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2nd Project - Metacab
metaHipster:
A scant few may dimly remember MetaCab Jr -- a (Taito's Elevator Action-inspired) retro styled vert cab I made by rebuilding a found discarded hull of a crappy Big Electronic Games cab.... This is still in need of a few minor details (funny how that happens once you can actually play on a cab before it's 100% done).
I am at long last ready to work on its more full-featured companion, a 2-player horizontal cab I'm going to call MetaCab. Don't ask me how Junior came before Sr. In retrospect it would have been way easier to tackle these the other way 'round. At any rate, having fully stripped down & rebuilt/reinforced/upgraded the cabinet for MetaCab Jr., I knew that this time around I wanted to start with a mostly assembled empty cabinet and focus primarily on frontend, control panel, and marquee.
I plan to include most emulators (or at least those systems I've owned ;) plus MAME. I'm going to be using Maximus Arcade this time since Mamewah proved to be such a right bastard to configure by hand. I may drop this on Metacab Jr. once I get some free time. It's a very nice FE and easy to use/skin/customize.
I started by finding this old black/white Taito cab (no monitor, gutted) for cheap thanks to some guy named Marty on Craig's List. Sorry for crappy phone pic.
I then touched up the black with a big stinky marker and cleaned up the white with a Magic Eraser. Looking good with just under 1 hr of time put into it (compared to the 30+ hrs I put into the other cab to get it this far and still not looking this cool side-panel-wise.
Tonight, I've just put the finishing touches on my first draft of a CP Overlay design. I went with an inverse stripe motif which should jive well and not be too distracting hopefully. My goal was to make use of lots of empty space but not make a big surfboard. So it felt not cramped and not imposing. More blathering about it at my blog post
I'm interested to hear what CP modifications folks recommend though i can't promise I'll put them into effect :) Also whether anyone thinks it's at all worth trying to fit two spinners and/or two trackballs (marble madness, rampart, some arkanoids, not many games that would use them from what I can think).
Click To Enlarge
surface tension:
Man, I love that side art. Great work on keeping the theme with the control panel.
metaHipster:
hey thanks, yeah I love the side art too. I think the general vibe of the CP art won't need to change much but upon mocking up what the CP would look like on the cabinet, I don't think it looks very elegant (see more blathering on this topic at my metacab blog)
Click to enlarge
Assuming I go instead with a T-shape like Ubercade's, anyone have any suggestions on where to put P1/P2/Pause/Quit/Coin1/Coin2 buttons? I'm thinking maybe put the Coin buttons on front face of cp box (left of the red pinball button). I did that on Metacab Jr and it's nice as you're reaching down center reminiscent of putting coins in the slot.
I see there's some room up by the trackball but I've had issues in the past with people rolling their hand off the ball & accidentally hitting QUIT to exit the game so want to be sure I'm taking that into account...
leapinlew:
You ever see Knievels Taito cabs?
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65678.0
Maybe you can get some ideas...
somunny:
I really dig how you've tied in the existing sideart with the new control panel. Great job!
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