Pac-Man Legion

[Drnick]

Can you explain what you did with the filler?  I've never seen that tactic before...

Mike

I think I can answer that, he infilled the grain by coating all of the veneer in a thin layer of filler, he then sanded it all back down so the grain could be seen but you couldn't feel it.  Doing this gives a beautifully smooth finish which he will need for the clear coat and mirror finish to come    This will pay off in spades if only for the ease of dusting in the future.  There is little worse than trying to dust something with a feel-able grain in it

[jennifer]

You may want to notice he put it on thin and even before he sanded it, the filler (even stainable) will absorb differently than the wood and has serious potential for a blotchy streaky mismatched finish...Another alternative would be use the filler, then clear it, then float your stain on top, this allows to blend a little easier, but since your not staining the wood it winds up being a considerable lighter shade of finish.

[Ond]

First clear coat went onto the curved panel today revealing a nice deep color and grain.  Once this is dry I'll sand back and apply at least two more coats.  The second curved side is under way and construction of the base of the cab has begun. Threaded inserts are great for the purpose in this instance.

[Ond]

When you have to search for your own project you know it's been a while........

This is the project I'm currently lovin.

Built this "PC” to run Groovymame on.  Graphics card is one of the recommended Radeon series to suit CRT Emudriver 2.0.  The motherboard is a small but powerful Gigabyte gaming board with on-board-SSD.  A much less powerful board would have done just fine but I am restricted by what I can fit into the cab.  Acrylic sheet I had lying around served well to build a chassis out of.



Here's the coin plate (as per the design render) that's going in to the cab.  I have to say I'm a bit dissapointed by the build quality of the mechanical mechs that came with it.  I may replace these with electronic enabled mechs.  The plate itself is ok.



Cabinet construction is moving toward being able to fit the 27" inch CRT I have.  I'm glad I've sorted out the software side of things in terms of Mame build etc.  Now I need to focus on component location within the cab and some testing to make sure everything works as it should.  This cab will run a very limited set of games including most Pac-Man releases and a few others.  I'm almost tempted to go really minimal and do away with a frontend altogether.  I was thinking of just having some dipswitches to select the game on boot.  There will be no visible Windows boot up as I'm controlling power-on sequence with Arduino.  Much less easy to switch between games but that’s actually what I want.

Any thoughts on doing away with the FE welcome.

[Arroyo]

Place hasn’t been the same without you Bud.

[javeryh]

LOL - "acrylic sheet lying around" that now has intricate cutouts and a bend in it.

Good to see you back at it Ond.

[Mike A]

You could use anycoin mechs. I have them in all of my machines. They are simple and they work great.

[Ond]

Place hasn’t been the same without you Bud.

Thanks mate, you are partly to blame/thank for my re-energise    Keep doing what you're doing ok?

LOL - "acrylic sheet lying around" that now has intricate cutouts and a bend in it.

Good to see you back at it Ond.

  Thanks javeryh, can I call you javery like Arroyo does?

You could use anycoin mechs. I have them in all of my machines. They are simple and they work great.

Thank Mike,  I'll check them up when I finish work.  They would be different to the ones below yeah?  Do they test for coin thickness?  It's all about the thickness for me...

[Mike A]

They are 3D printed. You can print them yourself or buy them. Any coin will work in them. I always had kids shoving nickels and pennies in the regular mechs and they would jam up. The anycoin mechs have not jammed yet.

[Arroyo]

Place hasn’t been the same without you Bud.

Thanks mate, you are partly to blame/thank for my re-energise    Keep doing what you're doing ok?

Well most of my inspiration comes from your stuff bud, so I guess it’s a circular reference   I’m addicted, so I don’t think I have a choice but to keep trucking along.

Thanks javeryh, can I call you javery like Arroyo does?

I’m too lazy to type the h

[wp34]

Good to have you back Ond.   

Any thoughts on doing away with the FE welcome.

I realize you already have a PC built but this seems like a great candidate for the BITKIT.  If you are not familiar with it the BITKIT is a Jamma FPGA that plays a bunch of great unique 4-way games.  Including the Pac's.

[jdbailey1206]

The motherboard is a small but powerful Gigabyte gaming board with on-board-SSD.  A much less powerful board would have done just fine but I am restricted by what I can fit into the cab. 

I love how the motherboards and drives are getting smaller but video cards are getting larger and larger. 

[javeryh]

Thanks javeryh, can I call you javery like Arroyo does?

I’m too lazy to type the h

I should have never added the h to my name to begin with so Javery is just fine!

[Ond]

[javeryh]

Is it happening?!?!?

[emphatic]

Wow, I must've been on my hiatus from this place when this build was started. Very exciting design, and good on you for building it around a CRT. You had me at CRT. 

[Ond]

[Ond]

[bobbyb13]

I obviously need to dig back through this whole thread (which I first saw just now!) because I have no idea what it is and love it already.

I'm a noob.

[Ond]

[javeryh]

Siiiiiick.  The real thing is looking even better than the initial design!  I really want to see this one finished - it has been forever since someone innovated on the tried and true Midway cocktail design.

Is that coin door the one with the 10"x7" cutout?  If so, what's the overhang?  I don't have the door yet but I'm trying to line up the edge with another element on the front panel.  If I just cut the 10"x7" hole in that spot, however much the coin door edge hangs over the hole will make it look off.  Am I making sense?

[Gilrock]

Wow that MDF looks like its 1.25" thick.

[Drnick]

Curves,  I like Curves

[wp34]

Glad to see this one is alive.   

Such a fantastic design.

[Vigo]

Just downright impressive. 

[Ond]

Is that coin door the one with the 10"x7" cutout?  If so, what's the overhang?  I don't have the door yet but I'm trying to line up the edge with another element on the front panel.  If I just cut the 10"x7" hole in that spot, however much the coin door edge hangs over the hole will make it look off.  Am I making sense?

Yes, it is that cutout.  Here's some images to help you with the overhang measurements:

Side

Top

My coin plate will be mounted into steel plate which will then be fitted into a rebate on the rear of the panel inside that arch cutout (as per the design render).  The steel plate is quite thick and adds structural strength back to the panel.

[javeryh]

Yes, it is that cutout.  Here's some images to help you with the overhang measurements:

My coin plate will be mounted into steel plate which will then be fitted into a rebate on the rear of the panel inside that arch cutout (as per the design render).  The steel plate is quite thick and adds structural strength back to the panel.

Perfect!  Thank you!

The steel plate you mentioned is very interesting... I would think MDF would provide enough support (just give it the Ond pain treatment) but steel will DEFINITELY do the job!  I'm so happy you are back at this stuff.   

[Ond]

[bobbyb13]

And again another really fun design being executed in an exemplary fashion.

The only problem of course being that we now expect this of you all the time.

 

[Ond]

Hah ha, you just triggered a kind of nostalgic whimsy in me.  My Retro-Futuristic Mame Cabinet project was before your time here, but I remember comments to that effect on various occasions when I was working on that. It was a popular project with quite a few views and good momentum.  RoToron evolved out of the 'ashes' of that. I really appreciate your interest and enthusiasm, not just for my projects, but other peoples as well.  There's some real artistry going on in your ehukai ! build which I like a lot.  Being an "all or nothing" kind of guy you may find that I'll flood this board for a bit as I resurrect various projects.  I'll hog the space with picture rich posts for a while and then probably vanish again.

I like this build and the design because it's all about the CRT and an oversized one at that. I want to stare into the glow of the screen, as I watch the colorful sprites moving across the shadow mask, I'll drift back to a time very different from now.

I'm for the builders here bobby, of which you are one.  All the rest is mostly noise to me.

[bobbyb13]

Flattered and inspired by you and your builds.

I'm always amazed at the spectrum of skill sets here and the proficiency level of so many of the people who post builds.

I'm having a lot of fun and in the grand scheme of it all, I am still only working on things that qualify as prototypes in the pantheon of what is going on in this place.

Hell, I still can't get Windows to reliably stop screwing around with my controller IDs at the moment.

But between cabinet design, software work, carpentry, graphics, restoration detail, audio, monitor tech...
Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

Glad I stumbled onto this hobby (amd more so the byoac crew) because there are so many cool things to learn.

I always thought cocktail cabinets were pretty bland BITD so this build is extra cool.

Hope to see RoToron complete at some point too.
 

[javeryh]

Now I get it!  Awesome work as usual and really great design - the lines and interesting topography of this panel are really pleasing to the eye.  Your renders show the metal as black - is that just prime, sand, paint like any other surface?

[Ond]

Yes, primer can be applied directly to galvanized (zinc coated) metal sheet.  I always sand it first with 600 grit because 400 - 600 is the standard for paint adhesion on a prepared surface in automotive painting.  It removes some of the protective zinc coating but since it's being painted it's fine.  I want the metal sheet and the coin door to have exactly the same black finish so I'm going to spray paint both (all external parts) with the same paint.

One thing I've learnt over the years of painting is that the orange peel effect can be greatly reduced by thinning down the paint to be used with a spray gun.  I always try to paint onto a horizontal surface to prevent paint runs.  Spraying from a little further back also gives a really even finish.

The metal panels will be fixed in place using bolts into short threaded inserts on the rear of the panel i.e. no visible bolts, screws or joinery on the outside of the cab.  This cab is all bolted together.  It will let me paint first and then assemble as well as test fit the CRT before final assembly.

Air flows through this cab from the base and out under each CP to keep things cool.

[Ond]

[Vigo]

Looking superb!

[javeryh]

I can't wait to see how the control panels get attached to the curved side panels - looks really difficult but then again so is everything about this project!

[yamatetsu]

I can't wait to see how the control panels get attached to the curved side panels - looks really difficult but then again so is everything about this project!

Double sided tape.

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You can get the curve by using a belt sander. Put the curved piece to the edge of the CP/support thing, trace the line with a pencil, sand away until you get the curve. Put some t-nuts into the support thingy, screw it from the inside.

[Ond]

Looking superb!

Thanks mate, I like to compare ongoing constructions with design renders, there are always differences!

@ javeryh - it may seem difficult but the hard work was done in the designing, well most of it anyway.  I've got most of the heavy routing out of the way.  The next thing will be prepping for the CP supports.  I will need to cut an opening into each curved panel for this.

Double sided tape.

  I knew I was overthinking this! 

I'm working on both this and RoToron at the moment.  The fiberglass repairs and reinforcement on RoToron look so damn ugly I don't want to post any pics till I cut all that back.

[bobbyb13]

Looking superb!

Thanks mate, I like to compare ongoing constructions with design renders, there are always differences!

@ javeryh - it may seem difficult but the hard work was done in the designing, well most of it anyway.  I've got most of the heavy routing out of the way.  The next thing will be prepping for the CP supports.  I will need to cut an opening into each curved panel for this.

Double sided tape.

  I knew I was overthinking this! 

I'm working on both this and RoToron at the moment.  The fiberglass repairs and reinforcement on RoToron look so damn ugly I don't want to post any pics till I cut all that back.

One of the problems with (even good!) glasswork-

"Pay no attention to that man (or the spurious blobs of resin) behind the curtain!"

Looking forward to seeing the paintwork on this one too.

I want whatever apparatus you are using!!
 

[nitrogen_widget]

I want to see that 27" crt lowered into it like an engine.