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Battle Chasers Upright - Frankenpanel started!
Boz:
Research, Training, and Woodworking 101
I've been doing what a number of people do when they first get interested in Mame and
custom cabinet design...research and lurking. Enough of that, "let's build the thing
already".
I have to say first that a number of cabinets have had a significant impact on my
conceptual design and although my first one will be customized to my preferences, you
will undoubtedly see "rip offs" of concepts in others' cabinets. Good ideas are good ideas
and I hope those other cabinet builders aren't offended.
After lurking and researching for a couple of months, I ordered a standard round of CP
parts from Happ. I had no woodworking tools (to say nothing of woodworking skill) and
needed my neighbor to cut all the pieces for me. That was 6 months ago. And I haven't
used the table-top CP all that much (mostly due to my displeasure with the joystick I
bought, but that's another story). I guess something as big and bulky is this turned out
wasn't much fun to use. Oh... and I learned that about half of the games that I queued up
in my "favorites" folder either required a trackball or a spinner - neither of which I
installed on my hastily built CP.
About a month ago, my interest in wood-working piqued again and I just *had* to do
something. My motivation was not Mame driven, though, in the back of my mind, my
classic arcade game enthusiasm would certainly benefit. After a hefty sum on everything
from power tools to clamps and glue (you know, those "condiment" tools that you think
you *might* use someday, so you buy 'em), I commenced on a couple of projects.
Adjustable shelves and a few Adirondack chairs later, I gleaned a number of important
lessons not the least of which was "routers are LOUD" and they create 4 times as much
saw dust that ends up in 10 times as many places as any circular saw will for the same
cut. The other big lesson was that you can't count on anything to be square except the
square itself, a concept that will make the woodworkers among you chuckle with an all-
too-knowing nod.
EDIT: Add link to daily set-based compilation of images
Boz:
Cardboard Jedi Master
After having the "chicken or egg" question answered (what to buy first, wood or
electronics), I busted out the old Dell 19" CRT monitor boxes that I've been dragging
around for easily 8 years now. I'm pretty much done "moving", so they had served their
purpose.
I started with the control panel which went surprisingly quick (3-4 hours). I like the
curved areas where the 3 and 4 player positions are as well as a moderately streamlined
height. It slopes from 5 inches in the back to 3 inches in the front. I'm not positive about
clearance for my controls so I'll have to do some research once I figure out the control
placement.
I found it odd how amazingly fast marking, cutting, laying-out, and taping went for the control panel, but how slow and tedious it will go when I transfer to wood.
Images are at flickr...
I don't know what's up with the crappy image scaling of the flickr badges above, but the pics on flickr look normal.
EDIT: Image links
Boz:
Artwork
As the thread says, this is a cab themed on the Battle Chasers comic book series. I'm not much of a comic book reader, let alone collector. The first time I saw Red Monika was a Vector project that Felsir was doing for a client. I was immediately impressed with artwork of the Monika character and decided to look for more images.
After weeks of searching I found an entire set of Battle Chasers comics on eBay which I gladly scooped up. I'm not sure what characters from the series I'm going to use in my cabinet artwork. I haven't even looked through all the comics yet.
EDIT: Image links
theCoder:
--- Quote from: In2ishun on June 27, 2006, 03:52:06 am ---About a month ago, my interest in wood-working piqued again and I just *had* to do
something. My motivation was not Mame driven, though, in the back of my mind, my
classic arcade game enthusiasm would certainly benefit.
--- End quote ---
For me, it is as much the journey as it is the goal. I'm a gamer deep down. I love playing arcade games. But I also love making things. Along the way you are learning new skills and/or improving old ones and playing with new media or technology (bondo, dowel pins, vinyl, Photoshop, etc.). Having your kids and their friends boast about your handywork is also a rush.
Welcome to the hobby. Great progress so far.
Crafty:
Looking Good
Its good to have a theme decided early..
With the artwork applied it should look excellent
Keep the pictures coming
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