Aladdin's Castle - 6 Month Report

[Skadar]

About a year ago I decided to build a MAME cabinet.  I bought Saint's book and read pretty much the whole thing.  Then I decided that building a cabinet was probably a waste of time.  But about 2 weeks ago I got the urge again.  I re-bought Saint's book (after selling the first copy on eBay), plus another guide, on eBay.  I've been browsing many of the cabinet sites out there as well.  This time I'm committed.  The big difference between now and then is that this time I have a prime location in which to spend some time building my cabinet.

We've acquired a house to renovate, and this house has a HUGE basement with a really nice work bench.  Perfect place to build my MAME cabinet.  I'll be spending a lot of time at the house as we renovate it.  After a few hours of renovation, I'll head downstairs for an hour or two of cabinet-building.

I've been inspired to theme my cabinet after one of the arcades that remember most fondly from my youth, Aladdin's Castle at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, MA.  The other arcade that I spent a lot of time at was called Fun Time at the North Shore Shopping Center in Peobody, MA.  Aladdin's Castle had more of a theme to it and the name is much more interesting than "Fun Time".

So here's how committed I am this time around.  I'm eBaying stuff like crazy in order to offset the cost of this thing.  I estimate that it will cost upwards of $1500 once it is complete.  Today I made my first purchases towards the cabinet.  They are detailed below.

Sound: Speakers $32 - Creative Labs Inspire T3000 - Buy.com

The recommended (by Saint) Klipsch speakers are just too expensive.  I already own a set of Inspire speakers for my current PC and they are fantastic.  How can you go wrong with a quality subwoofer and satellite speakers for $32!

Coin Door: $61 + $20 s&h - Happ Controls Coin Door and Cashbox (40-0250-00)

What's an arcade game without a coin door?  The coin door is new in the box and comes complete with dual coin validator mechanisms and a complete cashbox.  These coin doors are $124 brand new on the Happ Controls website.

Power Strip: $40 - Smart Strip Power Strip (Model #LCG3)

You're like... "40 bucks for a power strip?  Wah?"  Well this is a special power strip.  This baby gives me the ability to power on my cabinet with a single button.  When I turn on the computer in the cabinet, the strip sense this and then provides power to the other outlets on the strip.  What this means is that everything else (monitor, lights, etc.) will turn on automatically when the PC is turned on.

The next big purchases are:

Computer: $200 - $350 from eBay or Newegg or something.  Most likely an Athlon 2400.

Monitor: $90 - $500 from eBay or Happ Controls.  I can either go with a 21 inch computer monitor ($90 - $200) or a 27 inch arcade monitor for $500.  I think I'll be going with the 21 inch PC monitor.

Control Panel: $500 from SlikStik.com - I really want a SlikStik Classic.  I could make my own control panel but apparently it would only save me about $50-75 and would entail a ton of work.

[Skadar]

Obscure, yet important pieces of information that I've discovered so far.

1) How much does 3/4" MDF weigh compared to 3/4" maple/birch plywood?

The plywood is about 72 pounds per sheet (48" x 96") and the MDF is 96 pounds per sheet (49" x 97").  So MDF is about 32% heavier.  Assuming that you actually use a full 2 sheets of wood out of the 3 that you purchase, you will be shaving at least 50 pounds off the weight of your finished cabinet if you use plywood.

2) What's the deal with regard to monitors?  Should I use a PC monitor, a TV, or a real arcade monitor?

Most people, when shown a screenshot from a 27" televsion ($150) and a 27" arcade monitor ($550) can't tell which is which.  PC monitors will absolutely display a sharper, high-quality image, but the average monitor comes in a maximum size of 21".  I suppose you CAN buy larger PC monitors somewhere, but they will probably cost more than an arcade monitor.

For most people, the slight increase in quality of an arcade monitor over a TV does NOT justify the huge increase in cost.  Obviously, this point is always up for debate.

[Skadar]

Some of my inspiration for creating a MAME cabinet has already been posted in another thread.  Pictures like this are becoming increasingly rare.

[Skadar]

I actually started building my MAME cabinet about 2 weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting about it now.  I really wanted to have a theme for the cabinet before I went off posting about it, but I just can't seem to settle on anything in particular.

I started out thinking about a JetFighter theme with faux aluminum sides and retro-aircraft details, but then I started to think, "what's the point?"  I'm pretty much the only person who's going to be using this thing.  I always get carried away with stuff like this and then I realize that it was pretty much a wasted effort.  Like when I decided to customize my PC before it was mainstream to do so.  I actually used a Dremel tool to cut a window in my steel computer case.  I installed an acrylic window with neon lighting.  What the HECK for???  Nobody sees the computer at all.  In fact, that particular computer is now sitting in a server room where nobody is looking at it.  And yes, the neon lights are glowing as I type this.

Even so, something is still drawing me to theme this cabinet.  Heck, it will require a marquee at the bare minimum so I'd better come up with something!  So I think I've settled on the Aladdin's Castle theme that I mentioned above.  It would be sort of a dark purple, red, black, Arabian Knights sort of feel.  The only problem with this is that I would most likely need to come up with my own original artwork.  Yikes.

[paigeoliver]

You know they used to make "Alladin's Castle" cabinets. Perhaps you should try to find one and Mame that. I see them every once in a while. They have Alladin's Castle sideart.

[Skadar]

So I decided to build the cabinet that is presented in the Project Arcade book by John St. Clair.  This design is known as a modified Lusid cabinet.  The design calls for the use of a type of wood-product called MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard?).  Well I hate that stuff so I decided to spend a little more and use high quality birch plywood.

MDF is basically pressed paper and it acts like it.  It soaks up water like a sponge (and swells appropriately), it crumbles if you squeeze it the wrong way.  I looked at it in Home Depot.  I gave it the Skadar-test.  Basically I manhandled the corner of a sheet of it and it ripped right up and crumbled.  Bah!  Forget that stuff.

I opted for 3/4" birch plywood.  Granted, plywood is not "real" wood either, but this stuff is pretty frickin' close!  It is twice as expensive as MDF.  The birch plywood is $45 for a 4" x 8" sheet.  You need 3 sheets for a cabinet.

First trick.  Getting the wood home.  I have a Hyundai Santa Fe and the cargo interior is exactly 4 feet wide.  I had the guy at home depot make a precision cut (they aren't supposed to do precision cuts) on each piece so I could fit them in my vehicle.  His cuts were slightly off, but it didn't make a difference in the end.

This is pretty much what it looked like as I was driving home...

[Skadar]

You know they used to make "Alladin's Castle" cabinets. Perhaps you should try to find one and Mame that. I see them every once in a while. They have Alladin's Castle sideart.

Woah!  I had no idea!  But alas, it is too late... the cabinet is almost completely built out.  I had fun building it though! 

[Skadar]

8/29/2005

Here are some early construction pics.  I made a few, slight modifications to the Project Arcade plans as I went along.

Transferring the plans to the wood and making the rounded marquee overhang:

I found that a 1 gallon paint can is the perfect "stencil" for drawing in the necessary curve.

Using the first cabinet side to create the second side:

This is just after I finished the cutting and I have started to sand the edges to make the side identical.

Close-up of the rounded marquee overhang:


Making the 45 degree cuts in the angled back piece:

Notice the ancient circular saw that performed fantastically for an old-timer.

[Skadar]

8/31/2005

Continuing construction pics.  Day 2.

Here is the finished Project Arcade kit.


Laying out all of the base pieces with the casters... for fitting purposes:

The pieces of the base need to be positioned according to the casters that you purchase, not strictly by the book.

Testing the fit of brake casters:

I originally wanted to use brake casters so that I could set the brakes after positioning the cabinet.  The brake arm forced me to move the pieces of the base off of their plan locations.  Don't make the mistake of NOT checking your full caster swivel clearance before putting your base together!


I ended up returning the brake casters to Home Depot and just got regular swivel casters instead.  I realized that the brake casters could never actually be set because they are pretty far under the lip of the actual cabinet.  Setting them would have been too difficult.

[Skadar]

9/1/2005

Constructing the base.


Notice recessed machine screws for caster installation.  In my opinion this is better than the exposed bolts as depicted in the Project Arcade book.  This gives you full use of your entire cabinet floor space.


The completed base!  Yes, I rode around on it for a little bit.

[Skadar]

9/3/2005 - Part 1

This was a big construction day.  I installed the cabinet sides and bottom back, routed for t-molding, and cut my speaker holes.


Routing the t-molding groove.  Great fun.  I had never used a router before, but I found it to be no problem.  The groove was cut smooth as butter.  Yes, there was a ton of sawdust.


Installing the cabinet sides.  I do not have a helper for this project, but I didn't have too much trouble attaching the cabinet sides.


I added a few extra screws here and there.


Testing to make sure that the sides are being attached in exact parallel.


Check out that bubble.  Boom!


Attaching the bottom back piece.  I recommend using larger strips than the 8-inch strips specified by the book.  I wish I had used 12-inch strips to secure this piece.


Testing that the cabinet sides are level.


Perfect!

[Skadar]

9/3/2005 - Part 2

Cutting the speaker holes.


I decided to use the Creative Inspire T3000 2.1 speakers ($32) instead of those recommended in the book.


The grill lifts right off of the speakers.  I'm going to see if I can use these as my finished cabinet speaker grills.


I made an egg-shaped template in order to accommodate the bits of the speakers that stick out from the body.  If all goes well, the speaker should be able to be mounted perfectly flat against the wood.


This is what I mean.


Transferring to wood.


Cutting the jigsaw pilot hole.  Please DON'T use a hole saw for this.  I don't know what I was thinking.  It was totally unnecessary and took way longer than it should have.


It went well!  The speaker mounts perfectly flush...


...and flat.

[Skadar]

9/7/2005

Computer arrives from Newegg.com.  Damn I love Newegg.  I have ordered components for 4 computers from them over the years and they never disappoint.  Amazing company.  One of the gems of the Internet.

Here are my computer specs:

SAPPHIRE ATLANTIS RADEON 9600 Radeon 9600 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail Item #: N82E16814102320    $76.00

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model AXDA2800BOX - Retail Item #: N82E16819103377    $98.00

gigaram 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model GR9053-512MB/400/SA - Retail Item #: N82E16820221005    $44.25

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L080P0 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM Item #: N82E16822144233    $59.25

LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SOHD-16P9SBLK - Retail Item #: N82E16827131410    $19.99

Foxconn TLM454R3M6-C350 AMD Socket A(462) AMD Athlon

[Skadar]

9/13/2005

Another big construction day!  Further cabinet assembly, speaker panel refinement and installation, monitor panel installation, television monitor fitting!


Continuing with cabinet assembly.  These clamps are the best friggin' invention.


I decided to miter the front of the speaker panel in order to give the marquee a perfectly flat surface for mounting.  This step isn't even mentioned in the book.


The result.


I am using a 27" JVC television for a monitor.  Televisions are meant to be placed on a flat surface.  The tube is 90 degrees from the surface on which they are placed.  Therefore, in order to angle my cabinet monitor, I had to angle the installation of my monitor shelf.  The Project Arcade book leaves this completely up to the builder.

I decided to angle my television fairly close to the angle of the cabinet sides.  To be precise, I went with a 14 degree incline.  Before showing up at the work area, I used Paint Shop Pro to draw up plans of exactly where the monitor shelf should be installed.  That is the picture above.  The television in the picture was drawn to scale (I took measurements of the actual TV) in order to make sure that my TV would definitely clear the speaker panel.


Beginning the critical monitor shelf mounting.


Test fitting of the television.  I couldn't have been more pleased!


TAKE NOTE!  I had completely forgotten about the speaker panel mounting strips when I was thinking about where exactly to mount the monitor shelf.  I didn't realize that they would come into play.  Well as it turns out, they contact the television in exactly the right spot and act as a natural bracket to hold the television from sliding backwards.  Perfect!


Look how much space exists between the television and the cabinet sides.  Maybe enough for a piece of paper to slide through. 

[Skadar]

9/14/2005

Preparing the front door and cutting for the coin door.


Cutting the coin door hole.


The completed cut.


Coin door test fitting.  At first it didn't fit.  I had to keep going back with the sander in order to finally get it to squeeze into the hole.


And all of the good bits hanging out underneath.

[ginno]

Very very neat, perfect cuts and sizes, im a bit disapointed you have got so far and not a ounce of wood filler in sight...

Nice job.

Cheers.

[dmsuchy]

Lookin fantastic!

[Skadar]

9/21/2005

Priming and painting.


I'm not very patient when it comes to painting.  But fortunately my choice of high quality plywood provides me with a very nice, smooth surface to accept the paint.  Even so, I applied 1 coat of primer (not pictured) over the entire cabinet.

Then I sanded the sides and door front.  I then applied 2 coats of near-black interior latex enamel.  I sanded after the primer and after both coats of black.  I did NOT sand the inside of the cabinet, because who really cares what it looks like?   


Sanding after the first coat of black.  It was painful to bring the sander to the cabinet side as the coat of paint was very smooth and nice looking.  The circles in the lower part of the picture are particles in the air that are reflecting the flash.


Finishing painting black.  Notice that the interior of the speaker compartment looks messy... well who's going to see it anyway?  Heh.

[Skadar]

9/25/2005

Painting final colors.

I am envisioning a cabinet with a black, purple, reddish theme to go with my memories of Aladdin's Castle.  I'm pretty sure that the logo was in red and that the place was very dark with red and/or purple neon.  I was debating really whether or not to paint the cabinet sides purple or not.  I woke up today and decided to go get a quart of purple paint and give it a shot.

So I bought my purple paint and headed to the workshop.  Once I got there and cracked the can open I saw that the purple I had chosen was very intense.  It just didn't feel right.  So I decided to mix my own color by adding a bunch of my leftover black.  I wanted to dull the color down and I succeeded.

After saying "here goes nothing" I started to roll on the color.  After I had done both cabinet sides I was REALLY, REALLY happy.  Suddenly the cabinet looked very "arcadey" to me.  It started to look like a real cabinet.


The cabinet starts to look real to me.


Just to prove that I didn't photoshop my cabinet sides.    No, but seriously, I wanted to make sure that I captured the color that I was using.  Funny, but on my camera and in my image browsing software, this color looks like striking pure blue.  It's not.  It's definitely purple.


I wasn't sure if I should have painted the door or not.  It might have been cool to leave it black and then surround the coin door with some sort of art.  Hmmm...


And the other side of the cabinet.

By the way, I have dark red t-molding that I will be using for this cabinet.  I intend the marquee and side art to be mostly purple, red, and possibly yellow or sand colored.  I've got to get to work on that art!

[Skadar]

I've got two 12-inch purple 12-volt neon tubes lying around.  Give me a hint as how I can use them effectively in the cabinet?  Nothing really stands out to me as an obvious way to incorporate them into the design.

Maybe I could mount them on the outside, back of the cabinet so that they will cast a purple glow over the wall that it is up against.  Hmmm...

[dmsuchy]

Yeah on the ouside back would be cool, give it a kinda "aura".

[StormGiant]

Looking good.  Very clean cuts.

I'm sure we're not the only two with fond memories of Aladdin's Castle.  I too am in the middle of an Aladdin's Castle cab.  I believe I started this damned project when MAME was in the .60s.  Might have to change the name to Satan's Castle.

When you were thinking about the JetFighter-themed cab, was it to be based on the PC game?  (just because of the way you capitalized the title)

[Goobzilla]

Aladdin's Castle was THE arcade of my youth.  King Soopers shopping center in Denver (84th & Pecos).  Double token Tuesdays!!!!!!!

Great looking project.

Ron

[Bones]

This is looking great. Thanks for sharing all the pics. 

[Skadar]

When you were thinking about the JetFighter-themed cab, was it to be based on the PC game?  (just because of the way you capitalized the title)

I'm an over-enthusiastic capitalizer.  By "Jet Fighter" I was actually thinking of a retro 1950s-1960s fighter aircraft (Super Sabre, Mig) sort of theme.  You know... the cabinet would look like an aluminum aircraft side with nose art.  Maybe there would be some instrumentation built into the bezel or something.

It was the Batman cabinet, with it's batmobile winglets, that made me think about a jet fighter theme.  But then it was the Mission Control cabinet that launched me onto the Aladdin's Castle theme.  Apparently Mission Control was the name of an arcade that the builder grew up with.  I thought that a symbolic arcade theme was fitting considering that a MAME cabinet is "an arcade in a box".

The only trouble with the Aladdin's Castle theme is a complete lack of artwork!!  I have desperately been scouring the web for anything of quality with an Aladdin, Arabian Knights (Nights), Persian theme.  I'm finding very little.  Maybe I should hit the library and do some high-DPI scanning.

I can envision a really cool purple, red, blue, sand swirly cloudy atmosphere with a massive looking genie holding his hand out as the side art, but I just can't render it myself.  The art is definitely my biggest obstacle.

[Skadar]

I've been finding Arabian Knights-type art very difficult to find on the net.  I have no idea what I'm going to do for side art, but I figured I should at least be able to pull a marquee together.

This is my first try:

[Skadar]

9/27/2005

Parts installation, t-molding, cabinet door installation, coin door, painting touch-ups.

I had asked in another thread whether or not I should apply some sort of clear coat to the interior latex enamel paint that I used to paint the cabinet.  A few people said yes and a few people said no.  Well, it turns out that I'm not patient enough anyway.  Today I went ahead and started to install the pieces.

I'm also having a similar problem as that guy in another thread who says his paint is not drying.  The cabinet sides are still extremely soft and tacky-feeling.  If you leave your hand on the surface for more than a few seconds you get fingerprints and a sticky feeling when you remove your hand.  Considering I painted my house with this stuff, I fully expect the paint to dry.  It may take a few weeks though to cure fully.  And I'm sure that it would cure faster if I could get it out of the basement or at least get a lot of air circulation down there.


Installed the speakers and marquee light.  Yes, I'm disappointed with the way that the speaker grills look.  I'm going to replace them with the grills used on the Project Arcade cabinet as soon as I can.  I'm also extrememly disappointed with this GE light fixture that I bought at Home Depot for like $35!!!  I couldnt' believe it when I ripped open the package and found this thin little flourescent tube.  What a wimpy little light.  I may have to replace it.



Installed the cabinet door, coin door, and the bottom t-molding.



Here's that wimpy little light glowing.  Do you think it will be enough to power a dark marquee?



Technique used to install t-molding on an INSIDE curve.  You also get a good feel for the texture of the painted surface.  Sort of a natural, leather texture has emerged.  I really like it.



Technique used to install t-molding on an OUTSIDE curve.



Getting closer and closer to a real, completed cabinet!



And one from the back, too.   

[ginno]

I think the marquee light positioned @ the top like that will result in the top of the marquee being luminated more then the bottom, this could be an issue. 

Put some dark paper in as a mock marquee to find out of this is the case.

If so either locate the light in the center of the marquee or put some reflective material in the hole below where the light is now, hopefully it will be ok.

Cheers.

[Skadar]

Good suggestion.  I think I'll implement both of those ideas.

1) I'll try to mount the light near the center of the opening by building downwards with some scrap.

2) I'll put a "wall" of reflective material behind the light to send as much of it forward as I can.

[Skadar]

Woohoo!  Yesterday I received my SlikStik control panel.  It works perfectly.

I was actually amazed at what it could accomplish.  My wife came to take a look and ended up playing Ms. Pacman like crazy.  She was so into it... screaming and everything when the ghosts were about to get her.  Sooo... funny.  I even got her to play Mortalk Kombat II with me.  She always picks Kitana.

Here are some pics:


Packaged well enough.  I was a little disappointed that no printed instructions are provided.  And you can't even read the instructions off of the enclosed CD without installing a program that set up a little front end.  At least they could have thrown the manuals into a /manuals directory off of the CD root.




Overview.



Logan likes what he sees.  He's obviously a future gamer... and a future motorcyclist.



Another shot.  I wanted a really colorful button layout.



Notice the pinball buttons.  Not sure how much use they will actually get though.



Here's my basement, pre-cabinet set-up.  My cabinet is currently being built in a different location.  Tonight I will probably bring the CP over to my cabinet.



Glowing trackball!

[Skadar]

10/1/2005

This was a big day because everything came together to form a complete, working cabinet.  While not 100% finished, I am getting very close.  I'm almost feeling a sense of disappointment with the completion.  The journey is really what it's all about.

I fired everything up and it was very cool to see all the bits and pieces working together.  I am VERY pleased with the SmartStrip functionality.  I'm not sure why a lot of people bother installing and wiring Power buttons on their cabinets.  Mine is set to look for a password from the keyboard for computer power-on.  This is available in all modern BIOS installations.

Basically you walk up to the cabinet and touch the Player1 Start and Player2 Start buttons in quick succession and everything comes to life.  When you are done playing you exit MAMEWah and shut down Windows normally.  When the PC turns off, everything else goes dark.




I got the plexi-glass from Home Depot for my marquee.  I went for the middle-of-the-road quality stuff.  I'm not sure why everyone seems to go for the expensive Lexan.  The marquee isn't going to be exposed to the elements and certainly doesn't require UV coating.  Hmmm...

And by the way... THIS is the best way to cut plexi-glass.  I've read a number of "best" ways including using a Dremel, a router, etc.  Well this is the best way.  See that little green-handled tool?  That's all you need.  It's a $3 plexi-glass cutter.  You pull it across the plexi to score it.  Do this about 8 times and then simply crack the plexi in half.  It splits cleanly and perfectly.




Here's the glowing marque with retainers (from Happ) installed along with the still-wrapped-in-protective-coating plexi.  I definitely need a new marquee light.  The little one that I have isn't cutting it.  I'm going to take it back to Home Depot.




Here is the inside of my SlikStik Classic.  They did a great wiring job.  Everything is very clean and carefully routed.




Here I'm wiring up the coin door functions.  I've got red, superbright LEDS hooked into my PC power supply.  And I wired the coin microswitches directly into the I-Pac Coin1 and Coin2 terminals.




This is pretty close to the complete, finished cabinet.  It needs a marquee, a monitor bezel (which I have, but have not yet cut), possibly some smoked plexi, and possibly some side-art.




Here's the cab if I were to re-paint the coin door black.  I'm thinking about doing this.




Loading up MAMEWah to play my first game on the cabinet.  Pac-Man, what else?




The first, official quarter going through the mechs.  I wired them up to register credits, of course.  Soooooo friggin' cool to drop in quarters and get credits.




I am VERY seriously considering bringing Aladdin's Castle to work and placing it in my office for a few months.  I have the green light to do so.  If I do this, I'm pretty sure we will be playing a LOT of this game... Golden Tee.

[Bomber]

Cab is looking great. That's a neat colour scheme and the marquee over in the artwork forum look fab as well.

I can't help thinking how much nicer it would look without the slikstik. You spent so much time and effort on the rest of the cab seems a shame not to have a better fitting CP.

But at least you can play it now 

[nullb0y]

looks good i think the cp is a bit large....

[Skadar]

Yeah, it's definitely true that the SlikStik CP stands out as the "add-on" that it is.  Though I'm not sure that a home-built CP would have been any different, except for the colors and the potential for a custom CP overlay.  Regarding size and configuration, my home-built CP would have copied the SlikStik in almost every respect.

There is one thing I don't like about the SlikStik though... and that is the placement of the trackball with respect to the spinner.  It is very easy to smash your fingers into the spinner when playing games like Golden Tee that require you to spin the trackball forwards as fast as you can.  This is unfortunate.

The only thing I regret really is painting the coin door purple.  I think it should have been left black.  This would have made the CP blend in more.  I think, perhaps I will re-paint it black.

[dfmaverick]

I like the color scheme of your cabinet. I also don't think that the CP is too big.

Kudos on a nice cab.

You could also try painting a stripe or something like this mock up to incorporate the black CP into the rest of the cab if you didn't want to repaint the door. Just a suggestion.

Once again, Nice job!

[Skadar]

Holy moly that is actually really cool!  What a neat idea.  I will definitely consider doing this.  Thanks for taking the time to illustrate your idea!

[buks]

Skadar,

Just wanted to say excellent cab ! The ONLY thing I'm not keen on is the CP. The quality of your cab tells me that you could have done a much better CP yourself. But its your cab so its up to you.

The paint job is superb - it actually looks like laminate on one of  the pictures - what paint did you use ? I made a HUUUGE mistake when I painted my cab with Hamerite - it looks really cool on metal but not on wood
 
I actually decided to comment because you said you were thinking of painting over the purple - DON'T DO IT ! The idea dfmaverick had was sheer brilliance. It actually makes the CP look cool - maybe thas the only reason why others have commnted - because it looks "out of place" ? Anyway, try the stripe I reckon it will look sweet.

Good luck.

[nullb0y]

i like that stripe

[johnnya]

I have an original Aladdin's Castle cab that I just MAMEd recently.  The one I have had some nice features to it.  It has the PCB door to slide the PCB out the front.  Also has an adjustable mount, swappable CPs, several different ways to mount a monitor, and the most unusual monitor marquee system I've seen.  It had like 20 little light bulbs instead of a fluorescent.  Let me know if you want some pics.

[the3eyedblindman]

If thats a 27 inch tv, Id go with a happ 27 inch monitor bezel, it will make it look most authentic. Cab looks great, Id look for some original arcade sideart to put on it, people would never know you built it!