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.