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Terminator 2 Cabinet to ??? Project - [It's Alive]
Yohan:
Yesterday did not go well. I started out by removing the guts of a computer from a huge case that would not fit in the cab to a much more manageable case. After spending a few hours being careful to hook everything back up, I moved it into the case. I turned it on and I could tell that it booted up but no image on the tv. So after checking wires and turning it off and resetting ram, still the same thing. I ran and got a monitor and it was just blank. So I rebooted and then windows started to boot up but then just blank. I rechecked all of the wires and went to reboot but nothing would happen. It was then that I noticed that the jumper for the power button had fallen out. I must have snagged the cord running up my cab while I was looking around. I don't have the wires cleaned up yet. So it was really hard to see the little jumper pins in my dark cab but I thought I had the right ones and *SNAP*. :angry: Yup, wrong jumper pins and I fried the motherboard. I tried letting is sit for a good while unplugged hoping that the power supply would reset or something but of course it's just dead.
So still angry over my carelessness I wanted to know if there was something wrong with the tv. I'm using a 27" component in flat tube. I had to create a frame for it by hand out of 1/4" aluminum bar. The thing weighs a ton and only just fits in the space that once held a 25" arcade monitor. Our blu-ray player has component out so I tried that. Static but no picture. So I tried the Wii component out. This time I got a picture but it was just black and white and showed the same image doubled on each side. So thinking that I was SOL, I tried an old laptop that had a dongle for s-video. The dongle had the same plug type as the component dongle that I am going to use so I tried that. The res was 800x600 and I got a black and white picture but it did not have static and it was not doubled. I rebooted the computer and this time the blue kicked in. Thinking that I was probably still SOL I tried that laptop on our HDTV and it looked the same there! That gives me hope that this will work once I get a computer up and running. After uncasing the tv, building a custom frame, reversing the horizontal picture, and cramming the thing in the cab... I can't imagine doing it all over again.
So I took a break and did what I had to do. I ordered a new motherboard. The one that I was using was four years old and of course they don't sell it anymore. The motherboard needs DDR3 ram so my old DDR2 is of no use and I decided to go with an i3 2100 sandy bridge processor. Should be really fast for an arcade. Just more money that I really didn't want to spend.
During all of this, my new controls arrived in the mail. This was a nice surprise. So last night I traced out my control panel. Well after laying everything out I was in for a shock. The old T2's nice and large control panel was hiding a dirty little secret. While the top of the cp is nice and large the actual room inside is not. After careful measurement the sad truth was that it didn't look like I would have room for the trackball and the street fighter 2 layout that I wanted. The picture (modified in paint) shows the border of the cp in black and the red lines show the area where controls can go to sit inside of the cabinet. After I laid everything many different ways it was confirmed that unless I wanted the trackball against the monitor glass or the joystick against the monitor glass, it just wasn't going to fit. I could skip the trackball but it's something that I've always wanted and I have already paid for it. I can place the joystick and buttons about halfway up the cp and the trackball at the bottom. This will fit but only if I place the joysticks and buttons as close as possible to each other. I'm not sure how that will feel to play. But this would leave a nice path clear in front of the trackball. UG what a day :banghead:.
Yohan:
I had a nice surprise today. When I got home I had a package from GroovyGameGear.com. Late Monday afternoon I ordered the NovaMatrix LINX LED Marquee Lights from them. Now just three days later I have them. That is some really fast turnaround time! Thanks GGG. I went with nine instead of the standard six. I made quick work of mounting them. I tested it with a power supply going to 12V and I really like them. I think they will work well and I love that they should last practically forever and they put out very little heat.
Xiaou2:
If the mirror you bought has the coating on the rear side (typical mirror), then you might find that there is a ghost image when you use it for gaming. Typical mirrors distort a little when light goes thru the glass surface to get to the reflected coating.
The mirror games in arcade machines put the coating on the front of the glass, which allows distortion-free reflection.
Yohan:
As thatpurplestuff said it definitely has a half silver "one way mirror" type coating to allow for the hit light to shine through. What Xiaou2 said also makes sense. It would explain the rust type marks that I see on the front of the mirror. I could see the glass having a slight reflection and making a ghosting effect with the mirror. I will let you know how it looks once I get the new mirror.
Xiaou2:
I think you mis-read me Yohan.
The T2 mirror has a half silvered mirror, which should have the mirror coating on the front of the glass, which will NOT produce ghosting.
A Normal mirror will have the coating on the back of the mirror, and it WILL produce ghosting.
You can buy half silvered or special optical mirrors with the coating on the front, but it may cost more than a typical mirror.
The coating on typical mirrors is on the rear, to protect it from scratches. Front side mirrors are used in specialty situations, such as telescopes, where optical clarity and accuracy is needed.
Any problems you are seeing from your current T2 mirror, is due to the coating being damaged or missing, and also because of any light that is leaking into the back of the cabinet.
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