The King of Kong -- COMPLETED

[deepblue]

jtslade - thanks for the bump.

I actually have made more progress!

I completed my makeshift "lower" bezel by cutting some bristol board to surround the TV (I then spray painted it with black texture paint to make it more rigid and darker. I've fit it around the TV and I'll be damned if it doesn't look great. I have pics I'll post later.

LAST major thing to do is to get the plexi put on top and to paint the inside of it to only allow you to view the screen vs. the frame. I'm setting a more realistic goal of "end of summer" to get this all tidied up and completed. Then the launch party!

[IG-88]

Just for posterity (and so people know that I am making good on my word to finish this thing) - I managed to get the Maximus Arcade / MAME / LED Blinky configuration entirely finished to my liking. Well, almost - I am trying to compile MAME 134 with the hiscore diff and simply CANNOT FRACKING GET IT TO WORK. I'm not a slouch at this stuff - I know my way around a compiler, I just get very strange, non specific errors from Mame Compiler 64 and the Mr. Do's instruction set is too dated to work anymore.

Why not just go back to a version of Mame that had hiscore in it?

[deepblue]

Also want to get rid of the nag screens!

[shilmover]

Want that Marquee signed by Steve Wiebe?

if so, PM me, I should be able to help... 

[IG-88]

Also want to get rid of the nag screens!

Didn't like v.106 have hi scores and the option to turn off the nags?

[deepblue]

I didn't realize this was a native MAME option in that version - nor do I have that version/have access to it. I'll keep an eye out however! Thanks.

[IG-88]

http://mame.joymonkey.com/  has a mame32 version I'm sure. You'll have to get a matching romset to go with it tho. (if you didn't know already)

[Bender]

Just for posterity (and so people know that I am making good on my word to finish this thing) - I managed to get the Maximus Arcade / MAME / LED Blinky configuration entirely finished to my liking. Well, almost - I am trying to compile MAME 134 with the hiscore diff and simply CANNOT FRACKING GET IT TO WORK. I'm not a slouch at this stuff - I know my way around a compiler, I just get very strange, non specific errors from Mame Compiler 64 and the Mr. Do's instruction set is too dated to work anymore.

Why not just go back to a version of Mame that had hiscore in it?

Have you tried Headkaze's Mame 64 compiler (It's not just for mame 64)
I use it all the time and love it
great instructions too

[deepblue]

 

You'll have to get a matching romset to go with it tho. (if you didn't know already)

Therin lies the rub.

Bender - I don't think I tried that...will do tonight!

[Flip The Switch]

Keep up the awesome work cant wait to see the end result with a game running

[NeoFlynn]

man I cant wait to see the finished product on this thing, I am in awe of all of these LED panels, but having zero skill at any of this its not something  I would even want to attempt, maybe on my second...or third cab...LOL...just dont tell my wife 

[deepblue]

Hey thanks guys - the encouragement actually helps

The LED side of things would be damn near impossible without Arzoo's LEDBlinky app - it's sick.

[Bender]

The LED side of things would be damn near impossible without Arzoo's LEDBlinky app - it's sick.

I second that, I Love that Blinky Bling!!!!!

[jtslade]

http://highscore.mameworld.info/

high score and no nag

[deepblue]

Thanks jtslade - I'll check this out.

[deepblue]

Ok, finally an update with some pics. I've given up with counting the weeks given I've blown by the 2 year mark...so let's call this:

Week X

When we last looked at the King of Kong I was dreading the final step of creating a bezel for this beast. You can hopefully see why:



I've got an old 27" tube TV with a curved front, recessed and tilted. I've also got to contend with our design, which had stainless steel formica on the inside up to a certain point.

The above created what is honestly a near impossible situation to create a bezel. We tried many different approaches including wood and even bought a product called liquid plastic - which we poured around the casing (with the monitor out of course) and allowed to cure. The liquid plastic had promise but ultimately was too tricky to work with in a somewhat finished cabinet and broke apart.

So - I made the decision to make some "black out" bezel pieces around the TV, and then to paint the inside of the plexi front to hide what you don't need to see around the monitor. Pics make it easier to explain:

The pieces of Bristol board (I did a lot of guess and test cuts to get the arc just right and the measurement just so) were painted with black texture paint to strengthen them and make them more "black":



I not only made front facing pieces, but also some pieces to put on the sides to neaten up the lines:



I put all of these pieces in with clear silicone, which worked well to not only permanently adhere to the TV's outside, but to hold it in place while it dried. I taped the bottom of the top piece to ensure it didn't fall:



I left this to dry for a while.

[deepblue]

Week X+1!

This week I decided to tackle the plexi. I've decided I hate this stuff as the Acrylic I have on the control panel scratches if you even look at it. I'm hopefully going to use metal or something else next time.

Here's what it looks like laid on top of the black out bezel I made:





You can see that the area around the bezel needs to be hidden so you can't see the controls and rough looking wood. So let's paint it.

I used some painter's tape to mark what I felt was the "viewable area" that players would need. I looked in from multiple angles and marked it carefully:







Once this was done I removed the plexi, flipped it over and made more precise and straight taping (used a square, etc.) on the inverse of the box I marked...because that box needs to be masked off to see through!





I then taped some bristol board over the center, and painted with the same black texture paint to ensure the color matches up:



Also painted the screws I'll be using to secure the plexi:



That's it for now - just need to pull of all that tape, drill and countersink the plexi and mount it!

I took stock of my remaining small items I have to do also:

- install the "on/off" pushbutton for the computer to the back/top of the cabinet
- install and wire LEDs to the coin door, wire coin door to my IPAC4
- install 4 cupholders (!!)
- repair a little damage to lower side formica from the move
- wire up power bar, neaten up internal components

Getting so close!

[deepblue]

Hello World - and fellow BYOAC members. I started this project over 8 years ago - which in my world is 3 kids and what feels like a lifetime ago. I never got around to coming back and posting the final pics and video of my project and finalizing this project post. It's bothered me regularly believe it or not.

I finished it of course - many years ago. I think it was in the fall of 2010.

Since then - only a few changes. I had some issues with the UltraStiks, largely because my aforementioned kids would grab and hang off them, which eventually messed up the circuit boards and contacts. Replaced those but unfortunately in the process of doing this I had to re-seat the sticks. I don't have the patience I used to have so I rushed it and accidentally set the screws too deep and it scored the CP art and plexi which you can see in the pics below. Not a huge deal and cosmetic issue only. I also installed Ultimarc's top mounted restrictor guides (drop in type) which work very well.

So - 8 years later, and now I've got the itch to do another project. It's going to be a bar top that I can take to my lake place, and honestly, it will now be used to get my kids interested in retro gaming. More on that later.

For now - behold - the King of Kong:







Admin Drawer:



My learning and advice on this build - albeit many years later:
- This is an amazing forum, always people willing to help and provide encouragement
- There is an incredible and vibrant community of vendors (GGG, Ultimarc, etc.) you can work with and trust
- Your project will take you 5-10 times longer than you expect
- You will get to play with your cabinet far less than you're anticipating / expecting

My thanks again to everyone who followed this project, helped me with questions and a big fist bump to the BYOAC community to keeping such a great hobby thriving.

On to the next one!

[Hippie459MN]

That turned out great! Good thing now days when it comes to that bar top is we have the amazing Raspberry Pi. Nice and small and will run just about anything MAME. No more big computers.

[deepblue]

Thanks - and ya man - Pi is the plan. It's actually pretty amazing how much the CPU end of things has changed vs. when I started this. I ordered an RPi3 via a Black Friday sale and it's going to be the brains of the bartop cabinet. Now I need to be inspired for the theme!

[Ian]

Your theme is sooooo 2008!   lol... jk.