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The Golden Ticket - Wonka cab (updated pics 04/22/07)

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Thurman:
As soon as I moved into my house 2 years ago, I knew that I would have some sort of arcade cabinet in it at some point.  When you walk through the front door, off to the right is an unused closet area which happens to be just about the perfect size for one.  Well about 6 months ago a friend showed  me his Mame emulator on his laptop and then the light went off..... I was going to build some sort of arcade cabinet!

After a few days of browsing around at cabinet ideas and designs, I stumbled across the BYOAC forums, went out and bought the book, and there hasn't been a boring day since.  My cabinet is still a work in progress (and from what I've read, will ALWAYS be in progress, haha), but I've finally got enough done to show and tell.  So here we go.....

Thurman:
The first thing I did was brainstorm about possible themes for the cab.  I sat down and thought about the stuff that I loved as a kid and the stuff that I still love now.  Then I remembered Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and I knew that was the perfect theme for my cab.... it's colorful, magical, and it's something that would take everyone back in time a little bit.  Perfect!

So I took a few days doing some mockups and color schemes.  The two images that I just could not get out of my head were Gene Wilder's bemused expressions throughout the movie to go along with his velvet purple jacket.  So I had a pretty good idea how my marquee and color scheme would turn out.  And I decided to name the cab "The Golden Ticket".......

Thurman:
Well since I don't really own many power tools, I knew that building a cab from scratch was not really going to be an option at this point. So I started shopping around at all of the local arcades and checking the classifieds for an empty or non-working cabinet. My budget was $50 max for the cabinet. After a few weeks, nothing worthwhile had turned up. But I was in luck.... there was going to be a Super Auction in a few weeks only an hour away. So I had my plan.

This was my first auction and wow did I have a good time. Just checking out all of the games and watching all of the action was worth it. But after an hour or so, I noticed that none of the games were being sold in my price range. So I wandered out back to relax for a minute when I saw it..... a row of broken down cabinets!! Jackpot! I went back and waited, and waited, and finally the auction moved out back ("had to get those out back before it got dark", haha).? After some intense action, I brought home a busted up Ray Storm for $1  ;D

The frame was in pretty good shape, the glass and bezel looked good, the marquee light worked, and you can see that the front panel had been broken into and was in bad shape. But I had my cab!

Thurman:
A few bonus pics so you can see the front panel and the "quality" work that had been done under the control panel.   ;)

Thurman:
Once I started removing the paint, I realized that I was working with a converted TMNT cab.  Once again.... perfect!  I'm a little taller so I have problems when the marquee hangs right over the control panel.  I like it to be recessed a little and the monitor angled back pretty far.

I could see a little burn-in on the 25" monitor that came with the cab, but I was hopeful that I could get it working and see how it looked.  No matter what I tried, I could only get a flatline (pic below).  Also, I'm no electrician and I didn't want to mess around with the monitor too much.  So I just removed it and I'll have to come up with a plan later.

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