Because... Horizontal Multi- Vector

[bobbyb13]

The vector bug has some potent venom.

Since I can't help but have too many things going on at once (or more like get an idea and can't help but water the seed) and I had already started on the monitor for this almost accidentally during the Cosmic Chasm thing, I figured I needed to get going on the absolutely necessary horizontal vector machine.

I know this is kind of stupid, in that the deflection board for an XY monitor does not care which way the screen is rotated, but for playing Star Wars, Major Havoc, Zektor, Asteroids, Gravitar, et al it just seems wrong to be playing them on a vertically turned 19" tube.
And this I know because I ran all of them on the CC cabinet just to see.
And it is wrong- very wrong.

So here we are.
And because I can't make up my mind about what cabinet I will build for this one (I'm at least down to either the one Atari crammed a bunch of these games into- Gravitar for example- or one I have designed myself that I haven't used for anything else yet)  I figured it was prudent to begin on a control panel and go from there.

At least I know that I want the control panel(s) for this to be interchangeable with the Missile Command MAME cabinet and thereby extend usefulness for all of these things, so that is a start.

Because the panel's primary function is to be able to play the non-button horizontal vector games I thought I would see if getting a Star Wars yoke and a Major Havoc roller and buttons onto the same thing was workable.

First issue is that a standard CP angle is somewhere under 10 degrees of tilt from horizontal (I prefer closer to 5 degrees actually) and the mounting angle that makes a flight yoke useable is on the order of 65 degrees- or even more.

So on top of the regular old panel for a MH roller and buttons there needs to be a wart set at a comfortable angle.

After playing around a bit I found that although not normal of course, but this panel will be 28" wide and it is pretty reasonable to widen the standard MH control spacing and stick a yoke in between and you get a functional unit.

Fired up the table saw and compound mitre saw to play with some angles.
A square block for the yoke was out of the question, and something more of an Aztec pyramid started to emerge.



I liked the idea of a wider base for stability anyway but the look seems to be pretty cool too.
After I kept at it with the protractor and flipping the panels all around to get the angles right I had a solid kind of aerodynamic looking block that looked like it would work.
I had measured the yoke mounting plate and depth of the gear assembly a good number of times to make sure this would fit but be as small as possible.

Final wart block came out thusly.



Important to note that the mounting plate for a Star Wars yoke has welded studs, which are intended to be bolted to a metal control panel that is closer to 1/8" thick, not the 3/4" plywood I am using.
I could either add female threaded bitss and add on to the existing studs, or figure out something with metal- and I had some aluminum stock at hand already.

After I measured the port for the gear assembly to (barely) fit through I cut a hole in the wart face plate to allow me to mount aluminum flat stock to actually bolt the yoke to.



I built a router table out of an old cabinet a little while back and although I have only used a few times it is invaluable when needed.
This was a great use.
Set depth to thickness of aluminum to go in, set up fence for runs and voila.



After I had them fit it was easy to drill and countersink to get the things on there.

Since I was getting to the point where I wouldn't have a flat panel to play with soon I figured I should cut and route the main body for buttons, the yoke assembly, and my groovy MH roller.
After I cut the square for the roller to fit in it was just measure depth and route the back side.



Again, this control is built to be installed on a metal panel, but it is going in plywood and I don't want to look at carriage bolts on this thing and with what I am glassing it with strength of even 1/8" of ply will not be an issue here.

I still don't know if I can flip the axis for this roller so I may need to physically flip it or try to swap wires to keep the assembly as I have it but we'll see later on.
At least it fits well- for now.



Now that I had the layout entirely sorted and the holes popped in it I could finally see how this was going to come together.
I'm pleased thus far and it will be absolutely solid.



Next was clean up/flatten out the thing since I knew that this was going to be accepting some not very tolerant fabric.
I had some body filler left over from repairing some cabinets at the Samurai House and this was a perfect place to use some up.

This ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- goes off FAST.
Generally speaking around here, if the humidity isn't 80%+ you can get about 7 minutes of working time with polyester resins.
I don't think you even get 4 minutes with this goo- but it works.
Kicks fast, sands easily afterward.  MUCH nicer to deal with than straight Bondo, but it is more $$ of course.



With that done it was time to start getting to sexy but potentially frustrating part.
I still have some carbon fiber left that is either to small, too dirty, or has pulls in the weave that don't allow for fancy surfboard use- but it is good for this!

Sharp scissors are a must and the only way to work with it and not have it unravel and fight you is to run a line of masking tape on it and cut through it to get a piece that you can handle without drama.
This trick works for regular old fiberglass cloth too, but is a bit excessive in most cases since that stuff is just easier to work with.



Resin mix is the same.
Good practice to use straight laminating resin (no surfacing agent-wax- added) for first lay of fabric.
Because I want some depth to this and not cut into the fabric at all while sanding I used two fill coats of laminating resin afterwards also.
As soon as you add surfacing agent (to make it so that you can sand the resin without it gumming your paper up immediately) you actually HAVE to sand the piece or nothing else will bond to it properly.
Always save the wax for the last coat.

I glassed the wart as a seperate piece because it was less drama using something as stiff as 6 oz. carbon fiber to begin with and I liked the idea of the weave running a different direction too.
Also allowed for me to do the sides first and front last which made for better trim and edge composition.



Once I had both pieces glassed up and trimmed I started playing with ideas for resin detail to break up all the carbon fiber and to add a little flavor.
Still trying to figure out some fun lines.
I am not an artist or illustrator so this will take some time.



And then I figured I should drill the thing out and make sure the yoke still fit!



Yes...

I think I need to see about having some stickers die cut to act as stencils for 'FIRE"  "SHIELD" and "MOVE" so I can have at least some proper graphics on this thing.
Would be fun to do those in blue resin over the carbon.

Soon I need to decide which cabinet to build for this pile.

[Zebidee]

Oh wow... its happening even sooner than I'd hoped!

[Laythe]

That is looking great.  Love the shape of the yoke block, that looks really right with the shapes of the yoke and panel.  This is gonna be cool.

One of my favorite things about this forum is seeing how different everybody's approach is.  We are all clearly coming at this shared interest of arcade cabinets from different places, as shaped by the rest of our skillsets and the other things we do. The route you take with a resin and cloth layup, versus the route I'd take, versus the route Pixelhugger would take with a giant slab of hardwood, or Ond would take with a mathematically perfect automotive finish, I just find endlessly educational and fascinating.

It's an honor to watch you work.  Thanks for letting us all watch over your shoulder at your workbench.   

[Mike A]

I think he just like huffing all of the chemicals.

[bobbyb13]

Thank you!
And what you say is true of course.
Once I figured out how to actually get any of these machines functional the most fun of joining this band of miscreants is watching the wide variety of quite imaginative and really well executed builds that so many of you have come up with.
 

That is looking great.  Love the shape of the yoke block, that looks really right with the shapes of the yoke and panel.  This is gonna be cool.

One of my favorite things about this forum is seeing how different everybody's approach is.  We are all clearly coming at this shared interest of arcade cabinets from different places, as shaped by the rest of our skillsets and the other things we do. The route you take with a resin and cloth layup, versus the route I'd take, versus the route Pixelhugger would take with a giant slab of hardwood, or Ond would take with a mathematically perfect automotive finish, I just find endlessly educational and fascinating.

It's an honor to watch you work.  Thanks for letting us all watch over your shoulder at your workbench.   

The below also is absolutely true.
 

I think he just like huffing all of the chemicals.

[bobbyb13]

I'm at a good spot in this build where I can take 30 minute slots of time and actually accomplish something.

Some resin detail on this panel was in order and after staring at it- quite a lot- and considering the less is more concept, it came to me that just mirroring what was on the yoke already was a good place to start.
I also decided that it should have some solid black border in places just to contain the pattern a bit.

So a bit of tape that the resin won't immediately melt the glue right off the back of-



Just doing the black hadn't reminded me that the way to really do detail like this is to use gloss resin- which is a blend that is quite a bit thinner than the stuff I use generally, and it also gets considerably harder in a much shorter period of time.
The fact that it is thinner makes it flow out flatter and because it is harder it polishes up to a mirror finish more readily than the laminating resin I like- which has a double dose of blue-ing agent, making it MUCH brighter and more clear when catalysed but also softer/more flexible.

Polyester resin blends are a rabbit hole all their own it turns out.

After I got the black border I wanted on both pieces I got to play with some pigments to try to blend something close to what was on the yoke body to mimic the pinlines there already.
I already have a few different blues and white and black too of course so it wasn't too bad to sort out something close.



The fact that I did NOT have any gloss resin handy made this a huge pain in the ass and actually required I go through the process with the blue line FOUR times before I got it to behave properly.
It required thinning it with acetone (not recommended- but the styrene monomer I had and would choose to use had hardened into a little brick because I hadn't used it up fast enough) and still meant that I had to pull the tape before I normally would, risking a drooling blob of wavy pinline.

I'll still call what I wound up with after more effort than normal a win.



At least now both pieces are to a point that I can clean them up and put the last coat of clear on them before I try to figure out what grade of shiny I want this stuff to wind up after all this.
I'm still leaning toward something a few grades less than polished, but the carbone stuff does look pretty cool when it is super shiny.

Maybe I will have to run with tooled out finish in spots and mirror polish in others?
Still debating whether or not any more detail other than button labeling is going to happen here as it is.

As I put my hands on the panel after this was done it has occurred to me that I may be remiss in neglecting a full complement of buttons to play Star Trek (?!)
Although I am a fan of the story I never got to play the game BITD so without nostalgia points I myself may never miss it actually.

I can always drill more holes.

The other thing is that there aren't player start buttons on this yet and although I had considered putting some volcano style ones on the wart just for fun they could wind up elsewhere.

What could consume a portion of my weekend is that I decided on which cabinet this should be finally.
Since this has already run far our of hand already it made sense to go full ridiculous and build the one I came up with while thinking about an entirely different build- which will now be something else of course.
Yeesh.

[bobbyb13]

And almost forgot-



Using graph paper for layout makes it easy to find shapes and proportions you like and then you can just pick a point (I always begin with contol panel height) and do the math to get the ratio per square for your real world measurements.
Easy scaling.
A protractor makes checking your angles easy too, but if you get your measurements proper then everything falls into place when you template stuff anyway.

Apart from control panel height (and in my case thinking about how the whole thing fits upstairs with my ridiculous knee wall- hence more back angle) the cabinet depth where the CRT neckboard winds up- relative to screen face pitch- is the only other thing to really sweat.
20" from front of tube face to interior back of cabinet has been really safe so far- no matter what size or angle tube.

Leaving yourself 1" of slack for any dimension in regard to tube, speakers and controls helps when you try to put all these things together in the end and it ensures that you don't wind up with something that your components simply don't fit in.
Have to accomodate using 3/4" thick plywood, yeah?

As a full size cabinet this thing allows for pretty much anything so I'm confident this will just go together after I have cut the panels out.

It has elements of other cabinets I like and maintains a kind of '80s era lozenge feel that suits me and this crazy build.

Fun graphic treatment for the sides that keeps that vibe but isn't cheesy is going to be hard to sort out for me.
I know that I will be glassing a small panel of carbon fiber on the sides for continuity with the control panels but I want it to have the feel of a sticker with some appropriate illustration/image/name etc. within the field.
Or should it be a/a few stripe/s of carbon somewhere on the sides?

Some single element that suits a multi-vector machine but isn't screaming "Multi-Vector Vidyagamez!!!!"

Oh boy-
Any thoughts from a real artist are very welcome.

[firedance]

I also use pencil n paper for designs, would take me years to learn design software  I've also designed a side profile on a sheet of MDF before then cut it out, saved on paper.

Great work as always 

[Mike A]

I am available to do artwork.

I work for beer and peanut butter pretzels.




Javyerh didn't use my concept for his bartop.

It was his loss.

[bobbyb13]

I really liked that one myself.
No accounting for taste though!

Not sure I can afford enough beer and pretzels for the scope of this circus I am ringmaster of presently.

Of course I still need to figure out why the stupid Pi doesn't recognize the Alan-1 yoke or all this is masturbatory anyway.

[Zebidee]

We all know what you get if you pay peanuts. You may need to upgrade to some hot chips or even some nachos 

I was looking at the Windows 7 "Ribbons" screensaver just now, and to me it seemed sorta vector-ish. I guess what I'm getting at is random bright lines and squiggles, of different colours, on a black(?) background. You could go Jackson-Pollock-crazy with some paint. Reminds me of some of your approaches to getting that marshmallow cab looking good, though that was fibreglass.

[bobbyb13]

It is going to require some kind of copy or graphic on the side of it or it will just look stupid.
I do like the idea of a resin splash of sorts- in a kind of warp speed sort of look I guess.
The damn thing is still going to need to be called 'something' no matter what though.
I wiSH that I had any skill with this sort of thing.

Well FINALLY now, after spending an amount of time on this wherein I could have actually built the frackin' cabinet, I have succeeded in sorting out the damn yoke.
You know what it was?!
The stupid cord.

Who the hell makes a bleedin' USB cord that only charges and won't transfer any data?!?!
FFS

By the time I had figured out how to:
1.  Stumble onto opening the GUI in a sideways fashion (bear in mind, the AdvanceMame USB-DVG disk image- which really is brilliant by the way- boots straight into the menu to run the vector games, completely skipping on anything that resembles a computer.  Awesome- unless you are trying to use the damn Pi as a computer temporarily.
2. Get a USB dongle because I need to have entirely too much crap plugged into this imp of a computer.
3. Give up on getting any wifi happening and just carry all this crap into the dining room zone where I can plug the thing right into the router.
4. Download what I need onto the thing from the Alan-1 site (which I am not kidding- when I tried to do it last night I kept getting a "Can't establish connection with database" or other some such trash last night.  Cue losing more hair.
5.  Score this evening somehow and get the files needed.
6. Get the joystick test bit loaded on finally.
7. Get dfu-util loaded onto the Pi too- and then after sorting out how to use it (in command line no less!) and figuring out where the hell the damn .dfu file was on the Pi and after a dozen times of typing stuff over, finally figuring out that the silly stuff is case sensitive...

I get an error message that there is no dfu capable device connected.

Well... wtf?!
I can see the damn board is plugged in, and it has a pile of LEDs lit on it, so what the hell are you talking about?!

So I tried a different cord, because I had lost all hope otherwise, and guess what?

Next time I booted the thing up again I got-



Holy crap- it's there.  And nice deadzone, yeah?!
My word.

So for giggles I tried to run through the dfu utility again to see if I could flash the stupid board and lo and behold that worked too.

And when I tried to open the joystick test utility I saw the most glorious thing.



And the controls even respond the way they should.

Another day of this and I might have been putting it all out in the road for the next passing steamroller to take care of for me.

I'd like to kick the guy who came up with a 'charging only' cord right in the jimmy.
HARD.

[Zebidee]

I'd like to kick the guy who came up with a 'charging only' cord right in the jimmy.
HARD.

Before you get too excited, there are indeed USB charge-only cables. Like the USB 2.0 to USB-C charge cables used for many modern devices such as phones... and GreenAntz too. These cables carry no data. If you use a full USB-C to USB-C cable, there will be a termination signal at the device which tells the PC "5v charge only, no data please".

As for normal USB2.0 cables, they have only 4 wires in them: 5v (red), 2 data lines (green, white) and GND (black). It is not unusual (said in my best Tom Jones baritone) for one of the wires to get damaged, especially as many USB cables are cheap n flimsy. Unlike with USB-C, no signal termination is required for your PC to supply 5v via USB2.0. Point of this story is, if a USB data wire is damaged then your device can/will receive power, but be unable to communicate with your PC     I've hacked many USB2.0 cables for 5v power.

If it makes you feel any better, I also spent all last night chasing after "signal ghost bugs" in my arcade cab     (IPAC went wonky again when reprogramming it, think I've sorted it now)

[bobbyb13]

Did you check your data cables?!
 

So, supercharged by my entirely unanticipated ability to get the silly controller working, I figured it was time to sand out the panel.
Bonus to this today was I had an epiphany about the last color and icon details for the panel, the finish, and even the basic concept idea for the rest of the cabinet as a whole.
It isn't perfect, but I am satisfied at this point that what I built carries the theme of the original controller decently, even if a purist or two may gag.



The other thing I had done the other night was to go through the sketch I had for the cabinet - which began life planned as a mini cabaret actually- and blow it up to full size and sort out all of the dimensions so that I can template it up and get cutting.



It is a good fit for the loft as regards height and angles and has a feel to it that I like for this machine.

Toughest part now will be getting the feel of this kind of thing in a minimalist sort of way without it being tacky.



I had a 1000 piece puzzle of this exact image when I was 8 it was I think.
Wish I still had that.  Wonder what ever happened to it.

[javeryh]

Bobby - this is looking great.  I wish I had your determination. I have a ton of things I want to build in my head but always find an excuse to just do it later instead of right now.  I need to work on that.

I also use pencil n paper for designs, would take me years to learn design software  I've also designed a side profile on a sheet of MDF before then cut it out, saved on paper.

Great work as always 

Add me to this as well.  I scribble on paper until it looks right and like porn I know it when I see it.

Javyerh didn't use my concept for his bartop.

It was his loss.

One of my many regrets but it's never too late as there is always the next one...

[bobbyb13]

Thank you sir! 
The hardest part is planning enough out to just get started.

Every once in a while - scratch that- on every freakin build- I wind up at a point where I'm not exactly sure where to head- so I just stop until I figure it out.
And then every once in a while I find that I wish I did something differently after it is kind of too late.

Whatever "that" is I save for the next one I suppose.
Moving backwards on things when I'm still learning what the hell I'm doing just seems like a waste of time.

I'm definitely on the learn something, accept imperfection, and press on kind of path- with many things in life now really.

If I ever get to build a SECOND one of any of these things I'm doing for somebody else then maybe THAT one can be perfect!
 
Yeah... not likely-

Bobby - this is looking great.  I wish I had your determination. I have a ton of things I want to build in my head but always find an excuse to just do it later instead of right now.  I need to work on that.

I also use pencil n paper for designs, would take me years to learn design software  I've also designed a side profile on a sheet of MDF before then cut it out, saved on paper.

Great work as always 

Add me to this as well.  I scribble on paper until it looks right and like porn I know it when I see it.

Javyerh didn't use my concept for his bartop.

It was his loss.

One of my many regrets but it's never too late as there is always the next one...

[bobbyb13]

I'll just keep posting until someone tells me to stop it already.

In the interest of not having to look at carriage bolt heads in my sexy carbon layup I needed to sort out a means of anchoring this roller so that "spirited play" doesn't shove it into the cabinet.
A good thing I continue to hoard random bits of crap from various projects everywhere and love to make this ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- up as I go along.

So with a little bit of aluminum I had from previous in this figment of my imagination, and some 1/4" 20 stock and odd little caps which I honestly can't remember where the hell they came from a plan arose.
Get spacers that will brace my very groovy Master Havoc roller mounting plate from behind and screw a cover plate over it.

Cut some strips of aluminum, drill holes and tap for the threaded stuff...



And after I have spewed shavings all over the place, while yet avoiding injuring myself, assemble and screw the stuff together.
Seems to work.



It was at this point that it occurred to me that I had STILL forgotten to bevel the front edge of this panel.
I started doing it a few cabinets ago so that the CP itself is what pins the monitor bezel and any plexi associated into place.
It works quite nicely and means that I have one less thing to worry about anchoring.

Of course the way the table saw cuts I had to cut off the backside of the blade effectively, otherwise I was going to have to run the panel through the saw glassed side down.
Um, no-

I am happy that the tune on the fence is still good because I actually got the angle cut the way I wanted in one pass without destroying this thing.



So now finally I was in a spot where I could get to putting everything together for (maybe?!) the last time.
I was reminded at this point that I had designed the wart to be absolutely as small as possible and still be able to assemble the thing/dissasemble the thing for repair.
Designing to your tool set here was a huge bonus because I was going to not even have enough room for my fingers to get in that hole but it didn't matter because I have THESE!



If you can manage the space/funds/whatever buy yourself a set of swivel head sockets and you will find that they change your life if you are working in things with bolt fasteners.
I got these for working on ridiculous automobiles long ago and it is impossible to verbalize how much time and aggravation these things have saved me, not to mention the instances where they made something possible which simply wouldn't have happened otherwise.
Like putting this thing together.

With the wart and yoke mounted I decided it was smart to get the adapter board in place here and it was then that I remembered I hadn't routed out the spots for leaf switches either.
At least I have a little lightweight router so I didn't have to pull everything apart AGAIN to do that.

Backside done- I think.



I have still not figured out:
1. Will the Pi recognize the "mouse button" leads from the roller controller.
2. Can I reverse the axis on the roller or do I need to pull this apart and spin it 180 degrees- thereby requiring a little more router activity.

We'll see when I get a chance to give it a proper test, now that functionally it should be complete and I had figured out how to get the Pi to work with it.
Maybe after dinner!



I'm also liking it in matte finish more all the time.  This is only sanded out to 400 grit.
There will still be some image elements in an opposing finish here before I'm done, but at this point I think those parts will be the glossy bits and the panel as a whole will stay like this.

Onward.

[Zebidee]

As usual Bobby, I am in awe of your work.

I love those long extensions for ratcheting socket wrenches - used to work on a lot of Leyland minis when I was young, and they never left much room to work.

If you don't have enough room to turn the wrench handle, you can still stick a large flat-head screwdriver in the socket instead and use that.

[PL1]

2. Can I reverse the axis on the roller or do I need to pull this apart and spin it 180 degrees- thereby requiring a little more router activity.

The roller is like a spinner.

To reverse the axis, swap the two data lines A and B.
- This changes the phases while turning the roller clockwise from 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . to 4, 3, 2, 1, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . .



IIRC your roller uses a Happ Red Board.




Scott

[bobbyb13]

Not sure that awe is appropriate, but I appreciate the sentiment, so thank you!
For resin work this panel is fairly pedestrian for a vet, but when you start stacking up all the elements here it does get pretty fun to try to get your head around.
Apart from playing the games, the most fun of this hobby is that it blends so many disciplines so artfully if you approach it right.
Having so much to learn still is what keeps it interesting.

What the hell will I do when I run out of space for cabinets?!

As usual Bobby, I am in awe of your work.

I love those long extensions for ratcheting socket wrenches - used to work on a lot of Leyland minis when I was young, and they never left much room to work.

If you don't have enough room to turn the wrench handle, you can still stick a large flat-head screwdriver in the socket instead and use that.

Thanks Scott.
I was anticipating that it was that simple to accomplish but was hesitant to just cut into the harness.
I'm not sure what board is utilized here but I think the gent who made it (nice guy over at atariage, pboland ) used plain old mouse guts and 3d printed the rest. I will look closer and post what I find.

For a really inexpensive piece it has a nice feel to it and I think will work great for my purposes.
He named it wisely given the current environment with Atari's (latest) IP owners- who I'm guessing are like everybody else since 1979 at this point.
I'll see if it is something that can be altered in software first I suppose and then resort to a wire swap if necessary.

Appreciate you chiming in here!
 

2. Can I reverse the axis on the roller or do I need to pull this apart and spin it 180 degrees- thereby requiring a little more router activity.

The roller is like a spinner.

To reverse the axis, swap the two data lines A and B.
- This changes the phases while turning the roller clockwise from 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . to 4, 3, 2, 1, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . .



IIRC your roller uses a Happ Red Board.




Scott

[PL1]

I was anticipating that it was that simple to accomplish but was hesitant to just cut into the harness.

You don't need to cut the harness to swap the data lines on a Red Board, just pull the pins from the connector housing and swap them.

I'm not sure what board is utilized here but I think the gent who made it (nice guy over at atariage, pboland ) used plain old mouse guts and 3d printed the rest. I will look closer and post what I find.

You are right.  I must have been thinking about Takeman's Major Havoc rollers here on KLOV.   



Pboland says in this post at AtariAge that he uses the guts of an optical mouse.

Since an optical mouse doesn't use encoder wheels and optos like an old ball mouse, the data line swap trick won't work.

I'll see if it is something that can be altered in software first I suppose and then resort to a wire swap if necessary.

You can reverse a mouse axis in the MAME "Analog Controls" menu.

If someone figures out how to reverse an axis in Windows, it'll be time to dust off StefanBurger's trackball design here.


Scott

[bobbyb13]

I thought I remembered seeing in a mame menu somewhere that you could swap spinner axis, so I was hoping I wasn't imagining it.
Seemed like the in game menu for advancemame is slightly different in spots from the regular builds I think but I think I will be able to make it work.

Thanks again as always Scott.
 

Of course now that I have cut a bunch of the cabinet (didn't need to do anything until 10am) we'll see if I can get time to stand it up before the week is out.
 

[bobbyb13]

A glimpse into how my mind works.
Scary, I know.



For when you have too many squares at hand, a fun little adjustable protractor, a straight edge, a pencil, and some graph paper.
This is important if you are trying to cram stuff into the smallest box possible, but for this cabinet not really critical.

I do it anyway.
So I measure out what I think is going to work and draw it out and then pile on the squares.

The adjustable protractor is to make sure that the depth of control panel I want to use fits at the preferred angle.  That would be the small silver square.
In this case, 10 inches deep at a 5 degree angle.

From the back of that point I want to insure that I can get the CRT to fit properly, preferably with some room top and bottom for some bezel area.  The face of that is obviously the blue square, but ensuring that this is all working requires that the neck of the tube with the board on it will fit inside the cabinet (including the fact that the back doors are 3/4" thick panels) and that would be the large silver square.
This I just check at the center point of where I want the screen to sit.
In most cases, apparently regardless of tube size even, 18" depth from the front of the screen face (keep in mind it is convex) is adequate.
This is a 25" tube but it a 110 degree angle so is pretty shallow that dimension.

Because there is huge leeway here as regards that angle the tube rests at it means that the marquee/speaker panel will fit at the size I want it to be also.
In this case about 8" tall and the specific angle is not really relevant.
That would be the orange square.

Makes sense, yeah?

That was last night.
I cut the panels this morning but haven't had time to clean them up and I'm too tired at this point.

Maybe tomorrow after some work.

And if pbj is reading here, spring has sprung for sure and we have had a bunch of rain recently.

4 cane toads last night.
The little shits.

[Zebidee]

time to make some space in the freezer

[bobbyb13]

There were already a half dozen in there from the last few months because I keep forgetting to bring them to the transfer station where they take this stuff to the incinerator!
All the green maniacs here would have a conniption if they knew where the power on this little rock came from- still.

time to make some space in the freezer

So the bonus for an absolute shitshow for weather today while trying to lay down some decking was that being rained out meant I could do some REAL work.
 

I took advantage of the fact that I had an hour to kill before work on Wed and cut the side templates out and this was probably the easiest cabinet yet of all that I have built.
After I had played with the design on paper for so long it didn't really occur to me until I cut the panels that this thing is what you would get if Q*bert, Tron, and Missile Command had a threesome love-child.

This morning I had a spare half hour and cut all but the speaker panel for the interior bits, unwittingly setting myself up for being able to work on it this afternoon because it started raining at 11am and just got worse until we called it at 2pm.

So I started with cleaning up my outline cuts.



The love-child thing is pretty obvious at this point then.

Thankfully I remembered that I needed to go to the local hardware store for some hard rubber casters on the way home because I had used up the stash of them I had.
They only had 3" ones but whatever.  It just means I have more room for my fingers to get under the front to lock the swivel wheels so it doesn't jump around while you are playing.

I have found that you can stand the cabinet up pretty quickly if you have the lid and some battens ready to go, build the base and just start gluing and screwing stuff together.
This one is finally coming together so that it could be within 1/32" across any part when I'm done.
Only took me over a dozen to get to that.

I played around a bit with the number a bit but found that I still like the 5 degree angle thing for the control panel.
After I clamped some pieces in to drop the yoke panel on just to check it confirmed that suspicion.



If I could just make up my mind about the side panel graphics I could be playing this thing pretty soon.
I want to try vinyl laminate on this one but it doesn't play into the carbon fiber detail very well unless I am pulling off some kind of pinline border treatment somewhere.

I'll need to think on it some more but I know that I will get impatient and want to clear my workbench of the monitor pile and get playing the machine.
heheh

[bobbyb13]

Got a bit farther along on the box but forgot to take any pictures.

I decided to deviate almost entirely from any original cabinet (Star Wars or otherwise) and was working on the overall art theme and came up with some ideas.
Need to see if my sister can get her Cricut machine going and make me some stuff to try out for looks.

If I'm going to run with a "Red Five" theme here I might as well do it thoroughly.
Still haven't decided on exactly what the copy will be but this is a start using some fun themed fonts at least.



The other part would be some images that I am hoping to get from a real artist who made something cool that I liked and which works with the concept I finally came up with.

Other than that I'm torn between taking my first shot at vinyl lamination for this one or trying to paint it with urethane.
It might come down to how imaptient I get, since I can pretty much build out the whole thing and then cover it with vinyl and not have to take it all apart again.

I found some cool gun metal colored vinyl that would be the right look.

If I can stomach spending the $$ on the paint that could still happen, but it is a LOT more work obviously.

[Mike A]

Red 5 always gets all of the attention.

Be original. RED 6.

Jek Porkins.

[bobbyb13]

I like your style.
I'll bite.
Time to work out a marquee design incorporating Red Six that includes two 4" speakers on the sides a la Missile Command.

Red 5 always gets all of the attention.

Be original. RED 6.

Jek Porkins.

[bobbyb13]

Sometimes I hate the modern world.
Second try on this post due to some flaky internet.

Being a pygmy goat midwife has kept me out of the cabinet building business for a week and a half now.
We are drowning in cuteness here now of course (six of the little shits) but I am exhausted.

So I decided I wanted to try a different finish for this cabinet and after thinking through different vinyl laminate possibilities and urethanes I arrived on epoxy paint.

The base coat for this technique (which is like painting a boat really) is first putting on some spar varnish as a sanding sealer.
Nice thing about this is that it can be rolled on, so I don't need to dedicate an hour to getting the gun and material ready, spraying, and then cleaning up (which is like half of the escapade.)
After a few days of hardening up this makes for a really nice base to put some paint on.



While this was drying (and in between goat deliveries and regular work) I figured I should get going on the bezel.
This is basically how I made the one for the Missile Command cabinet too but my goal here is trying to make it easier to build and easier to explain so that maybe somebody else might be foolish enough to try it.
 

If you look closely enough at the cabinet picture above you can see the line up the inside where I want the bezel to rest so I added battens along those marks to make for the base to build this thing.
The whole bezel frame sits on top of the battens that carry the control panel also.

To start I cut the entire square for the outer bezel frame, 1/8" narrower than the inside width of the cabinet and tall enough to be pinned in place by the marquee above and control panel below when everything is in place.
From there I measured the outer dimensions of the monitor tube, added 1/8" to that for the total cutout, and used a dime to trace for the corner radius.
Plunge cut with a circular saw to get straight lines for most of it and then finish with the jig saw.



I'm using 1/8" melamine backed MDF again.  Thin and light enough to be easy to work with, thick enough to be stable as you work with it, the melamine adds a bit of substance to make it more durable too, and it's a material that can be painted, glassed or whatever you like for a finish.

The headache part of this has always been trying to get the damn tube face curves good.
After agonizing for an hour with various methods (again) I tried this.
Stick a piece of material along the side of the tube, perpendicular to the tube face and then trace it, taking care to keep the pencil on the same plane against the tube face as you trace.



Easy, right?
Well it works.
If you cut your frame the same way that I did then you are only putting the rather small panels that meet the tube at a pretty shallow angle really and it doesn't ruin the ability of that curve you traced to work for you.
When I was confident that could work I went and traced the side curve and then cut out pieces and duplicated them.
Having a contour gauge handy to check your work as you go along doesn't hurt.



At this point since the frame is sitting where it will actually live in the machine then all you need to do is rest the curved bits in place and trace the flat edge on the backside along the outer frame piece to cut them for proper depth.
You can then also trace the lines where the pieces overlap in the corners to get them to meet properly.
There is a bit of back and forth to do it like this but you wind up with something that sits quite well.



Once the pieces are cut to proper back dimension then pinning them in place relative to each other on the frame with some tape is not hard to do because you have the tube to brace them for you.
You can go overboard with the tape if you want to because this is all getting glued in place from the backside to begin with anyway.
It doesn't need to be perfect at this point either because you can always fill any trouble spots later but the closer you can get it here the better.



After it is stabilized then just pull it out and lay it on its face on a table.
This is where I make my favorite marshmallow consistency epoxy and microballoon mixture and baste the crap out of all the seams on the backside of the thing.
Once that has kicked then turn it back over, peel off your now unnecessary tape and put a nice fillet of epoxy filler in the corners and fill any joints where the panels meet on the face.

Sand it out after that side has kicked and then it is ready for paint, fiberglass, vinyl, etc.



I may not live long enough to decide on what to do for color or artwork on this piece.
Maybe once I actually have the cabinet painted something will come to me.

[Zebidee]

That certainly is some impressive bezel work. Stronger than a cardboard bezel. Not really more complicated either, if you have the right stuff.

Also good that the goats can't eat it!

[javeryh]

What a great looking cabinet.  Your bezel game is rock solid too - I tried that once and gave up after an hour of frustration.

[bobbyb13]

It's my third using this method so I'm finally getting decent at it!

That certainly is some impressive bezel work. Stronger than a cardboard bezel. Not really more complicated either, if you have the right stuff.

Also good that the goats can't eat it!

If you follow this route it removes the (potentially hours) of frustration.
All the stupid tubes are frequently just slightly different shapes so using one as a template for others the same size octen doesn't even work.
I hope others will take a shot at making one using this sparse tutorial kinda post.
Happy to give help to any who ask about any of the stuff I am trying to do!

What a great looking cabinet.  Your bezel game is rock solid too - I tried that once and gave up after an hour of frustration.

And thanks for the encouragement y'all.
For a still largely traditional cabinet this is a weird one, and I am a notably uninspired and ---smurfy--- artist so the graphical treatment will continue to be a challenge no matter what other fun crap I can pull off.

Same as the still unadorned S.S. Marshmallow really.

For the love of Pete, the 95% finished machines of it all...

[bobbyb13]

In spite of being midwife for 6 ridiculouslys cute baby goats over the last few weeks I have still managed to get some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- done.

Primed.



Man, I wish the hell I had figured out that sealing a cabinet with spar varnish before doing anything else was the secret to a super flat finish without having to sand the damn thing 600 times.

Since the previous pic I have put two coats of the finsh color on it too actually, but I forgot to take a picture.
Maybe I'll mix another drink and go take one because I don't have anything else to do (although maybe invoice for the work that has been keepnig me from having any fun I suppose) and not very many other people are posting anything of note lately either so I may as well spam the ever-lovin'-crap out of this before I get scolded for being a jackass and give anyone else who is bored something to laugh or complain about.
 

So there, dammit.
And if you complain I'll post more pictures of the goats everywhere.

But not until I mix another drink.
 

[bobbyb13]

Another MaiTai down and...

50 shades of gray my buttcrack-
ONE shade of gray, and that is...

Battleship

And while I was at it, I added a gloss coat of black resin to the bezel and then got to play a few rounds of Star Wars Trilogy with the boy while I was waiting for it to kick so that I cuold get a proper present progress shot-



Could there POSSIBLY be a game that has a better attract mode than Star Wars Trilogy?!

Proper homage to the Sega crew who buil the SWT machine. 

It is the absolute pinnacle of arcade machines for anybody born around 1970 as far as I'm concerned.
I'm still beside myself with glee that I own a functional original.
Great graphics and gameplay, the audio is outstanding, and all this occurred before any influences outside Lucas himself had a chance to ruin the story and the franchise.

Yeah, I'm a grouchy ol' ---sufferer of cranial-rectal-inversion--- when it comes to Star Wars, so fight me.
And get off my lawn.
 

Still looking forward to getting my Incom Fllight Simulator/vector bastard cabinet functional though.
 

[Zebidee]

Awesome. You could shave with that reflection!

Glad you chose "battleship" grey because that's how the spaceships, deathstar etc looked in the original 1977 release. I originally saw Star Wars the traditional way: at the drive-in, from the back seat of the family station wagon.

In the remade/remastered (and later) versions, released in 1997, the same version where Han shoots second instead of first, there was a magenta wash over everything and I thought it was particularly noticeable in the Deathstar scenes.  It makes the movie look less "seventies", but I dunno   

You be the judge.  I wrote about this on another thread last year and posted comparison shots, so rather than repeat myself any further:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,166923.msg1759471.html#msg1759471

[Mike A]

Great graphics and gameplay, the audio is outstanding, and all this occurred before any influences outside Lucas himself had a chance to ruin the story and the franchise.



Still looking forward to getting my Incom Fllight Simulator/vector bastard cabinet functional though.
 

Dude. Normally I am with you. But.....

Star Wars Trilogy is boring as hell. Games on rails suck.

It is the absolute pinnacle of arcade machines for anybody born around 1970 as far as I'm concerned.

It wouldn't be in my top 50.

Hehe. We can fight about it at Zapcon. We can drink until one of us gives up.

[pbj]

How do you prepare the goats?  I’ve got a Costco down the street that sells whole ones for about $150 and I stay up late at night thinking about them.

[bobbyb13]

Maybe I'm most in love with the attract mode?
I do like playing the game though.  Harder than i appears at first blush.

Great graphics and gameplay, the audio is outstanding, and all this occurred before any influences outside Lucas himself had a chance to ruin the story and the franchise.



Still looking forward to getting my Incom Fllight Simulator/vector bastard cabinet functional though.
 

Dude. Normally I am with you. But.....

Star Wars Trilogy is boring as hell. Games on rails suck.

It is the absolute pinnacle of arcade machines for anybody born around 1970 as far as I'm concerned.

It wouldn't be in my top 50.

Hehe. We can fight about it at Zapcon. We can drink until one of us gives up.

And we'll see how much drinking Tyler allows me to do!
He keeps an eye on me.

The goats are just cute lawnmowers that like it when you scratch their heads and pretend you are going to head butt them.
Couldn't imagine eating one.
I don't even like goat cheese so I can't imagine what they would taste like.
Nikki will be milking them to make cheese for herself and soap for everybody.
More ridiculousness at my house.

How do you prepare the goats?  I’ve got a Costco down the street that sells whole ones for about $150 and I stay up late at night thinking about them.

[pbj]

I get it with attract modes.  It was the best part of Pit Fighter.  Genesis Mini 2 has a very nice attract mode.

Goat is like a tougher lamb.  Stew, curry…. Roasted with rosemary and garlic.  I recently ate leg of lamb, drank scotch, and watched lamb run around.  ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- was so cash.

[Zebidee]

Kids (vs goats) are more like lamb, though a still a gamier taste (and aroma). Feed them rosemary first for extra garnish

We used to raise sheep, suckle 'em then eat 'em. That's farm life. Lamb roast was a regular Sunday thing.

Don't give them names Pets are different.

Don't eat lamb much anymore, good stuff too expensive.