MINIs, Cocktails, and Jukeboxes! Late pics from our show! Pic HEAVY!!!

[Jigenjuke]

Hi there guys, I've been posting but otherwise pretty busy.  I teach at a Jr. High School in Okazaki Japan.  Great place to live as the people here are great. 
We will be starting eight new projects.  2 of which will be touch panel jukes (17 inch or 19 inch monitors, haven't decided yet.  The next three (CHANGED TO FOUR UNITS)  will be micro replica cabinets with 8.4 inch monitors.  I think we have pretty much decided we like the Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man cabinet shape for these three project.  The final three will be micro cocktail cabinets with 10.2 (CHANGED TO 15 INCH MONITORS)  inch monitors.  Again I think the Pac-man/Ms. Pac-man cocktail shape will be the best.  Everything will be as faithfully replicated as possible, including mock scale coin doors and such (don't expect them to work though).  The joysticks and buttons will not be as small as blastAgain's Robotron replica cabinet as I want these to be as playable as possible.

We will be using MALA as a front end for the arcade projects and Freebox (NOW CALLED E-TOUCH) for the jukes.  We have so far received all of the PCs.  They are VIA EPIA M10000 boards with 1gig of memory and 60gigs of Hard Drive space each.  The cases for these ITX boards were wonderful, allowing us to make these projects as small as possible. 

I haven't been so good on taking pics of the builds as they go, but this time around I promise that we will be on the ball. 

We are still amassing parts and should be able to get started just after Christmas, but I promise I will post pics of the PCs and other parts we have as soon as possible. 

I have been pretty busy with Halloween at school, here is a little pic to tide you over till the parts pics come. 

And absolutely no jokes about me being Captain "Fat" Jack Sparrow please.  I know that I am a few kilos heavier than Johnny D.   

[BurgerKingDiamond]

you are lucky to live in Japan. I'm going there for 9 days for work in January (Sasebo, on Kyushu), but I heard there's nothing to do in that town. Supposedly Nagasaki is near by, I hope I get a chance to go there and find an arcade. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to spend any time in Tokyo 

[Rick]

And absolutely no jokes about me being Captain "Fat" Jack Sparrow please.  I know that I am a few kilos heavier than Johnny D.   

I was going to say, "Wow, Ringo really let himself go."

 

[Jigenjuke]

BurgerKingDiamond, Sasebo is a great place!  You can check out a few things here

http://www.sasebo99.com/english/ 

Too bad that you are not visiting in Summer though a little cold to be visiting Japan in January.  But there are lots of things to do.  Check the web and Youtube for Sasebo.  And by the way.  There are ARCADES ALL OVER JAPAN.  Even in small towns.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there again guys,

As promised I have come up with a few pics of the PCs and some of the monitors we will be using for our projects.  The following three pics are going to go into the three micro replica cabinets.  I find the Via EPIA M10000 powerful enough to run jukebox software as well as most of the old school MAME games that we will be putting on the hard dives.  Anyway enough with the explanation here are the pics.  The glare on the Windows XP screen pic kind of washes out the color.  The picture does these no justice.  I will try to take better pics as I go along.  These three little monitors are also touch screen as well.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Everyone is sleeping so I am typing this on my iPhone.  I installed XPSP2, had some difficulty finding the SG3 unichrome drivers but with a little patience I was able to find one that worked.  The GBAadvanced emu works great as do the Nestor and SNEX9S.  My problem is MAMEUI32.  It is very slow to load and errors when I try playing simple games like frogger.  Anybody got any ideas?  Do I need to go back to a earlier version of MAME?  I would appreciate any help I can get.

[Bloinkxp]

For my itx's I went back to Mame .67 and .85.  Worked well for the classics.

[Jigenjuke]

Got it! Thanks Bloinkxp!  Now I just have to go back and track down all the parent roms for about 600 games and I will be ready to rock and roll!  Everything seems to be working great!  I need to set up my MALA front end for SNES, NES, GBA, Atari and maybe a couple of others.  Time to make some new layouts.  After all that is done I can feel pretty good about starting on the builds.  This Saturday I will take a few pics of all of the little ITX PCs lined up waiting for their project shells.  Stay Tuned.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys, I know I am falling behind already but pics of all the systems are coming tomorrow. 

These three 8.4 inch touch screen monitors are going to be mounted in a horizontal orientation.  I wanted, originally, to mount them vertically but a decision was made to include some horizantal game that are emulated in MAME. 

Any suggestions as to which horizontal games ABSOLUTELY should be included in the three Ms. Pacman mini replicas?  Give me your ideas and thanks.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys, sorry about the delay.  I have been pretty busy.

I finally got XP installed on all nine of the ITX systems.  I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  I installed

Magic Engine
MAME
Visual Boy Advance
SNEX9X
Nester

and

Freebox jukebox software

As a front end I will be using MALA.  I installed it and tried to run it on one of the machines.  The screen went blank and never came back.  I know it is not the monitor because when I plug the monitor into one of the other systems I have no problems at all.  I am not sure what is happening.  I rebooted the system and can't even see to get into BIOS.  The systems is running because if I leave it blind it will boot into XP and I get the XP loading sounds. 

Any ideas?

Also anybody out there with MALA layouts that they would like to share with me I would be appreciative.  I will not be using them in the systems, I just need some ideas for layouts.  Three of the systems will be running at 800x600 the rest of the systems will be running at 1024x768.

Anyway, here are the pics I promised.  I will hopefully be able to pick up wood this weekend and soon after that begin the builds. 

P.S.   I just got my iPhone so the pics are a little blurry.  Don't know how to remedy that now, but I will figure it out.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Here are the three new pics.  Build pics should be pretty extensive so stay tuned.

Jigenjuke.

[Encryptor]

Where did you get the monitors from?

Encryptor

[Jigenjuke]

Where did you get the monitors from?

Encryptor

Encryptor, they were originally used on Kuroneko Delivery routes.  Kuroneko is kind of like Federal Express or UPS in the states.  The touch response is quite a bit higher than any other touch panel that I have seen.  Can't use them for much as they are only 8.4 inches diagonal, but they are still pretty cool nonetheless.  Fairly cheap as well.  I think I ended up paying about 15 bucks a piece for them and I have 6 total in case I want to make more of these cabs in the future.

Jigenjuke

[Rick]

$15?! Where could the layman hope to find such a deal?

[Jigenjuke]

$15?! Where could the layman hope to find such a deal?

Hmmm, well Rick I am not sure that a layman could get their hands on these monitors.  Like I said the company Kuroneko uses them for a "POS" (point of sale) system to bring up route and customer information.  They just recently upgraded their systems and the Japanese Yahoo auction site has been swamped with these for about the last month of so.  I have been picking them up one at a time when they pop up, because I teach Electronics and English at a Jr. High here in Japan.  They make for good senior year projects.  I have six more that are mine personally, but our school has purchased about 200 of them.  I think that even if you were to pop onto the Japanese Yahoo Auction and get one shipping would be cost prohibitive.  If you really want one, I can look into what shipping would cost.  The main problem is I can no longer ship via surface mail from Japan.   

Rick, I just had a thought....  You may be able to hit up BlastAgain.  He lives in Tokyo and has quite a better selection of shops to go to for speciality parts. 
Things are going pretty well.  I went and picked up 8 4'x8' sheets of 16mm MDF last night and should be ready to start making router templates for all the projects.  I hope to start soon.

Here is another pic of three of the systems in action.

Jigenjuke

[Encryptor]

I might buy 6 of them if I could pick them up for $15. Nice deal. 

Encryptor

[Jigenjuke]

I might buy 6 of them if I could pick them up for $15. Nice deal. 

Encryptor

Rick, Encryptor...  There is a slight problem with just sending the monitors.  The power for the monitors comes from the power supply feeding the PC.  It is a very proprietary system, but if you are still interested I will check.

Jigenjuke

[Rick]

There is a slight problem with just sending the monitors.  The power for the monitors comes from the power supply feeding the PC.  It is a very proprietary system, but if you are still interested I will check.

Can you detail how power and video are provided?  For example, what are the power requirements, and what are the video input specifications?  I am interested, although, I have no idea what I might build with them.  (Obviously, an inexpensive touchscreen - even that small - could be used in so many ways.)

[Jigenjuke]

I might buy 6 of them if I could pick them up for $15. Nice deal. 

Encryptor

Rick, Encryptor...  There is a slight problem with just sending the monitors.  The power for the monitors comes from the power supply feeding the PC.  It is a very proprietary system, but if you are still interested I will check.

Jigenjuke

There is a slight problem with just sending the monitors.  The power for the monitors comes from the power supply feeding the PC.  It is a very proprietary system, but if you are still interested I will check.

Can you detail how power and video are provided?  For example, what are the power requirements, and what are the video input specifications?  I am interested, although, I have no idea what I might build with them.  (Obviously, an inexpensive touchscreen - even that small - could be used in so many ways.)

Hmmm...  OK guys, as I expected the shipping from Japan to the US is not very cost friendly.  It is a little over 6000 yen for me to ship one monitor.  This is about 76 US dollars.  add that to the 15 dollar cost of the monitor and I am sure that you guys could find a cheaper alternative in the US or online from China.  I don't know why but the Chinese seem to be able to ship to the states cheaper than we can.  Sorry. 

This for example I found on ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-8-inch-TFT-LCD-Color-TV-VGA-Speaker-PC-Monitor-/320581278660?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa4221bc4



Jigenjuke

[Encryptor]

Thanks for checking on it. It is a bit pricey. The main difference with the one you listed is that it's not a touch screen. It was worth a shot anyway. Thanks.

Encryptor

[Jigenjuke]

Well guys I　went out and purchased more wood.  I bought 5 more sheets of 4x8 16mm MDF.  Very expensive here!  One sheet is about 35 US dollars.  I　think fondly back to hours spent at Home Depot back home....  The service here in Japan is awesome.  They asked me where I　wanted it delivered.  The workshop I will be using is not mine.  Mine is much too small to be tackling this many projects at once.  Since I　head up the wood working club at the Jr. High School I　teach at I　decided to build these projects there.  I　will post pics of the woodshop soon.  I　drool over the size of the space every time I think about it.  The cost of land is at a premium here in Japan.  

Cheers

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, I wanted to keep you posted on my progress.  I have made all of the cuts for all of the pieces parts that are going into these projects.  I still need to take pics before I start building.  Real life kind of got in the way again.  A fellow teacher I work with recently lost his 8 year old girl to an inoperable brain tumor.  I have been giving as much moral support as I can while trying to keep up with my own work, hobbies, kids and wife.  My heart goes out to him.  I don't know how I would survive the death of one of my boys....

On another note.  A lighter one as well.  In an effort to conserve space my wife has requested that the MAME machine I built for the kids be mini sized.  I thought about this and decided to just do a control panel that can be plugged into a slim height pc that will sit in the entertainment center.  The PC that I got my hands on is an NEC MATE MA21X.  It has a prescott P4 2.8ghz processor with 2 gigs of PC2700 ram.  The video card is a low profile 256meg Gforce card.  I was able to install windows on it and moved over all of their games.  I then plugged in my minipac from ultimarc and things seemed to be going well, but MAME doesn't recognize it at all.  I have tried all kinds of things, even reinstalling everything.  I just recently upgraded to MAMEUI 1.40.  Is there anything I am doing wrong?  Help would be greatly appreciated.

Jigenjuke

[Mr.Ian]

Have you tried plugging everything in, then just rebooting ?

I had the same issue with an ipac.

Love the project, and would love to get my hands on one of those monitors for a jukebox


Nice work, I love Japan, great place

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there Mr. Ian, yeah that was the first thing I　did.  I　think I　am gonna have to try and reload the USB drivers for the NEC and see what I　come up with.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

  Hey there guys,

I didn't mean to leave you hanging for soooo long.  I finally had some time to continue cutting and assemble the first of nine cabinets.  The first four are Ms. Pac-man shape 30% (roughly) scale.  They are about 33cm deep by 26cm wide and 58 cm tall.  I really like how these turned out.  Here are some pics.  I am not really sure how I am going to mount the 8.4 inch touch screens.  I will take pics of the monitors and post them later in order to get you guys advice.  Anyway, I will be making three mirco cocktail replicas and then two Wall mount jukes, but I won't be able to post pics of those until much later.  Maybe a couple of weeks or so.

Anyway here are the pics of the first four cabinets.  If you look at the picture for cabinet 3 and 4 I put a chocolate bar in front of one of the cabinets for scale.  

Enjoy!  Comments, criticism, and fashion tips are welcome.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey guys, back again.  I have a question that hopefully someone here can answer.  I will be cutting pieces for the two 17 inch touch screen jukeboxes here this weekend.  I have de-cased the monitors.  I am using Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 17 inch units.  The picture is awesome!  I want to cut the viewable section into 1/2 inch MDF, then turn the MDF over and rabbit and edge for the actual size so that the monitor slides into the MDF and looks flush mounted from the front.  I will probably round the edge off on the front so that it looks nice.  I have an idea of how I would do this making two jigs (one for the viewable size of the monitor and one for the actual size of the monitor) and using a router with a flush trim bit.  Does anyone have links with pics and step by step instructions for this process.  I would greatly appreciate this help as I have never done this before. 

I really love the feeling I get when I start a new project. 

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys, back again with another question.  I am kind of wavering on how to mount these 8.4 inch touch screens into the micro cabinets.  I have posted a few pics to give you guys an idea of what I am dealing with.  The Monitor has a hinge which houses the touch screen cables, D-Sub15 cable and monitor power cable.  While this can be removed I think that it provides support to the monitor housing as it is made of metal and not plastic.  I was thinking about drilling holes through the back of this Cable housing and attaching it with screws into a bracket mounted inside the cabinet at the appropriate angle for viewing.  I am also posting a photoshopped mock-up to give you an idea of what I am talking about.  

Let the ideas roll please

[Jigenjuke]

OK a little further progress.  I got the top of the cabinets on, hinges on the backs, and the bottom marquee holders in.  I will be removing both of the marquee supports and using a slot cutter bit so that the marquee will be held in place with t-molding.  The control panel will also have a slot cut into it for black t-molding (I think but I am not sure yet).  All in all a good two days.  I have yet to mount the monitors and PCs, but these four cabinets are ready to receive the primer coats before the initial painting process begins. One of the cabinets will have micro Ms. Pacman stencils, and yet another will recieve Pac-Man stencils.  The other two will receive original themed artwork.  I haven't decided what theme yet, but I will post pics when things progress that far.  

On Wednesday I will start either the three micro cocktail cabinets or the two 17 inch touch screen jukeboxes depending on the help I receive from you guys in my earlier posts.  I'm a little tired but having a lot of fun.  Hope you guys enjoy.

By the way, the CPO that is on the control panel is not final.  They will have the smallest balltop that I can find here in Japan and 6 24mm push buttons.  The player 1 and 2 buttons will be Atari cone replica buttons (Due to the cost I decided against the Atari Cone Buttons.)  

[Jigenjuke]

Hey guys,

Back again with a little more progress.  Also notice that the micro cocktail cabinet tops are cut.  I have to make jigs for cutting the monitor opening, but I had fun today.

P.S. The one at the end of the row of Mini upright replicas is a Pacman cab.

Jigenjuke

[Bender]

That's an awesome little set there, my garage looks very similar to that
Can't wait to see more of the cocktail, get back to work!

[Jigenjuke]

Aye Aye Sir. 

Unfortunately I won't have any time till next weekend.

Jigenjuke

[THE POKER BRAT]

are you selling any of these lil creatures???

[Jigenjuke]

are you selling any of these lil creatures???

Hey there POKERBRAT,

I hadn't really thought about selling any of these little guys.  I think that shipping would be very costly as I live in Japan.  They are not that difficult to build and go to gether very quickly.  It took about 2 1/2 hours to cut the pieces and assemble the 4 micro cabinets.  I you are interested.  I could post some rough plans.  I am just happy to be working on projects again. 

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

I'd be interested in some plans if it's not too much trouble for you to post them.

 

Sure thing pinballjim,

Just give me till the weekend.  The 9th graders are graduating this week and I won't have a lot of time till Saturday.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys, I'm back but I shouldn't be.  Today is the graduation ceremony for the 9th graders at my school.  I have been wracking my brains to come up with a way to make a scale model of the Pacman/Ms. Pacman coin door.  I want the coin returns to have slightly recessed dual USB ports for keyboard, mouse and USB HDD access and for easy access for addition of new games/music, but I want to replicate the hardware as nicely as possible.  I don't wanna do this half ass ed.  How difficult would the coin drop hardware be to model in modeling clay then paint it silver?  Also anybody out there wanna make a few really thin really small Midway logo coin plates for me  .  Ideas, people!  Help me with ideas>>>

Jigenjuke

I want these mini replicas to be as perfect as I can make them baring the 6 button control panel layout I am doing.  Both the Pacman and Ms. Pacman micro cabs will have stenciled sideart and kickplate art so stay tuned.  We're gonna have fun now!!

[Jigenjuke]

Well the graduation went smoothly.  I'm kind of a softy, so I stayed around for as long as was required and then excused myself.  I will meet my students again at the dinner tonight.  The ceremony is mostly for the kids and parents.  I took a few mock-up photos of the Pac-man cabinet let me know what you think.  

The button area graphic and the joystick graphic are going to have to be bigger, I know.  They are not to scale yet.

Jigenjuke

[Yvan256]

How difficult would the coin drop hardware be to model in modeling clay then paint it silver?  Also anybody out there wanna make a few really thin really small Midway logo coin plates for me  .  Ideas, people!  Help me with ideas>>>

Make what you want in 3D and have it machined out of black plastic?

[Jigenjuke]

How difficult would the coin drop hardware be to model in modeling clay then paint it silver?  Also anybody out there wanna make a few really thin really small Midway logo coin plates for me  .  Ideas, people!  Help me with ideas>>>

Make what you want in 3D and have it machined out of black plastic?

Thanks Yvan, but I am not even sure where I would start with that process.  Where would I go to get that done?  How much does the process cost?  Thanks for the advice.

Jigenjuke

[Xiaou2]

Silver or Gold paints usually never look too good / realistic.

 If its something simple and flat, you might be able to get away with aluminum foil glued down very carefully.   I believe they use this technique in model aircraft, to make the planes look like metal.  In fact, you could probably learn a lot more from their field as well.

 You might also look into Silver / Chrome "Leaf".  Which is a super fine foil that adheres to a special glue you set down.   No paint can touch the look of a good leaf job.  

 In the case of the midway logo.. you could then print on water-slide decal paper.
The water-slide decal paper is the same kind of thing they use on models as well.  Its razor thin. (make sure you get the clear type, rather than the hazy white kind)  
If colors are too transparent (because the stuff is so thin), you can overlap a few layers to build up the solidity.

 Bake Clay isnt too hard to work with... however, it can tend to deform when cooking.  Also, a lot of it is too brittle to be useful.  One tiny clank against something, and it might easily break off.  I made a bunch of really cool xmas ornaments once with them... and was sickened at how a tiny 2 inch fall caused them to shatter easily.  There are some higher grade clays, but overall, Id stay away.

 Probably are better off carving/sanding parts out of wood, plastic or metal, and gluing the parts on.
(Dremel / Exacto knives + Magnify Lens Hat)


edit:

 That Pacman looks like a horizontal monitor aspect.. instead of a vertical monitor aspect...

[Jigenjuke]

Silver or Gold paints usually never look too good / realistic.

 If its something simple and flat, you might be able to get away with aluminum foil glued down very carefully.   I believe they use this technique in model aircraft, to make the planes look like metal.  In fact, you could probably learn a lot more from their field as well.

 You might also look into Silver / Chrome "Leaf".  Which is a super fine foil that adheres to a special glue you set down.   No paint can touch the look of a good leaf job.  

 In the case of the midway logo.. you could then print on water-slide decal paper.
The water-slide decal paper is the same kind of thing they use on models as well.  Its razor thin. (make sure you get the clear type, rather than the hazy white kind)  
If colors are too transparent (because the stuff is so thin), you can overlap a few layers to build up the solidity.

 Bake Clay isnt too hard to work with... however, it can tend to deform when cooking.  Also, a lot of it is too brittle to be useful.  One tiny clank against something, and it might easily break off.  I made a bunch of really cool xmas ornaments once with them... and was sickened at how a tiny 2 inch fall caused them to shatter easily.  There are some higher grade clays, but overall, Id stay away.

 Probably are better off carving/sanding parts out of wood, plastic or metal, and gluing the parts on.
(Dremel / Exacto knives + Magnify Lens Hat)


edit:

 That Pacman looks like a horizontal monitor aspect.. instead of a vertical monitor aspect...

Yeah the monitor is horizontal because the screen is an 8.4 inch touch panel.  There will be juke software on these as well.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

As the graduation ceremony is outta the way, I decided to see if I couldn't get a little more done on the micro Pac/Ms. Pac cabinets.  They are pretty much ready to paint.  I have yet to fit the monitor mount in the cabinet and drill the button holes and use the router to cut the area for the joysticks.  I ordered seimitsu 24mm buttons and seimitsu joysticks direct from seimitsu here in Japan.  I have quite a few keyboard encoders left over from another project, so I am set for those.  While I am waiting for the hardware to come I decided to focus on the side art and kick plate art. 

Fortunately for me a friend who owns a print shop here in Japan said that he would print the Ms. Pac Stencils from Joymonkey's beautiful stencil reproduction.  These will be adhesive stencils so I don't have to worry about much there.  The Pacman stencils I have done before on a bartop that I made for my kids for Christmas a few years ago.  This time around, however, I decided to laminate the stencils and then cut them out using an exacto knife.  I had forgotten just how much of a pain in the ass this is, but oh well.  I have commited myself to the task.  I took pictures before I started cutting (I'm not going to post pics of the cut stencils, as there are 12 of them and I think you guys can get the drift of what is going on).  It took me almost 3 hours to cut the Lil ba#$%"ds!  My fingers are roached, but I was pretty happy with the results. 

After mounting all the hardware, I will tape up the cabinets and paint the insides, top and back, black.  Then I will move on to painting the Pacman cabinet yellow and the Ms. Pac blue.  Then comes the fun part.  Like I said the Ms. Pac will be pretty easy.  The Pacman cabinet, however, is gonna be a pain in the butt.  I will use masking tape to tape up the sides transfer the black stencil to the masking tape side then cut once again with my exacto knife and then spray the black on.  After this drys I will repeat the process for red and blue for both sides and the kick plate.  Stay tuned and I will post pics of this process as I go.  Hope you guys have a great weekend.  I have a lot of work ahead of me. 

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there folks,

I got a little further yesterday.  I cut out all of the cocktail pieces except for the control panel ends.  I didn't have the correct tool.  Oh well there is always next weekend.  I still need to cut opening for the monitor and rabbit the edge so that I can flush mount the monitor and slot cut the pieces for t-molding.  Should be fun.    Anyway here are a couple of pics for ya.

Johnnycake

[opt2not]

It's good to read you're ok during these crazy times. AND moving forward with progress no less! I commend you in keeping business as usual. "if the micro projects progress stops, then the earthquakes and tsunamis have won!"
 
Good job. The cabs look great so far!

[Ginsu Victim]

Why is the Pac-man horizontal?

[Jigenjuke]

Thanks guys, we were not hit here too badly.  We are also lucky to be separated from the bay by some fairly large mountains.  We are very fortunate that all of our loved ones are safe and accounted for.  The damage in some areas is tremendous and walking through these areas feels pretty surreal.  It looks much like pictures of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The earthquake it self was devastating, but the brunt of the damage and loss of life came from the 10-12 meter tsunamis that followed the quake which also created some crazy situations.  This quake is a wake-up call for all living in Japan.  We are over due for another large quake in the Tokai area which has the possibility to make this last one in Miyagi look mild.  My thoughts go to those families who have lost loved ones.

Jigenjuke. 

[Jigenjuke]

Why is the Pac-man horizontal?

The pacman is horizontal because it will have not only vertical games but horizontal games as well as touch screen jukebox software. 

[Jigenjuke]

Hey all,

I was wondering if there was anybody out there with a CNC machine that would be willing to help me out with CNC routing a mini Midway coin door?  I would be willing to reciprocate monetarily for sure.  I would need 6 mini coin doors (11.5 cm by 9.5 cm) they wouldn't have to open I just need the front mocked up to look like a real coin door with two spaces open for the coin return slots (these will have two USB ports recessed for keyboard, mouse, USB HDD and Pod connection).  Anybody out there willing to give it a try let me know. 

Also if anybody has a different suggestion about how to make a mini replica coin door feel free to drop me a message.

Jigenjuke

[crashwg]

Let me see what I can come up with.  It would be helpful if I had accurate dimensions of everything on the coin door, I'll see what I can find on the interwebs but if anyone could help that would be great.

[Jigenjuke]

Let me see what I can come up with.  It would be helpful if I had accurate dimensions of everything on the coin door, I'll see what I can find on the interwebs but if anyone could help that would be great.

Hey there Crashwg,

Thanks for the quick reply.  I will do some measuring this weekend and get back to you.  If you could swing this it would be great, but also let me know how much I can kick you for your help and materials.  It doesn't have to be perfect but close would be great! 

Thanks again for the quick reply.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey all,

I have been working pretty hard lately around the house to get projects finished that my wife has had for me for a long time.  I have been able to sneak out to the workshop to do some work on the cabinets.  I will post pics of that progress later.  I first want to say that I contacted Crashwg, a member of the forum here who built his very own CNC machine.  I contacted him to see about CNCing some mini coin door goodness.  These coin doors are 11.5 cm x 9.5cm, and while they will not open, the 25 cent coin insert will light up, and the coin return slot will have two recessed USB connectors recessed (for keyboard, mouse, external USB HDD, clip drives etc). 

He was very helpful.  He first came up with a couple renderings.  They are attached.  We talked further, I sent some assistance for parts and upgrades and while waiting for the upgrade components, he sent me pics of a rough prototype.  I will also include his commentary. 


From crashwg:

I had a small problem with SolidCAM that I couldn't figure out so I reinstalled Windows, SolidWorks and SolidCAM and all seems to be well again.  Unfortunately that means that I haven't improved the design since my last update.

What I did do however is create some GCODE and do a trial run to see how things were going to look.  I'm less than pleased with the results but believe once I get the proper tooling and iron out how I will machine the final product things will look better.  My two main issues with what I've got right now are the lack of detail around the bezels which having smaller bits will help and the texture of the MDF.  A common material people in the DIY CNC machine use is cutting boards which I believe are usually HDPE I believe.  I'm going to get a couple from the dollar store hopefully in the next couple days for testing.

I've attached a couple pictures to show what I've got so far.  I hope the file size is not a problem but I wanted you to get the full effect.

I don't mind at all if you want to include my progress in your project thread.  Perhaps it will generate some tips and tricks that will either speed up my progress or improve the final product.

And now on to the pics.

Jigenjuke

[Yvan256]

Have you tried milling black ABS plastic? I think it could yield better results for the small coin doors idea.

[crashwg]

Have you tried milling black ABS plastic? I think it could yield better results for the small coin doors idea.

I have not.  The machine has only been up and running a couple weeks and I've only had the mini-coindoor project for one.  I have no objections to trying other types of materials as long as Jigenjuke wants to pay for them.  If I can find stuff cheap enough to do some testing I'll foot the bill on that like I mentioned about the cutting boards.  Do you happen to know of a source for ABS similar to that of HDPE being readily available as cutting boards?

[Yvan256]

Do you happen to know of a source for ABS similar to that of HDPE being readily available as cutting boards?

Unfortunately no, but people on CNC forums might be able to help you with that, I'm not even sure ABS is the right choice. But going with black plastic still looks like the best idea IMHO.

edit: I found TAP Plastics while browsing.

[crashwg]

So here's the latest progress on the model of the coin door.  Still needs a little tweaking but I think it looks pretty good.

It would definitely help if I had some good pictures of the coin slots.  Is there anyone out there with one of these coin doors that could take a few pictures for us?

[Jigenjuke]

So here's the latest progress on the model of the coin door.  Still needs a little tweaking but I think it looks pretty good.

It would definitely help if I had some good pictures of the coin slots.  Is there anyone out there with one of these coin doors that could take a few pictures for us?

How about these?

[crashwg]

Wow, you've been holding out on me.    Those are great.  The only other thing that I would like is a profile picture of the coin insert slots.

[Knave Jack]

Its not super cheap, but you may want to try Delrin for the coin doors. Its black, and machines extremely well. Not rolling and gumminess like the softer plastics(HDPE, UHMW, Nylon, etc). Most industrial plastic suppliers have off cuts and scraps they will sell. Also machine shops use it for prototyping and may have scrap they can sell you.

[crashwg]

Latest update.  I've improved the coin slot and duplicated it to the required 2.  Also the "coin return" areas are modeled at the dimensions you gave (22mmX16mm) for the USB ports .  Personally, I dislike the proportion of the holes.  You had mentioned that it was for USB ports.  Is that 2 USB ports per "coin return"?  If so, maybe you would prefer 1 per?

[Jigenjuke]

Wow that rendering looks great!  I got you not a full on side view of the coin slot but a 45 degree side shot.  I see your point about the coin retun being disproportional but it needs to be that size to accept the USB hubs that I have already purchased.  I think that it will look good when I have the USB hub installed and recessed.  Awesome work sir.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys, We got a lot done this weekend.  I haven't had time to sort out the photographs yet, but when I do expect a huge update.  What did we accomplish on Saturday and Sunday?  Here's a list.

1.  We cut the control panel sides for all three micro cocktail cabinets (that would be six in all) and routed the edges for t-molding.
2.  We cut the opening for the monitors for the cocktail cabinet and rabbited the bottom edge to flush mount the monitors. 
3.  We assembled the cocktail cabinets and hinged the top of the cabinet.  (We assembled everything except for the control panels because the joysticks and buttons have not arrived yet)
4.  Mounted the 8.4 inch touch screen monitors into the micro Pac/Ms. Pac replicas (horizontal...  I know.  I know.  They should be vertical, but I wanted these to be multifunctional and not just a vertical game cabinet)
5.  Wired up the 12 volt LED strips for marquee lighting.

We were pretty busy but it was a lot of fun.  The LED strips we got were incredibly cheap.  Only 15 cents a piece here in Japan.  I ran across them in a bargain bin in a Suburb of Nagoya called Osu.  A real steal and they are very bright.  It should be bright enough to light the marquees of these cabs.

I also started thinking about the Midway Coin Door Logo.  As you guys can see CrashWG is doing an incredible job with the coin door replica.  I wanted to make sure my contribution was just as impressive so I went to a Home Center here in Okazaki and picked up some very thin aluminium for the logo.  I then when to Eiden and picked up some SILVER FOIL Ink Jet paper.  This stuff looks awesome.  I haven't printed yet but when I do I will post pics.  I had a question about the Midway logos.  Which logo was on the Pac-Man cabinet and which on the Ms. Pac-man cabinet?  Or were they different for different years of production?  Any help would be great.

Here are couple of pics to tide you over till the big update.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

I only had a little bit of time today so I printed out the Bally Midway logo plate onto the Silver Ink jet Sticker sheet.  I was amazed and quite happy with the final result.  I was less than happy with the pictures that I took to show you guys, but needless to say they turned out great!

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey folks, I know I had promised pic updates but real life and the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- here in Japan is kinda getting in the way of our projects.  I am very happy with the progress that we have made thus far.  I had mentioned last week that pics would be updated so without further ado here are the pic updates.  Enjoy. 

Jigenjuke

[crashwg]

If you hadn't already paid me I would want one of those cocktails for payment! 

[Nephasth]

Until I saw the pic of the underside of the cocktail with the hand it was hard to get a sense of the size of these. I originally thought they were much smaller, which I wasn't too fond of. Now knowing the size, the cocktails look sweet! I would like to see someone next to one of the uprights.

[Jigenjuke]

Until I saw the pic of the underside of the cocktail with the hand it was hard to get a sense of the size of these. I originally thought they were much smaller, which I wasn't too fond of. Now knowing the size, the cocktails look sweet! I would like to see someone next to one of the uprights.

Thanks, I will try to take a pic of someone standing next to one of the mini uprights next weekend but they are about 55 cm tall.  Not very big but hopefully with the work that Crashwg is doing with the mini coin doors they should look pretty close to the real thing except for the horizontal monitor orientation.  I am liking these project more and more. 

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

If you hadn't already paid me I would want one of those cocktails for payment! 

Heh heh thanks, I think though shipping from Japan wouldn't be too cost effective.

[crashwg]

I'm getting pretty close to what I would consider a "shippable product".  I need to get a v-bit to created the separation between the door and the frame.  I will also create the illusion of a hinge and the separation of the chrome inserts with the same bit.  In the next prototype I will use a square bit to make deeper and also remove the fillet in the "25¢" insert area so the graphic can be placed in there. 

Without further ado, here's some more "micro coin door goodness" for your viewing pleasure...

[Jigenjuke]

That's, in a word, AWESOME.  I am very impressed.  It's amazing what you can do with the right tools.   I look forward to the next update. 

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

I'm getting pretty close to what I would consider a "shippable product".  I need to get a v-bit to created the separation between the door and the frame.  I will also create the illusion of a hinge and the separation of the chrome inserts with the same bit.  In the next prototype I will use a square bit to make deeper and also remove the fillet in the "25¢" insert area so the graphic can be placed in there. 

Without further ado, here's some more "micro coin door goodness" for your viewing pleasure...

Again Crashwg, great work.  I will be hitting the coin inserts with a chrome overlay that adheres well to mdf so that should look pretty good.  The Coindoor itself, I will probably (very carefully) paint and wet sand in order to get the smooth half matte shine that is required.  I am really looking forward to mounting these on the mini uprights and cocktail cabinets!   

I sent my camera dock into the shop to get it fixed, unfortunately with out the dock I can't transfer pictures the current progress of these projects.  I do hope that they live up to the amount of detail and goodness you have already put into these micro coindoors. 

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, just a little update (very little, as my camera is on the fritz )  I thought that I would post some pics of my Mala layout for two of the upright replica cabinets.  The other two will have original themes that have not yet been planned.  These are just very very simple themes.  Enjoy!

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey all,

My camera docking station will be arriving next week so I will be able to up pics that I have taken of my progress.  For now, hardware (joysticks and buttons) has arrived and I am posting pics taken with my iPhone   I will not be posting pics of all the hardware due to the fact that it would be eight ball top Seimitsu (I like them better than the Sanwa) sticks and 48 24mm buttons, 16 10mm momentary contact buttons etc.  I will instead be posting hardware for two sets.  Hope you enjoy the hardware.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

I took a couple more pictures with my iPhone.  I am really not a fan of the iphone 4's camera.  It is supposed to be a 5 megapixel camera ..  Anyway, before cutting into my control panels for buttons and joysticks I decided to try a test to see how well I measured when making my CPO.  I was pretty pleased with the results.  I am using Seimitsu LS-55 joysticks on all of these projects.  They feel pretty good.  I am also using PS-14-DN 24mm buttons.  I was worried that these would not be as responsive as I needed, but after test playing a few games with these buttons I was pleasantly surprised.  They passed game testing with flying colors.  For the player 1 and 2 buttons I am using DS-412 10mm service switch buttons.  All in all I am very happy with how things turned out. 

Let me know what you think.  God, I can't wait for to get my camera back. 

Jigenjuke

[Encryptor]

Any updates?

[Jigenjuke]

Any updates?

Heh heh, Yeah Encryptor.  I have made some great progress on these projects.  Pics coming soon I promise.  I went up north to Miyagi to help out with the relief effort for a few days during golden week so I didn't have a chance to post the pics that I have taken.  Then school started again and I got busy with the grading papers and such.  Don't worry you will have plenty of pictures to peruse very soon.  Hopefully after this weekend I will get everything uploaded. 

Crashwg is still hard at work CNCing the micro coin doors.  I have a few things in store for you guys in that department. 

Shanghaiguide has graciously offered to place an order for joysticks, buttons and encoders for me from China.  I eagerly await his email telling me they are on the way.  

(Just two of the awesome people here on these forums )

I have not given up, the nuclear disaster here has just kind of slowed things down a bit.  Hit ya back after the weekend.

Stay tuned.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

I decided to post a few pics of the fifth mini upright cabinet we built this weekend.  We are trying to build enough to have a mini arcade for the upcoming gallery show.  I haven't primered or painted the cabinet but I installed the monitor and joysticks (they will be removed this weekend to prime and paint the cab) because I couldn't wait to see what they would look like with hardware installed.  I think that it looks pretty good but I don't like the control panel arrangement.  I am going to redesign the control panel to have a more ergonomic button layout.  More eye candy to come after the weekend.  Stay tuned.

Jigenjuke

[Encryptor]

Very nice! Thanks for the update. I look forward to see more after this weekend.

[Jigenjuke]

Since is is Friday afternoon here in Japan and the weather is absolutely wonderful I decided to post a little more.  Cabinet pics are coming after this weekend, so you will have to be a little patient to see that progress.  This first post is progress about the cocktail cabinets.  Last October I started looking at the last five years of projects posted here to find a design that I liked. 

After searching thorough about 300 different projects I decided that I liked Lokesen's Weecade

http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/stepweecade.htm

And his Project MAME cabinet.

http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/stepprojectmame.htm

I contacted him to ask if I could use his artwork and he graciously told me to go ahead.  I really like the look and feel of both of these projects because they remind me of 70's hand held electronic games.  We have three of these mini cocktail cabinets built.  I futzed around with the art in Illustrator and this is what I came up with for the design of two of them.
 
The third cocktail cabinet will have an original art design by my good friend here in Japan, Daijiro.  You may remember his phenomenal artwork for cabinets that we built back in 2008.  His Beastress cabinet was great!  You can find that project thread here.
 
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=85596.0

Anyway, I do know that the cocktail cabinet art for the underglass is a little off.  I will be fixing that tomorrow and sending the files off to be printed.

Hope you like what you see.  Stay tuned for more.

Jigenjuke.

[Jigenjuke]

Also here are a few pics of the Upright Mini CPO and Bezels for Pacman and Ms. Pacman.  Anybody out there with Ms. Pacman Bezel files in Illustrator format, please PM me.  I need them badly.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK here is the update that most of you guys have been waiting for.  I was finally able to get my camera docking station back and am posting a few pics of the mini cocktail cabinets being assembled.  Remember that we are making three of these little guys.  I love the way they turned out.  Let me know what you think.

Jigenjuke

[Woodshop Flunky]

I love this table top cocktail cab.  Very nice! 

[BobA]

Looking good.  Love the size of the cocktail.  You really don't grasp it until you see the control panels wrt the cocktail cab.

[Encryptor]

The control panels almost look like full size cocktail control panels. What size are they?

[Jigenjuke]

Heh heh they are quite a bit smaller than a fullsize cocktail cabinet.  Just off hand I think that the measurements are 19 cm x 8.5 cm.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

The control panels almost look like full size cocktail control panels. What size are they?

Heh heh they are quite a bit smaller than a fullsize cocktail cabinet.  Just off hand I think that the measurements are 19 cm x 8.5 cm.

Jigenjuke

Encryptor, I just remeasured and the panels on these cocktail cabinets are 8.5 cm x 18 cm.  Most full size cocktail cabinet control panels are 9x11 inches.  I think that converts to about 23x28cm, so they are quite a bit smaller but I think with the 24mm seimitsu buttons and the smallest seimitsu joysticks it will be pretty comfortable to play.

Jigenjuke

[BobA]

Looking good.  Love the size of the cocktail.  You really don't grasp it until you see the control panels wrt the cocktail cab.

Wow even smaller than I thought they were. 

[Jigenjuke]

Couldn't get anything done this weekend.  We are in the middle of a pretty nasty typhoon.  I will be posting more pics next weekend.  Damn Sam!@#$  There was a lot I wanted to get done yesterday and today.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Last weekend I got nothing done.  The typhoon that rolled though here caused it to rain for almost four days straight.  It was pretty dangerous to go outside due to the winds and whatnot.  The weather today was more conducive to working so we went at it. 

I took my eight year old son Daiki with me today.  He was a lot of help.  He helped me plug screw holes with wood bondo, he helped assemble cabinets, he helped paint.  I am so glad he enjoys his old man's hobbies.  It makes the work more rewarding. 

Anyway, we assembled the third cocktail cabinet with the help of a friend of mine. 

Artwork came for one of the cocktail cabinets.   My illustrator skills are not so hot.  I wanted to make sure the artwork was going to fit the cabinet dimensions before I ordered all of the art for these cabinets.  I was pretty happy with how things turned out.  Remember that the art is based on Lokesen's Project Mame Cabinet.  Props to him for all his hard work!  The Red themed cocktail and the Blue themed cocktail are assembled.  We installed hardware (Joysticks, monitor, PC, buttons and so on) for a test run.  I think it looks pretty good.  I really like how the art turned out on the blue themed cocktail.

We installed hardware on two of the mini upright cabinets for test run purposes and we were pretty happy with the results.  We painted two of the mini upright cabinets today but I was so tired when we finished that I didn't take pics.  Sorry those will come tomorrow.  Hopefully by tomorrow we will start stenciling two of the mini uprights.  I also wanted to take a panorama shot of all seven cabinets that we have built so far but didn't have the chance today.  I hope that you enjoy what you see and expect another big update tomorrow.  I can't wait to see what the stencilling will look like after it is finished. 

Peace

Jigenjuke

P.S.  My youngest son never has a straight face in front of the camera

[Well Fed Games]

These cabs are incredible! Can't wait to see how they progress. 

[Woodshop Flunky]

I'm loving this thread!  The cocktail is super nice!   

[Corbo]

Mini table top cocktail cabinet!  Awesome!!!

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

All of the cabs look great, but the mini cocktail is absolutely fantastic! Now I want to build one right away... despite my not having finished three other projects. Can't wait to see how the cabs look when they're completed!

[wp34]

Very nice.   

[Jigenjuke]

Hey guys,

I was hoping that the weather would hold out at least until the end of the weekend.  It was not to be.  The rain and the humidity is not very conducive to paint drying.  I was hoping to start and finish the stenciling for one Pac-Man and one Ms. Pacman machine, but alas, no dice.  I do have a major update from my friend Cashwg.  Crashwg is CNCing the micro coin doors for these projects.  The pics speak for themselves.  Need to hit them with some fine sandpaper, paint sand, paint, sand.  These will look awesome when installed, coin return lit and USB ports installed.  I can't wait!!!

Jigenjuke

[DaOld Man]

Wow, these things are turning out great! Its really a bonus that your son enjoys working with them too. The bond you guys are creating will last the rest of your lives.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there again guys,

I got parts from a forum member Shanghaiguide (Awesome guy!).  These USB joystick encoders were very cheap and they will drive the joysticks and buttons for all of these projects.  I will post pics and a review sometime early this week.  Shanhaiguide mentioned that he might be up for exporting these units if there was enough interest in them.  I have high hopes that they will work well, but I will let you know.  I unpacked the box of  6 joysticks and 8 encoders.  I was pretty happy with the way they were packed.  Pics to come later as I wire up control panels.  I also have to email him to let him know that the shipment arrived safely, but as it is late and I have work early tomorrow I will have to do that tomorrow.  Bye for now.

END OF LINE...

Jigenjuke

 

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there again guys,

As the weather is wonderful today I woke up early this morning and hit two of the cabinets with Pac-Man Yellow, and Ms. Pac-Man Blue for a second coat.  They look great but I will hit them with a fine sanding and give them a third coat and maybe a fourth.  I will be able to start the stenciling process this weekend.

Now on to more pressing matters.  In my post last night I mentioned that a fellow forum member Shanghaiguide helped me out with acquiring Generic USB joystick circuits from China.  They were very cheap!  I love cheap stuff, but only if it works well.  I got the circuit boards yesterday and set about checking them with a test harness.

They were advertised on the Chinese website as being only 4 directional input for a joystick and 8 inputs for buttons.  I was initially worried about having only eight button inputs for these projects.  I want to make sure that anyone playing these cabinet can easily navigate MALA, MAME and other emulator software without having to plug in a USB keyboard.  With this in mind 8 button inputs would be the bare minimum.

Imagine my suprise and delight when I plugged one of these circuits into my test rig, went into the control panel and checked the properties for it and found that these circuits not only support 8 but 12 buttons!!

I was also very pleased to see that these circuit are not only digital input but analog as well  (at this point in my testing the gears are whirring madly in my head), I was astounded.  For the price per board (a little more than 4 US dollars; more with shipping) I was very impressed.  When I tested this rig with MAME and several other emulators I was extremely happy with how it handled.   

The joysticks that I ordered, with help from Shanghaiguide, were pretty solid and fairly well made.  I was pretty happy with these in general, but the ball tops were not up to snuff.  They had clearly visible lines from the injection molding process around the ball top as well as a dimple on the top of the ball, but with the price I paid I don't believe this is much of a problem.  I noticed on their website that they had many different classes of Joysticks as well as ball tops.   One other thing to keep in mind if you order from this company is that the joystick shafts are not universal so you won't be able to switch a ball top out for one from Sanwa or Seimitsu.  The joysticks were very responsive and extremely durable.   

All in all I can say that I am extremely happy with my purchase and will continue to purchase components from this company in the future.  The site is all in Chinese which made things a little difficult, but since I read Japanese (we use many of the same Chinese characters) it made things a little less complicated.

Here come the pics, I hope you found my review informative.  Back with more construction pics in the next few days.

END OF LINE...

Jigenjuke

   

[Jigenjuke]

More Pics Coming soon, hopefully tomorrow.

Jigenjuke

[Encryptor]

Does it come with the connectors that fit into the connectors on the board or do those have to be purchased separately?

[Jigenjuke]

Does it come with the connectors that fit into the connectors on the board or do those have to be purchased separately?

It came with enough molex connectors for each space on the board.  They were already wired up and ready to go.  They also had clamps to connect the wires to the joysticks and buttons.  I went a little further and soldered them the joysticks microswitches and button leads.

This was all in all a much more enjoyable experience than dasiy chaining the common grounds together and pinching on the clamps to the end of wires.  I have never really enjoyed wiring up a control panel.   

Jigenjuke

[BobA]

Can you give us a pic of the underside of the board?   Looks like a nice setup for a 2 player cab. 
Just wondering what the active component is.

Thanks

[Sjaak]

Can you give us a pic of the underside of the board?   Looks like a nice setup for a 2 player cab. 
Just wondering what the active component is.

Thanks

Or maybe a link to the website of the manufacturer?

[Jigenjuke]

Can you give us a pic of the underside of the board?   Looks like a nice setup for a 2 player cab. 
Just wondering what the active component is.

Thanks

BobA, Sure I will post a pic this evening when I get home from work. 

Can you give us a pic of the underside of the board?   Looks like a nice setup for a 2 player cab. 
Just wondering what the active component is.

Thanks

Or maybe a link to the website of the manufacturer?

Sjaak, The manufacturer is here

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=8454175603&

Unfortunately the website is completely in Chinese.  They do not ship out of the country, so without the assistance of Shanghaiguide getting your hands on these products will be a little difficult.  Maybe something can be worked out.  Shanghaiguide had posted (a while ago) that if there was enough interest...


END OF LINE...

Jigenjuke

[abispac]

Maybe something can be worked out.

im interested in getting a few of this....hook me up if you can, thanks

[Sjaak]

Thanks for the link. I'm interested as well in getting a few of these...

[BobA]

Count me in for a few if you are arranging a bulk order via Shanghaiguide. 

[jmike]

Looks like you have plenty of people interested in these.

BTW: I'll take 2

 

[yotsuya]

I like the fact you don't have to daisy chain the ground on these. That's such a PITA.

[KonkeyKong]

I'm in for 2 boards as well...

[Jigenjuke]

I'm in for 2 boards as well...

Looks like you have plenty of people interested in these.

BTW: I'll take 2

 

Count me in for a few if you are arranging a bulk order via Shanghaiguide. 

I can pass on the info to Shanghaiguide.  As for a picture of the underside of the board.  Here it is.  If anyone was hoping for a shot of the microprocessor it is covered by the black dot.  As you can see in the lower right hand corner the now famous square, X, circle and traingle popularized by Sony.  Not a sony project but a Chinese copy??

More pics of the cabinets coming soon.

END OF LINE...

Jigenjuke

[shanghaiguide]

Jigenjuke had to point me at this thread, as I seem to have missed it.
Ironically it was one I was following, as I was interested in the micro standups.
Doh!

I'll be setting up a website for the parts, plus some other stuff (printing on vinyl), so PM me if you're interested.

Lawrence (shanghaiguide)

[Jigenjuke]

More pics coming tomorrow but I thought that I would give you guys a little teaser..  I don't know why, but I always paint the sides and front first.  I think this is because after painting the sides and front I use masking tape to cover them completely and with an exacto cut really fine straight lines so that the black ends up looking professional.  (Or I am just insane take your pic.  It is what I have always done and will probably continue to do. 

This first pic is just after one coat of yellow and sanded.  I will post more pics of the painted cocktail cabs and Ms. Pacman probably tomorrow.  The stenciling is about to start.  (not very fun). 

The way that I work reminds me of a quote from the movie "Christine" from Darnell the garage owner...

"Look how cock-eyed he works! He's got... brand new windshield wipers for a busted windshield."

Heh heh, more than just a little eccentric. 

Jigenjuke

[javeryh]

Those things are insanely cute.

[Jigenjuke]

We started stenciling the Pac-Man cabinet today.  The weather here was crappy and the rain was coming down pretty heavy.  I perforated my eardrum a few years back and since then when the weather is ---smurfy---.  The tinnitus that I have 24-7 gives me severe headaches.  I was thinking that I should just leave it until tomorrow but Daiki, my eight year old, was really looking forward to starting the stenciling today so I sucked it up and started.  The first disaster occurred when we removed the masking tape after the black stencil was painted.  We had forgot to leave the pacman yellow!!     Daiki told me, "Don't worry pop we can just create another small pacman "fix" stencil and repaint him in.", God I have a smart kid!  The second disaster occurred when I lifted the cabinet off the newsprint we were using to make sure no yellow paint got on our flooring.  The un-stenciled side had tons of transfer from the newspaper.  I knew there was a reason that I never used newspaper for this in the past.  As today has not been going well, I think that we are just going to leave things as they are until my headache goes away.  I am posting pics of the stenciling process so far.  I hope you enjoy them.  Even though we had a tough time of it today, it was still good to be working on these projects with my son.  We stenciled the blue as well today and when it dries we will post that pics as well.

END OF LINE....

Jigenjuke

[Sjaak]

That's a lot of bad luck. But I'm sure you'll find a way to fix it.

[Jigenjuke]

That's a lot of bad luck. But I'm sure you'll find a way to fix it.

Yep, the way to fix it is to Sand and repaint!  I'll get to it tomorrow.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK, Well I sanded everything off and have started repainting.  I will post pics when I get to the stenciling point again.  Thanks for being patient guys.

Jigenjuke

[jimmy2x2x]

Really enjoying reading your thread, very honest of you to post the mistakes - I'm sure that lots of people wouldn't

good luck with the repaint!

[Jigenjuke]

OK Guys,

After having such a miserable day yesterday (other than being able to spend time with my kid  )  I woke up this morning intending to fix the mistakes made yesterday.  I wasn't going to post pics until I got back to the stenciling portion of the project but I was so happy with the results that I decided to show you guys.  Hope you enjoy.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Here is the lovely couple caught with their, erm, pants down?  What a candid shot!     Sorry for the blurry shot, stupid paparazzi.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys, the stencils are back on track and I am much happier.  The black stencil is finished except for the every famous pacman smirk.  I always leave this stencil for the very last as it completes the accomplishment.  It may be a waste of masking tape (hey call me eccentric) but it's just my little quirk that developed after stenciling over 10 pacman machines in various sizes.

Hope you enjoy.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Now we're cooking with gas!  Here is the blue stencil painted up.  I will post pics after I remove the masking tape.

Hope ya enjoy.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

God, my brain must be addled in this humidity.  I just noticed that the yellow for the Pac-Man lettering is missing too.   Well it has been quite a while since I have used this stencil.  That just means that when doing the left side I won't repeat the same mistakes.  I will have to do the yellow lettering tomorrow before I proceed to the left side of the cabinet and the kickplate.  Even with all of these little misadventures I can say without a doubt that I am liking how this is turning out.  Cutting out stencils this small is more than a pain in the butt though.  I don't think that I will be making another Mini Pac-man unless I have the art printed on adhesive vinyl.

Enjoy

Jigenjuke

[Woodshop Flunky]

Your stenciling looks great! 

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys,

Here it is.  The stenciling went a little rough as I was working with quite small cuts at times.  I think that it turned out pretty good.  I will detail the entire cabinet when the left side and the kick plate stencils are finished.  This will involve quite a bit of clean up work, but I am pretty confident that I can make it look even better.  I need to add Pac-Man's smile and the yellow lettering as well as the dots on the left side of the blue ghost and Pac-Man as well as a couple of other minor things, but for the most part the right side of the cabinet it good to go.  The key to this type of stenciling is lots of patients and removing the masking tape when the paint is still a little tacky.  So far the stenciling process has taken about 10 hours.  I am looking forward to another 20 (Yeah, and monkeys might fly outta my butt!)

Enjoy

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Anyone out there remember when the Head to Head/Screen Split to play horizontally oriented game on a cocktail cabinet was implemented?  Hope to hear from someone soon.  I am setting up the Emulators for the mini cocktail projects now.  I need to know the first instance of this as the little ITX motherboard will not run the newest version of MAME full speed.  Thanks ahead of time guys.

Jigenjuke

[Sjaak]

Not sure if it is the first, but is use .131. This is also the version that supports the correct two player screen flipping in Galaga, Ms. Pacman and Dig Dug.

[Jigenjuke]

Not sure if it is the first, but is use .131. This is also the version that supports the correct two player screen flipping in Galaga, Ms. Pacman and Dig Dug.

Thanks Sjaak, I will try .131.  I also have to try .107 which is when the MAME team implemented the Cocktail split screen mode for Horizontal games.  These projects are taking up quite a bit of my time.  Maybe too much, but it is keeping me out of trouble and it also gives me a chance to have some fun with my younger son.  I wish his older brother was on board as well.  I finished the right side stenciling and started on the left side and the kickplate.  I must say that I finally got it back down to a science and what I accomplished today I think looks pretty good.  Let me know what you guys think.  This weekend I will be applying the CPO and plexi, installing the speakers, marquee LEDs, external molex power adapter for use with a standard PC power cord and drilling holes to install the RCA hookups for external sound and video and one of these projects will be done and I can start again on the mini cocktails.  The main reason that I haven't been working on them is that I reordered all the artwork printed on Arcade Quality adhesive vinyl. 

Jigenjuke.

[Woodshop Flunky]

These projects are taking up quite a bit of my time.  Maybe too much...

I know the feeling!  My project is consuming WAY too much of my time.  I'll be glad when I'm done so I don't have to think about it anymore... and my son and I can just play.

Also, that stencil is still looking great.  

[opt2not]

I love stenciling, especially self-made ones.

Great job!

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there folks,

Tomorrow will mark the END of the Mini Pac-man stenciling session.  This was pretty much done by hand and I will have to say that I will never attempt this again!  This time around the scale was way too small and the hobby knives that they sell here in Japan just don't match the quality of the American made Exacto knife.  The Ms. Pacman Stencils will be back from the printers.  A friend of mine here in Japan agreed to print me up some real stencils.  I hope that these laser cut stencils will come out great.  I have only red left to do on the Pac-man cabinet and then I will touch things up and fix the blue smile on the kick plate art.  I will also be thinning some of the lines out (some of the blue lines ended up being too fat for my taste)  This weekend I will start again on the mini cocktail cabinets, I promise. 

The stenciling for this little Pac cab was a pain in the A#$!!  Enjoy the pics.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Also I forgot to mention that I got an update on the mini coin doors that Cashwg is CNCing for these project.  He said that he would be shipping them to me early next week.  When they arrive I will have lots of nifty goodness for you.  I bought LEDs and resistors, printed up the Bally Midway coin door plate, picked up some of the most awesome chrome paint on the planet.  Stay tuned!

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

With the way the Mini Pac is coming along it really is a shame that no one carries Pacman Orange T-molding in 5/8th inch.  Oh well, the red looks just as good.  I have always though that the orange t-molding was just because they didn't have any red on hand when the original cabinets rolled off of the assembly line.   

Well back at it.

Jigenjuke

[vast]

Love it Sir! 

[Jigenjuke]

It was a long weekend guys.  The humidity level and the barometric pressure here in Japan leave me with some terrible headaches.  It's the only thing I hate about this country other than the unbearable heat in for two months in July and August.  I finished the stenciling for the mini Pac-man which means I can move on to the cocktail cabinets.  I am very happy about this.   

[Sjaak]

Excellent work

[Jigenjuke]

OK guys, I have done enough painting for a little while.  I will get back to it by Wednesday.  In the meantime I played around with trying to get MAME working correctly.  I fiddled around with the settings in .107 and it didn't work too well for me.  Someone suggested .131.  I tried this and while it worked OK I could never get rid of the sound stutter.  I bumped it up to .132 and everything works great!  Even the screen splitting that I will need for the cocktail cabinets.  I am still having problems with the composite video out on these little VIA EPIA M10000 boards.  I know that I have gotten this to work in the past but it is giving me fits today.  I will try again later in the week.  I really would like to take the time to thank everyone for their input, advice, help and positive comments.  It really make this hobby worthwhile to have folks appreciate the work done.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

We started painting the mini Cocktail cabinets.  Things are going pretty well but the humidity here in Japan during the rainy season is pretty nasty and thus is causing the drying process to take quite a while.  It may be a couple of days in-between coats of paint and sanding.  I will post pics this weekend.  Fortunately for me the cocktail cabinets are quite a bit easier as there will be only a light blue racing stripe on the green and blue cabinet and a red "racing stripe" on the red and orange cabinet that need to be stenciled (Thank GOD!)  I really like the idea of stenciling before it starts but while I am in the process the prospect is much less desirable.   The final cocktail color has not been decided.  Daijiro is thinking about painting it snow white.  I think that'll look pretty sexy.

Pics to come this weekend.

Hopefully the micro coin doors from CrashWG will come this week.  I am also waiting on the adhesive stencils for Ms. Pac-Man.  Those should come sometime this week as well. 

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Looking awesome, Jigenjuke.  Did you ever come up with the cabinet plans?

Sorry about not getting back to you sooner pnballjim.  I took plans from http://www.jakobud.com and scaled them down to 34%.  I then printed them out on a plotter.  I am sorry I seemed to have misplaced the edited file.  I will look for it.

An update from my friend and fellow forum member CrashWG.  The coin doors are on the way!  Yeah!!!  I will post pics when they arrive but here is a sneek peek.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

We have assembled the third mini cocktail cabinet and installed hardware for test purposes.  Here is a video for ya to check out.  I am pretty happy with the results.  Let me know what you think.  By the way these cocktail cabs are running MAMEUI32 .132 on a VIA EPIA M10000 1ghz processor with 256 megs of ram.  I am more than pleased with the outcome.  

Jigenjuke

[Well Fed Games]

Holy crap... must... build... mini... cocktail...

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, pretty soon I will have a shot of them all together.  I will also post of video of the Mini Arcade group shot each running a different game.  Enjoy.  I have really started to enjoy these projects.  I hope you guys have had as much fun with them as I have.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Hiya guys, sorry about the lack of updates.  Painting is always just that, Painting.  The weather here in Japan where we are is pretty crappy.  The humidity and rain make for bad conditions for painting.  It take more than a day between coats.  I didn't think that you folks wanted pictures of paint drying so..... 

Anyway I was happy to see that I got a package yesterday afternoon from my good friend CrashWG.  I opened it up and ten brand spankin' new coin doors were staring me in the face.  Oh they look so cute!  I got to work sanding and trimming rough edges so that I could paint.  Took me almost 7 hours last night to get all ten of them done.  Fortunately, it was not my day to make dinner, so I sat on the balcony watching TV while I worked.  I must say that Crash outdid himself.  These are exactly what I asked for from beginning to end!  I am very happy with the level of craftsmanship.  Out of the box they fit the USB hub that I am using!  Before I set about painting them I took some proof of concept photos for you guys to view.  I am going to the electronics store this afternoon to pick up the resistors I need to use in conjunction with the LEDs so that I can light the coin return buttons.

First, however, I am going to hit these babies with black matte paint.  Hopefully they will be dry when I get home tonight.  I will have more pics as this progresses.  Be patient. 

Jigenjuke

[crashwg]

I'm so glad that you're pleased.  I can't wait to see the final product!

[Encryptor]

Updates?

[Jigenjuke]

Updates?

Hey there Encryptor,

No I don't currently have any updates for you guys yet.  I was pretty busy with some family issues .  I was visiting family in the states for a little over three weeks.  I am back now but the start of the new semester kind of got in the way.  I will hopefully get back to these projects with a vengence this coming weekend.  Thanks for the continued interest.

Jigenjuke

[blastAgain]

Hi! I didn't noticed this thread!
Your mini machines are very cool, and how fun the pic of mini pacmans!

I'm really glad you live in japan and hope we meet sometime. I will bring my mini! 

I have no progress these days, it is sad though.

Keep up great work!

[Encryptor]

Any new progress?

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, thanks for the interest.  I hope to start on these projects again very soon.  I have been in and out of the hospital for awhile now.  I will do my best to keep you apprised of any progress or updates...

Jigenjuke

[Encryptor]

Sorry to hear you've not been well. I hope you're feeling better soon. Take care.

[crashwg]

What's the deal?  I put too much work into those coin doors to seem them go unfinished!

[JayB]

As they say "---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- happens". I'm sure what ever the reason is it's more important than some effing doors

[crashwg]

You've taken my comment way to seriously.  I'm interested in this project first off all because I dig the minis and secondly because I have a vested interest with my contribution and all.  Jigenjuke is under no obligation as far as I'm concerned to finish this but I sure would like to see the day.

[JayB]

Fair play. You can understand reading it back it could be easily interpreted as an aggressive tone.

[Jigenjuke]

Hi there guys, I haven't had much of a chance to deal with these the past year.  After the Tsunami damage and toll was understood We found out that relatives had died.  I have had to take up the slack working overtime to help take care of my kid's cousins who lost their parents.  They live with us.  They are good kids and they need help.  Hopefully this summer I will have time to start up again.  Thanks for checking back with me.  I haven't given up yet

Jigenjuke

[AlienInferno]

Sorry to hear about your loss. 

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, I am back with a small update.  Our fellow forum member CrashWG did such a wonderful job with the CNCd mini coin doors.  A couple of months ago he was looking for an update and rightly so.  I have been so freaking busy with family stuff.  Initially we had thought that we had no losses druing the last Earthquake-Tusnami.  Japan's telephone network was in shambles and clogged for quite awhile just after (as you can imagine) Also information about family members was almost non-exsistant due to the many missing.  The initial reports we got back were very good news, this was to be followed by bad news as people were found or not.  Needless to say my family has grown by a couple more boys (kinda nice to have the house so full)

Sometimes I think that I will lose my mind though.  Extra work to pick up the slack leaves very little time for projects.  I have had some time lately to pick thinks up again and am posting pics for you guys to persue at your leisure.  Hope you enjoy and again sorry to keep you waiting CrashWG. 

The first pic is for you man.   I still have to mount the leds for the 25 cent holes.  I will mount these with a glue gun, the same with the 4 USB adapters that will go in the coin return slots.  All of the coin doors that CrashWG sent me are at this stage.  I taped up the Ms. Pacman and started the stenciling process.  A buddy of mine was going to make us mini Ms. Pacman stencils which would make the process much easier.  He has quit his business so I have to do these by hand.  What a pain in the A**!!  I will touch up the rouch stencil areas before I move onto the black.  Pink is next.  This is a SLOW process (one stencil and one side at a time, so please be patient.)  Anyway enjoy guys, it's good to be back.

Jigenjuke

PS forgive the blury pics guys all I hada with me was my iPhone

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[Encryptor]

Very nice work! Thanks for the update.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[Jigenjuke]

Very nice work! Thanks for the update.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Thanks Encryptor, I have started to think about it as a gain not a loss

I forgot to post a picture of the mini cocktail cabinets.  We have four and all of them are in this state.  Enjoy!

Jigenjuke

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[javeryh]

Awesome work man.  What size screen are those cocktails going to take?

[Jigenjuke]

Awesome work man.  What size screen are those cocktails going to take?

Thanks Javeryh, the cocktail cabinet will get 15 inch monitors. 

Here is a little update for you guys.  Please remember that these Ms. Pacman stencils are done by hand because we lost the guys that was going to make them for us.  The black will clean it up nicely.  I am quite happy with how this is turning out.

Jigenjuke

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[johncl]

Great work on those stencils, it surely beats applying big stickers. Do you use cardboard paper for the stencils or something else? And are you using spray paint? My wife and I considered making some stencils to decorate the walls here and there, possibly some borders just under the roof. I guess the challenge is to do it so it doesnt drip or go under the stencil?

I have bought some glossy stickers for inkjet printing and will just make A4 sized versions of the original art for my Donkey Kong bartop.

[Jigenjuke]

Great work on those stencils, it surely beats applying big stickers. Do you use cardboard paper for the stencils or something else? And are you using spray paint? My wife and I considered making some stencils to decorate the walls here and there, possibly some borders just under the roof. I guess the challenge is to do it so it doesnt drip or go under the stencil?

I have bought some glossy stickers for inkjet printing and will just make A4 sized versions of the original art for my Donkey Kong bartop.

Hey there Johncl,

Thanks for the props.  First we printed up the Ms. Pac Stencils on a color laser printer on A3 size paper and laminated them.  We then cut the stencils using an exacto knie to make our "template" that we use to trace the stencil to the cabinet.  We then taped up the side of the cabinet with masking tape, traced our stencil to the side of the cabinet and cut and removed the areas to be painted leaving the rest of the masking tape on the cabinet.  Spray with spray paint, wait for it to dry, remove the tape and repeat the process for the other colors.  It works pretty good.  Labor intensive but ya can't knock the results.

Thanks again. 

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[Jigenjuke]

Hmmm, well started the black and final stencil for the left side of Ms. Pacman.  We originally deciede to cut out the black lines on 4 or five of the Black stencils (the black stencil is quite complicated) and then trace this to the cabinet before using a hobby knife to cut away the necessary area.  This is not a lot of fun!  I have been thinking of other ways to transfer the stencil to the side of the cabinet.  I really don't want to free hand it.  I am pretty sure that I could do it but I think I would just end up pulling the remaining hair I have on my head out. 

One train of thought would be to print the stencil flip it over and with a art pencil blacken the areas needed place the stencil over the cabinet which has been covered with masking tape and rubbing the transfer to the cabinet before cutting.  Wow! This could be a huge can of worms. 

Anybody else out there have any ideas?  Maybe iron on transfer paper....  IDK!

Help!

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Another thought...

I was thinking about using an iron-on transfer and iron it onto the making taped cabinet.  Would the iron melt the Yellow and Pink spray paint already on the cabinet??

What do you think?

Jigenjuke

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[Le Chuck]

Laser cut stencils?  Farm out the work, it will cost you some dough but could save you some time. 

Love your work by the way.

Also look into toner transfers like what is used for board etching as well as tattooing.  Just a thought.

[dfmaverick]

Frisket film used for airbrush masking?

[Jigenjuke]

Laser cut stencils?  Farm out the work, it will cost you some dough but could save you some time. 

Love your work by the way.

Also look into toner transfers like what is used for board etching as well as tattooing.  Just a thought.

Le Chuck, thanks for the kind words.  This coming from the man who gave us the Star Wars Micro means a lot.  Great work on that one mate!  Yeah, originally I had planned on using laser cut stencils.  We had a guy (a friend) that was going to print us up some self adhesive laser cut stencils.  He left the company he was working for so we are out in the cold.  He was going to do it for about 50 US dollars.  This is really cheap considering that after shopping around to farm out the work it was going to be very expensive.  One set (nine stencils) for these mini cabinets would have cost us about 950 US dollars.  Not happening. 

Frisket film used for airbrush masking?

dfmaverick, I looked into the frisket film idea.  Might be doable if I can find a source for the film here in Japan.  Lately the shipping from the US is astronimical!  Not really cost effective.  I will have to think this through a little more. 

I am going to be trying a test run on scrap wood to see if using the iron-on transfers will melt the spray paint through the masking tape.  What I have done so far is looking pretty good.  I don't want to ruin the work I have done so far.  Back to the drawing board.

Thanks for the ideas guys, keep 'em comin'.

Jigenjuke

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[Le Chuck]

$950?  Yech.  Have you tried a place like shapeways?  Reasonable 3D printing on a small scale.  They could to a thin plastic sheet with the needed cutouts, just don't tell them it's a stencil or they'll realize they should be charging you through the nose.

[Bender]

having vinyl stickers cut and using them as stencils are cheep and easy

[Jigenjuke]

having vinyl stickers cut and using them as stencils are cheep and easy

Thanks for the input Bender, good to see ya.

Again printing Vinyl here in Japan is very expensive.  We don't have places like Kinko's or the like.  We would have to do it at a sign shop.  Again very expensive but thanks for the idea

[johncl]

Sounds very much like Norway, very few places who have the equipment to do these things so its very expensive to print anything bigger than A4/letter size. And those that can afford it have advertising budgets. This is partially why I chose to do everything myself on my good old Canon inkjet printer and buying off the shelves stickers, paper and acetate. And personally I think the results will be quite good, although not as durable as real vinyl prints. The arcade wont be put out in public either for thousands of kids to abuse so I dont regard this as a problem really.

I think your stencils are great Jigenjuke, and all that hard work will give your cabinets a special value. - Just like the Diablo 3 game, you can get good gear by playing the game, or you can buy it all for real money in an hours gameplay (after level 60)... I dont know but I feel the effort put into actually playing the game for loot means more than dishing out a lot of money for 5 minutes of fame.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Just a little update for ya.

I was frustrated with my progress on the Ms. Pacman cabinet, so I decided to put it on the back burner for a little while and focus on one of the Pacman cabinets. 

Here is a little list of what we accomplished today.

1) Cut the hole for the mini coin door.

2) Mounted the 4 external USB ports for the coin door. 

3) Mounted and wired up the LED strip for the marquee.

4) Mounted the speakers behind the LED Marquee light strip.

5) Cut the hole for the molex external power cord and wired it up.

6) Drilled a hole for the power button and wired it to the PC.

7) Drilled holes for external AV outputs RCA and wired them up.

Mounted temporary CPO, Bezel and Marquee art (still waiting for the printed vinyl art.

Things I still need to do. 

1)  Touch up the paint in a few places. 

2)  Paint the Coin Drops for the Mini Coin door with chrome paint. 

3)  Install the T-moulding (Unfortunately orange in this size is unavailable so red will have to do)

That's it so far.  Enjoy the pics.  Forgive the quality of the pics all I had handy was my iphone.  The lighting is a little dark and therefore the pics not so good.

Jigenjuke

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[johncl]

Really nice this Mini PacMan. I guess I would like to make PacMan bartop, or perhaps I should do a full size next? My boss at work said that it would be cool to have an arcade around so I might even get some of the hardware sponsored. - It surely solves the problem of finding space for the machine. Haha.

[Jigenjuke]

Really nice this Mini PacMan. I guess I would like to make PacMan bartop, or perhaps I should do a full size next? My boss at work said that it would be cool to have an arcade around so I might even get some of the hardware sponsored. - It surely solves the problem of finding space for the machine. Haha.

Thanks Johncl,

I say go nuts and go FULL SIZE!

Jigenjuke

[404]

sugoi!! 

[Jigenjuke]

sugoi!! 

Heh heh thanks 404.  Somebody has either studied Japanese or is a big fan of anime.  Maybe both

[Jigenjuke]

Back again guys,

I think after I finish up the Pac-man Mini, I am going to stencil the Yellow and Pink on the right side of the Ms. Pac-man and the front.  After this I have decided to freehand the black stenciling.  This is going to be a long hard process, but I think that it will lend the best results.  I will post more pics as I progress.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

I will hopefully have some time to finish up one of the Pac-man cabinets today.  I will post pics of the progress I make today.  We had a pretty big Typhoon the day before yesterday so  no work was possible.  I will also be working on the Ms. Pac throughout the week and will hopefully have her finished by the middle of next week.  Any thoughts on where I should have the mini CPOs printed on Arcade Vinyl.  Cost is a consideration.  I also ned the Mini cocktail CPOs and the cocktail glass underlay printed.  Give my some ideas.

Jigenjuke

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[PL1]

Any thoughts on where I should have the mini CPOs printed on Arcade Vinyl.  Cost is a consideration.  I also ned the Mini cocktail CPOs and the cocktail glass underlay printed.  Give my some ideas.

Since cost is a consideration, I'd say take a look at Souldraw.  Some people have mentioned minor problems with adhesion on some edges/corners. (May have been a cleaning/prep issue)  If you can wrap it around or secure it under t-molding, you should be fine.

Jammin0 used them for his Ninja Monkeys build. His Souldraw art recap is here.


Scott

[404]

sugoi!! 

Heh heh thanks 404.  Somebody has either studied Japanese or is a big fan of anime.  Maybe both

hehe I'm not an anime fan. I just know a handful of japanese words. Anyway your cabs look great!

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Back again but, Hmmmm didn't have a chance to get on these yesterday.  Real life kinda got in the way.  Hopefully I will have some time this afternoon.  I know that I will have most of Friday, all of Saturday and all of Monday to work on these projects.  Hopefully I can get pretty far.  I will keep you apprised.  Stay tuned.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Well the progress I promised on Wednesday finally came today.  I have decided to focus on one cabinet at a time and get it as much to completion as possible (meaning the only thing I have left to do is install the artwork.  Pac-man mini is now 99% finished.  We are trying to decide where to get the artwork (CPO, Bezel) printed and I am waiting on red LEDs to wire up the lights for the coin door.  I also ordered mini momentary contact switches for the coin door.  These buttons will be player 1 and 2 coin drops.  I need to touch up the yellow and black paint here and there before I clear coat the machine and call this one done. 

I was thinking that it would be really uncomfortable to play but the thing is DAMN fun to play!!

Here are the pics enjoy guys. 

[johncl]

Fantastic mini PacMan! It looks splendid and I am sure you'll have a hard time dragging the kids from this to play some yourself.

I cant imagine how you even got a screwdriver into that thing to tighten up things. Even though mine is just a 50% replica I feel its getting very cramped inside and I havent even started installing the computer and all that yet.

Absolutely brilliant work! 

[Woodshop Flunky]

I love a small cab!  Outstanding job! 

[Jigenjuke]

Hmmm well guys, I am back with a small update. 

I  f%&ed up the left side of Ms. Pac-man.  I had already decided that iron on transfers were not going to be the way to go to transfer the black stencil to the masking tape covering the left side of the cabinet.  I went ahead and did it anyway.  What a screwup!  The iron not only melted the yellow and pink spray paint, but it melted the masking tape to the side of the cabinet.  It was a total mess.  So I spent an entire day scraping, sanding and repainting the cabinet.  Yesterday I took time to repaint the yellow stencils.  I did both sides and front.  I am quite happy with the progress. 

So I posting pics here.  Enjoy guys and remember IRON ON TRANSFER PAPER IS ONLY FOR T=SHIRTS!!! 

Jigenjuke

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[blastAgain]

Hi Jigenjuke!

Welcomeback and nice to see you are very active!
Mini Pacman looks awesome!

I put side art as sticker on my miniROBOTRON cab.

I ordered B0 sticker with data (illustrator file I send). The size is about 1000x1500(mm), so normal size cab won't fit but mini things fit perfectly!
The sticker is around 3000yen and for the raminate service add 1000yen.

ordered here http://www.naka5.net/
I think it is the cheapest found on internet.
I put many things in the B0. I attached the image.

Keep up GREAT WORK!

[Jigenjuke]

Just a quick update,

Ms. Pac Yello and Pink stenciling are done.

More to come.

Jigenjuke 

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[Jigenjuke]

Hello all,

Back again.  I decided to take a little break before tackeling the black stencils for Ms. Pacman.  This is going to be one hell of a major undertaking.  I initially thought about having the black stencil portion silk screened on top of the Yellow and Pink stencils.  I took a piece of scrap wood large enough to make a test stencil for the Yellow and Pink stencils from the kickplate front of the cabinet to my friend and he did his best.  Although his work was great, I was not happy with the result.  The difference between the spray painted stencils and the black silk screened stencils was almost glaring.  I have decided that the best way to proceed with this is to masking tape the cabinet up and freehand the the black stencils onto the cabinet.

The hobby knives here in Japan are very substandard so I won't be using them to cut out such delicate work.  My folks in the states sent me a real EXACTO knife set with will foot the bill.  I believe that with this in hand I should be able to produce a result that will please even an anal retentive bugger like me. 

Stay tuned. 

Jigenjuke

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[johncl]

Thanks for the tip on the EXACTO knives or X-ACTO as I believe the real trademark is. I ordered one of the X2000 model from USA now, although I could have used it yesterday when I cut my CP art.

Looking forward to your next update. Its all looking fantastic.

[Jigenjuke]

Thanks for the tip on the EXACTO knives or X-ACTO as I believe the real trademark is. I ordered one of the X2000 model from USA now, although I could have used it yesterday when I cut my CP art.

Looking forward to your next update. Its all looking fantastic.

Yeah the X2000 model is awesome and for just 6 bucks you can't miss.  The hobby knives here in Japan are about 10 bucks and made cheaply in China.  They are not really made for delicate work.  JohnCL where are you located?

[Jigenjuke]

Hi Jigenjuke!

Welcomeback and nice to see you are very active!
Mini Pacman looks awesome!

I put side art as sticker on my miniROBOTRON cab.

I ordered B0 sticker with data (illustrator file I send). The size is about 1000x1500(mm), so normal size cab won't fit but mini things fit perfectly!
The sticker is around 3000yen and for the raminate service add 1000yen.

ordered here http://www.naka5.net/
I think it is the cheapest found on internet.
I put many things in the B0. I attached the image.

Keep up GREAT WORK!

Hey there BlastAgain,

Good to see you around here again.  Yeah the stickers look pretty good.  You should post pictures of them installed on your cabinet.  Can'T wait to see what esle you have accomplished.  Maybe when we have our show in December you can stop by and check out the mini game center we have planned.  A total of 13 mini cabinets all operating at once.

Jigenjuke

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[johncl]

Yeah the X2000 model is awesome and for just 6 bucks you can't miss.  The hobby knives here in Japan are about 10 bucks and made cheaply in China.  They are not really made for delicate work.  JohnCL where are you located?

I am on the opposite side of the planet, in Norway. - I ordered mine on ebay from a company in USA and paid around $15 total. I am sure it will be a valuable tool for many things I do with paper and stickers. I also learned my wife had a nice ruler with cicular template holes in different sizes which sure comes in handy when cutting the CP graphics.

Hope to get the X-ACTO for cutting the bezel art and side art stickers, both which have a lot of detail and arcs I need to get right.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

A little bit of an update.  I taped up the front of Ms. Pac-man, freehand drew the black stencils on, cut them out, sprayed it black and waited for it to dry.  This was probably the most detailed work I have ever done.  It turned out OK but Ms. Pac looks a little like Tammy Fae Baker after a good cry.   Nothing that a little touch up paint wont fix tomorrow.  This mess took me more than 6 hours today so I didn't get anything else done.


Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, back again.  I have started stenciling the black on the left and right sides of the Ms. Pac-man cabinet.  Things are going a little bit slow as I want to make it as perfect as possible. 

I will be doing one of these cabinets as a galaxian cabinet.  A friend of mine came to visit the workshop and started poking around.  He was joking around and tried to place his iPad into one of the empty painted shells for the mini upright replica cabs, and low and behold it fit perfectly.  I couldn' t have planned it better myself.  So later on down the line I will hack a wii controller for him and get that project going. 

As I said progress on the Ms. Pac cabinet is coming slowly and I don't yet have pics that I am ready to share but I thought that an update was in order. 

I ordered some extra bright red LEDs from ebay.  God these suckers are bright!  Since I am going to need two of these little guys for the 25cent "window" (the 25cent logo is printed on heavy duty glossy sticker inkjet paper and then stuck to carefully cut perspec) on the mini coin doors.  I decided to do a little testing.  I tried both parrallel and series each with one resistor. (I will provide picks of this later)  Parrallel was way too bright.  Series ended up being perfect as it adds up to a very quick power draw.  After wiring these up I tested them in the behind the coin door price window I noticed that I had light bleed from the LEDs in back.  I toyed around with a few ideas and finally settled on using hobby clay around the inside hole of the price window.  PERFECT!!  God I love the 100 yen shops here in Japan.  They are the DIYers best friend.

I am going to be using hobby plastic which melts in warm water to form the keylock for all these coin doors.  I made a mold using metal washers and then using a dremel tool I made a reasonable facimile of the key insert.  Looks pretty good pics to come soon. 

I then drilled two small holes for the coin return buttons.  I painted the 11mm buttons silver and will install them when they dry, hopefully tomorrow.  The Left button will be player 1 and 2 coin and the right button will be Escape.  I am so far happy with how this is turning out. 

I never thought that I would be spending this much time on the coin doors but they are Awesome.  CrashWG did a stellar job.    props to him!!

I am providing a pic of the mini coin door with a placement legend.

The Red circles are where the LEDs will be installed behind the "Cost Windows".

The Blue circles are where the 11mm Tack switches will be installed.

The Green circle is where the replica keylock will be installed. 

I chose an unpainted coin door to again show off the work that CrashWG did.

Enjoy guys, I will be back soon.

Jigenjuke

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[blastAgain]

Maybe when we have our show in December you can stop by and check out the mini game center we have planned.  A total of 13 mini cabinets all operating at once.

Jigenjuke

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Oh! When and where is the event held?  Will you give the info please?

Also the photo of the sticker is in the message
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,106245.msg1229915.html#msg1229915
side view photo with black cover.

Cheers!

[Jigenjuke]

Maybe when we have our show in December you can stop by and check out the mini game center we have planned.  A total of 13 mini cabinets all operating at once.

Jigenjuke

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Oh! When and where is the event held?  Will you give the info please?

Also the photo of the sticker is in the message
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,106245.msg1229915.html#msg1229915
side view photo with black cover.

Cheers!

Hey there blastAgain,

Thanks for the pic.  We will be holding our event in Okazaki, Japan near Kagota koen at a little gallery called Fura.  I will post the address for ya later.  We will be holding the event at the end of Decemeber.  Again not for sure when yet but I will drop you a line when I know more details.  I do know that we will have four of the mini upright replicas (1 Pac-Man, 1 Ms. Pac-man, 2 gereric cabinets for people who want to design their own art for the cabs) three mini cocktail cabinets, three 3/4 scale Nintendo Cabs (Red Donkey Kong, Light blue Mario, and Orange Donkey Kong Jr.)  Two original art cabinets Beastress Upright based on the Tempest's cabinet shape, and an interesting cabinet shape and design that I am not really sure wil work, but my friend really wants to try.  Finally we will hopefully have two touch panel Jukes finished by then.

I will let you know when we have more details.  Hopefully a nice litte mini 80s arcade.

Jigenjuke

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[blastAgain]

Thank you for the info!
I'm looking forward to the details and success!

blastAgain

[Jigenjuke]

Hey guys,

As you can see I have transferred the stencil to the masking tape.  You can only see one side but trust me both are done.  Drawing this freehand took an ungodly amount of time and it seems a waste that I am just gonna cut and remove the work I did, but OH WELL...

The first picture is of my MALA layout.  I was pretty tired when I created it last night and this morning I realized that the orientation was wrong.  It needs to be in landscape mode not portrait but I will fix that tomorrow.  Enjoy guys.


Jigenjuke

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[Gaaargh]

Wow, nice work!

Hand cutting your own stencils really shows dedication.

[Jigenjuke]

Wow, nice work!

Hand cutting your own stencils really shows dedication.

Thanks Gaaargh,  I appreciate the nice words, however, the reality of this kind of undertaking is somewhat more unpleasant.  I am sure that when I am finished the result will look very good, but.....

Well guys, I am back and more than a little stumped.  The final black stencils on the left and rigt side of the Ms. Pac cabinet were coming along great.  The ghosts at the bottom turned out pretty good.  The main part of the stencil with Ms. Pac and the big ghost look awesome.  I am very dissapointed in the small Ms. Pac character sitting atop the "MAN" section of the lettering at the top.  I don't feel confident as of yet to provide pics.  I had to set the making tape down in strips and as they overlap a little to provide coverage this can prove to cause "slipage" when I start cutting the really detailed areas. 

BLAH :banghead:BLAH BLAH  

I think, owever that I have come up with the answer that will allow me to continue.  The masking tape does not have a very adhesive backing and causes "slipage" so I have decided to print that Ms. Pac-Man text/mini Ms. Pac sitting atop the "MAN" on inkject decal paper and cut from there.  I hope that this is the answer to my difficulties, because once the stecil cutting is finished and srayed I can complete this unit and start the easier projects of the final two upright replicas and the Three mini cocktails.  Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for me.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

Back again.  The weather here has not been very conducive for painting so I am in a holding pattern for spraying the final stencils for Ms. Pac.  But I decided to work on the MALA layout.  Please let me know what you think and give me a few more ideas.  I am not quite happy with how it looks.  I wanted to keep it very simple.

Jigenjuke

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[Gaaargh]

It's a relatively clean design, but I find the list of titles redundant, especially when you have 3 other images from the game. The games are sorted alphabetically, so finding a specific one is fairly easy.

Here's the layout I made for my pac-man cocktail. It displays only the snap & marquee.

[Jigenjuke]

Just a little update guys,

I have almost finished the left side stencils for the Ms. Pac-man replica cabinet.  I am happy with how they came out for the most part.  I will be even happier when I touch up the rough parts.  Sorry for the blurry pictures.  I took them with my iPhone.  Not the best camera in the world.  Also if you are wondering why the mini Ms. Pac at the top has no face it is because I am going to be painting that on by hand.  Anyway I hope you enjoy the pic.  This was a very long and painful process...

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Well, Guys...  Back with a small update for the other side of the Ms. Pac black stencils.  God!  This type of cutting is really draining!  The Opposable thumb is really a cool adaptation but it is really not made for three hours straight of cutting stencils.  I am pretty happy with how things are turning out but I have to say that this project is taking way too much of my time.  I can't wait to get this one out of the way so that I can move on to the cocktail cabinets.  Enjoy the pics.  I will be back soon with another update.

Jigenjuke

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[CoryBee]

  I love that this is all stencil work, so epic

  Cheers!

[Jigenjuke]

Hey folks,

Backk with a small update.  I have been pretty busy but I finally finished the right side black stencils for Ms. Pac.  So next weekend she will get an overhaul (PC, Coin door, Controls, Temporary CPO and Bezel, Marquee, T-molding, Speakers, Marquee LEDs, AUX ports installed.  Should take only a couple of hours to get Ms. Pac to the same point that Pac Man is.  I am really looking forward to seeing these two side by side.  It will probably be the first time in Japan.  Their Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man cabinets had different art.  I am not even sure if Ms. Pac was in the Arcades here...

Hmmm.  Interesting.  I always assumed that Ms. Pacman had a cabinet released here in Japan, but apparently not.  It seems that there was kind of a blow out between Namco and Bally Midway over copyright issues.  Ms. Pacman's was originally pitched to Bally Midway as a different game.  Sooo Pac and Ms． will be united side by side for the first time here in Japan.  I really wish that these were real cabinets instead of mini replicas so that the "wedding" could be official, but ehh... 

Anyway as of next weekend I can give my full attention to the mini  cocktail cabinets.  Yeah!  Hope you guys enjoy the pics.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there all, Ms. Pac is about 98 percent finished.  I need to do a little touch up, clear coat her and put the t-molding on.  It is a good thing that I didn't print the graphics already.  I need to a little more color matching before sending the art to GOG.  These things are really a blast to make.  After all my BITC+*/? about the stencils, they cam out great.  Now on the the cocktail cabinets that everyone had been waiting for. 

Enjoy the pic.

Jigenjuke

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[CoryBee]

Brilliant build!

[Louis Tully]

.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey folks,

Backk with a small update.  I have been pretty busy but I finally finished the right side black stencils for Ms. Pac.  So next weekend she will get an overhaul (PC, Coin door, Controls, Temporary CPO and Bezel, Marquee, T-molding, Speakers, Marquee LEDs, AUX ports installed.  Should take only a couple of hours to get Ms. Pac to the same point that Pac Man is.  I am really looking forward to seeing these two side by side.  It will probably be the first time in Japan.  Their Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man cabinets had different art.  I am not even sure if Ms. Pac was in the Arcades here...

Hmmm.  Interesting.  I always assumed that Ms. Pacman had a cabinet released here in Japan, but apparently not.  It seems that there was kind of a blow out between Namco and Bally Midway over copyright issues.  Ms. Pacman's was originally pitched to Bally Midway as a different game.  Sooo Pac and Ms． will be united side by side for the first time here in Japan.  I really wish that these were real cabinets instead of mini replicas so that the "wedding" could be official, but ehh...

Anyway as of next weekend I can give my full attention to the mini  cocktail cabinets.  Yeah!  Hope you guys enjoy the pics.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Here are a couple more shots for ya.

[Jigenjuke]

Oh also the bezel and CPO art is temporary.  I will be sending out files to be printed.

[DaOld Man]

Superb Jigenjuke!!
Excellent work!

Is there a Baby Pacman in the future for this couple?

[Jigenjuke]

Superb Jigenjuke!!
Excellent work!

Is there a Baby Pacman in the future for this couple?

Hmmmmm a Mini Baby Pacman hybrid pin/video machine.  Now that's a novel idea.  Now you have peaked my interest.  I'll have to give that a shot for my next project.  I could build two, one Baby Pacman, and one Granny and the Gators the only two Hybrid Pin/Vid cabs Bally made. 

Anyone out there know if they are even emulated in Visual Pin?  They would have to be didicated cabinets, almost a shame but it might be worth it just for fun!

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[PL1]

Hmmmmm a Mini Baby Pacman hybrid pin/video machine.  Now that's a novel idea.  Now you have peaked my interest.  I'll have to give that a shot for my next project.  I could build two, one Baby Pacman, and one Granny and the Gators the only two Hybrid Pin/Vid cabs Bally made. 

Anyone out there know if they are even emulated in Visual Pin?

This thread has several links to Baby Pacman tables on VPForums.org.

Unclewilly has a FS version here that you might like to mod/make into a 2-screen dedicated setup.

These versions use VP/VPM to simulate the pinball table and emulate the videogame portion.


Scott

EDIT: Forgot to check for Granny and the Gators earlier.  VP8 version here.  VP9 version here.

[amendonz]

These look sweet man, good work. 

[Jigenjuke]

Hmmmmm a Mini Baby Pacman hybrid pin/video machine.  Now that's a novel idea.  Now you have peaked my interest.  I'll have to give that a shot for my next project.  I could build two, one Baby Pacman, and one Granny and the Gators the only two Hybrid Pin/Vid cabs Bally made. 

Anyone out there know if they are even emulated in Visual Pin?

This thread has several links to Baby Pacman tables on VPForums.org.

Unclewilly has a FS version here that you might like to mod/make into a 2-screen dedicated setup.

These versions use VP/VPM to simulate the pinball table and emulate the videogame portion.


Scott

Scott thanks for the links.  I will start looking into those as soon as I kick out the other five cabinets.  I think that a mini Baby Pacman would be kinda cool.

These look sweet man, good work. 

Thanks for the kind words Amendonz!

[DaOld Man]

Hmmmmm a Mini Baby Pacman hybrid pin/video machine.

[Jigenjuke]

Finished up the little things for both cabinets, now I can officially put these two to bed (so to speak).  I am having a small problem with these systems though. 

They are EPIA VIA M10000 boards with the integrated VIA UniChrome video chipset, and while these are not the best for newer games they work just fine with the classics.  I did the first test with video out (via RCA) to my Flatscreen Television and the video looked good enough to play on the flatscreen but the dirver seemed to be stretching the image to a 16:9 aspect ratio.  I don't have a real big problem with that...

The big problem is this the main monitor is a little 800x600 touch panel system that came with the motherboards.  (If you look further back in the posts maybe page 1 or so you will see what I'm talking about.  The main monitor while working in dual monitor mode looks like it is being driven out of the correct 60hz because it ends up with all kinds of nasty horizontal lines and squishes the screen down to the bottom 3/4 of the screen.  Anybody know of anyway to fix this without changing hardware? 

Any help with this would be appreciated. 

Jigenjuke

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[404]

does it only happen in mame? What version of mame are you running?

[Jigenjuke]

does it only happen in mame? What version of mame are you running?

404, thanks for the quick reply.  To answer your question no.  It doesn't happen just in MAME.  The issue is is Windows.  I have Windows XP running with the Unichrome drivers.  When I start the system with the TV out connected via the RCA cable my Flat screen comes up with Windows running at 800x600 resolution streched to a 16:9 aspect ratio, but the 8.6 inch touch screen (which is the main monitor for these litte systems is, while at least a little viewable, comes up with strange interference (horizontal lines and text is hard to read). 

I am not sure what is going on.  I checked the advanced settings for the Unichrome driver and both monitors are listed but I can't seem to affect anything but my flat screen. 

It kind of looks like the picture I am posting but the lines are horizontal not vertical and it is a little more readable than this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Jigenjuke

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[404]

^^ I've had two different variations of the epia m1000 units. Did you check the bios and force it into tv out mode? Most models have tv out support straight in the bios and will also allow you to force a native resolution from the bios.

[Jigenjuke]

^^ I've had two different variations of the epia m1000 units. Did you check the bios and force it into tv out mode? Most models have tv out support straight in the bios and will also allow you to force a native resolution from the bios.

Thanks 404, I will try that.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

^^ I've had two different variations of the epia m1000 units. Did you check the bios and force it into tv out mode? Most models have tv out support straight in the bios and will also allow you to force a native resolution from the bios.

Thanks 404, I will try that.

Jigenjuke

404, thanks again for the help I think that I have got it nailed down, but I am not holding my breath.  Art came for the cocktail cabinets this morning that I forgot I had ordered, so I guess I am starting on the cocktails first.  I will post pics of the cocktail glass under lay later this week. 

Jigenjuke END OF LINE...

[BC_Jeffro]

nice job 

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there, bcak with an update.  The art for the Cocktail Underglass came in today for the Blue and Red machines.  Not sure why the White and Grey is not here yet.  Enjoy.

[Jigenjuke]

Got started on one of the cocktail cabinets.
here are a couple of pics．The Control Panel Art is temp stuff, it will be replaced with are printed on Arcade Vinyl.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, back again with a little more cocktail cabinet progress.  I think that the cocktail looks awesome with the light blue racing stripes.  The racing stripes are one both sides of the cabinet.  The mini coin door will be on the same side as the speakers.  The reverse side of the cabinet will have only the power plug molex with an on/off rocker switch.  One of the cocktail cabinets will be the light blue/dark blue with green and another will be Red, orange and yellow.  The final cocktail cabinet will be the White, dark grey and light grey scheme one a white cabinet.  Stay tunred for more pics. 

Let me know what you think!

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys.  My buddy and I got a little further on the cocktail cabinets.  I am not very happy with the racing stripe stenciling on the yellow and red and white, blue and red cabinets but I will fix this next weekend.  Stay tuned for more pics.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there folks,

I have just been thinking about the stenciling work on the cocktail cabinets.  The second two didn't come out as expected.  I will be hitting them again when I get my workshop back.  It is heated and will hopefully help the spray paint dry a little more evenly.  I will post better pics when this is done.  I am envious of just how many of you have real talent for these kinds of projects.  I just kind of redesign and rethink as I go.  We should be back in the workshop by this weekend.  Stay tuned.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey all, the weather here has been pretty crappy.  So I decided to work on finalizing the artwork for some of these projects.  Hope you like it.  I posted some pics much earlier in the project.  I contacted Lokesen and asked him if I could used his artwork from his Weecade project as a basis for my cocktail cabinets.  He said to go ahead so here is what I finally came up with.  I think that I will call the CPOs finished.  I also updated the Pacman CPO.  These will go to Scott at GameonGrafix next week sometime.  Stay tuned.

Please let me know what you guys think.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, we are back at it.  We FINALLY got back into the workshop and have started moving things back so I am not sure how much progress we will make today but my buddy Daijiro from about 5 years ago made a mini upright replica of Tempest with original art.  This year we as his request we made a cocktail cabinet for him so he will be updating the Arcade flyer that he made for Beastress. 

It is not finished but I thought that I would share pictures of the progress we have made so far. 

Also anyone out there who would be willing to create an original game for Beastress?? We might be able to make it worth your while.  Anyway take a look and feel free to hit us with any constructive criticism.  Daijiro say we will be making a cabaret  Beastress mini as well.  Let the games begin.

[Jigenjuke]

Here is another view of the cocktail.

[Jigenjuke]

Here is a shot of the mini uprigt beastress.  We will be adding a mini coin door to him. 

And here is the flyer that will be updated once we have the Beastress cocktail finished.

[Le Chuck]

Okay, that's awesome.  I love your stuff but the Beastress takes the cake.    Well done!

[DaOld Man]

Great work Jigenjuke! I agree with LeChuck about the beastress, but I like all your creations thus far.

[Jigenjuke]

Okay, that's awesome.  I love your stuff but the Beastress takes the cake.    Well done!

Great work Jigenjuke! I agree with LeChuck about the beastress, but I like all your creations thus far.

Le Chuck, DaOld Man thanks guys,  I will be sure to pass that on to Daijiro.  Now if we could just  get Sjaak to pick up on this one after he finishes Fix it Felix.

Hopefully have more coming for ya tomorrow.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, we are back for another update.  The Beastress cocktail got a little more love this weekend.  We routed the opening for the power connector and coindoors.    I also installed the PC and mounted the monitor and attached the hinges.  This are looking up.  I am very happy with how this is turning out. 

We also made a little more progress on the Galaxian cabinet.  As we are still waiting on art, t-molding sticks and buttons we are as far as we can go.  I think we made wuite a bit of progress. 

Enjoy the pics. 

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

A couple more pics...

[ark_ader]

WOW! 

[Felsir]

Awesome work!

[Jigenjuke]

WOW! 

Awesome work!

Thanks guys, I'm going to go and check on the wood putty.  Hopefully it has dried enough to use the belt sander to smooth it out and then paint one white and the other black (one Galaxian and one Galaga). Stay tuned.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Checked the wood putty, sanded it off and painted up the white cabinets.  They are now just waiting for PCs, T-molding and other fun stuff.

The weather here has been pretty poor here lately.  Rainy and cold.  Enjoy the pics.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Big update coming guys.  Stay tuned

[crashwg]

I'm so sorry to hear about the family tragedy and apologize for my impatience when you were unable to continue working on these masterpieces.  I wish you all well with the new family arrangement.

Now, about them cabinets...  So epically cool!
If there's ever a chance of you selling one of these, please contact me first!

Looking forward to seeing the complete lineup.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, we are back.  We promised a huge update and were more that willing to comply.  The last week we have been pretty busy.

Finished up the final two (White) mini uprights.  Wired up the coindoors, added maquee lighting and artwork.  Installed the PCs, wired up the Componant A/V outputs (Red, White and Yellow) for video and sound and finally installed t-molding.

Next we moved onto the Cocktails, we hinged the Tops, installed the PCs and wired up the controls and installed t-molding.  We are waiting for artwork and need to decide upon plexi or glass for the Cocktail tops,

What do you guys think Glass or Plexi?

Finally we started on the Jukebox.  This took most of our time the last week and a half.  I am kind of partial to the old Rowe AMI Eagle Wallmount Jukeboxes but it seemed too flat.  I seemed to recall that MAMEROOM had some angular wallmount juke plans but wasn't too happy with the look until a buddy suggested that I laminate it with hardwood laminate. 

Though about it and decided to go for it.  It came out great but I decided that it needed a little more bling.  Maybe a subtle steam punking? 

Anyway, when we finished yesterday I hooked up my cellphone to my PC and began to move pictures over when I discovered that  95% of new build pics we took came out as garbage.  (something wrong with my Cellphone's camera I am sure.  Taking it in to be fixed today) ARRRRRRGH!!!!!! 

Well, I went back out to take a couple of pics of the progress so far on the Jukebox.  The black Photoshopped spaces are for gold filligree or inlay.  Not sure yet.  Anybody have some ideas for designs for the gold accents?  I don't really wanna go full on steampunk.  I just kind of wanna make it look regal. 

Anyway, hit me back with some ideas.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Jukebox Pic 1

[Jigenjuke]

Pic 2

[yotsuya]

Nice. That looks a million times classier than the original.

[Jigenjuke]

Nice. That looks a million times classier than the original.

Thanks Yatsuya

Jigenjuke

[Nephasth]

Looking forward to seeing your juke finished. Looks great!

[Jigenjuke]

Looking forward to seeing your juke finished. Looks great!

Thanks Nephasth.  Still looking for ideas on the gold filligree but hopefully pretty soon something will come to mind.

Jigenjuke

[yotsuya]

Nice. That looks a million times classier than the original.

Thanks Yatsuya

Jigenjuke

Yatsuya? You're in Japan and you got that wrong? 

[Le Chuck]

That thing is hawt.  Looking forward to see what comes next with the finish.

You should start building some environmentals.  I'd love to see a Discs of TRON come out of your shoppe!

[yotsuya]

That thing is hawt.  Looking forward to see what comes next with the finish.

You should start building some environmentals.  I'd love to see a Discs of TRON come out of your shoppe!

Yeah, I'm really liking the natural look on that thing, Jigenjuke. The Mameroom version of it looked too... blah to me, but yours looks great. Making me really rethink my design idea.

[Jigenjuke]

That thing is hawt.  Looking forward to see what comes next with the finish.

You should start building some environmentals.  I'd love to see a Discs of TRON come out of your shoppe!

Yeah, I'm really liking the natural look on that thing, Jigenjuke. The Mameroom version of it looked too... blah to me, but yours looks great. Making me really rethink my design idea.

Hey thanks guys, Hmmm an environmental.  It would have to be an all mighty driving, flight sim cabinet for me to swing it.  I am not sure the Mrs. would approve of the use of space.  My son would love it though.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Well guys,

as my camera is still on the fritz, I decided to go back and look at the pictures I have taken.  I remembered that I promised Crashwg (the rightous dude who CNCd my mini coin doors) more pictures of the builds for these awesome micro coin doors.

Well here they are. 

Gonna have to post one at a time cause he wanted HD pics, so here goes. 

The first pic was taken just after rolling on black paint.  I tried using spray paint but didn't like the look so the roller came out. 

[Jigenjuke]

I then cut some 1mm plexi sized to the coin return hole.

The 25cent inserts were printed on a metallic sticker sheet.  Cut to size.

[Jigenjuke]

I taped up the coin door to ready them for the metallic silver paint.

[Jigenjuke]

Painted them with this stuff.  It is pretty awesome!

[Jigenjuke]

The Midway Bally Coin Door Logo was also printed on the adhesive backed metallic sticker sheets.  Turned out very nice.

I wired up two super bright red LEDs in series with a 470 ohm resistor, turns out this is good enough for the brightness.  I glued everything in with a  100 yen glue gun!  God ya gotta love the 100 yen stores!

This is all I have for you guys now more to come.

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys, got a little busy with the beginning of the new school semester and things got a bit back burnered.  We are back at it now and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  These projects will all be finished within the next two weeks.  Pics to follow.  The art we got from Scott as Game on Graphix really made these little guys POP!  I can't wait for this gallery show to start. 

Stay Tuned

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

Well, things are getting much closer to the start of our gallery showing.  I promised you guys pics, but I am not quite ready to show my full hand yet.  Soooo, in order to be fair I am giving you guys a little teaser.  (Honestly, I would have taken more pics and upped them but we are going through a restoration where we live and space is limited so I had to pick and choose which cabinets bring out and pose.  Enyjoy guys!  More to come I promise.

All of the cocktails are in this shape.  Only a few things need to be done.   

#1) USB ports re-installed
#2) smoked glass top attached to the top with cocktail overglass clips 
#3) underglass art needs to be re-trimmed.

The White mini upright replicas are both in this state.  Just a few things need to be accomplished

#1) Finalize the Side Art, Monitor Bezel, and Marquee
#2) Add t-molding to hold the marquee in place
#3) Re-install the USB ports

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

Oh also here are a few MALA layouts for these guys.

Hope you like.

Jigenjuke 

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

Nice. That looks a million times classier than the original.

Thanks Yatsuya

Jigenjuke

Yatsuya? You're in Japan and you got that wrong? 

Sorry about that YA instead of YO,　Yotsuya, I think that it was just a typo but I can't be sure.  I am not familar with the name as a pop culture reference.  Is it a manga character?

Anyway guys, thanks for all the look sees.  Finally over the 20,000 views mark.  Didn't think I would make it! 

What do you guys think about the MALA layouts?

I wanted to keep things simple without a lot of ENGLISH.  The last mini's I made people complained that they couldn't read the game titles (well some of them couldn't) so I completely removed the game title list from the layout and just supplied them with the marquee and screen shot.  I didn't want to go through and rename everything in KATAKANA and Kanji.  We wouldn't be done for another year!

Anybody out there know if the VIA Epia M10000 1.2 ghz motherboards can handle the video previews of the games? 

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[404]

Sorry about that YA instead of YO,　Yotsuya, I think that it was just a typo but I can't be sure.  I am not familar with the name as a pop culture reference.  Is it a manga character?

Anyway guys, thanks for all the look sees.  Finally over the 20,000 views mark.  Didn't think I would make it! 

What do you guys think about the MALA layouts?

I wanted to keep things simple without a lot of ENGLISH.  The last mini's I made people complained that they couldn't read the game titles (well some of them couldn't) so I completely removed the game title list from the layout and just supplied them with the marquee and screen shot.  I didn't want to go through and rename everything in KATAKANA and Kanji.  We wouldn't be done for another year!

Anybody out there know if the VIA Epia M10000 1.2 ghz motherboards can handle the video previews of the games? 

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

Probably not. Last Epia board i had i gave to a friend who is now living  in a third world country. To make a long story short, he has it as a backup rig and it doesn't handle standard res youtube videos very well. Their performance factor however, is based off of flash. Best thing you can do is run a quick test with some various resolution vids to see if you get good results. Testing videos from games with 16-24bit graphics should give you a good indication as to what will and will not work.

IMO, mala isn't very good for a unit that low powered as well. VIA units are generally quite more underpowered than their intel equivalents. a 1.2 via has been attributed to being as good as a 800-900mhz celeron.

Think mamewah may suit you best. I have it running on a pIII 1ghz (at 100mhz fsb) along with custom console screens and audio. works great. I ran mala on the same unit and the startup time was really quite poor. Then again, i also run mame 0.106 on this unit.

PS: I absolutely love the cocktail cab. Seriously contemplating turning a small 14" all-in-one pc i have here into one if i can find a nice enough set of plans to make an attempt.

[Jigenjuke]

Sorry about that YA instead of YO,　Yotsuya, I think that it was just a typo but I can't be sure.  I am not familar with the name as a pop culture reference.  Is it a manga character?

Anyway guys, thanks for all the look sees.  Finally over the 20,000 views mark.  Didn't think I would make it! 

What do you guys think about the MALA layouts?

I wanted to keep things simple without a lot of ENGLISH.  The last mini's I made people complained that they couldn't read the game titles (well some of them couldn't) so I completely removed the game title list from the layout and just supplied them with the marquee and screen shot.  I didn't want to go through and rename everything in KATAKANA and Kanji.  We wouldn't be done for another year!

Anybody out there know if the VIA Epia M10000 1.2 ghz motherboards can handle the video previews of the games? 

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

Probably not. Last Epia board i had i gave to a friend who is now living  in a third world country. To make a long story short, he has it as a backup rig and it doesn't handle standard res youtube videos very well. Their performance factor however, is based off of flash. Best thing you can do is run a quick test with some various resolution vids to see if you get good results. Testing videos from games with 16-24bit graphics should give you a good indication as to what will and will not work.

IMO, mala isn't very good for a unit that low powered as well. VIA units are generally quite more underpowered than their intel equivalents. a 1.2 via has been attributed to being as good as a 800-900mhz celeron.

Think mamewah may suit you best. I have it running on a pIII 1ghz (at 100mhz fsb) along with custom console screens and audio. works great. I ran mala on the same unit and the startup time was really quite poor. Then again, i also run mame 0.106 on this unit.

PS: I absolutely love the cocktail cab. Seriously contemplating turning a small 14" all-in-one pc i have here into one if i can find a nice enough set of plans to make an attempt.

Thanks 404, I will check those videos and see what happens.  Maybe (fingers crossed) I'll be lucky and it will work without a hitch.  I am running 0.127 on these little guys and they work fine.  Will have to try the videos with MALA though.

404, also as far as the mini cocktail plans...   I based them off of the Bally Midway cockail cabinet plans I found here...

http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/cabplans.html

They were made by a man named Kyle Lindstrom years ago.  I took a little artistic licence and decided not to angle the CPOs, cut the cabinet short and rounded the edges.  Other than that it's pretty much just a replica. 

One thing that I would suggest that anyone do beofre making a mini cocktail is cut out the cocktail top first AFTER DECASING YOUR MONITOR AND MEASURING for the rest of the cocktail pieces.  Basically Build from the top down so that everthing matches.

Good luck!  Even with my HUGE hands these things are a blast to play!

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[yotsuya]

Nice. That looks a million times classier than the original.

Thanks Yatsuya

Jigenjuke

Yatsuya? You're in Japan and you got that wrong? 

Sorry about that YA instead of YO,　Yotsuya, I think that it was just a typo but I can't be sure.  I am not familar with the name as a pop culture reference.  Is it a manga character?

It is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Maison_Ikkoku_characters#Yotsuya

[Jigenjuke]

Nice. That looks a million times classier than the original.

Thanks Yatsuya

Jigenjuke

Yatsuya? You're in Japan and you got that wrong? 

Sorry about that YA instead of YO,　Yotsuya, I think that it was just a typo but I can't be sure.  I am not familar with the name as a pop culture reference.  Is it a manga character?

It is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Maison_Ikkoku_characters#Yotsuya

Well DAMN, look at that.  You learn something new everyday.  Are you trying to tell us that you are a voyer?

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[404]

Thanks 404, I will check those videos and see what happens.  Maybe (fingers crossed) I'll be lucky and it will work without a hitch.  I am running 0.127 on these little guys and they work fine.  Will have to try the videos with MALA though.

404, also as far as the mini cocktail plans...   I based them off of the Bally Midway cockail cabinet plans I found here...

http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/cabplans.html

They were made by a man named Kyle Lindstrom years ago.  I took a little artistic licence and decided not to angle the CPOs, cut the cabinet short and rounded the edges.  Other than that it's pretty much just a replica. 

One thing that I would suggest that anyone do beofre making a mini cocktail is cut out the cocktail top first AFTER DECASING YOUR MONITOR AND MEASURING for the rest of the cocktail pieces.  Basically Build from the top down so that everthing matches.

Good luck!  Even with my HUGE hands these things are a blast to play!

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

hmm sort of contemplating making one out of this little pc i have here. might be cute for a table top....

As for the videos, if you are running via tv out/480 you can alternatively try to make 240p videos.  You can then use FFMPEG to batch convert the videos into lower res files. If you are running windows, there is a basic frontend for FFMPEG available at the WinFF Project page  http://code.google.com/p/winff/

[yotsuya]

Well DAMN, look at that.  You learn something new everyday.  Are you trying to tell us that you are a voyer?

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

Heh. A friend of mine whom I used to watch Maison Ikkoku with (we traded VHSs via the mail- those were the days) gave me that nickname for whatever reason, and I stuck. But sure, I like to watch. 

[Jigenjuke]

Thanks 404, I will check those videos and see what happens.  Maybe (fingers crossed) I'll be lucky and it will work without a hitch.  I am running 0.127 on these little guys and they work fine.  Will have to try the videos with MALA though.

404, also as far as the mini cocktail plans...   I based them off of the Bally Midway cockail cabinet plans I found here...

http://www.mikesarcade.com/arcade/cabplans.html

They were made by a man named Kyle Lindstrom years ago.  I took a little artistic licence and decided not to angle the CPOs, cut the cabinet short and rounded the edges.  Other than that it's pretty much just a replica. 

One thing that I would suggest that anyone do beofre making a mini cocktail is cut out the cocktail top first AFTER DECASING YOUR MONITOR AND MEASURING for the rest of the cocktail pieces.  Basically Build from the top down so that everthing matches.

Good luck!  Even with my HUGE hands these things are a blast to play!

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

hmm sort of contemplating making one out of this little pc i have here. might be cute for a table top....

As for the videos, if you are running via tv out/480 you can alternatively try to make 240p videos.  You can then use FFMPEG to batch convert the videos into lower res files. If you are running windows, there is a basic frontend for FFMPEG available at the WinFF Project page  http://code.google.com/p/winff/

I say go for it!!  These little cocktails are really cool.  I originally thought that they would be pretty difficult to play but it turned out not to be the case.  They are a blast!

I will have to try down sizing the videos to 240p and see what happens.  Thanks.

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

Well DAMN, look at that.  You learn something new everyday.  Are you trying to tell us that you are a voyer?

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

Heh. A friend of mine whom I used to watch Maison Ikkoku with (we traded VHSs via the mail- those were the days) gave me that nickname for whatever reason, and I stuck. But sure, I like to watch. 

If you are interested in watching them again for the sake of nostalgia.  I could probably get them for you.   Never seen them myself.  I'm not really an anime fan (WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!  THEN WHY ARE YOU IN JAPAN, is typically the first response I get to that), but every once in awhile I sit and watch One Piece with my kids.  Give me Thundarr the Barbarian any day of the week

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[retrostark]

these all turned out really neat. great job. I'm inspired to make something tiny like this for my desk at home. thanks!

[yotsuya]

If you are interested in watching them again for the sake of nostalgia.  I could probably get them for you.   Never seen them myself.  I'm not really an anime fan (WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!  THEN WHY ARE YOU IN JAPAN, is typically the first response I get to that), but every once in awhile I sit and watch One Piece with my kids.  Give me Thundarr the Barbarian any day of the week

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

No Ookla the Mok-themed cabinet? 

Robotech was my gateway to anime. I don't watch much, but the Macross series, Evangelion series, Maison Ikkoku, and Kimagure Orange Road are my favorites.

I spent two weeks in Japan in high school. It was a great time.

[Jigenjuke]

If you are interested in watching them again for the sake of nostalgia.  I could probably get them for you.   Never seen them myself.  I'm not really an anime fan (WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!  THEN WHY ARE YOU IN JAPAN, is typically the first response I get to that), but every once in awhile I sit and watch One Piece with my kids.  Give me Thundarr the Barbarian any day of the week

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

No Ookla the Mok-themed cabinet? 

Robotech was my gateway to anime. I don't watch much, but the Macross series, Evangelion series, Maison Ikkoku, and Kimagure Orange Road are my favorites.

I spent two weeks in Japan in high school. It was a great time.

Hmmm Ookla the Mok themed bartop....   Now there's an idea!

Where in Japan were you?  Did you go to a Japanese Highschool for a couple of weeks for an exchange?

Jigenjuke

[retrostark]

why does everyone make me want to make a cabinet like the ones i see? *thinks* because they did a great job? or maybe because they are amazing.

i think both!

[Jigenjuke]

these all turned out really neat. great job. I'm inspired to make something tiny like this for my desk at home. thanks!

Thanks for the kind words!  Go for it!

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

If you are interested in watching them again for the sake of nostalgia.  I could probably get them for you.   Never seen them myself.  I'm not really an anime fan (WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!  THEN WHY ARE YOU IN JAPAN, is typically the first response I get to that), but every once in awhile I sit and watch One Piece with my kids.  Give me Thundarr the Barbarian any day of the week

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

No Ookla the Mok-themed cabinet? 

Robotech was my gateway to anime. I don't watch much, but the Macross series, Evangelion series, Maison Ikkoku, and Kimagure Orange Road are my favorites.

I spent two weeks in Japan in high school. It was a great time.

Hmmm I have heard of both the Macross and Evangelion series but never the Maison Ikkoku or the Kimagure Orange.  What type of series are they?

Jigenjuke

[Yvan256]

Hmmm I have heard of both the Macross and Evangelion series but never the Maison Ikkoku or the Kimagure Orange.  What type of series are they?

Jigenjuke

If you're going to watch Kimagure Orange Road you might as well add RanMa 1/2 to your list. 

[Jigenjuke]

Hmmm I have heard of both the Macross and Evangelion series but never the Maison Ikkoku or the Kimagure Orange.  What type of series are they?

Jigenjuke

If you're going to watch Kimagure Orange Road you might as well add RanMa 1/2 to your list. 

Guys, guys, guys, when do you think I have the time to watch anime juggling this many projects  .  Thanks for the suggestions.  I'll be sure to check some of them out. 

After these projects are finished I am going to be moving on to REAL micro replicas.  I will hopefully be using the Raspberry Pi, but am not sure yet.  I have heard that there is something similar that can run Windows here in Japan.  But have not tracked that down yet.

Jigenjuke

[yotsuya]

Kimagure Orange Road is awesome if you're a sensitive 16 year old male (or used to be one).

[retrostark]

i will jigenjuke, just need to put it on the list on ones to build.

[Jigenjuke]

Here are a couple more Teaser pics.

Hope you enjoy!

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Just a little more left.  The light at the end of the tunnel is gettin' bright!

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[404]

Insanely sexy and most importantly, it really looks like a legit arcade machine.

[Jigenjuke]

Insanely sexy and most importantly, it really looks like a legit arcade machine.

404, Thanks man!  I think this little guy turned out awesome.  Now just have to get together with Sjaak and see if we can't get a game to go with this one!  You as well as a few others have been following these projects for awhile now.  I want to thank you guys for all your kind words and feedback.  It helps keep up the motivation to a full head of steam!

Back to it.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

BLECHH! DOH!  AWWWW DRAT!  (Snoopy, Homer and the kid from the School House Rock Interjections! expressing dismay!!!!) 

We were getting ready for the upcoming show.  The gallery show will start two weeks from now.  We repainted the walls of the gallary and repainted the floors as well.  (We were going to try and see if we could get some of that nifty Arcade Carpet with planets and such that glows under Blacklight, but not very cost effective to ship to Japan.)

We were moving everthing around and started to mount the Jukebox to the gallery wall, when a mounting point slipped and the juke dropped.  Fortunately I was quick enough to get my hand under the corner of the box to keep the beautiful wood from being damaged but the resulting jarring drop from 4 feet smashed my digits (nothing broken but a little sore). 

I was more dismayed about the resulting crack in the touch panel kit.  These things are getting cheaper and cheaper but shipping to Japan seems to be getting more and more expensive.  It costs about 150 US to get one here.  BLAH!      I ordered another last night and hopefully it'll get here before the show starts. 

Everybody keep their fingers crossed for me please.

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

Hey guys, Weeeerrrreee Back!

New Touch Panel Kit came in this weekend.  Very happy about that!

I already had one piece of 5mm plexi that had eben given to me a long time ago.  We went shopping for more and to quote Batman's sidekick, Robin, "Holy atomic pile, Batman!" 
Plexi glass is waaaayyy too expensive here in Japan.  I originally wanted to cover these cocktail cabinets with 5mm Plexi, but due to the cost (more than 100 US dollars for a cabinet) that went out the window.  I then checked 1mm or 2mm which was cheaper but would sag in the middle where the wood was vacant due to the opening we cut for the monitor. 

We shopped around for glass and came up with 4 beautiful pieces of 4mm glass that will work perfect.  All four pieces were less than 20 dollars US!  Yeah. 

The problem being, I have never cut glass.  Anybody out there have some advice or know how to cut glass and make the edges safe?

Thanks ahead of time for your help guys, this is the last thing needed to be done to get these guys show ready.

Jigenjuke.

END OF LINE...

[Felsir]

The problem being, I have never cut glass.  Anybody out there have some advice or know how to cut glass and make the edges safe?

You can cut glass using a glass cutter along a metal ruler (it creates a 'breakline' so you can break the glass along that line). The edges can be sanded using fine grain sandpaper.

Cutting glass is tricky- if you haven't done it before use some glass to practise first. Alternatively find a company that replaces windowpanes, they might cut the glass for you. Our local DIY store also cuts glass if you buy it from them.

[Jigenjuke]

The problem being, I have never cut glass.  Anybody out there have some advice or know how to cut glass and make the edges safe?

You can cut glass using a glass cutter along a metal ruler (it creates a 'breakline' so you can break the glass along that line). The edges can be sanded using fine grain sandpaper.

Cutting glass is tricky- if you haven't done it before use some glass to practise first. Alternatively find a company that replaces windowpanes, they might cut the glass for you. Our local DIY store also cuts glass if you buy it from them.

Thanks for the advice Felsir, I will check around.  Maybe there are some listings here in the "yellow pages", but it's odd.  I have never seen a glass truck hauling galss here in the city.  Saw them all the time in the states.  Maybe they're not open trucks like in America but closed panel trucks. 

[Jigenjuke]

I just saw these things!  Sweet!  They came out here in Japan last September.  I am tempted to turn them into a working cabinet using the Taiko game for the ipod touch!  Awesome!

[Jigenjuke]

Decided to bite the bullet and try cutting the glass myself. 

Actually cutting is probably the wrong word altogether.   Breaking is probably a better word.

I pulled an pane of glass from an old sliding glass door we had and went about my practice cut.  I was pretty suprised at how easy it is to cut glass even 8-10mm. 

The trick is not to press hard but evenly along the entire score.  Don't let up pressure even for a second because if the score doesn't track the whole length of the piece you want to break it will break unevenly and you will have a mess and the potential to cut yourself.  Wear Gardening gloves with protective padding and you should be OK.  Be careful!  Remember that the scoring pen that you are using will have a margin of error because it is much thicker than a pencil, and keep this in mind. 

What I did was take a permenant magic marker like a Sharpie and trace around the cocktail table top and used a straight edge and cut on the inside of the Sharpie mark.  This turned out great.  Even the curves on the four edges of the cocktail cabinet turned out awesome. 

I have yet to pick up some really fine grit snad paper to make my broke edges smooth and safe.  When I do this I will post pics of the end  result. 

I am extremely happy with how things look so far. 

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[kingchimp]

Glad to hear you didn't kill yourself cutting the glass. 

That cab with the tiny drums looks bonkers.  If only they were releasing Divekick on something small enough to fit in there.

[Jigenjuke]

Glad to hear you didn't kill yourself cutting the glass. 

That cab with the tiny drums looks bonkers.  If only they were releasing Divekick on something small enough to fit in there.

Heh heh, Thanks and yeah, Divekick might be pretty cool.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Possible Beastress Cabaret in the works for the upcoming show!

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

Well guys, I have been silent in my own thread since the end of April.  Everything is finished.  We are currently rushing to repaint the Gallery walls and flooring to get ready for the show.  The flooring paint is kind of nasty to deal with (it's kind of a heavy rubbery consistancy that doesn't drive well) but it is progressing well.  It takes about 4 days between coats of paint on the floor and it needs one more coat before we will consider it ready.

The "Micro Arcade" will then be set up in the Gallery and pictures will be taken and posted here.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel! 

We have been diligently producing flyers, tickets, Game Leaderboards (for Highscore contests) for the Gallery event.  Even bought a few boxes of the Fleer Pacman, Ms. Pacman Trading cards and a Box of the Topps Donkey Kong trading cards.  We carefully opened a pack and put in two "Silver Pacman Tickets" for an original stand alone single player controller and one "Golden Pacman Ticket" for one of the Nintendo Bartops we made a few years back.  It should be a pretty good show.  Fingers crossed

Stay tuned for final pictures, (Oh by the way, still plugging away at the Touch Panel Juke, but I am not sure if I am going to make the deadline of  June 30th.  I still have two more cabinets to crank out (The Mini Beastress Cabaret cabinet and another original but strange bartop designed by my buddy Daijirou.  This time around though it won't be so much arcade stylized at just ART.

Anyway,  keep lookin'!

Jigenjuke

END OF LINE...

[Jigenjuke]

By the way, part of the reason for no pics posted and no progress is that when I use the "We" it is a general "We" as I am out of the country with students for an exchange program.  The kids are having fun and learning a lot of English.  Can't wait to get back and help my guys out though.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Took the kids to "Family Fun Center XL" in Omaha Nebraska.  While they had fun trying their hand at Laser Tag, they enjoyed the arcade the best.  I was amazed!  I thought places like this went the way of the Dodo.  It was really cool to relive the sights and sounds of a "Real" Arcade.  I lost track of how many classics there were at about 85, but there were quite a bit more.  God!  Dumping 20 bucks into machines is fun!  Goes pretty quick though as I found I am pretty rusty.

We had a blast!

Jigenjuke.

[Player 3]

Took the kids to "Family Fun Center XL" in Omaha Nebraska.  While they had fun trying their hand at Laser Tag, they enjoyed the arcade the best.  I was amazed!  I thought places like this went the way of the Dodo.  It was really cool to relive the sights and sounds of a "Real" Arcade.  I lost track of how many classics there were at about 85, but there were quite a bit more.  God!  Dumping 20 bucks into machines is fun!  Goes pretty quick though as I found I am pretty rusty.

We had a blast!

Jigenjuke.

They generally have gone the way of the dodo. It's always either full of redemption games, fighting games, or both if you're lucky. Then there's the occasional oddball, like some 3D atari FPS game in the arcade.

[Jigenjuke]

They generally have gone the way of the dodo. It's always either full of redemption games, fighting games, or both if you're lucky. Then there's the occasional oddball, like some 3D atari FPS game in the arcade.
[/quote]

Yeah, it seems to me that a lot of the problems that the old Arcades had were location and atmosphere based.  I used to live in Columbia Missouri and often went to an awesome arecade in the early 80's called Pin Pan Alley.  This was a family owned and operated arcade that was around for quite a few years before it was sold and renamed Gunther's Games. 

The feel of the arcade itself was really pretty cool.  The building that it was in was an old turn of the century general store that had 10 foot ceilings.  Above the arcade machines (well over 250 in all if I remember) there was mock up of a big city fire escape that wrapped around the inside of the entire establishment.  It kind of reminds me of the cheesy New York sets from the TNMT movies (Was never into the TNMT, probably a little too old at the time but my kids love them now).  The arcade itself was well lit and smoke free.  The kids that frequented the establishment were treated with respect and so were well behaved and took care not to damage the machines.  I think that we had a sense of pride that we had a local arcade that catered to "our generation". 

The arcades in other sections of town were darkly lit and more than a little seedy.  The kids smoke and drank and were generally deliquents.  This didn't set well with the Bible Thumpers (Nothing against the Good Book by the way) and they made it their personal goal to stamp out ALL of the arcades giving the rally cry, "Idle hands are the Devil's playground!" 

Tin Pan Alley sold the business and it became Gunther's games and after it did so it soon became a Universtiy of Missouri collage Hangout, where college kids came after drinking to blow off a little steam.  Unfortunately this also meant that most of the classics went out the doors to greener pastures or were just hauled off to the dump.  They were replaced with more and more testosterone  fueled fighting games (Don't get me wrong, I like many others can appreciate the a good Beat-em-up with the rest of them, but the classic arcade sound and feel was gone. 

I hit the net and did some searching for Tin Pan Alley and Gunther's last night and found that they reopened at a new location in April 2013.  I wish them good luck, but as I live in Japan I don't think that I will be visiting them anytime soon. 

Sorry for the nostalgic rambling.  It tends to happen when get past 40. 

Anyway, pics to come SOON!!

Jigenjuke

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[GibsonRiddler]

Kimagure Orange Road is awesome if you're a sensitive 16 year old male (or used to be one).

+1 for Kimagure Orange Road. Been chasing this series for twenty years from when a friend of mine brought home fan sub tapes from Purdue. Finally got the DVD box sets last year.

Can't wait to see the end results, been following patiently waiting for the next updates and pics. Always amazed with the build. 

[Jigenjuke]

Kimagure Orange Road is awesome if you're a sensitive 16 year old male (or used to be one).

+1 for Kimagure Orange Road. Been chasing this series for twenty years from when a friend of mine brought home fan sub tapes from Purdue. Finally got the DVD box sets last year.

Can't wait to see the end results, been following patiently waiting for the next updates and pics. Always amazed with the build. 

GibsonRiddler, thanks for the kind words!

I have never heard of Kinagure Orange Road, neither have my kids.  Might have to head to the video rental store to see if I can find it for them.

Jigenjuke

[Le Chuck]

Did I mention that I love this?  Well, it's awesome. 

[Jigenjuke]

Did I mention that I love this?  Well, it's awesome. 

You should see it with the glass top.  The show date has been set!  We are opening the show July 6th.  I am holding off finished pics until we get everything situated in the gallery Mini Arcade.

Stay tuned!

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

While I am in the States, the guys have been rockin' on these projects.  Things are looking good for the show date for all of the mini cabinets and cocktail cabinets.  I went around to the Home Depots here in the states and I think I found something that will work for the cocktail galss clips.  Everybody was really worried about fabricating these.  We didn't want something that looked like an afterthought or looked half assed on these cocktail cabinets. 

The guys are currently shopping around for ideas for the legs for the cocktail cabinets.  I think that they finally decided on DIY chrome shelving from the 100 yen shops in Japan.  I am not sure how this is gonna look, have to wait 'till I get back to use the ultimate power of VETO or not. 

I forgot just how much there was that I missed in the States.  It's mostly the food, but then again most of what I like to eat I can make myself in Japan.  It's just a bit of a PITA to cook.  My trip has been good but I can't wait to get back to Japan and get this rolling.

Also not sure if the Jukebox will make it in the show or not.  It depends on how much TLC I can give to it before the show starts.

When I get back we will be making event flyers and such as well as having a professional take pictures that we can post for you to see.

Stay Tuned

Jigenjuke

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[yotsuya]

Kimagure Orange Road is awesome if you're a sensitive 16 year old male (or used to be one).

+1 for Kimagure Orange Road. Been chasing this series for twenty years from when a friend of mine brought home fan sub tapes from Purdue. Finally got the DVD box sets last year.

I had copies of the Animego VHS tapes and bought the DVD box set as a first run. I'm going to Hawaii next week, and the first thing I plan to do is lie on the beach and listen to "Orange Mystery".

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys,

It has been a great trip but I am really antsy to get back home.  We will be arriving back in Japan next Wednesday.  Hopefully after a day or two of recovery, I will be back at it to help finish decorating the gallery for the show.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Hey there guys!  Long time no see.  I have been posting a little bit here and there.  I promised you guys pics of our Gallery Show. 

Real Life kind of got in the way.  Daijiro's new baby and other things.  The Show got postponed but we are into the swing of things now!

Here are some pics of the layout of our 80s Arcade.  Please keep in mind that we only have an 8x8 foot space to deal with.  More pics to come as the "Arcade" get decorated.  We still have a few small things to do and I am not sure if the Jukebox replacement touch panel will make it in time.

Enjoy guys.  Thanks for being patient.

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

Here is a shot of the two player control panel we will be using for game competitions for the show.  It will be hooked up to a wide screen projector.  Space will be tight but it should be pretty fun!

Jigenjuke

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[Rick]

Here is a shot of the two player control panel we will be using for game competitions for the show.  It will be hooked up to a wide screen projector.  Space will be tight but it should be pretty fun!

That's an amazing looking stand! So life-like!

[Jigenjuke]

Here is a shot of the two player control panel we will be using for game competitions for the show.  It will be hooked up to a wide screen projector.  Space will be tight but it should be pretty fun!

That's an amazing looking stand! So life-like!

Heh heh yeah.  It works for peanuts too!

Jigenjuke

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[Le Chuck]

What a fun show, wish I could see it in person.  It's great to see all your hard work come to fruition.  Is this a purely artistic installation or will you be selling/auctioning any of these units?

[Jigenjuke]

What a fun show, wish I could see it in person.  It's great to see all your hard work come to fruition.  Is this a purely artistic installation or will you be selling/auctioning any of these units?

Hey there LC,  thanks for the kind words.  The game play will be free due to the nature of emulation.  We bought a ton of old pacman, Ms. Pacman scratch off card pack with the bubble gum.  Opened them up replaced the gum with wrapped stick gum and inserted five "golden tickets" meaning 5 of them will be raffeled off.  The proceeds from the card sales will go to charity.  Hopefully the others will go to good homes which will allow us to cover our cost of materials, electricity and such.  I also wished more of you guys were able to show up.  Pictures just don't do them justice.

Jigenjuke

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[Woodshop Flunky]

This is really outstanding! 

[Jigenjuke]

This is really outstanding! 

Thanks Woodshop Flunky,

Having a heck of a time weeding out all the DRECK games in MAME.  The cocktail cabinets can play horizontal games with a screen rotation so those are in and pretty simple to deal with.  All of the Vertical monitor games that can be played head to head in MAME (using MAMEui32127) have to be set one by one as far as I know.  Anybody know of an easier way to do this I would be grateful! 

Also I was really hoping that the new MALA could look into MAMEui32 and use the MAMEui32 filters rather than having to create my own.  Plugging ever onward!

Jigenjuke

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[Jigenjuke]

HELP!!

I am in need of assistance!  I am tying to set up MALA to exit a game with a button from the USB joystick encoders that I am using.  I have done this before many years ago and can't for the life of me figure it out this time around.  Here is the situation. 

For the cocktail cabinets each player has a joystick, 6 buttons for anything up to a fighting game, each player also has a start button that when pushed in the MALA game selection menu starts MAME emulation, each player also has P1 coin and P1 Start as well as P2 start buttons.  I want to be able to head back to the main MALA game selection menu that I have made by pushing a button or a combination of buttons without using the KEYBOARD ESC button.  How in the world can I do this.  I can't remember.

For the Upright minis there is 1 joystick and six buttons for games that use those for fighting games.  There are also p1 coin, p2 coin, p1 start and p2 start.  I want to set this up in a similar fashion so that when you push a button or a combination of buttons it goes back to the main MALA game selection menu for MAME game.  Please help me!!!

Jigenjuke

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[Le Chuck]

If it's MAME you're quitting set it up in the MAME config menu for UIEXIT, IIRC, and you can put in multiple keys by pressing them at the same time.  MALA doesn't handle quitting natively like MA does in my experience.  For several emus I had scripts just for exiting through JoyChoose layouts, AHK, or batch entries before the exe. 

[jimmy2x2x]

I also have a head to head cocktail cab with a vertical monitor, one thing I might suggest is to create a new "horizont.ini" file in your mame/ini folder.

open horizont.ini and type this one line and save it

aspect 3:4

change the 3:4 to suit your monitors reverse aspect (ie 4:3 monitor becomes 3:4)

This will stretch all horizontal games to the inverse aspect and makes the game feel a lot better than letterboxed versions imo.

Try westbank, black tiger and mars matrix for example

[Jigenjuke]

Thanks guys Got it!

Anybody have videos for Japanese game using Hyperspin???

Jigenjuke

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[CoryBee]

MALA doesn't handle quitting natively

Doesn't it?

"Use hook for exit: Keyboard Hook around the emulator with a certain key to terminate e.g. ESC."

Hotkeys works really well for me in Mala

[Le Chuck]

MALA doesn't handle quitting natively

Doesn't it?

"Use hook for exit: Keyboard Hook around the emulator with a certain key to terminate e.g. ESC."

Hotkeys works really well for me in Mala

I've found that hook to have issues similiar to the ones you get with MA and to just not work at all with some emus but YMMV.  I did misspeak tho, it has support but isn't 100% I'd say. 

[CoryBee]

Yea, I can only seem to get hook working with a keyboard or keyboard encoder. Never with a gamepad emulatinf keys through Joytokey.

[Jigenjuke]

OK, guys....

I know I promised pics of the Arcade Show awhile ago but real life kind of got in the way.

Here they are.  There are lots of them.

[Jigenjuke]

We had a lot of fun!  All said and done more than 5000 people came in and played over a 1 month period.  People of all ages came to enjoy a simpler form of gaming than what we have today.

[Jigenjuke]

No original cabinets were harmed in the realization of this show as all of them were built from scratch with a loving hand

[Jigenjuke]

All of the cabinets were sold to local folks except for the mini Pacman cabinet.  I have to figure out what to do with him.  No ROMs were included in the sales as most of these folks follow the emulation scene it wasn't a problem. 

[Jigenjuke]

Children, women and men... Oh my!  We had a great time and made almost $5000 (or 500,000 yen) for charity.

[Jigenjuke]

Hope you guys enjoy the pics of our mini Arcade gallery as much as we did building and playing them...

[Jigenjuke]

Finishing us these pic posts with a few of my favorite shots!

[Jigenjuke]

Remember guys, not all gamers are geeks!

[Jigenjuke]

The happy couple.  Unfortunately Ms. Pacman went one way and Pacman didn't sell.  I think it might be because

1)  The Ms. Pac cabinets never made it here to Japan because of licensing issues with Bally Midway and Namco.
2)  The Pac cabinets were not the bright yellow, blue and red that we know.

In the next couple of weeks I will be putting the Mini Pacman cabinet on Ebay.

I believe that it has a 40 gig HDD, an 8.6 inch touch panel for juke functions.  4 external USB, a lighted marquee, a lighted mini replica coin door with working credit buttons.  Composite video out as well as left and right channel audio outputs.  Last week I also fitted it with a dsub15 VGA output so that someone could hook it up to a big flat screen.  The cabinet was painted and hand stenciled.  It turned out beautifully. 

If the ebay auction goes over 1300 US dollars shipping from Japan is free!  Again guys, no roms will be included, but .131 version of MAME worked the best with this little system as it is an ITX.  I guess whatever home it goes to can make appropriate upgrades.

Hope you enjoyed my pics. 

See ya soon, we got more ideas in the works.

Jigenjuke 

[404]

The happy couple.  Unfortunately Ms. Pacman went one way and Pacman didn't sell.  I think it might be because

1)  The Ms. Pac cabinets never made it here to Japan because of licensing issues with Bally Midway and Namco.
2)  The Pac cabinets were not the bright yellow, blue and red that we know.

In the next couple of weeks I will be putting the Mini Pacman cabinet on Ebay.

i thought the same thing going through the images just now. If i remember correctly, puckman units were white with 1000x better cabinet graphics. 

[Jigenjuke]

The happy couple.  Unfortunately Ms. Pacman went one way and Pacman didn't sell.  I think it might be because

1)  The Ms. Pac cabinets never made it here to Japan because of licensing issues with Bally Midway and Namco.
2)  The Pac cabinets were not the bright yellow, blue and red that we know.

In the next couple of weeks I will be putting the Mini Pacman cabinet on Ebay.

i thought the same thing going through the images just now. If i remember correctly, puckman units were white with 1000x better cabinet graphics. 

Yeah 404, I would agree that the Japanese Puckman cabinets had pretty good artwork, but I am quite fond of the Iconic American Stenciled Yellow cabinet.  I am not a big fan of the European Puckman cabs though.  I don't think that they needed to add the maze at the bottom.

Jigenjuke

[404]

problem is. as iconic as the american cab is to americans, it is not iconic to the very demographic you were aiming at, japanese.

[Jigenjuke]

problem is. as iconic as the american cab is to americans, it is not iconic to the very demographic you were aiming at, japanese.

Yep yep, too true.  Too true.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

Wow!  I really have to give a shout out to MAMEMIA and his METAL mini coin door replicas.  Really awesome work there.  You can check it out here.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,135651.0.html

Everybody here keeps raising the bar

Jigenjuke