| Well, now that you have a cabinet, you
need to prepare it for installation of the Saturn. If you
never plan on using the original game in it again, then I
would remove all the unnecessary guts like the
motherboard, switching power supply, and extra wires. It
is extremely important to leave the isolation transformer
installed. If you have one, it will be a rather large
transformer mounted on the bottom of the cabinet with
some 12 gauge wire running to the monitor. The isolation
transformer protects you (from being killed) and the
other equipment in case of a monitor problem. I won't go
into detail how it works, but just take my word for it.
Now it is also possible that there isn't one. In that
case, don't worry (unless the monitor says
"Isolation Transformer Required"). Now if the
cabinet doesn't have 6 buttons per player, then you will
have to buy some buttons. If you have enough room on your
control panel, you might like to add the L and R buttons,
but I haven't found it necessary yet. Also if the cabinet
doesn't have 8-way joysticks you will need to replace
those as well. 8-way joysticks allow you to move
diagonally by activating 2 switches at the same time.
Such as down and right at the same time. Older games may
use 4-way joysticks that don't allow diagonal moves.
If you are going to have to replace the control panel
all togther you will need some hardware. Here's what I
had to do.
First I removed the buttons and the joystick. On the
top of my control panel there was a piece of plexiglass.
I removed the 4 screws from it and set it aside. That
left me at the overlay layer. The overlay is the plastic
sheet glued on to the panel. It might have designs on it
or just be a solid color. Mine was a continuous sheet
including the SEGA logo on the front. I put the
plexiglass back on and took a razor and cut across the
edge of the plexiglass (So I could keep the SEGA logo on
the front.). Then I started peeling the overlay off which
is easier said than done. Once removed I was left with a
piece of sheet metal. The buttons and joystick mount to
the sheet metal and the sheet metal mounts to the wood of
the console. I removed the screws from the sheet metal
and was left with a hole. You will want to measure the
metal so you can get some more. On my cabinet (that was
originally a Williams Joust) it measured 24" by 5
1/2". You will want to get a piece of sheet metal in
the same size and also a piece of plexiglass or Lexan
(stronger) in that size. The plexiglass/Lexan should be
available at Home Depot or a similar hardware store. The
sheet metal also might be available at Home Depot but I
haven't checked.
To decide on a button layout, I recommend getting a
piece of cardboard and cutting it to the size of the
control panel. Then mark off the area that mounts to the
wood underneath.
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