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Plans for a cabinet ID website

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Crowquill:

As much fun as they can be, it seems quite often that there are the "what was this originally" posts for some beat-up converted all-black cabinet. Many times they are common cabinets such as a Centipede or a Dynamo cab. So I thought it might be useful to put together an organized site of cabinet silhouettes to help identify conversion cabs. I'm thinking the right side is probably the most identifiable.

I'd like to eventually get it to be fairly comprehensive (a hundred or so designs at least), but even if you can't find the exact shape of your cab, then you might be able to find a similar design from the same manufacturer that would point you in the right direction. I'd also like to point out the variations between similar cabs when possible. What is the difference between a Centipede cab and a Dig Dug cab? KLOV will always be cross-referenced.

While the first version will probably basic HTML pages, I'd love to do a flash based version that would be more intuitive. I figure cabinets have to at least be categorized by manufacturer and type (upright, cocktail, etc). Year would be helpful too.

The silhouettes will just be traces of photos in Illustrator. Should be pretty quick to do. Due to perspective in the photos, it's going to be hard to make it EXACT, but they should be close enough for the purpose of ID'ing a cab.

Below are a few to show what I'm talking about. I'm still debating how big the silhouettes need to be to show enough detail.  I'm thinking that keeping the cabinets' size relative to each other might be better for IDing purposes.

How many can you ID?

RayB:


--- Quote from: Crowquill on May 05, 2007, 01:26:46 am --- I'd also like to point out the variations between similar cabs when possible. What is the difference between a Centipede cab and a Dig Dug cab? KLOV will always be cross-referenced.
--- End quote ---
This could be fun! Centipede, Dig Dug and Kangaroo all share same design, but a Centipede has different coin door than Dig Dug and Kangaroo, leaving the latter too difficult to distinguish.

Crowquill:


--- Quote from: RayB on May 05, 2007, 07:16:38 pm ---
--- Quote from: Crowquill on May 05, 2007, 01:26:46 am --- I'd also like to point out the variations between similar cabs when possible. What is the difference between a Centipede cab and a Dig Dug cab? KLOV will always be cross-referenced.
--- End quote ---
This could be fun! Centipede, Dig Dug and Kangaroo all share same design, but a Centipede has different coin door than Dig Dug and Kangaroo, leaving the latter too difficult to distinguish.

--- End quote ---

Don't forget Arabian. Food Fight is also based on the same design, but they added the shape of the food to the outline of the cab. Food Fight is always the crappiest looking conversion cabinets imaginable.

You've got a good point on the coin doors. They can also be a good indicator when identifying a cab. I just realized the other day that pretty much all of the Sente cabs use the "midway" coin door. I guess it's really the "Bally" coin door after all.

Does anyone think having a dedicated resource for this type of info would be useful?

karlpenney:

I would say that a site with this info would definitely be useful.  I have been looking myself for dimensional information regarding the differences between the Centipede, Dig Dug and Kangaroo cabs, but so far have not found anything.  The side panel profiles are slightly different between them.

Crowquill:

And those are just one example. This thread on Nintendo cabinets is also along those lines:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=54939.0

The worst part is that I don't have that many cabinets at my disposal. I made it a point to take pictures of the profile of several cabinets at the auction I went to today. But realistically this will start out very simplified. Someone can find a silhouette that matches their black (or whatever) conversion cab. They will then know the general type and manufacturer, and known cabs that use that style. Just like any database, it'll take some time and some input to grow and become increasingly more useful.

What little bits of info pop up is just really scattered. A couple weeks ago, Jeff AMN picked up a cabinet converted to Bubble Bobble. At first glance it appeared to be a Pac-Man/Galaxian cab but was originally Rally-X.  Pac-Fan in passing mentioned that Rally-X cabinets are about 6" less deep than the vertical games. I'd just like to get all of this info consolidated eventually.

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