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Author Topic: Prong (Wall mounted, slimline, vertical screen for square bezel, first build!)  (Read 15540 times)

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zestyphresh

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I'm quite partial to a White Russian which looks pretty similar, will try one at the weekend!

Got this thing mounted on the wall yesterday. It's definitely bigger than intended and will take some getting used to. It plays great though! Pictures from last night and this morning;





I think all the other vertical screens that I used as inspiration used 51" screens so I was a bit worried about whether the 42" would be ok. It works fine though and on older games that really don't need the full real estate they look great with the bezel. Only minor issue is that centred 4:3 horizontal games look a bit on the low side for me (@ 6'2"), so i'll fix this by offsetting them in a bezel, or a simple .lay file that shifts the screen up. I've tested this and it works great. As I left a square reveal there is still some vertical real estate that is unused (So the screen could be something like 1080 wide and 1280 tall). I'm undecided on whether to do this or not though, some testing is required.

Things still to do.....

1) Install new computer, i'm just sourcing the parts for this so should get that done next week.
2) Create a Bigbox theme once i've decided on the aspect ratio
3) Create additional bezels
4) Fabricate the coin switches (just waiting for the metal to be delivered)
5) Install LED driver (I put a strip around the inside back as there is a ~10mm gap all the way around which should give a nice halo effect). Anyone know a way of getting these to work like the Ambilight so it will change colour based on the screen?
6) Play more games!

Arroyo

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Looks great man.  Vertical screens sure look nice with the bezels turned on.  I’d be proud of this one.  Well done.

javeryh

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Really nice job.  Looks like a ton of fun already - unplug it before you get sucked in and never finish your punch-list!

zestyphresh

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Looks great man.  Vertical screens sure look nice with the bezels turned on.  I’d be proud of this one.  Well done.

Thanks. It's the quality, and uniqueness, of a lot of the builds here that act as motivation.

zestyphresh

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Bit more progress this week. Installed a 'new' pc, mounted on some 9mm ply sitting on the shelf at the bottom. Almost a bit too tight due to the size of the gfx card but it was one that was going unused so it will do for now. Nice fresh install of win 10 and Launchbox and it's running much quicker than the machine I was using.




Made the coin switches today and really happy with how they came out.










They actually turned out better than I expected. They look good, and are more tactile than just a button. Cheap as well, less than £5/$5 of components in each of them. Where it's not possible or desirable to use a coin door I really do think these are better than just a plain button.


Laythe

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Excellent work on the coin switches!  That is a slick detail and looks great. 

I really dig this machine, it's got good lines and plenty of appeal.

I have an aesthetic suggestion if you want to hear it, worth what you paid for it - if you are going to be keeping the control panel deck bright yellow, I think the white or illuminated colors of the RGB buttons wash out a little against it.  You've got black T-mold, black speaker grills, black dust washers on the sticks, and a black surround lip on the trackball.  If you could keep the clear button plungers and LEDs, but swap out the button surrounds for black ones, I think the result would pop visually a lot more against the yellow.  It would look kinda like this.  It would mean buying a full set of black buttons of the same type, popping the switches and lights off, removing the buttons, and swapping the guts around and reinstalling, but it wouldn't mean rewiring anything.  It's good as it is, don't get me wrong! 

I like your build.   :cheers:




« Last Edit: August 08, 2020, 12:47:02 am by Laythe »

PL1

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To carry Laythe's suggestion two small steps further, how about:

1. Swap out the two start three admin button surrounds for black ones.
- All of the buttons would have black surrounds.

2. Paint the coin switch plates and loops black.
- The silver switch arms on black plates with black loops would be like the silver joystick shafts with black dust washers and black handles.


Scott
« Last Edit: August 08, 2020, 01:16:12 am by PL1 »

zestyphresh

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The photograph makes them look a lot more washed unfortunately, they are really bold in use. When not in use it does all look a little bit 'meh' though, lots of boring buttons and a dull trackball!

Either way, I do agree - it was originally my intention to use black plungers and translucent surrounds but there was nothing available at the time I ordered the controls (or at least that I was aware of!). Ultimarc do sell the black replacement plungers now so i'm going to get a few to test - i'm not sure it makes a lot of difference whether it's the plunger or the surround that are black - either will 'tie' the design in better as you point out. The admin/start buttons will have black inserts of some kind so i'll probably leave those as is.

I think the coin switches look really good, it was nice to do something innovative on this machine as there isn't a lot else that is original in any way (other than the shape to a certain extent).

Laythe

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I think the coin switches look really good, it was nice to do something innovative on this machine as there isn't a lot else that is original in any way (other than the shape to a certain extent).

I totally agree, I love those coin switches exactly as they are, and I'm with you on the enjoyment of innovation.   :cheers:

I proposed black button surrounds rather than plungers to match the trackball.  Either might work, and I do believe it looks different in person vs the pictures.  Amused that you had already had the same idea, heh!  Thanks for taking my efforts to help well and not thinking I was picking on you or trashing your really cool build.

zestyphresh

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This is more or less finished from a hardware point of view. I rewired everything into a 4 way smart relay so I can turn it all on/off easily and automate the screen/amp to come on as required. This would have been easier with one of those power sensing mains plugs but there wasn't actually enough space left inside. The picture below shows the machine with the control panel fully removed, something I thought might be a bit tricky but was OK in the end.



Fitted the glass and it really elevates the machine. I think i'd have preferred something a touch darker but couldn't find anything available, unless I wanted to use 10mm thick and I didn't leave a big enough gap for that.




One thing I have done is extend the vertical resolution. Initially it was going to be 1080 x 1080 and I left space around this for a 5cm bezel on all sides. When in use it became apparent that while the angle of the screen helped, it would be useful on some horizontal games to shift them up the screen a bit to make it more comfortable to play. Using the extra 10cm (~200pixels) still allows a bit of space around for the bezel. It also means you can play vertical games at the equivalent of something like a 34" screen, complete overkill  ;D

Drnick

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Tinted glass for the win  :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

zestyphresh

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I was a bit unsure but it really does a great job of just about hiding the TV frame (partly as I covered these with black card anyway) so that it is more or less invisible when not in use. I'm going to try some dark perspex on a smaller bartop I made as I really fancy that on some old schools

emphatic

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Beautiful!  :applaud:

zestyphresh

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So one unintentional benefit of increasing the vertical space is that it can play dual screen games reasonably comfortably. I'd not even considered this and it was actually only after playing Konami Soccer Superstars (which defaults to dual screen) that I even though of trying Punch Out...



I think it throws out two ~20" 4:3 screens. The bottom screen isn't really ideal at that height, but it's perfectly playable. For Punch Out i'll probable create a layout to swap the screens.

mgb

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I love this cabinet. Awesome work.