TMNT 4 Player Konami Cab project

[DNM5555]

Ok so I a in the Uk and have always wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja (or Hero here back in the day, they are allowed to be Ninjas now tho) Turtles 4 player arcade machine. My original plan was to get one and get Simpsons, Sunset Riders and Turtles In Time for it. I may still do this but being a graphic designer/illustrator I often find myself wanting to change things. I'm not a big fan of how the turtles look on the US cab and the UK one has badly drawn side art. April looks a bit weird. I started thinking of what I would do and came up with some cool ideas. Here is my planned design which is based on the US cabinet frame which I think is a bit nicer.



I'm thinking of doing this as a machine running Hyperspin so it plays all the Konami beat em ups. I would like to have this feel like a dedicated machine as much as possible but if I'm gong to build it i miht have player 1 and 2 6 buttons to play other games. Not sure if i want to add a trackball.

Let me know our thoughts.

[AzureKnight]

Honestly, I like it.  The sewer cover on the CP I feel works really well.  You might want to look into the list of games that you want to support and figure out how many buttons you want for each player.

I'll throw the common advice out there: make sure player 3 and 4 have their joysticks lined up the same as player 1 and 2.  It is the most popular (although not universal) opinion that it works better this way (as opposed to actually angling the outside joysticks).


In terms of the side art:
-  It looks like both Raph and Mikey are in red.
-  Having the same logo on the marquee and the top sides is catching my eye.  I'm not sure if it is a good way or not.  But it makes the title jump a lot more to me.  I'm wondering if it might look better with something else on the top sides.
-  I like the CP sewer cover as well as the rooftop front.  They are stylistic but subtle at the same time.

I love the Turtles (I have to admit to not being a huge fan of the 80s cartoon/more of a comic guy/love the new Nick series).  I got to chat with Kevin Eastman for a few minutes at a ComicCon this summer....great guy.

[yotsuya]

I like it. Probably the best custom art package for TMNT I've seen. 

[Malenko]

The sewer cover on the CP I feel works really well.

That was the one thing I really didnt like.

[EMDB]

The sewer cover on the CP I feel works really well.

That was the one thing I really didnt like.

Me 2. Some turtles in the same style as the side art and not covered by the controls the would be great...

[yotsuya]

The sewer cover on the CP I feel works really well.

That was the one thing I really didnt like.

Me 2. Some turtles in the same style as the side art and not covered by the controls the would be great...

See, I LOVED the Control Panel idea. I'm tired of seeing characters on the CP. I like something simple that doesn't clash with the look of the layout.

[stinkyrob]

I like it! 

I saw the original machine at the Pinball Museum when I was in Las Vegas last year for training. It was magical.  The Museum, that is , not so much the training.

[DNM5555]

Thanks for the comments guys. Yes I really like the sewer idea and it will be cool opening it up.

I will do some tweaks to the side art. I would like to get April in there and one idea I had was to have a heroes and villains thibgs so one side would be the sewer with the turtles and April and other side would be the technodrome with shredder and orang etc... BUT I don't want it to be a mish mash of art styles.

For buttons the only game that needs more buttons is dungeons and dragons right? Not sure if I want to have lots of extra buttons just for one game I probably will never play 4 player so might just have 3 buttons for 3 and 4. I'm loathed to put a trackball on there. What are the good trackball games?

[elvis]

I like it.  Side art is great (better than the original IMHO), and the button layout is much neater too.

I'm building a TMNT style 4P cabinet next, so this will serve as great inspiration.

My only comment is that I find 4P cabinets with 6 buttons for the central players to be a bit too much.  I'm going to try and squeeze in 4 buttons per player so that I can run games like Dungeons and Dragons, but that's where I'm going to stop.  I think more than that is Frankenpanel territory, which I find ugly.

And hell, if your cabinet doesn't play the games you want, then that's just an excuse to make another one later.

[Vigo]

Only thing I can say that I don't like about the sewer on the control panel is it looks maybe too "real", where everything else has a nice watercolor feel to it. might just be the render making that pop out at me.

I like the side art as is. I don't think April/Shredder add a whole lot of value when you have such a nice looking piece already. Feel free to prove me wrong though. 

Since this is 4 player, I would skip the trackball.  Marble Madness, Missile Command, Centipede and rampart come to mind for trackball games. Save those for the next project. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

I like it!  What would be really cool about the CP sewer graphic is when you open up the CP, there are the 4 turtles inside the sewer, fighting off those small "mouser" robots who are trying to chew up the wiring to your encoder.  Kind of a 3D-interactive graphic incorporating the encoder.




DeLuSioNaL29

[gbeef]

This looks really good. i recently did the exact same thing with my machine where i overhauled Killer instinct cabinet and converted it to a X-MEN 4 player cabinet. rebuilt the CP and I also redid the artwork because the original art wasn't up to par.

The design is perfect the only thing i would think about is maybe some details to the CP if possible like arrows and maybe labels.

[DNM5555]

Love the idea of mousers messing around inside!

Working on the design for the control panel and think green LED buttons would look really cool for this. I'm thinking more that the whole thing is a manhole cover rather than show some of the street. I think with the circular middle you still get the manhole idea.

[Vigo]

I like it a lot!

Going with ninja or hero?

[DNM5555]

The final thing will be NINJA. Think the round but might be bigger too.

[gbeef]

Just an idea for the CP… i like the sewer but sewer should be on the road or sidewalk. So would do a road texture maybe have some road paint also. If want to get really fancy add steam coming outta the cover. Along with the cover slight off showing the a turtle hand? Or a Pizza box in the scene.

Im tossing these ideas out there because it looks like your pretty proficient in photoshop.
Good luck man. Looking great so far.

[yotsuya]

Personally, I liked the first manhole cover CP idea.

[DNM5555]

Ok here it is updated making it closer to my original idea like suggested. I like this much better! Looks more cartoony too. I want it all to look like one artists' work.

I had the smoke idea too. I think it will be fun to add touches like that once it is built. Even for a youtube video or something.

[nitrogen_widget]

Manhole cover cp looks cool.
But does need to be cartooned up a little to match side art.

[Vigo]

Ok here it is updated making it closer to my original idea like suggested. I like this much better! Looks more cartoony too. I want it all to look like one artists' work.

I had the smoke idea too. I think it will be fun to add touches like that once it is built. Even for a youtube video or something.

Ding Ding Ding! I think this is a winner. 

[Cobolisdead]

That Control panel is awesome!

[pbj]

PBJ approved

 

[gbeef]

Looks great… GO NINJA GO NINJA GOOO!!!!

[yotsuya]

PBJ approved

 

[richmanbri]

This is awesome!
Where did you find a large enough image of the turtles from the NES game cover?

[Brian74]

The sewer cover on the CP I feel works really well.

That was the one thing I really didnt like.

Me 2. Some turtles in the same style as the side art and not covered by the controls the would be great...

See, I LOVED the Control Panel idea. I'm tired of seeing characters on the CP. I like something simple that doesn't clash with the look of the layout.

+1

Step out of the box, into something new!

[jamiegates]

any way i can get i copy of your control panel overlay it looks amazing?

[DNM5555]

Thanks man. I will offer the control panel and side art at some point so people can make their own. I need to restart this project and do it this year!

[Cobolisdead]

It would be awesome to see this get done!