Centipede mame thing

[Radical]

This is my first cabinet.  I built it from scratch over the last week or so.  It's probably obvious that I'm still a ways from done.  Sorry I don't have any pictures from the early construction phases.   I was in a hurry because I only have a few days between contracts (I'm a freelance programmer and consultant).

The Centipede cabinet design is one of my all time favorites so that's why I went with it.  I used Jakobud's Centipede CAD drawing for the dimensions.  I think those dimensions were collected by Carsten Carlos.  Anyway, it's nearly all original Centipede dimensions except it is 2" wider so the TV will fit.  It also has a shelf for the TV rather than the normal front mounting stuff.

I don't like frankenpanels so I opted for swappable control panels.  I used cabinet latches to make it easy to pop in and out.  At some point I'll take some pictures of how this works.  I still need to design and print up some nice panel overlays.

For the insides I used standard stuff from OSCAR, Ultimarc, and Happ.   I-PAC, Opti-PAC, J-Stik's, Happ coin door.   I have a Vortex spinner and 3" Happ trackball that will be on their own panels.   I haven't decided if I want the player start buttons on the control panels or on the cabinet.   I'm still looking for cheap Atari "volcano" start buttons.

The computer is an old Celeron 300A running at 450 Mhz.  TV-out is via Radeon 7500.

The monitor is a 24" S-Video TV that I got just for this project.  I went with a 24" TV because I figured the vertical height would be close to what a 19" vertically mounted arcade monitor would be but I can still play horizontal games.  Anyone know the actual screen dimensions of a 19" arcade monitor?


I widened and stretched the marquee before printing on wide format thick photo paper (seamless).  I'm very happy with the quality as I used HP's 8-ink 7960.  It's sandwiched between 1/16" plexiglass in front and thin diffusing sign plastic in back.  The retainer is just 1/2" aluminum angle painted black.  It looks really nice when lit from behind but I haven't installed a light yet.  Carsten provided the high-res graphic (big thanks!).


The bezel is a hacked up version of Justin's vectorized Centipede bezel (thanks!).  I had to change it to fit my dimensions.  I printed it on an almost plastic-like photo paper and mounted it to foam-board.  Everything is behind an 1/8" thick sheet of clear plexiglass.

The whole cabinet is painted.  I think I would use laminate next time... I won't mention how many times I've had to touch up that black paint... Of course working with it before it's dry is always a problem.  

I think I'd like to put up a web page describing everything in more detail.



Edit:  Justin's bezel

[Apollo]

Groovy, I love that cab shape it's a real arcade feel. Well done.

[Zeitgeist]

Great Job!

[Justin]

Outstanding!   Looks very clean -- indeed, Centipede cabinet shape is a classic; great choice  

Just for the record, you can fit a 24" screen on an original Centipede cabinet.   I did it!   What TV did you use, exactly?

I can't believe someone else  actualy got the bezel printed and mounted before me       I gave up after trying a few places, and being very unsatisfied with the quality.  Ugh!  
Could you please (pretty please?) tell me where you printed yours bezel, what printer was used, and on what paper/material?  Also, how do you rate the qualirty of the printout, from a scale of 1-10.  I'd appreciate as much detail as possible here!

Also, is the marquee artwork available for download?  (was this vector art?)
-Justin

[DAmnb]

Very, very nice job there!
The centiped does have a great look to it  

[Carsten Carlos]

Looks great - love it!

The marquee-colors look really good - I had to print it twice to get it as good as yours.

@Justin

I'm gonna print the bezel today - took me some time to make the adjustments for my monitorsize

[Radical]

Thanks for the kind words!

Just for the record, you can fit a 24" screen on an original Centipede cabinet.   I did it!   What TV did you use, exactly?

Yeah, most 24" TV's will fit a normal Centipede cab, even with the case on.  However, I used a cheap KLH TV (looks the same as an Apex; might be the same) that has speakers on each side.  It's 26" wide and I didn't want to take time decasing it and making a front mounting piece.   It's not the greatest TV because it doesn't even remember which video input was active when it was turned off.   It was only $115 at Best-Buy (floor model) and has S-Video input though.

Could you please (pretty please?) tell me where you printed yours bezel, what printer was used, and on what paper/material?  Also, how do you rate the qualirty of the printout, from a scale of 1-10.  I'd appreciate as much detail as possible here!

I used my trusty HP 7960 and printed it on Epson photo paper (this stuff) at 600 DPI.  That paper is coated on both sides and feels like plastic.  The quality is superb.   I just cut the roll to the lengths I needed for each edge of the bezel.  However, I do have seams in the bezel.   The bottom seams are all but invisible due to the black but the top ones are visible.   Some day I'll go back and change the bezel so it has a black area similar what's on the bottom so there won't be any visible seams.

Also, is the marquee artwork available for download?  (was this vector art?)

The marquee was a 300 dpi scan.  Again, I used my HP 7960 and a wide format Epson paper that I cut to size (this stuff).  You'll have to ask Carsten about it.

The marquee would be a good thing to vectorize.   I started to do it but Sodipodi kept crashing with my Wacom tablet so I stopped for now.

[Radical]

A little update to my project:

The spinner (Tempest) control panel


... and the trackball panel.  Everything is flush mount except the carriage bolts.   It's layed out like Centipede but I added some buttons for Missle Command and other games.


I also added buttons to the sides for pinball.   I placed them such that I can rest my hands on the edges while playing.

I still need to create the control panel overlays.   I ran out of buttons so I'm waiting for parts.

[pathdoc2]

Looking really really nice.  Great work.

[Justin]

@Justin

I'm gonna print the bezel today - took me some time to make the adjustments for my monitorsize

Hey Carsten,

Can you tell us how your bezel print-out looks?  Where did you get it printed, what printer used, what paper, etc.

[Carsten Carlos]

As soon as I've the print at home, I'll post some pictures here!
Had to change the colors, they came out very dull on my printing - but know I think they are really good.

Maybe I get it done tomorrow - still have to make the cutout in the middle.