My new cabinet

[Vesper]

I posted these pics in the Monitor thread, but thought I should seperate this out.  Here's pics of my recently completed cabinet.  Working on a full blown site when I get a chance, but thought I'd share:

http://home.wi.rr.com/dg64738/mame1.jpg
http://home.wi.rr.com/dg64738/mame2.jpg
http://home.wi.rr.com/dg64738/mame3.jpg
http://home.wi.rr.com/dg64738/mame4.jpg
http://home.wi.rr.com/dg64738/mame5.jpg
http://home.wi.rr.com/dg64738/mame6.jpg

Features:  Dual sticks on both sides.  Allows playing left or right handed and 2 player Smash TV/Total Carnage.  All joysticks are mounted on Oscar's mounting plates for use of restrictor plates on any stick (you can see a 4 way currently on stick #3).  Oscar PRO spinner, translucent red 3" happ trackball.  System buttons (pause/reset/tab/quit) are all under the control box.  You can see these on the internal wiring shots.  Monitor is a WG D9200 27".  

Comments/questions are welcome.    I'm very happy with how this turned out.

[Vesper]

Forgot to mention:

The artwork is Rob Bischoff's.  He changed the color scheme to red for me (his was blue).  Thanks Rob!

[SNAAAKE]

NIIICE !

I am aiming similer as I am selling my cab but did you built this yourself.I am not quite sure how I can make it look this cool.OR did you convert from simpsons or nba jam cabs?

just wanted to know .

[smashtvguy]

Very nice... Are you close to Sheboygan by chance?  I've got one I want to 'spruce' up.. & yours looks real nice!!  
webpages.charter.net/cablehaven

[madk]

Looks sweet...makes me wish I had access to a router so I can add my t-molding.

[Vesper]

The cabinet is converted from a TMNT.  I gutted it (monitor too) and used a WG 27" 9200 for a replacement.  This required some engineering to make it fit since the game originally had a 25".  I used a new piece of plywood for the control panel and just copied the dimensions of the original.  (The original CP was in pretty bad shape).

Smashtvguy:  I'm in Milwaukee.

[J_K_M_A_N]

Very nice! I really like the dual, dual sticks. The wife likes to play backwards. She usually uses the 4 way in the middle. Connected to player 1 stick. Makes me want to re-do my cab. Good job.

J_K_M_A_N

[Tommy Boy]

Very nice!!!  I like the red motif.  It seems most folks go with cool colors...nice change.

Btw, how do you like the 9200?  Are you running it with AdvanceMame or regular Mame?  Any specail tweaking required to get it to look good?

[Dave_K.]

Vesper, can you tell us how you squeezed in the 27" monitor into that cab?  Also is that the original monitor bezel?

[Vesper]

The 9200 is a great monitor.  My only complaint is that the first one arrived DOA (looked like the aperature grill got knocked loose during shipping) so I had to go through the hassle of returning a huge monitor.  

Picture looks great for arcade games.  It's not extremely sharp (in fact, smaller Windows fonts are a bit difficult to read) and does a nice job "blending" like a real arcade monitor does.  The end result is that I get a near-perfect arcade picture that I can run Windows on.  
I am running regular mame with no special options other than hardware stretch and the refresh options.  Vector games look about as good as possible for a raster monitor, I think.

Regarding mounting:  The original 25" monitor had the mounting flanges on the sides.  The 9200 has them on the top and bottom.  To make it fit I had to cut a slot in the monitor-platform for the bottom flange to fit in.  Along the top I had to make a brace (used a 1" dowel) for the top flange to lean against.  A friend of mine did his cabinet (also from a TMNT) the same way earlier this year so he's the one who came up with this plan.    

The bezel was not included with the monitor and is a standard 27" monitor bezel from Happ.

[Howard_Casto]

Vespar pleease don't tell me the tmnt cab was in good shape otherwise.  It has very rare sideart that isn't in reproduction.    However the cpo is still available in nos so you could have restored the cab to it's original tmnt glory.  

[Vesper]

Vespar pleease don't tell me the tmnt cab was in good shape otherwise.  It has very rare sideart that isn't in reproduction.    However the cpo is still available in nos so you could have restored the cab to it's original tmnt glory.  

No worries.  It was actually a TMNT converted to Turtles in Time.  They never bothered to remove the TMNT art and the Turtles In Time art was covering it up.  In any case, the side art wasn't in very good shape (very scratched, pieces missing).  The cabinet had a few chunks missing on cornrers, too.  As I mentioned earlier the control panel was horrendous.   I do still have the Turtles in Time marquee laying around though.  The rest of the parts I gave away.  

- Mike

[Howard_Casto]

ok i don't have to throw misc cabinet parts at you then.  




Actually turtles in time is fairly rare too,  (and definately more purdy)  but the conversion kit sideart was of a worser quality.  Probably why it didn't hold up.  

[mikenotbob]

Vesper,

What kind of material did you use for the control panel artwork?  It looks amazing, and durable.  It doesn't seem to have anything on top of it, like plexi or lexan, am I correct?


-Mike

[Vesper]

What kind of material did you use for the control panel artwork?  It looks amazing, and durable.  It doesn't seem to have anything on top of it, like plexi or lexan, am I correct?

Correct, there is nothing on top of it.  Both the marquee and CPO were reverse-printed on polycarbonate plastic at a sign shop.  The CPO used a textured plastic and the marquee was flat.  The plastic is fairly rigid and durable, and since the printing is on the back, is protected.  They then put some heavy duty 3M adhesive on the back of the CPO for mounting.  The plastic is normally meant for backlit signs (like the marquee) so it is a little translucent.  Because of this, I painted the CP white before putting it down to bring out the color a little better.
The other nice thing about this method is that because it's reverse printed the plastic helps diffuse the print a little bit.  This effectively hides any pixelation you would normally see (while sign shop designjet printers look very good, they aren't perfect).  

Overall, it turned out great.  Looks great, has a nice light textured feel to it and is fairly durable.  It wouldn't take a gouge with a knife or anything, but it'll stand up well to everyday use.  The downside of all of this is that it was expensive.  $180 for the two pieces.  ($55 for the marquee, $125 for the CPO).  

- Mike

[mikenotbob]

Mike, thanks for the info.  I'm definitely going to entertain this idea.  I can't get over how authentic it looks.  It's missing a few guages and cigarette burns, but that could be easily taken care of.  

You are right, though, the price is kind of steep.  At half the price I surely would have jumped at it without a thought... now I have to come up with some serious artwork to justify it.