Marquee needed by end of the week...possible? (suggestions on marquee,pic added)

[y2k600f4]

Well I have been working for 3 weeks, weekends and evenings on my williams cabinet that I am converting into MAME. I am approx 95% done including setting up the pc, creating custom CP, wiring, monitor installation, custom monitor bezel, cabinet repair and painting, installation of T-molding etc etc My goal is to have everything setup and ready for the "unveiling" Friday night in time for a party on Sat. However the missing component is the marquee. Sure it is useable without it, however it looks bare and lacks character. I am aware that mamemarquees.com is the way to go, that they have the best quality products and I don't doubt that at all. However I have had a difficult time contacting them and my window is now closed for receiving anything from them by Sat the latest and must revert to a local printer ? I have not located any ideal artwork to match my cabintet and CP color scheme (black cabinet, orange and blue T-molding and orange/blue/white buttons).  Any comments or suggestions would be of great help !!

[Jeff AMN]

If you really need it in a rush, there's nothing wrong with Kinkos. I printed my marquee there out of impatience and was actually VERY pleased with the results. Just have them print it on back lit film and tell them NOT to roll it up after printing. The lighted picture looks great in person. The conditions weren't good for taking the picture.

[Kaytrim]

Post a few pics of your current cab.  Then we might be able to help with the marquee selection.

TTFN

[y2k600f4]

Well here is a current pic that my wife was able to take for me just minutes ago, since I am at work. Please excuse the reflection in the monitor plexi !!!! The bezel around the monitor is actually black. Also right now the speaker screen is hanging down. Also pls note that the T-molding around the CP is actually a little darker blue ("light blue" from T-moulding.com). The trackball is a happs blue lighted translucent.  I'm looking for a marquee that will tie the black, orange and blue together.....any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. (also i know the CP is not the best layout, but it seems to work well...It took a long time to try to fit the original williams49 joysticks (large footprint), along with 6 buttons per player and try and center in a 3" Happs TB with mount !!! all in the original williams footprint !!!) Thanks !

[moriartyds]

If you want something quick and easy, create a black (or dark blue) background in Gimp/Photoshop/whatever you have available the same height/width of your marquee.  Using your graphics program put some Graphical Text across the top (leave at least 3/4" space) like:  "My Arcade "(you can find arcade fonts online).   Then take a screen shot of your favorite game or find some free arcade graphics online and insert it into your black background (below the text) using the layer functionality.    You may need to resize/crop the image to fit hte marquee shape.  If your graphic isn't big enough, consider putting in 2-3 pics spaced horizonatally across the marquee.  It's pretty easy to find marquee images online if you wanted to make a collage of them (see Mr. Do's page).

Print the images on photo paper (quickest) and assemble them together, or print them at Kinko's (better) and sandwich the graphic between two pieices of plexi (see your Lowes/Home depot). 

It won't be great, but it's a decent / quick stopgap until you get your mame marquee one printed.

[hng]

  I'm looking for a marquee that will tie the black, orange and blue together.....any suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

if you want it to look like garbage...








(sorry... you did say ANY ideas)

[Crowquill]

Usually a FedEx Kinko's can turn it around in less than a day. You also might check with local sign shops that might have a large-format printer and can print on a backlit material. The Kinko's prints can come out very nice. I work at Kinko's and printed mine there with awesome results. Backlit prints are $15/sq ft with a $25 minimum that may or may not be enforced. For a quick print, the "indoor banner" material doesn't work too bad either, but it gets a bit washed out when lit. It's somewhere around $7-$8/sq ft. Unfortunately I'm off the rest of the week or I could help you out with the printing.

If you don't have any artwork together for it, you might check out www.localarcade.com

In the homebrew section you'll see plenty of marquees. For the color scheme mentioned I'd probably go with either the orange arcade classics one or maybe the Defender-style Arcade one. I actually took a minute and edited the Defender one for you so that it's a bit more orange than red. Download it here. Either Kinko's or a sign shop should have no problem resizing any of these to fit your cabinet. Here's a preview of both:

EDIT: Hopefully this filehosting link will work now.

[y2k600f4]

Thanks Crowquill.....I was considering the "arcade classic" from www.localarcade.com and I think I will go with that one. Just was not sure about the resolution. I know it is 600 dpi but the size is only 8" x 2.5" and I need to stretch it to 26" x 7". Has anyone had this one printed ? Thanks.

[BradC]

If you print the 600 dpi image at 150 dpi, you'll have a source that's 32" x 10". At 150 dpi it should still look pretty decent, not perfect, but good.

[Crowquill]

And on the HP that we use at Kinko's you can go down to even about 100dpi with pretty fair results.

You should have no problems with the file. Hopefully you can get it printed in time.

[TOK]

Not that this helps you, but your cabinet looks like a Bally/Midway (Rampage, Power Drive and a few others) and not Williams. I have the same cab.

[Crowquill]

Not that this helps you, but your cabinet looks like a Bally/Midway (Rampage, Power Drive and a few others) and not Williams. I have the same cab.

With the orange ball-top joysticks, I'd guess Arch Rivals. That would mean they are 49-ways, though, so maybe not. I had forgotten Power Drive even existed. I used to play that game all the time at a local bowling alley.

[y2k600f4]

The cabinet is form an Arch Rivals (Bally/midway game), I re-used the williams49 way joysticks. I was guessing it was a williams cab becuase there are williams stickers etc all over the inside on the monitor, rom boards, cabinet etc....I must be worng, I thought williams was the manufacture and bally/midway was actually the game ?

[Crowquill]

It's hard to tell what was Williams and what was Bally Midway at that point. In 1988 Williams bought out Bally Midway. I think they experimented with releasing under all of their names. It wouldn't surprise me if Arch Rivals was designed as a Williams game and then released as Bally Midway. That would explain why boards are marked Williams and why it uses the same joysticks as Sinistar. WME was the parent company's name. I also never understood why Arch Rivals and Pigskin were Bally Midway but Hit the Ice was Williams as they're all VERY similar games.

How's the marquee coming along?