Help on design w/o destroying an original cab

[slycrel]

  Hey guys.

  The day before (!!!) I was to begin construction on my 4 player cabinet,  I found a converted defender cabinet for cheap in my area.  So I picked it up.  =)  I figure it will be good to get this under my belt anyhow before I start something 100% from scratch.  (I also hate to destroy the mape/birch plywood I got from home depot on a beginner level cab project...)

  The current problem I'm seeing is the size of the control panel.  I've done enough work on it this past saturday to determine that the control panel is in fact the original which came with defender as well as the original side art being under a couple of coats of paint.  (it was currently a yie ar kung-fu that didn't work)  Now, I'd hate to ruin this cabinet for a possible later conversion to an original defender, but at the same time I would like a 2 player "fighter" style control panel.  I'm having problems fitting the 2 older style wico joysticks along with some player start buttons on the panel.  

  Any tips on working this out?

  Thanks in advance for any input.

  Oh, the control panel size I have to work with is roughly eight inches by two feet.  This is actually a bit big because I have to allow for the blocks of wood that are ~1" on the sides and top of the CP.  I'm feeling pretty restricted....

[slycrel]

  I should also note that I'll be building the CP from scratch, not destroying the original, but saving it for either a real conversion or an ebaying later.  I did get a few buttons and an old 8 way joystick, all leaf style.  Anyway.

  Here is the removed side-art with the defender artwork showing thru, just for fun.  The questions on how to restore this will come later.  

[paigeoliver]

Well, you ALREADY ruined what was the best Yi Ar Kung Fu sideart I had ever seen.

Now, why are you feeling restricted? Defender is one of the easiest cabinets for Mame use. There is plenty of room for the standard Streetfighter layout on the panel. Defender is actually slightly wider than most 80s cabs, plenty of which saw Streetfighter action later in their lives.

First off, just pull off that original panel, it is just wood. Make a new one, out of wood, and drill your streetfighter layout in it (You need about 18-19" for a Streetfighter layout, you have 24", which is PLENTY of room. If you want to use Wico sticks, then either get the long handled ones, or just cover then entire panel with a thin piece of sheetmetal, and cut out little rectangles so you can mount your Wico sticks directly to the sheet metal (you can use pretty thin stuff when you do it that way).

[leafs]

I have just recently stripped an Original Defender cabinet that is structurally ok but the original art work was messed up. I am in the final stages of completing my control panel. I found a 6 button SF Style template that was very useful I will provide the link below (Thanks TalkingOctopus) . My control panel is 24 7/16ths wide and 8 1/16th deep. It is a little tight but seems to be ok. I used the T-Stick Plus 4/8 switchable sticks. Pain in the ass to wire because of the switch underneath. I also used the Keywiz Max 1.5 for my interface. I am hoping to finish my panel tonight and test it out. I will probably post some pics. If you have any questions I will try and answer them. I am a rookie as well and have been lurking here for a while. The people in these forums are great and I have found a lot of answers to my questions without asking just using search.

http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/files.html

[slycrel]

  Heh, I thought I was pretty safe ripping off the yie ar side art because previously I've never even HEARD of it, let alone seen it...  And I thought I'd been around the arcade scene a bit.  Shows what I know!  Sorry for showing you that paige.  

  The big problem I'm seeing is the width of the CP, not the length.  maybe I'll put the player start buttons and a shift button on one side.  having only just over 7" for the depth is my main concern.  And I'd like to have some extra space for some of my bigger (300+ lb) friends.  I'll do some playing with the spacing of the buttons; I tried to lay out some controls, but it seemed pretty tight, thus the question.

  Thanks leaf (and TalkingOctopus!), I'll check out some of those templates.

  Oh, and FYI if you're in Utah...  The guy had no less than two original asteroid cabs sitting in the back of his shop.  He's got some good stuff over there that he's willing to sell.

[Sephroth57]

 And I'd like to have some extra space for some of my bigger (300+ lb) friends.  

Im sorry and i know this is in bad taste, but when i read that sentance i just burst out laughing.... LOL  

[slycrel]

  It was meant for the humor.  =)  To be fair, one of the guys I'm talking about is probably close to that , but it's all muscle.  The other guy...  well, he's just big.  =)

  BTW, I've checked out the templates a bit and might be able to use one of them.  I would have never put the buttons quite so close together, but I can see how it could work.  I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

[RacerX]

I have a two player Street Fighter style panel on my Defender cab, and it works great.  But I don't have any 300 lb. friends...

http://mysite.verizon.net/RacerX93/controls.htm

[slycrel]

  Hey thanks racerX!  I had been envisioning the same sort of thing for my control panel -- a street fighter style control panel and a trackball/spinner layout that I could pop in on short notice (that I could finish later).  How do you liike the layout of the trackball and spinner?  is the spinner too far out of the way, or does it seem to be fine there on the right?  Also, I like how you have the ground wired...  looks good, I may do it that way too, rather than daisy-chaining.

[RacerX]

  Hey thanks racerX!  I had been envisioning the same sort of thing for my control panel -- a street fighter style control panel and a trackball/spinner layout that I could pop in on short notice (that I could finish later).  How do you liike the layout of the trackball and spinner?  is the spinner too far out of the way, or does it seem to be fine there on the right?  Also, I like how you have the ground wired...  looks good, I may do it that way too, rather than daisy-chaining.

Glad to help!  I think the spinner feels fine there.  It isn't too far out of the way to be playable, but it *is* far enough out of the way that I don't bump it when using the trackball.  I wouldn't have needed so many of the red buttons, but I wanted the panel to work equally well for left-handed people because my best friend is a lefty.

The limitation of the panel lies with the fact that I can't use it to play games that require both a spinner and a joystick.  Fortunately, there aren't all that many of those.

My next panel is going to be a Star Wars yoke panel (already have a Turbo Sub yoke), and then I may do a rotary panel or a Tron panel.  Not sure yet.

My web site isn't as detailed as it could be.  If you need more info, please ask.  I can measure or whatever else you need me to do.

[SirPeale]

Im sorry and i know this is in bad taste, but when i read that sentance i just burst out laughing.... LOL  

I find it funny that after the thread with the statement:

There are two things wrong with this this sentence

You thought 'sentence' was spelled wrong and as such, the other error.  You're still spelling it wrong!

[Wienerdog]

Holy smokes Peale, how did you remember that it was him that spelled sentence wrong?  lol, I'm going to watch myself around you...

[Wienerdog]

And I'd like to have some extra space for some of my bigger (300+ lb) friends.

Hope this helps, I made a panel for you.

[mahuti]

I have a defender conversion. My business partner and I play on that cabinet like, an hour a day each, and together. KOF, 1943, Joust, whatever. It works just fine for 2 people. As far as the depth for the player 1 & 2 buttons, there was a cut on the original defender control panel to fit the stick... which is where I put the player 1 and 2 buttons. You can easily cut the board on the top in a spot or two to make some extra room, without really doing any major damage to the cabinet.

Streetfighter layout

http://homepage.mac.com/mahuti/Mamecab

Trackball / spinner layout

http://www.localarcade.com/newlayout.jpg

[Sasquatch!]

Mr. Salty's cab is a Defender with a bunch of swappable control panels, including a streetfighter CP:
http://www.mrsalty.net/arcade/controls/controls.shtml

[slycrel]

  Wow, thanks for the great response guys!  RacerX, I'll let you know if I run into any snags or have some other questions.  And probably everyone else here.  

  I've attached what I did this evening after work.   I feel pretty dumb, I messed up my player start buttons.  I had a line marked that was the "do not cross", which you can still see in the picture.  Unfortunately my daughter ripped off the paper template I had for the buttons and I think I centered the new template ON the line rather than putting it under it.  So, I'll have an extra hole to match the original that the defender joystick used underneath.  Ohwell.  Thanks anyhow Mahuti.  

  I'll keep you guys posted, I'm going to try and get it wired up tomorrow and get the monitor mounted in the cab sometime soon.  Maybe before Christmas if I can swing it.  Thanks again for all the help guys!

  Wienerdog....  no comment.  

[CGRemakes]

  Heh, I thought I was pretty safe ripping off the yie ar side art because previously I've never even HEARD of it, let alone seen it...  And I thought I'd been around the arcade scene a bit.  Shows what I know!  Sorry for showing you that paige.  

  The big problem I'm seeing is the width of the CP, not the length.  maybe I'll put the player start buttons and a shift button on one side.  having only just over 7" for the depth is my main concern.  And I'd like to have some extra space for some of my bigger (300+ lb) friends.  I'll do some playing with the spacing of the buttons; I tried to lay out some controls, but it seemed pretty tight, thus the question.

  Thanks leaf (and TalkingOctopus!), I'll check out some of those templates.

  Oh, and FYI if you're in Utah...  The guy had no less than two original asteroid cabs sitting in the back of his shop.  He's got some good stuff over there that he's willing to sell.

Where is the guy located?  I might be interested if he has some good stuff.

[SirPeale]

Holy smokes Peale, how did you remember that it was him that spelled sentence wrong?  lol, I'm going to watch myself around you...

*sigh* both the blessing and the curse of being me.

[slycrel]

  The guy lives in Payson, I'd guess roughly 30 miles south of Provo.  A little ways out there, but it should be do-able on a saturday.  PM me if you need his phone number, I may be able to dig it up again.  He has an ad in the thrifty nickel that's a generic one for arcade games also, if that helps.