Idle fingers... STUN Runner re-theme

[Le Chuck]

A few months ago I decided that I wasn't going to finish the New Republic Flight Trainer.  It came down to the fact that I started that project with a friend and once that friend wasn't around to help out anymore I didn't feel like doing it.  I shelved it for a while, came back to it a few times, but really my heart wasn't in it - and if you're signing yourself up for hours and hours of one off fabricating, welding, fiberglassing, etc your heart oughta be in it.  It's still a cool idea but it isn't anything I feel like tackling on my own - maybe another time. 

I've cleaned out the garage of most of the paraphernalia and honestly feel so much better.  To capitalize on this life decision I've started another project, well, a few projects really but one that I'm ready to share now. 

I picked up a STUN Runner super cheap but it was super busted.  The boards work but the monitor was out and it had some significant water and moving damage.  All the feet and one wheel were torn off but it had good bones.  I thought it was in need of some love but decided that the world could do without a refurbed STUN Runner.  It will remain intact enough that if somebody wants to set it back someday they can but I'm not overly concerned with that. 


I forgot to take a before shot.  Oops.  The monitor housing wasn't in terrible shape but I had other plans so went ahead and pulled it.  The running boards were borked on all corners and were full of nails, spackle, bondo, glue, and god knows what else so I yanked'em.  The base plate/kick plate was all messed up so I pulled it as well.  Also, I straight up loathe the STUN Runner marquee housing so I ditched it.  Stupid looking box. 


One corner I was able to salvage with some bondo but the other was too far gone so I chunked it


Dropped in a replacement piece, kinda wish I had just done this on the running boards to save time but I'll be overall happier with having redone them I'm sure


Luckily I had four feet in ye ole box o'parts so I drilled out the busted plates and used a piece of MDF to sandwich in a T-nut and remount them.  It was either that or spend about $40 to have bolts welded to the plates as I never got around to buying my own welder - necessity is the mother of invention or something like that.


Snatched up a $20 sheet of particle board - I know most of you hate this stuff but if you can avoid dropping it on a corner it works pretty well and since the rest of the cab is made of it I figured I might as well.  Besides, I only dropped it once and had to rebuild one corner that won't show anyway (facepalm).  I made the monitor housing a bit taller to accommodate a different monitor.


This is the other side - for those that like to see both sides of things.  You can imagine the back right now.... sorry


So this is the monitor, it's a 25".  I took the 19" which was rain damaged and dead to my local coinop shop and dropped it off with the guy there as I didn't want to fiddle with it and came home with a hardly used 25" in exchange.  Turns out the mount on that 19" was worth about as much as the whole 25" so winner winner chicken dinner.  I tried to make the housing as small as possible, I think I got pretty close - not bad at least. 

I've redone the back door and a few other panels that don't show, as for the kick plate I'm thinking about using that as a marquee area or making something like big space ship thrusters on it.  Haven't decided.  Am open to recommendations.  Plastics had the usual assortment of cig burns but weren't cracked.  I sanded those back, glazed the burns, and will be repainting soon.  I'm thinking white.  White would be pretty slick.  Convince me otherwise. 

Theme is "Starfighter".

Thanks for looking!

[wp34]

This is real interesting.  Are you going with a yoke controller?  What games will it play?

[talkgeek]

I'm hooked - subscribed! 

[Louis Tully]

.

[DaOld Man]

Looking real good LeChuck.

[TKW4rr10r]

Have to admit, feel a little silly needing to look up the original cabinet. Don't recall seeing a lot of the riding style runners out there. Nice find!

25" was an excellent call. Since staying with particle board on such a bulky build, I'd seriously consider any kind of wood hardeners for the corners once all the wood working is done.
Are you going with custom artwork or repro? Trying to picture your 'theme' with the white plastics but I'm liking the idea. Great work!

[jdbailey1206]

I really hope that the Jawas didn't come and get R2 in the process of your garage cleansing.

[Le Chuck]

Thanks guys, this one is kindofa beast size wise but I'm pretty excited about it

I really hope that the Jawas didn't come and get R2 in the process of your garage cleansing.

haha, NO.  R2 is safe and sound though he's getting a bit of work under the dome.  I'll be updating him separately once he's ready for prime time again.

Are you going with custom artwork or repro? Trying to picture your 'theme' with the white plastics but I'm liking the idea. Great work!

I haven't started the art (which is backwards for me - I always do art first then built to that) but I have a few ideas to use elements of the original art and retheme from that.  The engine art on STUN Runner was always a favorite but I hated the color scheme and a lot of the paneling in that art so I'm going to start from there and build up.  Once I get something on the screen I'll post it up.  I expect this cab to be playable soon - the art will be the last thing to go on it - should be fun to build around such an interestingly shaped canvas.

This is real interesting.  Are you going with a yoke controller?  What games will it play?

Yep, yoke is going back on it with *hopefully* a few special modifications I'm working on.  We'll see how it pans out.  If not no worries, it will still be a yoke nomatter what - maybe just not a yoke plus.  I'm looking to play mostly different forms of rail shooters on this as that's my favorite genre for the last few years.  Everything from Star Wars to Star Fox 

If you check out the SW Frontend Thread you'll get an idea of where this is headed. 

[TKW4rr10r]

Yoke "Plus" you say??



I'll bee keeping an eye on that while I work on the ROTJ cab.

[mcseforsale]

Waiting with pregnant anticipation.  Love this build so far.

subscribed.

AJ

[Generic Eric]

Waiting with pregnant anticipation.  Love this build so far.

subscribed.

AJ

The immaculate conception of the of the Jedis' Revenge. 

You have nine or less months.

[jdbailey1206]

Waiting with pregnant anticipation.  Love this build so far.

subscribed.

AJ

The immaculate conception of the of the Jedis' Revenge. 

You have nine or less months.

Dont say immaculate conception and Star Wars in the same sentence.  That leads to whiny little babies that want to rule the universe.

[Generic Eric]

Waiting with pregnant anticipation.  Love this build so far.

subscribed.

AJ

The immaculate conception of the of the Jedis' Revenge. 

You have nine or less months.

Dont say immaculate conception and Star Wars in the same sentence.  That leads to whiny little babies that want to rule the universe.

itsok.  That happened a long time ago.

[pbj]

Immaculate Conception = born without original sin

Virgin Birth = Darth Vader

[Le Chuck]

First coats of paint went on today. Will sand and recoat through the week to a nice finish. Using oil enamel as the weather was nice.

Couldn't not dry fit the plastics, quite a contrast right now 

[yotsuya]

First coats of paint went on today. Will sand and recoat through the week to a nice finish. Using oil enamel as the weather was nice.

Couldn't not dry fit the plastics, quite a contrast right now 

How firm is the seat? Is there padding there, or are you going to have sore nuts after hours of fun? 

[eds1275]

How firm is the seat? Is there padding there, or are you going to have sore nuts after hours of fun? 

There are so many jokes!

[Generic Eric]

You've got the coolest projects, Chuck. Sorry to hear about the Flight Trainer. It'll come back around.
 

Will we ever witness a fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL Flight Trainer?

[yotsuya]

You've got the coolest projects, Chuck. Sorry to hear about the Flight Trainer. It'll come back around.
 

Will we ever witness a fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL Flight Trainer?

Dude, he said in this thread probably not, and that he was moving on.

[jdbailey1206]

You've got the coolest projects, Chuck. Sorry to hear about the Flight Trainer. It'll come back around.
 

Will we ever witness a fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL Flight Trainer?

Dude, he said in this thread probably not, and that he was moving on.

Yeah but most of what Le Chuck makes for himself is Star Wars oriented.  He also called this build 'Starfighter' and said he was going to have 'everything' from Star Wars to Star Fox.'  I, personally, am waiting for his Scooby Doo cab if he ever posts anything on it.

[yotsuya]

He stated he has personal reasons for deciding to not finish the Flight Trainer. We should respect that and let him move on. 

[pbj]

Oh no, we can't allow that.  We need to speculate.  Divorce?  Jail?  Troll hissy fit?  I've got a long list of accusations we could dust off and let him borrow.   

Stun Runner is a weird game that I could never decide if I liked or not.  This should be an interesting project.

 

[Generic Eric]

I've been making scifi puns for weeks, I'm not looking to make a disturbance.

 

[yotsuya]

I've been making scifi puns for weeks, I'm not looking to make a disturbance.

 

I hear you, bro. 

[Generic Eric]

I've always thought that machine had a strong snowmobile vibe.  You should embrace that.  I also think you should relocate the coin door.  Perhaps conceal it on the dash using one of smaller coin mechs, such as the ones used on mega touch machines. 

You  have jet on the back.  It is too bad there is no throttle so that you could make something light up when you increased the speed.

\edit: a letter & a word

[jdbailey1206]

I've been making scifi puns for weeks, I'm not looking to make a disturbance.

 

No one here is forcing you to make a disturbance.

[yotsuya]

I've always thought that machine had a strong snowmobile vibe.  You should embrace that.  I also think you should relocate the coin door.  Perhaps conceal it on the dash using one of smaller coin mechs, such as the ones used on mega touch machines. 

You have have jet on the back.  It is to bad there is no throttle so that you could make something light up when you increased the speed.

Those are some good ideas. If anyone could Griff it up right, it's LeChuck. 

[Le Chuck]

Quoted from the NRFT Thread to tie it all together.

In the past on this thread I've mentioned "crew" a few times.  My crew mate was Brent Nevels.  I bring this up now because Brent passed away this week due to complications related to pneumonia and a congenital heart valve defect.  He and I also coached our kids' baseball team together with another mate.  Brent was 27 years old, younger than I.  I've lost a lot of friends, mostly due to my line of work, but to lose one so young to disease always gives one pause.

I'll still be cranking away on this and I'll try to cover down on the technical aspects that Brent was helping out with, but I wanted to mention him because he was a part of this build for a while and will be missed.

Don't spend too much time in the shop guys.  There is a lot of life out there, go make sure you live it!   

I ended up doing a lot less cranking than I had told myself.  Decided it wasn't something I wanted to continue on just for the sake of doing it.  This shizzle is hobby, if you aren't loving every minute in the garage cobbling something together then you're cobbling on the wrong things.   

How firm is the seat? Is there padding there, or are you going to have sore nuts after hours of fun? 

Rock hard.  But over the years by nuts have taken quite a pounding... 

It is uncomfortable for long duration, there may be a custom padded bench seat in the future or there may be just a stadium pad thrown down for longer gaming sessions. 

I, personally, am waiting for his Scooby Doo cab if he ever posts anything on it.

It's in the queue, my kiddo keeps harping on it so it's not going away.  I've just been able to distract him with this build temporarily   

You have have jet on the back.  It is to bad there is no throttle so that you could make something light up when you increased the speed.

It does have a snowmobile vibe for sure.  What I do have en lieu of a throttle is a y-axis pot that I can tie into directly...

We shall see.  I don't think this is getting the full "griff treatement" but I'll try and include some nice touches 

[yotsuya]

Rock hard.  But over the years by nuts have taken quite a pounding... 

[Le Chuck]

Plastics and cabs have been sanded and repainted a few times now.  Last coat is drying. 

Installed the coin and start buttons on the CP plastic and mounted the speaker.  Realized I'll have to pull it all off when the t-molding arrives.  Doi. 

Also remounted the running boards' tread and metals.  Pulled the computer that's going in it but didn't install it yet so it's in a pile in the monitor housing. 

Made some good progress on the yoke+,  I'm adding a pushbutton to the left handle thumbpad area and an analog thumbstick to the right one.  That will allow me to play additional axis games like "Starfighter" and even games like Geometry Wars.  The thumbstick is a push button model and all the other inputs are being wired separately so in total I'll have 2 full analog axes and six digital inputs.  That should open up some space sims for this build, like that new Wings of St. Lazaire and the like.  I will try and have that completed this week, there's one aesthetic part I want but don't know if I'll be able to find one.  Yes I'm being unnecessarily cryptic but that's because I don't know what to call it.  It's to go between the thumbstick and the handle, kind of like the rubber gasket on the bottom of a floor model shifter on an old truck.  That black ruffly thing.  I need a tiny black ruffly thingy. 

<edit> Neoprene boot!  I need a wee neoprene boot, about 3/4" base and 3/8" high.  I've found some but they're all from those stores that want you to buy 10000 and don't list prices 

Once T-Molding arrives I'll get the monitor and PC mounted and get some fresh pics posted. 

Last thing - and I doubt most people made it this far in a post without pics but - what should I do with the coin door?  Keep it black so it kind of blends in?  Go silver with it?  White?  A combination thereof?  I'm kinda tired of plain coin doors.  I thought about filling in the area and leaving it out entirely but it seemed a waste to board it off. 

[yotsuya]

Coin door? Black, chrome, or GTFO. 

[mcseforsale]

Yeah!  Pics or it didn't happen!

AJ

[yotsuya]

Last thing - and I doubt most people made it this far in a post without pics but - what should I do with the coin door?  Keep it black so it kind of blends in?  Go silver with it?  White?  A combination thereof?  I'm kinda tired of plain coin doors.  I thought about filling in the area and leaving it out entirely but it seemed a waste to board it off.

To clarify, I've never seen a non-standard black or chrome coin door that looked good. Maybe because it's such a standard part with a distractive look. A black and blue barber's pole wouldn't look good, either. Stick with black, try a silver/chrome, or go without. My $0.02. 

[talkgeek]

- what should I do with the coin door?  Keep it black so it kind of blends in?  .....

My vote - Keep it Black (no extra work) if it blends in

[Xiaou2]

You could add 2 analog center pivot foot pedals.   Which could be used for anything from driving games, to rudders,  to pretty much anything...

Using a foot controlled axis, separate from the hand controls,  can often give you an accuracy and response that hand controls alone cant compare with.

[PL1]

there's one aesthetic part I want but don't know if I'll be able to find one.  Yes I'm being unnecessarily cryptic but that's because I don't know what to call it.  It's to go between the thumbstick and the handle, kind of like the rubber gasket on the bottom of a floor model shifter on an old truck.  That black ruffly thing.  I need a tiny black ruffly thingy. 

<edit> Neoprene boot!  I need a wee neoprene boot, about 3/4" base and 3/8" high.  I've found some but they're all from those stores that want you to buy 10000 and don't list prices 

Plug "switch boot" into Amazon FTW.

   



Scott

[Le Chuck]

You could add 2 analog center pivot foot pedals.   Which could be used for anything from driving games, to rudders,  to pretty much anything...

Using a foot controlled axis, separate from the hand controls,  can often give you an accuracy and response that hand controls alone cant compare with.

Actually thought about this when I was rebuilding the sides, even did a test piece where the monitor box extended down to the running boards for a more enclosed look.  Seemed like a good way to integrate pedals but didn't like the look so I tanked it.  If I added pedals it would open up a lot of games but if I do that then I should add a shifter and if I do that... not to say I didn't consider the idea long and hard tho. 

Plug "switch boot" into Amazon FTW.

See, that's why Saint pays you the big bucks to take care of us 

Who is better than Scott? Nobody, that's who!

[jdbailey1206]

I'm pretty sure Scott was an algorithm birthed by the internet to go and do good deeds to those of us who need the help.  A virtual Jesus if you will.   
I would put in my two cents for the coin door but I can't make an educated decision without seeing how you are going to do the rest of the artwork. 

[Generic Eric]

I'm pretty sure Scott was an algorithm birthed by the internet to go and do good deeds to those of us who need the help.  A virtual Jesus if you will.   
I would put in my two cents for the coin door but I can't make an educated decision without seeing how you are going to do the rest of the artwork.

Scott is a great guy.  But he is no Thomas A. Anderson.

[Xiaou2]

Not sure if you are on the same page...

 But I meant more like the pedals on a Speeder Bike.  They are in the rear...

 (watch jedi scene)