My first build : Clint. Finished.

[yamatetsu]

Soo, it's finally time to announce my first build. First off : I have already done a ton of work on this, I didn't want to post
the announcement before having reached a certain point in the build.

Last november I stumbled upon a site that hosts hundreds of pictures of homemade arcade cabs, this gave me the idea to build my own.
One cab in particular caught my eye, Lokesen's Taitorama.
Went to his homepage and found the plans for the Taitorama. Awesome ! This was the shape I wanted.

I started to design the artwork, ordered tons of stuff from Ultimarc, bought some 18mm and some 12mm MDF, precut to rectangles.

Had some technical issues with the artwork, kicked the design. Made a second design, kicked that aswell.
Third time is the charm, I decided to do stencils for the art and came up with a design based around Clint Eastwood (or rather
some of his movie characters).

This is the concept for the sides :


The marquee :


The control panel :


The coin door :


This will be etched into lexan, recessed into the door and sidelit.

And finally a lifesized cardboardcade :


That's it for now, I don't want to make the first post too big.

See ya !

Here are the pics of the finished cab :

[yotsuya]

Interesting theme. Why "Clint"?

[johnrt]

That arcade will make my day! 

[yotsuya]

Where are the "Bronco Billy" and "Any Which Way But Loose" art assets going? 

[Vigo]

Where are the "Bronco Billy" and "Any Which Way But Loose" art assets going? 

You can't forget "Paint your Wagon" and "Bridges of Madison County" Clint either. 

[yamatetsu]

Interesting theme. Why "Clint"?

When I was bored, I proceeded to read every thread in this forum, right down to the first one, leaving out only those ooold ones where the pictures are gone. I found MikeDeuce's Leon themed
control panel, which was my inspiration. http://www.ironvulva.com/?p=14

I'm from Germany, where minors are not allowed into arcades, so having not been there, I'm not really an arcade fan (gasp ! the horror !). So, it did not have to be an arcade theme. I really like Mike's Leon theme, but didn't want to copy that.  I asked myself which iconic movie character I could use instead, found the Dirty Harry pic with that ridiculously big gun and just had to
do it 

Man ! I'm typing my answer and you guys start playing ball already ?

Where are the "Bronco Billy" and "Any Which Way But Loose" art assets going? 

You can't forget "Paint your Wagon" and "Bridges of Madison County" Clint either. 

I'm afraid there will be none of that 
As I said, I already have done a ton of work on this, meaning that the art is already on the wood, except for the control panel, which is only is missing the text.

[yotsuya]

Damn. So no "Get off my lawn?"

[Slippyblade]

I'm from Germany, where minors are not allowed into arcades...

Wait, what?  Not allowed in...

<whump>

Sorry - nearly fainted there.  I can't imagine my life not being allowed into arcades.  So what about pizza joints and the like.  I'm seriously curious about this.  I mean, what is the drinking age over there and they won't allow you to play some video games?

[Vigo]

Looking forward to seeing you unveil this project. Interested in the stencil work. 

[xefned]

Arcades in the U.S. would've been largely empty if they excluded minors.   

[yotsuya]

Looking forward to seeing you unveil this project. Interested in the stencil work. 

Yeah, we're just shitting with you, bro. If done right, this could have a cool 70s Midway "Boot Hill" vibe.

[yamatetsu]

Arcades in the U.S. would've been largely empty if they excluded minors.   

Yep, that's why there aren't many in Germany. With age retrictions like that, it just isn't profitable. We poor kids had to be content with home computers like in my case the C64 and the Amiga.

I'm from Germany, where minors are not allowed into arcades...

Wait, what?  Not allowed in...

<whump>

Sorry - nearly fainted there.  I can't imagine my life not being allowed into arcades.  So what about pizza joints and the like.  I'm seriously curious about this.  I mean, what is the drinking age over there and they won't allow you to play some video games?

Drinking age  for beer / wine is 16, stronger stuff 18. I don't know about large pizza joints, as I have spent my life in a small town of about 70.000.
The only arcade machine I've seen when I was a kid was standing in a shopping mall. One machine.
I remember having seen a documentary about arcade machines, where it was stated that you have to meet some restrictions to be allowed to put a machine in your shop,
I don't recall what those are exactly, but essentially it's just not worth it. This one machine by the way was Dragon's Lair. Man, was I wowed.

Damn. So no "Get off my lawn?"

Nope, Gran Torino is out. Seriously good movie though. Interesting that you mention it as I actually have considered using an older Clint in the marquee :



But then I went gung ho style with Josey Wales.

[Rick]

Just don't get ahead of yourself... While this is a very exciting build idea, "a man's got to know his limitations." OMG, THIS THREAD IS AWESOME. I can drop Eastwood lines all day long in here!!! (While, of course, watching your progress.)

[wp34]

I love Clint --- especially the westerns so I'm down with this.

Where are the "Bronco Billy" and "Any Which Way But Loose" art assets going? 

Nice.   

[ATL222]

I'm from Germany, where minors are not allowed into arcades...

Wait, what?  Not allowed in...

<whump>

Sorry - nearly fainted there.  I can't imagine my life not being allowed into arcades.  So what about pizza joints and the like.  I'm seriously curious about this.  I mean, what is the drinking age over there and they won't allow you to play some video games?

We used to have an arcade here in my city in the Netherlands where you also have to be 18 years old to enter because they also had slot machines.

[pbj]

His finest acting.

[yamatetsu]

I love my computer. I have typed a monster post for about an hour, had to leave for a few minutes to walk the dog, came back and stared at the windows login screen.

My #§+% piece of #§+% computer did use the time to do a windows update. So the following post will be somewhat shorter than intended.

The paint job. This took me more than six months to get it right and has prevented me from starting this thread a lot earlier. I didn't want to end up starting a
thread and then having nothing to post, so I decided to want for the finished paint job.

Spray-painting and vinyl were out, so I went with a roller. I don't have any experience painting / sanding wood, so naturally I went for a white piano finish. I ended
up doing everything multiple times, as something always went wrong. Sometimes I would get the wood right to the finish only to sand away too much paint at one of the edges,
sometimes I got weird yellow splotches on the wood, and then, as I finally got everything right, I applied a coat of clear lacquer to two of the boards which over night
turrned my high gloss white into a dull cream white. After having redone those boards I used stuff from a brand called Meguiar's on them. This is used to polish your car, it
consists of a sanding paste, a swirl remover for removing traces of the sanding paste, and polishing wax. It's a lot of work, but the difference this makes is just amazing.

Here is a pic of some of the boards. Sadly I could't persuade my camera to capture the mirror finish, but it's there.



The stenciling. The idea was to use printable stickers for the art, apply them to the board, cut the black shapes out with a scalpel and paint the resulting sticker-free places black.
To cut a very long story short, I also had to do this multiple times, sometimes have to sand everything back to the bare wood. Not great idea if you consider that the paint I used takes
24 hours to dry so that you can paint it over again. It took me about two weeks to get to the point where I could botch everything up and start again.

The stickers were no good because they tend to take some of the paint off when you try to remove them. I then tried using a roll of double sided tape, printed the art
on normal paper and put that on the tape. Huge mistake. I could cut this just fine, but when I  wanted to remove it ... Let's just say I ended up sanding the board down to the wood again
after having spent four fricking hours unsuccessfully trying to remove the stuff.

Finally I went with frog tape. First I masked off the stripes :





Then the rest :



Then I pasted on the template for the cutting :



And (drumroll) this is how it looks after the cutting :




Now I just had to apply two coats of black.

The finished sides look amazing. I will post pictures of them next week. Happy waiting 

[yamatetsu]

Just kidding. Here they are.

[Slippyblade]

Wow, that looks great!  Interesting method of stenciling.

[Vigo]

Whoa! THAT from frog tape!?! Color me impressed. I love masking with tape, and this is on another level than what I would think to attempt. 

[jmaxime89]

Waaah that's crazy ! I was looking at your pictures and for sure I wasn't expecting such a nice job out of frog tape used for stencils. You sir, deserve my respects.

Keep on the good job !

[yamatetsu]

I love masking with tape, and this is on another level than what I would think to attempt.

Weelll ... Had I known what amount of work and frustration this would involve, I probably wouldn't have attempted it either 
I just didn't know any better and kept failing and finally plodded through.
Since then I have watched some vids about stenciling on youtube and learned that there is some kind of stenciling paper which you can cut beforehand, slap some
spray adhesive on and you are good to go. That would have been so much easier ... But I'm happy with the result, so all is good.

[yamatetsu]

An afterthought : It's also risky to do stencils this way. You have to cut through paper and the tape, so you have to apply a good amount of pressure to the blade. This means you
inevitably also cut into the paint. Let the blade slip where it doesn't belong and you will see that cut.
Also, imagine what your board will look like when you remove the template. You will have a mass of green, crisscrossed by a heap of tiny cuts. It can be hard to see which tape you have
to remove and which you better do not. I had to sand a board back to the wood because I realized a little to late that I was merrily removing the tape that should have stayed on ... That cost me two weeks of work.

[Slippyblade]

That cost me two weeks of work.

Dude.  Yer nuts.  Welcome to the club, you'll fit right in.

[yamatetsu]

Soo, I'm nuts and I fit right in. Does this make me a member of a club of a bunch of wackos ? 

[Vigo]

Hey, everyone gets a free straight jacket with membership. Except those of us who are just stuck in the 80's. We get "Member's Only" Jackets instead.

Now excuse me while I ride into the Danger Zone.

[yamatetsu]

[yotsuya]

If you had a burned hot dog wiener in the background, that photo would be perfection... 

[pbj]

You know, I had the misfortune of discovering The Dead Pool on cable earlier this month and decided to read up on that series.  Turns out the Bruce Willis character in the Sin City movie was an alternative reality storyline for how Dirty Harry really goes out.  Which is how a Latina ended up with the last name Callaghan.

  

[yamatetsu]

I have watched an episode of Samurai Jack some days ago. Samurai Jack enters a village that is haunted by a dragon.
He decides to help the villagers and heads into the general direction of the dragon. A villager yells something.


Villager         : There's a fork in the road ! Follow the rocky path, it will take you to the dragon's lair !

Samurai Jack : Where will the other one take me ?

Villager         : Space Ace !

Samurai Jack :

[wp34]

Did someone say Danger Zone?

Hey, everyone gets a free straight jacket with membership. Except those of us who are just stuck in the 80's. We get "Member's Only" Jackets instead.

Now excuse me while I ride into the Danger Zone.

[AzureKnight]

I have watched an episode of Samurai Jack some days ago. Samurai Jack enters a village that is haunted by a dragon.
He decides to help the villagers and heads into the general direction of the dragon. A villager yells something.


Villager         : There's a fork in the road ! Follow the rocky path, it will take you to the dragon's lair !

Samurai Jack : Where will the other one take me ?

Villager         : Space Ace !

Samurai Jack :

 

[Slippyblade]

Well.  That de-railed nicely.

[Louis Tully]

.

[wp34]

That is incredible. I refuse to believe you used the same tape I have. It doesn't work that way for me.  You have magic tape, that's all there is to it.

Holy cow I missed that he used tape.   

Most impressive.   

[yamatetsu]

You have magic tape, that's all there is to it.

Alert ! Alert ! We have been found out ! Abandon ship !

Well, if it's any consolation to you, the sides look best when you are far away There inevitably was some bleed that I had to cover up with some sort of white lacquer marker. If you look closer, you will see it.
That's why I wisely didn't post any closeups
To give you some perspective about the magic tape : One roll has 41 meters or roughly 135 feet on it. I have used 3 and a half rolls on the cab. You do bricks, I do stenciling 

And now for something completely different.
Quiz time. You'll notice that the sides have a rather large curve to it. How would you mask this off to get the stripe following the curve ?

[yamatetsu]

The door. Pretty standard stuff. Got a precut board, cut the 'coin door' out of it using my trusty jigsaw. Sanded, painted and polished it
(the board, not the jigsaw).



Instead of a coin door I will mount a board with a piece of etched lexan on it from behind and side-light it. The front coin door area
will get a frame of painted aluminum bars and there will be a matte black kick plate.

The board screwed on from behind :



I screwed some plastic thingies around the board, these will be used to hold the LEDs.



Same thing plus LEDs :



It's alive !



Christmas time !



For the frame I cut aluminum bars to a 45 degree angle by hand. Needless to say that they don't fit a 100 percent.



As I had now highly visible gaps between the bars, I wondered how I could hide them. I thought that the gaps would not be so
visible against a black background. So I laid the bars on the board and used frogtape to mark the corners. Then I removed the bars,
took a black sharpie and just painted the gap-area black.



Now when I put the bars back on the gaps all but vanish.

[yamatetsu]

Eye candy for the door.

Here's something I have played with before deciding to sidelight the coin door. I printed the art on 3 A4 pages of sticker.



Then I applied the stickers to a piece of lexan and cut out the white areas.



Now this does look damn impressive, but I found something better. I don't remember in which thread I stumbled upon this :



Kudos to the man, if I remember correctly, he did this using a knife.

Soo, I wanted to do my version of it. I bought a machine used for etching glass for 33 Euros. This is something akin to a dremel.

Having never done this before, I printed the art, put a piece of lexan on top of it und used the machine to trace the lines, 3 times for every line. Then I 'colored' the
black areas. This took about two hours. Then I did it again on the lexan I actually was going to use. Here is the result in daylight :



Red light in daylight :



And finally Clint in the dark :

[yamatetsu]

It's hard to get a good picture with those "$#+ing reflections. Anyway, here is the finished door.

[pbj]

That's pretty cool.  Nice work.

[yamatetsu]

The bottom. I put the bottom together, nothing special here.



Instead of buying single casters, I grabbed this at a sale :



Since it is too small to be put directly under the cab, I had to cut it up :



It's incredible how tough this glued wood is. I had a hard time sawing through it. Anyway, here are the mounted casters :



And finally the bottom attached to the left side :



Next I will be tackling the door. It turns out that if you have 60 cm space between the sides, having a door that is also 60 cm wide is not a good idea, as you can't open it.
So I will have to sand it down a bit. After that, the control panel.

[yamatetsu]

The control panel. As I have neither router nor drill press, this doesn't look pretty, but it works. The rectangles and the trackball hole were cut using a jigsaw, the button holes were done using a forstner bit.



No router means no recessing the joystick plates, so I came up with the idea to top mount the joysticks and then use two layers of lexan to level the field.



Since the joystick inserts are a tad too long and I didn't want to bother with them, I used screws with nuts to mount the joysticks.



The joysticks with two layers of lexan :



Joysticks, buttons and minipac mounted :



And for today's menu : Control panel with spaghetti.



I haven't tested it yet, I pray that it works.

[yamatetsu]

The control panel box / the finished panel.

I wanted to have rounded edges at the front of the control panel, so I bought rounded wood thingies (I don't know what they are called in english), painted them black and glued them to a piece of MDF. Since the MDF is 12mm and the rounded thingies are 15mm, they protrude a bit in the direction of the box. To compensate for that, I cut a profile into the front of the box. Here it is, again, not pretty, but works.





The upper rounded edge is higher than the box, so when I lay the CP on top of the box it is then level with the edge. Sounds good in theory, but has a drawback. I wanted to hinge the CP to the front of the box, but that doesn't work because it hits the edge when I try to lift it.
I can't put the hinges at the back of the box because the trackball is in the way at the front.
So I said to myself 'Screw that.' Figuratively and literally. I cut out some battens and glued them to the corners of the box, so I can screw the board into them.



As you can see, there are only three battens and a mess in the fourth corner. That's because in the fourth corner there will be a button which clashes with the batten. This occurred to me, of course, after I had glued the thing in. Luckily my dad bought a Bosch multi tool recently, so I used that to cut the batten. That at least was the plan. Turns out that the tool vibrates so much that it literally tore the batten from the MDF while sawing into it.

Now on to the CP art. This was done using cardboard. A white cardboard rectangle for the background, black cardboard for Clint. I cut out the black shapes using a scalpel and then simply doubletaped them to the white cardboard. The pic doesn't do it justice.



Then I put everything together. As you can imagine, a board of wood and three layers of lexan, all hand-cut and -drilled will probably not fit together very well, so I had to sand quite
a lot of the holes to make them bigger and allow me to shift the buttons around a bit. For this I used my tool for etching glass, it took me only about two and a half hours.
Aaand the result :







Note how shiny the lexan is. This makes my hardfought mirror finish for the front panel look totally dull.

[rablack97]

Dude.....WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY   





Did you mock up that layout?

Man you started out sooooo good, that CP layout is not cool.....WHHHHHHYYYYYYY??



One stick is lower than the other, and whats with the one at top, its too close the bottom one.  I don't understand....

[yotsuya]

I gotta agree with Rodney, if not as loudly, then as in spirit.

[PhoenixGG]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together. If I had to re-sand the sides as much as you did, I would've just painted the cabinet flat black and be done with it. My hat goes off to you.

As for your CP. If the layout works for you then go with it. I do prefer symmetry when I build things, but I am not the one playing your cab and with all the effort you've put in this far, I am confident you're not the type to leave something if it isn't to your standards.

[yamatetsu]

Dude.....WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY   

Largely because of space restrictions. And because it's my first panel  This is what I had to work with :





As you can see, there isn't much space for three sticks, a trackball and a bunch of buttons.

One stick is lower than the other, and whats with the one at top, its too close the bottom one.  I don't understand....

The two sticks close together : Space restriction. I can't lower the bottom stick because then I would have no space for my hand. The upper stick already is as high as I can put it. It certainly is not an ideal solution, but both sticks are playable.

P1 stick and P2 stick not on the same level : I just wanted to give player 2 more space for the hands, as player 1's hand is close to the edge.

Soo, apart from moving the P2 stick a bit down to level it with the P1 controls, I fail to see what I could have done differently.

If anyone can come up with a cooler design, I'm very interested in it.

Restrictions : - The trackball has to be in the middle
                    - no stick above the trackball as I don't want to smash into it when playing a certain golf game

[yamatetsu]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together. If I had to re-sand the sides as much as you did, I would've just painted the cabinet flat black and be done with it. My hat goes off to you.

Thank you  Regarding the re-sanding : After having redone the boards countless times, my inclination went more towards setting fire to them, or re-designing them with a sledgehammer 

[dkersten]

my inclination went more towards setting fire to them, or re-designing them with a sledgehammer 

Guns work REALLY well for that.  And tannerite.. nothing helps cure frustration like blowing some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- up.  "Just a little touch up"...

[yotsuya]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together.

I didn't know you were a doctor, yamatetsu? Good for you.

As for your CP. If the layout works for you then go with it. I do prefer symmetry when I build things, but I am not the one playing your cab and with all the effort you've put in this far, I am confident you're not the type to leave something if it isn't to your standards.

As skilled at yamatetsu is, I would have thought a switching Servostick would have been a better option for P1 than two joysticks. Yeah, I get it, it's his cabinet, blah blah blah, but Rodney's right. Visually, I don't think it works. I don't have to play it, either, so yamatetsu can tell us to go pound sand, but I think he's appreciated our previous honest opinions, so 

[rablack97]

Ok......

This may suck a major big one, but before you go any further, widen your cab to give yourself space for the your jsticks.

You've put waaaay too much work into this to ruin it with a CP like that man....Your work so far has been spot on.

Yots suggestion of a servo stick is a great modern idea.  I think the days of the double stick have kinda surpassed us.  Even so the placement is so tight you will not be happy playing-wise i can promise that.  Another option is to have the CP easily unlatched, pop it open switch your 8way stick to 4 way and done.

http://www.ultimarc.com/servostik.html

Widen your cab man, and place your 1p 2p symmetrical to one another.  You mentioned the stick being in the way of your t-ball well your buttons on plyr 1 are in fingers shots distance, so that could cause havoc in game play as well.

Not too fond of those labels either hit up this guy and get you some vinyl for your buttons man...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130477.0.html

[rablack97]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together.

Illiteracy is a awesome.....

[Vigo]

The nice thing about a CP is you can always redo it later. The CP can be pulled fairly easy and worked on as an independent item. So, feel free to get some play time before making any decisions. Hopefully, you kept your cardboard stencil, but if you didn't, I think it would be fairly easy to patch it up and redo the joysticks at least, while keeping the art.

The stencil work is still top notch, and you have the perfect theme for it.

[yamatetsu]

Mayhem ensues ...

This may suck a major big one, but before you go any further, widen your cab to give yourself space for the your jsticks.

Widen the cab ? WIDEN the CAB ? Are you MAD ?
Now seriously, widening the cab would mean ditching everthing but the sides, including all the boards I have spent about six months to get right. Also, if you look at one of the previous posts, you'll notice that the bottom already is glued to the left side.
So, while I certainly appreciate you people wanting this to look as good as possible, redoing the most frustrating work I have ever done for the sake of a control panel looking slightly better is not going to happen.

As skilled at yamatetsu is, I would have thought a switching Servostick would have been a better option for P1 than two joysticks.

Err, thanks for the praise, but I'm not skilled. My woodworking experience prior to this consists of helping my Dad build some kind of shed, i.e. cutting support beams and putting screws into them, that's about it.

I have looked up the Servostik at Ultimarc, while this sounds like a good alternative, judging from this picture, this looks kinda hard to top mount without a router. I dunno.

I think he's appreciated our previous honest opinions, so 

No worries about that, I can take criticism. After all, this isn't about trashing my cab, it's about making it better. Just look at what dkersten's Nostalgia evolved into after a few rounds in the forum 

Hopefully, you kept your cardboard stencil, but if you didn't, I think it would be fairly easy to patch it up and redo the joysticks at least, while keeping the art.

Uhh no, the black parts of the art actually are black cut out cardboard bits doubletaped to the white cardboard. So when redoing the sticks this has to be redone as well. That, however, I wouldn't mind so much.

As for patching the CP up, that's something I have zero experience with. Bondo as such apparently isn't sold in Germany, so I'd have to hunt something down that's similar to it. That would be worth doing though as it certainly beats doing the whole board again.

I didn't know you were a doctor, yamatetsu? Good for you.

To derail this joke :

Nope, I'm not a doctor, but I've gotten quite skilled using a scalpel, so if anyone needs some internal organs removed ... 

[rablack97]

Mayhem ensues ...

This may suck a major big one, but before you go any further, widen your cab to give yourself space for the your jsticks.

Widen the cab ? WIDEN the CAB ? Are you MAD ?
Now seriously, widening the cab would mean ditching everything but the sides, including all the boards I have spent about six months to get right. Also, if you look at one of the previous posts, you'll notice that the bottom already is glued to the left side.
So, while I certainly appreciate you people wanting this to look as good as possible, redoing the most frustrating work I have ever done for the sake of a control panel looking slightly better is not going to happen.

I get it and understand, however this is at all about looks, this is about playing comfort as well.  Its like building Corvette and having rope tied to the steering column to steer.  Hey that's a great machine, but well, I can't drive it.

had you not of gone ape wild on that bad ass side art, i wouldn't have said a word about the CP, its just gonna turn it from kick ass to meh or what the heck happened on the control panel.

Just my 2 cents man, just some opinions, no harm intended...

[yamatetsu]

had you not of gone ape wild on that bad ass side art, i wouldn't have said a word about the CP, its just gonna turn it from kick ass to meh or what the heck happened on the control panel.

Just my 2 cents man, just some opinions, no harm intended...

No offense taken. Seems to me that I'm doing too well for my own good, now I'm cursed to build a great machine 
If I go the Servostik route, I could remove the restrictor plate from the 4/8-way and make that the P2 joystick. That would leave me with two U360s which I paid 120 bucks for 
We'll see.

[dkersten]

I forgot you are using u360's for the main sticks.  I have used both the u360 and the servostick, and while the 4 way restrictor feels good on the servostik, I had a hard time playing 8 way games it for some reason..  I prefer the u360 over it, and on my current build I am trying the octagonal restrictors which I think will be that happy medium between the top mount restrictor and no restrictor.  The top mounts do work well, but under hard use they can come loose (and you have to explain them to guests, where you don't on the other options). 

What I am getting at is that with the software restricting the 8 way movement on the u360, you don't NEED a restrictor plate, and hence you don't NEED a dedicated 4 way stick.  I have found that I don't notice much difference in game play between the u360 and the servostik when playing pacman, although the feel of the stick is very different.  So frankly, with 2 u-360's, you could scrap the 3rd stick.  And if you really insist on having some physical restriction, use the octagonal restrictor plates or add the top mount restrictors (top mount restrictor allows for undermounting the joystick too, so no routing, no covering holes.)

[yotsuya]

I forgot you are using u360's for the main sticks.  I have used both the u360 and the servostick, and while the 4 way restrictor feels good on the servostik, I had a hard time playing 8 way games it for some reason..  I prefer the u360 over it, and on my current build I am trying the octagonal restrictors which I think will be that happy medium between the top mount restrictor and no restrictor.  The top mounts do work well, but under hard use they can come loose (and you have to explain them to guests, where you don't on the other options). 

What I am getting at is that with the software restricting the 8 way movement on the u360, you don't NEED a restrictor plate, and hence you don't NEED a dedicated 4 way stick.  I have found that I don't notice much difference in game play between the u360 and the servostik when playing pacman, although the feel of the stick is very different.  So frankly, with 2 u-360's, you could scrap the 3rd stick.  And if you really insist on having some physical restriction, use the octagonal restrictor plates or add the top mount restrictors (top mount restrictor allows for undermounting the joystick too, so no routing, no covering holes.)

Yeah, Dave's right.... if you're using a U360, you really don't need a dedicated 4-way, unless you're a hard-core dedicated type, and you'd probably be best served building a 4-way only CP or cabinet anyway. 

[rablack97]

ok i just went back and looked at the side art...its too clean, redo the CP man, redo it now sir.  Clint said so....

[yamatetsu]

Sheesh, talk about peer pressure.

All right. I've played around with the layout and discovered that I had a second reason to place the P2 joystick higher up : The trackball. So to get the controls leveled the P1 controls have to move up.



That's all I can do. Looks a bit weird to me what with having all the space around the tb and the controls so high up, but I can't think of anything else to do. So if anyone has issues with this, speak up now or remain silent forever   

I forgot you are using u360's for the main sticks.

Nope, you didn't forget that, I haven't told you    Using the 360s : Good idea. Well, this seems to be the way I'm heading.

[dkersten]

Sheesh, talk about peer pressure.

I know, right!  lol, I actually felt a little hypocritical joining in and not adding "Just my opinion, it's your control panel and you should do it the way you think it should be done" because I know that feeling of getting to a point and not really wanting to change something that is perfectly OK with you, and deciding that the only reason to change it is so you don't have to read "It would have been so nice if he hadn't done xxxxxxxx"..  But at the same time, the advice is still solid, and control panels are not too big of a deal to change.  Even ones with hours of hand cut stencils, lol. 

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

Nope, you didn't forget that, I haven't told you    Using the 360s : Good idea. Well, this seems to be the way I'm heading.

And here I was trying to keep from looking like I hadn't read the thread closer and missed when you listed your parts.  My excuse is I was too busy checking out the great artwork in the pics and marveling at your persistence in working to achieve the perfect paint job, so I might have glazed over some details.   

I don't recall how wide your overall interior width is.  There are 2 things I see here that might be regretted down the road, but I don't know if they are avoidable.. 
One is your P1 buttons are close enough to the trackball that you might be hitting them on certain games.  Probably not a big deal since usually the button 3 is not going to cause any problems when shooting pool or golfing.  Not like the mistake I made twice in a row of having the exit button in the path of the trackball....

The other potential issue I see is the available palm rest for the trackball.  If you are only going to play games like Golden Tee, Gimme a Break, Shuffleshot, and Shuuz, then no worries.  But for games like centipede and missile command, your hand is going to get tired fast because you have no place to rest it while playing, unless you use the trackball sideways.  It is always a compromise though because some games you want enough distance from the monitor to prevent jammed fingers, and others you want to rest your hand so you can accurately move around.

Again, if you don't have the room, then you have to compromise, so don't sweat it.  I found that when enclosing the CP in designs like this, you want 4 inches to the left of the P1 stick (center) to never hit your knuckles on the side, although 3" will do in a pinch.  I also found you want 5" below the control (from center) to rest your palm comfortably.  Any less is pushing it unless you have tiny hands.  But you do what you have to do.

[yamatetsu]

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

Well, since I didn't want to spend month after month just painting and sanding, I did some other stuff too, including the CP. It also didn't occur to me that there might be something "wrong" with it. That totally blindsided me.

I don't recall how wide your overall interior width is.

Shame on you, that's in one of the pics    The cab is 60 cm wide, that's about 23.622 inches. The CP is 30 cm deep, that's about 11.811 inches.

The other potential issue I see is the available palm rest for the trackball.  If you are only going to play games like Golden Tee, Gimme a Break, Shuffleshot, and Shuuz, then no worries.  But for games like centipede and missile command, your hand is going to get tired fast because you have no place to rest it while playing, unless you use the trackball sideways.

Yup, sideways it is. I actually use a trackball with my computer, so I'm used to that. Also I don't think that the trackball will get that much use, in typical noob fashion I just wanted to have it 

I found that when enclosing the CP in designs like this, you want 4 inches to the left of the P1 stick (center) to never hit your knuckles on the side, although 3" will do in a pinch.  I also found you want 5" below the control (from center) to rest your palm comfortably.  Any less is pushing it unless you have tiny hands.

Going with the last layout I posted, center P1 stick -> side is about 4 inches, center both sticks to bottom is about 7 inches, so there will be enough space. I hope rablack & yotsuya will give me their seal of approval, so I can start rebuilding it 

[yotsuya]

I hope rablack & yotsuya will give me their seal of approval, so I can start rebuilding it 

[yamatetsu]

Do not invoke the X-man 

[Rick]

Do not invoke the X-man 

Please do not correlate the term "X-Man" with s/he, who shall not be named, in any way, shape or form.

[yotsuya]

Do not invoke the X-man 

That's actually Vigo's Seal of Approval. I don't mean to imply that X2 has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other. Vigo, however, thinks it's the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---!*




*I don't mean to imply that Vigo has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other.

[yamatetsu]

Do not invoke the X-man 

Please do not correlate the term "X-Man" with s/he, who shall not be named, in any way, shape or form.

Why not ? He/she/it is my hero 
Or not.

That's actually Vigo's Seal of Approval. I don't mean to imply that X2 has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other. Vigo, however, thinks it's the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---!*




*I don't mean to imply that Vigo has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other.

I know that these are actually two seals of approval, X2s came later, if I remember correctly. And I certainly would not assume that you would speak for him (or would have anything to do with him). I just wanted to see if I could coax a response out of you just by mentioning him 
Your reaction time is top notch.

[yotsuya]

I know that these are actually two seals of approval, X2s came later, if I remember correctly. And I certainly would not assume that you would speak for him (or would have anything to do with him). I just wanted to see if I could coax a response out of you just by mentioning him 
Your reaction time is top notch.

It's almost Martial Arts-like, isn't it? 

[yamatetsu]

Without a doubt achieved by a deep understanding of Zen meditation.

[dkersten]

Does this seal mean you can practice the float technique or do you have to have original leafs to do that?

[rablack97]

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

He did actually, I just didn't pay attention to it till he actually built it.



I still dont like T-ball placement its off center, the controls are too high up, P1 admin buttons need to be on the far left.



At this point we are at an impasse without you having to recut your inner panels....Just chalk this one up as a practice run, i'm sure you will build another in the future, these things are like tattooes.

I just think if you made it right it could of been BYOAC UCA worthy, theres a lot of cool features going on here, just sucks to settle for that look due to lack of space.

However, man, you mught just want something to play if so..........

[dkersten]

OT, but this is why this forum needs a "go to first unread post".. I tend to "go down" and then read backwards until I find something I have already read, and often I end up stopping before reading everything, or at the least my idea of what order things were added is off. 

[yotsuya]

OT, but this is why this forum needs a "go to first unread post".. I tend to "go down" and then read backwards until I find something I have already read, and often I end up stopping before reading everything, or at the least my idea of what order things were added is off.

Why do you do it that way? I just click on the "New" icon and it takes me to the first unread post in that thread.

[pbj]

Has anyone else noticed an otherwise nice cabinet has a really weird control panel layout?

[yotsuya]

Has anyone else noticed an otherwise nice cabinet has a really weird control panel layout?

Is this your "thing" now? 

[Rick]

Has anyone else noticed an otherwise nice cabinet has a really weird control panel layout?

Is this an "ITT" or a "DAE"?

[dkersten]

Why do you do it that way? I just click on the "New" icon and it takes me to the first unread post in that thread.

I don't see a "new" icon.. but I am using IE and it wouldn't surprise me if it was displaying wrong, lol. 

[yamatetsu]

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

He did actually, I just didn't pay attention to it till he actually built it.

Nope, dkersten is right, when I posted the layout the panel was not assembled but the board and the three layers of lexan were already cut at that time.

I still dont like T-ball placement its off center, the controls are too high up, P1 admin buttons need to be on the far left.

The trackball is of course centered, that was just me quickly throwing the layout together. If you look at the box I built, you'll see it. As for the controls being too high up, no choice here, the P1 buttons can't go down any further as button 6 is already as close to the tb housing as possible. If I move P2 any further down, I will have no space to rest the hand and smacking the joystick while playing with the tb is guaranteed.

P1 admin buttons need to be on the far left.

Something like this ?

[yamatetsu]

I don't see a "new" icon.. but I am using IE and it wouldn't surprise me if it was displaying wrong, lol. 

You might have to enable cookies for that to work.

[PL1]

Why do you do it that way? I just click on the "New" icon and it takes me to the first unread post in that thread.

I don't see a "new" icon.. but I am using IE and it wouldn't surprise me if it was displaying wrong, lol.

Maybe it depends on the theme you are using.   

Works fine in the forum default theme.




Scott

[dkersten]

I am on the forum default theme and still don't have a "new" button anywhere.. I can go to threads with new posts, but no button to go to the first new one.  No biggie, I will keep playing with it.  Carry on with more Clint 

[PL1]

I am on the forum default theme and still don't have a "new" button anywhere.. I can go to threads with new posts, but no button to go to the first new one.

Click on the "new" icon and it opens to the first unread post.




Scott

[dkersten]

Yer killin me Smalls..

Point to the "new" icon on this screenshot, I am completely blind to it:

[yotsuya]

Click on "Show Unread Posts Since Your Last Visit".

[Rick]

Point to the "new" icon on this screenshot, I am completely blind to it:

You... You are in the wrong screen. Click on "Project Announcements", and then look at the list of topics.

[dkersten]

OK, finally clicked the little tiny blue box flag that says new next to the title.. Was looking for a button or icon or something.  THANKS! 

[rablack97]

Something like this ?

yes sir, its getting there......i think i can sleep a little better now...

[yamatetsu]

Glad to be of assistance.

[pbj]

Yeah, Clint sure looks good with a set of chinballs.

[PL1]

Yeah, Clint sure looks good with a set of chinballs.

Could be worse.   





 


Scott

[yamatetsu]

Although I feel strangely hesitant to post my progress, I was busy today.

The speaker board.
Without a router (did I mention that I don't have a router ? Like 4 or 5 times already ?) choices for speaker covers are a bit limited. No beveling, no slots cut out, not even a perfect circle for the holes.
So I came up with a plexi cover cut into an octagonal shape with some eye candy on it.

The concept :





Yep, you probably guessed it, every yellow circle means a hole to drill.

This is the board :



This is the result after cutting out the plexi, printing the art on photo paper, doubletaping it onto the plexi and a bit of drilling :





I think it kinda looks like the covers are riddled by bullet-holes. I like it.

Last but not least a mockup :

[dkersten]

Honestly, as much as I like the caricatures, I don't think it fits the rest of the art.  And if you want the bullet hole thing, I wouldn't do it uniform, more like a couple strafing lines back and forth.  Doesn't take much to get that sound through, so a few lines of machine gun strafing with a few random holes would work.  Maybe just do the shooting range silhouettes of the bad guys with the holes all around them.. mostly concentrated in the center of course.. ?

[yotsuya]

Yeah, Dave is right. Your theme is outlines and silhouettes, stark black and white. These full-color cartoony caricatures are out of place. It's like a CEO wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans to a business meeting.

[Le Chuck]

Don't listen to these guys.  What this build needs, what would really set it off, would be a ---fracking--- orangutan and some full color Every Which Way but Loose action to compliment those totally awesome speaker covers. 

Sorry, couldn't help it. 

I'm actually with the others, I like it better without. 

Still tho...

[yotsuya]

That second one is BAD. ASS.

[yamatetsu]

I think I'm starting to hate you guys.Though I have to admit that you ARE right. But these caricatures just are so damn cool ...

So, how about these ones staying true to the theme ?

[yotsuya]

Yeah, that's cooler and fits! 

[yamatetsu]

Whew, for a moment there I feared that I have strayed from the path    Now I just have to find out how to get these different shapes onto the existing ones.

Will our hero pull through once again or will he finally taste defeat ? Stay tuned till the next episode of Clint & the critics !

[yotsuya]

Whew, for a moment there I feared that I have strayed from the path    Now I just have to find out how to get these different shapes onto the existing ones.

Will our hero pull through once again or will he finally taste defeat ? Stay tuned till the next episode of Clint & the critics !

This word use bugs me. We're not being critical for the sake of being critical... we're providing you honest feedback. At any point in time, you are free to tell us, "Go ---fudgesicle--- yourselves, this is my cabinet and I'll do what I want with it." We're just trying to help you polish this cab, to take an idea that won me over in its execution and really make it shine. But ultimately, it's going to reside in your living area. 

[yamatetsu]

Whoa ! No offense meant here.
Bear in mind that english is not my native language, though I think that I can express myself pretty well. So, if something I write sounds strange, you might chalk it up to that. Or I might have done it on purpose. Sometimes, I have a weird sense of humor 

In this case, I had this picture in mind of the end of a tv show where the announcer dramatically proclaims "Will our hero pull through once again or will he finally taste defeat ? Stay tuned till the next episode of Clint & the critics !" Clint & critics is just an alliteration, albeit the shortest possible, so if Clint didn't happen to start with a 'c' I wouldn't have used 'critics'.
Also, you've got to admit that 'Clint & the nice guys who help him along' doesn't sound like a tv show you would watch 

Rest assured that if I you really managed to **** me off, I'd have no qualms to tell you so. In the most extreme case you'd get no further comment, and, after a few days, the pics of the finished cab.

Prior to starting this thread, I have read through nearly every thread in the project announcements, so I have a pretty good idea what this can evolve (or devolve) into. I recall a guy who botched up an original cab (Asteroids, I believe) real bad and the lively barrage of comments culminated into someone advising him to get himself run over by a bus.
Also, I believe that if you choose to present your project to a bunch of people who are real fans of the hobby, you have to be aware that you will get a more pointed reaction. Someone who has never seen a car will certainly be impressed by it, someone who has built one himself is more likely to pore over details.
So, to make a ... short story even shorter, I'm aware that you people are trying to help, and I appreciate it. While I might temporarily be bothered by it, it WILL lead to me having a better cab. So all is good.

[yotsuya]

Yeah, I didn't THINK you meant anything by that - that was just for the sake of future generations who might read this thread and think we were just being cabsoles for the sake of it. 

Again, I think we're in a Golden Age of Cab Design. We've moved on from "Neat, it can play classic video games" as far as being impressed by cabinets, and I'd like to think feedback helps us all evolve.

[rablack97]

Don't listen to these guys.  What this build needs, what would really set it off, would be a ---fracking--- orangutan and some full color Every Which Way but Loose action to compliment those totally awesome speaker covers. 

Sorry, couldn't help it. 

I'm actually with the others, I like it better without. 

Still tho...

missed one

[Slippyblade]

missed one

Missed the BEST one!

[Le Chuck]

Clyde is the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---!

Also, I really might have to get that Any Which Way You Can poster for my garage.  Probably should get both and twin frame them. 

[yotsuya]

Clyde is the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---!

Also, I really might have to get that Any Which Way You Can poster for my garage.  Probably should get both and twin frame them. 

"Right turn, Clyde!"

[yamatetsu]

Could't resist.

[yotsuya]

WORK THAT IN YOUR CAB SOMEHWHERE!!!!1!!! 

[Vigo]

Back of cabinet art. Do it! 

[Generic Eric]

Could't resist.

Kick plate!  Or maybe you can work that into the bezel?

[rablack97]

Could't resist.

Oh that's just awesomeness.......see now i'm pulling back my approval on the CP.



And rework Clyde's finger so it doesn't look like a penis......

[yamatetsu]

I don't get you guys. Things I work on for hours upon hours are meh, a joke I slap together in 10 minutes leaves you salivating.

Kick plate!  Or maybe you can work that into the bezel?

Kick plate : Already done as seen in the coin door pic I posted previously. Also would clash with the edge lit Clint which would be directly above it.

Bezel : Has Josey Wales in it whom I like more. In addition to that the bezel is only a little less than 6 inches high, I don't think that this would look good if squashed so small.

Oh that's just awesomeness.......see now i'm pulling back my approval on the CP.

Don't push it, I'm already redoing the CP. If you are implying that this should go onto the CP : That doesn't work because this is a square pic that would have to go into a rectangular shape, meaning it would have to be squashed something fierce. Also the text would go smack through the trackball.

Back of cabinet art. Do it! 

That would be the only option in my opinion. Small problem : The back of the cab looks like this.



I see three options to do the art :



Bear in mind that I have to use my magical frog tape, so the smaller the art, the less likely it is that I'm able to do the fine cuts, so a few details will probably be lost in the process.

[pbj]

Go big or go home.

You could also just print the black on clear transparencies, use clear coat to glue them to the back of the cabinet, and then encapsulate the top in a layer of clear. 

I did that when I did some similar style artwork and didn't feel like cutting out a detailed stencil.

[Generic Eric]

I don't get you guys. Things I work on for hours upon hours are meh, a joke I slap together in 10 minutes leaves you salivating.

Kick plate!  Or maybe you can work that into the bezel?

Kick plate : Already done as seen in the coin door pic I posted previously. Also would clash with the edge lit Clint which would be directly above it.

Bezel : Has Josey Wales in it whom I like more. In addition to that the bezel is only a little less than 6 inches high, I don't think that this would look good if squashed so small.

Oh that's just awesomeness.......see now i'm pulling back my approval on the CP.

Don't push it, I'm already redoing the CP. If you are implying that this should go onto the CP : That doesn't work because this is a square pic that would have to go into a rectangular shape, meaning it would have to be squashed something fierce. Also the text would go smack through the trackball.

Back of cabinet art. Do it! 

That would be the only option in my opinion. Small problem : The back of the cab looks like this.



I see three options to do the art :



Bear in mind that I have to use my magical frog tape, so the smaller the art, the less likely it is that I'm able to do the fine cuts, so a few details will probably be lost in the process.

Hear me out.   Because with just a little more tinkering ^{and maybe cutting a whole new panel} you could have that top vent in the center of his chest.  Back light that separately and it would look like an arc reactor.  Maybe someone would notice but you could act like it was a happy accident. 


Have fun.  Thanks for sharing your project with us.

[Rick]

Or these:

[Generic Eric]

Or these:

Bezel

[Rick]

Bezel

To be frank, Clyde and Clint are smarter choices for the bezel. You've got multiple gun barrels in the above idea, which could all be placed to surround the three vents.

[rablack97]

I like # 3......however keep in mind this is the back of the cab, will hardly ever be seen, this needs to be seen all all times if possible.



No i was not implying this to go on the CP i was implying that the cooler you make this thing the worse the CP is gonna look in that current state.

to PBJ's comment go big or go home........

Stop making this darn thing better if your not gonna fix the CP.........dammit man


soooooooo





And clydes version of denied.....



 

[pbj]

That chimp flipping the bird makes this entire project work, in my opinion.  You went from "nice but misguided" to "epic" in one jump.  That's a rare feat around here.

[Vigo]

And rework Clyde's finger so it doesn't look like a penis......

I did some similar style artwork

What other artwork out there involved ape dick?

[rablack97]

That chimp flipping the bird makes this entire project work, in my opinion.  You went from "nice but misguided" to "epic" in one jump.  That's a rare feat around here.

+1

[Generic Eric]

Is this /mspaintbattles or what?  I can't do layers, but if you could just imagine your vent cover being secured over the jagged hole.  If you put rubbing alcohol on plexi it gives a look of frost in the early stages.

[yotsuya]

I don't get you guys. Things I work on for hours upon hours are meh, a joke I slap together in 10 minutes leaves you salivating.

Well, then now might be a good time to use that option to tell us to go ---fudgesicle--- ourselves. 

[yotsuya]

Just do the first one:



It's a joke, we all know it's a joke, no one will ever see it, but it's cool that it's there.

[Vigo]

We would also love you to add "Angry Birthday" Clint 

[Slippyblade]

I don't get you guys. Things I work on for hours upon hours are meh, a joke I slap together in 10 minutes leaves you salivating.

Sometimes the BEST ideas are off-the-cuff jokes.  These boards tend to be very organic - look at some of Tully's works as examples.

[Le Chuck]

"I put my pants on like you... one leg at a time. But when my pants are on i make gold records the most kick ass art recommendations evar." -Bruce Dickinson Le Chuck

[yamatetsu]

Well, then now might be a good time to use that option to tell us to go ---fudgesicle--- ourselves. 

You wouldn't believe how sorely tempted I am right now.

Sigh.

In order of appearance :

Go big or go home.

I shall be heading home, then. Bye.

You could also just print the black on clear transparencies, use clear coat to glue them to the back of the cabinet, and then encapsulate the top in a layer of clear.

The stuff I have available, though transparent, is clearly visible. I didn't go to such lengths to make the front art look as good as I can to have something on the back that just looks slapped on. Also, I can only print up to A4 size, so Clint & Clyde would consist of several pieces, with no chance of hiding that.

Hear me out.   Because with just a little more tinkering ^{and maybe cutting a whole new panel} you could have that top vent in the center of his chest.  Back light that separately and it would look like an arc reactor.  Maybe someone would notice but you could act like it was a happy accident. 

First of all, these holes are intend for passive cooling, so no vent. The whole back will be removable, so if possible I don't want any cables attached to it. Visually it would look arkward because Clint would have to be moved up and left, leaving Clyde too close to him and a gap on the right side.



So, while this is a neat idea, which could be simplified by just buying a neon-lit vent, it will probably not happen.

Or these:

Or these:

Bezel

The bezel will very probably have no art at all. I can't print anything that big, so it would look pieced together. Also, there is something like too much of a good thing. There's the coin door with the edge-lit Clint, the CP, the speaker covers and the marquee. I think that's quite enough art already.

I like # 3......however keep in mind this is the back of the cab, will hardly ever be seen, this needs to be seen all all times if possible.

I am inclined to do #3 ... On the back of the cab.

Stop making this darn thing better if your not gonna fix the CP.........dammit man


soooooooo





And clydes version of denied.....

And my version of denied ... I told you not to push it. The CP will be done as I showed you in the last layout. End of discussion.

Is this /mspaintbattles or what?  I can't do layers, but if you could just imagine your vent cover being secured over the jagged hole.  If you put rubbing alcohol on plexi it gives a look of frost in the early stages.

This doesn't work on multiple levels. First of all, it just looks like some pics randomly thrown together. Second, we are talking about stencils here, I'd never be able to cut out the cracked glass. Which brings us to point number three : The broken glass is cut off at the edges. I can only convert these pictures into silhouettes, I'm not able to do the missing cracks in the glass myself.
Fourth, how would you get the part of the gun that's covered by the vent ? This is meant for ventilation, so putting something over it which contains the art is not so smart.
Sorry, but that's a no.

Conclusion : Option #3 it is on the back of the cab.

[yotsuya]

Great.... You ---smurfs--- broke yamatetsu.

[yamatetsu]

Great.... You ---saint's minions--- broke yamatetsu.

Even better response time on this ... Are you training that ?

[yotsuya]

You just happened to post when I happened to check. 

If it's that unfun for you, bro, just tell us to get lost and build what you want to build. To be honest, your theme is so... offbeat, maybe we don't know how to handle it. Build it the way you want to build it.

[rablack97]

I honestly don't care which way he goes with it, its his cab, and he has to live with it and play it.

Posting your work leaves you open to criticisms and opinions, raves and kudos.  All in all I'm just having fun with this.

If you decide to go with CP #1 with the 3 sticks on it, what am i gonna really do about it, not a darn thing.  You'll be proud of your work and thats all that matters. What we think and comment on is because we've all built before and just like to see good stuff.

All i can tell you is dont pull out the tampon now and get cranky, have fun with it, do what you feel is best for your situation and roll on.

[yamatetsu]

Well, it gets a little old that this is ping-ponging all over the place. I just want to be able to finish the cab sometime. Possibly in the near future.

[rablack97]

Look at it like this.....you've got 2000 views and a alot of the major players and OG's in this forum commenting on your build, so your doing something right man.  Yes we all push buttons but thats because we like what your doing.  Anyway....be glad your not the guy that posted and only gets like 30 views after like a week and nobobdy even posts a response, thats when you know your project is straight trash.......

Do your thing man......take what you want out of our BS and ignore the rest.....

Well, it gets a little old that this is ping-ponging all over the place. I just want to be able to finish the cab sometime. Possibly in the near future.

Um who said you had to do what we said.....come on man, apparently you care too cause your making the changes......so don't blame us buddy, you want this to be the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- too 

[yamatetsu]

Yokay, will do 

[Le Chuck]

All this upsetness from the guy that wanted to use color caricatures on a theme build around silhouettes of photo real images?

I'm not seeing how we're slowing you down man, its not like you have to check BYOAC before you make your next cut.  You don't even have to post.  We LOVE that you do, and enjoy thread jacking thread jackable threads from time to time but let's be honest bro, we're not painting mona lisas over here. So get in work shop, finish it your way and let us see it when its done...or, keep on posting and be ready for folks to do what folks do best.  Enjoy themselves with fellow hobbyists. 

[rablack97]

All this upsetness from the guy that wanted to use color caricatures on a theme build around silhouettes of photo real images?

I'm not seeing how we're slowing you down man, its not like you have to check BYOAC before you make your next cut.  You don't even have to post.  We LOVE that you do, and enjoy thread jacking thread jackable threads from time to time but let's be honest bro, we're not painting mona lisas over here. So get in work shop, finish it your way and let us see it when its done...or, keep on posting and be ready for folks to do what folks do best.  Enjoy themselves with fellow hobbyists.

Dang and Yot slapped my hand for being a meanie.....

+1 on this though.........Enjoy themselves with fellow hobbyists.

[yotsuya]

Well, it gets a little old that this is ping-ponging all over the place. I just want to be able to finish the cab sometime. Possibly in the near future.

When I was working on my Macross build, there were a few guys that tried to talk me into going full-size side art. I politely declined, though, because that didn't mesh with my vision. They gave me other pointers that I DID take into consideration, like the color scheme (battleship grey and gunmetal, which I NEVER would have considered on my own), and an graphic bezel, which I wasn't going to do. You can pick and choose from our advice whatever you want, really. Or you can just finish it and post pics when you are done and that's that.

I will say this, we might be having fun with this build, but I don't think a single piece of feedback has been purposefully malicious. No one's messing with you just for the sake of it. I have pretty much agreed with all the suggestions and criticisms, and I fully believe the guys suggesting them are trying to be helpful.

[Vigo]

I love Clint Eastwood, and I love your stencilwork. That is enough to keep me watching with anticipation. 

[PL1]

When I was working on my Macross build, there were a few guys that tried to talk me into going full-size side art. I politely declined, though, because that didn't mesh with my vision.

Fortunately, it was a vision, and not a putty nose.   


Scott

[Generic Eric]

+1 to what these guys said.  I've spent part of my night working on my tornado dude with my new to me dremel and the bits that came in the mail today.   Otherwise I would have chimed in sooner.   This afternoon, it was easier, though much lengthier, to toss together something in mspaint than a bunch of text explaining my idea. 

At this point I am interested to know what you are using to work the plexi?   What tool, which bit, & what depth are you cutting to?  Also what thickness of plexi again?

Best wishes.

[yamatetsu]

At this point I am interested to know what you are using to work the plexi?   What tool, which bit, & what depth are you cutting to?  Also what thickness of plexi again?

My main tools for the entire build are a jigsaw, a corded drill, a palm sander and a roller for the paint. I used 2mm lexan (or polycarbonate). Very easy to cut, also very easy to scratch.
The bit is a 30 mm forstner bit. No problems with the lexan, MDF is another matter. I don't know if I got a bad bit, for 15 euros (circa 20 dollars) it certainly wasn't cheap. I'd say it takes about three minutes to drill one hole into 12mm MDF, and besides drilling the bit is literally burning through it. The sides of the holes are all blackened and while drilling I get smoke like if I was having a small fire.

[yamatetsu]

All this upsetness from the guy that wanted to use color caricatures on a theme build around silhouettes of photo real images?

Sorry, did't know that you have to be a perfect designer to earn the right to be upset. My bad.

My main issue is rablack nagging me with the fricking CP. I explained that there are certain restrictions to what I can do, he kept nagging. I changed the layout and told him that I will redo the panel, he kept nagging. I told him to shut it, he kept nagging. Yesterday I modified the panel and used it as a template to drill the lexan. The three left admin buttons have to be moved a bit to the left.
The old holes can just stay as they are in the MDF. After having drilled a few holes into the lexan, I realized that I just had transferred the old holes to it, thus ruining it. This, of course, was my last piece of lexan. So I wasn't in a particular good mood when I checked the forum. First thing I see is rablack nagging again. That just blew my fuse.

For you, this goes on for two weeks and a half. For me, it's ten months in which not only the paint went wrong, that CP for example was the third one I did, and there were many other things. So, my level of tension about certain things is a bit higher than you might realize, hence it probably seems that I'm throwing a tantrum without reason, but sometimes it's just things adding up until someone discovers the trigger.

After cooling off a bit, I'm not mad at anybody. Keep posting your stuff and don't be surprised if after a while I cut you short 

[yotsuya]

After cooling off a bit, I'm not mad at anybody. Keep posting your stuff and don't be surprised if after a while I cut you short 

Actually, don't be surprised if the "stuff" dries up. 

[DaveMMR]

For the record, I started the thread thinking "okay, some offbeat theme for an arcade cabinet - problem some generic pics on the sides." But seeing the detail you put into this intrigues me.  I can't wait until the finished product.


Yeah, I did recoil a bit at the CP. Wasn't the worst layout I've ever seen (sticks aren't angled; buttons are arranged in a recognizable fashion - that's 75% of the battle right there) but it's easy enough to fix.


I see you're getting a bit frustrated. That goes with the hobby. Working on my projects, I've cursed enough to make God cry. But, if anything, you learned a couple of important lessons for the next time:
1. Hammer out the CP layout first before everything else, including artwork.
2. Sometimes you got to log off the forums if you ever hope to get work done. 


Good luck - looking forward to seeing more progress! 

[talkgeek]

re the feed back ..my projects fit into rablack97's comment below [unfortunately  ]

Look at it like this.....you've got 2000 views and a alot of the major players and OG's in this forum commenting on your build, .......be glad your not the guy that posted and only gets like 30 views after like a week and nobobdy even posts a response, thats when you know your project is straight trash.......

I really like your project!  I really like the stencil approach, I think it harks back to some of the original '70's arcade styling (yet original)
 
I have been watching from the start ..and to be honest have some misgiving's about the CP layout too (sorry)

However I own a Vinyl cutter, so if you would consider taking some of the advise being offered here to change the CP (and probably artwork placement or sizing etc), I'm prepared to cut the final stencils for you and send them to where ever you are located (PM me details and final artwork)

This is me offering to help you get the best out of your vision, offered with out strings (nor do you need to accept)

All the best - enjoying your project, looking forward to seeing it's outcome! 

[yamatetsu]

1. Hammer out the CP layout first before everything else, including artwork.

Well, I put the blame on the paint job. As it became apparent that I would be redoing that a lot, I didn't want to end up posting my project announcement and then giving weekly status updates about things getting messed up again and again. Also, I wasn't even sure if I would ever get it right. So, when I had nothing to do but waiting for the paint to dry, I did the stuff that has no paint job, including the CP.

I have been watching from the start ..and to be honest have some misgiving's about the CP layout too (sorry)

However I own a Vinyl cutter, so if you would consider taking some of the advise being offered here to change the CP (and probably artwork placement or sizing etc), I'm prepared to cut the final stencils for you and send them to where ever you are located (PM me details and final artwork)

This is me offering to help you get the best out of your vision, offered with out strings (nor do you need to accept)

All the best - enjoying your project, looking forward to seeing it's outcome! 

Thanks for the offer ! Appreciate it. I don't mind redoing the art, in fact, I bought the cardboard for that yesterday. I won't change the art, as I happened to have a really hard time finding a pic that looks good, does have a rectangular shape and still looks good with a bunch of buttons plastered over it.

The main discussion about the CP is about the joystick / button placement. This is a small panel, putting a trackball on it severely restricts the placement of the other stuff. Everyone seems to dislike it, but so far no-one has given me a better solution. Except for rablack, who recommended leveling the joysticks and moving the left admin buttons further to the left. This I have done.
If I hadn't screwed up the lexan I would already have presented you the new CP, which undoubtedly will be disliked aswell. But hopefully not as much as the first one 

[dkersten]

I know what you were feeling when you posted your rant (heck, read the "masterpiece" thread).  Just because other's might tell you how they think it should be done doesn't mean you have to take the advice.  The way I look at it is whenever you are given an alternative way to do things, or even just told that what you did isn't good enough, it makes you take a second look with a different perspective.  You look back at something you thought was perfect, or at least "good enough", and look at it with the idea that it isn't.  At that point you can decide for yourself if what you are looking at is still "good enough" for you, and if so, keep it and run with it.  But if you look at it and say "Well, ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, I now see that it needs to be fixed or redone" then you are the one who has to live with the next decision.  I am one of those people who can't accept that something I could have changed got left alone because I just didn't want the hassle.  If I know it should be changed but I don't have the time or money to redo it, that is one thing, but if I could have and didn't, it will bother me.

The point is, you have to decide those things for yourself, and in the end take everything people say here as advice or opinion, not as demands.  This is your project and you are building it for you, so do what makes YOU happy.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with just not responding to someone's ideas, or to just respond by saying "I see what you are saying, but I want this to be the way I did it, so I will go with my plan." 

You didn't set out to build your "masterpiece", just a cabinet you wanted to build.  You wanted to make it the best you could with your skills, and you alone know of every single flaw.  Your perseverance and dedication to getting it the way YOU want it is what has brought so many to appreciate this.  You have some unique art, a couple "out of the box" features, and were willing to share with us not just the final product but the trials along the way.  That is what gains attention here.  It isn't about winning a popularity contest, and if it is, then you are doing it wrong. 

I am glad you decided to redo the control panel, but not because I think it would have ruined the overall build, but rather because I think you would have been disappointed in it yourself down the road.  I would love to see that clyde graphic in there somewhere, but if you don't feel you can fit it or have art you would rather use, then by all means, do what you want, if the finished product is something I like, it doesn't matter to me what "could have been".  On the other hand, if the finished product is something you DON'T like, then it DOES matter what could have been..

[Dalgaard]

1) Clint is bad ass!
2) Nice cabinet so far! (apart from the CP, but I shouldn't go there...oh wait, I already did).

3)

That chimp flipping the bird makes this entire project work, in my opinion.  You went from "nice but misguided" to "epic" in one jump.  That's a rare feat around here.

[yamatetsu]

It isn't about winning a popularity contest, and if it is, then you are doing it wrong. 

 

Wait ... You ... you are telling me that I won't win ?



In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have cut the Clyde 'discussion' (don't know hot to put it) short, as there are many creative guys here who just love tossing ideas around. I was in fact considering some art for the back, as it looks a bit lackluster with three vent holes and a serial plate. Clyde now finds himself on the back of the cab, with the first coat of black applied and the second will be done tonight. I hope that this will be the first time that I get it right at the first try, because cutting those small graphics sure is no fun and peeling off the tape was pretty difficult (read : a nightmare). If all goes well, I'll post pics tomorrow.

Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it.

[BGoulette]

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have cut the Clyde 'discussion' (don't know hot to put it) short, as there are many creative guys here who just love tossing ideas around. I was in fact considering some art for the back, as it looks a bit lackluster with three vent holes and a serial plate. Clyde now finds himself on the back of the cab, with the first coat of black applied and the second will be done tonight. I hope that this will be the first time that I get it right at the first try, because cutting those small graphics sure is no fun and peeling off the tape was pretty difficult (read : a nightmare). If all goes well, I'll post pics tomorrow.

Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it.

But does Clyde's middle finger still look like a penis? 

I'm still in the process of trying to piece together some ideas myself, so observing the back and forth here has been instructive. You've got some mad patients patience with that frog tape and scalpel!

[yamatetsu]

But does Clyde's middle finger still look like a penis? 

Nope, I made that just a rounded shape. Can't say how it will look though as right now it is covered in tape.

You've got some mad patients patience with that frog tape and scalpel!

Well, at first it was patience, then it became pure stubbornness. I won't accept defeat from a lifeless object 

[rablack97]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/Smileys/default/afro.gif

After cooling off a bit, I'm not mad at anybody. Keep posting your stuff and don't be surprised if after a while I cut you short 

Actually, don't be surprised if the "stuff" dries up. 

Yep, your complaining about all the comments about your work......It happens, and you will be like where the hell did everybody go, nobody is saying anything anymore.

[yamatetsu]

The serial plate.
I made a cereal plate.

The concept :



I took some thin sheet metal, cut it into a rectangle using shears (don't know if this is the right word for it), printed the art on a transparent adhesive sticker, cut it out and put it onto the sheet metal.

A horrible pic of it mounted on the back of the cab :



A larger view :



And a zoom :

[pbj]

Nice work.

 

[rablack97]

 

[yamatetsu]

I realized that Clyde somehow lost his nose in transit. Fixed that with two tiny stickers painted black.

[Vigo]

Clyde smells again!

[jongunz]

Really like your build, however i agree with most everyone else that the control panel needs to be fixed.  In the second mockup you did looks like you should try and spread player one and player 2 controls out some.  My cabinet was 28 inches wide so I was able to fit a third 4way stick in the middle plus 2 buttons for pacman, galaga, etc.  With the track ball I don't think you have the room.

Anyway Love the artwork, loathe the CP.

Hope you get it worked out as it's looking amazing.  I always like seeing the different talents of everyone on this forum.

[yamatetsu]

That is the problem. There simply is no room to do anything differently. I can't move the controls closer to the front because of the trackball housing / the P2 stick being too close to the trackball. I can't spread the controls out because the P1 stick already is pretty close to the side wall. The only thing to do to get the P2 controls closer to the front would be to mirror the P1 controls, meaning P2 would have to use the right hand to control the stick. That would give P1 an unfair advantage 

So, that's my dilemma. Everbody tells me to fix the CP, but nobody can tell me how to do that. 

Perhaps sometime in the future I will decide that the trackball doesn't get much use and can be ditched, but right now it seems that this will be the 'I like it very much, but ...' cab.

Anyway, my lexan has arrived, today I spent some time cutting the art. If I get good weather tomorrow I will drill the lexan and put the CP together, then it's time to start CP bashing round two 

[markc74]

Go with what you've got chap. Its your cab. If you don't like it down the line you can change it easily enough. Peeps obviously like what your doing but there's a MASSIVE amount of experience here and everything said is with best intentions.  If you ask for feedback your gonna get it :-).

Comfort over design tho. Every time.

[Louis Tully]

.

[yamatetsu]

Thanks Louis ! Now I have something to work with.    I recall that sometime ago someone had the problem of one button being too close to the stick, which was solved by unscrewing the mounting plate, rotating it 90 degrees and screwing it back on.  Didn't think of that. D'oh.

My main concern would be the left stick being to close to the side wall, a lesser concern the possibility of hitting the P2 stick when using the trackball, that's why I placed the P2 controls so high up. I will do a cardboard mockup and see if it fits. I sure hope so.

Oh, I forgot : The third stick is gone, I can use my UltraStik instead. I'm thinking of kicking the exit & pause buttons also, using a shift combo instead. That would save me driliing two holes if I redo the panel 

[yamatetsu]

Bad news. I did the mockup, the P1 stick is just too close to the side wall. I can barely put three fingers between the balltop and the wall, and I don't even have big hands. It just isnt' comfortable.



This would work if it was a cab meant for children, but not for me.

I fixed the board using rablack's suggestions, the CP will look like this.

[yamatetsu]

After staring vacantly at it for a long time, I thought about ditching the admin buttons, keeping only the p1/p2 start buttons and shift-combo-ing the others.

This is what I'm leaning towards now.

[BGoulette]

I like that layout much more, but now Clint is stretched horizontally! Any chance you could scale him up a bit and keep his proportions?

[pbj]

[rablack97]

After vacantly staring at it for a long time, I thought about ditching the admin buttons, keeping only the p1/p2 start buttons and shift-combo-ing the others.

This is what I'm leaning towards now.

Keep your credit buttons man...lose pause if anything.

plr start and credit for each side.....

unless you plan on using your coin door permanently.

[pbj]

Could also get a couple of poker buttons, crack them open, stick some artwork inside, and mount on the front of the cabinet. 

I've found that works exceptionally well that 0.01% of the time I have multiple players on my machine.

[yamatetsu]

I like that layout much more, but now Clint is stretched horizontally! Any chance you could scale him up a bit and keep his proportions?

Umm, the pic was like this the whole time ... The problem is that putting a square picture into a rectangular frame leaves a lot of white space. I don't have the square version of the pic right now, but I used a similar one :



I think the slightly squashed one looks waay better. Also, I just spent about three hours cutting it out for the new panel, sooo ... I think it will stay.

Keep your credit buttons man...lose pause if anything.

plr start and credit for each side.....

unless you plan on using your coin door permanently.

Like this ?



Just ignore the second circle above the P1 joystick, I don't know where that sucker comes from.

[Vigo]

Probably more work, but just a stencil suggestion for the control panel.

[yotsuya]

Bad. Ass. Vigo, Badass.

Though the cracks would probably be impossible to do right.

[rablack97]

Probably more work, but just a stencil suggestion for the control panel.

 

[Vigo]

Thanks, guys! 

[yamatetsu]

Utterly impossible. We're talking cutting cardboard + doubletape. There's no way to do such small cuts on this. The art on the back of the cab was incredibly hard to do, and it is way bigger than this.

This could only be done using a plotter, and that would be cheating 

[Le Chuck]

Then just use a projector, toss it up on the white painted CP and hand paint it.  Should be a snap.  Just use a 00 liner brush or something like that for the detail bits. 

[yamatetsu]

No way. For you, this may be as natural as breathing, for me ... If I were to paint using brushes, it would look like it's been done by a four year old. And in a direct competition, I would favor the four year old.

[Vigo]

Yeah, that would be hard with cardboard, but I guess I assumed that talkgeek was still gonna hook you up with vinyl stencils. I figure it might need some simplification, and the details like the spiderweb cracks would be out, but something along those lines could probably be done by putting vinyl down.

[yamatetsu]

How to put it ? For me using vinyl would be the cheap way out. Anyone can have a machine cut out the art, there's no challenge in that. My way to do it may be stupid, it certainly was very time consuming and frustrating, but the result is also much more satisfying. Showing the sides to a friend and having him ask 'Where did you get that vinyl ?' was really cool.

There is one exception that I will make, namely the marquee. The marquee will be short of 6 inches high, so the art going on there is so small that even if I were able to cut it, it probably would look hideous.

So, sorry, while this is a cool idea, I will stick to the original plan.

[Rick]

How to put it?

Differently. For someone as concerned as you were that you were being otherwise insulted in other sections of this thread, the choice of words following these are not necessarily the best. Everybody recognizes your efforts and talents - there's certainly no need to minimize others who do not share them.

[yamatetsu]

  Huh ? I think there are some serious misunderstandings going on here. I do not feel being insulted at all. I was just annoyed at rablack's constant nagging even after I told him that changing things was impossible.
When I explain to someone why I can't do something and he keeps telling me 'do it' I feel that this is beyond constructive criticism and begin getting annoyed. That's all.

About my talents - I honestly don't feel talented at all. If I come across as arrogantly looking down on people, that is neither the case nor my intention. If anything, I'm looking UP to the amazing things that you people do here. I certainly do not want to belittle others.

In the last post I just wanted to convey the point that up to now I have done things in a certain way and want to do that consistently where I am able to. I just think that this is what makes the cab unique. I did not want to gloat and tell others 'Here's something that I can do and you can't'.

It seems that I have a talent to rub people the wrong way.
So if anyone feels insulted or belittled by me, I apologize sincerely. That was not my intention.

[BGoulette]

I think I understood where you were coming from, but given this thread, I can see how it might have come across as more abrasive than you intended. For me, I got the sense that you didn't necessarily have a problem with vinyl on other peoples' cabs; that is, you wouldn't have considered that "cheating," but since you'd already gone through such trouble with your frog tape and scalpel on everything else, you didn't want to phone it in for the cp. I can relate: there are times when there's a simpler way to do something -- maybe it's even better! -- but because of cost or time investment, I'll forego that and stick with my possibly bizarre method that might cause others to scratch their heads. ;-)

[Rick]

So if anyone feels insulted or belittled by me, I apologize sincerely. That was not my intention.

As Ambassador of the No Art Skills, Vinyl-Sided Bartop Master Race, I humbly accept your apology.

[yamatetsu]

I think I understood where you were coming from, but given this thread, I can see how it might have come across as more abrasive than you intended. For me, I got the sense that you didn't necessarily have a problem with vinyl on other peoples' cabs; that is, you wouldn't have considered that "cheating," but since you'd already gone through such trouble with your frog tape and scalpel on everything else, you didn't want to phone it in for the cp. I can relate: there are times when there's a simpler way to do something -- maybe it's even better! -- but because of cost or time investment, I'll forego that and stick with my possibly bizarre method that might cause others to scratch their heads. ;-)

Nailed it.

So if anyone feels insulted or belittled by me, I apologize sincerely. That was not my intention.

As Ambassador of the No Art Skills, Vinyl-Sided Bartop Master Race, I humbly accept your apology.

Thank you ! 

I see your point now. I don't think vinyl = no art skills. It's just the other way round : I'm doing stencils because I don't have any art skills at all. I just wanted to say that anyone can CUT OUT that art with a machine.

[dkersten]

I get where you are coming from too.  It has to do with craftsmanship.  Some people take pride in their ability to draw on the computer, and to translate that onto a cabinet usually means vinyl.  Some people take pride in their woodworking skills and choose to use a woodgrain finish.  Neither is "better" than the other, just different skills.  But the guy doing the woodgrain finish probably wouldn't feel like he did the cab or his skills justice if he plastered a vinyl sticker on the control panel, especially not after taking the time to achieve a good finish by hand on the sides and edges of the rest of the cab.  This is no different.  Yam's craftsmanship here is mainly his perseverance in doing this "by hand".  And it feels good when someone thinks that your art is good enough to have come from a stencil, not cut by hand.  I agree that using a stencil on the control panel would "cheapen" what he has already achieved. 

[Vigo]

How to put it? 

"A man has got to know his Limitations," and you sir, are much more than talented enough to be using the "beyond my abilities" card. After how meticulously you slaved over the side art, control panel, and BACK ART, it struck me as very odd that you just resorted to a stretched out clint eastwood face, because you needed a way to fill white space. I totally think it is cool you are doing this art 100% by hand, but I am a little surprised you are calling it a dead-end idea; even if you don't like it, I figured it would be enough to inspire you to come up with an art layout that works with the controls, rather than simply filling space.

Here is just a quick simplification of my prior idea. I think this should be closer to doable by hand. 

[yamatetsu]

You, sir, seem to have a higher opinion of me than I do. The sides and the back art may look good, but that was cutting through paper and tape, not a much harder material. For that, you have apply very high pressure while cutting, which doesn't mix well with doing very small cuts.

I did the design prior to any slaving, and the back art wasn't even planned. Yes, I chose the face because it fills the space, but also because even with the buttons and the controls plastered over it, it still is highly recognizable. And, most importantly, I simply like it, even in it's squashed state.

Here is just a quick simplification of my prior idea. I think this should be closer to doable by hand. 

The bullet holes are definitely out. Believe me, these lines cannot be cut out of cardboard.

The stripe that you sneakily added while I wasn't looking looks and fits very well, but. Think of holding a wobbly stripe of cardboard about 24 inches long with an incredibly sticky adhesive on the back over the CP and try to put it down so that is perfectly aligned with the edge of the CP.
Now think of having a Clint in a poncho on the left side of said stripe and try to do that again in one try, otherwise you botch it because you won't get that sticky stuff off.
If you believe you can do that, I congratulate you on your self confidence 
My recent experiences have shown me that I suck badly in this department.

The text in my opinion is kinda redundant, including the face I will have 8 versions of Clint on the cab, plus the text on the marquee. So, I think there are enough hidden hints to get that this is about Clint 

I figured it would be enough to inspire you to come up with an art layout that works with the controls, rather than simply filling space.

Says the man who uses bullet holes to simply fill the space 
Sorry, couldn't resist.

All right, I'll see if I can come up with something, but don't get your hopes up. I'm a bit pessimistic about that.

[Malenko]

totally late to chime in, I didn't want to get involved in the Clyde controversy.


You've done great work, that's not limited just to the the concept, the art, or anything else. Overall it is a great cabinet that you should be VERY VERY proud of. Your attitude about listening to the forums is a refreshing change from what had become the stubborn new member.   I look forward to watching the progress from the shadows. I too was worried about your control panel, but that seems to be under control now too 

[Vigo]

I agree with Malenko, it is really awesome seeing everything that you did, and most new members would be telling us to get off their lawn, with all the input we have injected in.

You are talented, and made some improvements from the suggestions of the experienced people here. I have been enjoying this project since day 1.

As far as your control panel goes, I think all your points are very valid. (Except the too much "clint" issue. There is no such thing as too much clint.)


 I honestly don't think your original CP art looked that bad either. It just sounded like you were not completely happy with it, but didn't know any alternative to the white space problem. By all means, keep your old art is it is what you were envisioning. 

The only thing I am wondering, are you dead-set on cardboard? I think your ability with tape is top-notch. Of course, I am not exactly sure of how the end product looks with cardboard, so I'm not trying to say it is worse.

I have done frogtape for striping on cabs, and kinda figured it is the easiest thing to do, that is why I sneakily added it in.  If I were to try to tackle my cp design by hand, this would be my process.

1) With moves like Jagger, I would start by painting it black.
2) For the stripe, one strip of frogtape across.
3) For the bullet holes, I would grab some circular stickers, like for yard sales. Plant those around. Then Take some scissors and cut little slivers of frogtape, and place them coming out of the holes in jagged lightning shapes to make crack lines.
4) Paint it white. Remove the tape. The line and bullet holes should be done.
5) Since I am not a tape guru, I would probably Make a linocut of Clint and stamp him on after everything has dried.

Whatever you do, I will still be enjoying this thread and your project. 

[yamatetsu]

The cardboard is a necessity, not something I chose voluntarily. The CP consists of 12mm MDF, 2 layers of 2mm lexan, the art and then 1 layer of 2mm lexan. Without the art I am at 18mm, the maximum height for the trackball is 19mm.
So, for the bottom layer of the art I needed something sturdy yet thin that covers the mounting-plate-sized joystick holes without sagging. The art itself gave me a size problem. I can't print anything that big, cardboard comes in big sheets, so ...

I have tried using thick black paper and doubletape, cutting it was relatively easy, but trying to put that wobbly stuff onto the white cardboard ... That went south in a hurry.

I am not exactly sure of how the end product looks with cardboard, so I'm not trying to say it is worse.

It actually looks better than the paint. No paint bleeding and the cuts are crisp and clean. It's a bit like comparing bitmaps to vectors. From afar, both look good, but when you look closer you see that the painted lines are jagged where the tape took too much paint off. The cardboard cuts stay sharp from every viewing distance (unless you use a microscope, but that would be taking things a bit too far).

[yamatetsu]

A humble offering to the Scourage of Carpathia.



I put a test strip of frogtape on the cardboard. While it can be removed, it will probably take some cardboard with it. Just in some spots, but it becomes noticable. I have painted the bottom layer cardboard white in hopes of being able to remove the tape from the paint without issues. After a little while it started warping. I hope this will get ironed out by the top layer of lexan pressing on it, otherwise I'm out of luck.

[Le Chuck]

Reverse your stencil (cover black painting white) on the reverse of the lexan, pop the tape and coat the whole thing in a layer of black.  Right on the plastic.   

[yamatetsu]

Uuh, I'm not sure if I understand you correctly. I gather that you would do the art on the back of the lexan that is on top, eliminating the cardboard. To do this, I would mirror the stencils, put them on the back of the lexan, paint the remainder white, pull off the stencils and paint the transparent areas black. Correct ?

[Vigo]

That design is looking darn good though. I like your bullet hole design solution, and Harry on the left is especially awesome looking.   

I will continue to enjoy this thread and try not to light any more fires. 

[yamatetsu]

Hmm, so it's probably a bad time to mention that those bullet holes are just placeholders ... I don't think that I can cut them out. I plan on using a big drill to make real holes, push the jagged edges outwards and perhaps accentuate them with pencil graphite. We'll see how that plays out.

The Clints are small enough to be printed on stickers, which will make them a bit easier to cut out. The only problem left would be the stripes, which won't work on the cardboard. Those, however, I could do on the lexan, as LeChuck suggested.
So there is hope yet 

To pass the time, I amused myself with redoing the speaker covers. Here is the final version.

[Vigo]

Whaaa? You are getting crazy with this!  I am looking forward to seeing how your real holes work out.

[dkersten]

Uuh, I'm not sure if I understand you correctly. I gather that you would do the art on the back of the lexan that is on top, eliminating the cardboard. To do this, I would mirror the stencils, put them on the back of the lexan, paint the remainder white, pull off the stencils and paint the transparent areas black. Correct ?

Or, maybe, if you want to keep a similar effect to the cardboard technique and don't want to lose the thickness the cardboard added, place a full sheet of black painted cardboard behind that painted plexi. 

[yamatetsu]

Whaaa? You are getting crazy with this!  I am looking forward to seeing how your real holes work out.

See ? That's what you get when you put ideas into my head. I just wanted to do a simple face, but noo ...
 

Or, maybe, if you want to keep a similar effect to the cardboard technique and don't want to lose the thickness the cardboard added, place a full sheet of black painted cardboard behind that painted plexi. 

My post above seems to be a bit unclear. First of all, the cardboard is crafting cardboard, which comes in various colors, so no need to paint it to get back color. In fact, painting it would make it warp, that's why I can't do the stripes on it.
I will use white cardboard as the bottom layer. The Clints will be printed on stickers, cut out and placed on the bottom layer. Then I will drill the bullet holes into the cardboard. The stripes I will paint on the back of the lexan. If I manage to place everything right, I will get the full picture when I put the lexan on the cardboard.

[yamatetsu]

The control panel.

Good news and very bad news.

I went to the craft store to get some white cardboard and found that they had white photo cardboard. This is like thicker photo paper, but comes in bigger sheets. I thought that I probably would be able to remove the frogger tape without ripping anything up, so I bought a sheet.
I taped the stripes and painted them. While removing the tape I got the first hiccup : The tape went off nicely, but it separated the photo film from the cardboard. While I was able to press it back on, it now is dull instead of glossy.
Not a big problem, but you can see it if you look for it.

I cut out the stickers and painted them black.



Check the small details :





I managed to get the stickers on without damaging them.



Hiccup number two : Don't keep two versions of your art that only differ slightly. I managed to print the Clint on the right a bit too big, hence he is now a staunch supporter of button #6.

Some zooms :





And finally some zooms of two of the bullet holes :





These were done using a small drill that I kept moving against the edges while drilling.

So, what's the bad news ?

I can't put the top layer of lexan on. If the lexan gets pressed down, the photo film clings to it and leaves a sort of 'wet' print at that area. Since the player's hands will definitely press it down very much, there's no chance for the lexan.

I will probably have to experiment with clear lacquer to coat it with that and hope that a) this is enough to protect it or b) I am able to put the lexan on the lacquer.
The problem is that rolling the lacquer on will probably cause warping, and I suck really bad at spraypainting, especially doing big areas.

[PL1]

I think Yotsuya provides a solution in this thread.

Hit your marquee with a clear matte finish spray that you can get from any craft store. That's what I do, and it gets rid of that "wet" look.

Scott

[yotsuya]

I think Yotsuya provides a solution in this thread.

Hit your marquee with a clear matte finish spray that you can get from any craft store. That's what I do, and it gets rid of that "wet" look.

Scott

Yep. Anything glossy that goes under plexiglas or glass gets hit with a light coat of that. Works wonders.

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! I'll try to hunt down that stuff. Good to know that there is a solution for this. That does wonders for my blood pressure 

[dkersten]

Oh come on, you don't want to do your CP a third time? (or is it 4th?) 

[yamatetsu]

Yes, have fun yanking my chain 

As much as I love doing this (ha !), this will be a sink or swim. The face I have done 3 or 4 times, but this ... the tiny cuts on these suckers turn it from fun into not so fun. It took bloody ages, I was afraid that I couldn't do the cuts, then I was afraid that I would tear something off while removing the protective film from the stickers, THEN I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to put them on the CP. So if this turns out bad, I might have to do the face again.

[Rick]

Yep. Anything glossy that goes under plexiglas or glass gets hit with a light coat of that. Works wonders.

I just want to confirm, you spray matte clearcoat spray over your control panel overlay, let it dry, and then you can use an acrylic cover without worrying about the press-down effects mentioned above? (I had that on my first machine, wherever the buttons tightened down.)

If this is right, then this is an amazing tip! Thanks!

[yotsuya]

Yep. Anything glossy that goes under plexiglas or glass gets hit with a light coat of that. Works wonders.

I just want to confirm, you spray matte clearcoat spray over your control panel overlay, let it dry, and then you can use an acrylic cover without worrying about the press-down effects mentioned above? (I had that on my first machine, wherever the buttons tightened down.)

If this is right, then this is an amazing tip! Thanks!

Si, Ricardo. Works muy bueno.

[Rick]

Si, Ricardo. Works muy bueno.

Yots, my man!

[yotsuya]

Si, Ricardo. Works muy bueno.

Yots, my man!

You just need a light coat, BTW. Too heavy, and you'll get frosting. Just a light dusting so you know it's coated, let it dry, and you're golden.

[Vigo]

I need one of you clearcoat guru's to start a thread on your favorite clearcoating products. There are some awesome products, and I too often end up buying the lame ducks.

[yotsuya]

I need one of you clearcoat guru's to start a thread on your favorite clearcoating products. There are some awesome products, and I too often end up buying the lame ducks.

This is what I use:

http://www.krylon.com/products/low-odor-clear-finish/



I do try to find the low odor version so I can spray it inside. NOTE: The cans are the same for regular and matte. The plastic cover on top will say MATTE in black letters...

[Vigo]

Thanks for the tip, brother! 

[yamatetsu]

My sister had some transparent matte spray that is used to fix chalk paintings and such. It is alcohol based and contains shellac and synthetic resin. I gave the CP three light coats of this. It works.

When I put in the buttons for the mockup, I noticed that the top lexan layer warps in the trackball area  I'm starting to really get pissed off with this fricking thing. Now I have to put two screws into the lower black stripe, because one will not be enough to completely stop the warping.

[yamatetsu]

The neverending CP story continues. The wet effect is back. After having applied the spray I pressed the lexan down as hard as I could, no wet effect. I put the buttons in, wired everything, turned the CP around - hello wet effect 
I'll take everything apart again and give the art another coat, I hope that does it.

I made a bezel. After having read the $2 cardboard bezel thread somewhere in this forum, I wanted to do a version without all the measuring. My take on this :

- I need thick cardboard, thin black cardboard and doubletape

- Get the screen measurements, mark the rectangle on the thick blackboard and cut it out

- mark the rectangle on the black cardboard with a pencil

- make a second rectangle, each side 3 cm smaller

- cut the smaller rectangle out
 
- make diagonal lines from the corner points of the small rectangle to those of the larger rectangle

- Cut along the lines

- now I have four 'lips' that I can wrap around the thick cardboard

- put doubletape on both sides of the thick cardboard and the space between them

- if I put the black cardboard on the thick cardboard and wrap it around it, the corners will not be covered in black because of the diagonal cuts. To solve this, I simply cut out four small strips of black cardboard and place them on the corners. They will be held in place by the rest of the cardboard.

Some pics :

The thick cardboard + doubletape + four corner strips



The back side of the black cardboard, you can see one of lips sticking up on the left



The finished bezel



And the bezel under the glass

[yamatetsu]

I grabbed some cheap LED strips and made my marquee lights. The cables between them were too short, so I had to extend them. Doesn't look nice, but works.



Also, I glued & screwed some bits & pieces together. Here I hit my next problem : The hinges I used don't work for the door. I made a small mockup that worked well. The real size door doesn't. So, the former door will now be glued to the sides, access to the cab will be via the fully removable back panel.

This is a pic of the cab with the former door, the CP box and the marquee board and the speaker board glued on, the top, the glass and the back will be glued later.



A zoom of the lower part :



And one of the upper part :

[yamatetsu]

Not much progress. I managed to crack my tinted glass by screwing it too tight onto the frame. It had holes made for countersinking the screws, my screws were slightly too big, they couldn't be countersunk but worked fine.
Since the screws weren't going to be visible, this was just fine.
But no, I had to go and find smaller screws that could be countersunk, thereby fixing the glass into place so that it couldn't move.

Next time I lifted it up, it had a large crack in it. So even 1/4 inch thick glass is still as brittle as glass.
That one cost me about 130$. Now I have ordered bronze tinted lexan. Hope that works out.

I screwed and glued the second side panel and the top on.

A pic of the top :



I wonder why my camera manages to capture the ugliest part in glorious detail while the other pics are rather blurry. I think it's on purpose.

Here's a pic of the speakers :




The inside doesn't look quite so nice :



And finally a shot of the installed marquee LEDs :



Oh, and for all the fans of me redoing things, the CP art didn't work out. I just can't get rid of the wet effect, so it has to be redone, this time on cardboard without gloss.

I went to the store to purchase some stickers, only to discover that they are not available any more. The whole brand has been swapped with a cheaper one. I bought some of those stickers, they really are cheap. You almost can't distinguish the sticker and the back side. They can be cut like a dream, but painting them ...
So, all the work for nothing. Again.
I managed to hunt down a scrap piece of the good stickers which was barely big enough. So the Clints are cut out again and painted.
I even remembered to make the right Clint smaller so that he doesn't hit his head on the button.

Finally, I have a question : Can someone please tell me how to get CHDs working in MAME ?

I use MAMe 0.149, have the romset for it, also some CHDs for 0.149. Each CHD has it's own correctly named directory, which should be put into MAME's rom directory. This I did, but no dice.
MAME keeps telling me that something is missing. I also put the CHD directly into the rom directory and (just for fun) into the rom .zip, nothing helps.

[yotsuya]

That's too bad about the wet effect. I just sprayed a full marquee for my barstick project with no issue, no stickiness.

[yamatetsu]

The only stuff from Krylon I can get here would be "Krylon 11-Ounce Low Odor Clear Gloss Finish Aerosol Spray" which would cost me 34 Euros / 45 $. That's a bit steep for using it once. So, back to cardboard it is. 

[dkersten]

Not positive on when the mame version changes happened, but there are versions 4 and version 5 CHD's, and some can be converted and some can't using the CHDman program.  Most of what I found were older versions, and while some work, many don't.  Use clrmamepro to scan your CHD's (make sure you use the right dat for your version of mame) and you will find out what you have that is right and what isn't.  It is somewhat complicated, but once you dig into it a bit and read up, you will be able to clean up your existing roms and CHD files and get it all perfect. 

You can either have them in folders named after the ROM, or even just put all the CHD's in your root rom folder.  If it is named right and is the right version, it will work.

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! I'll try that.

[Pinfritz]

  you made my day.... cutting and painting like a boss! 

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! It's starting to come together now. I must say, it's really cool to see a design made months ago slowly becoming reality, and, thanks to you guys here, even better than planned.

[yamatetsu]

I finally got the CP art right. I went with white cardboard, painted black cardboard for the stripes and stickers for the Clints. Since the 'real' bullet holes I made do not pop that much, I wanted to give the clipart holes a chance. Here are the cutouts :



And the final version of the CP :



Thanks to Vigo for pushing me to do this. It came out pretty good, I think.

[Vigo]

Wow, dude. That is looking awesome!  I can't wait to see all these different pieces come together! 

[yamatetsu]

Me neither Although I have to admit that at times I'm strangely reluctant to finish this, because then ... it's over. I hope to put it all together next week, but since I've blown every deadline so far, this is not set in stone 

[Vigo]

Although I have to admit that at times I'm strangely reluctant to finish this, because then ... it's over.

When you realize just how much you like the endless toiling for perfection on your cab, it is proof positive that you are meant for this hobby. There is always build #2. Welcome to the club.





One of us! One of Us! Gooble Gobble Gooble Gobble!

[yamatetsu]

There is always build #2.

Must ... fight ... to ... resist ...

Build #2 is unlikely at the moment, as I don't even have the space for Clint, let alone for another one. Also, there is nothing more awesome than Clint 

[johnrt]

Must ... fight ... to ... resist ...

No point in resisting! So far I've built one fullsize cab and three bartops... it never ends!   

[pbj]

So what are your plans for the light guns and holsters?

[Slippyblade]

Although I have to admit that at times I'm strangely reluctant to finish this, because then ... it's over.

It's never over.  This becomes an addiction.  You will always be tweaking and adding to the existing cab.  Friends will want one of their own.  You'll suddenly decide you want a dedicated 4 way cab.  or a jukebox.  and then you find an old dedicated cab at a great price that you decide needs a restoration...

[yamatetsu]

So what are your plans for the light guns and holsters?

The light guns stay in their holsters. A 24" monitor IMHO is too small for that, especially when two people are milling about ... Me and a friend of mine used to play Point Blank and
Time Crisis II+III on a 35" TV, also House of the dead III on Dreamcast, sending zombies into bullet hell. Fun times.

Friends will want one of their own.  You'll suddenly decide you want a dedicated 4 way cab.  or a jukebox.  and then you find an old dedicated cab at a great price that you decide needs a restoration...

Nah, that is no great risk. Too few people for 4-way, my sound system is way too good for a jukebox and restoration is out because in Germany you don't find cabs to restore since there are next to no arcades. A friend wanting one though ... We'll see.

[Slippyblade]

Nah, that is no great risk. Too few people for 4-way, my sound system is way too good for a jukebox and restoration is out because in Germany you don't find cabs to restore since there are next to no arcades. A friend wanting one though ... We'll see.

You say that now.  I'll remember to have a nice long laugh at your expense when the next project thread rolls through. 

[yamatetsu]

Okay. But don't hold your breath ... You'll go all purple 
We'll see.

[talkgeek]

you guys are talking like he's finished this project ...  

I want to see pics of the completed cab before talk of cab #2  - though agree once the drug bug is present (and you sir do have it) you'll be looking for place's to house your new creations / restorations (I'm up to 9 and only started restoring my 1st in Dec 2009)

Have to say I'm really liking how the CP turned out

Your whole approach to this project has been quite courageous - I'm def in the category of little / no artistic skills (hence the purchase of a vinyl cutter) but your work here proves you can achieve great results with minimal tools - well done! 

[yamatetsu]

Thanks !

I don't have to look very far for space because there simply is none, unless I move. Which I planned to do in february / march, but life got in the way.

Glad to hear that the CP seems to be acceptable now 

I would call my approach to this more ignorant that courageous   
The old cliche really is true : You don't know what you are capable of until you actually do it.

Unfortunately, I also am in the category of little / no artistic skills, so I am really dreading having to come up with the MaLa theme. That one will most probably suck.

A little progress has been made. I have screwed the inner bezel and the tinted lexan onto the frame and screwed it into the cab.

I then made the marquee and got a lot of light bleed. I also discovered that a black sticker gets a bit transparent if you put a bright light behind it. So it is not a good idea to use non-transparent double tape to attach it to the plexi.

Basically - you guessed it - I will have to redo the whole thing. Luckily, this time I only have to cut out the 'CLINT' text, the rest will be printed. Still, my motivation for today is used up, so I will leave that for tomorrow.

Things left to do :

- the marquee
- install the monitor
- install the CP
- install the computer
- install the sound system
- a bit of wiring

and of course, almost everything software related.

[yamatetsu]

The marquee. I assembled the marquee, put it into the cab and fought the Evil Lightbleed.

I started with my trusty black cardboard and cut out the 'CLINT' text and the shape of the picture.



Then I printed the picture and a gradient that goes behind the 'CLINT' cutout on stickers, but left the protective film on because it diffuses light nicely.



Here is everything put together :



The light behind the marquee is pretty bright, so I thought about ways to dim it. Since I had leftovers of tinted lexan, I made a front layer out of it. As usual, the reflections make it look bad, in reality it looks really good, it adds a nice touch of understatement.



I put the marquee into the cab, only to find that it is not high enough by 2 millimeters or so, so I get a lot of light bleed. So the idea of it fitting perfectly and thus eliminating the need for marquee retainers went down the drain. I bought two angled pieces of plastic, painted them black and used those as retainers.

Here is the unlit marquee (again, bad lighting and reflections make it look much worse than it actually is) :



A pic of the lit marquee taken in darkness with flash :



And finally lit in darkness without flash.

[wildcat]

Awesome build!

[yamatetsu]

Thanks ! 

[yamatetsu]

Minor update : the monitor is installed. For a change, this went without a hitch.

[yamatetsu]

Spent the day fiddling around with the MaLa layout. Here is the I-told-you-it-will-suck result.

[Slippyblade]

Need to have a bullet to the right of the selected game with motion streaks toward the gun like it was just fired.  I know it's a little campy, but it would make the selected game stand out better.

[yamatetsu]

I don't think that this would work. The angle of the gun is wrong. This is what I came up with :



While it looks kinda cool, it misses the selected game nearly completely and makes the entries above actually worse to read.



But having looked at it a few times, it seems to grow on me. Perhaps I will keep it.

[yamatetsu]

Sound system. I installed the sound system. It's amazing how such flimsy steel band can hold a 6 kg receiver or a monitor so firmly in place. I was sceptical at first, now I'm a believer 

Here's a shot of the cab's inside :



And a zoom :



As you can see, I ran out of steel band, so it's a trip to the DIY store tomorrow.

Things left to do :

- install computer

-  install USB port

- wiring

- finish it !

[Slippyblade]

That was the idea, but you're right.  The angles are wrong...  Might need to tweak the arm with the gun a little or something.  I just thought it needed "something" to highlight the selected game.

Good use of perspective on the bullet sizing and trail though. 

[yamatetsu]

I'll keep it as it is, I think it would be difficult to put something in black behind the black text without making the text unreadable.
As for altering the graphics, I can't do that. I can convert a photo, but that's about it. On the plus side, the bullet just fits, so that's a win.

[PL1]

How about something like this?

* Small bullet hole on the left side of the selected game
* Move Clint down just a bit
* Streaks pointing from the muzzle to the small bullet hole
* Copy/paste the left and bottom border lines (not done in pic below to show how close the pic already is)

I'm sure someone will gladly help you do a minor edit like this.   


Scott

[yamatetsu]

I dunno ... Compared to the mighty bullet, this looks a little 'weak' ...




Plus, I really like the bullet.

So, to make the selected game text stand out a little more, I have simply chosen another more solid font for it.



Also bear in mind that this is a static image, once you scroll up or down in the menu, there is no doubt which game will be selected.

[Slippyblade]

Ok, I had to chuckle a little bit at "the Mighty Bullet".   

[TZC]

Hi, I like clint and like your cab

I just wanted to share the idea of leveling things up to pass, this was done in about 8 mins and it's supposed to be concept only.

If clint was adjusted to point at the highlighted game, and after a game choice was made the screen washed white for half a second and the bullet struck chosen game through, I think that would look good.





Edit: I suppose it would if animated at all, be best to use the recoil effect look of the other versions of the pic when the game choice is selected and the bullet is fired. 

[yamatetsu]

Cool idea, but that's wayyy out of my league. I wouldn't know how to level the gun, let alone make an animation. Also, I don't know if it is even possible to play an animation in MaLa after the game selection. My graphical skills are pretty much zero and it's my first time messing around with the MaLa layout.

[TZC]

Fair enough. I don't know if it's even possible either

I was only thinking of 2 frames to switch between, but anyway. Best of luck.

[Malenko]

adjusting that pic to make the gun level without making the guy look weird would be easy peasy.

You wanna post the source file or email it to me?

[TZC]

adjusting that pic to make the gun level without making the guy look weird would be easy peasy.

You wanna post the source file or email it to me?

Sorry I know it's not exactly on topic but is it possible to create basic animations within mala then, malenko? I've never touched it.

Ok I should go and look for myself, but yamatetsu wouldn't want the bullet lines masking each game if it couldn't be an animation I'm guessing.

[yamatetsu]

I have googled MaLa and animations. Seems that you can't do real animations, you can only do a mostly transparent pic the size of the background which is scrolled. So you could do a moving bullet, but no trail (at least not a trail that grows as the bullet speeds along). It also seems that this would be a permanent animation, not a triggered one.
So while it's a good idea, the animation is out. Clint constantly shooting the selected game would look a bit silly 

Ok I should go and look for myself, but yamatetsu wouldn't want the bullet lines masking each game if it couldn't be an animation I'm guessing.

Yep, the bullet lines behind the text would make it unreadable 

I've tried red color for the selected game, this works but especially long game names are hard to read. It also clashes with the black/white color scheme (did anyone notice that I even converted the screenshots to grayscale ?).



So, thanks for the offer Malenko, but in terms of readability the original concept still seems to be the best.

[PL1]

How about something like this?

* Keep the "mighty bullet" (turned the image to indicate a horizontal shot trajectory)
* Change the thick swirls on the bullet path to thin light gray dotted lines
* Don't bother aligning the barrel to the bullet path because recoil will cause the barrel to climb when a shot is fired


Scott

[yamatetsu]

This doesn't do much to highlight the selected game. I still like the angled shot better and will use that.

[yamatetsu]

I re-learned an important lesson today. Think before you do something permanent. I took a board of wood (a failed attempt of a CP panel), mounted the computer on it and some L-brackets under it.
Tested it, the graphics card gives me the XP blue screen of death whenever I start a game in MAME. Replaced it with an older one which has a very loud fan but works.

Had much fun balancing the board inside the cab, marking the drill points and screwing it in. Took about half an hour, the computer fit perfectly.
Except, of course, for the fact that I placed it too close to the rear panel. Computer fits, cables that have to go into it don't.

You know that Michael Jackson song 'Scream' which starts with Michael screaming ? By now I can do a resonably good imitation.

Took the computer out again, mounted it further in, managed to ram a quarter-of-an-inch splinter under a fingernail. Fun times. Now the cables fit aswell.
Fired everything up, now that the computer has a nice new home, the sucker won't boot. Michael time again.

So, instead of finishing the cab today, I'll play around with the computer some more tomorrow.

[yamatetsu]

Couldn't get the computer to work. I put another slightly overpowered one in the cab. Worked like a charm, until I noticed that there was no sound. Tried all the audio jacks, even downloaded the manual for the board, nothing. Downloaded two sound drivers, installed the first, nothing. Installed the second, nothing. Put my last remaining Soundblaster card in, the computer didn't boot.
Thought of checking the BIOS and sure enough, onboard sound was disabled 

So now the computer is in and works.



Tomorrow I shall screw the speaker covers and the back panel on, wipe some dust off and hope for good weather to be able to take some good final pics.

[pbj]

Paint the inside of the cabin

[yamatetsu]

Nope, I've spent way too much time painting this thing already. Taking out all the stuff that is installed to paint parts that no one ever will see and then reinstall everything is more than I care to do. I want to finish this tomorrow.

[johnrt]

Nope, I've spent way too much time painting this thing already. Taking out all the stuff that is installed to paint parts that no one ever will see and then reinstall everything is more than I care to do. I want to finish this tomorrow.

I totally agree! It's no point in painting the inside of the cab.

[yotsuya]

Nope, I've spent way too much time painting this thing already. Taking out all the stuff that is installed to paint parts that no one ever will see and then reinstall everything is more than I care to do. I want to finish this tomorrow.

I totally agree! It's no point in painting the inside of the cab.

Amen, brothers.

[dkersten]

I have done some furniture pieces and other projects in the past where I spent some time making the parts you don't see look good, and years later when I opened them up for the first time I was amazed at how good it looked inside because I had completely forgotten.. it was like a little treat.  To do it is a waste of time (as is doing the back since it will be up against a wall), but even if you waste the time on it, one day you will really appreciate the work you put into it.  I understand your anxiousness to get the thing done though, the last 5% is always the hardest, you just want to stop working and start playing.

[Slippyblade]

Totally glad I painted the inside of mine.  Nothing fancy either, I just used a can of cheap spray.  It helps seal and protect the wood and give it a little extra 'pop'.  Granted, you will be the only one to ever see it, but it is nice to see.

[yamatetsu]

I sincerely hope that I don't ever have to see the inside again ... Because that would mean that  there is some kind of trouble.

Also, the cab is standing in my living room. There will be no messing around with paint and especially not spray paint if I can help it.

[pbj]

When you spill a beer on it, and frantically open it up and sop it up with paper towels, and then watch the wood swell up three days later.... You'll wish you had listened.

 

[Generic Eric]

I painted the inside black.  It's hard to see inside withe the best of lighting in the basement.    I'm gonna paint it white eventually.

[yamatetsu]

When you spill a beer on it, and frantically open it up and sop it up with paper towels, and then watch the wood swell up three days later.... You'll wish you had listened.

 

That particular risk is very small since I don't drink beer (or any alcohol at all), and I somehow forgot to put cup holders on the cab. So there will be no comfortable way to put a drink on the cab.

Painting is definitely out, one thing that I can do is give it a coat of car polish (Meguiar's Carnauba Wax) around the installed parts. That may seal the wood ... or it may not. That's a chance I'm willing to take.

[pbj]

I don't drink beer (or any alcohol at all), and I somehow forgot to put cup holders on the cab. So there will be no comfortable way to put a drink on the cab.

You sound boring.

[yamatetsu]

Yep, I am completely boring. It's an art form which takes years to master.

[AzureKnight]

Yep, I am completely boring. It's an art form which takes years to master.

I've mastered that same art form

[yamatetsu]

That's boring 

[yamatetsu]

Some words of gratitude.

Thank you BYOACers, for all the inspiration, help and nudging in the right direction  This would have turned out vastly different without this forum. Special thanks to talkgeek and Malenko for offering to do work for a struggling stranger. You guys are amazing.

So, without further ado, I present to you Clint's final pics.




















A word to all the people who can't decide to build a cab : DO IT ! It simply is an amazing experience building it, and nothing beats the feeling you get when you finally have done it.
You don't need that many tools (though the right tools will certainly make it easier), you can get the wood precut into rectangles so that the basic structure can be glued together pretty easily, or go and buy a kit. But DO IT ! You will miss an incredible experience if you don't.

[pbj]

Beautiful

 

[DaOld Man]

Great job 

[Malenko]

fantastic job, cant wait to see the next one

[Vigo]

All your artwork came together very well. Excellent work!! The hard work really paid off.

[Slippyblade]

Yep, agreed with the others.  Great job!  Now, have you actually played any games on it yet or just fired em up for photo ops?

[yamatetsu]

Thank you !

fantastic job, cant wait to see the next one

I will not rise to that bait 

All your artwork came together very well. Excellent work!! The hard work really paid off.

Yup, it really does. This has been a really rewarding experience. I have been working on this thing for eleven months now and I still can't believe that I did it. Every time I enter the room, I have to steal a glance at it 

Yep, agreed with the others.  Great job!  Now, have you actually played any games on it yet or just fired em up for photo ops?

I actually haven't seriously played on it, as I didn't want to fall into the 'play on it while it's not finished and you'll never finish it' trap. It does feel weird though playing with real controls, as I have used a keyboard up until now. But I shall get over that.

Now it's time to show Clint to some friends and get some serious gaming going.

[ChanceKJ]

Nice,

The name of this cab reminds me of the "problems" our Entertainment Dept had merchandising the Clint Eastwood boxed sets back in the day when i worked at Futureshop....





from then on, only the most nasty and despicably rude customers were know as "Eastwoods"

[talkgeek]

Stunning job, well done 

Looking forward to seeing your thoughts / progress on the next one 

[johnrt]

Congratulations with a brand new arcade cabinet. Very original execution. Me like! 

[yamatetsu]

Thanks !

Looking forward to seeing your thoughts / progress on the next one 

Oi, cut that out !  Strangely enough, my father wants his basement back. Why that is, after I have occupied it for a measly 10 months or so, I don't know ...

Congratulations with a brand new arcade cabinet. Very original execution. Me like! 

  Now stop playing on it and get yours done ! I'd like to see how the art will turn out.

[Karpro]

Really love the finished product.  Working on ideas/plans/concepts/funding for a future build myself.  Looking back over the build process what would you do differently if anything?

[yamatetsu]

The first and biggest thing I'd do would be to post ideas here first and do work on them after that. Not only will the people here tell you whether it looks good, will work at all and so on, it will probably lead to even better ideas. I would have saved myself a ton of work if I had done that (I had my reasons for doing it that way, but still).

For the planning part, I wouldn't plan too much ahead. I would do things in order, not worry about something two or three steps ahead. It doesn't make sense planning how to do the monitor hold while sawing the first boards. I wanted to plan everything ahead and ended up overdoing it, planning and worrying and planning and getting nothing accomplished. It also doesn't help that somewhere along the the line you will probably change your design (especially if posting here) and some of the planning ahead time will be wasted.

If I had to build the cab again, I would make it wider so I could make the CP wider. Because of the trackball and the space restrictions it causes, the P1/P2 controls sit a bit higher than intended.

If I had better tools, I would definitely do a front door with a frame for easier access. My plans for doing that without a frame didn't pan out, and I felt that I couldn't cut a perfect rectangle out of a wood panel to make the frame with just a jigsaw / sander.

The only other thing that comes to mind would be using tinted plexiglass for the marquee / monitor, as the tinted lexan scratches really easy.

Oh, one more thing : The Ultrastiks. If I had to buy them again, I would definitively order the stiffer springs also. Since they are analog sticks, they feel really loose.

[AzureKnight]

  - completing a very nice looking build

  - taking a lot of tough love criticism in a very constructive way

Nice work!

[yamatetsu]

 

  - taking a lot of tough love criticism in a very constructive way

Sometimes it's really better to swallow the 'I know everything' attitude and listen to the people who have experience. It payed off big time 

[stavros693000]

Beautiful

 

hey what happened to he-man mid orgasm  your new avatar sux.

just saying bro

[yotsuya]

Sometimes it's really better to swallow the 'I know everything' attitude and listen to the people who have experience. It payed off big time 

Good for you, but remember, sometimes it's ok to say, "I appreciate the feedback, but I'm going to do it this way, so STFU." 

[wp34]

That turned out great.  I love the black-on-white theme.   

[yamatetsu]

Good for you, but remember, sometimes it's ok to say, "I appreciate the feedback, but I'm going to do it this way, so STFU." 

I would never do that. 

[yamatetsu]

I bought a photo album today to be able to show off inform people about my activities. It has a recess in front behind which you can put a photo to personalize it.



So naturally the first idea was to put a Clint picture behind it. Then I started thinking. That recess is 3mm deep, how about putting a piece of wood into it and print the pic on the wood ?
I bought a strip a balsa wood and cut it to size. It's amazing how easy this stuff is to cut, it gave me less resistance than the cardboard I used on the cab. So I didn't need any sanding, I just cut it with a knife.



So I took the leftover piece of paper you get when you peel the stickers off a sheet of printable stickers and printed the mirrored image on it. The ink does barely stick to that, so you can press it onto the piece of wood and most of the ink gets transferred. I sprayed a coat of matte clear lacquer onto it.

[yotsuya]

Dude, your "homage" to Mr. Clinton Eastwood Jr. is staring to veer into "restraining order" territory.   

[yamatetsu]

Well, since I'm living on another continent anyway ...

[yotsuya]

Well, since I'm living on another continent anyway ...

[Rick]

Your name wouldn't happen to be "Evelyn", would it?

[yamatetsu]

Dude, your "homage" to Mr. Clinton Eastwood Jr. is staring to veer into "restraining order" territory.   

One of the greatest philosophers of our time stated :

There is no such thing as too much Clint.

So there.

[Vigo]

Sweet! I'm a philosopher! 

[Le Chuck]

Sweet! I'm a philosopher! 

[jaharr01]

Excellent work, i like the stenciling.