Web of Wonder

[JudgeRob]

Ugh, sometimes no matter how much planning you do, you still realize as soon as you finish that you made a wrong turn.  The red light on the display matches the cabinet well and looks cool, but it washes out the token labels and makes them difficult to read.  I think I need to swap the LED strip out for a white one.  Any thoughts on this?  On a test piece, it definitely helps... 



In the mean time, I think I found a way to avoid the need for any kind of keyboard pullout.  I found this little keyboard.  It was intended to be used with a ps3 controller so it is really compact.  Obviously it has some limitations with keys, but it should get me through enough to avoid needing a full keyboard 95% of the time.



I was going to mount it to the top of the cab out of view, but I think it has an even better home tucked under the token shelf.





Grab and go! 

[matsadona]

Didn't see this one until today, but I must say that the idea with game specific tokens is really great. Even a drunk non-gamer friend can operate this - assuming he/she knows the name of the game 
Well done 

[Malenko]

I like the white much better. Function over form.

[JudgeRob]

Swapped for the white lights.  Went with the functionality.  I might dim it down a little.  Seems a little bright.

[JudgeRob]

I realized I never posted the control panel, so here it is.  Pretty simple and spacious.  I like the extra room around the ball. 



Each side has a Coin button (lit up) and the left side has an admin button (shift function).



Right side has the USB/Mic/Headphone jack.



I also put a key on the left side.  This is a shutoff for the coin buttons.  When disengaged, the lights on them go dark.  The key also disengages the admin button, so no backing out of games, changing volume, etc.  It sort of turns it into more of a classic setup. 

[bperkins01]

I like the key for the coin buttons..  nicely done 

[javeryh]

So each coin will automatically launch the corresponding game once it is inserted?  How does that work?  RIFD technology or something?

[JudgeRob]

I like the key for the coin buttons..  nicely done 

With crazed 8-year-olds running around, disengaging the coin buttons slows them down a little and turning off the admin functions definitely avoids system issues from button spazzing. 

So each coin will automatically launch the corresponding game once it is inserted?  How does that work?  RIFD technology or something?

Yep. RFID.  Each of the tokens on the display will launch the game it is associated with.  They are inserted into the golden middle coin slot on the coin door.  I did a short video on it up above somewhere in my terribly unorganized, messy thread...

I'm still working on putting together the random game genre tokens.  I have the software figured out but I'm trying to trick out the tokens a little. I just got a 3d printer so I'm trying to see if I can print custom tokens with some texture or raised graphics on them.  I'll post some pics if I ever get anywhere. 

[lcmgadgets]

I followed the link from my project to yours. Gorgeous! Congrats! & the magic tokens r soooo cool

[JudgeRob]

Well, sometimes you gotta post your fails too.  Maybe if I had more experience painting little figures I would be better at this but cutting, pasting and painting at the size of a quarter is too small for me.    

Here are the custom tokens I made for the genres of "Run n Gun" and "Classics". 



But, they're destined for the trash.  I'm working on a totally different method which should be a lot better.

[JudgeRob]

I finally have a little update.  I bailed on trying to make the custom tokens look metallic.  I also bailed on trying to make with raised, textured surfaces with paint and all that.  It was just too hard to work with such small surfaces and just wasn't getting the level of detail that I wanted. 

So I shifted gears and went with glass instead.  These are (mostly) etched glass with the RFID wafers mounted to the backs.  Learned a lot about light and glass interactions in the process.  There were a lot of failed attempts, but I eventually produced a set of 8 tokens to launch random games within each of the defined genres of MAME games.  Here are the tokens for Puzzle, VS fighters, Classics, HackNSlash, Sports, Platformers, SHMUPS and RunNGun:
Under Light:


To make them more visible and give them more of a cool factor, I embedded them with some glow powder.  Here they are with the lights off:

Classics token:

SHMUPS:


The glow additive makes them glow for a while after they are removed from the display.  Kind of cool to have it glow in your hand like it's radioactive before you put it in the machine. 

Still need to polish up a bit.  Almost have the coding finished up for each of them. 

[Arroyo]

Incredible, well done.

[barrymossel]

That is very very cool! Well done! 

[Scotty_C]

very nice!!! Excellent execution on those tokens

[JudgeRob]

Thanks guys.  I was stoked to get something decent after all the trial and error.  At some point I am going to spread out all of my failed attempts (I like to call them "ways to not make a light bulb") and take a picture of them.  It's a big ass stack. 

I went with green glow additive because it is the brightest.  But now it seems I have enough power from the blacklights that I can maybe do different colors.  I thought it might be cool to use orange for the basketball, etc.  There are about 8 different glow colors, but I'll have to get a sample pack to see how well they all work.  I have a feeling the the red and purple ones aren't going to be very impressive.

[markc74]

Wow that is probably the coolest thing I've seen for a while. Massive kudos on persevering and the end result does you credit (long time watcher, first time commenter  )

[wp34]

Those are really unique and impressive.  Nicely done.