My first cab build. Moon Patrol multicab. (Update 10-2-12)

[TGov]

Hello,

I have been a lurker here for a while admiring all of the beautiful work and absorbing as much information as possible.  I have finally gotten to the point where I am about ready to begin building my first MAME cabinet.  I have gone through dozens of different designs and after not being happy with many of them I finally just decided to pick a design I had come across on these boards.   I chose the Space Invaders cabinet design by jahilton2002.     It just captures all of the design elements I like and wanted and thought if I like it so much I might as well build my cabinet similar.   What were these elements I liked?  Well, I wanted a slim cab for sure but not too slim that I couldn't get a good design to fit on the side.   I also just liked the overall shape and the way the CP area was made.  I like the way it is angled and that it all pulls out on rollers but also locks in place. 

So I started messing around in Illustrator and Sketchup and I have the build plans almost done (I will post some pictures of the sketchup model once I finish it up). While I am a high school teacher, I am also a freelance graphic artist.  When I am working on a project I have to come up with several different visual ideas of what I want something to look like before I get started.  This gets me motivated and keeps me going.  Plus I just like playing around with the graphic design side of things.  I know I didn't want to do a generic MAME theme or Multicade kind of theme.   Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just isn't my thing.  So, I made a list of some of the games I remember enjoying from my youth and also ones that I liked the graphic design for and started making some mock-ups.  Luckily there is an abundance of great vector and hi-res arcade artwork out there to work with, and thank you to those that have provided it.  The illustration below contains 5 designs that I liked and thought fit the cabinet ok.  I had to do some rearranging on most of them, but I think they turned out OK.   There were several others I would have liked to try as well, but their designs did not lend themselves well to this cabinet shape (Centipede, Tempest). 



Of those designs, I have chosen at least at this time to go with Moon Patrol.  A few reasons for this. 

1. It is awesome looking!
2. I have access to a vinyl sign machine so I can easily make the side art for the cabinet without having to spend a lot of money on expensive full color prints.
3. It has the greatest marquee art ever!
4. It was one of my favorite games growing up.

I still like the other designs, but doing either the Moon Patrol theme or the Defender theme will save quite a bit of money since I won't have to buy two full side artwork prints from a printshop or gameongraphix.com (I still plan to use them for the marquee and CP).  Speaking of CP's, these are 3 quick mockups I did last night to start to get the idea of what I want to do.  As you can see I want a basic layout of 2 8-way sticks with 6 buttons each, a trackball, spinner and a 4-way stick with two buttons.   I also plan to put a couple of flipper buttons on the sides for pinball.   Right now I am leaning for V3 which is the one with the more monochromatic color palate.  It is still up in the air though. 

V1


V2


V3



On the woodworking front, while not an expert woodworker, i do know my way around a shop and I actually have access to two different full wood shops, so tools and workspace will not be too much of a problem.  It will just slow down the process a bit as I will have to travel a bit to work on the building of the cab as I don't have the space in my garage to do that.   As for the wiring and computer parts of the build, I feel pretty comfortable there.  I have been designed and built a few dedicated sim racing rigs over the years and just completed my latest one in the spring.  I also built my own steering wheels (actually steering wheels, not the motorized bases) and also built a set of hydraulic racing pedals using a real racing pedal box.  So, the button wiring and interface isn't much of a concern to me and look forward to routing wires and such   Here are a few pics of that build, please disregard the messy wiring, I have since fixed this:








I plan to build my own PC for this but I am not quite sure what kind of horsepower I am going to need.  I would like to save as much money as possible but still have something that is going to run everything I want to play.  I have an i5 2500k OC'd and a 6970 2gb card in my racing rig, but I don't think I will need that much oomph in this machine as I plan on playing classic games 95% of the time.  I do know I want to put an SSD in for the boot drive as that makes all of the difference in the world regarding boot up times.  My racing machine boots up and is ready to go in about 15-20 seconds tops.  In fact it is usually ready to go before I am.  Other than that, it is kind of up in the air.  What video card to most of you like to use in your machines? 

Ok, that is enough rambling for now and I appreciate any constructive feedback I can get.  This is my first build and I have already started acquiring a few parts here and there so I am getting pretty excited.  Still though, I don't expect to be done before Christmas given my work schedule right now.  I will try to keep this updated at least once every couple of weeks with progress and build pics.  I plan on picking up one of the Hannspree "basketball" 28" monitors here in the next week or so for the build as well as that seems to be the best bang for the buck. 

[HaRuMaN]

 

Now that's a driving cab!

[TGov]

Thanks 

I also need to thank my buddy Marc who has been instrumental in getting me obsessed in all of this as he has a MAME cab and also is a good sounding board for my ideas and doesn't mind me bugging him constantly about it! 

[HaRuMaN]

Out of the 3 CPO's, I'm liking the 2nd one best. 

[Trip]

Off topic...

Nice sim setup!  What racing sims do you play? 

I use to be heavy into the papy/sierra stuff before iracing started ceasing and desisting us...

[TGov]

Haha, well mostly iRacing anymore (don't judge me!).     I was big into the Papy stuff and then got tired of oval racing and moved to rFactor from about 2006-2011.  Then switched over to iRacing as it has come a long way and feels the best to me right now and runs really well.  I own an SCCA race car along with my brother and use it more for practice than anything now.  I stopped racing in leagues when I joined iR and just run pick up races now as that scratches the itch.   I still use rFactor some and LFS.  I have the beta for rFactor 2 but it is awful at this point, I hope they improve it. 

[TGov]

I just noticed I left out the Dragons Lair layout I did.  I like this one, but the wife would never let me do it due to Daphne's  cheeks being 'exposed'     Oh well   I found this vectorized version of the comic book cover artwork on the net.  I did not draw it, I just rearranged it for purposes here.

[MaxVolume]

Excellent choice... love me some Moon Patrol! 

[Trip]

Haha, well mostly iRacing anymore (don't judge me!).     I was big into the Papy stuff and then got tired of oval racing and moved to rFactor from about 2006-2011.  Then switched over to iRacing as it has come a long way and feels the best to me right now and runs really well.  I own an SCCA race car along with my brother and use it more for practice than anything now.  I stopped racing in leagues when I joined iR and just run pick up races now as that scratches the itch.   I still use rFactor some and LFS.  I have the beta for rFactor 2 but it is awful at this point, I hope they improve it.

Yeah, iRacing is a great sim thanks in part to Papy's original work too, but just can't bring myself to give them money.  If they didn't cease and desist all of us, NR2003 would probably still be going.  We had a lot more than oval engines going for it.  We were cranking out some killer revisions to the original .exe before we got shutdown.  I loved that game.  The way they went about the whole deal with iRacing buying out the Sierra rights and coming after us just soured me way too much.  I went from running in about 5 leagues to quitting altogether. 

[TGov]

Haha, well mostly iRacing anymore (don't judge me!).     I was big into the Papy stuff and then got tired of oval racing and moved to rFactor from about 2006-2011.  Then switched over to iRacing as it has come a long way and feels the best to me right now and runs really well.  I own an SCCA race car along with my brother and use it more for practice than anything now.  I stopped racing in leagues when I joined iR and just run pick up races now as that scratches the itch.   I still use rFactor some and LFS.  I have the beta for rFactor 2 but it is awful at this point, I hope they improve it.

Yeah, iRacing is a great sim thanks in part to Papy's original work too, but just can't bring myself to give them money.  If they didn't cease and desist all of us, NR2003 would probably still be going.  We had a lot more than oval engines going for it.  We were cranking out some killer revisions to the original .exe before we got shutdown.  I loved that game.  The way they went about the whole deal with iRacing buying out the Sierra rights and coming after us just soured me way too much.  I went from running in about 5 leagues to quitting altogether.

Ya I agree it sucks the way they went about it and I was pissed about it for a while.  I wasn't as involved in it though so the personal feelings weren't there.  I ran GTP for a while, great mod.

[mgb]

 I love your plans so far, the cpo artwork is perfect.
I love the way you tied the original moon patrol artwork into a modern control setup.
I like both v1 and v2 but to me v1 just seems better with the black below the moon patrol logo instead of the starfield.

I gotta say though, I'd love to see the xevious cabinet artwork. While Xevious is a great game, its not my favorite but I love its cabinet, one of the greatest cab designs ever.

Man that sim racing cab is sweeeet!! nicely done sir, nicely done indeed.

[TGov]

Thanks  

I agree, the Xevious artwork is incredible and I might do a mockup of it as well on the CP, same with Defender.  There is a good possibility I will change my mind before I get to actually putting the graphics on the cab.  I might save Xevious though for if I ever make a vertical monitor orientation cab for shmups.   I was never a huge Xevious fan either, but it had the best artwork.  Zaxxxon was pretty sweet as well, but it is hard to find artwork for it.  I have seen a couple of places were a Spanish guy was working on it, but I haven't found any high res versions  of it.

[mgb]

Agreed,
an xevious themed vertical shmup cab would be awesome

[TGov]

Here is another stab at the CP.  I toned down the color variation some as when I put the CP image on my 3D model, the CP just overpowered the rest of the cab and looked too busy.  So, I tried to tie in more color from the cabinet and took out the rainbow colors.  It looks better on the 3D model than the other one did.

[mgb]

I still prefer v1

[TGov]

I just can't seem to get past the rainbow of color and how it clashes with the cab.  It was a little too 'in your face' for my tastes, but it may grow on me, we will see.   Here are both (well v2 and v4, but close enough) on the incomplete 3D model in Sketchup.

[PL1]

I just can't seem to get past the rainbow of color and how it clashes with the cab.  It was a little too 'in your face' for my tastes, but it may grow on me, we will see.   Here are both (well v2 and v4, but close enough) on the incomplete 3D model in Sketchup.

White rings??  Yeah. . . . I'm not exactly diggin' it.

The original marquee worked with the original sideart and the rainbow CP works well with the marquee.  IMHO.

I think the visual conflict on this comes from the contrast between the limited palette and broad stencil outlines of the sideart and the much more detailed and colorful marquee and CP.

Maybe there is a way to strengthen the colors/details in the sideart so it "pops" more?

Crazy spitball idea: Rainbow lines from CP under the Williams logo?   


Scott

[Knievel]

LOVE the Moon Patrol mock-ups. 

[mgb]

I still say V1 but if its the rainbow rings that you dont like, I would say v3 over v4.
But it is your cabinet and if v4 is what you like than v4 is definitely the best because at the end of the day, it really isn't about what the rest of us like.
all 4 of them are very good

[TGov]

Oh I know, but I always appreciate the feedback and it pushes me to keep working on it instead of settling on the first thing I do.  That is how designs get better and 9 times out of 10 the end result is much better for it.

[mgb]

Most definitely agreed.

[TGov]

Well, this project may get put on hold for a bit, we will see.  I found an early Nintendo cabinet on Craigslist yesterday and have made a commitment to purchase it.  It looks to be a DKjr or DK3 cab that was converted to a horizontal layout.  It was then converted into another non-Nintendo game at some point, but from looking at it that is my guess.  I haven't seen it in person, but from the pictures it looks to be in excellent shape. 

If it does pan out (you never know with Craigslist), I plan on converting it back to a DK cab and making a MAME cab out of it for vertically oriented games.  Then I will go ahead with this cabinet so I have a cab for vertical and horizontal.

I have always wanted a DKjr cab and this was too good to pass up for the condition it appears to be in.

[mgb]

cool. go for it. let us know how it goes.

[TGov]

I talked with the guy today and he is going to deliver it tomorrow if it doesn't rain. (stupid Isaac) But, it looks like rain in the forcast.  I might have to make the trek to pick it up on Sunday or Monday if i can get somebody to loan me their van.

[TGov]

Well the cabinet arrived today amidst the rain from Isaac.  I am very pleased in the cabinet on first inspection.  I only had about 10 minutes to inspect it before I had to head out for our family fantasy football draft.  It is indeed a Nintendo cab.  It has plywood sides and they are in great shape.  They do however have two coats of black latex paint on them......yuk  I did scrape a bit of paint off and a pretty baby blue was underneath.   I know it used to be a VS. Golf machine from a label in the cab, but it has had the monitor converted from vertical to horizontal at some point so I guess it could had begun its life as a Donkey Kong machine.  Time will tell.  The monitor is nice and bright and doesn't have any burn in.  I forgot to look at the monitor model befor I left. 

Overall I am happy with it for the price and I think it will make a good cab to turn into a DK or DKjr.

I will post some pics when I get home since I can't post them from my iPad.

[TGov]

Ok here are the pictures.  As you can see, somebody converted it at one point to a WWF Superstars cab.  The game runs great and looks good.  The jamma board is really clean and the inside is actually pretty clean.  There are some adapters and things that I know nothing about, so it looks like I have a bit of research ahead of me.  I know I will have to do A LOT of reading up on the monitor and how to rotate it and also how to discharge it.  I am excited though and I am really glad the monitor is in such good shape.

The Model # is: MGS-UP-US
The Serial # is: 10931 PAK

I can read the other plate there for the serial and model and I am not sure what it is for. Anybody can help there?  I am also going to be starting a new thread regarding this cabinet as it is going to take priority over the scratch build for now.

Thanks for lookin'

[TGov]

Well, while I am waiting for parts to arrive for my Donkey Kong cabinet, I have been tinkering with this design.  I have found a great condition Sony Trinitron 24" Flat Screen CRT for a few bucks and I think I will use it in this build instead of the Basketball flatscreen.  I have moved some stuff around in my office and having a full size cab is a reality now.  The TV has component inputs and I plan on using Soft15hz and Powerstrip with it.   After seeing the awesome "Echo Base" cab based on a Williams Cabinet by DrChek (not sure if that is spelled right), I decided I liked that design quite a bit and it was big enough to accomodate the 24" CRT.   So back to the drawing board.  I would still like a bit more room on the CP to fit everything in there so I extended the CP outwards a bit.  10" deep to be exact.  It looks a bit weird, but I think it will work pretty well and won't feel as crammed as the normal Williams CP size with all of the buttons and trackball.  Below is a preliminary rendering in Sketchup, only about half complete. 

I went to a classic arcade the other night and played Moon Patrol and Joust for quite a while and decided that I liked the elevated position of the Williams CP and I think this will allow for more comfortable gaming sessions   The buggy graphic on the bottom of the front panel would be cut gloss black vinyl put over the top of the black laminate.   It won't pop out, but will provide a nice effect I think, and it will also fill the space down there nicely as I don't plan on putting a coinbox in this one.

[Woodshop Flunky]

I really like the new style on this cab. 

[TGov]

Thanks

Here is a mockup of the CP in this format.  It is a 'little' closer to the original look.  A bit more crowded than the other one.

[PL1]

Art looks really good so far.   

Three questions on the CPO:

1. What is the black circle on the right, a spinner?

2. Why is the Exit button between the P1 Start and P1 Coin?  Seems like you could easily hit it by accident.

3. Will there be a P2 Coin button?


Scott

[TGov]

Art looks really good so far.   

Three questions on the CPO:

1. What is the black circle on the right, a spinner?

2. Why is the Exit button between the P1 Start and P1 Coin?  Seems like you could easily hit it by accident.

3. Will there be a P2 Coin button?


Scott

Thanks,

1. Yes, that is a spinner

2. I haven't really thought all of that through yet, I was just sticking labels on things.  You are right they do need to be separate some how.

3. I forgot to add it, it will be next to the P2 button.

[mgb]

Looks awesome,

- will the cp be rounded in the front, in the mock up it looks like it have somewhat of a champher. I think it will look perfect being rounded.
- One way to save a little room on the cp is to forget about coin insert buttons on the cp and install a coin door and put switches behind the coin rejects so that you press the reject for credits.

[TGov]

Yes it will be rounded.  I am actually in the process of making that rounded right now on the mockup, but Sketchup is being a ---smurfette---.  I want to avoid a coin door on this build for two reasons.  I have an idea for the front panel and also to save cost.  The coin buttons really aren't in the way, it is the two player areas along with the trackball that is a bit crowded, but it may be ok once I get it laid out for real.   

[KeithPuetz]

I just can't seem to get past the rainbow of color and how it clashes with the cab.  It was a little too 'in your face' for my tastes, but it may grow on me, we will see.   Here are both (well v2 and v4, but close enough) on the incomplete 3D model in Sketchup.

Whats throwing everything off is the Red "Moon Patrol" on the marquee and the CP.
Turn that red text into yellow like it is on the side art and it will no longer clash at all.
Also, one big thing I will mention is the front should not be black in my opinion, it should be baby blue.

[TGov]

Well the marquee is the original marquee so I don't want to change that, same goes for the black front.  I know this is a scratch build, but I would like to keep it as close to original as possible.

[mgb]

I just noticed the moon patrol vehicle on the lower front panel.
excellent!!

[TGov]

Well, my brother and I have been playing around with that.  He has a CNC router and we were thinking that routing it out of the wood panel with the black laminate on top would look pretty sweet.  Then paint the inside routed out part a different shade of dark gray or black. 

Here is a sample on a laminated scrap board he had.

[griffindodd]

That's awesome, how large is that?

[TGov]

I think he said it is about 13" across.  He can do bigger, but was just doing a test cut.

[SSCR]

Looks great, I was really hoping you were going to make this a skinny cab with an LCD, but this looks great also.