Author Topic: Lime-Aid, the Lime Arcade... Me and the nephews build (Read 19402 times)

eds1275 · « **on:** August 20, 2011, 03:58:07 pm »

I know I haven't finished my first project, the Spinal Tap/Marshall amp themed one. It went to a halt when work got busy, and then I have been cashless for a while. But my nephews who live in the next province stay with me for the summer every year. We designed a mini arcade that they could help build, and as the summer wore on we just talked about it less and less. I'm still broke, being self-employed is great when there's work and not so good when there isn't.

The other day we were talking about when they are going to leave [this coming Friday] and my younger nephew who is 12 said with a sad face "We aren't building Lime-Aid, are we?"

...It pushed some buttons in me. Mostly the guilt one. And I was a little angry at myself for letting them down. So I say screw it. I ran out to the hardware store and picked up everything I needed except for the paint because they didn't have what I wanted. To save some cash I'll just gut the x-arcade for the controls instead of ordering the red ones and swap them out later. Here's the design we agreed on:

And another:

The two black circles are speakers. Between them we will put the start button, and on the front of the control panel will be a mini button for exiting the games. Eventually we'll add a coin door and wire it up or perhaps get a metal access panel and drop in one of those GGG coin buttons.

eds1275 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 20, 2011, 04:01:16 pm »

For reference the thing is 4' tall, one player, and lime green. I may throw a usb port on it for 2 players - that is something that can be done later if need be.

Why that colour? Because the nephews wanted something that looked "80's" and because my fiance hates lime-aid.

We'll be making the MaLa FE menu using pictures of girls holding limes I snagged from the internet. The boys thought that was awesome. And the menu will play that lime in the coconut song. FOREVER.

We started the other day and made the control panel, speaker panel, and the bottom of the control panel. It's just a lip really, the whole thing will be accessible from the underside.

Notice the burn marks from the boys' drilling "technique". Next is some acrylic and hardboard to cover the control panel and make the bezel respectively. I would've went plexi but they only had it in 14"x10 or 4'x7' - and I need 14 3/4 x 10... sigh. Oh well.

And the 4 24x48 sheets I got [truck is uninsured right now and i couldn't fit a 4x8 in the Kia!!!] 2 1/2 and 2 3/4 sheets.

TopJimmyCooks · « **Reply #2 on:** August 20, 2011, 09:55:22 pm »

Looks really good. I am a sucker for that taito semi circle.

I used that lexan on my stuff and it's a pain to work with, due to being so brittle. I got to the point where the only way I cut it is with a router and guide. I sharpen the bit before drilling pilot holes and it works ok.

Have a good time with the guys.

dfmaverick · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2011, 01:52:15 am »

How much of a kickback is Domino's giving you for that ad placement?

Looks like a great start. I like the 4 foot cabs coming out. Built one that size back in '05 and the kids loved it for Christmas. You're a good man. Keep up the good work.

eds1275 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2011, 02:45:23 pm »

Can I use that Kool-Aid pic for the loading screen?

So yesterday the nephews were supposed to arrive at 10am. But they have another uncle... and he is lazy. Didn't get out of bed until noon, cooked up a large breakfast, invited his friend out [he is visiting our parents, which is where the nephews were, and we live on an island] so after he picked his friend up from the 2 hour ferry ride it was 4:30 before they arrived! I was a little annoyed considering we have so little time to get this together.

My 12 year old nephew wants to be a carpenter when he grows up, and the 13 year old wants to be a video game programmer/designer. What a great combination of interests for building an arcade machine. We got to work quickly [everything including tools were waiting for them when they got here, all ready to go]. The slowest part was measuring because I made the kids do it and then I checked their work. We did that inside because it was freaking hot yesterday. As you can see, we didn't use math for the circle - my nephew pulled down my autographed drum head from the wall and said "This looks about right" and it was a near-perfect fit. It was about a 1/4 too small so we decided to draw two circles, one that lined up top to middle and one that lined up bottom to middle and kind of smoothed it over in the center. Turned out pretty good.

Between the circular saw and the jigsaw we made quick work of cutting out the sides and the back [since it is just one piece]. You may think that 12 and 13 is too young to be using power tools, and maybe there is some truth to that. But it depends on the maturity of the kids, their desire to do a good job and their ability to concentrate. The excitement and interest from the boys into this project is intense. The only cutting I did was the circle because they were too worried about messing it up. Of course we did talk in great length about safety and proper use of the tools. I also made it clear that there was no workers compensation available on this job.

I set the height of the slot cutter and let them share the routing duties. No slip ups or anything. It's a strange situation I have with this. My parents [the grandparents] treat them like kids - I treat them like people. Endless arguments have arisen because I let them do things that they wouldn't be allowed to do at the grandparent's house. For example power tools - they wanted to build something so my mom bought them a hot glue gun. Gaaaahhh. The sides turned out excellent! The camera sat out in the sun all day and noone took pictures, these pictures are from after they left. They'll be back tomorrow afternoon!

DaOld Man · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2011, 09:26:21 pm »

Great work!

dfmaverick · « **Reply #6 on:** August 21, 2011, 11:02:47 pm »

Quote from: eds1275 on August 21, 2011, 02:45:23 pm

Can I use that Kool-Aid pic for the loading screen?

It's not mine, I just thought it was appropriate and found one on the 'net that matched what I was thinking.

BobA · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2011, 11:39:26 pm »

Great work with our nephews. You put yourself out to help them build their dream cab.

eds1275 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 23, 2011, 11:11:13 pm »

OK these last few days have been fun. Yesterday when they were supposed to arrive in the afternoon I had given up hope by the time they showed up at 7pm. Oh well. Peggle championship it was. I let them win. Today on the other hand, we got up when my Disc Makers package arrived at 6 am and set out to kick some ass!

I started looking for a foam roller, and when they asked why we discussed nap length for a long time and getting a smooth finish. Well as soon as I mentioned an orange peel finish they immediately grabbed this 25mm roller I have for painting rough surfaces. They WANTED a "limey finish" on it. How could I argue with that?

...yeah, my grass is dead in the back yard. I have been doing other big exciting things like trying to kill the weeds, digging up tree stumps, building a raised garden bed, and planning for the hot tub/workshop/mini golf/patio. By then end of the day this is what we ended up with! The control panel needed some more glue on the corner so here it is with some weight on it.

Unfortunately they are leaving in the morning and I won't see them again until next year... but they asked me to finish it up and they'll fix my mistakes next summer.

mgb · « **Reply #9 on:** August 24, 2011, 12:02:26 am »

It's looking good.
Glad to see you came through for your nephews. I'm sure they'll be looking forward to playing it next year.

nitz · « **Reply #10 on:** August 24, 2011, 01:59:40 am »

I like. Cool mini-cab!

And also very cool that your nephews are into it and it's a way for you guys to relate. I'm thinking most kids their age probably wouldn't be into it, so that's great.

Malenko · « **Reply #11 on:** August 24, 2011, 12:18:37 pm »

Im not great, but Id be happy to work on a MaLa theme for that

eds1275 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2011, 05:13:09 pm »

Hey Malenko

Feel free to if you want to have a go. I'm actually working on one right now as well. My artistic skills are pretty weak but I have a great idea going in my head... I'll post sometime this week about how well it translated to the real world!

ace9094 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 28, 2011, 02:15:51 pm »

I really like your machine....

thanks for sharing it.... its a cool colour and size....

bravo

dandare · « **Reply #14 on:** August 28, 2011, 02:41:23 pm »

Thats looking nice man.

Arcade cabs should stand out, not blend in! Great work so far.

eds1275 · « **Reply #15 on:** August 29, 2011, 12:40:07 am »

Thanks guys!

The car was in the shop before the road trip out, and the shop took longer than expected so the boys actually hung around for a few more hours than anticipated. AND WE SQUEEZED EVERY LAST DROP OUT OF THE TIME WE HAD LEFT.

First of all we got that song "Lime in the coconut" and loaded it up in Pro Tools. A few minutes later we had a much better sounding version for our needs. Then we got out the foil tape and applied it to the inside of the marquee area.

Next we mounted the PC to the innards of the cab. It was pretty easy using bits of leftover pex pipe to stand the mobo off of the wall. We then went for a walk looking at computer speakers. The store didn't have the ones I wanted in stock so we went home and then played a few games on the olde xbox before they finally had to leave.

Woodshop Flunky · « **Reply #16 on:** August 29, 2011, 10:02:07 am »

Looking good... keep it rolling!

eds1275 · « **Reply #17 on:** August 31, 2011, 11:28:03 pm »

Been working on the front end and the marquee - the front end is nothing to look at yet but check out the first draft of the marquee. Simple, smooth, and clean. Open to suggestions, and keep in mind that kind of art is not my forte.

t3design · « **Reply #18 on:** September 01, 2011, 12:21:03 am »

You didn't ask, but here is a suggestion.....

eds1275 · « **Reply #19 on:** September 03, 2011, 12:43:09 pm »

Quote from: t3design on September 01, 2011, 12:21:03 am

You didn't ask, but here is a suggestion.....

Ouch. Less than an hour later, a much much better version is offered. I suck at art lol. Thanks a bunch! Would you mind changing it to read Lime Aid?

t3design · « **Reply #20 on:** September 03, 2011, 02:21:06 pm »

Here ya go. I can change colors, font, push things around, whatever you want.

I cut through the text like your original to see if you liked that too.

Just let me know what you want and I'll try to fix ya up.

t3

edit: added italic versions too.

BlasterMaster · « **Reply #21 on:** September 03, 2011, 04:36:38 pm »

I like #4 of t3design version.

My only suggestion if the limes were more of a watercolor or muted instead of realistic?
Problem is that the limes seem to draw my attention away from the Lime Aid letters to only the background.
It might just be me though.

Your a great uncle eds1275!

redketchup · « **Reply #22 on:** September 03, 2011, 04:41:54 pm »

Please stop using Steve Gadd autographed drumhead for your project!

mgb · « **Reply #23 on:** September 03, 2011, 06:27:36 pm »

yeah, the 4th one of t3s design is definitely nice.

t3design · « **Reply #24 on:** September 03, 2011, 09:07:54 pm »

I can do watercolor, I can do muted. It's really eds1275 choice. Whatcha want to see eds?

eds1275 · « **Reply #25 on:** September 03, 2011, 10:52:08 pm »

I'm happy with the 3rd one actually! This is such a great forum because there are great people on it like t3design. I also had help from Vanilla Gorilla and Ond on my Spinal Tap cab which is also a WIP - gotta give credit where it's due!

Quote from: redketchup on September 03, 2011, 04:41:54 pm

Please stop using Steve Gadd autographed drumhead for your project!

**For the record Steve Gadd would be happy to know that I took the autographed drum head off the wall and traced it for the sake of family togetherness.
**disclaimer, may not be true but he probably wouldn't mind

What have I done lately? I got the sound working - what a pain. The front audio ports need to be connected for the rear ones to be active, stupid design that could have been fixed by wiring everything in series. I ended up just putting a jumper across the pins. I also made up some of the sounds for the menu. That was a pain. I tried my best to come up with some noises that worked, but was having a hard time of it. Everything clashed horribly with the background music [in case I haven't mentioned it, it's Lime in the Coconut on loop. The idea is it's annoying and the only way to stop it is to play a game.] I picked up my neglected slide whistle, set up a microphone, and played my heart out. OK that's not true. I did the only thing you can do on a slide whistle... I made some noise. It worked well, and goes along smoothly with whatever part of the song it happens on. I need to make a video soon!

t3design · « **Reply #26 on:** September 04, 2011, 12:17:11 am »

eds,

could you give me the exact dimensions of the marquee, both the visible area and the amount of material you need for the holders? I'll make sure the art is sized properly and then give you a link to upload it.

t3

eds1275 · « **Reply #27 on:** September 04, 2011, 01:32:43 pm »

Hi!

The marquee area is 4 1/2" x 14 5/8" wide, and the viewable area is 3 1/2 x 14 5/8.

t3design · « **Reply #28 on:** September 04, 2011, 02:25:23 pm »

Here is a revised version based on the actual marquee size. the white in the proof is where the marquee is covered by your marquee holders, but in reality there is image there too in the large file.

Tell me if you want more or less space around the text, the lime, etc. I can adjust or move things if you want the relative spacing to be different.

in proof 1 the background limes are photo realistic. I had to enlarge the original pic, and photoshop does a great job, but you will want to check the large image closely to make sure you are happy.

in proof 2 the background limes are posterized so the scaling doesn't really come into play.

t3

eds1275 · « **Reply #29 on:** September 04, 2011, 03:18:44 pm »

#1 looks good to me, thanks a bunch!

t3design · « **Reply #30 on:** September 04, 2011, 03:55:57 pm »

http://t3design.com/images/newlimeaidprint.jpg

http://t3design.com/images/newlimeaidprint.psd

The jpg file is about 2MB the psd file is almost 9MB. Also, I can upload directly to someplace to print if you need me too.

t3

mgb · « **Reply #31 on:** September 04, 2011, 04:43:45 pm »

Man, thats the awesome thing about these forums. One guy helping another.
very cool

t3design · « **Reply #32 on:** September 05, 2011, 10:21:41 am »

eds,

would you be interested in side art? if so, what do you want? full coverage, just a centerpiece kind of thing, limes, something else?

t3

eds1275 · « **Reply #33 on:** September 05, 2011, 01:48:01 pm »

t3 thanks for the offer but I think I'll just have a plain looking cab. I'm really happy with it and the colour catches enough attention as it is!

...Looks like I'll be making another cab next summer with the boys next summer. I got my hands on a 270 degree racing wheel and a flight stick. As I get ideas for it I'll throw out my ideas here. I think I have a pretty good theme idea, inspired somewhat by a recent build here. I lan on calling it Red Line Fever and having a speedometer with a thermometer, both well into the red.

Inspiration:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=105003.0

Mine will be smaller - not a mini, but pretty tiny.

t3design · « **Reply #34 on:** September 05, 2011, 04:30:33 pm »

Cool.

Just in case you change your mind. I was thinking since this is a tight budget project you could trace a design out and paint it in so functionally no cost and could be a cool look...

BadMouth · « **Reply #35 on:** September 05, 2011, 05:20:54 pm »

eds1275 - Thanks. Can't wait to see another driving cab started.

t3design - awesome concept for the side art

t3design · « **Reply #36 on:** September 05, 2011, 11:42:28 pm »

Stop me before I kill again....

This project is just too much fun.

Malenko · « **Reply #37 on:** September 06, 2011, 12:38:18 pm »

needs yellow or green buttons.

Im still puttering around with a MaLa theme for you, are you running at a set resolution?

eds1275 · « **Reply #38 on:** September 06, 2011, 01:26:50 pm »

I'm going either 1024x768 or 800x600, anything square works for me. I''ve begun stencil.ing that lime art... you gotta stop lol

Rick · « **Reply #39 on:** September 06, 2011, 02:11:21 pm »

Quote from: eds1275 on September 06, 2011, 01:26:50 pm

I'm going either 1024x768 or 800x600, anything square works for me. I''ve begun stencil.ing that lime art... you gotta stop lol

He just keeps squeezing 'em out! They look juicy! (Oh hell, sorry.)


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