INVADER - Finished?!?!

[jfunk]

I was _FINALLY_ able to make some good progress on my new arcade cabinet!!  My dad graciously volunteered to help (and provide tools and a workspace) over his spring break 

We ended up building 2 Ultimate Arcade II cabinets.  One for him, one for me.  (We actually built my little brother one several months ago, too...)

And to think it all started with buying "the book" and never having heard of this forum..  Several months later, and I've got my cab well underway! 



As you can see, mostly standard fair.  The majority of the cab is 3/4" lauan..  There are some 1/2" pieces across the top/back to make it a bit lighter. 

The plexi is already cut to size and ready to go!  I've since then got my control panel all drilled/cut out, and the coin door hole cut out too.  More pics on that in a little while.

Now, all that's left to do is to paint and finish it!  Unfortunately, my dad lives several hours away, and only the base of the cab would fit in my CR-V..  Unless I wanted to leave my 2-yr-old behind    So the top portion is still sitting there waiting to be hauled here.  *sigh*

I've got the computer all set up and ready to go, as well.  More details on it, later.  All the controls are bought, and some are mounted in the control panel.  Have some SERIOUS wiring ahead of me 

Painting is going to be a pain.  Not sure, yet, how I'll pull it off.  I don't have any room besides the garage, and it gets too cold out there right now to do any serious painting.  I _REALLY_ don't want to wait until spring, though.

I'm going to name my cab 'INVADER'..  It has that "classic" sound without actually being a real game (although lots of games INCLUDE the word 'invader'..)

My controls are all green/black.  I'm thinking of painting the base of my cab green and using black t-molding and then the top black with green t-molding.  I've got a green 2 1/4" trackball on its way from Bob Roberts, too, to replace my white one 

Another BIG task still to accomplish is art design.  I have a general idea of what I'd like to see for sideart and a marquee, but I'm NOT an artist by any stretch..  Will probably be hitting the artwork forum, soon, to post my thoughts and get recommendations.

Anyways, just thought I'd finally post a project thread!  I'm SOO excited to have this under way!

Will definitely be posting more, soon.  Thanx for reading!

(And sorry for the jumbled nature of this post..  Just wanted to get something out there!  I'm so excited!  I'll try to be more coherent in the future..  Hope to add details about my computer setup and about some of tools my dad and I used to help out with the build  )

[cholin]

Are you going to make a site to document this?  I love the Ultimate Arcade II cabinets -- they look so much better than a bulky straight one.  Congratulations on your progress...lookin good.

[jfunk]

Will eventually have a website, yes..  It'll be at:

http://www.e-funk.net/arcade/

Right now, it's just housing pictures..   As soon as I get time.  Trying to get my daughter's website up and running, first, and the another website up for our next daughter who'll be born around May 3rd!! 

Here's another pic, while I'm posting.  This is the first work I did COMPLETELY on my own after I got the base of the cabinet back home.



I got the coin door off of another cab I own.  It's currently a Twin Eagle (converted from a Stern Astro Invader).  Gonna get rid of the cab, eventually, but scavenged the coin door, first 

Anyways, I dremmelled (sp?) out the coin slots to allow the MAME tokens to fit in, so they'll be accepting tokens!    Other than that, it was a pretty easy hole to cut/door to install 

Thanx for looking!

[Magnet_Eye]

i am gonna make one of these too...but mine is gonna be molded out of titanium. 

[jfunk]

That would be very..  erm..  sturdy..?   

Yet another pic..  I made a LOT of mistakes making my CP, but fortunately most of them will be hidden by artwork, plexi, mounting plate, etc, etc.. 



You may notice the lack of admin buttons.  They'll actually be on the cabinet itself under the monitor.  I've got P1/2 coin and starts, pause, and exit.  My start buttons are those great black buttons that I got from Peale!  They're awesome!  The coin buttons will be black, as well, with pause and exit in green.

And again, replacing the white TB with a green one...

All of the controls (besides the buttons from Peale) are Ultimarc.  The joys are T-Stik Pluses with black ball-tops..  2 1/4" Ultimarc trackball.   Have my I-Pac and Opti-Pac ready to go.

Eventually I'm going to have swappable panels.  I've already got the parts to make a GREAT fighter panel (2 P360s and corresponding competition pushbuttons)..  Will want a spinner panel, too, I think.  But for now, I'm going to do some quick & dirty wiring to get things up and running 

Then have to do some artwork design..  I'm struggling with CPO ideas 

Thanx for looking!

P.S.  It won't be blue..  That's just the protective cover on the plexi 

[jfunk]

Whoohoo!  Got my control panel all wired up today!  Of course, I'll have to take it apart again to do the painting and artwork, but it was great to make some more progress. 



Plus, I commited the cardinal sin of cab building...  I started playing games on my working panel.. 



You'll notice some other things in this pic.  You can see the speakers I'll be using (got in on that $20 deal recommended here on the forum) and my 21" KDS monitor..    Not the biggest/best, but it's great for me right now.  And the price was DEFINITELY right..  (With all of the hassle computer surplus outlet put me through, I actually ended up getting it totally free!)

Also, you can see the computer I put together.  I'm hoping to take a video of the startup sequence on it, soon.  It's almost perfect!  It's SO great to see it all coming together!

And finally, you can see my new green trackball from Bob Roberts.  I CAN'T RECOMMEND HIM ENOUGH!  Even with having to mail a check, I got my package faster than many places who use credit cards!!  The trackball isn't quite the color I hoped for, but that's my own fault    It's still much better than the white one I had, though.  I might eventually try a black one.  Unless anyone has any suggestions on where to get a green one to match the buttons?

Thanx for looking!

[cholin]

How big is the ball and how much did it cost...I always get lost on his site 

[armax]

I plan on doing the same thing with the admin buttons on an UA 2 as well.  Could you get some close up pics of the area that you plan on doing this in?  Under the monitor is what I planned as well but I haven't planned enough in that area yet to know how the plastic bezel and glass will fit in there.

[jfunk]

How big is the ball and how much did it cost...I always get lost on his site 

The ball is 2 1/4"..  He has lots of colors:

http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/tbcolors.jpg

Mine was $13, but he has some at $6 and some at $15..    Looks like he has some similar color availability in 3", but at slightly higher prices..

Again, you can't go wrong with him 

Thanx.

[jfunk]

I plan on doing the same thing with the admin buttons on an UA 2 as well.  Could you get some close up pics of the area that you plan on doing this in?  Under the monitor is what I planned as well but I haven't planned enough in that area yet to know how the plastic bezel and glass will fit in there.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to get that pic for you for a while.  Like I said, the top of the cab is still 4 hours away 

I have the part that'll house the buttons, though.  I'll try to get a pick of it.  If you look at my first pic, you can see the wood under the monitor plexi.  That's where we'll put the buttons.  It's a piece of 3/4" lauan..  To get the monitor plexi/bezel to fit in there nicely, we just used the table saw to cut a 1/4" section out of it.  So the plexi and bezel will sit in that cutout and be covered by a strip of aluminum to hold 'em in place.  Then the button holes will just be drilled into the wood under them.

If that doesn't make sense, I'll try to get a pic or 2 soon..

Thanx for looking!

[SirPeale]

Where are the buttons, or have you put them on yet?

[jfunk]

Where are the buttons, or have you put them on yet?

Not yet..  They're going to go right under the monitor..  They'll look great!! 

[jfunk]

I've started my work on art and design..  If you're interested, thread here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,33854.0.html

Thanx!

[jfunk]

Whoohoo!

I'm currently in the process of routing for t-molding, puttying, and sanding the bottom half of my cab.  I'm picking up the top half (meeting my dad half way) this weekend, so will be able to do the same to it and attach it, soon!!

Got my t-molding in, finally    Now  I can go color-match the paint 

My marquee is all but designed.  See my artwork thread for more.  I really like it!  Now, on to my CPO!

And finally, my dad made our marquee retainers!  Here's a pic:



Very nice!  I'll get those this weekend, too!

Thanx for looking!

[Knievel]

Great name, cool looking project. Been itching to use that funky green t-mold myself.
I always put my admin buttons on a panel under the monitor, you'll love them there...and it looks slick.
You should experiment with white/green LEDs under that trackball. I'm pretty sure you could get it to match those buttons if it was lit.

[jfunk]

Great name, cool looking project. Been itching to use that funky green t-mold myself.
I always put my admin buttons on a panel under the monitor, you'll love them there...and it looks slick.
You should experiment with white/green LEDs under that trackball. I'm pretty sure you could get it to match those buttons if it was lit.

Thanx!  I've been looking at ways to light some things up (LOVE your cab, btw) and that might be just the ticket   

Nothing as original as what you've done, but it's unique in that it's mine 

[jfunk]

Well, slow but steady progress...  And I'm just about ready to paint!!  I should be able to apply the first coat of primer tomorrow!  Here's what it looks like, currently 



Almost everything is in place.  The keyboard drawer is the only thing that won't be attached when I'm ready to paint, but it's easy to paint/attach later.

I'm trying to make some progress every day..  I'm running out of definite free time..  Our 2nd child is due any day!!

@armax: Here's a closeup of the panel under the monitor installed:



That routed edge provides a little less room than necessary for the plexi and a thin cardboard bezel..  But it'll be plenty when covered up with a strip of alumnium to keep it in place 

Thanx for looking!

[dphirschler]

You should experiment with white/green LEDs under that trackball. I'm pretty sure you could get it to match those buttons if it was lit.

That's a great idea.  But I think you should also experiment with blue LEDs.


Darryl

[Zakk]

How big is the ball and how much did it cost...I always get lost on his site

[jfunk]

Wow.  Erm..  Looks like he changed sites 

Try this one 

http://www.homearcade.org/BBBB/tbcolors.jpg

[jfunk]

You should experiment with white/green LEDs under that trackball. I'm pretty sure you could get it to match those buttons if it was lit.

That's a great idea.  But I think you should also experiment with blue LEDs.


Darryl

Why the blue?

[jfunk]

First coat of primer!!



Not sure at this point whether or not I'll add another coat of primer or not.  Going out, soon, to get my paint!!

Thanx for looking...

[dphirschler]

You should experiment with white/green LEDs under that trackball. I'm pretty sure you could get it to match those buttons if it was lit.

That's a great idea.

[jfunk]

I hadn't thought about that..  Good call.  I'll have to give it a try 

Thanx.

[jfunk]

Almost 6 months later!!  FINALLY MORE PROGRESS!!

We are/were trying to sell our house.  I had packed everything up because we didn't want things to appear cluttered.  Was planning on starting up again after we moved in (hopefully getting a 3-car garage).  UNFORTUNATELY, the housing market in Indy is really horrible right now.  So, we're pulling our house off the market for the holidays.  Going to put it back up during the spring market and hopefully sell faster..  So, my plan is to get the cabinet done before that! 



As a first step, I've applied the 1st coat of black and green to the cabinet.  I sanded down my primer and applied the 1st coat.  It seems to have gone on well..  Not sure if I'm just going to apply a second coat or if I'm going to sand again, first.  I'll see how it dries.



There's some HARSH sunlight in the picture..  And you can see it's only a first coat because of the blotchiness of it.

Hopefully will either sand again or put a second coat on tomorrow.

So excited to be starting up again!

Thanx for looking.

[dmsuchy]

Lookin great!

[tivogre]

Your "admin panel" is going to look pretty close to mine:



If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend putting a volume knob on there.  I use it ALL the time!

[jfunk]

Your "admin panel" is going to look pretty close to mine: (img)

If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend putting a volume knob on there.  I use it ALL the time!

My speakers have a wired remote that I'm thinking I'll just leave in my keyboard drawer for now.  I don't feel like trying to hack it, and it doesn't have a really friendly knob on it for something like you've done 

Thanx for the comments/compliments!  One more coat of black was applied (one more should do it)..  And hope to get another coat of green on today.  My goal is to have the cab itself painted and t-molding/corner protectors installed by this weekend so I can take it into the  house.

I've decided against sanding between paintings.  I'm impatient, but I'm also digging the more textured look.  Seems to work well for it 

After the cab is finished, I'll spend the time working on the control panel.  It's got its first coat of black on, but I may need to do some sanding/touch-up now that I look at it.

More, soon, I hope!

[jfunk]

I got my last coat of paint on and my t-molding installed over the weekend!  Whoohoo!

(Just a warning, the resizing done by the forum software makes the straight lines of my t-molding look all jaggy and uneven..  They're not..  Check out http://www.e-funk.net/arcade/ for the full size pics    )



It was actually a lot simpler than I had thought.  If it weren't for the paint in the grooves and some hack-job slot-cutting, it would've been EASY.    As it was, had a lot of scraping and hot-gluing to do.  But the great part is, you can't tell that now that the evidence is all covered up! 



I actually found the sharp internal angles the hardest to do.  Don't know why.  One of them turned out pretty bad, but it's not noticeable without close inspection.  And it's obviously not perfect.  Some places aren't EXACTLY centered..  But again, most people won't notice..



I wish my camera didn't wash out the colors so bad..  Probably shouldn't have used the flash.  Oh, well..

Also installed corner protectors on the front corners.  I _HAVE_ them for the back corners, but didn't realize they'd be too big    So I'm hoping to have some smaller ones made that will mimic at least the look of the front ones.  We'll see.

Hopefully, now, I can move the cab into the basement for the winter and be able to continue working on it when it's cold..

I've got the coin door all taken apart and ready to be sanded/painted.  Shouldn't take too much sanding, but there're some rough spots that need it.  Hopefully that'll be done soon.  Then, need to desolder the switches on the mechs..  They're a mess..  But they'll be fine for the limited token use they'll see 

On my list of semi-immediate things to work on:

- Touch up paint on cab (rubber mallet left some scuff marks...)
- Coin door sanding/painting
- Control panel painting
- Control panel and keyboard drawer final assemblies
- Install speakers and marquee light

That should last me a while 

Thanx for looking!

[jfunk]

Not much done today..   Just had some time over lunch so finally figured out how I want to install the speakers..  And installed them 



Just some small bungee cords, some 'cup hangers', and voila!  Holds them surprisingly snug..  And they're easy to remove/install.

The cabinet's not going to take much abuse, so I'm not terribly worried about them coming loose.  Besides, as I said, they're very snug with this setup.



And they fit the holes I drilled surprisingly well    I hadn't realized they'd work so well.  I'm really excited to keep going!

Now to install the speaker grills, and I'm one step closer!

I've also got my flourescent light..  That gets installed next.

Progress is slow but steady 

Thanx!

[jfunk]

No pics, but a small update:

Got the following done:

• Installed fluorescent light
• Installed speaker grills
• Took apart, sanded, and began spray-painting coin door
• Assembled keyboard tray

Still on my semi-immediate todo list:

• Touch up paint on cab
• Sand/Prime/Paint keyboard tray
• Finish painting/assemble coin door
• Finish painting/assemble control panel
• Move cab to basement...

Thanx for looking!

[ltk202]

Very nice!  Looks like you're making great progress.

[ltk202]

Looking good!

[jfunk]

Well, got quite a bit more done this weekend!  Seems like there's a thousand and one little things left to do, though...

My parents were up visiting, so I bummed tons of help from my dad    We:

- Moved the cab to my basement - WHOOHOO!
- Assembled the control panel box
- Installed the coin door
- Figured out how to install the monitor
- Added the lock to the keyboard tray
- Readied most of the other pieces for assembly
- Figured out how to mount the monitor plexi/bezel
- Misc other odds and ends

Here're a couple of pics of it mostly assembled:





This is before I fully assembled the coin door.  You can see the admin button panel under the monitor.  And see how nicely the monitor is going to fit in there.

I was hoping to get the marquee installed, but it's going on 3 weeks, now, since I placed my order with Emdkay.net, and still hasn't been shipped..  Getting frustrated..  Hope it'll come soon..

More pics in just a bit 

Thanx!

[RayB]

Advice: Uncase your speakers and bolt them to the wood. This will enhance your low-end sounds.

[jfunk]

A couple more pictures..  First, my fully installed coin door.  Made my own plexiglass inserts and desoldered the mess on the switches.  Just have to wire it into my ipac, and I can accept my cool new tokens!



And, since my corner protectors wouldn't fit the back corner of the cabinet, my dad made me some new ones (shown here unpainted)...



AWESOME!  They're 2.5" tall (as opposed to the ones I purchased which were 5" tall)..  I've got them painted and installed, and they're perfect!!



Here you can see that I still need to paint the screw heads, but overall, I couldn't be happier with them.  A small touch, but one I really wanted..



RayB, what does decasing the speakers gain me?  I'm not much into the sound stuff, yet, unfortunately..  And, haven't listed to the speakers installed as they are now..  I just figured anything was better than the mono-speakers that most of the classics came with originally    Will the average player (myself) hear much difference one way or another?  I was thinking of placing the speakers on some black foam weatherstripping to dampen any speaker-on-wood vibrations that may occur...

Thanx!

[RayB]

RayB, what does decasing the speakers gain me?

[jfunk]

Hrm..  I probably won't worry about it for now, then.. Since I'll have a subwoofer as well..  But I'll add it to my list of 'someday when I have time' fixes..  Unfortunately, that list is getting longer...



Thanx!

[Bones]

I am really digging that green & the black looks quite striking against it.

[c64rulez]

fantastic color scheme