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Author Topic: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [Complete. Plans now attached]  (Read 39673 times)

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shock_

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shock_'s Aussie cocktail [Complete. Plans now attached]
« on: December 02, 2006, 04:56:04 pm »
I've been registered for a couple of months now, but only due to Sirwoogie's recent cleverness can I now post!  Nice to meet you all after such a prolonged lurk.

The plans are for a cocktail in sort-of an Aussie / Hankin arrangement.  My wife calls this thing Calvin so that's its working title for now.




Here's what I was thinking before we began:
  • rotating 19 inch CRT
  • oversized - 1m by 75cm top piece
  • 1UP has option of sitting either side
  • Turbo Twist Spinner, Ultimarc 2¼" trackball, 3 Sanwas (J-stiks)
    all locally sourced here in Australia (I'm in Brisbane)


I hope to throw up a website
for it sometime,  perhaps when
it's more nearing completion.  So far
it's a nice box of old and  dirty ply :)

 :notworthy: At this point I should also tip my hat to some of Spacies' work in particular, which helped inspire quite a bit of this, and gave my wife hope that these things don't necessarily turn out fugly! Choice, bro.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2009, 12:46:59 am by shock_ »

spacies

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2006, 02:44:38 pm »
Hey me 'ole Ocker mate!.

Thanks very much for the comments.
Glad you can finally post and if I can help you any way possible, just ask.

You know, when I first started building these machines I went through various designs and although I settled on a different style for my 'standard' cocktail, the design you have chosen to build is prolly one of my favs.

To build a high quality finished product with big W.A.F. (Wife Acceptance Factor) has allowed many-a-man their very own Arcade Machine in there house to relive their mis-spent youth.  I am happy for you now too :laugh2:
BUT, tell your soon-to-be 'Arcade Widow' not to blame me when your grass is a foot high and the paint is falling off your house because you are in the basement playing games, OK?

I am not sure what you have planned for the finish, but those cocktails I built were all covered with a high grade vinyl. The finish was abosultely stunning and it really made them look high-class. So if really want something stunning, cover it with vinyl and then you don't have to worrry about paint imperfections either.



All the best with your project. I will be watching  >:D

Too much.


shock_

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2006, 03:36:49 pm »
Vinyl eh?  I did wonder how that cabinet was covered and now it all makes sense.   I must admit, the "one coat" approach of vinyl does sound rather fascinating :)

Yesterday we ripped the cover off the monitor and scratched out heads thinking about how to make a ventilated cage to mount on the lazy susan bearing.  Nothing like working with monitors to slow you down somewhat....

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2006, 07:19:12 am »


yes, vinyl would be infinitely nicer looking than cement  ;)

(damn good use of old form ply by the way. what a way to retire  :) )


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loadman

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2006, 06:24:42 am »
 :notworthy:

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2006, 03:51:40 pm »
Nothing like working with monitors to slow you down somewhat....
Be careful of your lower back, not to mention the "big red wire".  Welcome & good luck with the build.

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #6 on: December 17, 2006, 04:01:04 pm »
It's funny how some things you think are going to be easy turn out to be bloody ridiculous, and other things you lose sleep over seem to fall in your lap...

Getting this monitor cage constructed in a way that will still allow for rotation is ruining my waking hours at the moment, but my brother-in-law is a shop teacher at a high school and instructed a teachers' aide to weld up some 40mm steel legs for this project between lessons :)  Another friend wants to contribute a bottle opener to mount under a control panel.  That's friendship!

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2006, 07:38:06 am »


what will you make the 'cage' from? mine was fine in mdf but then it was only a 15". mdf was good because i was able to keep chopping bits off until it rotated freely. will the monitor rotate electrically? and dont forget to kep the aussie arcade thread updated too  :)


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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2006, 08:04:46 am »
rotation will be manual, unless I change tack yet again. 

Cage is to be essentially plural strips of ply - I have made a squarish frame for the front (i.e. the screen side).  That frame rests up against the front plastic housing which I have left intact.  The weight of the screen should put downward pressure on that frame, which then will transfer to angled and braced strips of ply (several per side).  Those strips themselves press onto a bit of, wait for it, ply, which is the base of the cage.  If the whole thing doesn't spring apart in an instant, then I'll be laughing.

All I need is a couple of hours where I can operate a circular saw without having to hold a 3 month old baby :)

I shall cross-post to aussiearcade once there's something useful to add, which is hopefully soon!

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2007, 03:45:13 pm »

shock_

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Re: First post, first cab. (Oversized Aussie cocktail)
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2007, 11:19:26 pm »
Hey I'm an auzzie too (Sydney) .. Where is that Website?

Why, it's on the internet!  Specifically, here: http://www.aussiearcade.com.au/

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2007, 05:55:37 am »
Well it's been a while. 

[monitor] Cage is to be essentially plural strips of ply ... All I need is a couple of hours where I can operate a circular saw without having to hold a 3 month old baby

Bwahahah, what was I thinking.



I've cut the control panels out. Hooray!
Here's a shot showing the panel layout for one side.  It's all drilled now, as is the other one.


Here is the monitor cage. Looking at the dirt factor on it, you'd be forgiven for assuming I'm not planning a very tidy cabinet at all. This will all be hidden, and I'll give it a good wash down first anyway to prevent cement dust getting in all the nooks and crannies, like, say, hard drives...


Here is the cage with the monitor sitting inside.  Note that it has not collapsed in a pile of splinters. This is a good thing, and completely took me by surprise!

That piece on the bottom will mate with the top of a lazy susan.  Adjusting for height will be fun.

Next weekend my esteemed brother in law is visiting again, so I hope we can do something worthy of further photography - maybe even something that looks like a cabinet! 

I also has someone return a loaned-out computer to me yesterday, which means I can salvage a hard drive out of it and put together the PC that will be driving this beastie. If only I had more time.

All you people suffering through your northern winter where it's too cold to do any meaningful cabinetry work because your fingertips will snap off, think of poor me sweating here in 38°C temperatures being eaten by hundreds of mosquitoes and doing the type of work I hate just so I can bring you these boring and butt-ugly pictures!
« Last Edit: March 11, 2007, 06:01:26 am by shock_ »

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #12 on: March 12, 2007, 10:24:04 am »
All you people suffering through your northern winter where it's too cold to do any meaningful cabinetry work because your fingertips will snap off, think of poor me sweating here in 38°C temperatures being eaten by hundreds of mosquitoes and doing the type of work I hate just so I can bring you these boring and butt-ugly pictures!

Time to get back to work. Heat wave here now - it's 34°F Yahoo! T-shirt weather!

Two words: bug + spray ?

 :D

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2007, 06:33:22 pm »
Quick status report - it's starting to look like a cabinet now.

Still to 45° chamfer the monitor window edge and slot-cut everything, then need to get on with surface prep, then attach those panels and the legs...

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #14 on: April 25, 2007, 07:32:03 am »


good progress so far (",) i see youre still going with the cement on form ply look  ;D


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shock_

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #15 on: May 20, 2007, 09:01:14 am »
My first officially hidden piece of form ply :)

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #16 on: May 21, 2007, 03:01:28 am »
Time for a bit of thread hijiacking / diversion:

Assuming you get a monitor rotating between landscape and portrait, how do you go about configuring the software to change between. Can you get MaLa to automatically flip between modes, and launch the games appropriately.. cos if you can, then I'll seriously look into doing this for my cab design...

Otherwise, good to see another Aussie building a cab. Good luck with it Shock, will be watching... with great interest, regarding this rotating monitor business...

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #17 on: May 21, 2007, 04:39:05 am »

Now that is tight!

wOOt

Its gonna look ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- hot.

Anubis. You can change screen rotation in MALA on the fly.
Its a very cool feature and MALA is an awesome piece of software.

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #18 on: May 21, 2007, 08:27:21 am »
Cheers lads :)

Anubis_au: As Spacies said, MaLa can be flipped or rotated at will (bound to a keystroke, naturally), but even cooler, it will adjust MAME's config file to auto-rotate the game inside MAME to match the orientation of MaLa, and/or swap MaLa to match the rotation of MAME when you exit back to the front end. 

Rotating monitor still keeps me awake at night.  WTF was I thinking, for a first cab when I have zero engineering or building skills/experience?  Oh well, I have more experience than I did when I started, and still the same number of fingers and toes.

Here's another photo of the other control panel, while I'm at it.

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #19 on: May 21, 2007, 08:40:46 am »
That sounds like a pretty damn nifty bit of software.

So, can you tell us a bit about how you engineered the actual rotating monitor setup? I'm *very* curious to know... this would be the #1 thing I'd try to incorporate...

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #20 on: May 21, 2007, 09:54:05 am »
Rotation, eh??  Well it isn't actually built yet, but it's coming together.

Here's a PDF that kinda shows you what the plan is.  (attached below)

See that cage up in message 641074 above?  That will have a few strategically placed bolt holes in the bottom, and will then sit on top of another piece of ply with one corner rounded off into a quarter-circle.  The bolts will be fixed into that, and will poke through the holes in the cage baseplate to hold it in position; gravity will do the job of securing it in place, and I can just lift it straight out again when I need to move the cabinet. (nb - I think the attached plans show the bolts pointing down, not up - but you get the idea)

That intermediate base piece is secured to a lazy susan bearing (much like the model L-120 here) with just the right amount of shim (about 40mm in my case) to bring the whole thing up so the tabletop glass is about an inch over the screen.

A 150mm diameter wheel (lawn mower spare!) will be mounted offset just enough to stick through a slot in the side wall of the cabinet, so I can spin it by hand.  This will grab against the rounded corner of the baseplate to rotate it through 90°.  Two bump stops (just some cabinet door catches attached to hunks of wood screwed into the base of the cab) will prevent any over-run and hold the screen in place at either extremity.

Assuming all this works out, I need to solve the small issue of the Earth's magnetic field playing silly buggers with the screen as it rotates.  I intend to splice in a power switch for the monitor under the cabinet adjacent to the wheel.  This is so I can power down the monitor and allow it the few seconds required to cause an auto-degauss when it gets juice again. 

It would have been nice to make this hard-wired (ie. power only supplied when the screen is resting at either end of travel) but it was all getting too hard for me to bother with.  The only 240V wiring I've done is nice easy safe stuff like putting plugs on power leads.  Explaining to guests how to use a switch is not such a big deal so this was an easy compromise to make.

There are still issues with rotating setups that make it a real pain in the arse... the bezel situation is a ---smurfette---, plain and simple.  You have to hack away at the monitor housing and/or increase the overall size of your case or settle for a smaller screen too - it has to have room to fit diagonally! 

Something else I noticed in others' cabs is that if you want both horizontal and vertical to be exactly centred, you can't just whack the monitor case over the centre of your bearing; you need to centre the exact point under the middle of the screen.  This added another 20cm or so for me since it now had an eccentric orbit, with the net effect of needing even MORE space for the diagonal.  Not really an issue unless you're using a PC monitor, though.  It's a picky thing, but the sort of thing I notice  :'(

Recommend you wait and see if I give up on rotation before embarking  :cheers:

wow - that was a hell of a post

« Last Edit: May 21, 2007, 10:03:17 am by shock_ »

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #21 on: May 21, 2007, 08:53:59 pm »
Sounds complicated... The guy in my office helping me to design my cabinet in CAD makes furniture, so I'll ask him about the possibility... if you mount your monitor on a circular backing, and the area the backing sits in is square (or, at least, has enough space so the circular plate can rotate through the 90degree motion) then it might be possible... I have to investigate how much monitor space is there in a lowboy, but it looks pretty square to me... so might work...

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #22 on: May 22, 2007, 02:22:54 am »
If you're planning a lowboy, the rules for cocktail rotation all go out the window :)

Spend a bit of time in the Wiki, there are plenty of upright rotating examples in there, and they generally are anchored at the front (screen) end rather than the back (yoke).

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #23 on: May 22, 2007, 06:02:09 am »
A wiki dedicated to rotating monitors in uprights?

Friggin SWEET!!!!

 :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab
« Reply #24 on: May 23, 2007, 08:42:27 am »
My first officially hidden piece of form ply :)

huzzah!

oh, and persevere with it. i picked a rotating cocktail for my first effort too. its damn worth it in the end (",) .


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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cps)
« Reply #25 on: May 23, 2007, 09:05:54 am »
oh, and persevere with it. i picked a rotating cocktail for my first effort too. its damn worth it in the end (",) .
I hope you're right!!  I have been struggling with how to cope with the bezel lately, and after re-watching your rotatin' video the other night I realised another approach to the problem, far simpler than what I had imagined I'd need to do.  Far too complicated to put into words out here, but think of the shutter of a camera lens, manipulated by a piece of bicycle brake wire connected to door security chains and you begin to see how insane I was going. (Yes, I have a Visio diagram of it, too)

It's a ---smurfy--- grainy, tiny little video but it keeps on giving, years later  :cheers:

Anyway, someone has to put something different in this Project Announcements board - it can't be all bartops!!    ;)  Incidentally I've never seen a single bartop 'in the wild' here in Australia, indeed had never heard of them before BYOAC introduced me.  The things you learn online...
« Last Edit: May 23, 2007, 09:09:00 am by shock_ »

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #26 on: May 25, 2007, 05:04:50 am »


i cheated. i used the magic of black paint and darkness to disguise the fact that the bezel is basically a picture frame made of quad (",)


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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #27 on: May 25, 2007, 09:15:36 am »
i cheated. i used the magic of black paint and darkness to disguise the fact that the bezel is basically a picture frame made of quad (",)

Mine is a little bit different, since there will be such a wide gap between the "useful" part of the screen and the surrounding wood.

I'm not too worried about the interface
between the Gaping Hole and the tabletop.
I've chamfered that edge of the cutout.

 
I'm planning to use some picture framing card
that I'll spraypaint and affix to the underside of the
tabletop.  The square hole inside that card will be a
snug fit for the longest edge of the visible screen
in both directions.  The monitor casing itself will either
be sprayed to match or masked somehow.

 
IMHO the job of any bezel is to be entirely ignorable and
let you concentrate on the screen itself - unless it's
specifically created as an artistic addition to the game, which
doesn't make a lot of sense to me for a multi-game capable box.
Hopefully mine will be quickly forgotten too.

 
I mentioned earlier something about a camera shutter design.
Here's what it was to look like - with each of the four corners
sliding on their own concealed track from one position to the other,
their edges overlapping in a continuous loop.
This was to be all rigged up using something like bicycle brake wire
attached to the lazy susan so the one movement would rotate the screen
and also shift the proportions of the aperture.

Just nuts.  If James Bond had a cocktail he'd do it like that.

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #28 on: July 16, 2007, 11:11:44 am »
More of a mental checklist than an update.  But there you go.

Recent hardware developments
  • coin slot sorted
  • legs measured, drilled and secured at the correct height with some big bolts
  • swivel bearing centred, raising plinth and support platform attached
  • monitor cage properly located and mated to swivel platform via 'quick-release mechanism' (really just more bolts)
  • check-measure monitor positioning... exactly centred and with <2mm clearance from the top :)
  • rotation control prototyped and ready for installation shortly

Next steps
  • cut access slot for the rotation control (my spare mower wheel) and mount. done
  • locate and add bump stops / cabinet catches to prevent over-rotation of monitor done
  • drill administration button holes (pause, escape, etc) and toggle switch for player 1 controls in carcass to prevent 'busy hands' taking control from the other side of the table done
  • attach end-pieces to control panels done
  • locate and mount control panels to cabinet carcass done
  • drill, saw and mount a metal plate to mount USB and headphone sockets and volume control knob done
  • pull it all out and PAINT  done

Also been doing various tweaks and fiddles to software which I won't go into here.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2007, 08:18:28 am by shock_ »

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Re: shock_'s oversized Aussie cocktail cab (+pics of cp)
« Reply #29 on: July 18, 2007, 09:41:31 am »
looking good, it's is so much fun when it's done :)
I b**ch. People listen!!

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [rotation is working!]
« Reply #30 on: July 22, 2007, 06:28:28 am »
Got one big piece of the puzzle done this afternoon.

It turns!

Click for youtube video:

She's a bit stiff, but that's probably got something to do with all the sawdust lodged in the ball bearings  ::)  I'll get that fixed up once it's out again.

Seems to work nicely when turned using a toe, too.  Who'da thunk it.

I'm really getting sick of seeing it unpainted.  This form ply was in pretty bad condition when I started...
« Last Edit: July 22, 2007, 06:37:42 am by shock_ »

Anubis_au

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [rotation is working!]
« Reply #31 on: July 25, 2007, 06:52:35 am »
Do you think that lazy Susan approach would work if the monitor / rotation setup were also angled? As in, placed in an upright cab, not cocktail?
« Last Edit: July 27, 2007, 12:11:43 am by Anubis_au »

shock_

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [rotation is working!]
« Reply #32 on: July 28, 2007, 11:12:23 am »
The big deal is supporting the centre of gravity with the monitor, which would be very different if you took my configuration and set it up on an angle.  And very easy if you're mounting vertically such as in a cocktail.

If you're angling the monitor, you need to support the front of it where the weight is going to be.  This will mean holding it tight by the corner screws.  You could, I guess, make some cage for it that is pinned/swiveled at a point at the base/rear of the yoke, but I've not put any thought into how to achieve a rotating screen in an upright so you'd be advised to research and contact the builders of other upright rotaters!

The big gotcha from what I can see is the bezel... how to avoid it looking like a big flat or round slab of nothing with a little screen inside it.  That's the bane of all rotating cabs I think, simply because of the huge variations in ratio that must be accommodated.  Find a way to incorporate square shapes rather than circles wherever you can, aesthetically speaking of course.

If I ever build a second cabinet, I would want it to be a LAI lowboy or Taito-style coversion without rotation - for ease of completion and all-round beauty!

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [painting started]
« Reply #33 on: August 18, 2007, 10:42:59 am »
Today I started painting.  Nine months after the basic cabinet shell was put together, that is a significant milestone, to say the least.

Why so long?

Low levels of experience.  It takes me forever to make a cut or join.  I have no training in how carpentry or cabinetmaking works so I have had to take guesses and try everything on scrap first.  I've probably built this thing two or three times over, in scrap mockups :)

Little expended time spent. I just don't get much time to work on this thing.  Especially for the noisy stuff like saws.

Ridiculous ambitions.  Did I mention... bloody rotating monitors

So anyway, we got an undercoat on today.  Actually, an undercoat, then sanded back, then another one.  Never intentionally scratched up anything I'd just painted before - but it worked nicely :)

Here's an artist's impression, a before shot, and an after shot.

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [painting started]
« Reply #34 on: August 22, 2007, 06:09:20 pm »
Looks great shock! Take your time and enjoy it, I think as we get older we tend to get more pleasure on the building and tinkering side? I'm always thinking gee what if I did that or changed this. Of course i still enjoy a game or two! Your doing really well and I am enjoying watching your progress.

cheers

Philby

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [painting started]
« Reply #35 on: August 22, 2007, 06:41:24 pm »
Looking lovely shock_  :applaud:

Have you worked on a Mala layout for this beaut? I remember you doing some amazing looking stuff in the software forum a few months back.

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [painting started]
« Reply #36 on: August 22, 2007, 10:51:09 pm »
 :cheers:  Have got a first coat of black on there now, too - and it's going on well.

Have you worked on a Mala layout for this beaut? I remember you doing some amazing looking stuff in the software forum a few months back.

Yeah, working on two possible layouts at the moment, derived from the stuff I had been doing you've probably seen.

One is a custom version of the applesque layout, with an emulator menu built in (not MaLa tree).  I don't have a current pic of it, but here it is semi-recently.  I like it because it's very specific to my machine, and I've got some great "starting" screens that change depending on the emulator too.

I've actually added a red version of the background pattern you can see in the other layout below, since my buttons/sticks/ball/t-moulding will be red.  It's given the layout a bit more depth.

The other is something I've released as beta, but nobody ever got back to me with bug reports...  :'(

There are bugs I found in it anyway, such as faux scanlines that don't scale well so they'll have to go, or I'll provide it as a series of fixed resolutions. I'll re-release another version soon - in a range of colours since I can never decide.


edit: here are more/updated screenshots for the layouts above.
 
« Last Edit: August 23, 2007, 08:20:18 am by shock_ »

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [+MaLa screenshots]
« Reply #37 on: August 23, 2007, 06:40:48 pm »
Hi Shock,

i just tried out your mala layout (beta one) I like it. I use a horizontal monitor so it displays as a vertical layout which is ok as I play some vertical games anyway. I really like the layout. I only use mame no other emu's at the moment. I reckon your button graphics would look cool in this layout as well.

thanks for a cool layout!

phil

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [+MaLa screenshots]
« Reply #38 on: August 23, 2007, 08:08:49 pm »
The layouts are actually square with letterbox bars -- either beside or top/bottom.  I find that's easiest for horiz/vert consistency :)

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Re: shock_'s Aussie cocktail [Mmmmm paint]
« Reply #39 on: September 02, 2007, 07:50:12 am »
Back to matters of hardware.

A wee bit more painting to do, but things are improving. 

Secured a control panel today, too.  Yippee :)