Tonight I reinstalled the PC into the cab. I was a little hesitant to start up the PC after I hooked everything up, I was worried "what if it didn't fix it". So I flicked the main power switch on... and pressed the PC power button.... nothing. What the? So I looked over everything and it was all hooked up properly.... And then I looked at the power supply and flicked it's power switch "On"...
The PC loaded up, and where there used to be horrible static coming from the speakers, there was nothing. The intro video loaded, music started and Mala loaded! Everything is A-ok and back to normal. It would seem that mounting the Mobo on the metal backer and running wires from it to each of the other components fixed the static problem I was having! w00t!
The new intro and load up work very nicely, I found myself getting extremely excited while watching it. It's not overpowering and loud, nor annoying. Mission accomplished. Of course, I had to "test" all of the controls to ensure they worked properly. So I played some Gunbird 2, Strikers 1945 II and a little bit of Street Fighter Alpha 2.
Thursday is the big moving day. Unfortunately, for everyone involved, I live in the second story of an apartment building and the only way up is a flight of stairs. So a friend of mine, my cousin and myself will be hefting this thing up said stairs on a 2 wheel movers cart. The PC and CP will not be attached, but the Monitor will be... yay.
There are still a few things that need to be done yet.
The first are the custom joysticks. My order is in the mail and once I get the balltops, I'll be making new shafts out of 1/2" aluminum round bar. I'll lathe the bottom down to 10mm so the sleeves and actuators for the Happ Supers slide on and I'll leave the top 1/2" so that the shoulder of the shaft holds it in place, rather than the long black plastic tube. I'll then lathe the other end down and thread it to accept the balltop. Finally I'll polish the aluminum and I'll have some nice shiny joysticks!
Secondly, installing the marquee. My order is "processing" right now over at Mame Marquees. The marquee is the Ultimate finish with 2 pieces of precut plexi According to their site it takes up to a week to print, laminate and pack the marquee for shipping, then there is the shipping time. So I'm thinking that should arrive next week at the latest.
And finally, The Control Panel Overlay. I've got to make time to burn my file to CD and take it over to Kinkos for printing. I should be able to do that within the next couple of days.