Author Topic: R-type II bartop - Haruman kit (Read 15815 times)

opt2not · « **on:** March 21, 2014, 01:54:20 pm »

The cabinet concept:

I wasn't planning on another project for a while, lord knows I have too many things going on as is, but I was presented with an opportunity early last year to get a bartop kit from Haruman and couldn't pass it up.
Lee's deal was simple: I do some artwork for him, he sends me a one of his Nintendo bartop kit's. This isn't the first time I've done these art-trade deals (I've still got a couple to make good on).

The request was to create an updated version of R-type II's original artwork, updated from the old soft airbrushed look of the limited art released back then. But of course, to fit his Nintendo bartop kit. Since I love R-type as well, I figured I'd create the same cabinet in tandem of his. So the artwork was created to fit both our needs!

I didn't play much of R-type II BITD, the arcades I frequented only had the original R-type. Only till the SNES days did I get exposure to Super R-type, which featured many of the stages and mechanics of the arcade sequel.

But R-type II never had a dedicated cabinet. This sequel was released as a conversion kit, and according to the manual it came with Side, Marquee, and CP art. But I've only ever encountered the marquee (I owned the original PCB and Marquee), which was based mostly on this flyer image:

Personally, I felt they cheap'd out on the art, especially since the original R-type art was so great.

So after rubbing a few brain-cells together, I came up with an idea of how to start with the art concept, taking queues from the R-type I as well as paying homage to the original Nintendo cabinets. In R-type I, the side-art featured our beloved R-9A Arrowhead ship fighting against Dobkeratops, the first boss in R-type.

In the sequel, you fight Subatomic, an armoured version of Dobkeratops in the Ruins stage. I ran with this and started a (ugly) rough draft of the battle:

This was the base of the side-art, so I continued each revision, included the Ruins stage and some elements from stage-1.
I wanted to go with a more painterly style, as opposed to all the vector style work I've been doing in the last while. It had to feature the laser weapon, missiles, turrets, your force options...
It turned out looking like this at it's final pass:

For the player facing graphics, I really wanted to pay homage to Radarscope, the sacrificial lamb of Nintendo cabinets. I remember the bezel artwork was so cool because it looked as if you were peering into the cockpit!

The Marquee's concept was an easy one: Have the Ship and Force Option flying towards you, almost like an entry into the Ruins stage:

For the CPO I took influence from the R-type II port on Turbografx, the in-cockpit view at the beginning intro sequence -- mixed that with the look of R-type III:Third Lightning's cockpit view from the load-out selection screen. It was the only reference I could find for being inside the ship, but it worked!

opt2not · « **Reply #1 on:** March 21, 2014, 01:54:29 pm »

To continue, (some content copied from my post in Haruman's sales thread)
Lee's kit comes with a black melamine finish, which was perfect for this cabinet.

This came all the way from down there in Arizona, to up here in Vancouver BC Canada.

At first opening the box, I can see the packaging was well thought out, from the light-weight materials to the method of wrapping the panels.

Each set of panels are tightly packed together, with foam protecting the edges.

No damage! I was worried that the long travel distance and exchanging of hands/trucks/planes, etc... would yield some unwanted results, but it all came in unscathed!

All the contents:

The quality of the cuts is clean, as expected, and the weight of the cabinet altogether isn't too heavy, but not too light. The laminate is going to save a lot of time painting and priming, and it just looks sexy.

I asked Lee to route-out the bottom of my control panel to be able to fit Japanese-type controls. My Seimitsu LS-58 (w/ octo-gate, my shooter/shmup joystick set-up of choice), and Sanwa buttons fit well! Don't mind the snap-in Sanwa buttons, I'll be going with screw-in ones once they arrive.

But I'm having second thoughts about going with the panel he gave me, and replacing it with a metal one. I'm in talks with someone on the forum to help me out with that, as I am in no way equipped to take on metal-work.

The plan is to go with 1P only. I personally don't believe bartops should try to squeeze 2-players into it. AND I definitely don't like that with a full armament of buttons for fighting games. I guess it could work for 1 or 2 button games, but for an R-type II cabinet, 1P is fine and dandy.

Paradise Arcade Shop's aluminum balltop with shaft cover is on the LS-58. I love that balltop, it has this dark, matte look that is really sleek looking in RL. It also has a weighty feel to it, which is sort of fitting for the slow-paced feel of R-type II.

Given the small-form nature of the kit, this will host an LCD monitor, but at this moment I'm torn between throwing a mame PC in it, or installing an original PCB (i'm kicking myself now for selling my original board not too long ago).
The cabinet is definitely going to be wired to JAMMA regardless. I like keeping the standard, and I believe it helps future-proof any modifications I end up doing to this thing.

More to come soon!

yotsuya · « **Reply #2 on:** March 21, 2014, 02:02:19 pm »

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #3 on:** March 21, 2014, 02:30:02 pm »

I can't wait to build mine with the art...

opt2not · « **Reply #4 on:** March 21, 2014, 07:30:52 pm »

Quote from: HaRuMaN on March 21, 2014, 02:30:02 pm

I can't wait to build mine with the art...

I'm hoping you finish yours before mine

Thanks again for the kit buddy!

wp34 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 21, 2014, 11:17:13 pm »

That artwork is sweet. Looks much better than the original.

Superfrog · « **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2014, 12:57:31 pm »

Quote from: opt2not on March 21, 2014, 01:54:20 pm

The cabinet concept:

This was the base of the side-art, so I continued each revision, included the Ruins stage and some elements from stage-1.
I wanted to go with a more painterly style, as opposed to all the vector style work I've been doing in the last while. It had to feature the laser weapon, missiles, turrets, your force options...
It turned out looking like this at it's final pass:

You are very talented my friend.
Great concept artwork you did there

Lord Hiryu · « **Reply #7 on:** March 22, 2014, 05:09:17 pm »

Only one word......superb Opt2not......outstanding artwork dude!!!!
Really rocks!!!!

opt2not · « **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2014, 06:14:18 pm »

Quote from: Superfrog on March 22, 2014, 12:57:31 pm

You are very talented my friend.
Great concept artwork you did there

Thank you!

Quote from: wp34 on March 21, 2014, 11:17:13 pm

That artwork is sweet. Looks much better than the original.

Thanks! I'm glad you think so too. I really hoped to do it justice, and am happy that it turned out well. As an artist it's always hard to decide when something is "done", I could have gone further with this but I already put too many late hours into it and at some point I needed to cut myself off.

Quote from: Lord Hiryu on March 22, 2014, 05:09:17 pm

Only one word......superb Opt2not......outstanding artwork dude!!!!
Really rocks!!!!

Thank very much! As a fellow artist I'm happy that you think so. I'm a fan of your work as well!

A small development: I was able to grab a couple 19" monitors for free.

They are both Samsung's, a SyncMaster 932bf, and a 915n.
Haruman mentioned that I could fit a 17 or 19" in this kit, so I'm giving a 19" a shot. I also have a 17" if it doesn't work out, because I'm concerned with the view being blocked by my bezel graphics.

emphatic · « **Reply #9 on:** March 23, 2014, 05:01:20 pm »

Quote from: wp34 on March 21, 2014, 11:17:13 pm

That artwork is sweet. Looks much better than the original.

^^This. Holy hell, man.

opt2not · « **Reply #10 on:** March 25, 2014, 03:37:18 am »

Quote from: emphatic on March 23, 2014, 05:01:20 pm

^^This. Holy hell, man.

Cheers buddy!

So after fiddling around with the two LCD's, I've decided to go with the 932bf because the contrast was better, and it has a quicker response rate than the other.
I still need to decide on what the guts of this thing is going to be (I probably should just mame it), but I do have my xbox handy for cases like this, so I connected it through CraftyMech's mini SLG X2 via a Neoya X2VGA, and the image is great!

Mmmmm, hardware generated scanlines...

I've still got a few plans to sort out, including a shopping list, so for now this is shaping up well.

emphatic · « **Reply #11 on:** March 25, 2014, 05:01:35 pm »

Is that R-Type Dimensions? Such an amazing port IMHO. I wish more 2D games would get the same treatment.

opt2not · « **Reply #12 on:** March 25, 2014, 05:08:18 pm »

Quote from: emphatic on March 25, 2014, 05:01:35 pm

Is that R-Type Dimensions? Such an amazing port IMHO. I wish more 2D games would get the same treatment.

No sir, that's the R-type II being run off CoinOps on my Xbox1. I've got a NeoyaX2VGA+ which is a component-->VGA encoder for your original Xbox. Great little device, and it makes your XBox look incredible on modern monitors.

But I agree, I love the R-type Dimensions port. Being able to play in retro graphics and modern 3D is a cool feature that they should put in all modern ports/remakes.

TheDude · « **Reply #13 on:** March 26, 2014, 02:48:00 pm »

Outstanding artwork !

swaffar · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2014, 02:30:08 pm »

Quote from: TheDude on March 26, 2014, 02:48:00 pm

Outstanding artwork !

I second that. Great art!

BobA · « **Reply #15 on:** April 01, 2014, 02:34:12 pm »

Great looking original artwork. Well conceived package.

Superfrog · « **Reply #16 on:** May 20, 2014, 09:47:36 am »

Bumping

something in the pipe line Opt2not

opt2not · « **Reply #17 on:** May 21, 2014, 04:00:02 pm »

Soon, very soon I will have an update. Just waiting on a few parts to arrive, as well as my art prints.

lettuce · « **Reply #18 on:** May 21, 2014, 04:09:10 pm »

Have you thought about using RetroAarch, has some nice CRT bloom shaders.........

opt2not · « **Reply #19 on:** May 21, 2014, 04:21:29 pm »

Quote from: lettuce on May 21, 2014, 04:09:10 pm

Have you thought about using RetroAarch, has some nice CRT bloom shaders.........

Not until right now! I haven't had to set-up a mame machine in a while, so I've been out of the loop on the latest and greatest.

Thanks lettuce, I'll look into it!

lettuce · « **Reply #20 on:** May 21, 2014, 06:04:28 pm »

Quote from: opt2not on May 21, 2014, 04:21:29 pm

Quote from: lettuce on May 21, 2014, 04:09:10 pm
Have you thought about using RetroAarch, has some nice CRT bloom shaders.........

Not until right now! I haven't had to set-up a mame machine in a while, so I've been out of the loop on the latest and greatest.

Thanks lettuce, I'll look into it!

Grab the latest build from here, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/91sakv0qdyxjx9f/cGOfV7ZOKd

And the CRT Bloom shader from here, http://www.libretro.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1843

I also use this crt bezel overlay for retroarch, https://www.dropbox.com/s/pe981v19bujlz4g/CRT%20Bezel.rar

give rounded corners and slightly arches edges to the side of the screen, much like a CRT screen.

Retroarch isnt as straight forward to use a mama however, and involves a bit more on the initial setup

Brian74 · « **Reply #21 on:** May 21, 2014, 07:02:50 pm »

Opt, looking stellar as always

Yvan256 · « **Reply #22 on:** May 21, 2014, 07:07:54 pm »

I know I'm just repeating what the others have already said, but...

That artwork is really amazing!

opt2not · « **Reply #23 on:** May 21, 2014, 07:27:53 pm »

@ Yvan256 and Brian74: Thanks friends!

Quote from: lettuce on May 21, 2014, 06:04:28 pm

Grab the latest build from here, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/91sakv0qdyxjx9f/cGOfV7ZOKd

And the CRT Bloom shader from here, http://www.libretro.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1843

I also use this crt bezel overlay for retroarch, https://www.dropbox.com/s/pe981v19bujlz4g/CRT%20Bezel.rar

give rounded corners and slightly arches edges to the side of the screen, much like a CRT screen.

Retroarch isnt as straight forward to use a mama however, and involves a bit more on the initial setup

lettuce, thank you sir! beats me hunting around for this stuff.

mike boss · « **Reply #24 on:** May 21, 2014, 08:40:39 pm »

Super awesome project !

Le Chuck · « **Reply #25 on:** May 21, 2014, 08:50:09 pm »

Man oh man, you do make some lovely art

mike boss · « **Reply #26 on:** May 22, 2014, 12:57:43 pm »

This is an awesome project.
Makes me wonder if I should just toss one of the six "altered XBOX" consoles I have into a bartop ?

Thanks for the info on hooking up the XBOX to a PC monitor.

pbj · « **Reply #27 on:** May 22, 2014, 01:07:29 pm »

Please glue your tinker toy kit together and post some pics already.

Thx.

yotsuya · « **Reply #28 on:** May 22, 2014, 01:13:48 pm »

Quote from: pbj on May 22, 2014, 01:07:29 pm

Please glue your tinker toy kit together and post some pics already.

Thx.

Says the guy making bootleg hootch out of Del Monte fruit cups and empty milk jugs....

rablack97 · « **Reply #29 on:** May 22, 2014, 01:32:41 pm »

Quote from: yotsuya on May 22, 2014, 01:13:48 pm

Quote from: pbj on May 22, 2014, 01:07:29 pm
Please glue your tinker toy kit together and post some pics already.

Thx.

Says the guy making bootleg hootch out of Del Monte fruit cups and empty milk jugs....

pbj · « **Reply #30 on:** May 22, 2014, 01:38:28 pm »

Quote from: yotsuya on May 22, 2014, 01:13:48 pm

Quote from: pbj on May 22, 2014, 01:07:29 pm
Please glue your tinker toy kit together and post some pics already.

Thx.

Says the guy making bootleg hootch out of Del Monte fruit cups and empty milk jugs....

And I've been posting picture updates. So your point is....?

opt2not · « **Reply #31 on:** May 22, 2014, 02:04:42 pm »

C'mon guys, don't sully up the project thread with the lover's quarreling.

Quote from: Le Chuck on May 21, 2014, 08:50:09 pm

Man oh man, you do make some lovely art

Quote from: mike boss on May 22, 2014, 12:57:43 pm

This is an awesome project.
Makes me wonder if I should just toss one of the six "altered XBOX" consoles I have into a bartop ?

Thanks for the info on hooking up the XBOX to a PC monitor.

Yeah, it's not a bad idea. Though I'm not going to be using an xbox in the final cab. I've got a small itx PC that would fit nicely into this cab.
I was just using the xbox to test the monitors.

Quote from: pbj on May 22, 2014, 01:07:29 pm

Please glue your tinker toy kit together and post some pics already.

Thx.

Yeah yeah, keep your lederhosen on. I'm working on a few things, and waiting on others.

mike boss · « **Reply #32 on:** May 22, 2014, 02:17:00 pm »

Hey opt,

You got me excited. I'm looking to see if one of them readily available RGB to VGA adapters can be used to hook up an XBOX to a PC monitor.

What would you do for the controls ? I'm thinking eBay would have something that is USB to XBOX. I'm hoping it would not be more complex than that. (Fingers crossed !)

On a personal level, I have an extra KADE I'd like to use. But how to hook up that KADA to the XBOX. This is now what I need to find out.

opt2not · « **Reply #33 on:** May 22, 2014, 02:27:55 pm »

Quote from: mike boss on May 22, 2014, 02:17:00 pm

Hey opt,

You got me excited. I'm looking to see if one of them readily available RGB to VGA adapters can be used to hook up an XBOX to a PC monitor.

What would you do for the controls ? I'm thinking eBay would have something that is USB to XBOX. I'm hoping it would not be more complex than that. (Fingers crossed !)

On a personal level, I have an extra KADE I'd like to use. But how to hook up that KADA to the XBOX. This is now what I need to find out.

Yeah, if you already have a spare KADE, I guess you could use that for the controls. I never did get my hands on one of those so I can't comment on hooking it up.

But I do have PS360+'s that support XBOX through the RJ45 port on the PCB. But those boards are expensive, and akishop customs' support is terrible. So I cannot recommend them.

Another alternative is Toodles' MC Cthulhu which is cheaper, and supports XBOX among other retro consoles. I'm actually thinking about switching all my PS360+'s (I currently have 4), to the MC Cthulhu because the retro console support is superior. But I'm waiting on akishop's next firmware update before I make a decision on that.

Then of course you could hack up a controller if you're handy with soldering (or pay someone like HarumaN to do it for you). The Street Fighter Anniversary controllers are very easy to hack, with big solder points to attach wires to. Slagcoin should have some more details on that.

mike boss · « **Reply #34 on:** May 22, 2014, 02:32:47 pm »

I always look for two kinds of solutions.......... EASY and CHEAP! LOL
I'll need to do some homework on how to work with this KADE.
Sorry to get your thread off topic......
This project is super awesome

Superfrog · « **Reply #35 on:** May 22, 2014, 06:48:09 pm »

Mike,

You have to make from a original controller plug a usb plug to use it with the kade.

The first piece from the controller... cut the rond plug and solder the wires to a usb female plug.

Hope it's clear, I'm typing on the fly here

mike boss · « **Reply #36 on:** May 23, 2014, 08:07:07 pm »

Taking away for opt2not's thread ...........sorry!
I found a wire suited to my needs via eBay....in the KADE project thread they said that should be sufficient for what I want to do.
And the good part is I think I have one in my basement............just don't wanna dig.

Opt2not I look forward to seeing this done with the art printed, this will be stellar !

DeLuSioNal29 · « **Reply #37 on:** May 25, 2014, 10:19:06 am »

Subscribed!

Excellent artwork and great ideas! Can't wait to see the finished product!

DeLuSioNaL29


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