John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

Hi friends,

I could use your help in deciding what to do with this situation. I have decided that it is a fact of life, force of nature, that eventually, somehow, I must acquire a Donkey Kong. I already have a working DK PCB and monitor, so that's great.

John did a great thing and found me a guy selling a Popeye cabinet. It's near mint. I am going to go on an 8 hour road trip with my brother this weekend and pick it up.

Now to the dilemma. I have confirmed the Popeye is an original Popeye, not a conversion from anything else.

Do I convert the Popeye to DK or keep it as-is and continue searching for another cab?

I've already gotten some shit for saying I was going to convert a Popeye to DK. How big of a sin is that? If I do it, will it fuck me on selling price down the road? Am I over thinking this?

DK is a lot better of a game. But I know how you feel about messing it up. You can always try to save the artwork, maybe try to find a replace control panel or make one yourself (they are very simple). Get a switcher and keep both games in there.

DK is vertical, popeye is horizontal  :(

If it's a keeper then go ahead and convert, but if you are thinking of selling it later (or enjoy Popeye), maybe just rotate the monitor in the cab and run it with the DK board until you can find a cheap Ninty cab to drop your parts into, then you can swap the Popeye back to the way it was, and even if you have to drill for new monitor bolts, It will look stock if you do it right.
Personally that's what I would do in this case, and I have seen several lately for cheap because the conversion game inside was junk and unpopular.

well the cabinets sorta match I looked at both today.
Its just gonna be a donkey kong in a popeye cab is all.
I had a red radar scope cab with jr donkey kong artwork.. I wanted a donkey kong real bad .
instead of converting the red cab I found an all dedicated minty donkey kong for 350 that only needed
one cap for the monitor to make it work (capped them all instead) then found like 188 bux worth of quarters inside.

Now nobody really gave you shit,  it was YOUR misunderstanding and were corrected.
you said you were converting the popeye BACK to donkey kong.
like if you were saying somebody took a donkey kong and made it into a popeye and you were undoing it.

Actually you shouldn't even have to ask us. If you want a donkey kong machine and you have all the stuff
to do it.. Then have at it.  Doesn't really matter what the whole 6 of us (usually who hangs out here now) thinks lol.

yeah there was two DK machines at the auction with some bullshit conversions in them.
that's where john got his "Sorta" journey machine restore.

The op that I buy my games from (he recently sold me my Qbert and Neo Geo) just sold his last 3 Nintendo cabs for $100 each. One was a birdie king and the other two were some crappy baseball game conversions. they worked he just didn't want them taking up space in the warehouse. Guy that bought them was restoring them to DK, DKJ and Popeye. so they are definitely out there.

Hey I didn't call anybody out, I've been talking to friends who aren't on this site and been taken to task about doing this conversion. That's all...

Popeye is a great game to own. It's not as good as a Dk but if possible own both.
Side note: If you convert it you will need to find the vert. mounts. If you can find a Dk sn. tag, Nobody would ever know!

They are the same exact cabinet. Does it have the holes for the vertical monitor mounts? If so, you can easily convert it to and back. The art is easy to swap.

I never said you called anybody out.. ok now my head hurts lol

there is always that one person that would lol
besides its too late we all know now.

well why resell it anyways, make your DK and play the shit outta it.
who cares what cab its in

No holes, that kinda bothers me that I'd have to drill. Also I'd have to remove the original cpo or buy a whole new control panel. Really not sure. I may play the popeye for awhile and see if I get tired of it, then decide what to do.

Every one I've seen has the holes, just not the brackets. Look between the monitor and the lower board under it and there should be a bracket or holes for the bracket, then up by the back door there should be 2 bolts close together or holes close together. That's where the cross brace for the top of the monitor to mount.

You are right on. That is exactly how it is.

Good deal, now all you have to do is make the brackets. They are pretty basic, a little angle iron and a little time and you can have a functional set or find some on ebay.