Well this project has been a long time coming.. probably something like the 24 years to be precise - the first time I played this game at my local bowling alley.
It was an amazing period and one day that stands out clearly in my mind - I was Star Wars mad and the thought of being able to pilot an X-Wing fighter in 3D was nearly too much..
But for me it wasn't (and isn't) just the game-play that makes it so desirable but also the awesome cockpit cabinet design with it's complex angular shapes draped in the most gorgeous side art depicting the evil Darth Vader and the powerful Death Star not to mention the battle between the X-Wing and Tie Fighters. Add to all of that the unique yoke controls that just ooze the battle of Endor and the futuristic molded plastic bezel and you start to understand the draw card that is the Star War Cockpit Cabinet... And thats just before you start to mention the sampled voices from the movie and the gorgeous, crisp vector graphics..
And so this cabinet has remained a dream of mine.. the one above all others that I HAD to have in my collection.. my "Holy Grail" of cabinets if you like..
The problem with that dream was that there were just under 2500 units produced world wide 24 years ago of which
maybe 50 or 60 might of made it down under. Then factor in the conversion "era" and the water damage that these cabs are so renowned for and the reality of finding one was never looking good..
So my only option was to start searching for the parts that made up a Star Wars Cockpit (SWC) and build my own.. just as I had done with my
Centipede and
Galaga scratch built cabs.. Now this has not been an easy task either and taken the best part of two years continually searching on Ebay and RGVAC for the required parts. As time progressed I managed to pick up a cockpit bezel in beautiful condition, the coin door complete with mechs, coin box and control panel, (mint) cockpit manuals and the seat joiner piece (rare!)
The biggest boost to the project came about when I found a guy on RGVAC in the US parting out a complete cabinet - I explained to him what I needed.. a price was set and about 1 week later the project was in full steam.. I now had every part of the cabinet including the yoke and rare cockpit control panel apart from the wooden cabinet and vector tube and game..
The next step (and probably the most difficult) was getting all the measurements of tha cabinet itself. Now I consider myself reasonably good at working out most cabs, but the more information and pictures I collected on the SWC, the more daunting it became.. The measurements and angles were critical in pulling this off and without some VERY accurate details, it would be at best, very difficult.. I struggled with people who were willing to help me - basically it was just all too hard for most but one local guys from the
Aussie Arcade Forums helped me out.. Well that is an understatement.. John went beyond the call of duty and created a template of his very nice SWC - the part that blew me away was he wanted nothing but my satisfaction as his reward - a true gentleman..!!!!
This along with my "stock photo files" collected from all over the net and even
modessitt dimensions (although a little off) enable me to construct some very accurate plans for my very own SWC - later I will transfer these measurement into CAD files for other would be SWC builders..
So now I had the dimensions and angles the next step was to transfer all of this to a couple of sheets of MDF and carefully cut it out..
The next step is to carefully block out the panels with the necessary set back - here is one side about 90% done. There remainder of the blocking will need to be done once the cabinet is essentially together. Having all the original parts like the bezel and control panel really help here..
I'll update some more in the next couple of days..
Hoops