Any Ideas For A "Token Taker" Marquee?

[RoboG2]

Im building an all black cabinet with blue t-molding.

[DrewKaree]

After reading the name, I pictured a token with little arms and legs and whathaveyou, ala the M&M guys, with a little lone ranger/bandit type mask on him, standing there with an evil grin on his face

Mebbe make a bank vault looking thing in the background, with the door wide open, a few tokens scattered about, giving you the idea that the vault USED to be full of tokens, but now.....not so much.

That's all I got.

[Oddfeld]

I'm thinking Charon, the ferryman on the river Styx.

You could have an outstretched skeletal hand holding a coin, maybe incorporate the silhouette of a cowled figure with a punt, 'Token Taker' in creepy writing etc.

[RoboG2]

Thanks a lot.  You guys are brilliant.

[missioncontrol]

After reading the name, I pictured a token with little arms and legs and whathaveyou, ala the M&M guys, with a little lone ranger/bandit type mask on him, standing there with an evil grin on his face

Mebbe make a bank vault looking thing in the background, with the door wide open, a few tokens scattered about, giving you the idea that the vault USED to be full of tokens, but now.....not so much.

That's all I got.

I like that idea.........

[Crowquill]

Um...why would the token have a bandit mask on? Is he kidnapping the other tokens? Maybe if they were being stolen by Bagman or something...

It's kind of like having a happy pig advertising Barbecue. Is he is he out to save his own hide by being a pawn of the man, or does he really not know what's coming?

Just an observation made while under the influence of sleep deprivation.

Off and on I've been working on some sort-of generic name marquees (American Arcade, Game Zone, etc) that will someday be uploaded for the masses. One of the ones I'm slowly working on is called Quarter Muncher. This reminded me of it. It has Pacman themed art though.

Being that I have free time for once, I put this together. The coin slot text is skewed badly, but it definitely has an 80's vibe. More specifically, I think it might even have a Knight Rider vibe to it. Any comments?

[DrewKaree]

Um...why would the token have a bandit mask on? Is he kidnapping the other tokens? Maybe if they were being stolen by Bagman or something...

ever try brainstorming?    If you wanna make an omelette, son, you're gonna have to break a few eggs.

[missioncontrol]

Crowquill that looks great...you planning on uploading that to the Arcade Art Library??

[RoboG2]

That is really nice.  You mind if I modify it a bit and use it personally?

[Crowquill]

Of couse you can use it, RoboG2. I made it for your post. Why don't you let me get the coin slot text fixed up a bit first, though. One more day probably won't make that big of a difference. You can modify it if you want, but if you hold on I can get the vector version posted instead of working with a low-res JPEG. Anything else anyone would like to see changed/adjusted? It'd probably be easier for me to work with the original file. What does anyone think about the Pacman coin?

[RoboG2]

Well, my cab is black w/ blue t-molding; cound you change it a little to match those colors a little better?  Thanks.

[Crowquill]

How about these.

Sadly, I have to go to work now, but post suggestions and I'll work on it again in the morning.

[RoboG2]

Yeah.  I like the blue one a lot.  When you're done, if its okay with you, I'm probably going to vectorize it and make it the size of my marquee.  Once again thanks for your efforts.  I really apreciate it.

[Crowquill]

I think it's cool that someone would like to use my artwork on their cab. Now if I could just make up my mind on MY marquee.

It's already vector artwork. It was created in Illustrator. What size does it need to be? I designed it 26 x 8 to be safe. I'll get the skewed type fixed within the hour.  What file format does everyone prefer? Would an Illustrator-editable PDF work?

--andrew--

[RoboG2]

If possible, I need it to be 28" x 8" or 9" ( I am not exactly sure because the plans I'm using do not specify).  I am using the arcade paradise 3 plans, which can be found on arcadeparadise.org.  Either way, it needs to have some space for the marquee holders (so they don't block anything).  Once again thanks a whole lot.

[Crowquill]

OK. I spent WAY too much time tweaking the coin slot. It looks good and a far sight better than the original version. The "Free Distort" in Illustrator is very useful, but can be very tricky. I'm annoyed that the artwork is still really pieced together, but it looks fine when I printed a proof.

I was making it a point not to go overboard with the gradients, but I really liked the coin slot brighter in the center. It's a pretty good effect and makes it appear lit.

I set up the marquee to be 12x4 (approximately half the size of my marquee), but also then adjusted it to be 14x4.5 (just print it at 200%). The preview below is the smaller size. The one sized for your cab can be found at:

http://home.fuse.net/abrenner/TokenTakerMarquee28x9.pdf

I'm limited on bandwidth, so I'm not sure how long I'll leave it up. It's only like 250K anyway. Sometime in the near future maybe I can upload it to the library.

Is the wording on the coin slot OK? I'm thinking this is what mine reads. It can be changed to match yours if need be.

The only other thing I'm wondering after adding the gradient to the coin slot was if there should be some type of shading on the token. I'm afraid too many gradients will ruin the 80's feel that it still has a bit of.

Here's the before and after:

[RoboG2]

I definetely like the marquee a lot.   When I am done with my cab (prob a long time from now due to money) I will post it.  Once again thank you so much. 

[RoboG2]

If you want, I'll help you with your marquee.  What's the name of your cab?  What style?  Colors?

[missioncontrol]

If you want, I'll help you with your marquee.

[Crowquill]

Okay. Try this one. It's the correct proportions. I changed the font for three reasons.

1. Your marquee should look different and unique
2. The longer skinnier marquee didn't fit two lines very well.
3. It wasn't really a font. I drew all the letters by hand. Didn't want to re-do that.

I tried to make it a bit obnoxious and cheesy for authenticity's sake. My biggest problem with some of the marquees I see is that they look like a magazine ad instead of the bright glowing billboard that it's supposed to be. Even some real marquees since the early-90's have this problem. The "K" is for the same reason. Also, at a quick glance "school" was hard to read.

Right now as I'm planning my cab I'm trying to balance something that's colorful, but also not too obnoxious sitting in my house. My wife didn't appreciate the joke when I suggested I paint my cabinet like a redemption game we saw that was red with chrome t-molding.  It can be a very delicate balance.

I adjusted the background red a bit from the first Token Taker version. It blended in too much with the coin slot. It could be adjusted easily to match other artwork you have. Everything is subject to change.

[Crowquill]

I've been toying with the design of my cab for 2 years now, and it's all just now coming together. Currently the cabinet is going to be painted medium-to-dark blue  with black t-molding.

Since a lot of control panel overlays were repeat patterns of the company's logo, I'm putting together an overlay with a LOT of company logos. I'm using almost all that are available already as vector art and adding about 8 more. It's going to be a medium gray with darker gray logos. I might use this for the bezel as well if I decide to make one. I'm probably just going to leave it black.

The name keeps changing. Currently it's called MAME-X as it's MAME running under Mac OS X. There aren't many Mac-based cabinets, but I have the old G3 sitting around and it's actually been kind of interesting figuring out what will work with OS X. Besides, adding the X to the title has been pretty common in past arcade games.  Just yesterday I was reading about the XBOX port that's now named this though.

As it stands I just keep toying with the marquee. This is it currently. Still a bit generic, but would work. Any ideas? Feel free to suggest something COMPLETELY different. DrewKaree was right, brainstorming is good.

[missioncontrol]

The "old school" design looks great and should go well with my cab I thank you for your time spent working on it...can you send the full size file to me at:

mission.control@gmail.com

thanks again



EDIT: crossed out e-mail address (still good)

[Crowquill]

Done. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

When I get back from my christmas travelling I'll see about uploading all of this so everyone has access to clean PDFs if they want them.

[missioncontrol]

got the file....thanks again.......can't wait to get it printed