Red's Black Storm

[Red5]

Black Storm is due to arrive any day
stay tuned

[IDCHAPPY]

Nice your new fancy dancin cab eh? looking forward to the pics buddy

[Red5]

Nice your new fancy dancin cab eh? looking forward to the pics buddy

Indeed it is, there's 2 version's Red Storm & Black Storm.

[IDCHAPPY]

Nice your new fancy dancin cab eh? looking forward to the pics buddy

Indeed it is, there's 2 version's Red Storm & Black Storm.

I gather it's just a colour differance? was it the one on ebay you went for?

[Red5]

I flee bay, via Andy @ http://www.ultimarc.com"

[Pete]

You can never trust the British weather reports

[Red5]

Order'd one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stunning-32in ... 039wt_1188"
spotted by our very own kernow, original priced @ £850 which while the same price as coinopexpress, has considerable cheaper shipping, £45 as opposed to £400/500

Long story short, these were advertised as Brand New on eBay by Andy aka ultimarc.com, but on arrival its was very apparrent that they were old and scruffy refurbs.

Also there was worse to come, the Leg levellers at the front had been bent by the shipping company and as i had it delivered to my work's address a newbie at work sign'd for it, without looking at it. (so no claim could be made)

After much talk to andy and many many pictures of the condition i was offered a full refund or handsome discount, andy claim'd that the units had been sold to him as Brand New, and he had not opened the unit he sent to me
He open'd another unit and the results were the same.
Either the sale pics are not Andy's or he had 1 New one in the order he received.

On to the review: please excuse some of the poor pics (between cams at the mo, and the iPhone is bust)

Looks
Looking very much like a china clone of the New Delta, clone of a china cab
the model i got is called BlackStorm, the other version is called RedStorm, cabs are identical apart from Black and Red parts.


Nice pic of a New version, kinda nice on the eyes, i think people either love or hate the modern cabs, i prefer the look to the Euro Linndy i had. x10

Black Storm colours are a rip from the Delta, Black and Red, but the Control panel has been copied from the Linndy, (cheeky buggers have even used what looks like the same font for text / logo)







I always liked the stock Pink and green of the NAC's so the button & stick combo pleases.

Construction

A lot of people sneer at the China cabs, either the new ones or the older, "they must be made of old plastic cups, or coke cans"
well this baby is bult like a flipping tank, it took 3 burly men to help me with it, in and out of the car, i'd guess its at least as heavy as a vanilla Vewlix @ 120kg it could be more. All the doors and beams / supports and the main box are metal, the only plastic parts on the sides are the Vewlix esq end covers.









The whole cp area is suitably constructed, and does not flex or bend.



Equipment

One gets:
2 Sanwa sticks, and matching buttons, p1 and p2 buttons are not Yellow







32" LCD screen, this possible appears to be a better spec than the one in Cell's Chinese Vewlix L, as it has both VGA and DVI, no native 15k though
standard res is 1360 x 768, although the xbox360 source suggested a higher value









Jamma PSU
Fan PSU
Stero Amp
Comparator Coin Mech
Jamma Loom
VGA pass through device

















Not seen this before, at the back there's a second set of sockets for the controls etc, in the coin box there's a matching cable



CGA to VGA adapter, glued in under the rear CP panel,



Illuminated Marquee



How does it play? perform?

1st impressions were not good as the condition was very disappointing, and one was not in the mood, so i left it alone a few days, while i carm'd down.
day 1 i had a cab that while had a excellent picture quality for xbox or pc input, was a train reck for jamma input.
images not filling the screen, washed out images AND over saturated colours, that looked very weird, even with a SGL., no amount of RGB pot tweaking solved this
Had a real good go at getting a decent / playable pic today and the end results have surprised me:

1st having read that there have been issues with the CGA / VGA adapter, with voltgage's and weird colours,i took the review's recommendation and reduce'd the 5v, a week bit (using a test meter) Would you believe it, colours now look very different, and i can see that tweaks to the RGb pots are giving me the desired results on a test colour patch



Then using the CGA / VGA adapters display settings were able to comfortably achieve colours / contrasts and saturations that at least fall in to the "this is how i remember the colours looking on my fav game, some more fiddling with the SGL and i now have a Very nice 15k picture with a delicate touch of scan lines.
Its so good that i am going to keep me boards, and go for new ones to, i never expected to be playing any 15k native games on it.
Would just like to say that the colour corrections to boh the CGA /VGA converter and the display took more than 8 hours of intense tweaking over several days.
Point to make is that all to many people give up with the Plug and Play stuff (we just expect digital to work out of the box)





I'll put some vids up soon as i can not capture the quality on my current camera.

Height of the cp is very comfortable, just feels right, and works well with my orignal Red Stool, so i am guessing its the standard height.
Distance and angle of the screen is also very good (when Yoko)
When the screen is Tate'd ,



if the whole screen area is filled, then the screen "feels" to long and tall, (i experienced the same issue trying to use a standard 32'lcd and a Hori stick)
But..... after getting comfy and settling down to ones fav game, it does feel like i am playing on a CAB and not a joystick and LCD balanced on a table



Unlike the Delta there is no Rotate Mech, one unbolts the storms panel and just lifts and turns it, if left unbolted (it weighs loads so does not move) this can take just seconds.



To conclude, i was expecting a New Cab to play Cave 360 titles on, but got a used / scratched / scruffy one, that i can play CAVE original's on
one is more than happy.

Things to try / do[/b

As the condition is not perfect, i strip down and re-paint feels like a good option.
Fitting a Rotate Mech, while not really needed at all, would be sexy, especially if i can copy the one from the Delta.
Trying Black Letterbox's when playing Tate games, (after all the source is not widescreen)

D

[thomj]

[Korszca]

What res did the 360 want to use? 1080p?

[Casey120]

Bummer that it's not new like advertised

The picture looks nice though and playing in Tate a plus , the scan-lined 15 k picture is pretty nice .


I see he still offers them on Ebay for 750 now but still advertised as brand new

[backfield22]

nice write-up. thanks!

[FrancoB]

I hope you did get a handsome discount. I would be mighty **** off about that.

[cools]

Haha, I was looking at those pics on my phone earlier and thinking "wtf cab maker makes bits of the loom entirely orange". Now I see.

[supergoose]

do you plan to paint the red parts red again? imo the cab would look a lot better without the red. and all the scratches and the rust, of course.

other than that it really doesn't look bad for a newer lcd cab.

[yosai]

Thanks for the pics and write up. Real bummer it wasn't in new condition.

Haha, I was looking at those pics on my phone earlier and thinking "wtf cab maker makes bits of the loom entirely orange". Now I see.

Looks very similar to my cools made JAMMA extender.

[backfield22]

what additional control interface would you need to get an xbox360 in there running SFIV?

[SuperPang]

Sorry to hear about the condition man, that sucks. Thankfully it sounds like the seller is sorting you out. The CGA tweaking sounds like a ballache too but you've done a great job. Looks especially cool rotated. I agree that if you're repainting you should lose the red. It would look cool with a more subtle blue or grey.

[emphatic]

Having owned a Chinese knock-off cabinet myself once, I must congratulate you on your patience to get a good picture. I struggled for several months and got a picture that still drove me slightly crazy, but yours look fine to me, especially when in TATE. Too bad it's not new though.

[Red5]

What res did the 360 want to use? 1080p?

no HD through VGA lead

I see he still offers them on Ebay for 750 now but still advertised as brand new

Very Naughty boy aint he.

do you plan to paint the red parts red again? imo the cab would look a lot better without the red. and all the scratches and the rust, of course.

other than that it really doesn't look bad for a newer lcd cab.

Not sure, i think i could be tempted by Grey

what additional control interface would you need to get an xbox360 in there running SFIV?

Grab yourself or make a Pad hack, connect the wires to the sticks and buttons, VGA lead to the monitor, supplied phono leads to the Sound amp.

[thomj]

Grey trim with dark hai buttons / white starts