Galaga Bartop 19" LCD Rotating Display *UPDATED 11/26/12*

[Ritalin]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
Ok, so my New Year's resolution is to build an arcade cabinet. After reviewing many of the options available my end space is limited so I want to go with a bartop/tabletop arcade cabinet.

This will be made on the cheap. It will be powered by old computer parts lying around the house.
They are:

Toshiba Satellite 2805-S202
PIII @ 500 Mhz
256MB RAM
10 GB HD
Dell 1905 Ultrasharp 19" LCD (Pretty big for a bartop I know)
Old External PC Speakers

Powered by:
MAME 0.65
MaLa v1.04 front end

Luckily I've been reading these forums a lot and have installed tiny XP on the lappy, with all games running smoothly. The key factor of this bartop is that I'd like to make the screen rotate (manually) between vertical and horizontal.

Here is a simple sketch of the basic cab layout (ignore the missing trackball on the left):



The image on the left is in the vertical orientation.
The image on the right has the display rotated in the horizontal orientation.

Since this is a bartop/tabletop, I've disassembled the laptop and taken out all non-essential parts. The LAN, floppy, laptop display, internal speakers, touchpad and internal keyboard are all gone. I want this baby to be as light as possible and not a power hog.


Setup running in the vertical mode


Setup running in the horizontal mode

Games are running VERY smoothly. So far, so good.
The Dell 1905 LCD is great too because it's made to rotate. Visual angles don't have many dead or dull spots and I figure I could use the mounting bracket inside the cab for the swivel.

CONTROL PANEL QUESTION:
I'm a bit new to all of this and would like some input on the controls I should include. Again, this is a small tabletop, but because of the rotating LCD and the size of the LCD itself, it will likely bit a bit wider than expected. Control panel width will be about 23" wide. Is that too small for two player controls?

I was thinking a Player 1 joystick on the left, three buttons for player 1, then a trackball in the middle, then a Player 2 joystick with three buttons for player 2 (as shown in sketch).

Is this control setup too ambitious for a smaller setup?
Any input is appreciated as I still don't know how many buttons I truly need for each player, etc.

That's it for now.
This project has officially been launched!

EDIT: This originally started as a rotating display project. For a bartop, the 19" LCD was just too big for cab to look good (too wide.) I'll save teh rotation idea for my full stand up cab someday.

EDIT 2: I just can't give it up. The monitor rotation is back on.

[Singapura]

Since this is a table/bartop you might want to consider making a detachable panel for the trackball. Things get really crowded with 2 joysticks and a trackball and you'll want a bit of space to comfortably spin the ball.

[dmworking247]

Hi Ritalin,

Your plan concepts look very close to my own bartops that I'm nearing completion of at the moment... you might want to look at my project thread for some ideas.

You're likely to find if you're going for a 'rotating' LCD that you'll end up with a larger (especially taller) bartop than you planned on. Since you're going for a manually rotating LCD (at first, I was going motorised),  I would suggest the method i'm going to use which is a bezel with the LCD mounted on the back of it that you can pull out, rotate, and put back in easily. If you go for rotation INSIDE the cabinet, you need to consider a LOT of extra room because the LCD when halfway rotated is diagonally longer than the width.

If you're stuck on having a trackball I also second the recommendation to do a removable control panel. 23" is NOT big enough for 2 player controls and a trackball in the middle... for that matter its going to feel cramped enough for just 2 player controls even with only 3 buttons each.  My bartops will be able to do virtually everything my upright can do but two players will never be its strong point, although I can plug two 'single player' control panels in at the same time (due to them being removable).

I'd also make sure you test ALL the games you're likely to want to play with that configuration, as a PIII500 is not going to be able to run Mortal Kombat, Golden Tee, anything 3D, etc... even things like Snow Bros or Bubble Bobble might choke a bit when the screen gets busy (my first config was a PIII 600 and I recently upgraded it to a P4 1.7ghz for that reason). Similarly you'll quickly run out of room with a 10gb drive unless you're going to be selective with the games you put on it.

Good luck with your project, I look forward to watching your progress since its a very close theme to my own (I hope for my own sake I beat you though since my projects have been going for months )

[DaOld Man]

That machine will run Alien Vs prediator? When I built my first machine, I tried a P3 550 mhz and it wouldnt run hardly any of the newer games. Even Galaga 88 was so choppy it wasnt playable. I wound up going with an AMD 950 mhz, and I plan to change it out to a 2.4 ghz P4 this spring.
Anyway, looks like you are off to a good start.
I suggest you go ahead and put a motor on the monitor. I dont think it will take up that much more room.

[leapinlew]

With a 19" bartop - I wouldn't even worry about rotating the monitor for vertical games. They'll display of decent size already. My 2 player bartop uses a 24" CP and it's the smallest I would go for a 2 player cabinet.

2 player bartop:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65651.0

Galaga Themed small bartop:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68683.0
I also used a laptop for this project.

My advice would be to ditch the rotating idea. It'll force you to build a cabinet with a very large monitor enclosure to deal with the rotation, or the rotation will be such a pain you'll quit doing it. Put it behind some smoked plexi and you won't even notice the wasted space on the monitor.

[Ritalin]

Since this is a table/bartop you might want to consider making a detachable panel for the trackball. Things get really crowded with 2 joysticks and a trackball and you'll want a bit of space to comfortably spin the ball.

Thanks for the suggestion, and a good one at that.
Is there a link to a connector to purchase for making detachable controls?

I have no problem even making the two-player controls detachable as a removable "side-car" when needed.

[Ritalin]

dmworking247, thanks for the link and excellent. Wow, your project was eerily similar, (except I can already tell that you have much much much better woodworking skills than I will ever have.

It's starting to sound more and more like detachable controls would be the way to go for a trackball or two player controls. Since there's something "special" about a trackball mounted on the fixed controls, I think the idea of making all two players controls detachable is a much better idea.

Your point about making the display fixed for manual rotation also makes sense.
I could just make this thing vertical and be done with it, but Aliens and Robocop look so good in the horizontal mode!

As for the performance of the machine, I'm a computer geek and I've spent a frustrating week getting everything running VERY smoothly. After trying out SpyStyle's DOS boot disk, Gamelauncher, MAME32 and others, the very best way to get things running smoothly for me was to use Tiny Windows XP with the Explorer interface completely removed from Windows, and an old version of MAME (in this case, MAME 0.65) I tried all sorts of flavors and options, and this works perfectly. I also needed to install MAME 0.85 just to have MAME create xml files for MALA, and then go back to using MAME 0.65.

Performance is shockingly good, especially considering this laptop is driving an external display at a high resolution.

[Ritalin]

Galaga Themed small bartop:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68683.0
I also used a laptop for this project.

My advice would be to ditch the rotating idea. It'll force you to build a cabinet with a very large monitor enclosure to deal with the rotation, or the rotation will be such a pain you'll quit doing it. Put it behind some smoked plexi and you won't even notice the wasted space on the monitor.

You're the one who got me addicted to this stuff! Yes you!
That Galaga theme is exactly what pushed me over the edge into an actual build. I honestly think that's the coolest project I've ever seen here. Yours is really small, and excellent, but I think I want to essentially just expand the scale to accommodate my 19" LCD.

Everyone is right about the rotation. I should give it up and just make it vertical.
However, it's like pocket kings in Texas Hold 'Em that you just can't fold when an ace comes on the flop and you know you're probably beat. I'm struggling here!

[IG-88]

"....the very best way to get things running smoothly for me was to use Tiny Windows XP with the Explorer interface completely removed from Windows, ......"

A little off topic here but would you mind describing a little on how you did that? I got a copy of TinyXP. What else did you do to it? Did you have any driver issues? As others have said, those are some tough games to run on such a low spec machine, I'm impressed. 

[Ritalin]

"....the very best way to get things running smoothly for me was to use Tiny Windows XP with the Explorer interface completely removed from Windows, ......"

A little off topic here but would you mind describing a little on how you did that? I got a copy of TinyXP. What else did you do to it? Did you have any driver issues? As others have said, those are some tough games to run on such a low spec machine, I'm impressed. 

Actually, if you're using TinyXP, you're all set. The TinyXP install CD has explorer removed already. It's setup to dramatically reduce CPU usage by Windows. For me it was a struggle of finding the exact combo of an OS and and old MAME version and settings to get things working. I tried doing DOS only then Win 98 SE and then finally settled on TinyXP when I was really impressed with the performance.

For my setup, MAME 0.65 was the one I needed to use, but I had to use MAME 0.85 (I think...it was a later version of MAME) for a brief moment to generate XML files to use with MALA.

Also the setting that drove me CRAZY trying to figure out was to turn OFF the setting for "Stretch using Hardware." When I had this on (it's on by default) the resolution was always blurry. Turning it off did the trick.

Hope any of this info helps.

[leapinlew]

I use TinyXP and the newest version of MAME that allows the skip claimers to be set. I use PIII 600mhz with 256-512mb of ram and they run most everything at full speed.

Whats the side profile of this machine going to be? To be Galaga themed, I think it's important to incorporate both the top curve and the point at the CP.

[gonzo90017]

I really hope you stick with  the rotating monitor.

[weisshaupt]

You may want to check out my post and this link :

https://share.adobe.com/adc/adc.do?docid=68037683-c164-11dc-be2b-2b3a237bf757

You can rotate the monitor in a pretty small space and at pretty low cost.  To keep the cabinet small, I woul be tempted to simply cut slots in the side that allow the monitor to pass through as it rotates around.  You could even make spring loaded doors that pop open or control them using a servo

Also, the Velcro panel mounting I did might also be adapatble to a smaller cabinet to allow you to swap out controls easily..

Cheers!

[javeryh]

You may want to check out my post and this link :

https://share.adobe.com/adc/adc.do?docid=68037683-c164-11dc-be2b-2b3a237bf757

You can rotate the monitor in a pretty small space and at pretty low cost.  To keep the cabinet small, I woul be tempted to simply cut slots in the side that allow the monitor to pass through as it rotates around.  You could even make spring loaded doors that pop open or control them using a servo

Also, the Velcro panel mounting I did might also be adapatble to a smaller cabinet to allow you to swap out controls easily..

Cheers!

Holy bananas!   

[Ritalin]

I use TinyXP and the newest version of MAME that allows the skip claimers to be set. I use PIII 600mhz with 256-512mb of ram and they run most everything at full speed.

Whats the side profile of this machine going to be? To be Galaga themed, I think it's important to incorporate both the top curve and the point at the CP.

What exactly is the "skip claimers" setting?

I totally agree. My sketch was crude, but I'm going for the same curve/proportions of a real Galaga cabinet.
I love the look of the real ones, so that's why I want to mirror it in a smaller tabletop cab.

[Ritalin]

I really hope you stick with  the rotating monitor.

Me too.
I just can't give it up.

I tried some rough proportions that would make my bartop 23" wide and 39" tall if I stick with the rotating display.
I have all the software setup in Mala for horizontal/vertical and I have an LCD that's made to be rotated and looks great, complete with the rotating swivel mount. It would be a shame to ditch the idea simply because of my lack of woodworking skills.

Plus, it will be THAT much more rewarding if I pull it off.

[Ritalin]

To keep the cabinet small, I woul be tempted to simply cut slots in the side that allow the monitor to pass through as it rotates around.

Excellent, excellent suggestion.

I was thinking more about the rotation, and my goal would be to have a long dowel go straight trough to the back of the cabinet, with a mini turning steering wheel in the back. This way the front and sides would not need a lever or something to pull to manually turn it.

Space inside should not be a concern because I'm running this from a dismantled laptop and using an LCD instead of a CRT.

I like about the idea of the slots and the potential to even mask them visually with overlay artwork and careful cutting. Thanks.

[Ritalin]

I use TinyXP and the newest version of MAME that allows the skip claimers to be set. I use PIII 600mhz with 256-512mb of ram and they run most everything at full speed.

Whats the side profile of this machine going to be? To be Galaga themed, I think it's important to incorporate both the top curve and the point at the CP.

leapinlew, I noticed that you included a pic of the Galaga side panel, complete with measurements of the front control panel, etc. Thanks!

Are these found somewhere online?

My goal is to make the exact same curves and proportions of this, so if you have any additional images/measurements of this bartop image you included, I would really appreciate it if you could post them, thanks!

[bfauska]

However, it's like pocket kings in Texas Hold 'Em that you just can't fold when an ace comes on the flop and you know you're probably beat.

GOD I HATE THAT.

[leapinlew]

I use TinyXP and the newest version of MAME that allows the skip claimers to be set. I use PIII 600mhz with 256-512mb of ram and they run most everything at full speed.

Whats the side profile of this machine going to be? To be Galaga themed, I think it's important to incorporate both the top curve and the point at the CP.

leapinlew, I noticed that you included a pic of the Galaga side panel, complete with measurements of the front control panel, etc. Thanks!

Are these found somewhere online?

My goal is to make the exact same curves and proportions of this, so if you have any additional images/measurements of this bartop image you included, I would really appreciate it if you could post them, thanks!

I downloaded it from somewhere. I'd like to give credit where credit is due, but I do not know who designed it. Really it's just the top of the Galaga machine.

What you want to do is print out a copy of that to size (I used visio to print out across many sheets of normal paper). And when you get the size you want - trace it and cut it. Here is a link to my multi-williams build. You only need to read the 2nd post to know what I'm talking about

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=60017.msg593094#msg593094

[Ritalin]

Got it, thanks, leapinlew.

I use Illustrator all the time, so I'll place the graphic into Illustrator and do exactly what you said from your link (scale up, print, cut). Thanks again.

[weisshaupt]

[I was thinking more about the rotation, and my goal would be to have a long dowel go straight trough to the back of the cabinet, with a mini turning steering wheel in the back. This way the front and sides would not need a lever or something to pull to manually turn it.

Using a manual method will work, but depending on the friction in your mount you may need a Brake to keep the monitor from moving as people are playing and shaking the Cabinet, or just under its own weight (my monitor was bottom heavy to the 4x3 position)

 The other thing I found was that a LCD monitor is easy to turn if you grab the outside-- not so easy if you try to turn it from the center. One of my first attempts used a belt and and a pulley, and I simply couldn't get enough torque with my motor to move it.. then it tried to move it by hand... it was really, really hard.  Torque is God. If you plan on moving this on a dowel arrangement, plan on having a large wheel (greater than 16 inches) on the back . Also, I imagine a large wheel will assist in  feeling ones way to the back of a of the cabinet to turn it -- unless it literally is going to be on a "bar top" and you can just walk behind the bar.
  I am not sure what Mala lets you do (i used 3d arcade), but you may consider letting the PC do the turning. I wrote an .exe file to turn things via the parallel port automatically based on the mame info fo rthe game, and it uses "off the shelf" electronics. 20 Solder connections, and you are done..

Also,  It has a lot of WOW factor when it happens (guests are always somewhat surprised when they select a game and the monitor starts moving. ) It also has the benefit of applying a brake to the motor wheel once its dione moving  so the monitor is likely to stay where it stops.

[Ritalin]

Excellent points. An automatic motorized rotation mechanism controlled by the PC would be AMAZING, but I have absolutely NO idea how I would pull that off.

I'll definitely keep your suggestion in mind about maximizing the amount of torque. Good point. I really don't want to ditch the idea of a rotating display, so even if I run into issues with a back wheel idea, even if I have to use a side lever, that to me if better than no rotation at all.

[weisshaupt]

Excellent points. An automatic motorized rotation mechanism controlled by the PC would be AMAZING, but I have absolutely NO idea how I would pull that off.

Just copy mine?  Our two projects are very similar,  the mechanism I used is pretty simple, and I am certainly willing to help you get it done. What part of the project seems difficult? If its the electronics work, I can easily order the parts, build them and ship the driver to you in an envelope at cost. (it would take me about 20 minutes to solder it all together)  The only part I am not sure of is how your front end would call my driver program with the required parameter for each game (3x4 or 4x3) I can modify the program to use different values of course. I could probably even make it parse through Mame Info to get the right parm, but I am not sure how gracefully that would work, as you would have to call MAME from a BAT file so my program could see what game was being loaded....


On an unrelated note... there is one other caution I forgot to mention--- Make sure Your ANSI mounting holes are dead center if you are using a standard monitor mount. Mine were not, so the screen ended up almost an inch to the right of center when the monitor rotated. I said a couple of curse words and described what an Idiot I was, and then proceeded to design a new mount....

[Ritalin]

weisshaupt, that's an incredibly generous offer. Yes, my biggest concern is the electronics works as well as getting things to work properly with MALA. I think what I'd like to do is simply put any automatic motorized rotation mechanism controlled by the PC on hold for a bit. I've read how many others ran into problems just having a rotating display in their bartops, so if I add this to the mix, it may be a bit overwhelming for a newbie like myself. But seriously, thank you so much for the offer of your time and experience and if I get the manual version working properly, I may be able to modify it for automated rotation later on down the road.

[Ritalin]

Ok, so based on the artwork sample provided by leapinlew, (thanks!) I've been playing around with some dimensions and proportions for the galaga bartop. Here's what I tentatively came up with using Illustrator (I reduced the depth a bit, etc.):



One issue is that the LCD I have for free is great but pretty big for a bartop. It's a 19" 4:3 LCD. This means I think I want to recess it back into the cabinet a bit so that it isn't too "in your face" during gameplay. Also, the closer I can get it to the back, the more torque I would have with a rear wheel during rotation from vertical/horizontal, etc. Would it be crazy to move it even farther back? Any thoughts on this?

I have the LCD tilted to 20°.

Anyone have any thoughts on whether lowering the display so it's actually positioned below the control is a bad idea? For example, maybe having the bottom of the LCD be just three inches above the base of the unit, so you need to really look inside and get in the game.

Also, by my proportions above, the marquee would be just over 4 inches in height. Is this too small for a bartop that is 27" in height total?

I have some wiggle room to work with by lowering the LCD, but I really would like some input from those who have built cabs before since I don't want it looking too disproportionate. Thanks.

[dmworking247]

Mala can switch orientations on a button press, and I'm pretty sure it can launch MAME in the orientation that matches the layout.

ie if Mala is horizontal when you launch MAME, mame will have the game horizontal, and vertical if Mala is vertical.

An idea I'm toying with is having a 'sliding switch' on the back of the bezel, which is basically just a ball bearing in a tube... when you turn the bezel it would roll down and 'press' the button which would automatically rotate Mala's display (and thus MAME when you launched it).

Whether you motorise the rotating mechanism, rotate it manually, or use a 'pull out, rotate, put back in' method like I am with my bartops... I think this is a novel way of easily rotating the orientation of the screen 'automagically' without pushing any buttons.

[Ritalin]

Ok, so this weekend I got to brainstorm with my dad about this cabinet I'm preparing to build. After telling him I wanted to rotate the display and using words like "steering wheel", "torque" and "automatic mechanisms" my dad broke things down like only he can. He just said, "Woah, why go through all of that? Why not just build a frame and then have a door open on the side so you can turn it?"

What he said made perfect sense. This low-tech solution solves all rotation problems and even allows me to use the existing stand I have for the LCD!

Essentially this is an interior frame built from 2x2s, with a fixed shelf for the top, marquee bottom, and the base. The Galaga curved sides will be cut from 3/4" plywood. They will be fixed on the left, but on the right, the Galagaesque curved side will open on a hinge like a door to allow me to reach inside and rotate the LCD manually. This avoids all issues with a steering wheel, etc. (An automated mechanism would be the best alternative and I really do appreciate the suggestions, but I feel that's frankly over my head with no skills at all in woodworking or wiring.)

So I sketched out an idea of my updated plans.
(Please excuse the crude sketch, but now the revised design concept might make more sense:)




I may not make the door go all the way to the top, but rather stop at the bottom of the marquee shelf.

There will be a circular bezel to allow for vertical or horizontal orientation.
With the side door, turning it from the right sound be a snap.
I already have Mala setup for vertical/horizontal orientation via the keyboard (for now) and can create custom game lists for vertical or horizontal games.

I'm estimating a width just over 23" for the control panel.
With this type of width (23") does anyone have a suggested button layout they could recommend for this bartop?

I have the following on order:
OMNI-Stik PRODIGY (TM) Arcade Joystick System
TurboTwist 2™ Arcade Spinner Control
HAPP CONTROLS 3" USB TRACKBALL
KeyWiz-ST
Assorted buttons..lots!

I would like to eventually make a Player 2 control panel w/joystick more like a "side car" that can be plugged in via cat-5 cable on a side port. So for now, I'm thinking that the full 23" should be devoted to player 1 controls/buttons.
The player 1 & 2 along with a coin button will be fond on the front base much like the excellent layout provided by leapinlew's galaga themed bartop.

But for now, any suggestions are appreciated with the button layout, etc. Thanks.

[dmworking247]

Novel idea for rotating the screen, but you're going to need to ensure you still have enough structural support for the rest of the cabinet now that your back wall isn't attached.

I still think the 'remove secured bezel, rotate and re-insert' method allows you a much bigger screen, but then if your cabinet is going to be 23" wide thats a WIDE bartop so you shouldnt have any problems (although it will be tall).

As for the CP layout, again if its 23" then you could get away with 2 player 6 button... but if you want a trackball, and if you are going for removable/interchangeable control panels, I'd suggest your main control panel is a 1 player, 6 button, with a right handed trackball (re-use the p1 buttons), and maybe a spinner above the trackball if it can fit (thats what I'm doing with one of my bartops but I'm using a micro-optical trackball).

[LeedsFan]

I'm also in the process of planning a bartop using an old laptop. But I read on the FAQ of TinyXP that it couldn't be used on laptops as there was no built in hardware support for laptop batteries. Of course I won't be bothering with batteries as it will be mains use only... but I was thinking that maybe TinyXP might still not operate on a laptop if it enounters a laptop BIOS or whatever. I'm not too technically minded with PCs I'm afraid. But you seem to have no issues with it so far?

EDIT:  Sorry Ritalin... I see you posted in my Q on this in the software forum. Thanks!  I will give this a shot then. 

[IG-88]

Just curious, but why are you going to use 3/4" ply on this thing? 1/2" would be alot lighter and plenty strong.

[Ritalin]

Novel idea for rotating the screen, but you're going to need to ensure you still have enough structural support for the rest of the cabinet now that your back wall isn't attached.

Thanks for your reply. Actually, the back wall will be attached. It was hard to sketch out, but essentially it will be a frame of 2x2s, with just the right side door on a hinge for opening. This will allow access for turning, but also allow for other troubleshooting in case I need to get inside the thing. I could make the back also open up as well I guess, but it probably will not be needed (famous last words I know.)

[Ritalin]

Just curious, but why are you going to use 3/4" ply on this thing? 1/2" would be alot lighter and plenty strong.

Good point. I debated over this for a bit and went with 3/4" for the following reasons:

* I'm using a super light gutted laptop as the engine for this thing along side a really light LCD, and I actually needed the extra weight. If I make the control panel two player, I didn't want the thing to be too light.

* Personally, I love the look of wider 3/4" t-molding on the edges. The smaller t-molding with this pretty large bartop would look disproportionate I think. This is a big bartop due to the size of the display I'm using.

The bezel will be 1/4" oak and my goal is to make the circular bezel fit perfectly BEHIND triangular matting (also made of 1/4" oak. Then I want to use bezel artwork to tie it all together. My goal is to make it so that when it's rotated, there isn't a clear indication that some art is "on its side". Galaga has some great bezel artwork (thanks to localarcade.com) that I will clean up in Photoshop and custom make so that the moons and scorpions and things will look correct either horizontal or vertical.

[leapinlew]

Just curious, but why are you going to use 3/4" ply on this thing? 1/2" would be alot lighter and plenty strong.

Good point. I debated over this for a bit and went with 3/4" for the following reasons:

I'll support the use of 3/4". The screws will have more to bite into. I've built with 1/2" and it's not fun to work with.

[IG-88]

Just curious, but why are you going to use 3/4" ply on this thing? 1/2" would be alot lighter and plenty strong.

Good point. I debated over this for a bit and went with 3/4" for the following reasons:

I'll support the use of 3/4". The screws will have more to bite into. I've built with 1/2" and it's not fun to work with.

I hear ya. It's just a matter of preference I guess. I can't stand working with that thick heavy stuff.   

[Ritalin]

I've created some custom Windows XP boot screens for my galaga bartop project.
I thought I'd share them since others may want to use them as well. (it's all about sharing!)

These are easily added to your Windows XP system by doing the following:

Go to My Computer >Properties >Advanced >Startup and Recovery >Settings. Select “Edit startup options file”. Add “ /bootlogo /noguiboot” to your default operating system path (there must be a space between each switch)

It will look something like this:



Then download the custom 16-color 640 x 480 pixel BMP files I created in a ZIP file to this post.
Change the name of the file you want to use to "boot.bmp” and add it to your WINDOWS directory.
(I can't upload bmp files directly here, and I included a horizontal and vertical option.

JPG files below are for PREVIEW only and are full color JPGs
The ZIP file contains the 16 color bmp files you will need.

Enjoy!

[leapinlew]

Does that work? I can never get it to work...

Nice job sharing. 

[Ritalin]

It worked perfectly the very first time I tried it with Windows XP.
At first I didn't know where to add the line of text, because many instructions don't officially show where for noob's like me, so that's why I included the screen shot.

I'm officially using "TinyXP".

Worked great, the only drawback is that you don't see the moving progress bar, but I didn't want to use a third party utility for this. Just a simple text hack/graphic.

Hope someone gets some use out of this.

[Ritalin]

Ok, being a total woodworking novice, I finally broke ground and made my first cuts for this project.

First I created the template in Adobe Illustrator, printed each tabloid page sized @ 100%, and did page tiling to reproduce it:
(Bottom is approximately 22" and height is 27")



I first cut the two sides of 3/4" plywood separately with a jigsaw.
Then I clamped them together to see the small areas where the two pieces were off a bit.



After sanding them down evenly with a belt sander, the cuts are level and the curves came out pretty good.







Everything was even and I called it a night.
I'm happy with the results (dollar bill shown for scale):



After I use the router on it for the t-moulding, I'll clean up the edges with some plastic wood to give it a flush feel.

Since this was the first time I've ever used a jigsaw and belt sander, I'm pretty happy with the results.
That's all for now!

[leapinlew]

Looks good!

One thing Patrick pointed out to me is that a real galaga machine doesn't have as pointy of corners near the CP. I rounded mine and it still looks good and the T-molding applied a little easier.