Something is unique about this coin door. Can you spot it?

[RandyT]

These photos are un-retouched, so excuse the off-color, etc...

And here's a close-up shot:

Any ideas? 

RandyT

[testicle187]

Is that entire coin door a sticker?

[RichyRich]

Is it because it's on a side panel.What do I win??

[RayB]

Looks 3D-rendered to me.

[MajorLag]

The coin slots are stickers. And instead of "Push to eject" they say "Push to reject".

[CheffoJeffo]

Is it molded plastic ?

Cheers.

[Scott84]

Its fugly? There i said it. 

[nostrebor]

2 things:

1. It is a sticker.

2. The installer needs to get back on his meds.

[SirPeale]

The lock is facing an odd direction.  But I'm also guessing sticker.

[Seven7]

1.) The slots look weird.

2.)  Where are the hinges?  How's it open?

Looks cool though.  Whouldn't mind haveing that on my cab.  If i had a cab that is.  All i have for now is plans...

-Seven7-

[Knievel]

Yup, molded plastic...with stickers for the coin slots/rejects.

I've got a coin door like that and this one is just too perfect looking. I would be very interested in these if they are plastic...and low-cost.

[Scott84]

RandyT!

Tell us the answer to your question and who got it right!

[RandyT]

Heh, it is indeed entirely a sticker.

I spent about 6-hours modeling it last night and, as a number of observant folks here noted, ran out of steam on the coin slot (made the plastic too thin and improperly positioned) and the hinge (skipped it altogether.)

It was an experiment to see how realistic something like this could look for those wishing to have the look of the door on a home cabinet, without the trouble of actually paying for / installing one.  I find the sticker to be pretty convincing from only a few feet away, as have others who have looked at it.

So the question is, how many would be willing to buy a full-color, professionally printed, die-cut coin door decal at $10 each?  If there is sufficient interest, I'll have them made (after fixing a few of the graphic items mentioned above) and stock them at the store.  I can also do one-offs of special colors (same door, but in red/blue/yellow/whathaveyou.)

Vacuum formed plastic could also be made, but unless I made thousands of them, the tooling would drive the price higher than a real one and you would still need to bolt it on.

Thoughts?

RandyT

BTW, the coin mechs "reject" a coin, not "eject" them

[Knievel]

Nice Randy. Disappointed it's not plastic but it looks convincing and I would buy some.
There is/was a guy on eBay selling something similar, at $20 a shot if I remember correctly.

[toolaa]

Vacuum formed plastic could also be made, but unless I made thousands of them, the tooling would drive the price higher than a real one and you would still need to bolt it on.

Food for thought.

[quarterback]

Nice Randy. Disappointed it's not plastic but it looks convincing and I would buy some.
There is/was a guy on eBay selling something similar, at $20 a shot if I remember correctly.

I've definitely seen the full-coin-door-decals mentioned here on BYOAC.  I'll see if I can pull up the thread.


I can't find the coin-door-sticker thread, but I did find the link for the Happs fake coin doors (metal, but they don't actually do anything) for ~$30  http://www.happcontrols.com/pc/accessories/40071300.htm

And this thread that mentions some machines with stickers instead of coin doors:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=25512.msg210371#msg210371

But I think Knievel is right, there was somebody on eBay selling stickers that looked like coin doors.

[RandyT]

Food for thought.  I know a little about Vacuum Forming and have purchased molds and packing trays.  My guess is that a coin door mold from wood and epoxy would cost about $800 and a run of 5000 doors would be about $0.60 ea. in black.  However consider that the corners would never look as tight as the real thing.  Especially around the coin slots and lock.  They would have at least a 1/16" radius.

Thanks for the info.

Please forward some info on the sources you have used, if you don't mind.  I am familiar with the corner radius problem, but that could probably be handled.  From what I keep hearing, one couldn't get 5000 parts off of wood/epoxy tooling.  Maybe I should stop listening to the guy at work who tends to exaggerate too much   The software I used to model this was a real solid modeling package, so tooling could actually be built from it with some minor mods. 

Nice Randy. Disappointed it's not plastic but it looks convincing and I would buy some.
There is/was a guy on eBay selling something similar, at $20 a shot if I remember correctly.

If it really is possible to do them inexpensively, I might still look into the plastic.  Of course some items would still need to be made as small decals and then applied to the "doors". 

My view on it is if I can't sell a convincing fake one for less than $20, people should just use real ones

RandyT


*edit* 

I just did some searching on the board and found a pic of the eBay item.   I think this one looks much better (What did you expect me to say?    )

[Kremmit]

I remember the ebay one.  It looked lousy compared to yours.

[Stingray]

I wouldn't wan tone, but I expect that lots of others might. Yours certainly looks a lot more convincing than the crappy one that's on the market now.

-S

[Wade]

I think it looks much better than the other one seen before, but I wouldn't personally ever use one.  The only place this could be used is in scratch-built home machines, as any dedicated game will have a real door already.  Also, I seem to have no problem finding good used doors for nearly nothing.

Wade

[grueinthebox]

If you're going to vacuum form coin doors, I want one made of carbon fiber.  ^^

[AceTKK]

So that's a 3d model?  That's awesome work man, how did you get the vinyl texture so perfect?  Which rendering engine do you use?  The screw heads look very convincing too.  You might want to look into a job in mass media or video games with skillz like that.

-Ace-

[1UP]

Randy, a vaccuum formed door with rectangular Happ illuminated buttons for the coin slots would be awesome.  I'm sure they could even print their exact .25c insert graphic on the inner label.  I would probably need tons of them for the budget cabinets I am currently working on.

[RandyT]

So that's a 3d model?  That's awesome work man, how did you get the vinyl texture so perfect?  Which rendering engine do you use?  The screw heads look very convincing too.  You might want to look into a job in mass media or video games with skillz like that.

Thanks, it's an old version of MAX (2.5).  But no video game industry for me.  I work with a graphic guy from the industry whose credits are as long as your arm, and we have talked about it some.  It's "dog-eat-dog" and comparable to sweat shop labor.  You need to be young, dumb (in the naive sense) and full of....passion, or you quickly realize the machine you are part of is trying to eat you

Randy, a vaccuum formed door with rectangular Happ illuminated buttons for the coin slots would be awesome. I'm sure they could even print their exact .25c insert graphic on the inner label. I would probably need tons of them for the budget cabinets I am currently working on.

I'm going to try to fit that in.  We're having some heavy vac-forming work quoted at the "day-job" and I'll try to see what they can do for me.

RandyT

[Sizzler]

One that had a slot for a coin and a place to put a microswitch at the bottom would be cool as well

[ericball]

Something about the shadows doesn't look quite right, particularly the lock versus the coin slot.

I dunno about a coin door sticker.  I mean it's not unusual for a MAME cab to not have a coin door or a modified coin door so coins aren't required.

Though a sticker would be considerably lighter than a normal coin door, thus cheaper to ship.  Maybe they would be good for someone who is planning on putting on a coin door in the future.

[Stingray]

One that had a slot for a coin and a place to put a microswitch at the bottom would be cool as well

Wouldn't that just make it a plastic coin door?

-S

[Nataq]

If you are willing to sell those stickers I would order one

[Sizzler]

One that had a slot for a coin and a place to put a microswitch at the bottom would be cool as well

Wouldn't that just make it a plastic coin door?

But no coin mech, no coin return, no moving parts. 

I'm basically picturing a coin chute and a place to put a switch.  I figure if somebody's going to make inexpensive plastic doors, it shouldn't be very tough to add a slot and someplace to screw in a microswitch and voila!, you've got a universal working coin door for your home, but for much less than buying a metal one with a real coin mech.

[Kremmit]

Maybe you could just cut a slot in it if you want one- that way Randy doesn't have to make 2 versions.   

[Santoro]

I rencently saw arcade machines in (i think) the Sharper Image catalog that had photos of coin doors on them.  You had to look close to see it.  It might have been another catalog, I can't recall.

They charged full price though, as though they had real coin doors!

[digitalmonkeyman]

I LOVE the coin door sticker.  I am building my MAME machine, and would prefer that over an old coin door!

PLEASE let me know if you can send me one, or the artwork, and I'll have it printed!

Thanks

[leapinlew]

I'm in for 1...

[MikeQ]

You should make magnetic versions too.  I'd like to stick one on my refrigerator and on my car.

[lovespicyfood]

I'd buy a sticker for $10 and a plastic one for $20!

[Chris]

If it were plastic, it probably wouldn't be to hard to retrofit real illuminated reject inserts by the end user... no need for Randy to do it and increase the costs...

From a graphic standpont, here are the couple of things that jumped out at me:

- Where the reject inserts meet the bezel, it seems like there should be some sort of border to suggest the slight gap between them.

- This might be personal preference, but most coin door locks I see use a barrel lock with a more conical bezel.

Are you thinking of also doing this in an Over/Under style?  (Isn't this style usually used in cocktails?)

Great work!

--Chris

[Chris]

Oh, and there's something wrong with the shadow on the right coin slot.

Please don't take these as criticisms, though... this looks fabulous!

--Chris

[digitalmonkeyman]

The peice is near perfect!  There are a few things that don't look "exact", but it is a sticker, not an authentic coin door!
I would take one, or two, as is!
Thanks

[Chris]

One thing someone could do with this sticker is to mount two rectangular illuminated buttons from Happ where the coin slots would be with appropriate laser-printed overlays inside, and wire these buttons to your coin inputs.  They wouldn't look exact, but they would give you the appropriate feel... and I think having that pair of red lights at knee-level is just part of the arcade experience...

--Chris

[digitalmonkeyman]

Yeah, the red lights would definately add to the experience!  Amazing, you start out with these projects saying you will only do bare bones, then you get wrapped up in all kinds of cool extras!!