinking of your family too on this day.