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Author Topic: Nintendo cabinet build - Wreck-It Ralph  (Read 69143 times)

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gingecko

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #80 on: December 02, 2019, 01:11:21 pm »
I'm not sure of the proper way to paint the inside of the slots. I taped mine off and spray painted the inside before I started painting the panels. I think if I had sanded out the inside of the slots a bit better and maybe primed beforehand, it would have turned out better. They are certainly not an easy surface to paint though.

javeryh

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #81 on: December 02, 2019, 01:48:03 pm »
I don't think the insides of the slots got painted on the original Nintendo cabs.  I'm reasonably sure mine is bare wood but I'm not home so I can't check.

opt2not

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #82 on: December 02, 2019, 02:36:15 pm »
I don't think the insides of the slots got painted on the original Nintendo cabs.  I'm reasonably sure mine is bare wood but I'm not home so I can't check.

Mine is on my DK Junior.

javeryh

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #83 on: December 02, 2019, 05:33:42 pm »
I don't think the insides of the slots got painted on the original Nintendo cabs.  I'm reasonably sure mine is bare wood but I'm not home so I can't check.

Mine is on my DK Junior.

That's interesting - mine is not.  Just checked.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #84 on: December 03, 2019, 05:50:19 pm »
I don't think the insides of the slots got painted on the original Nintendo cabs.  I'm reasonably sure mine is bare wood but I'm not home so I can't check.

Yeah, I meant to post that earlier, but I checked a bunch of photos from other cabinets and it seemed like sometimes they were bare wood and sometimes painted.  I did wonder if the painted ones were where they've been repaired/repainted over the years and the slots got done at the time, but I decided to go down the paint route either way.

I haven't had much time over the last couple of weeks, but I've put a first coat inside the slots as a bit of a test, using a cotton bud as my "brush".  It's thin enough to get inside the slots, so just a case of dipping it in some paint and then moving it over the surface.  I can put it on a lot thicker than with spray, which helps with the soaking in on the MDF edges.  I'm planning to sand and put a second coat on before deciding what to do next.  I might finish off with one coat of spray depending on how it's looking.  The paint, incidentally, is just some pre-mixed kids paint that I found lying around in the house :)



After first coat:



UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #85 on: December 11, 2019, 01:17:03 pm »
I'm not sure what I'll get done over the winter months with it being generally cold and dark, but I need to start planning what this thing is going to BE other than a bunch of unpainted wood.

As I mentioned previously, I do need to get hold of coin door/marquee brackets etc. etc. so if anyone knows a UK source then PLEASE let me know.  For any other UK builders out there who have imported from the US, any hints or clues about postage and import pricing?

Beyond that I've got to think about:
- Theme/colour etc.
- Arcade monitor vs LCD panel
- Controls

Much as I'd love to build an arcade, in reality this is going to be a single machine and quiet possibly stored in a garage that's not exactly warm and welcoming.  So I need it to play more than one game (but not ALL of them  :) ) and I have to keep in mind I do actually want to use it and not spend all my time repairing it. So, initial thoughts:
- A vertical monitor, because more games that I care about are vertical.  I'm looking for the early 80s stuff that I grew up with (PacMan/Mr Do's Castle/Mappy/Bomb Jack).  Downside is that I miss horizontal stuff that I care about, like Popeye, which ironically is the only Nintendo game in the list I just mentioned.  Okay, so I'll probably play DK on it, but it's not my favourite game.  In reality I'm not going to get a correct model monitor for this in the UK, and I'm a bit nervous about the damage my garage would do to an arcade monitor anyway.  Plus I have to think about the weight, since I don't have monitor bolt holes in the cabinet yet (although, as I mentioned many months ago, I don't quite understand how battens can't support a monitor if battens are ultimately supporting the whole cabinet weight).  All in all an LCD is going to be MUCH easier and less long-term pain, but I do worry that it's going to look rubbish.
- Theme/colour is tricky because it feels a bit odd to make this look like a DK cabinet and then hardly DK, or to theme it as Popeye with a monitor that can't play it.  Any thoughts/inspiration here is welcome.  I did consider going down the Fixit Felix route since that's the right orientation, but I'm not a great lover of the cabinet artwork.
- I need something that can handle 4-way and 8-way, just given the small list of games above.  That rules out the Nintendo standard joystick for these cabinets, but I'd like to get as close as I can.  I could create a couple of control panels, and I'm considering doing that at some point anyway to allow two-player games.  But I don't want to be swapping panels every 5 minutes, so a switchable joystick like the Servostik is attractive.  Any thoughts on how this would look compared to a Nintendo joystick.  I mean, it's a shaft with a ball on the top, but any real-world experience?

I'd love some input here.  I'm at the stage when I can still consider all options, and I don't have any strong opinions yet.  Thanks!

morton

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #86 on: December 23, 2019, 12:22:51 pm »
This is a great thread. Lots of information and lots one can learn.

I am in a similar holding pattern to you. My cab is primed and awaiting paint. Has been for two years actually  :banghead:

The theme I agree is tough... You want it to be able to play the game it references. That makes sense. I think that kind of attention to detail is what takes a good project and makes it great. That said, it's like art... Everything is open to interpretation... Most laypeople won't be as anal as some of us here may be. That attention to detail is for us weirdos haha.

It's easy to overthink all of this. I had similar problems but I came up with art finally and realized I wanted to save it for a proper Nintendo shaped cab (mine is a lowboy). The main takeaway with a Nintendo cab IMO is the white T Mold with a contrasting colour that is "fun". If you look at existing Nintendo cabs and once like Chances, they are like big Easter Eggs. That's part of the visual appeal of Nintendo Cabs for me anyways.

As for the LCD/CRT debate... Depending on sources, you can probably find a SCART CRT and run a Pi2SCART or something... Not sure if I caught your source. I really enjoy my Pi on just composite doing 240p. Not as sharp, but it does lots right with a free TV. I don't think the weight is a major issue, and can be addressed still at this point. Recently discovered a few shaders for my Pi that look good on LCD tho, and if that works then it's not a crime against humanity... I just think the less sharp CRT gets me a bit more in regards to refresh etc. Again... being anal.

Having gone with vertical has left me wanting a horizontal cabinet next. It just seems logical to have one of each. In that respect, a swappable control panel isn't a bad idea at all. There are also servo sticks which can be switched between 4 and 8 way I believe. Given the quality of work and your commitment, it may be worth looking into the investment.

If also suggest that maybe a going with a generic Nintendo theme may get you part way there. The Punch Out and R Type cabs come to mind... But they lack the Easter egg aesthetic. Maybe the colours of the bright cabs with some "generic" Nintendo art? Could be cool.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #87 on: January 01, 2020, 03:54:05 pm »
Thanks :)

Two years!  I'm hoping to have theming plans before then ;).  Getting close now, so more to share on that soon.  But I completely agree that colour and the white t-moulding are critical for this.  The Nintendo cabinets that are dark-coloured just look wrong to me by comparison.  I think the LCD vs CRT may come down to where the cabinet will live.  If it's going to end up in a garage then I think CRT is pretty much ruled out, whereas an LCD is more likely to survive those conditions.  I think Servostick is pretty much inevitable since a multi-purpose control panel just increases usability of the cabinet, and there's no point building it if it doesn't get used.

Anyway, a quick update.  I've been building the piece where the control panel rear and the bottom of the bezel get supported.  It's a fiddly piece because of the angled cut for the control panel.  I also didn't have any wood the right dimensions and have used something a bit deeper, so will need to recess the rear slightly so that it hits the blocking at the right position.

I started off routing a section out for the control panel.  This section needs to be angled at around 15 degrees and so technically shouldn't even be a straight cut, but I figure that by having a straight cut that I can easily "lift" the control panel when I want to remove it.  Otherwise it'd need to be slid the whole way out, or possibly I'd need to remove the rear of the control panel underside.
 

I then angled a circular saw and used several passes to apply the 15 degree part to the cut.



Other have done this whole cut with a table saw, and if I owned one then I'd have done the same.  As it is, it's not the straightest thing I've ever cut (hard to keep the saw straight across the length with a guide supporting it) but I think I can patch it up okay. 



I finished off by cutting the slot for the bezel, which I'm hoping is wide/deep enough.  I don't have the bezel support metal piece to check.  Again, this was done with multiple passes of the circular saw (but straight cuts this time), each one offset by a blade width until the right slot size was reached.  I didn't have a router bit narrow enough to do this with the router.



Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!
« Last Edit: January 01, 2020, 03:57:20 pm by UnclearHermit »

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #88 on: January 02, 2020, 06:27:40 am »
Another quick update.  I thought I'd get the base attached to the bottom panel of the cabinet ready for assembly.  I could do this bit later, but positioning the base is easy with things still in pieces.  I'd already decided to paint the underside of the bottom panel just to give it a little more protection in case it ends up sitting in the garage.  I didn't bother masking off where the base would go, but because I wanted decent adhesion for the glue I ran around with a chisel and scraped back to bare wood before applying glue.  A quick measure, clamp and screw and ended up with this.



Then I found a problem.  When I built the base it's one of the only times I didn't check the plans for measurements, apparently.  I watched Chance's video on building a base, where he used 3.5" wood, and ended up in a DIY store trying to find something a vaguely similar height.  I found some 3" wood, figured that was close enough, and it ended up at about 73mm once it had been sanded a bit.  I'd ordered wheels which were 2.5", and which say 65mm on the side.  2.5" is less than 3", 65mm is less than 73mm, so all was well.  Or so I thought until I actually put the wheel in place...



It turns out that a 2.5" wheel is 2.5", and then you add on some spacing for the retainer.  Duh.  My entire wheel assembly height is about 83mm, so I'm about 10mm too high.  The annoying thing is that if I'd checked the plans I'd have seen the height of the base as 85mm, and so long as I'd sourced wood of that height then I'd have been fine.  To be fair, every Nintendo original cabinet seems to have risers underneath the wheel, so the very last thing I ever thought is that my wheels would be too big.  So, I either rebuild the base or I buy some smaller wheels.  I'm really hoping I can find smaller wheels!  It does mean the cabinet height will be about 1cm less than it should be, but hopefully that won't matter much.

jennifer

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #89 on: January 02, 2020, 07:13:56 am »
I think, Jenni would take more of that wood and make a smaller riser, with a top (same height) that fits inside that one (clamp it down) and use a end mill bit on a router, and carefully shave it down to the right height...Shame that had to happen, but like they say nobody is perfect. ::)

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #90 on: January 02, 2020, 12:53:42 pm »
Hi.  Not sure I'm understanding what you mean.  Are you talking about extending the base in some way to add the missing 1cm of height?

jennifer

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #91 on: January 02, 2020, 01:05:58 pm »
No, I was thinking make another spacer a little smaller than that one (with a top on it) and use it as a router table jig...you know, like clamp it down and run the router  around the perimeter, the mill bit can then be adjusted to cut as much off your riser as needed.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2020, 01:09:36 pm by jennifer »

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #92 on: January 02, 2020, 01:17:31 pm »
Oh, you need to add, nevermind...you most likely will need to replace that one then.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #93 on: January 02, 2020, 02:15:16 pm »
Ahhh, yes, I need to add :)  But it's only 1cm, so I need to consider whether it's worth the effort of building another base right now.  Another alternative is to add leg levellers, which would give me that extra right, but I'm not sure I want the cabinet to look like it's flotaing!

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #94 on: January 02, 2020, 05:14:44 pm »
Are you putting footers/adjustable feet under the corner blocks? If so, they will close the gap between the base and wheels, no? My plan was feet but now wonder if y'all be putting the bases directly on the floor?

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #95 on: January 02, 2020, 06:00:10 pm »
I can, but I wasn't originally planning to.  It'd give me the height, as you say, but equally it looks like I can get a 2" wheel which will leave me 1cm under the base, so I can then adjust upwards as necessary with a riser.  So it all comes down to whether I'm bothered about it being 1cm short or not!

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #96 on: January 02, 2020, 11:26:28 pm »
Route out the base of the castors?  Or is the base glued?

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #97 on: January 04, 2020, 06:49:15 pm »
Thanks, I thought about routing out under the caster but I’d need 10mm and the wood is only 15mm.  I’ve found some wheels that are suitable though, so I’m just going to switch to those.  If I miss the 10mm of height on the cabinet then I’ll add on some levellers to increase it a bit, or build a taller base in the future if it really annoys me.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build with undetermined theme
« Reply #98 on: January 29, 2020, 03:17:14 pm »
Long post alert…

The physical side of this build isn't really progressing at the moment.  I've been trying to obtain parts (bezel brackets etc.) in the UK but having no luck, so will likely need to order these from the US and just swallow the shipping and import costs.  I'm reluctant to put too much together until I've got these parts because I don't want to guess on sizing and end up attaching panels that need to be trimmed.  The time isn't being wasted though.  This build has needed a theme since it started, and that's where recent efforts have been.

I've said before that I do like the Popeye theming, but it's a landscape game and most games I want to play on this are portrait.  Fixit Felix is a nice alternative because it's portrait AND has a second button, but I'm not a bit fan of the artwork style on the cabinet itself.  I love the concept, and the fact that the whole design is so blatantly copied from DK, but I'd been put off by the art.

And then I had an idea.  Since I didn't like the artwork, could I change it?  Also, since the whole concept is based upon DK then why is the game Fixit Felix and not Wreck-it Ralph?  So, let's make a Wreck-it Ralph cabinet.

Some challenges:
- I'm not an artist, not even close.
- I've never used Photoshop or Illustrator.

I didn't want to use the in-game art on the cabinet, but I didn't want to use the style from the film either.  I remembered that years ago I'd seen the display of Wreck-it Ralph at Disney World and that there was an amount of concept art in that display.  I had a few photos of that display, but none of them were particularly great.  But other people, of course, have visited that exhibit and posted pictures online of various qualities.  My hope was that there was enough from sources like that to make this work.

First a reminder of what we're working with.  The original DK bezel:



And Fixit Felix bezel:



So it's a blatant copy with 1-1 substitutions in many places, but it still has differences from the original.  That gives me choices about whether I slavishly copy the FF design or whether I just take inspiration from DK and can make changes.  For instance, FF has the Niceland characters on the right-hand side because it has more characters to play with than DK.  But, oddly, they chose to feature Felix in the two bottom circles and not use Ralph at all.

The control panel is a similar story.  DK:



And FF:



Similar story here, with FF being pretty much different colours and some different images, but structurally it's the same.
 
The exhibit at Disney had a large selection of concept art from the film, but most of it is useless to me.  I’m determined to only use elements that appear in the game, not the film, so that rules out all of the characters and elements that feature in the wider film.  That's a shame because there are some great pieces to work with, but they wouldn't fit with the "game" theme.  Also, much of the concept art, especially for Ralph, is from before they’d even settled on a final form for the character.  Featuring a Ralph in this design that isn’t even human wouldn’t make a great deal of sense.  So I’ve got art to work with, but not much.
 
I’ve spent much of the last month working to try and obtain as many usable pieces of art as I can find and to get those into Illustrator.  This has meant a lot of time trawling Internet resources, and lots of slow progress as I got to grips with Illustrator.  I’m learning as I go here, so I’m already shaking my head at things I did to achieve certain tasks a couple of weeks ago. 
 
Being at the mercy of photos online I found that many of the things I was able to get into Illustrator suffered from dull colours.  Re-colouring by hand, especially with my near-zero Illustrator skills, didn’t look like it was going to go well.  After lots of searching I found a video that someone had taken of the exhibit, which was better lit than any of the photos that I’d found.  The stills from the video were too low quality to use directly, but I was able to use those stills to grab colours and correct my traced versions.  You can see this below, with the originally traced image, the still from the video, and the final coloured version.  I'm still not 100% happy with some of these, but they're a lot closer than they started out.


 
I’ve also been making the most of the limited Ralph and Felix art out there.  For instance, there’s a good Felix line drawing that I’ve been able to clean up and then colourise using colours from a different picture of the character.


 
I’ve located a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator files for a number of DK and FF pieces such as the bezels and control panels.  These are being used as a starting point for any work, but I don't have everything in every format.  Armed with this lot I’ve been putting together some drafts of the main cabinet pieces.
 
My control panel draft is a hybrid of DK and FF, using the layout of FF (two buttons) but returning much closer to the DK colours.  I didn’t have FF in Illustrator format so I had to start with a DK panel and then work in the second button.  The colours are slightly different from DK, using the palette of colours from the Ralph character where possible.  This probably also means that the cabinet itself will be red, although I haven’t finalised anything yet.  The game logo is a temporary copy/paste from a version of the logo that featured Ralph in the middle and which needed to be removed.  It’s temporary because I’m not sure what to do with it yet.  All WiR logos are the “two” words on top of each other, but FF and DK use the words NEXT to each other and so naturally fit in a longer box.  Squashing the logo allows it to be put in the same place as the originals, but it doesn’t look right and so I’m in two minds about whether to keep it at all.


 
For the bezel I’ve again started with a DK bezel, since that’s the basis for FF after all, and I’m in early stages deciding what to do with the various elements on the page.  My approach here would be to follow styles from the DK and FF bezels so I can influenced by both.  Very much a work in progress…
 


I’ve also played around with the idea of doing something very different with the bezel and using the apartment building featured in the game/film.  This has the advantage that I can take the Niceland characters and place them in the windows.  But I’m not sure it’s working out, I’m not sure what to do with the bottom section of the bezel, and it also creates a very dull looking image for a cabinet that really needs to be all about bright colours.


 
One irritation, which I really don’t understand, was that I found that the Illustrator file I’m using for the bezel is 2cm wider than it should be.  This is confusing.  I can’t understand why the file would exist but be wrong.  Anyone who had used it to print from would have found this, and yet I’ve got two original (and distinct) files that share this measurement.  If anyone knows why it's this size (59cm wide rather than 57cm) then I'd love to hear.  I’m hoping it’s easy enough to resize it down to the correct size.  I haven’t got to that part of my Illustrator learning yet 😊
 
I haven’t even thought about the marquee yet, other than to know that the logo layout will be a problem.  Side art is also not planned yet, but one simple option is to take the main logo and use that:
 

 
My plan is for the cabinet to boot into FF but then launch MAME if that game is exited.  But it doesn’t make much sense for me to have a cabinet branded as Wreck-it Ralph that launches the game Fixit Felix Jr.  I’d really hoped I could address that, and it turned out to be much easier than I’d hoped.  From this:
 

 
To this:
 


Quite happy with that.
 
Thoughts/comments etc. all appreciated at this stage.  I’m pretty much tied to this being a Wreck-it Ralph cabinet now, but other than time there’s nothing to stop me changing design elements.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2020, 01:13:43 pm by UnclearHermit »

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #99 on: January 29, 2020, 03:33:16 pm »
I like where you are going with this.  A red Wreck It Ralph cabinet could look very cool.   :cheers:

You may already have this on your radar since your artwork is in draft mode.  If not I would suggest all the characters be drawn in the same style.  On some of your examples Ralph is a more stylized version where the other characters look more like their animated versions. It is a bit jarring.

This is cool.  Did you hack the D1sney version to display a different title screen?

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #100 on: January 29, 2020, 05:18:29 pm »
You may already have this on your radar since your artwork is in draft mode.  If not I would suggest all the characters be drawn in the same style.  On some of your examples Ralph is a more stylized version where the other characters look more like their animated versions. It is a bit jarring.

It's something I'm not entirely happy with but I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with it yet.  All of the images used are from concept art, so they're all flat/2D drawings rather than the 3D styling used in the film.  But some are more obviously rough or line-drawn.  It's a question of whether I can do anything to make the different styles gel, because I can only work with the images that are available.

This is cool.  Did you hack the D1sney version to display a different title screen?

Yes, although "hack" is probably overplaying it  :) I was expecting to have to look at the game binary and see if I could replace the relevant resource files, but it turns out that all images used within the game and held together in a single bmp file.  So replacing the logo turned out to be as simple as changing that part of the bitmap.  It took me far longer to locate a version of the logo that I could translate into a single-coloured pixellated version. 

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #101 on: January 29, 2020, 05:23:45 pm »
I was intrigued before...but now I'm excited! Kudos on something original!

I built my own full-size FFJr, and mini Coleco style Wreck It Ralph cabinet. I have vector version of all my custom Wreck It Ralph art (new sideart, new marquee) and would be happy to share if interested. I did a ton of searching for Wreck IT Ralph art I could use for my mini-cab and game. I found and vectored a bunch of it. Here's just some: http://sergiostuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Coleco-Handheld-WR-Decals_Finished_Page1-01.png

Honestly, I think you should go the full way and create a Wreck It Ralph game lol.  8) 8) 8)
Here is what I made: http://sergiostuff.com/2019/03/27/coleco-wreck-ralph-complete/

My game was made purposely made to be VFD style graphics, but maybe we could make a Wreck It Ralph game that's full-on 80's arcade graphics. I'd volunteer to help!

Anyway, do whatever you want, I think it's kick-butt
« Last Edit: January 29, 2020, 05:27:04 pm by meyer980 »

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #102 on: January 30, 2020, 03:56:03 am »
Finally!!! I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting to see what your theme was going to be and I LOVE IT!!

I love the idea that you are doing a Wreck It Ralph Cabinet....which will be very different and unique.

Honestly, I love the direction you were thinking with making the bricks/windows the main design pattern for your artwork, I think it could look killer!  Especially mixed in with original concept art. Moving away from the DK composition would be awesome, and original for sure.

Good luck, look forward to the progress!

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #103 on: January 30, 2020, 01:22:43 pm »
I was intrigued before...but now I'm excited! Kudos on something original!

Thanks!  I'm feeling a lot happier myself now that I have a vague idea where this is heading other than lots of assembled wood.

Honestly, I think you should go the full way and create a Wreck It Ralph game lol.  8) 8) 8)
Here is what I made: http://sergiostuff.com/2019/03/27/coleco-wreck-ralph-complete/

That is so amazing :)  I was pleased with doing an image substition!!


Finally!!! I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting to see what your theme was going to be and I LOVE IT!!

Thanks.  I did say that this build was going to take forever :)


Honestly, I love the direction you were thinking with making the bricks/windows the main design pattern for your artwork, I think it could look killer!  Especially mixed in with original concept art. Moving away from the DK composition would be awesome, and original for sure.

It's an interesting dilemma.  Using DK as a starting point makes a lot of sense given the origins of FF, but I had to try and explore the non-DK approach as well.  I'm not decided yet, but good to know that at least one other person doesn't think I'm heading down a complete dead-end with it.  If I do go with the different approach for the bezel then it means a re-work of the control panel as well.  Alternatively I find a way to try and bring the two designs together.  And then I've got the marquee to worry about...

Wyo

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #104 on: January 30, 2020, 03:43:25 pm »
Whatever you decide, I’m sure it’ll be great.

If you go with the brick/apartment theme....Im envisioning a bezel that basically mirrors the game screen kinda like you have up there....with Ralph on the top, and FIFJ interacting in different scenes on window sills along the sides.  The CPO would be pretty easy to match using bricks as the main pattern as well, and instead of using traditional DK rings for the character art, you can use the window frames.

For a marquee...maybe use the WIR logo in the middle, again with bricks maybe broken around the logo and then a couple characters on the edges.

Anyways, just some thoughts.  Good luck, it’s gonna be cool!

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #105 on: January 30, 2020, 09:21:01 pm »
I like the brick marquee, creative and different form the usual Nintendo stuff, but also honoring the general layout.

Glad you are getting creative with the artwork, this will definitely set the cab apart from the usual Nintendo builds.

Whatever you decide, I’m sure it’ll be great.

You gonna post that Ghostbusters build for us BYOAC’ers?  These guys gotta see how incredible that thing is.

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #106 on: January 30, 2020, 10:19:00 pm »
Maybe for the bezel, if you used brighter red bricks it might look less dull?

Here's what I did with my marquee (attached), and the bright red really stands out. But, I get it might not fit well with the stylized art / sketch look you've got going elsewhere. I'm sure you'll figure out what looks best for your build.


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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #107 on: January 31, 2020, 03:51:58 am »

The CPO would be pretty easy to match using bricks as the main pattern as well, and instead of using traditional DK rings for the character art, you can use the window frames.

For a marquee...maybe use the WIR logo in the middle, again with bricks maybe broken around the logo and then a couple characters on the edges.

Thanks for the ideas.  I'd actually considered window frames on the CPO but having Ralph (and even Felix) inside a window didn't feel quite right conceptually!  But style-wise I think it would look good.

Maybe for the bezel, if you used brighter red bricks it might look less dull?


Thanks.  That's one of the areas I've been looking at recently.  The colours in the image that I previously posted are based on the game, but I've revisited it using colours from the film (and very limited concept art) for the bricks/mortar/windows etc. and it certainly make it feel a lot warmer, if not bright.  But it might be enough to make it work with a slightly more muted palette than a typical Nintendo cabinet.


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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #108 on: February 03, 2020, 09:56:53 pm »
Hey UnclearHermit, sent you a PM with something possibly interesting. Check it when you've got a min.

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #109 on: February 05, 2020, 04:13:20 am »
Replied, thanks  8)

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #110 on: February 10, 2020, 10:58:45 am »
Would anyone who has an original bezel from DK or any of the other vertical Nintendo cabs mind giving me a few dimensions?  I've found that the DK Illustrator file is not only the wrong WIDTH, it's also the wrong aspect ratio.  That's made me look more closely at the bezel and how wide the artwork is at the edges, because I don't want to obscure the screen at top/bottom sides?  If you're able to then it would be great to know:
- Depth of artwork at top of bezel, and how much is obscured by the bezel bracket.
- Depth of artwork at bottom of bezel, and how much is obscured by the bezel bracket.
- Same question at side, although with DK the artwork is on a diagonal and so varies as it goes down.

Watching some videos it looks like there's probably LOADS of room at the sides and that extra width would just stop people watching from the sides, but it would be good to know rough sizes.  The top/bottom artwork, I imagine, would just get in the way if you were particularly tall or short!

thanks

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #111 on: February 14, 2020, 03:39:56 pm »
Does anyone have any clear photos of the control panel from the original FF?  I'm looking at the instructions on the left hand side.  I've got some assets from online that are a recreation of this area.



I know the typo that's at the bottom of this is a feature of original DK cabinets, but I'm not convinced they were a feature of the actual FF cabinet.  Look at this (terrible) screengrab from a video of the real cab:



I'm pretty sure that says "a certain amount of points" and not "a certian points", so if the wording isn't accurate then quite possibly the typo isn't either.  I don't want to add a typo in the mistaken impression that it's "authentic"!  You can also see that Felix is larger in the copy.  Fixing this isn't going to be trivial because I'd have to try and match the font in any corrections, but I'd rather try and be accurate.  I'll be changing the logo bit to Wreck It Ralph, but I can't see any reason to change the instructions beyond that.

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #112 on: February 14, 2020, 05:20:26 pm »
Hey Unclear, I'll check my old graphics directories tonight and see what I can find.

If I remember correctly, RidickRick did a bunch of the artwork and purposely included the typo as sort of an "inside reference" to Donkey Kong which had a similar typo.

You can find info about that here: https://hyperspin-fe.com/forums/topic/684-wreck-it-ralph-fix-it-felix-jr-cab-project/page/11/?tab=comments#comment-30389
Look about halfway down, Rick mentions accidentally doing the typo but then leaving it in on purpose.


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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #113 on: February 14, 2020, 06:49:23 pm »
My daughter and I took a ton of pictures of the cabinet and artwork when we were at Disney back in 2014.  These seem to confirm what you have.








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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #114 on: February 14, 2020, 08:17:08 pm »
Here you go Unclear, I have a copy of one of the photoshop versions of the instruction card. Made the edit there. I'm happy to make other edits for you or send you the .psd

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #115 on: February 15, 2020, 06:12:33 pm »
My daughter and I took a ton of pictures of the cabinet and artwork when we were at Disney back in 2014.  These seem to confirm what you have.


That's brilliant, thanks so much!  I also notice looking at those photos that the instructions ABOVE the control panel aren't actually present on the full size cabinet, but they're present on the miniature scale model that Disney made of the cabinet.  Anyway, great to have the wording, so thanks again.  There's a missing full stop on the second bullet point, but I think I'll have that one "corrected"!

Here you go Unclear, I have a copy of one of the photoshop versions of the instruction card. Made the edit there. I'm happy to make other edits for you or send you the .psd


Wow, thanks for doing that :) I'd been wondering how easy it was going to be to add missing letters without a psd for these.  If you don't mind uploading the psd as well then it'll allow me to sort out the logo to match what I'm planning on the rest of the cabinet.  Updates on theming soon...

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #116 on: February 16, 2020, 10:53:32 am »
No problem, happy to send you the file. The forum doesn't allow .psd file attachments though so uploaded to a google folder. Seems like the fonts are just Myriad Pro - common enough font which is nice.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aCtAiEK58rj2l9HFhFbOEUKOYvDGDZd6

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #117 on: February 16, 2020, 12:00:31 pm »
The forum doesn't allow .psd file attachments though so uploaded to a google folder.
You can put the .psd in a .zip, .rar, or .7z file to post it here.   ;)


Scott

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #118 on: February 16, 2020, 02:28:26 pm »
The forum doesn't allow .psd file attachments though so uploaded to a google folder.
You can put the .psd in a .zip, .rar, or .7z file to post it here.   ;)


Scott

Good to know! Thanks PL1, I've attached it here then - even easier to find.

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #119 on: March 01, 2020, 03:55:10 pm »
Think I'm getting there....









Sorry if that last one doesn't look quite right.  The forum wouldn't let me upload the 162KB jpg because it failed security checks, for some reason, so I ended up having to take a screen snip of the image and save that.  No idea what the security issue was.

I've re-worked a lot from the previous uploads, keeping with the spirit of some of the original DK/Nintendo/FF heritage in places but changing things to allow me to stick with the plan to use the concept art without duplicating images.  Lots of minor updates as well, such as making all the arrows for the controller the same size/symmetrical around the centre.  Lots of adjustments to colours as well to try and keep colours from original artwork but also to bring the three separate pieces together.

Love/hate/areas for improvement etc.? 

One question - for the instruction card I see that the original plexis of the CPO have a transparent area where this goes and then the card was inserted as a separate printout.  Was that so the instructions could be region/language-specific but the control panel could be global.  Ultimately I'm trying to see if there's any reason why I couldn't just have the CPO with instructions printed as a single element.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2020, 03:57:01 pm by UnclearHermit »