PolybiusA few months ago the ZapCon organizers reached out to me about getting a PC for a "Space Paranoids" cabinet they were planning to build for ZapCon. I thought it was a great idea, and I was intrigued. They ended up not needing the machine, but then the owners of Starfighters Arcade here in town asked about the same computer, as they wanted to use it to build a replica "Starfighter" cabinet from the movie for ZapCon. I said sure. In the mean time, it got my wheels spinning. I liked the whole vibe of having "Mythical Cabinets that Didn't Exist In Real Life" at the show, and it reminded me of something I had always wanted to tackle. I contacted the ZapCon organizer, and he gave me his blessing, and so I decided to go for it....
Polybius, the holy grail of arcade urban legendsI love the story behind it - the paranoia, the men in black, the game that drives you to the edge of insanity. There are a few sites dedicated to it, and someone even wrote a game, which will be the basis of the electronics of the cab. I'm more interested in presentation and atmosphere, though, so that's what I'm going to be hitting.
I hit up a buddy for a cab and got a gutted, converted Stern cab to use. The box had been sanded flat and painted white, and although it had some termite issues, the body was in great shape. It's a great classic shape, too, so I said yeah. I threw a PC CRT and a computer in it was be done.
So here's my initial design:
So in the design for the cab, for the final product, I had a few design rules that decided to hold fast to:
#1. I wanted the machine to look like it's been pulled out of a warehouse after 30 years. That means no highfaluting LCD, light up buttons, 5.1 digital sound, etc. I want to use the original T-molding, beat up (but functional) buttons and joysticks, and so on and so forth. The plan for it is to come across as an artifact. I even have a faux City of Portland Tax Sticker I'm going to put on it.
#2. I want it to have an air of mystery.This is supposed to be a machine that drove people crazy. I want the game to look dark and ominous. It's going to be black, with sparsely stenciled sides. I want this to look like it was locked away for years from prying eyes and is now being released into the wild.
#3. I'm not above using a bit of trickery to accomplish #1 & #2.I'd love to do some things like artificially age the artwork and painting. I want to dinge it up a bit. I'd like to add some '81 era stickers to it. I even want to add some pen-scratched graffiti to it (Stuff like "Joanie + Chachi" and "Don't play this game!!!"). The game is supposed to be confusing and disorienting - so I put color-cycling bulbs in the front coin door. Imagine looking down and seeing them red, playing, then glancing down and a minute later they are blue.
You can see in the photo that I stayed close to the original design. I wasn't able to create effective stencils, so I used vinyl on the sides. If anything, that gave it nice, sharp, crisp lines. Build photos below.
More on this later, but I need to thank my buddies Malenko, Vigo, opt2not, the late Louis Tully, Nephasth, Le Chuck, and jdbailey1206 for their feedback on this project.
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Topic: Project Announcement - Polybius, My 2015 ZapCon project. (Read 28946 times)
