Opinions on Starfighter cabinet art

[rubberpoultry]

I'm not sure where this post should go. I've been a long time lurker, but I'm finally adding a cabinet to the basement. Nothing thrilling, just a UAII and a SlikStik classic. If this should be moved to somewhere else...move away.

I've been a professional graphic artist/video producer for about 10 years, and I work in Illustrator and Photoshop almost daily. I began thinking about what I wanted to do for a theme for my cabinet and it took me a long time to decide. The sky was the limit, but how do you capture the excitement that you felt about the arcade in one cabinet design?

I thought about one of the cabinets with a million different characters on it from popular games, and some of those are really nice, but I just didn't like the idea of mixing artistic styles that much. That lead me to thinking back on some of my favorite movies/games of the 80s. I'm a big Star Wars fan, and I have some nice memorabilia, but that didn't quite do it for me. Then it hit me...The Last Starfighter! It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and continues to be one of my favorite DVDs. I pop it in once every 4 or 5 months it seems.

I put it in a took a bunch of screen captures of the game to get a feel for it, and then I scoured the web looking for art. I found a few things that had already been been created, but nothing that had the level of detail I was looking for (although the type was great and saved me some time). I ended up finding a lo-res copy of the logo from the web and then I recreated it in Illustrator. I then tried to mimic (as best I can with a UAII) the side art stripes on the prop game from the movie. When it was all done I felt pretty good about the final results.

Then I started thinking about how a lot of people won't know the movie or reference, so I wanted to add something on there about MAME and "arcade". So I started working on the marquee, and I decided to veer from the theme just a bit. Here's what I came up with:



I think I'm going to stick with that for sure, but here's where I need some opinions. I was going to leave the cabinet with just "Starfighter" like this:



... but then I wondered if I should match the marquee with the same words like this:



I made the subtitle gray to make it fade into the background a little (a little too much in the jpg, but in Illustrator it pops a bit more). I'm still not sure though.

So what do you think? I'd like to get a different prospective other than my own. Do I stick with the more authentic Starfigher look on the sides, or do I do my "Mame Arcade" version?

Your opinions are welcome.

Thanks,
RubberP

[Zeppo]

I think it looks good with the MAME under it, but either way is really cool.
For other Last Startfighter info, check this out:

http://www.freewebs.com/starfighter66/
But you've probably already seen it.

Good luck.

[leapinlew]

Your fighting 2 battles here.

1. Some folks won't know what Starfighter is
2. Most folks won't know what Mame is

Do what you like and prepare to explain yourself!

[rubberpoultry]

I think it looks good with the MAME under it, but either way is really cool.
For other Last Startfighter info, check this out:

http://www.freewebs.com/starfighter66/
But you've probably already seen it.

Good luck.

Yeah, I checked that out. Pretty cool.

Your fighting 2 battles here.

1. Some folks won't know what Starfighter is
2. Most folks won't know what Mame is

Do what you like and prepare to explain yourself!

True, and true.

[Teebor]

When you build this YOU HAVE GOT TO install Rogue Synapse's The Last Starfighter game that would be awesome.

Please please please be posting pictures of construction and finished product

[ArtMAME]

Ultimately, the choice is up to you... That is the beauty of this hobby...

It is very personal and expressive, like an artist expresses feelings, emotions, moods throught sculpture, painting, music, etc....

Your cabinet is YOUR creation, it says something about YOU... Especially the artwork, because that is what it is...choose what ever makes you happy... ...

Personally, I would go for the authentic Starfighter, just like the original...

When you stand in front of that cabinet, You ARE Alex Rogan... and you will BE the Last Starfighter...

[rubberpoultry]

I'm still waiting on various pieces of my machine to arrive. I'll try to document the process.

[lloydcom]

How were the controls represented on The las Starfighter?

Where they twin stick like battlezone?

I have the said game on my cab, but I'm a bit confused on the types of controls needed to play the game properly.

Any suggestions?

[Kaytrim]

How were the controls represented on The las Starfighter?

There are instructions in the readme file.  Here is a link to the download page.  I haven't played it yet but I looks interesting.  I liked the movie so this should be good as it seems to follow the movie.