The Aliexpress reproduction Capcom mini cute

[Kamiboy]

Cheers, thanks for the info. Looking forward to testing the Hantarex chassis on the tube. Hopefully it will have been worth the trouble.

[PrincessPrinPrin]

These are the horizontal and vertical pins on the yoke connectors. The pins in the middle must be bridged. The B+ passes through the bridge so in case the chassis is turned on with the yoke connector unplugged, the flyback will not work.

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[Kamiboy]

That is great, thanks. No chance I would have figured that obscure fact out on my own.

Looks like I need to get myself a crimp tool as well.

[PrincessPrinPrin]

Not sure if you asked the seller for a remote extension. The Polo 2 extension is a bit of a headache. It's not the same as the one for the old Polo. It uses a 20-pin connector (single row, 2.5mm pitch) that is made by a couple of manufacturers such as Stocko and Lumberg.

https://www.tme.eu/en/details/3114-20/r ... 4-20-vp15/

And to complicate things, you would need two extensions with a male double connector (unless you splice/solder the wires together). I know, it's beyond stupid.

Ready-made extensions are very rarely available.

If you're good at (de)soldering, it could be a good idea to swap the connector with a more friendly one (e.g. JST).

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[Kamiboy]

I asked the seller, he didn’t really do anything for me. Also he confirmed that the board he sold me has not been serviced at all. I am tempted to buy a recap kit and a spare flyback for it, just in case and for posterity.

I looked into the connector and yeah, I couldn’t find anything that matched. Everything was in two rows of pins.

Actually it seems securing all the connectors is going to be quite an expensive endeavor. The only places that sell them only do so in bulk and with expensive shipping coats.

I am tempted to just remove the connectors and solder the wires directly to the motherboard. Was thinking of doing the same for the remote board, using a flex cable.

[Kamiboy]

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Well, after many a months delay I finally gave up on getting the correct connectors and just soldered everything directly into the Hantarex chassis.

Unfortunately while doing so I discovered a large crack in the motherboard around the flyback. I should have caught this when I received it and could have gotten some compensation from the postal service.

Anyway, I did my best to repair the damage using several bodge wires.

After all the trouble however the image quality I was met with was a huge disappointment. Pretty sure there is something still wrong with the chassis as the image is very noisy and unstable. Not sure what though, i believe I have already caught all the broken traces…

[nem]

Unfortunately while doing so I discovered a large crack in the motherboard around the flyback. I should have caught this when I received it and could have gotten some compensation from the postal service.

Whoever sold it to you made a terrible job of packing it.

[Kamiboy]

To be honest I am not sure there is any good way of shipping something like that to guard against such damage. It is a common occurrence because the flyback is heavy and the main boards that house them is often quite fragile.

Anyway I found the problem, seemed I had misunderstood one black cable to he vertical sync, while it was in reality supposed to be connected to gnd.

I got a rock solid picture now, but the red color is set quite low and turning the red pot on the neck board does nothing.

[Kamiboy]

Found the source of the last problem, a broken pad on the neckboard. Seems I got real unlucky with this one. At least it works now. I have yet to dial in the picture colour, brightness and contrast knobs. I’ll give my final verdict once that is done. My least favorite part…

[Kamiboy]

Well, I am done fiddling with knobs for the time being. The image quality is not exactly mind blowing. In fact I am not sure whether it is much better than what it was before. I like to think it is, but I made the mistake of not turning the old chassis for a spin before I jerry rigged the new one in, and the last time I saw the old one was about 2 months ago.

Despite my attempts I feel the screen is overall quite dim, and as a result a bit dull looking. Not sure if it is the fault of the new chassis as I think the old one had the same issue. It isn't the tinted plexiglass either, although it doesn't help. It might just be the tube. The whites are not very vibrant, which is evident whenever there is a full screen white.

Other than that the picture quality is ok, I guess. I think there is less distortion on screen during brightness changes, but not sure. Overall my old genuine arcade cab has a much better image quality than this Chinese repro. I've never seen a real Capcom mini cute to compare, but I definitely don't feel like this cab can take the place of my Blast city, the image quality is simply just better.

If I ever end up buying a reproduction Neo SC 19 I'll make sure to get a genuine arcade monitor for it. Someone sold one for cheap just the other week a town over. If I had a car I would have gone to get it. Might even have swapped it into my current cab, oh well.

In terms of what I've learned is that one needs to be very conscious of the physical positioning of the yoke wires, they should not go anywhere near the flyback wire as it will distort the image.

Secondly, the new chassis is not a neat drop in replacement as none of the old mounting holes line up with it, and in fact the bigger neckboard makes it so that one of the metal braces can no longer be fastened.

Currently I have used som zip-ties to haphazardly fasten the board in place, but if I ever need to move the cabinet to another apartment I would need to secure it better or it might jostle about and do permanent damage.

All the connections between the CRT and chassis used different connectors on the new chassis it was quite an ordeal to try and secure the appropriate ones. Getting the right ones would have required ordering from several places and paying quite a high price. I tried to find alternatives but ultimately I failed. They are now all permanently soldered in, which will make any future maintenance a potential pain in the ****, but it is what it is.

All in all, I don't think I recommend swapping chassis on these cabs, better to swap the whole tube for a real arcade monitor.

[aerobert]

So how much did this end up costing?

[Kamiboy]

I’d say about 2300 Euros, including the replacement chassis.

Was it worth it? Well, I suppose you might be able to buy a genuine vintage Japanese arcade cab, such as an Astro City shipped for around the same price. You would have a bigger screen, and depending on use, better image quality and depending on the cab, better sound also.

For your first cab I definitely recommend getting a Sega cab. For me, I think it is sort of worth it, as I specifically wanted a mini cute, and getting one of those would have cost several times the price of this repro.

I am not satisfied with the image quality though. Looking at it again last night the picture was a tad blurry and I could see subtle shadow artefacts. These might be fixable by adjusting some pots further or they might be inherent.

If I get the chance to get my hands on a real 20” arcade monitor in the future I will want to do an upgrade and thereby increase my satisfaction.

Aesthetically though, the cab is spot on, looks really nice in a room. No complaints there.

[aerobert]

Thanks for the insight. Yes I agree Sega cabs are the bomb. I have a few.

Man I should've traded my F14 Tomcat pinball with a like new original cute in 2016. A local arcade club just couldn't get it sold and Pinball was on the rise.
I never traded, and the Cute ended up being bought, packed and shipped to California a few years later by a friend.

[Kamiboy]

We all have those kinds of stories. But hey, I won't let me forget how lucky I actually am that there is apparently and inexplicably a whole industry in China, dedicated to making reproductions of a desirable and obscure Japanese mini arcade cabs. Any shortcomings aside, how crazy is that?

When I initially saw the listings on Aliexpress I was certain they were all scams.

[o1s1n]

I was convinced they were either scams or else you'd get a 'Capcom Cute at home' kind of deal made of cardboard and newspaper.
Was so impressed by the external build quality of yours that you had me looking in my games room to see if I had a Cute sized empty space.

[Kamiboy]

I think that must be the manufacturers angle in choosing these 19" mini cabs for reproduction. Most people could find a Cute sized space in their living quarters, while the same is not necessarily true for a full sized candy cab.

Also, the cute just blends in better. Capcom really knocked it out of the park with its industrial design. I am myself still tempted to supplement the Cute with one of those mini Neo repro cabs as well. But the 19" versions of those come with LCD screens, and I imagine trying to "upgrade" one of those to CRT would be a much more complicated affair. Honestly, I am not sure I am for it...

[aerobert]

To be honest, the cute has horrible ergonomics compared to what's offered out there. It is (was) targeted to children after all. But I agree on the foot print thing. It's absolutely targeted at small far east asian living spaces. That's why superguns were a big thing in Japan.

I would rather look at a repro of a Pony 3 or perhaps the SNK sc variants.

[monreo]

Is this cute repro still being sold on AliExpress I checked the link op posted but I don’t see a Mini Cute cab for sale only parts

[Pete]

I owned a original one time but been a tall fat man never really got on with it & wonder what all the fuss is about still at least it was cheap <£400.

[aerobert]

Did you use it as a fridge?