Cab w/rotating CP with full side art completed - 2.5 months later! tons of pics

[soslo]

Well, I took a lot ideas from a lot of people during the creation of this
cab. Special thanks go out to Frosty, Tom Bombaci, and 1up...though many
other people helped with all sorts of problems that I ran into along the
way. My wife was very supportive. She gave up the living room, dining room
table, and garage for over 2 months without complaining once!

The finished product is an arcade machine that looks similar Frosty's (he
did all of the artwork for me). The control panel is 3-sided and rotates.
Standard issue controls. Probably the only notable feature is the dual
tornado spinners. I've seen everything else done before (dual Tron sticks,
glowing trackball, etc.)

My favorite part of the cab besides the CP is probably the monitor cover.
It is 1/4" amber smoked acrylic with a black bezel painted on from behind
(Krylon Fusion for plastics). When the monitor is off - the monitor cover
looks like a limo window. Turn the monitor on and the picture isn't
hindered much at all - good times.

The back of the cab has glowing LED fans (red/blue) to match the artwork -
and provide a nice colorful glow on the wall behind. Of course the coin
door lights up too. The coin door is a NOS Dragon's Lair from April of
1983. I got two of them in a box for $40 from a local collector. Great find
IMO.

Speakers are your standard $60 SB 2.1 60w setup with remote volume and
headphone controls. It sounds so crisp and the bass is perfect. Monitor is
a 21" cornerstone.

This cab took so much more time than I expected...in fact, it took close to
120 hours...not counting the dozens of internet hours asking/searching for
info. Total materials including artwork purchase and printing came to a
hair under $3,000! I didn't realize how much the small stuff would add up.
Please don't post arguing the price. I have a full build sheet with every
purchase listed out ;] Anyone *could* build it cheaper...the question is
will they.

Last, but not least, here are the pictures...I'll probably do multiple
posts to show them all since I don't have them hosted. I built this cab for
a friend (without realizing how much work/$ was involved), and he took it
the night I finished it! I didn't even get a final picture in due to the moving madness.

[soslo]

here is the jpeg for the 3 different CP overlays

[soslo]

here is the left side art

[soslo]

here is the right side art

[soslo]

here is the finished analog panel. It has 2 tron handles, 1 3" blue trackball, and 2 tornado spinners

[soslo]

here is a terrible picture of that analog panel lit up

[soslo]

here is a real shot of the blue side...sorry its the only one I have...

[soslo]

here is a shot of the cab in progress from the back (note the single car garage I am working in. There were 3 other cabs in the garage as well.

[soslo]

another in progress from the front

[soslo]

the cab without the control panel

[soslo]

another in progress shot

[soslo]

here is a shot without artwork
I used melamine for everything

[soslo]

and the final pic - complete

Thanks again to Frosty for the artwork and Tom Bombaci for the excellent print quality!

[soslo]

I was just looking at these pics. Sorry about the quality...and they are all I have. The cab is packed and wont see daylight again until Christmas.

[SNAAAKE]

HOLY MOTHERF$%#$ER !!!  
How much was your sideart dude ?

How did you attach it ?
Looks awsome !!
Everything is nicely done  

[paigeoliver]

Egad, the sideart alone probably cost more than any game I own!  

You say it is packed up until Christmas? Who is getting it, and will it be a surprise?

[soslo]

SNAAAKE: the sideart was expensive, but I got a great discount. Regular price would have been about $800 for side art, CP art, and marquee on backlit plastic.

I attached it with super 77

paigeoliver: yes, the game has been packed up for a Christmas surprise. My buddy's 5 kids will go absolutely wild when they see it  

[ntjedi]

Verry Verry Nice.  

Great idea with the Tron handles.

[Frostillicus]

Wow simply awesome.  That really looks killer - the full sideart puts that whole thing over the top.  I'm glad you decided on that.    

So the 20 dollar question is: would you do the rotating panels again?  Now that you know how much time is involved....

I think people understand the price issue - you got top-of the-line everything - controls, monitor, computer, melamine, printing, that stuff ain't cheap.  Plus you have 2 tron sticks AND 2 tornados (damn that's sweet) when most people don't even have one of each.  Any issues with the spinners at the same time?

Again - looks great - are you gonna take some action pics over the holidays?

[soslo]

Thanks Frosty. As for the $20 question...No. I wouldn't do another one of these unless it involved about $3000 for labor (no joke). It was insane how much work went into the CP...and mounting it was a real *nightmare* - I actually broke down at one point knowing that the cab would be picked up the next day and I couldn't get the &$*#&*# wires run in the channels.

Analog+ made the dual spinners work together - but it still took some tweaking (hours of tweaking). Off Road was awesome though  

Again, you did a great job with the art. That side & CP art gets more complements than you know.

Hopefully I'll have some more pics in January!

[rampy]

on the cp, is the lexan bent/1 piece or two pieces?  it looks seemless with the backsplash (know what I mean??)

Frosty, are you implying that you wouldn't do a rotating CP again if you had to do it over?

rampy

[Raider]

heh! That's tits!

I wouldn't argue the cost of that! lol! Mine ran $1800 just about even, would've been at the 3k mark had I done full side and cp art too. I take it that's vinyl then considering the price you mentioned on that? Ain't cheap that's fo' sure.

Anyways I dig your artwork choice because it's not a jammed up looking collage deal that resembles more of a frat house fridge with all the beer labels stuck on it than an arcade cab.

Those rotating panels are damn cool though even though they are a lot of work. I'm just glad my needs called for a 4 player layout so I wasn't tempted enough to tackle one of those muthas! lol!

[1UP]

soslo, let me know when you put up a site, so I can link to this.

Good work!

[night]

thats kick ass. i like everything but the small monitor, but that is definitly a taste thing...

[3dmacman]

yeah, someone is using my artwork, how cool. great job on the cab. Great Job on the all-around artwork frosty. I need to get of my laurels and get my cab finished .

[DarkKobold]

Love the cab... Man, Morrigan is hot....

You also never showed what was on the 3rd CP...

[soslo]

rampy - yes, the CP art and plexi is bent for a "seamless" look

raider - the paper is heavy mil vinyl with a gloss laminate to protect it. The collage idea was veetoed because of worries that it would be "too busy"

1up - I'll let you know when I get a site up. I'm working on a static one right now because I haven't found a free ASP host. Thanks again for your site/docs/everything...my life would have sucked even worse without those  

night - yeah, a 21" computer monitor is no match for a 25" WG  

3dmacman - I had Frosty touch up your Ken2 from mametrixreloaded.com (http://www.mametrixreloaded.com/graphicsdown.php) as well as change the colors and remove the wings from your Morrigan. Thanks for the art!

DarkKobold - yeah, Morrigan turns heads
Check my 2nd reply reply at the top - there is a picture that has all 3 CP graphics. Bison vs Akuma, Cammy, and Morrigan

[pathdoc2]

A cheap alternative would be to handpaint the artwork on the sides.  I've done this in the past.  Find or create an image in the size you want it.  Tape the image on the side of the machine where you want it.  Take a sharp exacto knife and trace/scribe the major lines.  Remove paper and touch up lines using a pencil.  From there its simply paint by numbers.  It can come out very close to printed artwork.

[soslo]

well, minus the cool gradients  
take a look at the background of the side art and CP art

[soslo]

finally got a site up...you can check out my build page under the mem cab #2 link. It has links to most of the stuff I used to build this cab.

Check it out here:
http://www.geocities.com/soslols1/

[DarkKobold]

Soslo -
   I meant controls... The Bison Akuma has 2 8's and a 4-way....
The cammy has 2 Trons, a trackball, and 2 spinners....

Morrigan has.... good looks?

[soslo]

haha, I'm sorry - the Morrigan CP has dual/dual joysticks.
The left joystick is a standard competition (in red or blue to match) and the right is a top-fire joystick.

That panel will likely see the least action (karate champ, smash tv, etc)