Turnarcades' UK Arcade Revival Cabinet - Pac-Manic-Miner-Man

[Turnarcades]

It's been a while since posting a new thread here at BYOAC as Turnrcades has now reached a level of production that means little time for personal networking, but to show our fellow BYOACers who've been following us since we began back in 2004 and helped us out with many technical issues and opinions over the years, I wanted to announce our latest project build that has special significance in our grander plans for the arcade scene here in the UK - a special custom dedicated cabinet for Jim Bagley’s Pac-Manic-Miner-Man; a reverse Spectrum-Arcade port of the classic and much loved Manic Miner onto original Midway Pac-Man hardware.

This machine is first in a line of collaborative projects Turnarcades will be working on in an effort to resurrect the arcade roots of all retro and modern gaming by creating proper ‘New Old Arcade’ machines with proper arcade game play that never existed and deserve to now be created with modern materials as our gift back to the retro community who deeply miss the arcade scene and want some ‘new retro’ to get excited about!

This game was reverse-ported by Ocean legend Jim Bagley (famed for his excellent arcade-home computer ports during the 80′s and 90′s) from the ZX Spectrum onto the original Midway Pac-Man PCB hardware as a personal challenge a few months back, and has been accomplished well.

As friends of Jim’s with very similar ideas on retro gaming and it’s arcade roots, we at Turnarcades decided to give a proper homage to the game and create a dedicated machine specifically for it so it could be played properly using quality arcade controls in a machine that gives a game borne out of the gameplay style of the arcade era a befitting home for the way this style of game was meant to be played.

The cabinet has a classic look and feel with a deep-set cabaret style monitor layout in vertical orientation, plus curved lines, a single player, ambidextrous control layout and artwork style very typical of proper classic arcade machines, but has been built in a modern space saving Bar-Top style in a unique shape to house the original PCB connected with modern hardware such as energy-efficient and silent power supply, marquee light and stereo speakers, 19″ LCD monitor and high-quality Sanwa, Happ and IL controls.

To finish it off, the machine gives a nod to the various influences and people involved in it’s creation with a Pac-Man style control panel layout with bezel, joystick and T-moulding colours as reminders, side artwork and custom marquee and control panel artwork reworked from cassette cover art and in-game sprites of the original Spectrum Manic Miner game, the game itself obviously reworked by Jim and branded with his and his wife’s joint company logo Pixel Pyro, plus of course our basis for the project acknowledged through artwork branding, our familiar cabinet construction style and of course our trademark business colours of black blue and yellow throughout the control layout and cabinet colour scheme.This machine will be unveiled for first gameplay at Play Expo 2012 and it’s reception gauged as a basis for whether we will produce a limited run of these machines for arcade collectors as the first ‘New Retro’ arcade machine produced for the best part of 20 years.

If successful, Turnarcades will be working closely with Jim Bagley as a true icon of the age as well as some other independant developers on several more arcade projects that show our commitment to the retro scene, cabinet building (proving we are not just about emulation) and our ultimate premise of reviving in some way a scene we all have to thank for our gaming roots.Big thanks to everyone involved in the production of this cabinet: Jim Bagley for the reverse port, Matthew Smith for writing the original Manic Miner, Colin Davies for the hardware and rom programming work, Max Hall for providing quality artwork scans, Jim’s game art designer Pab for the custom artwork creation, Scott Prior for the consistent quality artwork printing, my family and friends for their support in helping me reach this point with Turnarcades and of course Bobby and the Turnarcades team for the excellent work in producing the cabinet.





Facebook and amateur media interest is already very high and some pieces will be written about the machine in the gaming press soon, and I'd love to hear any comments fellow BYOACers have!

[CheffoJeffo]

Looks great!

 

[mgb]

Very nice looking.

[wp34]

I like the form-factor.  It is a little beefier than most bar-tops. 

I like what you did with the buttons as well.

 

[Turnarcades]

Thanks for the comments guys. I know Spectrum was not as popular in the US as it was over here, but this has been getting some widespread attention in the UK at least. There are several other ports in the works, as well as a very special 'lost' game that is being completed exclusively for us! When these are done, you can be sure they'll get their own dedicated cabinet too!

[LeedsFan]

Looking forward to playing this at the weekend at Play-Expo   

[Le Chuck]

I like the CP and the unique profile.  I would have liked to see some three color stencil art a bit more reminiscent of the partial namesake.  Current side art is nice but feels somewhat out of place with the overall vibe. 

[EightBySix]

I'm wondering to what extent manic miner made it big over the pond. The side art made me smile as it reminds me of the box art of the game.

[agent_c]

I've been at play expo both days had a good luck at the machine, but no chance to play it ;( It's bigger than I thought, well done on the overall design.

[LeedsFan]

I had a chance to play this at the weekend. Only for a short period, but it was a good experience. The machine is much bigger than I imagined from seeing the pics in this thread. Then again the size of the boards attached to the inside of the back door kinda dictate that. 

The controls are excellent and arcade quality. I think the joystick was a J-Stick (I could be wrong there, but it felt like one). The artwork is lovely in my opinion. Very retro and the fusion between PacMan and Manic Miner is very well done.

There was a little bit of blitter on the screen but Craig knew full well what was the cause and it will be rectified. This is a prototype remember and the finish of any further cabs will be better than this one.

I think it's great that people are attempting knew stuff in the retro scene. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but it's to be applauded that the retro scene is seeing new projects like this come to fruition.   

[ark_ader]

Looks familiar.

[agent_c]

I never got to see inside it, I did ask some questions of it, but it was out of action when I asked so even though I saw how big it was I never saw the inside!

Shame I never knew you were there Leeds fan, I was one of the play expo volenteers and was sending younger kids to play on your mini starwars machine as due to there size they had trouble on any of the arcade machines, yours was to quote one young lad "not too big, not too small, bedroom size..mum......"
would have loved to say hi as I read most of your posts before my bartop build.