1985 Rewind

[bobbyb13]

Original tubes for these cabs are 19" with a medium res chassis from what I've seen.

19s are really hard to come by for me and my eyesight is beginning to suck as it is.

The original cabinet was nearly wide enough to accomodate a 27" actually, so I made mine 1.5" wider than original to accomodate any size tube- just in case.
I currently have six 27" TVs here and just one 19" left unused.

This is a 24" and although not adequate for a real purist it will look and play great for me.

Thanks everybody.
The builds get more fun all the time for different reasons.

[Zebidee]

I do spend a bunch of effort making sure the screen winds up where I want it in terms of vertical placement and angle of the face but not a big deal any longer.

You amaze me Bobby, you are very productive and your work always looks good.

So I have a couple of suggestions for you.

First, if you make a longer 45 degree angle part for the CRT mounting brackets, you will be able to accommodate a larger range of tubes with similar sizes. Just slide the brackets up and down until they comfortably dock with the CRT's corner peg mounts. You might want to swap CRTs later but the peg mounts are rarely identical, even if the are rated with the same number of inches, especially if you are using old TVs.

This is easier to cut too as your measurements don't need to be very precise and there is plenty of room at top/bottom for the CRT shape bulging out a little, for the degaussing coil and such. If you make the angled part even longer, it is possible to cut brackets that accommodate both horizontal and vertical tube alignment! Maybe not needed for this cab, but fun stuff.

Secondly, you can save yourself a lot of monitor angle alignment problems by using a single piece, each side, to support the CRT brackets. Just make sure they are straight cuts, best done with a table saw or a very even hand. Don't need to be terribly wide, 2-3 inches plenty.

Butchered versions of your pics attached for reference

[bobbyb13]

Appreciate the confidence Andrew- thank you!
My work is getting better, but not having a level floor in the shop really sucks for these activities.

And both points you bring up are great and will be integrated for the future.

I'll add 1" to the ears on my bracket design next go-round (which probably isn't far off since I got my hands on a real 49 way for the Sinistar build  )

I was going to do the one piece side mount bit you show in pic 2 actually but didn't want to dice up another piece of wood when I had these pieces around already.

The last chunk I have big enough (without tapping another full sheet) is for the chassis shelf that I should make tonight.

Hopefully I have the time (energy?!) after I have put a few hours in on the guest house.

Looking forward to having that done finally.
Another week or so I think and then we're ready for visitors!

[bobbyb13]

Made some time again tonight (and of course it is 2am now...)

I figured why muddy things up with extra power crap when all I need to do is hijack 5V for my GreenAntz and 12V for the audio amp.
ATX has plenty of spare wire on those circuits.



I got the shelf for the chassis cut and in place and then played around a bit with shuffling components around until I got something that worked without more wire splicing or drama.



And so the question would be, will it work again the way it did yesterday...?



Well, why the hell would it of course?

All I did was move it from the bench to the cabinet and the scan as shown on the screen is all ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- up now.

Not only does the image not fit it is even a little cock-eyed (rotated CCW a few degrees.)

RRRrrrr....

I toyed with the OSD settings in CRTEmu for at least a half hour and didn't get anywhere and it is too late to continue with this masochism.

Wouldn't mind so much if I actually knew what the hell I was doing and could adjust it to display properly.

Oh, this emulation stuff pisses me off sometimes-

[Zebidee]

Maybe you bumped the yoke slightly? Seems unlikely, they are usually secured pretty firmly,  but it is the only reason I can think of for the CCW rotation. Some TVs allow some service menu adjustment of rotation, most don't.

Maybe it has always been like that and you haven't noticed before. TV factory adjustment can be pretty crap, esp later model 2000's TVs when the QC evaporated.

In any case, rotating the yoke is not terribly hard to do. Just mark original positions, then loosen the rubber wedges and any glue, clamps holding the yoke in place and rotate it slightly. Then replace/retighten wedges/clamps. Setup a mirror to make life easier for yourself. Might be easier to do with monitor/TV out of cab.

[Mike A]

Oh, this emulation stuff pisses me off sometimes-

Yup.

[Classic 80s Gamer]

I know you are focused on the monitor but I noticed the question earlier about how to interface the yoke with the PC.  I used the Ultimarc A-Pac with my Starwars yoke and it works perfectly.  Great project!

[bobbyb13]

Maybe you bumped the yoke slightly? Seems unlikely, they are usually secured pretty firmly,  but it is the only reason I can think of for the CCW rotation. Some TVs allow some service menu adjustment of rotation, most don't.

Maybe it has always been like that and you haven't noticed before. TV factory adjustment can be pretty crap, esp later model 2000's TVs when the QC evaporated.

In any case, rotating the yoke is not terribly hard to do. Just mark original positions, then loosen the rubber wedges and any glue, clamps holding the yoke in place and rotate it slightly. Then replace/retighten wedges/clamps. Setup a mirror to make life easier for yourself. Might be easier to do with monitor/TV out of cab.

Like you say, I figured I knocked the yoke.
That's no big deal to give a little twist if so (just irritating at 2 am!)

The fact that I battled with the PC to get the image to fit really nicely two nights ago and then the next boot it is back to being wrong is just stupid.
Windows sucks.
Since it was a fresh install I was updating some stuff and I bet that Windows took the liberty of screwing with my display/graphics adapter without alerting me.

The other two MAME boxes are air-gapped to avoid this kind of crap.
This one will be also shortly.
Now that I had a few hours sleep I can have at it without being at maximum irritation level.

I know you are focused on the monitor but I noticed the question earlier about how to interface the yoke with the PC.  I used the Ultimarc A-Pac with my Starwars yoke and it works perfectly.  Great project!

I have one of those arriving tomorrow I believe!
Andy's stuff works great.  The debate was whether I take the time to build what I needed with one of the two arduino boards I alreadg have or not.
Ease won out this time.

There are at least two more cabinets I want to build so I will get a chance to dive into that though.
Scott has written so much good stuff on it that I need to give it a shot.

Oh, this emulation stuff pisses me off sometimes-

Yup.

And...
Yeah. WTF
I wish that the original guts for all the things I want to build weren't all insanely expensive.

Why doesn't somebody fpga some EDOT already?!

[Ond]

I like the layout you have in your cab with the CRT Motherboard, PC etc, nice and accessible, well thought out. I have a bit less room to play with for similar components in my cab. I'm putting a big-ass fan in the base plate to keep the lot cool.    Keep up the good work bobby!

[wp34]

This is a really impressive project Bobby.  I've been kicking around doing something similar with a Star Wars theme.

Since you are going with a larger monitor this won't work but I thought I would pass it along in case you haven't seen this custom bezel.

https://www.phoenixarcade.com/products/paperboy/paperboy-bezel

[bobbyb13]

I like the layout you have in your cab with the CRT Motherboard, PC etc, nice and accessible, well thought out. I have a bit less room to play with for similar components in my cab. I'm putting a big-ass fan in the base plate to keep the lot cool.    Keep up the good work bobby!

Thanks Ond!
There is a lot of room in there so placement is easy.
You, however are going to need a magic shoehorn 

This is a really impressive project Bobby.  I've been kicking around doing something similar with a Star Wars theme.

Since you are going with a larger monitor this won't work but I thought I would pass it along in case you haven't seen this custom bezel.

https://www.phoenixarcade.com/products/paperboy/paperboy-bezel

Thank you sir.
And gotta love a Star Wars cab- but times a wastin' so git on it!

I thought that bezel was cool too.
At this point I will have spent about $250 on artwork already (don't tell the missus) so it probably is going to get some foamcore board painted black!
 

My A-pac and T-molding appear to have arrived so maybe if I can get the damn guest house finished I can finally get this cabinet functional !

[lomoverde]

...so it probably is going to get some foamcore board painted black!

Hi Bobby.Really interesting project as seems usual for you 

Could I just ask you about the ¨foamcore board¨ you mentioned.Ive tracked some down on Amazon which is already black,before I buy some tho,am I right thinking youd be cutting it up like the 2dollar bezel method ? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,17175.0.html

[bobbyb13]

...so it probably is going to get some foamcore board painted black!

Hi Bobby.Really interesting project as seems usual for you 

Could I just ask you about the ¨foamcore board¨ you mentioned.Ive tracked some down on Amazon which is already black,before I buy some tho,am I right thinking youd be cutting it up like the 2dollar bezel method ? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,17175.0.html

Appreciate your confidence!  Thank you.

That is the bezel plan exactly.
We'll see how I do pulling that off.

And foamcore that is already black should be awesome so I'll look forward to seeing how yours comes along also.
 

[bobbyb13]

Now up to three rather bad nights of sleep fighting with the PC to put out what I want.
Made even more fun since I am almost finished building out the guest house but that means all the crap that was in there is now in my shop until I can get a garden shed built.
 

Only good part is that it forced me to completely rearrange the workshop again and it will be a better flow for working on stuff in the end and I have room to build a router table cabinet.

Of course I still can't get groovymame to load.
Verbose gives me something about ADL initialization error that I can't find a fix for anywhere and that box is airgapped and I can't figure out how to get a stupid sticky note copied onto anything to ask Calamity for help yet even.
yeesh.

I read in one thread that maybe it was the old version of CRTEmu that wasn't happy with Win10 so I tried the next up- which didn't recognize this card (the HD 5450 that now I tried it, I recall gave me headaches years ago when I first got it.)

So I resinstalled windows and the older CRTEmu again (third time's a charm...?) and at least I can get output to the Trinitron again.

Between the service menu on the Sony and Arcade OSD I have succeeded in getting a picture that fits on the screen at least.



I can get the regular build of mame to run anyway and once I told windows that the TV was my only screen it finally actually would display on the Sony instead of always showing up on the monitor no matter what I did.

At least wiring up the A-Pac was straightforward for me (which I got wrong the first go round even still!) and once I unearthed the way to get at the game controller configuration in windows it was easy to clean up.



I tried playing a few times but it was 2:30 am again and I was over trying to get things configured to feel anything close to proper controls.

If anyone knows the best analog settings for a real paperboy controller (with 5k pots) then I would love to see them!

Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to give it a shot.
Seems like it needs a really small deadzone and maybe a different digital speed too.

[Zebidee]

After days of screwing around with software, and maybe a few Mai Tais or whatever your poison is lately, you will need a sleep or break before diving into it again.

[BadMouth]

The default deadzone in MAME is huge (30%IIRC).  Also set saturation to 1 (100%).  See the MAME section of the stickied driving cab info thread in the driving/racing subforum for a more detailed explanation.

[bobbyb13]

After days of screwing around with software, and maybe a few Mai Tais or whatever your poison is lately, you will need a sleep or break before diving into it again.

I am software stupid.
Hardware stuff I can kind of handle (sometimes) but code frightens me and how things actually function bewilders me.

Bahama Mama is the current liquid entertainment.
Trying to sort out as many rum drinks as possible to accomodate any palette. 

It appears what I needed was a good nights rest and thorough ass-beating surf session at Himalayas.
I feel better now!

The default deadzone in MAME is huge (30%IIRC).  Also set saturation to 1 (100%).  See the MAME section of the stickied driving cab info thread in the driving/racing subforum for a more detailed explanation.

Thanks for the tip Badmouth 
Hadn't occurred to me to look in the driving thread but that will be where I'm headed this evening I hope!

[Jimbo]

Have you thought about trying substring's collab. version of GroovyArcade?  Might be easier to set up than CRTEmu?

I use it on both my CRT mame cabs with no issues.

 

[bobbyb13]

Have you thought about trying substring's collab. version of GroovyArcade?  Might be easier to set up than CRTEmu?

I use it on both my CRT mame cabs with no issues.

 

I'll have to try that too Jimbo.
I've been thinking I need to replace this video card as maybe it is the source of the issue but I'll see if I can understand substring's efforts first!
Thanks for the tip.
 

[bobbyb13]

Since I got this thing working reasonably well now (thanks again for the driving thread tip BadMouth!) I figured it would be time finally to give it this dose of awesome sideart I have been antsy to put on.

Conveniently, when I lived in RHode Island I had a friend who decided he would get into (what was then the new business of) large format vinyl prints.
He was doing window dressings a lot and I went on a few installs with him and learned a few handy tips that maybe others don't know.

If you are already good at side art application then you can ignore the rest of this post!

So the Scotchcal film my art was stuck to is one (as I imagine nearly all are these days) with adhesive that is meant to be 'floated' into position so that you can get alignment proper and get rid of bubbles, creases and the like.
The proper arsenal for this chore would be:



I found that a lighter grit foam sanding block (like my drywaller buddies use- 220) to get rid of dust bumps in my paint was a good choice.
REALLY light rub, just enough to take out the grains that would telegraph through the vinyl.

Next is a quick wipe with denatured alcohol with a lint free towel.
This stuff leaves no residue that will mess with the glue and won't start attacking the paint either.

A really watered down soap mixture (probably like 50:1 water to soap) using some mild hand soap is perfect.
Companies sell stuff referred to as "application fluid" but it is only lightly soapy water 

A cheap thin plastic squeegee.  Doesn't take a lot to work bubbles out and you don't want to press too hard anyway.
Even really well soaked, rubber ones can tend to grab and stick so plastic all the way.

Next, get yourself a nice flat table (or clean floor) to carry all of your art.
If you don't have a big enough table you may crease your sticker when you are peeling it and the world will end.



Next, crease a top corner of your art- right to the edge of where the cut line is- again so you don't crease your artwork trying to peel it up.



I did this myself, but if you are trying to apply a 5 ft tall sticker and you haven't done it before you may want an assistant!

Next- soak the panel.  I did this vertically (and I suggest you do too) since if you start at the top with applying the art then gravity is your friend with soapy water and it is WAY easier to peel things up from the bottom and adjust if you need to.
If done lying flat you either need to be working with a small art piece or you will need help to hold it off the cab while you get the macro situation with alignment in hand.



Once you have the panel good and wet then slowly, gently, carefully peel your art off the backing and see about getting it lined up.
If you have used enough soapy water you really can peel it up a good number of times and it won't hurt anything but it will still cling to the panel so you can see where you are with alignment.
Once you think you have it pretty good and BEFORE you touch it with the squeegee, soak the outside with soapy water too!
It will lube stuff up so that your squeegee can slide nicely and won't scratch up your artwork.



The key is getting it set so that you can get a good swipe down the middle with the squeegee and then work your way out toward the edges to squeeze out bubbles and lay down creases.

You WILL have bubbles and creases when you first lay the art on- but if you have used enough soapy water underneath do not fear because you can work them all out.
If you think you don't have enough water underneath to move the art around without creasing it then peel it up and spray some more underneath and keep going.

It is REALLY hard to use too much soapy water in doing this if you spend less than 10 minutes on one side and if you think about it, as you squeegee things flat all that water is coming out anyway.

You will have much greater success if you work in quandrants or at least halves in working from the middle to the edges and use the spray liberally to make sure your squeegee flows nicely.



With a little practice you can get things really nice and flat.  It takes a few hours at least for the glue to really take set after all this so don't mess with it after you get it all sexy.
Sit back and admire how cool it looks and thank whoever printed this stuff for you.



I was feeling spunky so I did the other side tonight too.



I'm really liking this cab!
Going to have to find a place for it that you can see one side at least.
Can't wait for the marquee and CP stuff now.

[Zebidee]

Ah man nice work! I wish I could watch a video of you doing the whole squeegee action.

[Mike A]

Cab looks good.

[lomoverde]

that looks sharp. 

[emphatic]

Beautiful! 

[zeorangr]

This is really looking great!

[bobbyb13]

Thank you everybody 

Ah man nice work! I wish I could watch a video of you doing the whole squeegee action.

I would have to hire Ond for videos I think- but I know I couldn't afford him!

For a few years I would set up cameras to shoot GoPro footage of all the mayhem I was into but I would just hand raw stuff to somebody who would make it all viewable.

I DID somehow wind up with an imdb entry out of it though.
 
More in the ridiculous ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- I don't have to make up category.

Next thing I do I'll try my hand at setting up a camera to give eveybody some more to laugh at.

[Ond]

Thank you everybody 

Ah man nice work! I wish I could watch a video of you doing the whole squeegee action.

I would have to hire Ond for videos I think- but I know I couldn't afford him!

For a few years I would set up cameras to shoot GoPro footage of all the mayhem I was into but I would just hand raw stuff to somebody who would make it all viewable.

I DID somehow wind up with an imdb entry out of it though.
 
More in the ridiculous ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- I don't have to make up category.

Next thing I do I'll try my hand at setting up a camera to give eveybody some more to laugh at.

It's true, you can't afford me but I'll help you with a video - gratis. Well, almost gratis, when the time comes I'll get your advice on getting art printed and applying it.  Your results are excellent!  Serious, you can provide the raw footage and I'll turn out the video, just let me know. Upload/download via Dropbox or file share of your choice. I can produce up to 4k although 1080P is easier to manage.  Great work Bobby.

[bobbyb13]

Thank you everybody 

Ah man nice work! I wish I could watch a video of you doing the whole squeegee action.

I would have to hire Ond for videos I think- but I know I couldn't afford him!

For a few years I would set up cameras to shoot GoPro footage of all the mayhem I was into but I would just hand raw stuff to somebody who would make it all viewable.

I DID somehow wind up with an imdb entry out of it though.
 
More in the ridiculous ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- I don't have to make up category.

Next thing I do I'll try my hand at setting up a camera to give eveybody some more to laugh at.

It's true, you can't afford me but I'll help you with a video - gratis. Well, almost gratis, when the time comes I'll get your advice on getting art printed and applying it.  Your results are excellent!  Serious, you can provide the raw footage and I'll turn out the video, just let me know. Upload/download via Dropbox or file share of your choice. I can produce up to 4k although 1080P is easier to manage.  Great work Bobby.

Thanks Ond!

Although, ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----

Now I actually have to try to do this.
 
Even worse, I'll need to really clean up the workshop as it is a travesty currently.
All the crap that was in the ohana (guest house) and carport is now in the shop- which is being rearranged again as it is.
Yeesh

Now I need to go make sure that art stuck well so I don't need to add a disclaimer or edit my post!

[BadMouth]

Since I got this thing working reasonably well now (thanks again for the driving thread tip BadMouth!)

You're welcome.  I also should have mentioned that some games have adjustments in the game's original service menu.  (Usually F2 to enter, but is under DIP switch settings for Paperboy).
I looked and Paperboy doesn't have any such adjustments there, but it does let you adjust the difficulty and number of lives if that is something you'd want to tweak.

The cabinet looks gorgeous.  I had to go back to the start of the thread to remind myself that you did in fact build it from scratch.

[vertexguy]

This is looking amazing.  I must say I'm envious of that controller.  Any plans to cover the top of the buttons with something?

[bobbyb13]

Since I got this thing working reasonably well now (thanks again for the driving thread tip BadMouth!)

You're welcome.  I also should have mentioned that some games have adjustments in the game's original service menu.  (Usually F2 to enter, but is under DIP switch settings for Paperboy).
I looked and Paperboy doesn't have any such adjustments there, but it does let you adjust the difficulty and number of lives if that is something you'd want to tweak.

The cabinet looks gorgeous.  I had to go back to the start of the thread to remind myself that you did in fact build it from scratch.

Thanks again 
I was shooting for as close to looking original as I could manage and I'm happy with the result thus far.

Been digging through every possible setting as you suggest!
I'm taking a methodical approach to see how analog adjustments impact the behavior of the original controller as it interacts with Windows and MAME.
The fact that the devs thought to build in all this fine tuning to address the wide variety of controller possibilities is still amazing to me.
Very cool stuff.

I BELIEVE I have it very close to responding as it does in an original cabinet.
It has been so long since I played it that it is impossible to say for sure of course, but I do remember having pretty granular control of things BITD and this is feeling really close.

This is looking amazing.  I must say I'm envious of that controller.  Any plans to cover the top of the buttons with something?

The controller was the whole thing really!
I spent years collecting these parts and as you can see it still isn't complete yet.
If you are really obsessive about it, you can find bits infrequently as they come up for sale on fleabay and elsewhere, but I'm expecting to have to make those button housing covers myself.

In a cursory search you will only find the Ram Controls guy regularly selling any of these parts on Etsy and ebay through a few shifty channels (like normal) and I refuse to buy anything from that dirtbag, even though it took forever to build what he claims to have for sale.
Too bad since it looks like decent stuff but...

-An indiscernable portio of what he is selling is stuff he took money from other people for and never shipped to them (effectively stolen in my eyes.)
-You might pay that sleeze and become a victim of that same behavior yourself.

This thing has been years worth of effort really and cost more than I should have spent on any one cabinet but it is as fun to play (and still suck at!) as I remember.

So then worth it.
 

[wp34]

That cab looks stunning.  Very nice Bobby.

[XSFDriver]

Man this is cool. In all my years of checking out arcades where ever I've been, I've never seen an actual Paperboy arcade cab before. Can't wait to see it in action. Could you maybe post a video showing the controls being used once you've finished please.

Great work Bobby.

Cheers 

[bobbyb13]

Thank you!
It has been fun to build (apart from fighting with Windoze.)

Now I think of it, I don't recall seeing very many of them when they were first produced either really.
Off the top of my head I can't recall exactly where I was playing it most (although I'm sure it was at Milford Rec. - later Smiles back in old CT.)

I'll have to look it up but Atari probably didn't make as many of these as they had other ones, between the expense of the controller and the dwindling power of the arcade by the time Paperboy existed.

At this point, most extant are probably well hoarded in privacy I bet.

I need to find some time to work on it some more.
The rest of my artwork showed up last week and I haven't had a moment to even play it, never mind finish it up.
 

[javeryh]

Wow Bobby - this looks really great.  Art is so important and you nailed it here.  It really looks like an original.

Are you planning to add CP art?   

[bobbyb13]

Thank you sir! 
I was hoping to at least be able to fool myself into thinking it was a real one.
I'm stoked on how it is coming along.

And I got this last Friday...



And so, yes, I do!



I need to sort out lighting that marquee and thankfully even the original bezel was just a bit of black posterboard so I don't have to feel any guilt about recreating that same chintzy bit for this.

So close now...

[Zebidee]

Looks amazing Bobby.

I love that last photo. Little accidental and unstaged things like the newspaper on the bench in the foreground (with a local story) linking to the game, the picture of waves and the "LIVE ALOHA" plate giving further context, with your workstation and tools telling an origin story for the 90% complete Paperboy cab. Very good

[bobbyb13]

Thanks Andrew!

Accidental composition I suppose, constructed by the fact that the workshop is such a mess.
And among other things, I need to read that newspaper article.

There are even two cats in that picture now that I look at it.

[Zebidee]

There are even two cats in that picture now that I look at it.

How did I miss that!!? 

[bobbyb13]

Might not notice without direction!

Jinx is the indistinguishable blob of unconcious black fur in the box on one stool and you can only see Dwinney's butt on the stool next to him.

Easily missed unless they are attacking something (like each other or more likely, me.)