Marques: How to....

[WhereEaglesDare]

Ive been reading these forums for about a week now and I have learned a lot about building arcade consoles.  I was very impressed with the Bender-Rama, that provided at least an hour of entertainment reading about it.  I want to build my own folding bar top now, I love the idea of portability, I still attend some LAN Parties, so bringing something like that to a LAN would be awesome.  Throw a 3.2 GHz P4 in it, with a 8800 GT Graphics Card and 2 Gigs of RAM, play some Donkey Kong, then kick into high gear with some Unreal Tournament 3 or Team Fortress 2.

I don't see many threads on marques.  How do you make a marque, custom.  Ive read one post about taking to pieces of plexi and putting a print out i it and putting a light behind it.  Is that all there is to it?  Should I use special paper and ink?

How about the graphics, the graphics people use on the CPs and on the sides.  how the hell do you folks get that printed?  Is it expensive?  Thanks for your help.

Also, did Bender ever release a template for the Bender-Rama?

Thanks guys.

[Ginsu Victim]

It's worth it to have a professional print your marquee. Way better than doing it yourself and not very expensive, either.

Check out the link in my sig.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Are there standard dimensions for Marques?  What are the standard proportions for one?  I see that Standard Arcade boxes are 26" x 8", in bartops do they traditionally use the same proportions like maybe  19.5" x 6" or is it whatever?

[Ginsu Victim]

Whatever the project requires. You specify the size you need.

[DashRendar]

Here you go-

http://www.mamemarquees.com/customer-designed-marquee-p-77.html

$18.99 base cost (cheap!).  Or you can order one of their pre-designed ones.

http://www.mamemarquees.com/multiarcade-marquees-c-67_21.html
http://www.mamemarquees.com/reproduction-marquees-c-51_60.html

 

[WhereEaglesDare]

NICE, thanks.  Would I just slot some board and slide it in to mount it or is there special hardware needed?

[Epyx]

Or a local FastSigns if you have one near you...no shipping that way.

Ask for Backlit film and have them laminate it...to give you an idea my 26.5x7.5 cost me $24.

So many DIY ways...angled aluminum, angled wood, slots (harder to remove unless you make your speaker shelf removable), Happs retainers etc.

[DashRendar]

Are you building your cabinet from scratch, or using an existing one?

If it's an existing one, pretty much everything should be there for you to put the marquee in (might need to replace a retaining clip or something though).

If it's something you're building from scratch, look at the plans for your cab (there are many) to see how they have the marquee held in place.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Im going to build one from scratch, I cant decide what plans to work from at the moment, this is my first one, I was going to start last weekend by getting the mdf, but I didnt realize how heavy that junk was, I would have been able to get it in my shop unless I had the guy at lowes cut it up from me, so I have to have plans first in order to know how big the cuts can be.

[DashRendar]

You can find different cabinet plans in the file section here:

http://files.arcadecontrols.com/categories.php?cat_id=22

 

[unclet]

Here is my attempt to help you out.......

[daywane]

Im going to build one from scratch, I cant decide what plans to work from at the moment, this is my first one, I was going to start last weekend by getting the mdf, but I didnt realize how heavy that junk was, I would have been able to get it in my shop unless I had the guy at lowes cut it up from me, so I have to have plans first in order to know how big the cuts can be.

wuss!
just kidding. that is some real heavy stuff.

[The Habbler]

Or a local FastSigns if you have one near you...no shipping that way.

Ask for Backlit film and have them laminate it...to give you an idea my 26.5x7.5 cost me $24.

So many DIY ways...angled aluminum, angled wood, slots (harder to remove unless you make your speaker shelf removable), Happs retainers etc.

So I went to FastSigns in hopes of getting a quote for my 25"x9" marquee print close to the $24 you paid. They wanted $70!!!!!
Would my print being 9" high really make it that much more? I think I'm just going to go with mamemarquees or whatever the new site is called if so.

[92greenyj]

on my Pac Man cabinet that I am converting, the marquee is held in with some thing angle aluminum on the top and the bottom. basically theres a strip across the bottom that it rests in, then the top strip goes down to hold it in place

[Benevolance]

I sandwiched my marquee between two sheets of 1/4 plexi and cut some 1/2" aluminum c-channel to length to cap the top and bottom. Then I affixed angle brackets to the top and bottom of the opening and added some magnets to hold the marquee in place.