Author Topic: Thoughts on Frogger control panel (Read 13252 times)

stephenp1983 · « **on:** March 18, 2007, 06:24:58 pm »

I'm in the initial planning stages of building a single player control panel that will be a present for my dad. His favorite game is frogger, and this will probably only be playing classics, however I wanted to add the option for 8way games as well. I am thinking about using one of the mag sticks for quick switching between 4-8 way. A trackball is going to go in the treed area on the right.

This is something I threw together in an hour so it isn't cleaned up or anything. Its also not the right size. The artwork as of now is 19.5 * 8 inches Just wanted opinions on the artwork:

csa3d · « **Reply #1 on:** March 18, 2007, 09:51:12 pm »

I really love frogger as well, and have contemplated having a dedicated machine. Though, looking up how the original cab looked, it's a fairly ugly design IMO. I like the frog logo, the tire track.. ok... but the who cab doesn't feel like it gels.

I'll be interested to see where you take this! So far I think you're design stays true to the original layout. Placing the ball in the tire track seems to me like there might be a better way to tie it into the artwork however.

-csa

4Aaron GE · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2007, 10:14:00 pm »

Simple (and kinda gross) way of integrating the ball into the design would be to get a red ball, and draw a squished frog around it in the treads.

csa3d · « **Reply #3 on:** March 18, 2007, 10:58:35 pm »

So imagine a stripping off the ugly 80s wood on the machine, and doing a bright green 'pickeling' to bring out the wood grain some.. changing some art colors... and here's where I think I would take a frogger if I had one laying around.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 19, 2007, 07:35:49 am »

I definitely agree on the original being less than great looking. I'm especially not found of the speckled grey background. Does anyone have any suggestions on using a solid color back ground instread of the greyish?

Crowquill · « **Reply #5 on:** March 19, 2007, 12:30:15 pm »

I'm digging the control panel. I'd suggest moving the tire graphic over to the middle where the buttons are. That way the buttons will stand out against it and you can use some type of graphic around the ball too. The layout of your CP should be good and universal. It's very similar to the one I'm using on my cocktail. (see below).

Quote from: csa3d on March 18, 2007, 10:58:35 pm

So imagine a stripping off the ugly 80s wood on the machine, and doing a bright green 'pickeling' to bring out the wood grain some.. changing some art colors... and here's where I think I would take a frogger if I had one laying around.

I'd ditch the woodgrain altogether. Actually I did--I painted mine red. My MAME cab was originally Crazy Kong which came in a cab that's a copy of the Sega cabs. It's close enough that a Frogger control panel fit on it. It's buried behind my JAMMA cab at the moment but here's a pic.

One of the things that's really missing when looking at photos of the Frogger artwork is that you can't tell that all the colors were pretty much fluorescent. The contrast against the gray and black is much greater in person. It still would've looked better against a cabinet of any other color. I favor the white version that Carnival used.

csa3d · « **Reply #6 on:** March 19, 2007, 02:23:00 pm »

Quote from: stephenp1983 on March 19, 2007, 07:35:49 am

I definitely agree on the original being less than great looking. I'm especially not found of the speckled grey background. Does anyone have any suggestions on using a solid color back ground instread of the greyish?

I was trying to change it to match the marquee or integrate it better into the sideart. Thus, I chose sky blue. I've got another variation going on where I was experimenting with doing a classier wood finish, such as dark burl wood and using a light maple wood for the control panel and the artwork area. Keep that wood on wood feel. This rendition needs more work, I am at a loss of idea for this at the moment. Part of me also wonders why I don't choose another cab to 'restore'. After all, I tend to keep wanting to customize it. Too bad frogger is one of my favorite games ever.

EDIT: Added another version below. Think I'm digging the dark wood and blue theme. Keep this up an Imma havta buy another cab

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 19, 2007, 06:17:22 pm »

I like the blue color. It reminds me of a pond or something that the frog has to cross.

So does anyone know of any high res graphics for frogger other that the ones at local arcade? The don't have one for the joystick/frogger logo its just a jpeg with that ugly background.

SodaPopinksi · « **Reply #8 on:** March 19, 2007, 07:16:41 pm »

I like the CP design, but I also like the blue CP too, like you said it seems like water. Might be cool to have frogs, lilly pads, insects, logs on the cp and make it look pond-like hehe.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 20, 2007, 07:27:58 am »

Definately going with the blue now that I look at it. I spent awhile yesterday trying to edit that background off the joystick frogs, but I'm not that great in photoshop.

If anyone has the frog joystick image in illustrator or by itself that would be great.

csa3d · « **Reply #10 on:** March 20, 2007, 09:22:59 am »

Quote from: stephenp1983 on March 20, 2007, 07:27:58 am

Definately going with the blue now that I look at it. I spent awhile yesterday trying to edit that background off the joystick frogs, but I'm not that great in photoshop.

If anyone has the frog joystick image in illustrator or by itself that would be great.

Do note I changed the woodgrain to be a tighter, much darker rich looking color. The blue will have a different feel on the yellowish thick grained default wood sides. I looked on local arcade for those frogs, appears they are not traced yet. If you find them, do let me know.

-csa

Crowquill · « **Reply #11 on:** March 20, 2007, 05:46:03 pm »

Quote from: stephenp1983 on March 20, 2007, 07:27:58 am

If anyone has the frog joystick image in illustrator or by itself that would be great.

It looks like the JPG is clean enough to trace it from. If you can wait a day or two I'll get the whole CPO together in Illustrator. I'm surprised to see it hasn't been done.

motorfish · « **Reply #12 on:** March 20, 2007, 06:27:43 pm »

Perhaps using flies as the graphics for the diagonal controls between the forg graphics for the joystick?

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 21, 2007, 07:36:44 am »

great idea motorfish, since it is going to be switchable to eightway.

I'm still holding on that someone has the joystick image vectorized already.

More Cowbell · « **Reply #14 on:** March 21, 2007, 03:13:47 pm »

If it's mostly to play the classic games, is there a need for 6 buttons? With less buttons it could give you more room for graphics. My $.02.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 21, 2007, 07:06:46 pm »

Well my dad would only be playing classics, but I might want to pick it up every now and then for a game of street fighter or something.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #16 on:** March 23, 2007, 05:40:27 pm »

Bump anyone possible have that joystick image vectorized?

Crowquill · « **Reply #17 on:** March 23, 2007, 07:49:55 pm »

Sorry--computer's been down for the last 2 days. I've never had so much trouble with MacOS, much less all at once.

On the plus side I got some more done on my cocktail cab.

I'd barely gotten started on it. It's not that complicated, though, so I should have it wrapped up by Monday. Unfortunately, the weekends are a little busy for me.

Timoe · « **Reply #18 on:** March 25, 2007, 05:46:46 pm »

oooop, thread hijack

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 29, 2007, 08:23:44 am »

Alright Tim here is what I have so far. Like I said its a little different than your original design, and you may not like it. Just let me know what you think. If you want me to go more like your orignial design let me know.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 29, 2007, 09:33:15 pm »

Here is a little bit of a different design as well. I can take out most of the stuff on the images as well. For instances I could remove the midway words or whatever. I put black buttons in here just for my reference when working. I'll probably just add x's on the final.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 29, 2007, 09:34:38 pm »

I just noticed I used the wrong marquee image I was going for the MS pacman not the multi pac I'll change it later.

csa3d · « **Reply #22 on:** March 30, 2007, 12:26:55 am »

Quote from: stephenp1983 on March 29, 2007, 09:34:38 pm

I just noticed I used the wrong marquee image I was going for the MS pacman not the multi pac I'll change it later.

Am I the only one wondering what happened to the Frogger thread?

Timoe · « **Reply #23 on:** March 30, 2007, 12:37:25 am »

oop. Stephen is helping me with some artwork. We prolly shouldhave started a new thread.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #24 on:** March 30, 2007, 08:05:08 am »

Yeah I kinda put the frogger stuff on hold for the moment. I'm trying to finder some better images to work with that I have, but not much luck.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #25 on:** March 31, 2007, 10:41:52 am »

Here is an update on the frogger design:

csa3d · « **Reply #26 on:** March 31, 2007, 02:40:40 pm »

Quote from: stephenp1983 on March 31, 2007, 10:41:52 am

Here is an update on the frogger design:

Are you putting a tiny button in the "O" of Frogger? If not, don't forget to fill that in with blud or yellow. I feel that you could take another pass over this to make the various parts feel like they were made to fit together. IE: The yellow tire tracks feel added on, the frogs feel like they float. Some minor striping or something could tie it all in. Anyone else have idea for that?

Keep 'em coming!

-csa

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #27 on:** March 31, 2007, 03:11:14 pm »

Alright I have made some changes, and I think it looks alot better. I agree that it just didn't flow before. With the design below, I left it open for opinion. Which frog should I use for the street. I will probably change the street to dashes as well, but remember a trackball is going to go on it.

Also note the stuff to the side is just things I am working with they will be taken off. Also there is another white stripe on the right you can't see it though.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #28 on:** March 31, 2007, 03:17:40 pm »

Here is a better shot of what I've changed it to.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #29 on:** March 31, 2007, 04:09:22 pm »

Tim I have extracted the colors from your example and added them here. Next what I will do is add the text to the admin buttons. Let me know if you like this better.

Timoe · « **Reply #30 on:** April 06, 2007, 08:32:49 pm »

Blue - the blue inside the ghosts is really good.

Yellow - the yellow inside the ghosts is also ideal.

Pink - for the pink, whatever the original MsPac pink is would work.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

modessitt · « **Reply #31 on:** April 07, 2007, 03:53:12 am »

Per yer Frogger...

I like the Blue look. Since it does make it look like your frogs are floating, why not set them on lily pads?

I'd kind of like to see the blue with the original tire treads just for comparison. Why not do away with the tire treads all together, Put a large frog there instead, and put an illuminated green trackball in the middle of his back? Oh, and use a green ball joystick?

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #32 on:** April 07, 2007, 02:00:09 pm »

Tim do you know anywhere I can get a plain button templete that has the proper spacing between buttons. I just play the ones up there by eye, so If I can't find one I'll probably just place x's there instead.

I'm going to try a couple of things on the frogger panel per modessitt's suggestions.

bfauska · « **Reply #33 on:** April 07, 2007, 03:06:35 pm »

I'm not Tim, but here is a post in my thread with a pdf of my button layout. You are free to use it if you like. I really like the look of both of these CPs by the way, authentic styling while using an updated design.
My button layout

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #34 on:** April 07, 2007, 05:13:05 pm »

Thanks for the link, I appreciate it. It will help alot.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #35 on:** April 07, 2007, 06:16:54 pm »

Update for Tim: So this is what I have so far, I used the button layout that was provided by bfauska (thanks again). Tim if you don't like it let me know. I was having some weird problem in illustrator, so I exported to photoshop for now.

If you would please find out the best format to send it to scott at mame marquees or whereever you want it printed. Find out if he wants it in an illustrator file, photoshop file or what. Also find out what dpi is best. I have it at 300, but can take it down to 150 too. Here is what I have so far, I will clean up the edges when we finalize:

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #36 on:** April 07, 2007, 06:18:38 pm »

Alright you can't really see it well there, if you want I'll send you the jpeg so you can see it better.

bfauska · « **Reply #37 on:** April 07, 2007, 08:29:49 pm »

I'm still not Tim and it's his input you are after, but... I think I would align the buttons so that the end buttons are lined up horizontally. I have them at the angle in the drawing but I don't think it would feel any different if they were flat, and it would probably look better. Just my 2 cents.

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #38 on:** April 07, 2007, 08:46:30 pm »

Yeah let me try that out and see how it works thanks for the input

stephenp1983 · « **Reply #39 on:** April 07, 2007, 08:56:09 pm »

Just made the change with the buttons, and I think it looks alot better:


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