Introducing Arcade Safari!

[eds1275]

...my niece found out about the Lime Aid arcade machine (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,113905.0.html)I made with my nephews (different mother, same brother of mine... classy.) She wanted her own. She also wanted to out-do ole' Limey. So, with Lime Aid being one groovy game gear coin drop button away from being completed, I figured now was the time to plan and build hers.

Another mini size. Will be able to cut it out of one 4x8 sheet.
Neon pink and black were the colours she chose.
Trackball... I am trying to find an affordable 1 1/2 ball preferably with a small mounting plate. Looking at some of the ones mentioned in the thread I started about that topic in the main forum.
2 ball top joysticks, 4 buttons each, 2 player. She has a little sister whom I have sort of adopted as my other niece even though she isn't blood. So I said it has to be 2 player, and she has to share 

Again I'll be building the coin door out of an access panel from the hardware store. They are only $20 and then drop in a few buttons they look great.

The hardest thing I did was planned the mofo. I kept the shape close to Lime Aid but made the marquee bigger and changed the depth from 24" to 22" - still 48 inches tall. THERE WILL BE BOLTS, I don't want to hear any complaining about the bolts. They will be hidden as best as I can. 4 per side, 2 across the top and 2 across the bottom. Why? Well I am going to be using black melamine coated particle board, the stuff they sell to make kitchen cabinets out of. This means I will have to flush trim everything and make templates. I'm going to biscuit join the whole thing but just to be sure the base will be 2x4 for extra sturdiness and the marquee area will be half 2x4 just to help hold it together. It's going to be heavy and don't want it coming apart in the move (she lives quite far from me, and I live on an island...)

I chose black melamine because it's already finished, provided I don't chip it up while cutting. Then I can draw on the art and spray paint on the pink. I will be using Mala as the front end again since I know it inside and out and it works.

Without further ado, here are some renders I sketchup'd!

#1 initial idea.


#2 Added side art


#3 Added trackball and swapped around the art orientation and density


#4 Added another circle on the control panel for symmetry


#5 Added a curve on the front of the control panel


#6

[eds1275]

It is very possible (downright unlikely!) that I won't be able to sneak the trackball in that close. But I will do what I can to make it both look like a paw and be playable. I think normal games will be ok to play with your palm resting on the trackball, and it should be easy enough to use a trackball of that size without catching on the other controls. No supermanning golden tee!!! I will have to go in and adjust the sensitivity of the ball to make the games playable. We have started making the router guide using a sheet of MDF I had laying around...

[Acids]

It is very possible (downright unlikely!) that I won't be able to sneak the trackball in that close. But I will do what I can to make it both look like a paw and be playable. I think normal games will be ok to play with your palm resting on the trackball, and it should be easy enough to use a trackball of that size without catching on the other controls. No supermanning golden tee!!! I will have to go in and adjust the sensitivity of the ball to make the games playable. We have started making the router guide using a sheet of MDF I had laying around...


I suspect you are going to be disappointed in hoe close the trackball can actually be ( unless you have unusual trackballs )
Also you might want to round any sharp corners otherwise t-molding wont sit correctly.

[eds1275]

There are no sharp corners on this thing! I am of course a little concerned with the trackball placement, but have done a few examples up in sketchup to check for distance using several sizes of mounting plate and nothing looks bad. Just no as good as I think this first design looks. I will accept that challenge when the time comes, the first step is getting started!

[Well Fed Games]

From the renders the control layout (trackball+buttons) look like paw prints to me. Either clever design or fortunate coincidence.  For being a cool uncle.

[eds1275]

Progress has been made. Today we cut pretty much the entire machine. Teaghan did all the measuring and I double-checked and laid blade to wood. It was epic. Things to note, since I was using melamine coated particleboard:

I templated everything. This particleboard chips easily, and I basically just traced the pattern on it, laid tape over my lines, cut near the line using a jigsaw, removed the tape, clamped the template to the particle board and flush trimmed. Time consuming? Yes. Worth it? Given the time it takes to sand paint sand paint etc etc to get results this good, then yes. Downside is that the edges are razor sharp.

We tried a paint sample today - it turned out amazing. I scuffed up the finish, primed with some auto primer, and then laid on the safety pink. It's a neon colour that goes crazy under blacklights. I've posted some camera photos below, mostly taken in the dark with flash (working the night shift right now so snapped some before I worked), but tomorrow will take some good ones.

It's 2 inches shallower than Lime Aid, and the marquee area is bigger but other than that the dimensions are identical.


A poorly lit sample of the colour. I'll try again tomorrow!


One happy niece with both sides cut out. She is freaking OBSESSED with arcade games now. Her favourites are ShuffleShot, Puzzle Bobble, and pretty much any beat'em'up. On the ground is a closer sample of what the pink really looks like.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

If you're interested, I have a pair of coin drop push buttons that I got from grooveygamegear. I got them for my cabinet but I ended up snagging an actual coin door. They're yours for the taking.

[BadMouth]

The button layout looking like a paw is brilliant, but I don't think you'll be able to have a trackball and buttons that close.
I'd still keep the black circle in the middle regardless.

[DaOld Man]

I like this build, except for the trackball placement. I agree with BadMouth about the placement.
But maybe it will work for you and you may start a new trend?
On A Little Rage, I thought about putting the trackball on a drawer that would slide out from underneath the control panel, but then I decided I would have to make the panel so deep (due to clearance for buttons and Joysticks), that it just wouldnt look right.
Good luck with your build, I love the mini cabs. Will be watching.

[eds1275]

Yeah, I did say it would be unlikely to get the trackball that close but making the second black circle in th esame place will help with the symmetry. If I don't end up finding one the right size perhaps I can just leave it out entirely and do the black circles.

[a1pharm]

Look at this trackball:  it may be perfect for you:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Heavy-duty-38mm-Console-Mount-Stand-Alone-Trackball-/390409794526?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Automation_Control_ET&hash=item5ae63cb3de

[sabreerbasAlpha]

1. Love that colour.
2. Love the Nintendo style panel.

Good luck with the build. The art work & colour will really be the making of this cab. Are you aiming to have the side art and cab colour the same type of pink ?. That's going to be hard to pull off if that's your aim. But ill be watching this with interest. 

[eds1275]

Thanks! Yes the same colour pink. I will stencil it on and spray paint it. Shouldn't be too hard to get a consistent colour.

There are some updates but no real pictures to go along with it. Most of the cabinet parts with the exception of the control panel are done (still working out my trackball dilemma.) It just needs to be assembled. And of course haven't ordered parts for it yet.

I did however come across a coin door and restored it - looks great. Black with silver coin chutes, I will try to post some photos tomorrow if I remember. It's smaller than my big one for the Spinal Tap cab. It will look great, I'm sure!

[mcseforsale]

Nothing wrong with seeing fasteners if they're awesome.  Spend some time in the specialty fastener section of you're local big-box.  You can find some cool looking bolts, etc...personally, I like cap-screws of all flavors.

Here's some rounded cap screws on my new bartop. 





AJ

Thanks! Yes the same colour pink. I will stencil it on and spray paint it. Shouldn't be too hard to get a consistent colour.

There are some updates but no real pictures to go along with it. Most of the cabinet parts with the exception of the control panel are done (still working out my trackball dilemma.) It just needs to be assembled. And of course haven't ordered parts for it yet.

I did however come across a coin door and restored it - looks great. Black with silver coin chutes, I will try to post some photos tomorrow if I remember. It's smaller than my big one for the Spinal Tap cab. It will look great, I'm sure!

[eds1275]

Well life got in the way as did renovating, as did work. Also, I live on an island and my niece only comes out to visit a quarter of the times we make plans for her to, because her mom is flaky.

The machine is still not assembled, but it is ready to be. I ordered the parts for this and another project a few weeks ago and they arrived today. Though I thought the price was a bit high, I didn't bother to look over my receipt. I still had parts in my groovy game gear cart, and ordered all the parts I needed for Lime Aid, the Lime Arcade again... oops. Looks like I need to plan another project. It will be a stand up racer like Gran Trak 2010 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,133163) since I already have a wheel, pedals, and other misc bits with a blue and yellow theme (since I have yellow t-molding.) But I have to wrap this up first of course.

I was eaten alive by the duty charges. Ouch.

I've got lots of gardening to do today but might cut/paint the control panel for this if I can find the time. Ideally, I'd like my niece to do a lot of the work, especially the soldering.

What we have done is refurbed a nintendo coin door, and painted the front of the machine and cut the hole in it. I have learned a limitation of the paint I am using, it goes on in layers but loses some of the awesome by getting darker with each pass. It's hard to get a consistent coat, so what I've ended up doing it spraying on 2 coats and then doing a third in zebra-like stripes. It's subtle but looks great.

[keilmillerjr]

Very cool! I like how the buttons look like a paw.

[Gatsu]

This is looking really cool so far. Hopefully she'll be able to come visit more often to help get it done.

[eds1275]

I got a little work done on that and my cocktail yesterday, hopefully more today. Maybe I can assemble the thing or paint the sides.

[eds1275]

Well, I'm under strict orders to not work on Arcade Safari until she is around to help. Little does she know she's going to be in another province all summer so I have one more weekend with her before then, and then I suppose I'll finish it on my own time.

I have been working on my little cocktail though. All the woodworking is done, the top is drying in the sun as I type. Here s what I have so far. Just need to connect everything to the keywiz and do the software stuff!

[eds1275]

My niece is out for a few weeks and so far we have been busy. All the art is done ad the machine is mostly built, just working on painting now then wiring it up later this week. Need to touch up a weird line sticking out of the safari man's back. I arranged the art and did some basic editing, but it is all clipart from the internetz.









The only major hurdle I have is that the damn pink spraypaint is not consistent from can to can. Not a huge deal, but I'm not happy about it.

[Le Chuck]

Love the sides and the fact that it was a tape job. Well done!

[eds1275]

It's almost all done cosmetically now. Just need to mount the screen and speakers today, and the computer inside. Then it's dumping a few blu-rays worth of data on it. When the files are there, I will be doing to software stuff for that, the little cocktail machine, and the smurfs all at the same time.

We didn't ever find a trackball small enough

[johnrt]

That was a nice CP. I love the pawprint button arrangement! Good job! 

[SavannahLion]

The only major hurdle I have is that the damn pink spraypaint is not consistent from can to can. Not a huge deal, but I'm not happy about it.

Does canned spray paint have lot numbers? You might have pulled more than one lot number there?

[eds1275]

I dunno what happened with the paint... but I'm not going back to fix it!!!

[emphatic]

I love that control panel, very cute!

[eds1275]

forgot to take good pics of it, but it's done and delivered. Here are some teenagers playing michael jacksons mooonwalker.

[jugger18]

Did you end up scrapping the trackballs?

[eds1275]

Yeah, I couldn't find one with a small enough footprint. Maybe next time!