The best smurfing arcade evar

[eds1275]

...only because I don't think there's another smurf build.

This one is for a friend, his anniversary is coming up and his wife is crazy for arcade games and smurfs. I have all the artwork done, starting the woodstuffs tomorrow.

Using smooth faced cabinet grade plywood and a 22" widescreen LCD, it is 6' tall and 2' wide, 26" deep.


The boot screen to replace the windows boot. It's the best I could do with 16 colours. I might change the background to grey.


The Mala menu screen I zipped up


Marquee


And finally the whole thing put together. There will be a coin door with the novagem coin drop buttons in blue. Before I get the artwork printed, I will tweak the smurf blue to match the t-molding and buttons and joysticks.


The only other art is the possibility of a flower around the trackball, and there will be 2 half flowers that are inserted into the gun holsters on the front until he can afford the guns, so hopefully she won't even realize that they aren't just for decoration.

[ViriiGuy]

Looks like a winner!!! But I have to ask.. What is Saint's Minions?

[eds1275]

What is Saint's Minions?

I have no idea what you are talking about.

I got the sides cut today when my wife went out for a run with a friend. Tomorrow I'll zip the t-molding slot, and cut the rest of the face panels, and try to get it assembled. I'll be using my biscuit joiner, glue,  and nail gun.

[ViriiGuy]

...only because I don't think there's another saint's minion build.

After re-reading it.. I am assuming it is a user on here

[eds1275]

Oh there is a bad language filter. I guess if you don't turn it off you can't see the word smurf.

[ViriiGuy]

LOL!! Gotcha

[thomas_surles]

You never rest do you? I sure hope your making some cash off of these.

[eds1275]

I am usually always at work. In fact the others have been sitting half finished for about a year! Luckily/unluckily the union awarded my hours to someone with more seniority and I am all of a sudden lucky to get a shift a week.

[ViriiGuy]

I finally found that filter option...

Wow, it censored Smurf to Saint' Minion"??

[Vigo]

Looks good. Way to keep 3d smurfs off of the artwork. 

[eds1275]

I am against all remakes. Either a) it was good and that's why people like it and redoing it will only ruin things, or b) it wasn't good enough in the first place and no amount of doctoring is going to fix it. On the very odd occasion it works, but it's usually because the movie is really really old and the story couldn't be told well due to limitations of technology at the time.

Those 3d blue things are not smurfs to me!

And now, some NSFW ridiculousness

[wp34]

Theme aside I really like the design of your cabinet.  The curved CP and the detail by the coin door are fantastic.   

Will the CP top hinge from the back?

[eds1275]

Theme aside I really like the design of your cabinet.  The curved CP and the detail by the coin door are fantastic.   

Will the CP top hinge from the back?

Thanks! A friend of mine and another friend were brainstorming and came up with this design except pointier for a thundercats cabinet he plans on building. And then our mutual friend wanted this smurf cab so I just rounded out the corners and it was born. The actual cabinet had a revision from the render and the marquee comes out further.

I don't like the look of control panels that stick out from the sides as I think it sort of kills the "arcade look." Even though most of my favourite games had that design, and it does give you more real estate to work with for controls... it just doesn't look as nice to me.

The coin door protrusion is taken from Ond's Metropolis, and the inset gun holsters are pretty much the same as on my spinal tap machine.

The control panel will no be hinged in any way. It is an open-bottom design, and locks into the machine. The whole thing slides out if need be.

Today, I built the thing. It is standing out in the sun drying. I didn't take many build pics, but here was the process. Glued and installed the battens early in the day with my nail gun. I don't have enough clamps so that is the next best thing. Cut a sheet of plywood to 26", then hacked that into the top, back upper, front, and tiny back lower. With the remainder I cut out the protrusion and the bottom marquee area. Marked out biscuit locations and cut the slots, then ran the router around anything that needed a slot for t-molding. Cut out any details like the gun holes and the coin door bit, added a button hole up top for a power button.

Laid one side down, added glue, threw in some biscuits, and frantically put it together. Fired in a few brads to hold it in place, then slapped the other side on top with glue and biscuits. It was sort of leaning into a parallelogram so I straightened it out and put in a few screws in places that won't be seen. I let it set for about an hour then put in some plastic wood wood filler.

[eds1275]

Got it inside, 2 coagts of primer, and 3 coats of white. 2 coats of black, just gotta sand it down and apply the final coat of black and then I've got little to do until the parts arrive.

[gabrielmtl]

Very cool. I love the smurfs.

Buy small smurf figurines and put them inside the cab.. arrange them in a way that it seems like they're running the place, holding cables and such. Too tacky maybe 

Good luck

[yotsuya]

Very cool. I love the saint's minions.

Buy small saint's minion figurines and put them inside the cab.. arrange them in a way that it seems like they're running the place, holding cables and such. Too tacky maybe 

Good luck

No. And Yes. Friends don't let friends become Epic Fail Guy...

[Rick]

You never rest do you? I sure hope your making some cash off of these.

Agreed. I'm certainly hoping someone will Peyo for all your hard work!

 

[gabrielmtl]

Very cool. I love the saint's minions.

Buy small saint's minion figurines and put them inside the cab.. arrange them in a way that it seems like they're running the place, holding cables and such. Too tacky maybe 

Good luck

No. And Yes. Friends don't let friends become Epic Fail Guy...

Maybe just ONE plastic smurf inside?

[eds1275]

Yes I'm making some money off of this. Maybe one plastic smurf, I have a bunch from the 80's laying around.

The marquee acrylic is cut, and so is the control panel stuff. Control panel all drilled out. Another hot day, probably 30c or more. I'm taking it easy today, just cleaning up the house and sipping coffee.

I don't agree with the button layout, I mashed the buttons and it just wasn't doing it for me. The buttons and stick are from the Arcade Safari I'm building with my niece.

[eds1275]

Parts came in today. Except the trackball, I've had that for a week or so.

T-molding on, gun holsters installed, marquee retainers on, screen mounted, coin buttons installed in coin door thing.

[UncleArgyle]

Very nice. What color t-molding is that? I bought a blue, but it is too dark against my black cabinet...yours seems to stand out much better.

Thanks,

Mike.

[eds1275]

That would be groovy game gear's Cool Blue

[eds1275]

Big day today. I need to .remount the screen 1 1/2" deeper, looks like I fudged up the measurements when I built the mount and forgot to add in the width of the wood

Art printed



Marquee installed (no light yet!)


CP closeup


Test fit


All together

[Superfrog]

Nice build here, bud it's a strange contrast , Heavy Metal and The Smurfs 

[Yvan256]

Nice build here, bud it's a strange contrast , Heavy Metal and the Smurfs 

Yeah, what the smurf is going on here?

[Superfrog]

Nice build here, bud it's a strange contrast , Heavy Metal and the saint's minions 

Yeah, what the saint's minion is going on here?

the saint's minions- The Smurfs .... 

  auto correct 

[BadMouth]

Lookin' smurfy!
I especially like the artwork around the trackball.

[Superfrog]

Is it the work of the  devil here??
I can't type ... The Smurfs ...

T.H.E.   S.M.U.R.F.S. 

[markc74]

Really liking the profile of this cabinet. Artwork looks great too - especially the trackball. 

[eds1275]

Thanks, I couldn't figure out what to do for art around the ball, and I didn't just want the ball coming out of nowhere... then I remembered that Smurfette is always carrying or being offered a daisy.

[eds1275]

Is it the work of the  devil here??
I can't type ... The Smurfs ...

T.H.E.   S.M.U.R.F.S. 

Doncha know Saint's Minions is the name of my prog metal band!

[gabrielmtl]

Thanks, I couldn't figure out what to do for art around the ball, and I didn't just want the ball coming out of nowhere... then I remembered that Smurfette is always carrying or being offered a daisy.

It looks great. It's cool that you get to experiment with a theme like this.

[eds1275]

Sort of. My problem is that I care too much and end up spending way more time on it than I should, making it really not worth the money in the end.

[gabrielmtl]

Sort of. My problem is that I care too much and end up spending way more time on it than I should, making it really not worth the money in the end.

Up your prices

[gabrielmtl]

Or do like this guy.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/42-LED-4-Player-Home-Video-Arcade-Game-MAME-TM-Can-Play-1-000s-Of-Games-/331121086315?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d185acf6b&_uhb=1

[eds1275]

Well no pics because here I am at work. I am 99% finished. All the cosmetic stuff is done, I set a few of the high scores  and the menu is in place and working. Gonna auto-sort the roms into categories and write some instructions on editing them. Tweak the menu a bit... should be 100% by tomorrow and then I deliver it on monday. I'll try to get some photos up of moving day.

***I forgot to update this and time has come and gone so I'll just add these without bumping the thread back up to the top...

[xefned]

Great color scheme with the buttons, joy top, molding, panel art, etc.  Everything goes together beautifully. I especially like the trackball surround. Your friend and his spouse will have a real treasure thanks to your experience and good eye for design.