Do real cabs have round speaker grilles?

[Minwah]

I am trying to justify using Happ round speaker grilles for my cab...I wanted to route slots but I think I will mess that up  

I can't actually remember seeing any 'real' cabs with anything other than either small drilled holes or routed slots with the speaker(s) behind...

Anyway, take a look at the pic - do you think these will look any good?

[SirPeale]

They'll look fine.

The reason for the routed holes is it's much more difficult to destroy a speaker when it's behind some wooden slats than it is when it's exposed for the world to see.  Damn vandals.

[menace]

My berzerk cab had a single speaker covered with a grill.  looked pretty good.

[Minwah]

They'll look fine.

The reason for the routed holes is it's much more difficult to destroy a speaker when it's behind some wooden slats than it is when it's exposed for the world to see.  Damn vandals.

I kinda figured that is probably the case...but I am trying to avoid doing things to my cab that wouldn't have been found in a real arcade cab.

Thanks for the replies, I guess menace has given me all that I needed to hear

[GamingGreg]

A friend of mine did the same thing with his MAME cabinet and it looks great.  Yours will too.  Mine are behind a metal mesh as that's what the existing cabinet had (it was a cabinet conversion).

[Santoro]

I've got almost the same grilles on my cab, maybe a little bigger. I love the way they look.  

As far as authenticity, they aren't vandal-proof, so I doubt they would be used in a retail environment.

I feel that as long as the controls, cabinet shape, and monitor are close to authentic, the cab will look and feel authentic to a casual observer.  That is what matters to me.

EDIT: Photo at http://ww2.santoro.com:8888/Mame/images/IMG_1392.JPG  The flash makes them seem very obtrusive, in real life, they blend into the black paint and are just noticeable enough.

[night]

mine -> http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=9292

they are flush with the surface, with grill material (was an aiwa shelf stereo) stretched over the front

[OSCAR]

Round grilles were not uncommon.  Some were mounted flush, others were surface mounted. Examples of a plain, surface mounted grilles would be the earlier Stern cabs like Scramble, Super Cobra, Berzerk, Frenzy, etc....

http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/images/F/cFrenzy.jpg
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=9447



Here's my original Williams round speaker grille flush with speaker board:






Car stereo speaker grilles installed on my MAME cabinet (these look a lot like the ones you have pictured):

[Cisco Kid]

Only problem I see ... look how close the grills are to the edges .... what are you going to do for a marquee retainer ... the Happs marquee retainer will interfere with the grills (other than shaving it down to nothing ... or cutting part of the grill circ. into the marquee)

[Minwah]

Thanks for all the replies - very helpful

I think part of the reason I was so concerned, is that they are more 'on show' than usual (inc. the cabs pictured).  I have based the cab on the Atari System 1 design - check the pic (kindof explains why it isn't a problem Cisco Kid...)