A Pin head does a Fix It Felix Jr. Build

[alteredgrafix]

Hi all! I thought instead of dragging out my build over several weeks I would do one big post with all of my details at the end of the build. Please feel free to ask questions! I had a lot of fun building this cabinet and would do it again in a heartbeat if my wife would let me. This has been a lot easier than working on my World Cup 94 Pinball machine that is for sure!

In the Beginning:
So a few weeks ago TwistedSistem came over to my house with an idea to build a Fix It Felix Jr. cabinet and he needed my design skills to mock up a control panel. I told him that I would do it under one condition: "I get to use your research and build one, too!" So under this pact I began to work on the control panel artwork. I gave the finished Photoshop file over to Twisted and he contacted RidicRick to get the art printed (By the way, RidicRick did an amazing job on the Felix artwork recreation that allowed me to make the control panel graphics. Cannot thank him enough!)


The Build Starts:
After some sourcing of wood, tools, and parts I ran to Lowes with Twisted. Lucky enough for me Twisted had a DKjr. that we could lay on its side and trace.


After the trace was finished we took the MDF back to my house for the jigsawing and routing of the side panels



This process was fairly smooth, time consuming, but smooth. At this point Twisted and I finished for the day.

The next day I cut all of my plywood for the top, back, bottom, and front pieces using the DK plans on jakobud.com's site.
That night I was too excited to sleep, so I decided to start putting things together. (my wife was on in week long meeting in Florida so I had tons of free time on my hands at night. Just had to have the house cleaned when she got back home).


A few days go by and I couldn't rest, fueled by caffeine and my daughters asking "Daddy, when can we play the Wreck It Ralph game," I continued in the quest to finish my build.

I cut in the slots for the speaker and sourced out the Donkey Kong paint color from Neilyboy's build.

After a trip to lowes for the paint. I asked my 5 year old if she wanted to help paint the Felix and I heard nothing but squeals for the next hour.

Now we are to the second weekend of my build. (sorry it's all a blur at this point)
The cabinet is painted I have the monitor in place and my parts are rolling in. I bought the bezel and marquee brackets, the control panel bolts, and T-mold from Mikes and QuarterArcade. The Ultramark joysticks and iPac came in and all of my buttons came it from groovygamegear. I splurged for a Coin Door from an old VS. machine and grabbed the speaker from that machine as well. I have the speaker hooked up to a mini amplifier from PartsExpress.


In my down time I worked on the MaLa interfaces and grabbed every Rom, I could get my hands on.


Twisted came over to help me move everything into my basement and he brought a surprise for me . The tinted Plexiglass and all of the art from RidicRick. Of course I could not leave it alone that night. I stayed up and put all of the art on with my wife's help.



I let a few days pass (had to pay the bills and design a website).

FREE TIME AGAIN!
It was time to build the control panel. I started by borrowing a step drill bit from another neighbor that is an electrician. Marked the the spots to drill in the buttons and went to town. At this point I realized that you can really screw up plexiglass by pushing to hard with the drill. Time to start over! this time I had success!

Let the wiring process begin!

If you do not have a pair for Klien's, I highly recommend you get a pair before doing any real wiring projects!

So here is the final cabinet up and running! I've been so busy with the build that I have not had a chance to source a Fix It Felix Jr. Rom so I have DKJr. up on the screen. I did modify my windows start up to show the Fixit Felix Jr. Insert Coin Screen though.


 

[z-kun]

That's awesome. I love the Game Central Station theme. It's interesting to see a two-player build.

[alteredgrafix]

Thanks, I just finished up with the MaLa vertical views today. My next project (when I have some more time and money) is to create a rotating screen to switch from horizontal to vertical and back.

[Maximus]

Looks great, well done!!

I have to admit since finishing my DK it's too tempting to have a Fix It Felix Jr. template staring at you from the corner beckoning you to to 'just go ahead and make it' 

[alteredgrafix]

One thing that I need to figure out, is connecting my Asahi Seiko coin mech to the iPac. Has anybody done this yet (he asks stupidly of course someone here has)? Are there any pointers and how to do get power to the coin accepters to light them up?

[JTregler]

Nicely done! 

[mgb]

very nicely done.
how are you liking the servo sticks?

[alteredgrafix]

very nicely done.
how are you liking the servo sticks?

I love them! I would recommend them to anyone!

[mgb]

Great.
 I gotta get one of those sticks and check it out.

[Mr Wilson]

very cool,nice straight forward build and pics with everything i want to see 

[jay_red]

This is awesome, just what I was thinking of doing with my MAME cabinet. It was a Donkey Kong cab that I picked up completely gutted. My Wife loves Wreck it Ralph, and wants me to "convert" the cab into a Fix it Felix just like this, you even have the control panel like mine (well pretty close I imagine) Would it be possible to get the art work file for the control panel from you?

[shonie115]

Hi all! I thought instead of dragging out my build over several weeks I would do one big post with all of my details at the end of the build. Please feel free to ask questions! I had a lot of fun building this cabinet and would do it again in a heartbeat if my wife would let me. This has been a lot easier than working on my World Cup 94 Pinball machine that is for sure!

In the Beginning:
So a few weeks ago TwistedSistem came over to my house with an idea to build a Fix It Felix Jr. cabinet and he needed my design skills to mock up a control panel. I told him that I would do it under one condition: "I get to use your research and build one, too!" So under this pact I began to work on the control panel artwork. I gave the finished Photoshop file over to Twisted and he contacted RidicRick to get the art printed (By the way, RidicRick did an amazing job on the Felix artwork recreation that allowed me to make the control panel graphics. Cannot thank him enough!)


The Build Starts:
After some sourcing of wood, tools, and parts I ran to Lowes with Twisted. Lucky enough for me Twisted had a DKjr. that we could lay on its side and trace.


After the trace was finished we took the MDF back to my house for the jigsawing and routing of the side panels



This process was fairly smooth, time consuming, but smooth. At this point Twisted and I finished for the day.

The next day I cut all of my plywood for the top, back, bottom, and front pieces using the DK plans on jakobud.com's site.
That night I was too excited to sleep, so I decided to start putting things together. (my wife was on in week long meeting in Florida so I had tons of free time on my hands at night. Just had to have the house cleaned when she got back home).


A few days go by and I couldn't rest, fueled by caffeine and my daughters asking "Daddy, when can we play the Wreck It Ralph game," I continued in the quest to finish my build.

I cut in the slots for the speaker and sourced out the Donkey Kong paint color from Neilyboy's build.

After a trip to lowes for the paint. I asked my 5 year old if she wanted to help paint the Felix and I heard nothing but squeals for the next hour.

Now we are to the second weekend of my build. (sorry it's all a blur at this point)
The cabinet is painted I have the monitor in place and my parts are rolling in. I bought the bezel and marquee brackets, the control panel bolts, and T-mold from Mikes and QuarterArcade. The Ultramark joysticks and iPac came in and all of my buttons came it from groovygamegear. I splurged for a Coin Door from an old VS. machine and grabbed the speaker from that machine as well. I have the speaker hooked up to a mini amplifier from PartsExpress.


In my down time I worked on the MaLa interfaces and grabbed every Rom, I could get my hands on.


Twisted came over to help me move everything into my basement and he brought a surprise for me . The tinted Plexiglass and all of the art from RidicRick. Of course I could not leave it alone that night. I stayed up and put all of the art on with my wife's help.



I let a few days pass (had to pay the bills and design a website).

FREE TIME AGAIN!
It was time to build the control panel. I started by borrowing a step drill bit from another neighbor that is an electrician. Marked the the spots to drill in the buttons and went to town. At this point I realized that you can really screw up plexiglass by pushing to hard with the drill. Time to start over! this time I had success!

Let the wiring process begin!

If you do not have a pair for Klien's, I highly recommend you get a pair before doing any real wiring projects!

So here is the final cabinet up and running! I've been so busy with the build that I have not had a chance to source a Fix It Felix Jr. Rom so I have DKJr. up on the screen. I did modify my windows start up to show the Fixit Felix Jr. Insert Coin Screen though.


 

hey alteredgrafix, i was wondering if you would be willing to share you're control board art, I'm trying to do the exact thing you did and yours turned out so well lol

[talkgeek]

Fantastic build, love the look and envious of the timeframe you have been able to complete it in 

I have just finished procuring everything I need (bar white T-Molding and artwork) to get started on a Fix-It-Felix Jr cab build as well, and had been toying with a 2player CP vs single player

- but looking at your build I'm wondering if the screen (bezel) art interferes with the player views (especially if the game is 2 player)?

[Automark]

hey alteredgrafix, i was wondering if you would be willing to share you're control board art, I'm trying to do the exact thing you did and yours turned out so well lol

did u really have to quote his entire post?

[jdbailey1206]

Talkgeek - If you do build a FFJr cab I would recommend only making it a one player cab.  The original DK cab was only intended for one player.  The width of the cab is only two feet and you not only lose space with a 6,6 setup but you also lose screen space since the monitor is sunk down into the cab.

Shonie - If Im not mistaken you can also get ahold of Ridicrick who did the original artwork.  His website is arcadeskin.com