I appreciate the feedback everybody! Couldn't have gotten here without your input, and I think it has really paid off. I'm happy.
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Those that keep up with my real world life (why would you) and don't know, I moved this past spring. This triggered a number of things happening all at once. Namely some very hard choices about the masses of wood and CRT living in my garage. My Daytona now lives in a buddy's garage in Alabama and his kids are enjoying it on the regular. Passed it off for free because he's a bro and had recouped most of my original investment from parting the second. In case anyone wants a stroll down memory lane you can clicky
here. Also got rid of Idle Fingers aka Last Starfighter aka the STUN Runner retheme because that MF was heavier than the damn Daytona. Holy hell. Changed out the yoke for a regular one and slide in a less robust computer running a tight list and it was gone gone gone. That thread is
here if you're still with me. TAF moved because you won't be able to pry my TAF away from my cold dead fingers. All the unfinished project whatnots moved.
That left me with a lot to do, but most importantly a of bin random cabling, PC components, and my Yoke+ which is still a thing, but I think I'm down to only one game that I use it on. Probably just replace it with a button eventually. Over the summer I did some thinking and decided that a smaller form factor might just be the way to go. Something I could move around and not stress about. Something like a cabaret...only SW never had a cabaret. Well it freakin' does now!
I briefly had a Monaco GP cabaret before determining it was way beyond my restorative powers, but long enough to realize it was the perfect cabaret for a SW build - so I copied it. Wood work took a weekend, had a friend with a metal brake brake some metal for me. I *may* at some point down the line add a pedal to this, would help out on a few games and open up a few others - but likely as much not.
Anyway, we aren't complete yet but here's what we are!
Top down view for a bit of scale. It's super comfy to play. We are running a 19" 3:4 LCD that I just got this past week (for freeeeeee). Before that I had a 17" in with a ghetto temp bezel and light leaks everywhere. It's been in the house since late September I think, maybe August, but had a crappy monitor and no marquee for the longest.
A bit of side action, the cab is laminated head to toe, which only takes one sheet for this size of build.
Close-up of the marquee and FE. Still running Attract-mode FE, works a charm. The marquee is gorgeous, pictures don't do it justice. STPCORE did it for me, those of you who have his translites know the quality. This thing is tits, and he included an additional transfusing sheet that really give it a nice even glow. Someday I may get froggy and go mask off the black boarder but I'm pretty happy the way it is. If you're wondering, why yes that is the back glass art for the SW cockpit - have I mentioned that's where I fondled my first tiddy? Good times.
Cab off. Monitor got dropped in today, big improvement. Would like to further upgrade to a 19" CRT, VGA or otherwise, but that'll require a kick out space on the back and I'm not hating what I have right now. It's noice. Lessee, coindoor has an
Easy CoinUp wired up, which I love. It's wired to both coinup and P1 start. Does everything I need with a few presses. A 12mm button is below that to get you back to the FE.
Art - looking at doing the ROTJ CPO art for my CPO. Also looking at doing some gray vinyl fighter decals along the bottom front. For the sides I've been playing with the cockpit style art, but haven't really devoted any time to making that happen. They might just stay black. Not a lot of room on the bezel so probably nothing there, maybe some Imperial window patterns in two lines down the sides in dark gray. Nothing crazy. Torn on which yoke overlay to use. I prefer the SW overlay but think the ROTJ overlay looks better if I'm using the ROTJ CPO stuff. Maybe I can tweak the SW CPO, don't want to fully skin the panel tho, just a few touches so that's why I'm leaning ROTJ. Maybe chrome decals. I dunno, might go crazy.
Somebody please help me not ruin this thing in the home stretch. I really like this cab, want to finish her off right. Let's talk the art. Thanks for looking!