Megatouch XL Hard Drive - Replacement

[bfrosty]

Guys -

I purchased a Sega Turbo Outrun for $160 (Working, a bit dirty) that I'm restoring/cleaning up.  The guy had a MegaTouch XL bartop arcade game sitting there on his workbench.  After negotiating the for the Outrun, he piped up and said "Hey, you want that Megatouch XL for free?"  He said is just comes up asking to press a key to reboot.  I said, sure!

Now, I've been working with computers for 20yrs + and I thought...I could fix this thing.

Dug into it, cleaned it a bit, hooked up a keyboard and checked out the bios settings.  It was recognizing the HD, just not booting.  These things originally came with CD Rom drives, but from my reading online it looks like someone upgraded to a HardDrive.  I have no idea how to get it out of the machine.  Everything is sitting on top of it, including the monitor.

Anyway, long story short...I was thinking of buying a HD off the Ebay Megatouch (store?).

I just don't know which model I have in order to get the correct HD.

The cabinet just says "Megatouch XL".  I've seen that there is a 5000 and 6000 model too.

Anyone have a comment or suggestion as to verifying the correct HD to get?  Can I upgrade it to newer games?

Thanks,
Mitch

[bfrosty]

I've contacted Merit Games tech support...apparently the XL is an old machine.

I think I may have to upgrade it to something newer.

Ps. I can't believe the security on these things.  HD's can't be copied, you need a security key, etc....You think they were the government?  Hummm....wait a second.

 

[moogrum]

Their real purpose is to build a database of everybody's fingerprints.

[iankellogg]

Just put a CD drive in it, and buy a new security key and CD version. The hard drive version is completely different.

[bfrosty]

@iankellogg -

I'm going to try and fix it with Merit's support first, then do a HD swap.  I don't want to buy a CD-Rom,CD and new Key.  Trying to keep costs down!!!

Plus, not sure how to mount that CD in the Megatouch case.  The left side has a lock, but it doesn't work any more...wonder how I could get the CDROM to stay put???

New to these...so not sure what the cheapest route to go is....any ideas???  I'm open!

Thanks again for everyone's help.
Much Appreciated.
MK

[iankellogg]

Cheapest is probably buy a newer, more modern one. you can get the force models for under $200.

[bfrosty]

Free is cheaper...which was the cost of this one!

I spoke with Merit and he said the machine was modified.  It should have had a CDROM in it, but someone placed a HD in there.

He's going to call back with some solutions.

Bummer...sounds like I have to spend some dough on it....Why so secretive about Hard drive encryption...seriously...Solitaire is that coveted? 

Thanks guys!
MK

[iankellogg]

you will find a large amount of arcade games are encrypted. The megatouch isn't even the worst for encryption, at least they only encrypt the rom per version. Namco encrypts PER HARD DRIVE.