Project: Arcade Evolution (Wiring and Metalwork!)

[ZexisStryfe]

So a bit of background for everyone- Shortly after the 1st edition Project Arcade book came out I decided to jump into the arcade building arena and using the resources on this site I built my first cab. Unfortunately I fell into the trap of turning the computer on before completion and began playing games on it. Of course it was never quite finished after that (stalled at the Control Panel). Fast forward 6 years and one flooded basement later and the unit had to be destroyed due to it soaking up water and becoming a black mold factory.  

More recently I attended a party at a co-workers house and low and behold he had an 18 machine arcade in his basement! The arcade bug ate its way into my brain once again and I immediately went to work planning! After studying many of the more popular threads here in the Project Announcements forum I have made the necessary design decisions and figured it was time to create a thread here. I figure hopefully the support of the community will help me get through this project to completion! Well... that and adding the USB drive will all the games on it as the absolute last step! 

For my initial cabinet attempt I ended up settling on an Ultimate Arcade II cabinet. This time I want to go all the way and build a totally custom cabinet. I ended up combining several style elements from different projects on here. After playing around with several different styles I came across the Vewlix cabinets and loved several of the design elements, but hated the fact that they are sit down cabs so I decided to create a full standup Vewlix variant with several classic cabinet features. Using Lukensteinz gorgeous Mortal Kombat cabinet as a template and adding in several stylistic elements from Griff/Maximus’ MvC Revolution cabinet this is the design I have settled on-

Design-
-   3/4” MDF for the cabinet and control panel, CNC cut
-   Two piece body to help with moving
-   Blue, black, silver color scheme
-   Use a HUD style design for interface and overlays
-   Traditional overhang style marquee/speaker setup
-   2 player control panel based on Maximus’ control panel for MvC Revolution (minus the tablet and cupholders!  )
-   Dual-entry over-under coin door
-   Custom control panel overlay, sideart and marquee artwork
-   LED lit buttons, joysticks, marquee, coin door and undercarriage
-   Painted using Ond’s painting technique for a plastic-like appearance
-   Aluminum diamond plate kickguard and accents

Here is my current cabinet mockup in SketchUp-



Technical Bits-
-   32” LED 1080p TV for a monitor
-   2.1 audio system (Genius SW-G2.1 2000 system)
-   2 bat-top Ultrastik 360 joysticks, 1 ball-top J-Stik joystick (4-way), 1 TurboTwist2 spinner, 1 Electric ICE-T RGB trackball w/ two buttons
-   USB connections for future AimTrak support
-   IL Concave RGB/LED buttons with some mods, eight button arched layouts
-   Modular design utilizing Molex connectors for quick disconnects of parts
-   Computer- mini-ITX motherboard, Haswell i5 CPU, 16GB RAM, nVidia 750Ti vid card, SSD for OS (Win 8.1 or Win 10), 4TB of storage
-   Frontend- Custom Maximus Arcade skin

Progress-
1.   Initial planning, design and budgeting (complete)
2.   Order Computer Parts (complete)
3.   Assemble Computer (complete)
4.   Finalize cabinet design (complete)
5.   Design artwork for CP and marquee (complete)
6.   Order Buttons, Joysticks, Trackballs, etc. (complete)
7.   Assemble Pushbuttons with LEDs and microswitches (complete)
8.     MOVE (complete)
9.     Design artwork for sideart (complete)
10.   Work with CNC woodworker to cut MDF (complete)
11.   Building the lower cabinet (complete)
12.   Building the upper cabinet (complete)
13.   Building the control panel box (complete)
14.   BONDO! (complete)
15.   Build a Paint Room (complete)
16.   Paint! (complete)
17.   Get artwork printed- Lucian045 (complete)
18.   Assembly Part 2! (complete)
19.   Artwork applied (complete)
20.   Power wired (complete)
21.   Sound system wired (complete)
22.   Front IO Panel (complete)
23.   Control Panel wiring (in progress)

Current Issues-
1.   Waiting on my Dremel sanding and polishing supplies to arrive from China

So that is all I’ve got for the moment! Over the next few days I should be able to post the control panel layouts and some initial (okay, I am already on fourth revisions…) artwork for the CP and marquee.

Enjoy and as always all advice is welcome! 

[birchyman]

What is going to be your main game of choice? Is it fighting games? (only saying this based on your sketchup drawings).

If so, id re-think the u360's. Large amount of throw, weak springback (even with upgraded springs) and funnily enough - the lack of clicking (as there are no switches) is oddly disorientating.

[Nephasth]

If so, id re-think the u360's. Large amount of throw, weak springback (even with upgraded springs) and funnily enough - the lack of clicking (as there are no switches) is oddly disorientating.

1. Throw is corrected with a restrictor plate. I personally love the octagonal restrictor, and it works great for fighting games because you can feel ALL the corners.
2. A hard spring makes all the difference. If your upgraded springs are still weak, they're not the right ones.
3. If you want the clicking sound, switches can in fact be installed into the U360s to produce this sound response in the sticks. I've done it.
4. All U360s should have their pivots lubed with plumbers silicone grease before installation. This also helps a ton with your "springback" issue.

You have 4 posts, half of them ---smurfette--- about the U360s. Seems to me that operator error is more at fault in your situation.

[ZexisStryfe]

1. Throw is corrected with a restrictor plate. I personally love the octagonal restrictor, and it works great for fighting games because you can feel ALL the corners.
2. A hard spring makes all the difference. If your upgraded springs are still weak, they're not the right ones.
3. If you want the clicking sound, switches can in fact be installed into the U360s to produce this sound response in the sticks. I've done it.
4. All U360s should have their pivots lubed with plumbers silicone grease before installation. This also helps a ton with your "springback" issue.

You have 4 posts, half of them ---smurfette--- about the U360s. Seems to me that operator error is more at fault in your situation.

Thanks for the great info Neph! I had been planning on using the U360s with the long handles and the upgraded springs, but I will definitely add the octagonal restrictor! A quick question for you (or anyone else who might know)- Do you know if the Paradise Arcade aluminum bat tops fit the U360s?

And for reference, yes, I am a fighting game player, however that is not the sole purpose of the cab. This is going to be a general MAME cabinet first and foremost. Here is what I am looking at putting on the cab-

Supported Systems-
-  Arcade (MAME)
-  Laserdisc (Daphne)
-  Steam (MK9, MKX, Injustice, USF4, SF5, Skullgirls, BlazBlue, GuiltyGear, Ducktales, Guacamelee)
-  NES
-  SNES
-  Nintendo 64
-  Gameboy Advance
-  Sega Master System
-  Sega Genesis
-  Sega Dreamcast
-  TurboGrafx-16

[Nephasth]

Don't know about the bat tops... I'm a balltop guy.

But, while we're on the subject of joysticks, lose that 4 way j-stick. Your U360s are mappable, and you'll be able to play all the 4 way classics with ease with em.

[ZexisStryfe]

That is great to know. I was going back and forth on that joystick anyway.  While we are on the topic of the additional controls, I am also thinking about getting rid of the spinner. I noticed many of the new cabinets forgo the spinner all together and really the only games that I would play with one are the Arkanoids and Tempest and I believe both of those can be played with a joystick or trackball, correct?

[yotsuya]

That is great to know. I was going back and forth on that joystick anyway.  While we are on the topic of the additional controls, I am also thinking about getting rid of the spinner. I noticed many of the new cabinets forgo the spinner all together and really the only games that I would play with one are the Arkanoids and Tempest and I believe both of those can be played with a joystick or trackball, correct?

Trackball, yeah. Joystick, sure, but you're not going to enjoy it.

Nice design. I'd trim off the extra flare on the sides of the control panel, unless you really like it. And good call on leaving out the tablet hole and cupholders. 

[ZexisStryfe]

See now, growing up playing Arkanoid on the original GameBoy (Alleyway!) with the crosspad i would think I would enjoy it more with the joystick! 

As for the flares on the control panel they are there for two reasons-

1.) There are admin buttons that will be going on the sides of the CP (they didn't make it into the render) and they are there to hide them.
2.) More importantly, I just really like the appearance.  It also works well with the latest revision on CP artwork I am working on.

[Nephasth]

Arkanoid can only be fully appreciated with a spinner. With a track ball it's playable. With a joystick, there is no varying speed. And if you can get past level 1 with a joystick, you better celebrate.

[yotsuya]

See now, growing up playing Arkanoid on the original GameBoy (Alleyway!) with the crosspad i would think I would enjoy it more with the joystick! 

As for the flares on the control panel they are there for two reasons-

1.) There are admin buttons that will be going on the sides of the CP (they didn't make it into the render) and they are there to hide them.

I'm sure the GP version was coded to work better with a crosspad. The original arcade version, not so much.

And at least you have a practical reason for the flares. Have at it! 

What's the theme? What are the characters from?

[ZexisStryfe]

I'm sure the GP version was coded to work better with a crosspad. The original arcade version, not so much.

And at least you have a practical reason for the flares. Have at it! 

What's the theme? What are the characters from?

Practical excuses is more like it! 

Regarding the theme- when I said custom control panel and marquee artwork I meant it in every way- the characters are actually characters of my own design (digitally drawn and colored by me) from several stories I have written in the past. If you look at the marquee image in the render the "good guys" are on the left and the "bad guys" are on the right. The character art will be on both the CP and the marquee and will hopefully make appearances in the frontend as well. I will be posting that artwork soon (need to nail down a few more details), although I will have to blur some of the marquee since one of the ladies is topless.

Oh, I will totally admit to swiping the organic looking armor on one of the characters from Ares in Injustice! 

[yotsuya]

I'm sure the GP version was coded to work better with a crosspad. The original arcade version, not so much.

And at least you have a practical reason for the flares. Have at it! 

What's the theme? What are the characters from?

Practical excuses is more like it! 

Regarding the theme- when I said custom control panel and marquee artwork I meant it in every way- the characters are actually characters of my own design (digitally drawn and colored by me) from several stories I have written in the past. If you look at the marquee image in the render the "good guys" are on the left and the "bad guys" are on the right. The character art will be on both the CP and the marquee and will hopefully make appearances in the frontend as well. I will be posting that artwork soon (need to nail down a few more details), although I will have to blur some of the marquee since one of the ladies is topless.

Oh, I will totally admit to swiping the organic looking armor on one of the characters from Ares in Injustice! 

That's ---smurfing--- awesome that you are using your own characters! Much better than 'roided out Marvel and Capcom ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. 

A suggestion - if your characters are from your own comic or story, you might want to name your cab after that instead of "Arcade Evolution". A friend of mine who I build a cab for has his own comic called "The Legends", and he named his cab "The Legends Lounge". I could totally see you doing something similar.

[Malenko]

And if you can get past level 1 with a joystick, you better celebrate.

I can get fairly far with a joystick. I need to build a spinner cab already.


@OP May I suggest 1 minor change?  Put the bad guys on the left and the good guys on the right.  It just seems like everyone has the good on the left for some reason.

[ZexisStryfe]

The "Evolution" in "Arcade Evolution" is actually a nod to several of the characters in the story. Also I kind of have a idea floating around in my head about doing a vPin cabinet after this and naming that "Pinball Evolution". It would be similar but from the "bad guys" perspective and with the appropriate color scheme (Arcade Evolution is from the "good guys" perspective).

[yotsuya]

The "Evolution" in "Arcade Evolution" is actually a nod to several of the characters in the story. Also I kind of have a idea floating around in my head about doing a vPin cabinet after this and naming that "Pinball Evolution". It would be similar but from the "bad guys" perspective and with the appropriate color scheme (Arcade Evolution is from the "good guys" perspective).

Wow. You're the first person I've offered feedback to who actually seems to have thought out ALL his design choices and wasn't taking the lazy way out. Carry on, I'll be watching! 

[ZexisStryfe]

Ha! I definitely haven't thought of everything! I already know stuff like the LED wiring is going to be a big learning experience, but when it comes to design I agonize over the most minute details, so yeah, I tend to have my bases covered. 

I definitely appreaciate all the feedback as well! It has been a long time since I last did this and just about everything has changed, so any and all input is definitely appreciated.

[Nephasth]

If you need help wiring your LEDs... Chance is your man!

[yotsuya]

If you need help wiring your LEDs... Chance is your man!

Yeah, you can't buy that level of anal-retentiveness in stores. 






I kid, I kid! Chance did a great job.

[ZexisStryfe]

Oh, I know. Don't think I haven't been watching the FLYNN'S ARCADE thread like a hawk!

Woo! Double negative!

[birchyman]

If so, id re-think the u360's. Large amount of throw, weak springback (even with upgraded springs) and funnily enough - the lack of clicking (as there are no switches) is oddly disorientating.

1. Throw is corrected with a restrictor plate. I personally love the octagonal restrictor, and it works great for fighting games because you can feel ALL the corners.
2. A hard spring makes all the difference. If your upgraded springs are still weak, they're not the right ones.
3. If you want the clicking sound, switches can in fact be installed into the U360s to produce this sound response in the sticks. I've done it.
4. All U360s should have their pivots lubed with plumbers silicone grease before installation. This also helps a ton with your "springback" issue.

You have 4 posts, half of them ---smurfette--- about the U360s. Seems to me that operator error is more at fault in your situation.

1. Thats funny, because I have the restrictors on.
2. Thats also really funny, because i purchased the upgraded springs from the vendor. So how, do tell, do I have the wrong ones?
3. ?
4. Good to know.

In short, im not sure what your attitude is about, I am providing honest feedback based on my experience. If you read my other post, I said the u360 was awesome for everything except fighting games. And I am not the only person to have said that, I have read countless posts.

[Nephasth]

In short, im not sure what your attitude is about...

You're new here, aren't you? 

[rablack97]

In short, im not sure what your attitude is about...

You're new here, aren't you? 

 

[ZexisStryfe]

Random question- Does anyone know if I could take the plunger out of a standard pushbutton like this one and use it in one of these IL pushbuttons? I would prefer the navy blue buttons to the lighter blue of the IL pushbuttons, but still want the translucent outer casing.

[yotsuya]

Random question- Does anyone know if I could take the plunger out of a standard pushbutton like this one and use it in one of these IL pushbuttons? I would prefer the navy blue buttons to the lighter blue of the IL pushbuttons, but still want the translucent outer casing.

You should probably be ok.

[brucelee00]

Pretty slick design! I like the vewlix and maximus mash up. I especially like the CP, that's the design I've used in the Goonies build and plan on using in the build I'm doing for myself with a thinner depth like yours. Just out of curiosity what are the width and height of your cab and the height to the top of the monitor. I was always worried about the viewing height especially with widescreen monitors, since most of us aren't small children playing on arcades like back in the day. Curious on how you decided on this even though your using a bigger monitor then me. Not sure if you're planning on sharing the sketchup plans, but if you do that would be cool. I know you said you're planning on having admin buttons on the side that's covered by the wings of the CP, but if you haven't played some pinball games like future pinball I would recommend that you do and possible add some pinball buttons on the side. Although, i know some will disagree but if you're planning on building a pinball machine then scratch that idea. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

I like the design!

[Nephasth]

Pretty slick design! I like the vewlix and maximus mash up. I especially like the CP, that's the design I've used in the Goonies build and plan on using in the build I'm doing for myself with a thinner depth like yours. Just out of curiosity what are the width and height of your cab and the height to the top of the monitor. I was always worried about the viewing height especially with widescreen monitors, since most of us aren't small children playing on arcades like back in the day. Curious on how you decided on this even though your using a bigger monitor then me. Not sure if you're planning on sharing the sketchup plans, but if you do that would be cool. I know you said your planning on having admin buttons on the side that's covered by the wings of the CP, but if you haven't playing some pinball games like future pinball I would recommend that you do and possible add some pinball buttons on the side. Although, i know some will disagree but if you're planning on building a pinball machine then scratch that idea. 

Oh no, don't you go messing this one up too.

[ZexisStryfe]

Thanks guys. There were definitely several itineration's of the design before I settled on this one.

Regarding the measurements- The cabinet itself is 74.5 inches tall and 35 inches wide. Since it is so wide I had to make sure it was narrow enough to go through a doorway sideways. The design I finally landed on is only 28 1/8 inches deep without the CP, so I shouldn't have any door issues. The monitor top sits at 58 inches tall (for reference I am 5'10" tall). The control panel is rather shallow at 16.5 inches deep. It is wide at 40 inches (37 inches without the flare overhangs on the sides), however since the cabinet is 35 inches wide  there is only a 2.5 inch over hang on each side.

My original design did have pinball buttons on the sides, however since I am planning a vPin machine after this I didn't see the point as I will never play pinball on this cabinet.

After I get further into the actual cabinet building I will definitely share all my SketchUp files for everyone.

[ZexisStryfe]

I like the design!

I humorously refer to the design as an Evolix cabinet! 

[brucelee00]

Pretty slick design! I like the vewlix and maximus mash up. I especially like the CP, that's the design I've used in the Goonies build and plan on using in the build I'm doing for myself with a thinner depth like yours. Just out of curiosity what are the width and height of your cab and the height to the top of the monitor. I was always worried about the viewing height especially with widescreen monitors, since most of us aren't small children playing on arcades like back in the day. Curious on how you decided on this even though your using a bigger monitor then me. Not sure if you're planning on sharing the sketchup plans, but if you do that would be cool. I know you said your planning on having admin buttons on the side that's covered by the wings of the CP, but if you haven't playing some pinball games like future pinball I would recommend that you do and possible add some pinball buttons on the side. Although, i know some will disagree but if you're planning on building a pinball machine then scratch that idea. 

Oh no, don't you go messing this one up too.

haha, so all the designs out there with pinball buttons on the side of the CP are messed up ?? I just think pinball games are fun to play and offered a suggestion I didn't say he had to had them. What's with all the hate/trolling on anything I do or say.?

[yotsuya]

The OP clearly has a plan... let's let him see it to fruition.

[Nephasth]

What's with all the hate/trolling on anything I do or say.?

I give praise where praise is due. Come up with some good ideas, and I will give you praise.

I'm not a fan of Griff's Revolution. But I really like where this one is going. The OP has taken great design elements from multiple sources and blended the designs nicely. It's going to be nice to see this one come to life.

[brucelee00]

I give praise where praise is due. Come up with some good ideas, and I will give you praise.

Haha, Okie Dokie!

[ChanceKJ]

I'm really gonna like watching this one get built.  I 100% agree with Neph on the sticks, all of it, get yourself those springs and plates. My controls and wiring were based completely on his Two-Headed Beast arcade.  Since I started FLYNNs there have been a couple combination LED/HID bords come out. That IPAC Ultimate I/O looks like a win.  If I could do it all over again I'd go that route. For sure.

[ChanceKJ]

Oh, and if you do add pinball buttons on the side of that CP I would suggest you get Randy at GroovyGameGear to sell you some matching CLASSX buttons sets so you can use leaf switches, and set up with a couple of those little boxes that make the "chunk" sounds when you hit the flipper buttons (Scott, help me out here). I think you'd need an LEDWiz to control those separately for the power, but I never moved past the daydreaming stage on that for FLYNNs.

I figure if you're gonna add pinball, best do it with leafswitch buttons and a little flipper feedback. THAT would be cool. I never did it myself because I figured by the time I had a craving for pinball I'd just build a Vpin. 

[yotsuya]

Why the hell do you guys keep mentioning pinball? The OP's never once stated he wants to play pinball on this cab. 

[ChanceKJ]

Because I'm an idiot! HAPPY?!

[yotsuya]

Because I'm an idiot! HAPPY?!

You mean

[ZexisStryfe]

I am pretty sure you mean this, yotsuya...



 

[yotsuya]

I am pretty sure you mean this, yotsuya...



 

Are you saying pinball buttons are tacky? He said it, not me! 

[yotsuya]

BTW, I like you, bro. You have a definite plan, and you're going to stick with it. Kudos to you. 

[dkersten]

What is going to be your main game of choice? Is it fighting games? (only saying this based on your sketchup drawings).

If so, id re-think the u360's. Large amount of throw, weak springback (even with upgraded springs) and funnily enough - the lack of clicking (as there are no switches) is oddly disorientating.

I tend to second this one.. if fighting games are going to be the main choice, perhaps a servo-stik will be a better choice.. the 4-way mode is superior to the u360 with the octagonal restrictor (and just a tad better than a U360 with top mount restrictor in 4-way mode) IMHO, and for fighting games I think a "clicky" 8 way with a short shaft is better.  It is a feedback thing for me... 

And YES, I have the U360's in my cab with the top mount restrictors, longer shafts, and the stiffer springs (that come with the kit Ultimarc sells). I ALSO did a build with the octagonal restrictor, longer shafts, and heavy springs (again all ordered from Ultimarc and yes the octagonal was the new design) and while it is pretty nice as an overall stick, it is still a pretty long throw and not quite as good in 4 way games.  I also did a build with the servo stiks and I have 2 j-stiks in my cab as well, so I have an opinion of them based on experience as well.

However, joysticks are VERY much a "preference" item, and while one person might say that you need to go one way, it really comes down to what you like.  The U360 is a great all around stick that gives probably the best experience one stick can give if you are going to play all games equally and have to limit yourself to one stick.  It certainly doesn't suck for fighting games, it just isn't the best choice (again, IMHO).  Any way you look at it though, not only have I read it a thousand times here, I have also said it more than once, figure out what games you want to play and then build it around that. 

To the OP, I like the design, I hope you can pull it off.

[Nephasth]

Maybe the long shafts in your guys' U360s are giving you grief. With metal panels you don't need long shafts. Moral of the story is, use metal CPs just like manufactures did.

Top mounted restrictors... Horrible idea.

Don't know why a longer throw affects your gameplay when you can alter your maps for tighter actuation.


ETA: My favorite joystick is the Sanwa JLW. What's a U360 based off of? A J-stick. What's a J-stick? A stick made by a company that isn't Sanwa, but built to the JLW specifications. What's a Servostik? A J-stick with an actuator bolted to it. Fundamentally, they're all the same stick. The U360 offers the greatest versatility in that the maps can be changed to suit your playing style. If you pull one out of the box, slap in your machine, and expect to have a great stick, you're not going to be very pleased. Just like buying a new car, when you get in it for the first time you have to adjust the seat, mirrors, steering wheel and whatever else makes you comfortable. You can setup a map for 4way games, a map for qbert, a map for basic 8ways, and a completely different map for fighters and have the maps change based on game selection with LEDBlinky. If you need a physical restriction (4way games, I'm looking at you) to tell you where up, down, left, and right are, well... that's a personal problem. The number one reason why people put 4way sticks in their machines along with 8ways, was that when a diagonal direction was hit with an 8way, 4way games would respond undesirably. With the custom maps the U360 offers, you don't get that strange behavior in 4way games, you just need to know your directions.

[ZexisStryfe]

Just to end the two debates going on here-

1.) There will be no pinball buttons. There is no need since my next project will likely be a vPin machine.

2.) I will be going with the 360s for the joysticks. No debate necessary. I will be buying the long handles, octagon restrictors and harder springs and will play with the combinations to get what feels best.

No more debate necessary.

[birchyman]

Don't know why a longer throw affects your gameplay when you can alter your maps for tighter actuation.

I generally find its an issue when doing double direction moves i.e. double forward punch etc etc. With my xbox fight stick i can just flick it with 1 finger and then quickly hit it with a second finger. Cant do that on the u360.

All good - If i were to build again I would still build with the u360. Was setting up dreamcast and n64 emulator yesterday and the analogue joystick is a godsend for those systems.

[ZexisStryfe]

Alright, as I had previously mentioned, for the front end interface I will be going with a holographic HUD style (think the Iron Man suit HUD, but in gold and blue). When designing the control panel overlay I wanted to bring that design element into this artwork as well. Below is the current itineration of the CP overlay (without the 4-way joystick and spinner). There are still a few tweaks that need to be made, but overall the final artwork should look like this-

[brucelee00]

Looks great! Don't let anyone sway from incorporating the trackball either

[Nephasth]

Don't know why a longer throw affects your gameplay when you can alter your maps for tighter actuation.

I generally find its an issue when doing double direction moves i.e. double forward punch etc etc. With my xbox fight stick i can just flick it with 1 finger and then quickly hit it with a second finger. Cant do that on the u360.

Hmm, this made me run down to the Beast to make sure. My U360s spring back just as fast as my JLWs, and have no problem hitting very fast double, triple, quadruple directions. That wasn't always the case though. Before I lubed my pivots, my U360s were very sluggish, to the point I was regretting my purchase of them. It's been 2-3 years since I've lubed 'em, and they're still really smooth and fast. I think if you lube your pivots, you'll have much better success with getting a stick response closer to what you're looking for, but you'll always have that extra throw due to your longer shafts.

[ZexisStryfe]

Looks great! Don't let anyone sway from incorporating the trackball either

Oh, trackball is staying. I enjoy the bowling and golf games too much to get rid of it! 

[brucelee00]

Looks great! Don't let anyone sway from incorporating the trackball either

Oh, trackball is staying. I enjoy the bowling and golf games too much to get rid of it! 

Agreed. They make for fun competitive play when you have people over. 

[dkersten]

You can change the "virtual" actuation of the 360, but not the physical, and with longer shafts the throw as I can measure it on mine is about double what it is with stock j-stiks.  Double.  That is a huge difference.  With the stock shaft height and a physical restrictor in place, it should be about the same though.  That longer shaft makes a lot of difference, and the stiffer spring simply doesn't completely make up for it.  My sticks center up just as fast as the j-stiks, but they bounce back and forth a few times before completely stopping.  And tactile feedback is completely different.  The 360 is smooth from center to the full throw in any direction where the j-stik resistance increases as you push in one direction, then when you are just about to click the switch, the resistance drops way down before it hits the restrictor.  That "tactile" feedback can make a big difference in gameplay.

It really doesn't matter if the mounting plate, shaft diameter, and pivot are all based on the same stick, there is no question that these are completely different sticks, even at the same length shaft.  But this is like arguing leaf switches against clicky switches.  It is just a matter of preference.

The only reason I chimed in is because the info on the u360 was valid and being dismissed as if it were untrue.  The u360 is a great stick and I am sure the OP will be perfectly happy with his choice, but don't expect it to feel the same as a JLW or J-stik, especially with longer shafts.

[AzureKnight]

I love the artwork, the style is one that I personally love.  Nice work.

One question: do you need the two buttons next to the trackball?  Why now just use P1 or P2 buttons and keep that space free?

[ZexisStryfe]

I love the artwork, the style is one that I personally love.  Nice work.

One question: do you need the two buttons next to the trackball?  Why now just use P1 or P2 buttons and keep that space free?

I prefer having mouse 1 and mouse 2 separate.

and on another note-



It is almost like something this going to happen soon... 

[gbeef]

Very nice CP overlay.

[Locke141]

And if you can get past level 1 with a joystick, you better celebrate.

I can get fairly far with a joystick. I need to build a spinner cab already.


@OP May I suggest 1 minor change?  Put the bad guys on the left and the good guys on the right.  It just seems like everyone has the good on the left for some reason.

In US politics the good guys are on the left side. 

I love the what you have so far. Your art is amazing.

[ZexisStryfe]

In US politics the good guys are on the left side. 

I love the what you have so far. Your art is amazing.

LOL 

So to continue the art discussion, here is the current version of the marquee. Please excuse the blurred out boobies 

I will be changing the background wings symbol a bit, but for the most part this is what the marquee will look like-

[AzureKnight]

So when do the trade paperbacks come out?   

[ZexisStryfe]

Hah! Let's concentrate on one massive project at a time! 

If you are really that interested in the story feel free to go to my DeviantArt page. I haven't updated it in a while, but there is more art there with biographies on each of the characters.

ZexisStryfe's DeviantArt Site

[ZexisStryfe]

Made some progress over the last few days...

The computer parts came in for the build-



Computer Specs-

Motherboard- ASRock H81M-ITX/WIFI Mini-ITX board
CPU- Intel Haswell Core i5-4590 Quad-Core 3.3GHz Processor
Memory- 16GB Kingston DDR3 SDRAM
Video Card- eVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti Superclocked Card
OS Hard Drive- Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB SSD
Case- eVGA Hadron Air ITX Case

All that is left is for the 4TB Storage Drive to come in!

Since this is a build thread, here are some pics of the computer innards-



and fully assembled and running-



The computer is running Windows 8.1 (boot time is under 5 seconds!) with the front-end running as the shell.

I have also been working on cleaning up my ROM collection and building out a Maximus Arcade skin (I have decided on Maximus until GameEx Evolution comes out) while I wait for the next batch of parts to come in.

[ZexisStryfe]

Well that's not good...



After all the work of setting up the computer OS, when I removed the SSD to add the second drive the SATA connector snapped the port right off the back of the drive, basically making it an $85 paperweight...

At least my next patch of hardware came in-



TV- 32" Samsung LED TV
Speakers- Genius SW-G2.1 2000
USB Hub- Anker 7 port hub
Mount- VideoSecu Tilting Wall mount
Crimpers-  S&G Quick Change Ratcheting Crimpers (not pictured)

[ZexisStryfe]

My ParadiseArcadeShop order came in today!



8- IL Translucent Concave pushbuttons with Black Plungers
18- IL Translucent Concave pushbuttons with Translucent Plungers
2- IL White Player Imprint buttons
26- Il-lumination RGB LEDs
1- Button Wrench

After taking them out of the box however I noticed something about the fully translucent buttons-



I am not sure how well you can tell by the picture, but the button overhangs are two different shapes- one is totally curved and one has a slightly curved top with flat sides. All of the pushbuttons with black plungers look proper with the totally curved sides but 11 out of the 18 translucent buttons have the misshapen sides. Has anyone else experienced this?

Am I the only one whose perfectionist OCD would go crazy over this? Should I try to return the "misshapen" ones or am I just being too nit-picky?

[yotsuya]

Am I the only one whose perfectionist OCD would go crazy over this? Should I try to return the "misshapen" ones or am I just being too nit-picky?

FFS, no one is going to see those parts of the buttons. EVER. Do you really want to drag this out???

[ZexisStryfe]

FFS, no one is going to see those parts of the buttons. EVER. Do you really want to drag this out???

I am not talking about the imperfection on the button nuts, I am talking about the button overhangs that go on top of the panel. Here is the pic again with line to emphasize-



Because of the different shapes, they actually bend light that passes through them differently. I fear this will be exacerbated by the LEDs shining through them. There is also the fact that on the "misshapen" buttons the overhang isn't as tall, and as a result the plunger is exposed by about 1/16 " more on these.

It is actually extremely obvious in person. You can even tell the difference when looking straight down on them from the top because of the way the plastic bends the light.

[yotsuya]

FFS, no one is going to see those parts of the buttons. EVER. Do you really want to drag this out???

I am not talking about the imperfection on the button nuts, I am talking about the button overhangs that go on top of the panel. Here is the pic again with line to emphasize-



Because of the different shapes, they actually bend light that passes through them differently. I fear this will be exacerbated by the LEDs shining through them. There is also the fact that on the "misshapen" buttons the overhang isn't as tall, and as a result the plunger is exposed by about 1/16 " more on these.

It is actually extremely obvious in person. You can even tell the difference when looking straight down on them from the top because of the way the plastic bends the light.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, I see.... yeah, I'd contact them on that one. 

[ChanceKJ]

Oh wow! I've never seen that before. (Mind you I'm in my own little world quite often, so....)

I'm with yots' on that, I'd let them know and try and exchange them as it would bug the hell out of me too. I saw it right away and was like, huh... Strange.  Also, quite excited for this build. And what you're going to do with white and black plungers.


...did you make sure that LCD has a VGA port??? Or are you skipping the SLG?

Also, make sure you modify that button wrench. I almost destroyed an LED pack trying to use it the first time. It's in my thread if you haven't seen it.

[Nephasth]

Those are housings from convex buttons.

[ChanceKJ]

That makes sence. Maybe they were running out and just swapped them so they could fill the order. No big deal, I'm sure PA will take care of you, they've always been good to me if I had a problem.

Those convex housings look strongly bad ass if you had them for all your buttons though....

[ZexisStryfe]

It is interesting that those are the housings for the convex buttons. In my testing with a traditional light, the shallower curve on the top of those buttons results in almost no light diffusion though the plastic where as the ones with the more pronounced curve diffuse the light much better.

The white plungers will be used for the player 1 and player 2 start buttons. They will be swapped into the translucent housings. The black plunger buttons will be used for the Admin/Coin/Trackball buttons. The player buttons will be navy blue plungers from ArcadeSpareParts pushbuttons (if they fit) in the IL buttons.

Regarding SLG- I am opting out! I didn't want to use a physical scanline generator since I will be having several PC games on the cabinet as well (USF4, MK9, MKX, etc) that wouldn't look good with scanlines. That and neither my video card nor the TV have VGA ports (suppose I could do a DVI->VGA->SLG->VGA->HDMI frankencable). I will try out the scanline feature in MAME though and see how it looks. It is something I could always add later if I determine it is truly necessary.

[yamatetsu]

Quote from CraftyMech, maker of the mini SLG : "The mini SLG is an inexpensive, and compact scanline generator that is compatible with devices that output a standard VGA signal @ 640x480 (preferred) & 1024x768 resolutions."

These are the only two resolutions that will get the scanlines, so you will be able to play your PC games just fine.

[ChanceKJ]

Yep, it's what I use myself. Love that little thing.

Even has a switch on it to turn the effect on or off. I had originally contacted him to see if he could make me one with a couple leads on it so I could move the switch to the front I/O of my cab, but in the end I just always leave it on.

[ZexisStryfe]

So being that the screen runs at 1920x1080 (ish) do you force a resolution change through your emulators to one of the two supported resolutions as opposed to upscaling the picture to the native resolution?

[lamprey]

Just to end the two debates going on here-

1.) There will be no pinball buttons. There is no need since my next project will likely be a vPin machine.

2.) I will be going with the 360s for the joysticks. No debate necessary. I will be buying the long handles, octagon restrictors and harder springs and will play with the combinations to get what feels best.

No more debate necessary.

ZexisStryfe, I emailed with Andy (at Ultimarc) a while back and there is hope that the U360's with rotary support will be out soon. I don't know if you have purchased your U360's yet or if you even care about playing rotary games. But, if that is of interest to you, you might want to contact Andy for a status update before you order.

BTW, I like the design! Looking forward to see the build progress!

 

[yamatetsu]

So being that the screen runs at 1920x1080 (ish) do you force a resolution change through your emulators to one of the two supported resolutions as opposed to upscaling the picture to the native resolution?

Yep.

[ZexisStryfe]

Great! I guess "frankencable" will happen after all.

On a side note, I opened my Genius 2.1 speakers today to test them and they seem to be defective The control box has quite a bit of rattling around inside and I am betting something is broken/come loose, so back to Amazon with them! Replacement should be here on Tuesday.

While on the subject of the speakers, one of the reasons I bought these speakers is that they have the external control box with independent volume and bass controls along with several input/output jacks (mic, headphones, etc.). I would like to incorporate this control box on the exterior of the cabinet, similar to how Chance did, however from my cursory inspection it doesn't look like I will be able to take the control box apart. Any thoughts on a good way to do this?

[ChanceKJ]

I had planned on taking mine apart, instead I ran a headphone extention and a Griffin PowerMate and reassembled the control box.

Post a couple pictures of the box and let's see what the options are.

[ZexisStryfe]

Here you go-



I honestly don't care a whole lot about the Source and Standby buttons, it is only the volume knobs and the line in/outs.

[Nephasth]

Open that ---smurfette--- up. Desolder the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- you want to move. Solder wires in their place. Run wires to where you want to mount the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- externally. Solder wires to the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. Badda bing. Badda boom.

[ZexisStryfe]

LOL I may have to do that... was just curious if anyone could come up with something simpler with less chance of me breaking something that has already come to me broken once. 

Not to bring up the "joystick debate" again but I have a question for those of you with the US360s... With the short shaft are they approximately the same height as the Happ competition joysticks? I have experience with the Happ sticks in wooden panels (I own the MK9 Fightstick) and they are a pretty good height. Since the discussion seems to point to the longer shafts resulting in some of the issues people are having I was wondering if I could get away with the standard short shafts on a wood panel.

[ChanceKJ]

Open that ---smurfette--- up. Desolder the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- you want to move. Solder wires in their place. Run wires to where you want to mount the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- externally. Solder wires to the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. Badda bing. Badda boom.

Agreed.

As for the sticks. I tested my 360s with both lengths and I also had a few friends with varied experience give me their opinions and almost universally chose the longer shaft.

[ZexisStryfe]

Open that ---smurfette--- up. Desolder the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- you want to move. Solder wires in their place. Run wires to where you want to mount the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- externally. Solder wires to the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. Badda bing. Badda boom.

Agreed.

As for the sticks. I tested my 360s with both lengths and I also had a few friends with varied experience give me their opinions and almost universally chose the longer shaft.

Great to know!

Here is a bit of the work I have been doing this weekend as I wait for more (and replacement) parts to arrive-

Maximus Arcade theme!

Emulator Select Screen-


Game Select Screen-


I am still working on the startup and loading screens... looking to do some flash animation there.

[ChanceKJ]

Thats really well done!

I'd move the games lest a little more to the left to take up some of the blank space between the list and the surveillance/identification panes. maybe just make it wider?  I don't know, the bright high point of the background keeps nabbing my attention. (Mind you, i've been staring at Adobe tool windows in Illustrator all day, so my brain is a little fried).

[ZexisStryfe]

Way ahead of you on that one! I will be making both the game list and image areas larger. Originally I have an third panel in there for ROM information, but of course Maximus Arcade can't show that stuff...  It amazes me that something like XMBC/Kodi has more functionality when it comes to ROM lists than dedicated cabinet frontends. If I weren't for the lack of LEDBlinky support I would have gone with that for the frontend. There is so much more that is possible for cabinet frontends, but it seems most of them are no longer in development and stagnating.

[dkersten]

Go with Mala.. full ledblinky support and you can put all that info up.  Only major downside to Mala is layering of content doesn't work well, so text will always end up on top even if you want it hidden between layers.

[ChanceKJ]

From a graphical point of view I couldn't stand Mala, text in lists just looked like crap and I couldn't get a design layout that I liked.

There really needs to be some major development on this kinda thing. 

[ZexisStryfe]

I agree with Chance on this one. The reason I went with Maximus is because it is one of the few that actually support HiRes widescreen graphics (even Hyperspin doesn't support widescreen). I understand many arcade cabinets still have old-school monitors in them, but more and more of them are using widescreen 1080p monitors. I want something that looks good on my widescreen monitor.

It actually amazes me that we haven't seen any frontends out there with scrapers built in (Like the ROM Collection Browser in XBMC/Kodi). There is so much info out there on these games, it would be a great feature to have. These are the days I wish I could code...

[dkersten]

I guess I haven't had that issue.. all my mala layouts are 1080 and with fonts and decent background graphics I have had some nice results.

The biggest problem I had was making the right text effect in the Wylie's Wars project.. I couldn't control text spacing the way I wanted, and when I tried to just blow it up and cover the top, I ran into the problem of the text coming out on top even if I put that element behind other things.  I can see where it certainly could use some updating, but I also have yet to see anything great from Maximus, and Hyperspin is great if you want a wheel, but if you despise the wheel like I do you are SOL.  It is just like any other part of an arcade though, subject to opinions.

The only reason I suggested it is because of all the things you have mentioned (LEDblinky support, extra data displayed, 1080p layouts, etc), Mala can do them with ease.  But I am sure there is something about it you don't like, and there is nothing wrong with that.  Hope you can get Maximus to do what you want.   

[yotsuya]

I stick with AtomicFE and Hyperspin. Most people just want to play games and don't care about all that other information. 

[grippie]

From a graphical point of view I couldn't stand Mala, text in lists just looked like crap and I couldn't get a design layout that I liked.

+1 on that. I tried about 15 different front ends and found that I only really like Maximus and Hyperspin.

I stick with AtomicFE and Hyperspin. Most people just want to play games and don't care about all that other information. 

Agreed. That's why I made my own theme for MA. It has a nice clean interface that isn't hard for new people to understand. They just want to be able to find a game they want to play and have it work.

[ZexisStryfe]

For those of you with battop US360s... is the threaded top for the battop 6mm? I am looking at getting some dark blue battops to match the buttons I have and Paradise Arcade no longer seems to carry the JAPROC battops with the variable (6mm/10mm) inserts, so I am hoping the 360s have 6mm threaded tops.

[ZexisStryfe]

Big update covering the last week's worth of work-

First off, I got a test print of the control panel overlay art-



Only took staples 7.5 hours to print the damn thing...  I will be using this to create a mockup using foam board to make sure the setup in comfortable one my joysticks come in.

On the pushbutton front Susan from Paradise Arcade was nice enough to hook me up with replacement barrels for my translucent buttons, so now they all match! Also my navy blue pushbuttons came in from Arcade Spare Parts and here is the result-



When reassembling I made sure to reuse the springs from the IL buttons because the ones in the navy blue buttons was much stiffer. For those of you wondering- The 8 buttons for each of the players will have the navy blue plungers, all the admin, coin and mouse buttons will have black plungers and the P1 and P2 start buttons will have white imprinted buttons.

I then went through all my buttons and did my best ChanceKJ impression and wired them all up with the RGB LEDs-



and here is the final result-



Slowly moving along!

[ChanceKJ]

Evolution is right!

Those buttons look sick!  Make sure you mod that button wrench. Cut a big hole in the side for the LED leads.

Haha, I used that exact same Tupperware container for my buttons as a layout test box.

[ZexisStryfe]

Joysticks and I-PAC Ultimate are in!

[horizon]

I agree with Chance on this one. The reason I went with Maximus is because it is one of the few that actually support HiRes widescreen graphics (even Hyperspin doesn't support widescreen). I understand many arcade cabinets still have old-school monitors in them, but more and more of them are using widescreen 1080p monitors. I want something that looks good on my widescreen monitor.

It actually amazes me that we haven't seen any frontends out there with scrapers built in (Like the ROM Collection Browser in XBMC/Kodi). There is so much info out there on these games, it would be a great feature to have. These are the days I wish I could code...

Have you looked into Emulation Station before?  http://www.emulationstation.org/

[rablack97]

I love builds that are all organized etc...

However in the excitement it never fails that folks put the switches on the buttons prior to installing.  Yeah buddy your gonna have to take every last one of those switches right back off.



Get it done in B/W next time since its an alignment test print....Done in 10 mins.

[ZexisStryfe]

I love builds that are all organized etc...

However in the excitement it never fails that folks put the switches on the buttons prior to installing.  Yeah buddy your gonna have to take every last one of those switches right back off.

PIC

Get it done in B/W next time since its an alignment test print....Done in 10 mins.

PIC

Oh, I am well aware that i will have to remove all the microswitches. That is just my organizational OCD kicking in.

Regarding the print- it did only take 10 minutes to print. It took 7 hours to get them to print it because they kept forgetting about it (I went back three times and on the third time made them print it with me standing there).

[ZexisStryfe]

Have you looked into Emulation Station before?  http://www.emulationstation.org/

Looks great (like a stripped down XBMC) but I don't see anything about LEDBlinky support anywhere on the site. That is the only reason I am not using XBMC.

[rablack97]

Oh hell no.......the forgot mode would of been on since you keep forgetting, you need to forget the charge for my print.....

Love that artwork though.....nice job overall so far.

[ZexisStryfe]

Alright, so there hasn't been a whole lot of progress over the holidays, but my order from Ultimarc did come in with my UltraStik 360s, all the mods and my IPAC Ultimate-



I took the opportunity to put the long shafts, octagon restrictors and hard springs on the joysticks along with my Pacific Blue ALU series battops from Paradise Arcade (thanks for all the help Susan!)-



And here it is compared to the original config-



As Neph and others mentioned I will be needing to lube the pivots on the joysticks, which will probably be my next task before I make a test joystick to make sure the layout works for me.

[ChanceKJ]

  those bat tops look great. It's little details like that which go a long way towards the design.

[ZexisStryfe]

Things have slowed down a bit but I do have some news-

I got this order in the mail this week from GroovyGameGear! 



The order includes the following-

 - Electric ICE-T Arcade Trackball v2.5
 - 2 USB extensions
 - a 30 LED Marquee light
 - Trackball Mounting kit
 - T-molding 1/16" slot cutter

In related news I also have found a new place to live (lease is up on the apartment!) and will be moving in March. In the new place I will have a dedicated garage and basement so I will finally be able to start my wood work and feel like I am accomplishing something on this project!

[ZexisStryfe]

Alright, after finally moving and dealing with all the fun of unpacking I have made some progress on this build-

Got a new order in from Paradise Arcade including the following-

- Mini SLG
- 8 Tropical Mood RGB LEDs

Also, I have been mulling over the design a bit and I think I have decided to go with more traditional cabinet sides (based on the sides of Flynn's Arcade, no less) than the Viewlix sides. Here is the current mock up (minus the control panel)-



Any thoughts?

I am about ready to start looking at local CNC shops, but need my SketchUp docs converted to CAD. Don't suppose anyone on here could help with that? 

I also managed to recently acquire an original Mortal Kombat II cabinet in very good condition- that has been keeping me busy as well!

[ChanceKJ]

I'm sure there are a few people on here that could oblige *COUGH*HaRuMaN*COUGH*

[ZexisStryfe]

Back from the dead... with a question! Just out of curiousity- if you guys had to spit ball a cost for CNC on this cabinet, what would you think is reasonable?  The quotes I have gotten recently have... not been, and that is putting it nicely.

[HaRuMaN]

$450-500, plus shipping

[ChanceKJ]

Mine was just under $300. And that's done locally and covered the cost of wood.  Mind you I got a deal. So Lee's prices are sound.

[ZexisStryfe]

Okay... the last quote I got was $800 (local shop), not including materials...

[HaRuMaN]

Okay... the last quote I got was $800 (local shop), not including materials...

Wow that's nuts.   

[ChanceKJ]

Yeah, I had a couple like that when I was first looking. I ended up finding a guy through a Canadian wood working site that "had access" to one through a third party.

[ZexisStryfe]

Any of you guys ever work with Ultralite MDF? The last CNC shop I spoke to stated they preferred working with that.

[HaRuMaN]

Any of you guys ever work with Ultralite MDF? The last CNC shop I spoke to stated they preferred working with that.

Quite the opposite, when I'm using 3/4", I have my CNC guy pick up some ultradense stuff...  machines likes butter

[rablack97]

Looks alot like GriffinDodd's Capcom build

[

Damn he must of been pissed he took down all his photos

Haruman does a great job, I think he shipped his first full size build to me.  It was melamine though (never again).  He is fair and will stay with you through the entire process all the way up to and through delivery.  The cuts are precise, and the quality is A1.  He will take care of you.

[ChanceKJ]

I wanna say that I had a conversation with Rick or Scott about ultralight MDF, but for the life of me I can't find it. Never used it myself tho

[yotsuya]

Any of you guys ever work with Ultralite MDF? The last CNC shop I spoke to stated they preferred working with that.

Quite the opposite, when I'm using 3/4", I have my CNC guy pick up some ultradense stuff...  machines likes butter

That dense stuff is great- when he cut my Star Wars cab, he used that and the sides could take a beating without chipping.

[Nephasth]

Damn he must of been pissed he took down all his photos

 

[ZexisStryfe]

Looks alot like GriffinDodd's Capcom build

Damn he must of been pissed he took down all his photos

You mean the fact I specifically called out his build (and Chance's) in the first post as a major inspiration didn't give away the fact that there would be similarities?  The lower section (the black part) is meant to be a combination of Griff's Revolution and Lukensteinz's MK Viewlix. I liked this part of Griff's build particularly because it fixes my biggest complaint about cabinets that have 32" monitors- the massive flat piece of wood where the coin door is. Giff's design breaks up this area. The sides are actually the modified sides of Chance's Flynn build, minus a pac-man pizza slice.

[ZexisStryfe]

So the last gentleman I spoke with has quoted me $100 per sheet for materials and cut. That is for this Ultralight MDF. I do have some concerns about using this stuff mostly around these Screw Pull numbers (the Ultralight, not the Light product)-



Considering the weight of the unit, do you guys feel these numbers are rather low as well (traditional MDF has a face screw pull number of 400lbs)?

[HaRuMaN]

Yes, I would be concerned with that.  Especially for an arcade cabinet.

[ZexisStryfe]

Thanks, Haruman. I am going to go with traditional MDF as he said he would do that for the same cost.

[Malenko]

Thanks, Haruman. I am going to go with traditional MDF as he said he would do that for the same cost.

I agree with this decision.

[ZexisStryfe]

Since I decided a while back to change the shape of the sides of the cabinet, I have been working on a design for sideart. While I wait on getting the wood cut (seems like it is going to take forever!!!) I figured I would post this art for opinions. As always these are my own characters and my own art, although the character art on these need to be redone in vector format (and mister zombie will go away as he doesn't quite fit). Just like the marquee I have good guys on the left and bad guys on the right. I have a few other ideas mostly centering around how I am going to put the logo but this version is good enough for the masses at the moment!

[pixelObsession]

I really like the 3/4 perspective on the necromancer chick and think you should do the same with your heroine.  There's something about straight at the camera heads that seem amateur to me in a presentation piece like this.

[Malenko]

the good girl's sword looks too short.

I think bad guys on the left would be better (still)

[ZexisStryfe]

the good girl's sword looks too short.

I think bad guys on the left would be better (still)

The sword is a gladius (usually have a 20-24" blade)... they are short swords.

[Malenko]

The sword is a gladius (usually have a 20-24" blade)... they are short swords.

Im aware, I wasnt saying the gladius was too short,  I was saying I don't understand the choice in weaponry?

You have her dual wielding gladius blades. Typically dual weilders would have a main offensive weapon like a rapier , and the offhand would have a parrying dagger like main gauche. Even Musashi used a katana and a wakizashi . I digress I get that its art, and more than that its YOUR art, and it doesn't have to world accurate in a fantasy setting, but I just wanted you to know why I thought what I thought. 

[rablack97]

looking good sir!!!!!

[ZexisStryfe]

Im aware, I wasnt saying the gladius was too short,  I was saying I don't understand the choice in weaponry?

You have her dual wielding gladius blades. Typically dual weilders would have a main offensive weapon like a rapier , and the offhand would have a parrying dagger like main gauche. Even Musashi used a katana and a wakizashi . I digress I get that its art, and more than that its YOUR art, and it doesn't have to world accurate in a fantasy setting, but I just wanted you to know why I thought what I thought. 

You are quite observant! Actually the blade slung over her shoulder is a spatha, so it is the long blade. The blade choice has to do with the fact that the character is a reimagining of Princess Cassandra of Troy (the Oracle). Since ancient Trojan weaponry closely resembles both Greek and Roman weaponry I decided on the gladius/spatha combo for her. A bit unorthodox, but since the character isn't exactly a normal human I felt it was okay.

[Malenko]

Makes sense, the long blade is obfuscated from view by her head and cut off from the right. Since the blades look very similar in style I just assumed it was 2 of the same sword type, well that and I assumed she'd be right handed and have the long blade in her right hand. If its not too big of a pain in the dick, could I suggest maybe instead of having her with the sword on her shoulder, maybe have her have it in front of her crossing the blades so you can see the size relative to one another?

Still, I like it. 

[ZexisStryfe]

The kicker is she is right-handed... I had to flip the artwork to get her to fit on the left side.

Since I do have to redo the lineart for these ladies to make them higher resolution what I will likely do is elongate the blade a bit more to make it visible behind her hair.

[DrZhark]

Looks alot like GriffinDodd's Capcom build

Damn he must of been pissed he took down all his photos

You mean the fact I specifically called out his build (and Chance's) in the first post as a major inspiration didn't give away the fact that there would be similarities?  The lower section (the black part) is meant to be a combination of Griff's Revolution and Lukensteinz's MK Viewlix. I liked this part of Griff's build particularly because it fixes my biggest complaint about cabinets that have 32" monitors- the massive flat piece of wood where the coin door is. Giff's design breaks up this area. The sides are actually the modified sides of Chance's Flynn build, minus a pac-man pizza slice.

Well, you should see my first cabinet... It is almost the same as you posted. I haven't posted any pictures yet as I've been shy and I'm yet to finish it. It is missing the CP overlay and side artwork. My cab is heavily inspired on MVC2 and Grounds for divorce. I did some modifications, it is somewhat modular so I can carry the upper part that contains an LCD TV and a marquee LCD monitor and it separates from the bottom part that has the subwoofer and computer. 

I browsed many different cabinets and thought for quite some time before deciding to that design. Then I spent two months designing it on Sketch up. I'll post some pics soon.  I thank Griffind for his inspiring design. I don't think he is pissed... who knows?

I designed a small electronic circuit to modify the door coin, so you can use the coin reject buttons to work as credit buttons, but with one caveat: that function is disabled / enabled with a key switch and there is an LED that shows if the option is active (green) or deactivated (red).  If anybody's interested, I can post pictures and a circuit diagram. It is quite easy to do and I love it

[ZexisStryfe]

Well, you should see my first cabinet... It is almost the same as you posted. I haven't posted any pictures yet as I've been shy and I'm yet to finish it. It is missing the CP overlay and side artwork. My cab is heavily inspired on MVC2 and Grounds for divorce. I did some modifications, it is somewhat modular so I can carry the upper part that contains an LCD TV and a marquee LCD monitor and it separates from the bottom part that has the subwoofer and computer. 

I browsed many different cabinets and thought for quite some time before deciding to that design. Then I spent two months designing it on Sketch up. I'll post some pics soon.  I thank Griffind for his inspiring design. I don't think he is pissed... who knows?

See, you hit the nail on the head with this post, Zhark. I am building this cabinet so that it can easily be split in two as well. I rent so I tend to move every year or two, so I needed something that could be easily moved. I am not sure why Griff removed his pictures, but I doubt it is that people were copying his design. After all, imitation is the greatest form of flattery and all that...

I do find it odd that my design is called out for it similarities when looking at them from the side they are not similar at all-



Only the coindoor section is similar (in the front). That said, as I previously stated both his MvCR builds were huge influencers for my decision to build a new cabinet, so there are worse things to be compared to!

[DrZhark]

Well my cabinet is really not as slim as yours. I don't think it will pass that side to side test with MvC2







The cabinet is missing the artwork. My photoshop skills are non existent.  So until I get the artwork, I won't be adding the t-moulding.   I'm not happy with the red ball on the 4-way joystick.. I didn't want to make a frankenpanel, but ended up doing one (live and learn).  I started from scratch with zero woodworking experience.... so It has its flaws but I'm happy with it.   

Here's a close up of the modified coin mechanism:

[ZexisStryfe]

See I would love to do a screen for the marquee but I haven't found any that would even come close to fitting. 32" x 8" is a very odd aspect ratio, but honestly I haven't found anything even close.

[ZexisStryfe]

Well, it only took a year and just under over 4 pages but, I got wood!



I was able to find a CNC hobbyist and he was nice enough to cut the entire thing for me for under $400, including materials. I will still need to run some of the pieces with angled sides through a tablesaw (note... need tablesaw) but I am well on my way. I also picked up about 36" of 1x2 dimensional lumber for ledger boards.

While waiting for the wood to get cut I have also been working on the high res versions of the previously posted sideart, it took me a while, but they are finally complete-



So now that I have the wood, I have a question about castors... I am looking for this unit to have 4-way motion on it wheels do to the fact that the unit is too wide to slide through many doors normally (34.5"). Because of this I am looking at using 4 swivel castors along with 2 stabilization feet once the unit is in place. Does anyone think this would be a problem?

Also suggestions on where to buy the castors would be great too...

[ZexisStryfe]

So as I moved some of the pieces from one room to another I noticed that the side parts of the cabinet were taller than a door frame... that was odd, so I measured it- 81 inches tall. I went back to my SketchUp documents and looked there- 74 inches tall. 

It turns out that when SketchUp converted the SKP file to a DWG/DXF file, it changed the measurements for some reason. It upscaled everything by 1.1015625.   

Expensive mistake...

[brucelee00]

So as I moved some of the pieces from one room to another I noticed that the side parts of the cabinet were taller than a door frame... that was odd, so I measured it- 81 inches tall. I went back to my SketchUp documents and looked there- 74 inches tall. 

It turns out that when SketchUp converted the SKP file to a DWG/DXF file, it changed the measurements for some reason. It upscaled everything by 1.1015625.   

Expensive mistake...

That is most certainly a bummer, sorry to hear that. I had this same thing almost happen to me when I was having someone just cnc a side template for me from one of my sketch up designs. For some reason, I had this inclination to ask how his cnc software was reading out the measurements and sure enough they were off.  I tried exporting the files from sketchup so many ways even download a trial of autocad to see what was going on... long story short his cnc software took .eps an adobe Illustrator format so what i did was make sure the camera view was in parallel projection, export a 2d graphic and chose .eps file format and selected the default 1:1 option and his software read everything correctly. If you decide to have this redone I would still make sure his cnc software is getting the correct read out to avoid another expensive mistake.

[ZexisStryfe]

I was able to get the software to export properly. It seems like the bug was tied to the 2014 version of Sketchup. Once I updated the file to version 15 it exported properly. Well, at least I will have a lot of spare wood to practice stuff on...

[EvilNuff]

I really love your artwork, looking forward to seeing this progress!  I am definitely going to check out your art link.

[Knievel]

Evolution eh? My lawyers will be in touch...

[EvilNuff]

Evolution eh? My lawyers will be in touch...

Uh-oh then don't look at the cab I am planning when I finally get around to posting it... 

[ZexisStryfe]

Okay, lets try this again...



So my CNC guy was nice enough to recut the majority of the pieces for me (I will take care of the simple pieces on my table saw) for half the cost and in less than a week. I am currently waiting on said table saw to arrive from Lowe's and then I can get started cutting everything up.

[ZexisStryfe]

The saw has arrived and was immediately put to work!



Alright even though I spent the weekend making way too many trips to Lowe's after repeatedly forgetting to get things, I was able to actually get some wood cutting done. All the wood for the lower half of the cabinet was completed, including all the angle cuts and the corrections from the first botched CNC cut.



After that I spent the day cutting up ledger board and attaching it to the sides of the lower cabinet-



Just an observation... I f'ing hate ledger board. Way more time consuming than I remember. Next step is to drill a few holes for the power and the clamping knobs to hold the lower cabinet to the upper cabinet. Then I can start putting this guy together.

[Scotty_C]

Nice progress!! Liking this build. What size ledger board did you go with?

[ZexisStryfe]

I ended up going with 1x2s, but of course they are actually .75x1.5s

[EvilNuff]

Good choice for a saw, those portable bosch's are good quality with a nice riving knife for safety. 

[ZexisStryfe]

Good choice for a saw, those portable bosch's are good quality with a nice riving knife for safety. 

Yes, I am quite happy with it performance so far. The safety features are definitely one of the big reasons I went with this saw.

[ZexisStryfe]

Well it has been a productive few days...

First off I have drilled the clamping holes in the side of the lower sections-



These holes will allow me to clamp the lower section to the upper section once complete. I will be doing this with a combination of six star knobs and wood insert lock nuts in the outer/upper part of the cabinet. This way the two halves can be split apart when needed (ie- moving).

After finishing that it was time to start assembly!



It took the better part of two days (largely waiting for glue to dry) but I was able to finally finish the assembly of the lower half of the cabinet.



Next weekend I will begin on the upper half.

[BGoulette]

Those angles looks great!

[ZexisStryfe]

So I have a question for all you lurkers out there... particularly those of you building Flynn clones (or Chance could just chime in himself)-

How much space do you put between the front glass/plexi and the monitor screen? Do you put them right up against each other or leave a gap?

[ChanceKJ]

Back of my glass is about an inch or so from the bezel of the TV.

[ZexisStryfe]

Back of my glass is about an inch or so from the bezel of the TV.

Thanks Chance, that helps. I am in the process of assembling the upper portion of the cabinet and was wondering how far back I needed to put the support board for the mount.

[ChanceKJ]

I'd put the tv as far back as you can with a mind on the clearance for cables from the back. Give it that "floating in space" look. As long as you black out the inside well enough.

[ZexisStryfe]

I have made quite a bit of progress this week!

Over the course of the week I ended up prepping the sides of the upper half of the cabinet to be assembled-


Once I got the measurements for the TV mount all set I started assembly!


I also began assembly of the control panel box-


once that was completed...

Viola! Fully assembled and mocked up together!


Next step is to begin hiding the errors and filling the cracks with Bondo, but that will have to wait until next weekend. I have also ordered the artwork for my control panel from GOG, complete with a paper template so I can begin drilling the button/joystick holes in the control panel. After that it is time to build a paint room!

[ZexisStryfe]

It has been slow going over the past few weeks but I have definitely been making good progress!

First off I got my Control Panel Overlay art from Game On Grafix. I ordered the adhesive backed art with a template. Using the template I was able to successfully drill the holes for the button in my CP lid-





After that I made the 1.5" slots around the joystick for the clear tubing (as per the Flynn build). This was a PITA lining everything up properly and I ended up having to fill the holes with Bondo and redrill-



Speaking of Bondo, I have begun filling the imperfections in the build with Bondo in order to prep for painting. I never thought I would go through a 2 lb can of Bondo on one project.



I have also installed the Euro hinges into the Control Panel to make sure everything lines up properly-



I was lucky as I have exactly 0 inches of clearance on the front of the panel!

Next up is building a 8'x8'x7' ChanceKJ-approved paint room and I will get to work priming and painting!

[ZexisStryfe]

Well, this has been a busy week.

Over the course of the week I was able to build my paint room (ah, the joy of working from home)-



This room is 8' x 8' x 7', built from 2x4s and plastic tarps. There is also a duct with a 6" ventilation fan attached, leading through the finished portion of the basement to the basement door. I thought I had ventilation covered...

So I began to primer.

First off, I am using the 2-in-1 primer/filler for the initial coat. I am actually quite amazed at how much the Bondo work shows through as darker splotches (it is very visible in the pictures). Is that normal?





Secondly, my attempts at ventilation were not sufficient. Unfortunately the unfinished part of my basement (where I do my work) has no door/windows. The entire condo smelled of paint for several hours after the first day's session of painting. To those of you who had to paint indoors (ie- didn't have a garage)- any suggestions on how to better ventilate? It is 40°F here and I would rather not have all my windows open all day again...

[reptileink]

Couple of venting questions:

What type of vent are you using? Is it one for painting/fumes? I ask because most bathroom/kitchen vents contain brush motors. This can be extremely dangerous as the brushes cause friction (small sparks) which could ignite certain paint fumes. You really want to use a brushless motor fan.

Second, what CFM rating is the fan? A weak "pull" will not fully vent to the end of your run

Speaking of your run, how far is it? for your cubic footage, you need to have minimum 60 CFM vent motor. This will pull the fumes up to 50 ft. Also know that any 90 degree angles add 5 feet to your total run length.

Lastly, what type of vent hose are you using? Just regular plastic/foil vent is still a bit porous, and will let fumes out. You want rigid venting to really contain anything. Also, your venting should attach to the fan INSIDE your box. Obviously, you want to make sure your box is also as air tight as possible. Duct tape or aluminum tape helps seal any connections too.

This may seem like overkill for a temporary project, but hey, you asked

[ZexisStryfe]

Thanks, Reptileink.

So I am using a 250CFM 6" duct fan. No brush motor. It is a straight 25 foot run of flexible ductwork (with insulation covering) to the back door. The ductwork definitely works, as I now have a primer grey circle on my backdoor screen, it just seems like fumes are getting out of the paintroom. As you suggested my next step is to use duct tape to seal the connections. I actually purchased two 20" high-velocity shroud fans and tested them out while painting today, and those seemed to help dramatically.

[ZexisStryfe]

I have a question for all of you master woodworkers/builders out there...

I am finishing up the second coat of primer on the cabinet as we speak and am about to begin the paint coats (will be using Rustoleum Spray paint). I am planning 2-3 coats of paint. This has been my process so far-

1.) First coat of primer/filler combo (light gray).
2.) Sand coat with 220 grit.
3.) Second coat of primer (dark gray).
4.) Sand coat with 320 grit.

My original plan was to do continue on and do this next-

5.) Spray first coat of paint.
6.) Sand with 320 grit.
7.) Spray second coat of paint. (for interior surfaces I will stop here.)
8.) Sand with 320, then 600 grit.
9.) Spray final coat of paint.

My question is this- How do you guys finish the paint after spraying? Am I off on my plan? I have seen several different techniques (don't sandpaper the last coat and put a clear coat on it, wet sand the final coat up to 2000 grit then polish with SwirlX, etc) and was curious what do you guys do to finish the paint on your cabs? I am very weary of wet sanding since the underlying wood is MDF...

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Lol. I usually do 220 grit on every coat. Then the final coat doesn't need any. You've been watching too much of John's Arcade. :-)

[ZexisStryfe]

Ha! Maybe... I think what I am going to end up doing is sanding the initial paint coat with 320 grit, then leave the last coat and cover with a satin clear coat. On interior surfaces I am just going to put on the initial coat and the clear coat.

[vwalbridge]

Correct me if I am wrong but aren't you completely covering your sides and CP with vinyl artwork?

How much exposed paint do you really have?

[ZexisStryfe]

Yup. The sides will be covered. It is (for the most part) the lower half of the cabinet, the back and the CP box than will need the extra touch.

[ZexisStryfe]

I have been painting for the last few weeks (lucky me) and everything was moving along nicely until I got to the most important piece- the front of the lower half of the cabinet. Here I start running into this little problem-



Now, keep in mind I have been waiting a minimum of 48 hours between coats... does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on? After sanding the cracking down and repainting it simply happens again in a different spot! I swear I am about 5 minutes away from sanding this entire thing back down to the wood and starting over...

[vwalbridge]

This is almost always because the previous coat didn't fully cure.

However, it is important to understand that paint doesn't cure based only on time. Just because you have waited 48 hours, doesn't mean the paint is cured.

(I've found the 48 hour rule to actually be total nonsense. It may be dry to the touch but it's not "chemically" cured) I wait a week before applying art on paint for example.

2 other factors could be at work here:

Temperature and/or humidity

Is it cold where you are painting and/or humid?

[ZexisStryfe]

This is almost always because the previous coat didn't fully cure.

However, it is important to understand that paint doesn't cure based only on time. Just because you have waited 48 hours, doesn't mean the paint is cured.

(I've found the 48 hour rule to actually be total nonsense. It may be dry to the touch but it's not "chemically" cured) I wait a week before applying art on paint for example.

2 other factors could be at work here:

Temperature and/or humidity

Is it cold where you are painting and/or humid?

That is good to know. I initially thought it was that I wasn't giving the paint enough time to cure as well, but the last time this happened there was actually 2 weeks between coats, so I am not positive that is the cause anymore. Regarding temperature and humidity- It is about 60-70 degrees in the room and if anything it is a bit dry. I have successfully painted 4 other pieces without issue (both backboards, the control box and the control panel), this is only happening on that one piece- the lower half of the arcade. Unfortunately this is also the most complicated piece...

Another thing to note- this doesn't happen as the paint dries- it happens immediately when the new coat goes on.

[ZexisStryfe]

Okay, I noticed something rather interesting... I have decided to sand this piece back down to wood and start painting it again... however I have another piece drying right next to it and didn't want to kick up dust so instead I started scraping with a chisel. To my surprise, the top few layers peeled right off! Underneath was a layer that looked like lizard skin. It was dry, but gummy in spots. It makes me wonder if there wasn't something wrong with one of the cans of spray paint I was using...

Tomorrow I am going to sand it down and start over.... This should be fun.

[dkersten]

Could be bad paint or could be it wasn't shaken well enough.. Gotta shake a can of gloss or semi gloss for a good 2-3 minutes (vigorously), then stop to shake every minute or so during the application. 

[ZexisStryfe]

It has been a very productive last few weeks!

I have finally finished painting the cabinet. I ended up having to sand the lower portion of the cab back down to primer and then repaint in order to get rid of the crocodile skin paint.



Although it was quite a bit of work (you can see all the pealed paint in the background) the end result was quite nice. I painted the exterior surfaces of the cabinet using Rustoleum Satin Black and the interior portions with Rustoleum Satin Sapphire. 



Here is the final result-

Lower Half:




Upper Half:




The sides of the upper half have already been sanded to prep for the sideart in these pictures, hence the appearance.

While I was painting I also got to work at getting the artwork ready to be put on. After seeing his work on these board I decided to reach out to Brad (Lucian045 on the boards) to get the artwork done. Imagine my surprise when he ended up living 3 miles away from me! First Brad printed out my side artwork and did a fantastic job at a very good price (the photo doesn't do the print justice)-



After doing such a great job I took up his offer to print out my marquee and re-print my control panel overlay (the original print from GameonGraphix was hyper saturated and scratched in several places). Both came out fantastic-

Control Panel Overlay


Marquee


I highly endorse Brad for his fantastic work!

[Ian]

Not to be a paint nazi but i don't understand for the life of me why people on here spend good money on parts and materials for arcade cabinets and then go cheap on the paint? Spray paint not only is almost always thin paint with little durability and poor binders and subpar raw materials like pigments.

This isn't on Zex specifically because he is covering it up mostly with artwork. But going out and getting decent enamel paint (latex or oil) rolled on and sanded in between coats will give you a better look, and way better durability, washability and less chances of alligatoring, blistering, peeling, and burnishing.

Just my two cents. I will go on about my business.


And Zex I am liking this build! Keep it up!

[ChanceKJ]

.

[ZexisStryfe]

Honestly, I hate painting. I can (and repeatedly) screw up painting a flat wall, never mind a cabinet with lots of nooks and crannies. I chose spray paint because I thought it would be easier, and for the most part it was. That said, I feel like I have to be very careful not to damage the surface- it seems very fragile, which totally may be just a perception. Next time I do something like this, I will likely look at using a paint sprayer instead of spray paint. I feel like that may give me the quality I am looking for, combined with the ease of application that spray paint has.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Is it me or does the right side angle look warped?

[rablack97]

He just has it laying on the floor with nothing underneath it, its not flat.

[Ian]

You should see the surface i can get with a couple good rattle cans.   

 

[ZexisStryfe]

Is it me or does the right side angle look warped?

Rablack is right. The sideart hasn't been applied yet. When I got it, it was rolled up. This pic was from when I was flattening it out.

[ZexisStryfe]

Alright, It has been a bit since my last update but there has been quite a bit of progress!

First off, I have begun putting the art on my cabinet- I started off with the control panel-



Using a felt squeegee this went on very easily,  and then I trimmed the edges can cut out the holes with an exacto knife.



You can see from the picture that I had some alignment issues. It seems when I cut the holes in the wood I didn't align with the artwork properly. Luckily not hing was bad enough that it will show up once all the hardware is added.

Here it is all cleaned up with the black t-molding added!



One thing to note (you can see it in the pics) is the fact that I used a trackball plate and that is actually visible through the artwork. Not a dealbreaker but something to think about in future builds.

Now regarding the hardware- I spray painted the joystick plates black



and then began adding the hardware. As you can see, I have gone the same route as Chance, adding the "ChanceRings" to the joystick slots along with two RGB LEDs to light them-



Another thing to note is that despite going with the GroovyGameGear Electric ICE-T trackball, I actually ended up using the lighting module from Ultimarc so that it would work with my I-PAC Ultimate. Because of this I had to create a DIY mount using some hot glue and a fork terminal connector-



And here it is mounted-



And here is the interior of the panel (Wiring is not done) with everything mounted



and the exterior

[ChanceKJ]

.

[ChanceKJ]

.

[yotsuya]

I really like that blue.

[ChanceKJ]

.

[yotsuya]

I was talking about the paint job, actually.

[ChanceKJ]

.

[ZexisStryfe]

Thanks guys. I am actually very pleasantly surprised on how the blue color came out. I thought it was going to be much darker than it actually turned out being, but it matches well with the color of the buttons and battops.

Speaking of the battops, I really have to thank Paradise Arcade for those. They are their JAPROC Pacific Blue ALU battops, which they no longer carry. They were nice enough to go to their supplier and get me a set despite no longer carrying them. Big props to them for doing that for me.

A further update-

Today I was able to combine the upper and lower halves of the cabinet. I used some felt tape between the two halves of the cabinet and then attached them using the inset screw nuts and star knobs, this way they can be separated whenever I like (such as when I am moving).







And here are the two halves finally united!

[ZexisStryfe]

Alright,

Question for you guys regarding the IPAC Ultimate I/O-

On this board there are three unlabeled pins



Are these pins also GND pins like the last pin in that row?

[dkersten]

I am 99% sure those are grounds as well. 

[Malenko]

Are these pins also GND pins like the last pin in that row?

Just follow the traces on the back of the board to be sure.

[Scotty_C]

I can confirm that those pins are ground on the UIO. Looking very nice! Really like the interior paint job and how it's all put together.

[ZexisStryfe]

I can confirm that those pins are ground on the UIO. Looking very nice! Really like the interior paint job and how it's all put together.

Once I began testing I verified that you are right, Scotty. They are in fact ground pins.

[ZexisStryfe]

And progress marches on, waiting for no man!

This week I was able to add the side artwork to the cabinet! This process was quite easy thanks to some hints from Lucian045. I laid the cabinet down on it side and using some painter's tape I taped the artwork onto the cabinet.



I trimmed some of the backing off and went to town with a felt squeegee! After everything was nice and even with no air bubbles (Air release plastic for the win!) I then started removing the 1/2" masking tape I used to cover up the t-molding slot during painting.



I got quite a bit of satisfaction doing this for some reason...

After all the masking tape was removed I trimmed the artwork back with a super-sharp exacto knife



Finally, I put on the t-molding (dark blue), flipped her over and did the other side! Here is Evolution standing with the control panel on it-



I also took the opportunity to set up the TV mount, mount the underside LED tape (superglue was my friend on this one) and I put up some 3/16" pegboard in the marquee area and then covered it in metal tape for a nice reflective surface. I then screwed the marquee LEDs in place!

Oh, and mounted the TV!



Not too shabby for a week's worth of work... and I haven't even gotten to the work I did on the weekend yet!

[ZexisStryfe]

This weekend was productive! I concentrated on getting the power wired up and the front IO panel for the sound system.

First I mounted the speakers using pipe hanging straps-



Then I decided to wire the power button for the cabinet. The power button is an anti-vandal momentary switch with 12V LEDs and sits at the top of the cabinet much like it does on many traditional machines.





This button is wired directly to the motherboard of my computer using the pinouts normally reserved for the case power button. Pressing this button turns on and shuts down the PC.  The PC is then plugged into the master outlet on this guy-



In the switched outlets I will connect the TV, Sound system, Switching power supply and the control panel. After a few tests everything worked perfectly! 

Next I went to work on the sound system. Now as you may know, I went with the Genius SW-G2.1 2000 2.1 sound system for this build and one of the big reasons was this guy-



The I/O and control box.

When disassembled, this box had two components- the rear panel with board/PSU and the front IO panel, which I separated out. I then took the board and PSU and mounted it to an internal shelf on PCB feet.



I then took the front panel and mounted it to a piece of black plexiglass cut to 3" x 8". I then put the shelf in place, connected everything and screwed the IO panel in place (please ignore the smudges and fingerprints!)-



It works great, although it does not automatically power on when power is restored via the switched surge protector. Oh well...

Next on the docket is to complete the wiring of the control panel, make the control panel rear I/O panel, and adding the coin door. I am currently on hold regarding sanding and polishing the aluminum marquee/glass retainers- my Dremel supplies are en route from China as we speak (and should get here sometime next month! ).

[DeLuSioNal29]

You'll probably want to remove the pipe hanging straps, cut up an old black t-shirt into two squares and put that underneath the speakers to block out any light from the marquee.  Then you can put the hanging straps back on.  Light will definitely bleed through otherwise.

D

[ZexisStryfe]

You'll probably want to remove the pipe hanging straps, cut up an old black t-shirt into two squares and put that underneath the speakers to block out any light from the marquee.  Then you can put the hanging straps back on.  Light will definitely bleed through otherwise.

D

I actually have speaker fabric I am intent on using for this very purpose, however this doesn't really seem to be a problem because of little light gets behind the marquee pegboard, thank to the metallic tape being totally opaque.

[EvilNuff]

Looks really good, love the art and paint colors!

[ZexisStryfe]

Let me know how things go with that trackball lighting module.  I pulled mine out in favour of a custom solution with a single RGB LED (same as the ones i used in my joysticks).  I think i had an overheating issue that scared the crap outta me combined with how incredibly bright that Ultimarc model was with the crystal clear trackball i used.

...might have been user error on my part tho.

I will be posting more pics soon, but I just wanted to call this out- After I began testing the LED wiring I noticed that my little rig had some major issues; the biggest of which is this little board gets ridiculously hot, which caused the hot glue to melt every time the LEDs were turned on.

My solution was similar to yours except I used a spare Il-lumination RGB LED (the same ones I used for the buttons) stuck it to some duct tape and taped it to the bottom of the trackball. Luckily the Electric Ice trackball has a nice circular hole in the bottom that fits this LED perfectly. It works great and the illumination level is on par with that of the buttons, so I am happy!

[taxidriver6]

Hi ZexisStryfe, did you ever finish this beautiful build?

[ZexisStryfe]

Hi ZexisStryfe, did you ever finish this beautiful build?

Hey Taxidriver,

Sorry about the lack of updates... real life seems to constantly get in the way! The cabinet is not complete however I have made some great progress on it. I would definitely consider myself in the home stretch at this point.

My sanding drums from China arrived much later than expected (towards the end of March) but once I got them I was able to begin sanding the metal angles. I am going for a rougher, mill style finish on them as seen here-



I basically started with the rough sandpaper drums and worked my ways down to the finer grits to get the finish (this piece was a work in progress). After sanding them down I glued the lower angle in place using superglue and some spare plexi as spacers. these angles will be used for the marquee retainer-



After drilling some holes in the upper angle I finally was able to set up the marquee!

Unlit-


Lit-


I then set to work on creating an IO panel for the rear of the control panel. This will allow for the control panel to be disconnected via four simple plugs- USB (USB hub), power (surge protector in the CP), a 10-wire molex and a 2-wire molex connector (lines to the other LEDs and inputs on the unit).

I ct the black plexi with a dremel from the rear to get some cleaner lines (this pic is the rear side with protective paper still on)


The connectors were then glued to the plexi and it was screwed into the back of the panel-


I then started the wiring internal to the unit- I used this switching power supply-


And I set up two wiring blocks on the side of the side of the cabinet to provide 12v power-


I installed the coin door and the subwoofer (Velcro!) and did some wire cleanup-


After finishing all that I finally received my glass panel from OneDayGlass. Unfortunately after installing it I discovered that the glass was not quite smoky enough, and the internals were still visible through it, so I went to Plan B- smoked plexi. I know Chance is a big advocate for the stuff, so I ordered some which arrived about three weeks ago... totally shattered. Luckily the provider was able to ship me out a replacement piece next day and would you look at that, a fully functional arcade -


    

Now, As I said, it isn't complete yet. On the hardware side, I still have the upper and lower rear fan wiring and the diamond kickplate to finish (I totally mis-measured the original kickplate   ). Software wise I am still setting up LEDBlinky and Retroarch. It seems like I might have to do a bit of remapping in order to get the PC games working as well... (damn Street Fighter V... )

[80sarcadegames]

Just finished reading this thread.
Seems like it was completed but part of me is that he had more to share about updates since his last post, but
I guess he is having too much fun enjoying it!!  Nice Vewlix!!!   

[Tragically Geek]

Just finished reading this thread.
Seems like it was completed but part of me is that he had more to share about updates since his last post, but
I guess he is having too much fun enjoying it!!  Nice Vewlix!!!   

Agreed! I really wish he would give us a status update.  I would love to know if there is anything he would change.  I had originally planned on making a cabinet based on Chance's build.  Having seen this the two are a perfect fusion, although I am curious how it would work with a 4 player setup.

Dimensions would be amazing!