Main > Project Announcements
Project A-kab = FINISHED!
Zobeid:
I was planning to paint it myself, with a roller. I experimented. . . and I practiced. . . I got the front door of my garage painted, which was something I needed to do for a long time. At the end of it all, I just wasn't confident I could get a finish I'd really be happy with that way.
I heard from several people that it needed to be sprayed to really do it right. So I turned it over to Carlos at the auto body shop, who is widely acknowledged as a genius with a spray gun. It may be a bit expensive, but after looking at the work I'd already put into the thing, I decided I really didn't want it messed up at this point.
I checked in on him yesterday. He's got the first primer coat on it, but it needs sanding and another primer coat to seal it. So it's taking a while. . . It's not going any slower than it would if I'd done it myself, and I expect the results to be superb.
Incidentally, I made a control panel overlay yesterday. I learned that I can, in fact, cut acrylic sheet with a dremel tool and a fiberglass cut-off wheel -- but it emits a nasty smell and gobs of hot plastic. It's okay, it trimmed up neatly with the router. Now I need to get me some artwork to sandwich between the CP and the CPO.
Zobeid:
I've been wiring up the LED-Wiz and trying to configure the software for it. This has been a bit frustrating in a number of ways.
The Electric ICE pushbuttons are not high-quality buttons, in my opinion. They are made of a hard material that rattles and feels cheap. I also have great difficulty disassembling some of them. While trying to push the tabs into the button body, they really didn't want to go -- and I ended up bruising my thumbs and bending the tabs before they finally gave up.
The only positive thing I can say about these buttons is that they look fabulous when lit up. Which is what they're made for, of course. I just wish it wasn't necessary to sacrifice so much to get that effect. Why can't they be made out of milky white nylon, instead of this cheap material? (What is it, styrene?)
I have considered getting some Happ translucent buttons. They wouldn't look as cool, but I'm guessing they would work okay and feel better.
I didn't have room on the back of my CP to mount the LED-Wiz flat, and I definitely wanted it mounted on the CP, not mounted in the cabinet. So I improvised. . . . I created a "daughter board" of 3/4" wood hanging at a 90-degree angle from the CP and bolted the LED-Wiz onto that. It's ugly. . . awkward. . . but it works.
The biggest frustrations I've had are on the software side. The Windows speech engine has just about got me whipped. TinyXP appears to be missing some component needed for speech. Which wouldn't worry me much, except that the LEDBlinky configuration program throws an alert every time I start it, complaining that it couldn't find the speech class. And speech would have been a nice touch, I must say.
So. . . I downloaded every speech software package from Microsoft that I could find and installed them. None of them got speech to work with LEDBlinky. However, one of them put some kind of speech recognition software onto my system that was a real pain in the neck until I managed to remove it.
Configuring LEDBlinky was fairly complicated, and there were times when I considered just tossing the whole LED-Wiz and going back to solid-colored, high-quality, nylon buttons. I did finally get it working and doing pretty much what I intended.
I'm left with some philosophical problems, as I consider how to configure my controls for Mala and for the various games. I originally thought that most one-player (or alternating) games would use the left stick and the right cluster of buttons. From an ergonomic standpoint it would seem to make the most sense. However. . . It would be confusing, with people seeing the right buttons lit up and wondering which stick to use with them. (Even if I made both sticks active, which is possible, it could still be awkward.)
If the left stick is active and the buttons on the left are lit up, and all 1-player games generally use the left control set, then everything is consistent and straightforward. But. . . All my games that use buttons for left-and-right movement would have to move that control to the stick. Which works just as well, but isn't really authentic. . .
I'll keep on pondering and tinkering. I have a lot of time to figure this stuff out before my cabinet comes back from the paint shop.
ablizno:
Dang u took it to an auto body shop. That is going to look nice. I have a paint sprayer so i will be painting it myself, it probably wont look awsome but oh well. The next cab i do i will seriously think of sending it to an auto body shop if i build it myself. Thanks for the tip.
Zobeid:
Yesterday I got my cabinet back from the paint shop. It's not perfect, due mainly to imperfections in the MDO surface, but it's a fair sight better than I could have accomplished in my garage with a paint roller.
In the afternoon I installed the T-molding, the coin door, the CP clamps, the Rotovator(TM) assembly and speakers. This morning I put in the smart power strip, the computer, and the monitor.
The first game I played: Phoenix!
The rotation feature is working as designed, although the loud CLONK when the monitor snaps into position is a bit startling at first.
The Klipsch audio is excellent. I never knew the fruits in Ms Pacman made such an ominous sound when tromping around the maze!
The CP height and monitor angle are quite good, although in retrospect I could have made the monitor a little closer to vertical and it would have been perfect.
The LCD looks great, although I think it will indeed look a bit better when I get a tinted glass over it.
I don't have any quick-connect terminals the right size for hooking up the coin door, so I'm having to give it "quarters" using my wireless keyboard.
To do list:
* all the bezel parts
* all the artwork
* CP T-molding
* marquee light
* speaker covers
* wire up coin door and EXIT button
* wire up computer remote power switch
* photos!
Namco:
--- Quote from: Zobeid on March 26, 2008, 04:58:05 pm ---It makes great scary noises when I hit the coin button on Defender. (Has there ever been a game with better sounds than Defender and Stargate?)
--- End quote ---
Wizard of Wor.
You have to play it with your sub turned up. Incredible sounds in that game. I found it by accident in Mame and was blown away. Been playing it a lot lately. Never saw it in the arcades, a real gem.