Author Topic: My first pinball bartopcab! Now with video! (Read 11652 times)

Hazzard · « **on:** May 09, 2009, 06:40:02 am »

Hi!

This is my first attemt at a homebrewed cabinet. I am making it a Pro Pinball only cab because i love those games so much :-)

Will keep it updated with more pic`s as soon as I can.

Henning
Norway

CheffoJeffo · « **Reply #1 on:** May 09, 2009, 07:47:07 am »

Welcome!

One of the projects I hope to someday get around to is a bartop pinball simulator and I've never been happy with any of my design sketches.

Then I check this thread and see the clean, beautiful lines of your design. Looks good -- I can't wait to see the rest.

Paladin · « **Reply #2 on:** May 09, 2009, 09:02:15 am »

Off to a fantastic start. I've always wanted to try a pinball cab.

dkssprs · « **Reply #3 on:** May 09, 2009, 11:04:15 am »

OMG all members in here have great ideas!!!!!!!Go for it mate

I imagine it being completed ....... cant wait how it will look like.

Hazzard · « **Reply #4 on:** May 09, 2009, 11:10:39 am »

Thank you very much for your kind replies!

I am drilling holes for the happ buttons that finaly arrived, and installing my I-pac tomorow. And if I have the time, I`ll be trying to cut out a plexiglass top to fit... Wish me luck :-)

Henning

leapinlew · « **Reply #5 on:** May 09, 2009, 11:16:40 am »

How did you cut the speaker vent holes. They look very good.

Franco B · « **Reply #6 on:** May 09, 2009, 11:36:16 am »

Welcome Henning

Looks great so far.

What size screen are you going to be using?

Are you going to have a plunger? Are you going to have nudge buttons or maybe possibly use the [Ultimarc U-HID G]?

Hazzard · « **Reply #7 on:** May 09, 2009, 11:46:31 am »

leapinlew: Thank you! I used a milling cutter for the vent holes, it wasn`t easy.. I fastened a ruler with two clamps, and tried to follow with the milling cutter. If you look closely you will see some minor flaws in there, thankfully my dad is a guitar builder, so he can help me fix them.

Franco B: Nice to feel so welcome in here :-) The sceen i am using is a NEC 1970NX LCD 19" 4:3 format. It has a S-IPS-panel so it has a very wide viewing angle wich is nice.
also planing on having a plunger, but so far I havent been successfull finding one.. I am gona use a Wiimote as nudger i think, maybe buttons. Also i will have a magnosave (pro-pinball) button next to the flipperbuttons :-)

pinballwizard79 · « **Reply #8 on:** May 09, 2009, 12:17:30 pm »

I am going to make on of those too, right after I finish putting back together 2 pinball machines, restoring another, cleaning up the last one & finishing my pool table....and bar.......so make sure you REALLY document this & have it done by the time I finish my projects

Hazzard · « **Reply #9 on:** May 10, 2009, 03:18:56 pm »

Ok, today i got the buttons setup, fastened the LCD screen and did a test run of Timeshock :-)

I even got the bezzel ready. So next step is painting and cover art in the week to come.

Henning

dkssprs · « **Reply #10 on:** May 10, 2009, 04:09:12 pm »

i think this project will be very shiny.
I have a question.....is this pinball going to have a marquee or somthing with the name of it?
Keep up the good work.

edit: please upload the plans of your project....PLZZZZZZZ

It will be perfect next to my bartop.

Hazzard · « **Reply #11 on:** May 10, 2009, 05:04:30 pm »

Hi dkssprs!

My plan is to have the pro-pinball logo inbetween the speakers. And pro-pinball artwork on the sides and front. The cab itself will get a shiny (eyh..) black finnish.

I`m afraid I dont have any projectplans to upload, as it all has been sort of a step by step process.. If I had i would upload them for you

Henning

t3design · « **Reply #12 on:** May 10, 2009, 05:20:55 pm »

Hazzard,

you might check out my solution to a plunger. I got ideas from several threads here, then took it a little further:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90385.msg955772#msg955772

If you are interested I would be glad to send you some measurements.

t3

Hazzard · « **Reply #13 on:** May 10, 2009, 06:06:30 pm »

Hey, that plunger looks sweet! How much does it cost? I`m happy to recieve measurements

t3design · « **Reply #14 on:** May 10, 2009, 07:32:38 pm »

We bought the plunger here:

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/pinball/95008600.htm

I will have to get the thing out and measure the pieces, but a better explanation of what we did is here:

http://cowboyarcadeproject.com/?p=97

In the post there is a link to John's Retro Arcade where he explains a circuit to debounce an optical switch. We decided this was overkill and are going to use a standard push button and not worry about debounce.

If you have room and WANT the look of a real pinball plunger, just install the thing as it comes from Happ and then add the button stuff to interface to pinball.

Hope that helps.

t3

drventure · « **Reply #15 on:** May 10, 2009, 09:10:44 pm »

Check here:

http://www.pinball-signs.com/HTML/BALLSHOOTER.html

The Bally shooter is what I used, it's quite a bit smaller than that generic version. the one at the link is used and could use some polishing but you can probably find them new somewhere. I gave about 12$ + shipping on ebay for mine.

TOK · « **Reply #16 on:** May 10, 2009, 09:10:53 pm »

What monitor are you using? Viewing angles are horrible on a lot of LCD's, and yours looks OK from the picture.

Blanka · « **Reply #17 on:** May 11, 2009, 01:09:22 am »

Maybe he used the upside down trick. The TN panels with horrible angle's have the most horrible angle from the bottom. By mounting the display upside down, the most horrible angle would be less visible in this position.
I don't know if it's a TN panel though, but the companies that sell LCD's for embedding, never sell IPS or PVA panels. Or he must have decased a regular screen himself.

Hazzard · « **Reply #18 on:** May 11, 2009, 03:19:17 am »

The monitor is a 19" NEC 1970NX wich has an S-IPS panel. Perfect for this project, yes

I took a photo of it without flash, but as you can see the backlight from the window totaly ruined it.. It looks a lot better in real life.

Thank you for the plunger options!

Ond · « **Reply #19 on:** May 11, 2009, 11:11:53 pm »

Yaay someone else who is into Pro-Pinball!

This is coming along very nicely btw. Will you be running the complete Pro-Pin range? The Web is still my personal fav, although Timeshock! is probably the best. I'm not sure if your monitor model goes to 1600x1200 but Pro-Pin is amazing at that res. I'm a fan of the various (PC based) pinball games out there, but I've still never seen anything that tops the Pro-Pin series. I look forward to seeing you progress. Something that might interest you, if you've grown a bit tired of the music in the The Web, or Timeshock! you can re-engineer the audio tracks and produce a new custom iso of each game and play to your fav music. Happy to help with that if you're interested.

Ond

Hazzard · « **Reply #20 on:** May 12, 2009, 03:29:50 am »

Hi Ond! ( Ond = Evil in Norwegian, hihih)

Great to meet another pro pinball fan!!

After bying timeshock and the web in a strange el cheapo package in a "all for 1 dollar" type store some 9 years ago, i actually sat down with the phonebook calling up every single videogame and movie store in Norway trying to get a hold of Big Race USA and Fantastic Journey.. After countless hours i succeeded! So yes, I am running the whole series

The monitor goes up to 1280x1024, so no 1600x1200 for me.. But hey, it still looks god

Re-engineering the audio tracks sounds great! How do you fix that? Is that possible for Big Race and Fantastic Journey also, or is it because Timeshock an The Web uses cd audio? I guess its the cd audio right?

Henning

Ond · « **Reply #21 on:** May 12, 2009, 04:23:19 am »

Quote from: Hazzard on May 12, 2009, 03:29:50 am

Re-engineering the audio tracks sounds great! How do you fix that? Is that possible for Big Race and Fantastic Journey also, or is it because Timeshock an The Web uses cd audio? I guess its the cd audio right?

Henning

Correct! so if you are handy with a program like 'UltraISO' you can delete and replace cd tracks from an ISO image of The Web or Timeshock! BRUSA and FJ use a different system for background music. I edited existing wav files and produced some tracks of my own using Cubase and other programs. I just matched the length (roughly) of the existing cd tracks - so in game play works really well. My modded version of Timeshock! actually has all different versions of Doctor Who themes including a heavy metal version! Once you have your modded ISO just mount with Daemon tools.

Hazzard · « **Reply #22 on:** May 12, 2009, 02:51:39 pm »

Aha! Exellent! Now why didn`t I think of that?!

I have the latest Cubase 5, maybe I should make my own backgroundmusic? In that case i would make it more sci-fi and less 80`s cheesy-rock style, hahah

Ond, thank you for the advice!

Henning

Hazzard · « **Reply #23 on:** May 22, 2009, 03:55:06 pm »

AArrggghh...!! The time it takes to fill and sand is killing me...

It will be ready for painting next week, so hopefully i will have more pictures to show then.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

retrofuture · « **Reply #24 on:** May 22, 2009, 04:39:57 pm »

Really nice clean design. I love it!

Hazzard · « **Reply #25 on:** June 06, 2009, 06:45:09 pm »

Finaly got my cab back from the autodetail shop.. And I like it!

Only thing missing now is the glass bezel, witch is delivered on tuesday..

Did some up/downgrades on the hardware also. I put in a mini-itx motherboard with the Intel Atom 330 dual core cpu intergrated, also intergrated graphics totaly cabaple of running my Pro Pinball series and doing so totaly silent (fanless 60W powersupply)

An of course I would need some nice artwork for my cab. ( ehmm.. Ond?)

retrofuture · « **Reply #26 on:** June 06, 2009, 07:18:43 pm »

Wow. Keep those finger prints off it!

That's a great finish on the paint work

Hazzard · « **Reply #27 on:** June 07, 2009, 12:05:47 am »

Retro!

You know what, fingerprints arent such a big deal on this baby. But of course, a whipe or two a week wont hurt

I guess I`m willing to do that just to wake up in the morning and be dazzled yet again by it`s beautifull lustre, hahah ( Me try be articulate..)

Now, where do I get those start buttons with lights in them?

Ond · « **Reply #28 on:** June 07, 2009, 06:37:05 am »

Quote from: Hazzard on June 06, 2009, 06:45:09 pm

An of course I would need some nice artwork for my cab. ( ehmm.. Ond?)

Wow, great finish on the paint job!. Artwork eh? does this mean you liked my sample?? Ok I'll have a go at something. I have in fact looked through the slide material on the Pro-Pin CD's and some of it is pretty cool. I'm still hoping for some more audio stuff from you - very cool.

Ond

retrofuture · « **Reply #29 on:** June 07, 2009, 08:05:50 am »

Quote from: Hazzard on June 07, 2009, 12:05:47 am

Now, where do I get those start buttons with lights in them?

Do you mean the Atari cones, or generic led buttons?

I got my first batch of buttons from Todd at TNT Amusements, he still had some available on eBay last time I looked.

Hazzard · « **Reply #30 on:** June 07, 2009, 08:12:38 am »

Hey Ond!

More audio coming up soon, just need a few more tracks done :-) Do you think I should go medieval style in medieval times? I`m not really found of trumpets and crumhorns...

For now I have made 6.. 27 to go!

Tanks for your tip Retrofuture, I`l check it out.

Ond · « **Reply #31 on:** June 08, 2009, 03:15:05 am »

Here's a draft for your Marquee artwork..If you like it, I'll complete the sideart collage of Pro-Pin artwork with some of my own thrown in. The Pro-pin logo was drawn from scratch based on a low res image (640x480) screen grab from the game Fantastic Journey. The high resolution master is 90Mb and rendered at 6400x4800 - might have to post it to you!

. Happy to change colours and the 'ARCADE' Font lettering if you want. My only proviso is that I can use this artwork as a background in my Mame FE.

Ond

Hazzard · « **Reply #32 on:** June 08, 2009, 07:03:13 am »

Hey Ond!

Thats looks veeeeeeeeery nice!

You really made that from scratch? I`m impressed!

Only thing is that the red might not be right for me...
Could you try it in silver? Both logo background and Arcade?

6400x4800 is more than enough, it will only be like 20cm wide, so if you want to size it down you are more than welcome!

I wont be using The Web though so please dont use it in the sideart.. ( Not trying to be demanding here

)

dkssprs · « **Reply #33 on:** June 08, 2009, 09:49:47 am »

i like this project.
It is getting better and better....
Your painting skills are very high....very shiny paintjob.
Cant wait to see the bezel and the side artwork.

ChadTower · « **Reply #34 on:** June 08, 2009, 12:34:58 pm »

I dig this project. That paint finish is outstanding.

Ond · « **Reply #35 on:** June 08, 2009, 01:23:30 pm »

Quote from: Hazzard on June 08, 2009, 07:03:13 am

Hey Ond!

Only thing is that the red might not be right for me...
Could you try it in silver? Both logo background and Arcade?

You mean like this? Re-done with carbon fibre and brushed steel. Ok no 'The Web' in side art. Let me know. I will email a high res copy when you are happy with this logo. When doing artwork for other people it's usual to do a few drafts, I'm happy to change it how you like.

Hazzard · « **Reply #36 on:** June 08, 2009, 03:32:00 pm »

Man!

I`m starting to like them both!!

I would be very gratefull if you could send them both, yes?

Thank you guys for the kind words

pinballwizard79 · « **Reply #37 on:** June 09, 2009, 02:16:11 am »

this is going to be so cool

Malenko · « **Reply #38 on:** June 09, 2009, 11:51:07 am »

love the paint job, amazing work, cant wait to see the finished product

Franco B · « **Reply #39 on:** June 09, 2009, 12:28:09 pm »

Very slick

Awesome work on the graphics too Ond


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