Outdated References

Friday, October 6, 2023

How to Install a Sanwa JLF into a Nintendo Cocktail Cabinet

I'll just outright say it: I hate Nintendo Arcade Joysticks.

I do not like their range of motion, the ball top are always too small and I just never liked the feel of using one. I always feel like I'm struggling against the sticks and even after refurbing them, they still felt stiff and clumsy as ever. I found a great deal locally where I picked up this Popeye Nintendo Cocktail machine and brought it home. It's in pretty good shape; the price was right eventhough the monitor could use a new cap kit and the control panel is just at a weird uncomfortable angle but that's just the quirks of a very old Nintendo cocktail cabinet.

I generally veer away from Nintendo cabinets because I prefer jamma cabinets and the ablity to swap out boards, but I actually really like this game. While I would never go out of my way to defend Popeye as one of Nintendo’s better arcade games, because Donkey Kong exists, it just has a special place in my heart that brings back great memories of when I was a kid playing the Popeye port on my Dad’s Atari 2600.

I do have a huge appreciation to Nintendo's build quality of their cocktail cabinets. The first thing that stands out to me about this machine is how it is mostly made of metal, instead of wood like my Pac-Man cocktail. I've been on a collecting tangent where I'm picking up older cabs to fix up and learn from but hey, at least I get to play Popeye with a Nintendo joystick that always feels like a struggle, right?

Wrong.

It was brought to my attention from BirdlandArcade on Instagram that you can easily remove the Nintendo joystick and swap it out with a standard Sanwa JLF. Needless to say, that really piqued my interest and I wanted to do this mod to my cabinet.

Here's how...

Outdated References 156: Thrawn plus Lower Decks

Russ, Adam and Nathan gather this week to recap about Ahsoka and the live action reveal of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Also, What's the deal with Enoch?! We are also catching up with Star Trek Lower Decks, I do declare.

--Nathan

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Outdated References 155: Baylon Skoll

My one and only frustration with Star Wars Ashoka is the lack of any information about Baylan Skoll. I want to know more but the show has other ideas. Whatever, it's still a fun show to talk about it with Russ, Adam and Nathan.

Officially, we are caught up! No more old episodes in the queue. We records every two weeks on Sundays so keep your eyes pealed for more episodes every other Tuesday!

--Nathan

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Outdated References 154: Ahsoka!

Shifting gears over to Star Wars, Russ, Adam, & Nathan kind of geek out about "Ahsoka" being the 5th Season of one of our favorite shows, Star Wars Rebels. We talk about our hopes and excitement about this series and we pray they will stick the landing...

--Nathan

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Outdated References 153: Jazz Hands

Right off the bat, Russ, Adam, and Nathan talks about the summer blockbuster films and how Barbie is better than all of them. We actually have some comic book talk but mainly we get right into the BIG topic of the week, the last two episodes of Star Trek Strange New Worlds and how much it's better than DISCO. (Sorry, not sorry)

--Nathan

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Outdated References 152: Illi vetus physicus

This week, Russ, Adam, and Nathan chat about how freaking awesome Street Fighter 6 is and we have the fighter fever, even having to work around the annoyances of modern gaming. We even talk about our favorite "Community" episode that you currently no longer watch on streaming...

But hey, what we most cared about was the fantastic three episodes of Star Trek Strange New Worlds... (and Secret Invasion)

--Nathan