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Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 12:17:54 pm

Title: The King of Kong -- COMPLETED
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 12:17:54 pm
Hi All,

I've been a long time lurker gathering information to start my arcade project with a friend of mine. We got going a couple of weeks ago, so I figured I'd start a thread.

Our cabinet is entitled "The King of Kong" - and we're dedicating it to Steve Wiebe, hero of the movie with the same name :)

I'm sure most of you know what this is in reference to, but those who have never seen the movie - official site is here (2018 edit - no longer up, here's the IMDB page): http://www.billyvssteve.com/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/kingofkong.jpg)

We're basing the design on the Lucid plans, adding some of our own variations. The cabinet is going to be 4 player MAME machine, laminated with stainless steel Formica, and of course, with graphics and theme of the King of Kong movie.

(for clarification - it isn't going to be a Donkey Kong'esque cabinet centered around playing that game or looking like a DK cabinet, etc.)

So - the K.o.K (as we lovingly refer to it) is underway :)

I'll post some construction pics shortly, but I was first hoping to get some feedback/critique on this mockup I've created for the control panel. Specifically, I'd appreciate feedback on:

- Are there enough buttons to interact with MAME and play "most" games - largely focused on "early" classic arcade games (like DK, Pac Man, Frogger, etc.) in addition to "later" classics like Double Dragon, Bad Dudes, Gauntlet, etc.

- Do Players 3 and 4 need 6 buttons, or are 4 buttons sufficient?

- Are the joysticks/buttons going to be too crowded on this 48" panel? Is there sufficient space in this rough mockup to utilize the Trackball for games like Golden Tee, etc?

Here's the mockup (had to offlink, too large to fit in here):
http://www.repeater.ca/images/Mockup.jpg (http://www.repeater.ca/images/Mockup.jpg)

I'd also love to hear from any Toronto area builders on where they've sourced their parts for the control panel, etc. We're looking at some Happ Competition sticks, illuminated buttons, etc., and I've love to know the best place in either the US or Canada to pick them up for the least hassle.

Thanks in advance for checking this out - this is an awesome community of arcade builders!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 01:34:22 pm
Here's Week 1's Construction Pics:

Starting Point:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1408.JPG)

A few cuts, and she's taking shape!

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1412.JPG)

We're using some of the designs from the Project Arcade book, but for the "arc" in the front, we created a jig and routered the front edges for a uniform, clean line:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1423.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1426.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1427.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1434.JPG)

Giving us two identical side pieces:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1440.JPG)

Routering the edges with the slot cutter:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1443.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1447.JPG)

After finishing the cuts, we assembled the base of the unit:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1451.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1460.JPG)



Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 02:11:08 pm
Week 2's Construction Pics:

Attaching the sides to the base - note that we're not using shelf supports or braces. Because we're using a laminate on the exterior of the cabinet we were able to do two things: use plywood (stronger than MDF) and screw & glue from the exterior inwards. A 400lb guerrilla could sit on one of the shelves of this thing and not bother it a bit (we tested this with multiple 200lb guerrillas :) )

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1465.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1467.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1468.JPG)

Upper and lower back cabinet pieces glued and screwed:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1469.JPG)

and voila:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1471.JPG)

We made what could have been a bad decision when we started this project, and started building BEFORE we found a TV. Turns out we found an older 27" Sony (that had S-Video!) that needed a new home. I was a little worried it wouldn't fit - but as it turns out, it is 26" wide, which is the exact width of the Lucid cabinet...so check out how snug it ended up:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1473.JPG)

It literally has a hair of width on each side...ended up perfect! Next up was the monitor shelf, which was a little tricky to get just right. We also had to cut out a little more of the rear of the cabinet to accommodate the back of the TV. We ended up putting the shelf in a little too flat, so we introduced a front step-up and back catch, and are pleased with the angle and positioning now:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1474.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1476.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1478.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1479.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1482.JPG)
(note this is the Lucid sized control panel, not the one we're going to use...just used it for looking at angles, etc.)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1485.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1487.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1488.JPG)

Finally, got some Blum hinges for the front, and went outside the Lucid plans by installing a front top & bottom brace that also acts as a doorstop:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week2/IMG_1490.JPG)

That's it for Week 2, won't be doing further construction for a few weeks until I can order the control panel components, etc.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Jdurg on April 13, 2008, 02:46:41 pm
Very nice!  In a few short weeks you're already well ahead of where I am with my cabinet, and I've been working on it for a few months now!   :P  (Of course, living in a Cape means I have no garage and no real basement, so my workspace is severely limited and kind of cramped.  Now that spring's here, I may actually be able to set up shop outside and get some stuff done.  ;D )
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 03:03:17 pm
Jdurg - Thanks. Progress is all about how many friends you've got with spare hands and woodworking tools! I'm lucky that my close friend has a huge woodshop where we can do most of the build.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Jdurg on April 13, 2008, 03:24:51 pm
Yeah, that's a big help.  Hell, I'm just happy to have my own house where I can even think about putting together a cab.  My CP is currently drying down in my basement and is the first thing I've ever built.  So I'm just taking it slowly and enjoying watching everybody else's progress on their cabs!   :cheers:
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: mccoy178 on April 13, 2008, 03:32:03 pm
Everything looks fantastic.  In regards to the control panel, p3 and p4 do not need six buttons.  Four buttons at most will cover all mame games.  Also, you have the current configuration set to have all buttons and joys straight on in relation to the monitor.  I would recommend rotating p3 and p4 so that everyone is not elbow to elbow while playing.  Also, I don't know if you are a big Golden Tee fan or not, but if you are, I would give a tad more space around the trackball for hitting the angled shots.  Hope this helps! :cheers:
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: mccoy178 on April 13, 2008, 03:44:17 pm
Here is a link to the making of my cp:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=50889.msg520002#msg520002 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=50889.msg520002#msg520002)

And a pic of the completed top.  I am a huge Golden Tee fan, so it was one of the most important considerations in making my design.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=51525.0;attach=48068;image)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 04:15:31 pm
Hi mccoy - Thanks for the feedback...much appreciated.

Just a couple of Q's for you on your panel (which looks great btw!):

1 - Is your trackball 3"?
2 - where did you get your panel graphic printed?
3 - is your panel 5/8's + plexi?
4 - are your buttons illuminated? If yes, which did you get?

Regarding the positioning of P3 & P4, I have really struggled with that. In my lurking until now, I've read many threads for angling, many threads against (main reason being not knowing which way is "up").

Thanks again for the feedback.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: mccoy178 on April 13, 2008, 04:40:17 pm
Let's see here:

1.  It is a 3" Happs trackball with the red boards.
2.  Scott with mamemarquees did a wonderful job on it and the marquee.  Very professional.
3.  It is 5/8" with a the top being made out of metal.  There is more details in my announcement thread.
4.  I used short leaf switches, lighting made from Whammoed, and an LEDWiz from RandyT of Groovy Game Gear. 

As far as P3 and P4 being angled, I have not had any issues with kids or adults.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 04:50:18 pm
Let's see here:

1.  It is a 3" Happs trackball with the red boards.
2.  Scott with mamemarquees did a wonderful job on it and the marquee.  Very professional.
3.  It is 5/8" with a the top being made out of metal.  There is more details in my announcement thread.
4.  I used short leaf switches, lighting made from Whammoed, and an LEDWiz from RandyT of Groovy Game Gear. 

As far as P3 and P4 being angled, I have not had any issues with kids or adults.

Thanks!

Last thing if I can pick your brain - I'm just figuring out the control mechanisms for the buttons/joysticks/trackball/spinner - did you go USB or PS2? Did you need more than one control module for your board?
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: mccoy178 on April 13, 2008, 05:23:15 pm
No problems on answering the questions, but I would greatly recommend reading through my thread, as I tried to be as thurough as possible on everything.  Page 1 through 4 really talk a lot about the cp design and the components.  I ended up using all 49 way joysticks with GGG encoders.  If you look around page 6 you will see the insane wiring that took place to wire everything.  I am now strongly considering switching back to a basic 4/8 way switchable, as I really miss the clicking and restrictions of an old school controller.  If that is the case, I will be going back to an ipac4 from ultimarc, as I really like his software as well.  If you look through the thread and have more questions, please feel free to ask, but many of the basic answers you seek can be found there. :cheers:
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 05:24:19 pm
No problems on answering the questions, but I would greatly recommend reading through my thread, as I tried to be as thurough as possible on everything.  Page 1 through 4 really talk a lot about the cp design and the components.  I ended up using all 49 way joysticks with GGG encoders.  If you look around page 6 you will see the insane wiring that took place to wire everything.  I am now strongly considering switching back to a basic 4/8 way switchable, as I really miss the clicking and restrictions of an old school controller.  If that is the case, I will be going back to an ipac4 from ultimarc, as I really like his software as well.  If you look through the thread and have more questions, please feel free to ask, but many of the basic answers you seek can be found there. :cheers:

Will do - thanks!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: CheffoJeffo on April 13, 2008, 05:41:04 pm
I'd also love to hear from any Toronto area builders on where they've sourced their parts for the control panel, etc. We're looking at some Happ Competition sticks, illuminated buttons, etc., and I've love to know the best place in either the US or Canada to pick them up for the least hassle.

First place you should check is the Playdium Store (formerly known as Starburst Coin):

https://www.theplaydiumstore.com/

The online catalog is a waste of time for the most part (either call or email them with what you are looking for). They are the distributor for Happ in Canada, so they can order anything in the Happ catalog (just make note of the Happ part #).

After that, the US-based vendors are a good source, just don't use UPS for shipping.

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Jdurg on April 13, 2008, 10:07:37 pm
Just got done watching "King of Kong".  Freaking awesome movie, though that Billy Mitchel guy comes off as a complete ass-hole and nothing else.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 10:29:16 pm
Thanks CheffoJeffo - I'll check that out.

Jdurg - King of Kong is an AWESOME movie, especially for those of us with Arcade Interests! Yes, Billy comes off as one of the biggest --bags of cream-filled twinkies-- in history, his only saving grace is that he makes hot sauce.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Jdurg on April 13, 2008, 10:32:25 pm
Thanks CheffoJeffo - I'll check that out.

Jdurg - King of Kong is an AWESOME movie, especially for those of us with Arcade Interests! Yes, Billy comes off as one of the biggest --bags of cream-filled twinkies-- in history, his only saving grace is that he makes hot sauce.

LMAO.  Very true.  That and the fact that his wife is only his wife because of the money he makes, and her gozunga's are definitely not real.   :P
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 10:33:25 pm
--bags of cream-filled twinkies--

--->??? Hehe, I think I was auto-censored there, ended up making a better line though ;)

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Jdurg on April 13, 2008, 10:36:37 pm
Don't worry.  It was pretty easy to tell that you meant to say --bags of cream-filled twinkies--.   :cheers:
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2008, 10:37:43 pm
hah - it was actually "d o u c h e b a g", but close enough ;)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Jdurg on April 13, 2008, 10:38:22 pm
lol.  Had to modify my post as I didn't think mine would get through.   ;)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on May 04, 2008, 10:43:38 am
Week 3 update (work completed last weekend). Had a good but frustrating day of work - frustrating largely because we made a critical error in our initial design that is coming back to haunt us in the control panel assembly...but more on that later. Here's the good things first:

Chrome T-molding arrived from T-Molding.com!
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1500.JPG)
(This stuff is great, come covered with a protective plastic peel, and looks just like real chrome)

Started on painting the exterior that won't be covered by Stainless Steel, and the interior:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1504.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1509.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1510.JPG)
(We used Black Tremclad Rust Paint for this - great choice as it covers really well with one coat and no priming. Still have to pull that damn heavy TV out and do the interior around the monitor)

Made some decisions on sound/speakers - I found 4 high end car audio speakers in my shop that were from my old truck, which should find a great home in the King of Kong. We picked out the location for install:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1531.JPG)

and created a jig to route the holes:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1505.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1532.JPG)
(idea here is to mount them back in the marquis space, and then we're going to create a really cool custom grill front that will sit over them. I believe we've left enough room in the marquis up top for lighting, etc.)

One issue that came up here when we were originally placing the speakers was monitor distortion caused by the large magnets on the car audio speakers, which aren't shielded. I ordered some bucking magnets from www.partsexpress.com (http://www.partsexpress.com) that got here fast, and according to what I've read, should do a good enough job with offsetting the little bit of color bleed that was being caused. I'll post install and magnet pics on next update.

Which brings us to the frustrating part - the control panel issues. When we originally designed the jig for the front curve of the arcade, we didn't read closely enough in the Lucid plans to see that there is supposed to be a "flat", 90 degree notch at the bottom where the control panel sits. We instead curved the front edge right to the bottom (as you can see in this initial photo):

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week1/IMG_1440.JPG)

This has proved to be a MAJOR pain in the ass. When we originally realized that this mistake had been made, we simply thought we would create the control panel box with an angled back and just slide it in there flush. Well, it isn't that simple at ALL. Because the control panel top also needs its own angle, we found ourselves in a real pickle when we were putting the main box together. These pics should show you what I'm taking about...note how some pieces need mitered and angled cuts on the top and bottom:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1516.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1517.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1513.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1528.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1526.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1522.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week3/IMG_1534.JPG)

It may look like we got it all figured out - but we didn't. Many of the configurations here had us tear pieces out and redo after the fact. There are just too many angles to factor in to get this exactly right...and not to mention that we want to build a keyboard/mouse drawer, hinged control panel top that opens and then to make the whole contraption fully removable from the arcade when needed.

We quit for the day due to our frustration, and my friend has a new idea to essentially finish the build and then run the entire unit through an industrial sander he has in the shop (on an angle) to essentially straighten it all out. Sounds odd, i know, but it is so crazy it just might work. We're also ditching the 5/8's top we started with as it has already started to warp a bit, and is junky wood. We're ordering a piece of Birch 5/8 ply as a replacement, which is some of the best and least likely to warp wood available.

That's all for this week - ordered an old coin door off of Ebay that we'll be grinding down and repainting, and integrating into the front. Still need to order the control panel buttons/joys etc. which has proven to be a very difficult decision...but I think we know what we want to do now.

If anyone has a good link that can best explain the IPAC / Control module thing to me - I'm pretty technical, I just need the Coles Notes on how many units I need for the number of buttons, joys, spinners, etc. I am putting in. Does anyone know if the LED-Wiz is an LED controller and IPAC unit in one?



Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on May 25, 2008, 10:32:33 am
Week 4 Update

Most of this session was spent fixing up the old coin door I bought on eBay. We're still struggling with the control panel and exactly how that's going to work given our "angled" problem. We may just end up scrapping what we've got for a control panel and building a new one from scratch and artificially angling it post build...not sure. That's for the next session.

Back on the old coin door, here's what she looked like to start:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1535.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1539.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1540.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1537.JPG)

As you can see, pretty rusted out and beat up. I found some great links on this site to some coin door rebuilds, and in keeping with that, followed their directions to first take everything apart:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1545.JPG)

And then start grinding everything down to the bare metal:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1546.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1548.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1555.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1559.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1573.JPG)

After MANY hours of grinding with a Dremel and then Sanding with a Palm Sander (the flat parts), here's what I ended up with:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1580.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1581.JPG)

Clean right down to the bare metal with plenty of scoring from the Dremel, etc.

I also took care of the Bolts separately:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1584.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1585.JPG)

I then grabbed some textured rust paint to undercoat the coin door (which will essentially provide texture to the door in addition to hiding the scoring from the grinding:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1589.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1599.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1600.JPG)

Once the textured paint was dry, I found this great metal paint that I originally intended to only use on the bolts, but it gave a great stainless steel look:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1587.JPG)

So I applied that to the door also, over top of the texture. Next thing was of course to cut the coin door hole into the front of the cabinet, so we made a jig, and proceeded to cut it out:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1583.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1593.JPG)

The result of an entire day of grinding and painting:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1594.JPG)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1595.JPG)

It looks fantastic, and I can't wait to see it with the stainless steel Formica.

One other thing we got completed is applying the bucking magnets to the speakers. This ended up being more difficult that originally thought - largely because two of the speakers had plastic outer shells that the Epoxy wouldn't adhere to. We had to resort to good old fashioned Krazy Glue - which worked great:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1598.JPG)

That's all for this week - unfortunately won't be able to get together for further work for a couple more weeks, but I am hopefully going to order my control panel parts this week...which is exciting!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Ginsu Victim on May 25, 2008, 11:03:24 am
Coin door looks great. Nice job.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: pazzi on May 31, 2008, 06:23:14 am
Project looking great!

http://kotaku.com/5011915/k2-billy-mitchell-as-a-hunter-killer-robot

That might inspire you to keep up the good work!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on June 01, 2008, 08:41:33 am
Heh - I'd never seen that before...pretty good. Highlight is when the guy comes up and says "There's a potential Donkey Kong kill screen coming up if you guys are interested" :)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on June 21, 2008, 06:10:41 pm
I had to post this image - I just got two shipments of goodies from Lizard Lick and Divemaster. Various coin door parts, 2 UltraStik 360's, 2 Sanwa JLF's, some custom ball-tops, an IPAC4..man does this make you want to get this baby assembled NOW!

I have the rest of my parts coming in from Groovy Game Gear - hopefully next week...then just a matter of getting that control panel assembled!

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/goodies.jpg)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: GameDork on July 21, 2008, 02:32:58 pm
Any progress?!?

Looks great so far!!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: rlehm on July 23, 2008, 12:35:26 am
Just watched King of Kong and I must say.. I loved it and so did my wife. She HATES Billy Mitchell, lol. I will say this, a poor loser was NEVER a winner! I am glad that he was de-throned!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Twin-X on July 23, 2008, 03:27:08 am
Just watched King of Kong and I must say.. I loved it and so did my wife. She HATES Billy Mitchell, lol. I will say this, a poor loser was NEVER a winner! I am glad that he was de-throned!

I just watched it yesterday. And your wife is right!! Billy Mitchell i a  :censored: too bad he is no1 again :(

Anyway this cab is comming along great and in such a fast pace. Wish i had more time to build / finish mine.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Franco B on July 23, 2008, 06:05:26 am
This is looking like a really nice build. Can't wait to see the stainless steel formica!!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: rlehm on July 23, 2008, 07:23:22 am
Heh - I'd never seen that before...pretty good. Highlight is when the guy comes up and says "There's a potential Donkey Kong kill screen coming up if you guys are interested" :)

i think the little twerp only ran around saying that so a crowd would distract him from actually getting to the kill screen.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: GameDork on July 23, 2008, 11:04:59 am
Just watched King of Kong and I must say.. I loved it and so did my wife. She HATES Billy Mitchell, lol. I will say this, a poor loser was NEVER a winner! I am glad that he was de-throned!

You know, Billy has the record again.....Steve said he is working on breaking it though.

Billy even did it in public!! He does suck major ding dong
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: rlehm on July 31, 2008, 03:58:37 pm
Just watched King of Kong and I must say.. I loved it and so did my wife. She HATES Billy Mitchell, lol. I will say this, a poor loser was NEVER a winner! I am glad that he was de-throned!

You know, Billy has the record again.....Steve said he is working on breaking it though.

Billy even did it in public!! He does suck major ding dong

that sucks. i'll hav to check which he broke, Steve's public record or his live record. GO STEVE....
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on August 04, 2008, 11:52:38 am
Hey Guys - progress hit a snag when my friend got married! We've had to take a bit of a breather as dedicating entire weekend days has become a little more challenging now that summer is here, and cottages await come Friday.

That said, we got together after work this week and managed to get a few new things done. The control panel challenges appear to have been resolved due to some genius ideas from my build partner. As you'll recall, the many angles and pieces were creating challenges on making the box square and flat on the top such that the panel will sit flush and look right.

Well to deal with this my friend took out his bandsaw and ripped the worst of the high spots off, and then came up with a "sanding table" like this:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1666.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1668.jpg)

That's a piece of plywood with 120 grit sandpaper glued to the top, which allowed us to bring the entire top to be flat, so the top sits flush:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1682.jpg)

Which brings me to the current stage of development hell I'm in now - designing the control panel layout and getting the panel image and marquee designed and printed. I'm not particularly enjoying this part, as it is taking forever. I'm going to be asking a friend for assistance in vectorizing the images I design in photoshop, and then will get mamemarquees.com to print it up if all goes well.

The other accomplishment for this session was getting the speaker holes routed and the stainless steel formica layed down. Pics below:


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1669.jpg)


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1672.jpg)


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1675.jpg)


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1678.jpg)


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1679.jpg)


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1681.jpg)


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1685.jpg)


(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1687.jpg)


We then made a design change decision after reaching this part - rather than use some existing square speaker grills to cover this up, we're going to design our own from scratch, and make circular wood grills that we will cover with orange and blue speaker fabric...my friend came up with this, and I think it will look amazing...roughly photoshopped, will look something like this (use your imagination):

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1687_covers.jpg)


We're starting from scratch with a block of wood, and I'll post progress pics as we go:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1689.jpg)


That's all for this week, I'm going to try to take advantage of the holiday today in Canada to finish up my control panel layout in photoshop so I can finally get that completed. I may start a separate thread to get feedback on the layout, etc. If anyone has any tips, hints, suggestions or ideas on how to make the control panel design move more quickly and efficiently, I'm all ears.

Thanks for your continued interest guys.





Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Hippie459MN on August 04, 2008, 05:34:06 pm
WoW! Looking great so far. Cant wait to see the finished product and the control panel lay out.

Now to get building my cab now that I will have alot of spare time coming up.  ;D
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on August 04, 2008, 05:37:28 pm
WoW! Looking great so far. Cant wait to see the finished product and the control panel lay out.

Now to get building my cab now that I will have alot of spare time coming up.  ;D

Thanks - a word of advice, take the amount of time you think you're going to need and multiply it by 10 ;)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: 8way on August 04, 2008, 07:42:02 pm
Nice work so far, project coming along nicely. Looks like you got lucky with those outer speaker holes. That must be a tight fit getting the router in their.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on August 05, 2008, 08:50:50 am
Nice work so far, project coming along nicely. Looks like you got lucky with those outer speaker holes. That must be a tight fit getting the router in their.


Yea, it was a little tight...used an adjustable plunge router that has a nice short side to it to get around those tight spots. At the end of the day routing isn't a necessity in many of the cuts we're doing, it just looks much cleaner and is a hell of a lot easier and more accurate than a jigsaw.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on September 21, 2008, 10:21:01 pm
After a long hiatus - the King of Kong is back on track. Summer slowed things down for my friend and I to dedicate full days, so we had a few sessions spread a few weeks apart. My advice to anyone starting up this hobby - it takes WAY longer that you think it will...life just gets in the way sometimes.

Anyway, here's week 6:

Got the Formica on the inner sides where the TV will go, didn't cover it all the way back as only part will stick out:
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week6/start.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week6/IMG_1734.jpg)

And got the Formica on this sides of the unit also:
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week6/IMG_1740.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week6/IMG_1741.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week6/IMG_1745.jpg)

Finally, back to the coin door - we got it mounted back in, and slotted out where the "drawer" will go:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week6/IMG_1748.jpg)




Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on September 21, 2008, 10:39:46 pm
Week 7

Decided it was time to get the audio going on this project, so I took my old amp/sub unit and got to work on soldering the connections to my car speakers. For the audiophiles, I ran these in series (each channel goes from amp to speaker +/- and then from that first speaker to the +/- on speaker two) - my limited working knowledge of home audio tells me that home amps run at 8 Ohms, and running two speakers in series EDIT: parallel brings it down to 4 Ohms on each channel, which is the appropriate impedance level for car audio speakers. I soldered these and then glue gunned them for good measure:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1750.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1754.jpg)

I then mounted these in the arcade (make sure you've got some stubby screwdrivers and tough knuckles), and glue gunned the wires down so we've got no movement:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1761.jpg)


Meantime, we also got going on the keyboard/mouse drawer that will sit underneath the control panel. My friend had a great idea to make the drawer have a acrylic bottom. This made the drawer have less depth...and it looks awesome!

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1752.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1755.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1759.jpg)

Oh, and we had a visitor that found a new use for the coin door hole while we were working:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1758.jpg)


Got some Formica on the drawer:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1767.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1768.jpg)


Also squeezed in some time with the coin door for some finishing touches, and had to remember how to reassemble the coin mech assembly!

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1762.jpg)


Sprayed the coin door components to make them silver, and started to get the door back together:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week7/IMG_1765.jpg)

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on September 21, 2008, 11:02:25 pm
Week 8

Big week - bottom of the arcade completed, and man does it look great...I'm seeing what this is going to look like as a finished product.

Hmmm what's this? Looks like some insane colored speaker fabric to perfectly match up with my joysticks!

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1105.jpg)

More on this next time, we had some issues with getting the speaker covers the right size. We'll need to look for something smaller.


Helpful tip if you order coin release replacements for your coin door and the release shaft is too short for your door - glue guns are your friend! This did the trick.

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1106.jpg)


My pride and joy - the coin door is done, fully restored, and mounted in the coin door:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1113.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1118.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1120.jpg)


Just to recap, here' the before and after:

BEFORE
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week4/IMG_1535.JPG)

AFTER
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1113.jpg)


I ran into an issue where I had to find a way to mount this on the coin door and fill the outer holes with something that would match the original "bolts" you see on the inner part of the hardware. I went to the hardware store and found something called a "Chicago Bolt", that is made for the job:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1122.jpg)


This has a polished top, and is available in many different lengths - I got 3/4". You just pop it through the hole and screw the back in:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1123.jpg)


So, with that done, we decided to put the chrome T-molding on the bottom of the arcade. No pics as we both were working on it - one hot gluing, one pushing the T-molding in. A word of advice - the glue dries faster that you think, make sure you move fast...else you're going to be scraping it out and starting over like us. Anyway, got it done, and with the door on, the drawer completed and with handle, it looks GREAT:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1130.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1133.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1134.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1137.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week8/IMG_1138.jpg)


Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Blanka on September 22, 2008, 01:21:42 am
You're speaker setup is a mess. Speakers in series OMG!
Speakers can change in resistance depending on the music. So with one bass beat one can dive to 2ohm, where the other is at 16 ohm. That can give very strange results.
So never put speakers in series, and better, don't use them parallel either.
Is your setup 2-way, or did you just cram 4 full range ones into the top? Well better drive 2 full range ones properly, than 4 like you do know.
If they are both full range, use the 2nd room speaker out on the amp for those. If the amp is just stereo, than either use only 2 speakers, or use a filter and give them each a seperate part of the audio spectrum.
Ohm calculations are very misleading in speaker-land. Just put your 4 ohms on the home amp. There is no problem in that if the amp is good. As I said, big woofers in great speakers can duck to 2 ohm on the bass parts, and then a home-setup must handle that temporary 2 ohm situation as well, and a good amp can handle those situations.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Martijn on September 22, 2008, 02:26:30 am
looking good ! the sound will be great on this thing i think, way overkill  ;D  :notworthy:

also like the zilver coin box , nicely done !
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on September 22, 2008, 05:22:53 pm
You're speaker setup is a mess. Speakers in series OMG!

There's always an audiophile in every crowd ;)

The amp I'm using is actually a surround sound amp I've had for a while that I believe was just meant to be a mini-home unit. It has a L, R, C and a single "S" connection out the back that comes factory wired in series. That is, there's a single channel lead going out the back to rear speaker 1, and rear speaker one then has another lead that links it to speaker 2.

The amp also has a "multimedia" mode that I'm running it in now that simply runs sound through the L and R channel.

To be honest, I've been cranking the music on it for hours this way, and it sounds kicks ass - and my ears could tell if they were out of phase or sounding muddy. If the amp blows - I'll just buy another one that has a 4 channel setup. If the speakers blow, ditto...but so far so good.


Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 06, 2008, 04:04:23 pm
Week 9

This was back in the middle of October, I've just been too busy to post the progress pictures unfortunately. Looks like we might have some winter weekends to keep picking away at it.

Worked on getting the control panel outside "formica'ed" during this session, in addition to getting the speaker covers done.

We managed to sand the control panel to be 99% flat on the top side, which should be fine as we'll be clamping it down (somehow - haven't figured that out yet). Next step was applying the formica to the outside, which proved a lot trickier than we expected.

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week9/IMG_1179.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week9/IMG_1184.jpg)

Why so tricky? Well you can't use the router to edge it because of the freaky angles we've got going on, and because the adjoining sides will have formica on them that need to overlap a tad to cover the edge. Just trust me - this was actually a ---smurfette---, but after a mix of using a blade and a power planer, we got the desired result:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week9/IMG_1187.jpg)

(if you see some jagged edges or what looks like saran wrap hanging off in some of these pictures, it's the protective coating on the formica that keeps the stainless steel top from scratching)

We're really happy with how the chrome and SS are matching up - and the coin door is just icing on the cake.

We got the speaker covers done too - this involved getting some car audio covers, cutting the felt and using hot glue to stretch and attach it to the covers. You've then got to mount the covers with nuts and bolts so you can tighten it from the back. I'm thrilled with the results here, and it is nice to touch :)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week9/IMG_1178.jpg)

You may also note that there is another GGG Marquee LED light installed - I wasn't happy with the brightness that the single row of LED's was putting off, especially given the dark color that my Marquee will be (more on that later). We plugged another one in here and the brightness seems to be sufficient...if still a tad bit dim. I also covered the entire upper inside cavity with foil for good measure:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week9/IMG_1185.jpg)

Pretty close to my original idea ;)
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week5/IMG_1687_covers.jpg)

So at the end of week 9 - most of the exterior is now completed:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week9/IMG_1189.jpg)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 06, 2008, 04:16:20 pm
Week 10

This one got really ghetto - I forgot my camera, so I had to use the crappy one built in to my Blackberry.

Didn't do a whole lot this week other than putting the rest of the chrome T-molding on the upper part of the cabinet. Here's some crappy pics.

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week10/IMG00073-1.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week10/IMG00074-1.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week10/IMG00075-1.jpg)

I then printed out a really shabby mock-up of how I envisioned the marquee looking - just a color printer at work and 8.5 x 11 paper taped together. The scale is way off, as is the color (note the contrast b/w the marquee and the speaker covers). You'll also see some Maximus Arcade goodness going on - I have the brain of this little operation mostly configured and ready to roll!

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week10/IMG00069-1.jpg)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 06, 2008, 04:22:36 pm
So I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel - and unfortunately the artwork (Marquee and CP) have really slowed me down. I've been really busy at work, my wife is 39 weeks pregnant, and I'm lucky if I have just 45 minutes in the evening to do anything at all. It's been a toss up between nit picking over the control panel artwork or playing Gears of War 2, and unfortunately Gears was winning until just recently.

So - I've finalized my artwork, and I posted a thread here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=87293.0 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=87293.0)

To solicit feedback. Here's a copy of what it says for the lazy, with images (sorry to duplicate):

-----------------------------------------------------------------

My project had been on hold for months now as I've been extremely busy with my non-arcade life (which is way less interesting). I've been chipping away at my control panel and marquee for a couple of months now and I believe I've finally got it to a point where it can be sent for printing.

As a backgrounder - this is my project thread, and my arcade is called "The King of Kong" - named after the movie:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=79019.0 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=79019.0)

I wanted to utilize the movie's poster/logo elements and color scheme, so after a lot of work in Vector magic, here's what I've got:

Marquee
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/art/Marquee_Mockup_26x8_rev5.jpg)

Control Panel
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/art/panel_lowcolor.jpg)

A couple of things to note:
- All of my buttons are illuminated, P1 & P2 have Blue Novagems, P3 & P4 have Orange Novagems, Function buttons at top are white for P1-4 Start, and 2 Blue and 2 Orange for Pause, Exit, etc.
- Orange plate at top is for Spinner (TT2 from GGG)
- Donkey Kong will be "throwing" my illuminated trackball (Electric ICE-T from GGG) that will either be illuminated Orange or Blue (or maybe will cycle to both!)
- Joys are all ball tops (2 Ultrastiks & 2 Sanwa JLF's), blue tops for P1 & P2, orange tops for P3 & P4
- Marquee is 26" x 8", CP is 48" x 18"
- I'm going for "simple and clean", not elaborate with huge explosions and lightning bolts, etc.

Things I'm mulling over and would appreciate feedback on:
- I increased the opacity of the colored boxes on the CP because I think it looks nicer, if I matched the colors to the marquee exactly, it would look like this:
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/art/panel_highcolor.jpg)
which I don't think I like as much

- The Marquee, due to the design of the cab and how the backlight is positioned, will only illuminate in the center 5 1/4 inches, such that the light will bleed through like this:
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/art/Marquee_Mockup_26x8_rev5_dark.jpg)

- The speaker covers I'm using are a florescent felt, and are sort of driving the color choice on the marquee, see here:
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/art/IMG_1185.jpg)

- I'm unsure if I should print the CP with the "ghost" circles for the cutouts, I'd prefer to in order to make it easier to get setup for the buttons and make cutting easier, but if this is a big no-no, please let me know.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone in this thread has feedback, please let me know here or in the alternate thread above.

Thanks.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: leapinlew on December 06, 2008, 06:35:26 pm
I love how Donkey Kong is holding the trackball.

Do you think it would make sense for all the lines that intersect in the middle of the CP to intersect at the trackball instead of to the middle of your CP?
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 07, 2008, 12:52:17 pm
Thanks for the suggestion leapinlew - I think you're spot on...I adjusted the "star" to line up with the trackball. I also adjusted the colors slightly so they now are mid-way between the two previous extremes (decreased the opacity a bit). Considering that I've heard the printing results in a little bit of color washout, this might be a wise idea:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/art/panel_midcolor.jpg)

Here's another one I was toying with - just to punch up the marquee...a flaming barrel perhaps? Thoughts?
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/art/Marquee_Mockup_26x8_rev6.jpg)

One other question for the experts - the joystick "holes" I've included here are the same size as the button holes - is that the correct size to cutout to accomodate the Ultrastiks & JLF's? I don't want the holes too big or too small - if someone could confirm, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: web.geek on December 08, 2008, 04:02:27 pm
I really like the artwork (including the newly added flaming barrel). As far as the joystick hole, I can only speak for the Happ Supers. If their throw is similar to the Ultrastiks and JLF's, the standard 1-1/8" button hole is plenty of room. I never come close to hitting the MDF and the dust washers easily cover the hole.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 08, 2008, 04:12:17 pm
Cool - thanks...isn't the standard hole 1 1/4"? I will double check what I have on the template, I have whatever the standard is for pushbuttons.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 08, 2008, 06:08:14 pm
Scratch that - you're right, it is 1 1/8". Thanks.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: twee21 on December 10, 2008, 01:11:09 pm
deepblue,
I am a producer and editor from the King of Kong.  Through the genius of Google Alerts I have been getting status updates on your project ever since April.  I feel honored that someone would put as much time as this in appreciation of a film that I worked on.  I would like to send you a free poster of our movie as a token of my gratitude for all of your hard work.  Please message me through the forum for more details.

Again, great work and I can't wait to see the finished product!

C
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 10, 2008, 01:48:20 pm
twee21 - hilarious, I'm glad you got wind of the project...now I suppose I'll need to try extra hard to ensure it ends up looking great!

I'll send you a PM - please contribute feedback and general comments as the build continues to progress, I'm sure you're as big an arcade fan as anyone here.

Thanks.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: cmoses on December 11, 2008, 11:41:33 am
deepblue,
I am a producer and editor from the King of Kong.  Through the genius of Google Alerts I have been getting status updates on your project ever since April.  I feel honored that someone would put as much time as this in appreciation of a film that I worked on.  I would like to send you a free poster of our movie as a token of my gratitude for all of your hard work.  Please message me through the forum for more details.

Again, great work and I can't wait to see the finished product!

C

Loved your movie.  Have it on DVD and seen it a couple of times already.  Any chance of seeing a picture of the poster?  Offering them for sale?  I know I would have some interest as I would think other as well.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: bfauska on December 11, 2008, 05:22:30 pm
That is shaping up to be a great looking cabinet. The one thing that seems important to mention is that you should be sure to plan on using either switchable sticks (mag-stick plus, t-stick plus, omni-stick prodigy) or an ultimarc u360 or a 49-way. With a title based on a movie based on a video game with a 4-way stick it would be a shame to have crappy 4-way game play.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 11, 2008, 05:27:14 pm
bfauska - thanks. We already bought the 4/8 way restrictor plates for the U360's, and we're in the process of engineering a way to open the panel in an elegant way to make the adjustments on the fly with minimal fuss.

Someone in here just posted a video using an actuated arm that opens/closes the lid - we've actually given it some serious consideration!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on December 14, 2008, 10:29:47 pm
Update - I've finally, finally ordered the marquee and control panel from Scott at Mamemarquees.com. We'll see which comes first - my newborn son (who is due in two days) or my artwork. Excited for both! :)

Anyone have some good links or ideas on created the monitor bezel? We're really stuck with this one - the cardboard/bristolboard thing just isn't going to cut it. We're considering taking a thin piece of plexi, cutting out a hole for the TV and spraying it black...then just laying that against the front of the tv. We'd then put another, thicker piece of plexi as the main front cover.

I'd also appreciate any hints/tips on drilling out the holes, etc. once you have the artwork on top of the control panel - I got mine with adhesive backing so it will stick tight to the wood...and I'm assuming I can then just take the forstner bit right on top of it without fear of it shredding/tearing the control panel material?

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: cmoses on February 05, 2009, 02:04:09 pm
Just curious if there has been any progress made?
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on February 05, 2009, 02:22:01 pm
Hey - sorry for no updates guys...if you see my comments above I was questioning whether or not my newborn baby OR my control panel/marquee printouts would arrive first.

Remarkably, they both arrived on the same day - my son was born on December 24th, and when I stopped by the house that day to grab some things, the artwork had arrived and was waiting for me.

I live in Canada - where we have 4 wonderful seasons...and Winter is here in full force. This, combined with my new duties as a dad have delayed any further progress on the build. My build partner and I are going to do some work this Sunday if the weather is reasonable (i.e., not -10), as I really want to get the control panel going.

At a minimum I'll post some pictures this weekend of my mamemarquees.com work I got from Scott (looks fantastic by the way, turnaround time was 20 days from placing the order to receiving the finished product up here in Canada), but hopefully I'll have more to share.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: opt2not on February 05, 2009, 03:12:48 pm
Quote
Hey - sorry for no updates guys...if you see my comments above I was questioning whether or not my newborn baby OR my control panel/marquee printouts would arrive first.

Remarkably, they both arrived on the same day - my son was born on December 24th, and when I stopped by the house that day to grab some things, the artwork had arrived and was waiting for me.

Congratz on the recent family addition! Wow, an x-mas eve baby...just make sure not to screw him over on the presents! People who are born in December get the unfortunate luck of getting their b-day and x-mas gifts combined.  Kinda sucks as a kid. 
:badmood:

Quote
At a minimum I'll post some pictures this weekend of my mamemarquees.com work I got from Scott (looks fantastic by the way, turnaround time was 20 days from placing the order to receiving the finished product up here in Canada), but hopefully I'll have more to share.

How did you find Scott's service/shipping/wait-time for up here in Canada?  I live in western Canada, and was wondering how long I'd have to wait for my marquee if I order it through mamemarquees.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on February 05, 2009, 03:55:32 pm
Thanks.

Re: Mamemarquees, I never even spoke to Scott, just purchased online and sent him links to my artwork...and 20 days later had both of them in my hot little hands. I've lurked on this board for nearly two years and can tell you Scott's work is widely regarded as the best - everything I've read shows he'll make it right if there is an issue (which there wasn't with my order).

So - I had a custom marquee and custom CP that was quite large, and that was 20 days total until I had it...and consider that was in prime time Christmas shipping season.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Scott's work to another builder here, and certainly to a fellow Canadian.

Make sure and be extra careful with the artwork when you receive it - I was a bone head and put it in my workroom with tools hanging overhead. As expected, I accidentally knocked a set of aviation snips off my wall that promptly landed shear side down on my control panel artwork and put a cut/gouge in a small (and thankfully inconspicuous) area of the panel. I'm pretty sure that when I stick it down to my panel I'll be able to smooth it out so it won't be visible at all.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on February 08, 2009, 09:59:26 pm
Week 11

Well we had to pull this guy out again:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1313.jpg)

Relatively balmy up here this weekend, but still around the freezing mark, so needed Mr. Heater to keep us from getting too cold. As a point of reference, we're nearly one year in on this project, having started last February 28th. Time flies - and this takes way longer than expected.

As promised, here's my artwork from Mamemarquees.com:

Control Panel:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1300.jpg)

Marquee:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1302.jpg)

As usual, the pictures don't do these justice - the control panel has a nice scratch coat on the top and appears to be pretty rugged. The Marquee (which I got printed on the "Premium" material) is a translucent material that looks great and really makes the colors pop.

First thing we did was to tape the panel overlay on to our plywood backing to trim everything flush. There was a bit of a discrepancy size wise (about 1/16") that we're just going to trim off. Once taped down and squared up, we cut the outer edges clean with a straight edge and chalked where we plan to trim the panel back.

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1303.jpg)

With the overlay taped down, we center punched the button cutouts, joystick holes and spinner:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1307.jpg)

And then got to work on creating jigs for the joysticks and trackball mounts (the silver is the back of the control panel, which we laminate with SS formica):

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1309.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1311.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week11/IMG_1312.jpg)


And that's it...only a few hours work, and most of it was spent figuring out what to do first. One thing that did come up as an issue is the trackball height. I didn't think ahead enough to imagine how the trackball will mount with the plexi on top. I've seen a "high mount" kit for the trackball on GGG...I'm assuming that's what I need, as the existing standard GGG trackball doesn't come up high enough to clear the plexi sufficiently.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Hippie459MN on April 16, 2009, 01:33:51 am
Any updates on this? Looking great so far.  :applaud:
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 16, 2009, 09:08:53 am
I've got a few pics of some additional short sessions we've had over the last month and a bit that I need to post, but for the most part we've put this on hold until it warms up. My friend's shop isn't heated, and we're only just getting decent weather in the Toronto area in the last week or so.

We're targeting having this done by end of May - so fingers crossed! Hope to post some more progress soon.

Thanks.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 12, 2010, 11:46:22 pm
**tap tap**

Is this thing on?

I just read through my project thread here and realized that I haven't posted here in almost a year to the day. This is largely because the duties of being a dad and the time required to get this thing completed didn't match up.

I started this project exactly two years ago tomorrow - so I've decided it's time to get it completed. In the time since I last posted, I did get a good deal of work completed...and the machine has moved from the woodshop to my basement.

I unfortunately lost some of my pictures, and only have a random collage of images from my crappy Blackberry camera to share the WIP shots from the last year, which are:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00141.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00142.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00143.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00144.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00145.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00146.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00147.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00148.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00149.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00167.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00168.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00169.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG00170.jpg)

As it stands now - I have the control panel completely assembled:
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG_2548.JPG)

And the cabinet is done with only ONE thing left to do:
(http://www.repeater.ca/images/week12+/IMG_2546.JPG)

...the damn bezel. I've been dreading it because I don't have an elegant solution outside of some black cardboard paper and spray paint.

Anyway - I'm back...and this is now on my "to do" list to get completed ASAP.

Oh - and twee21, if you still check google trends ... I never heard back from you, but I would still love a poster!!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: javeryh on April 13, 2010, 09:31:22 am
...the damn bezel. I've been dreading it because I don't have an elegant solution outside of some black cardboard paper and spray paint.

Glad to see you picking this up again.  As for the bezel, get a 1/4" black acrylic sheet from TAP Plastics (http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=340&) and cut out the center.  Put a bevel or round over the inside edge and treat it with high grit sandpaper and Novus polish.  It will come out great... at least I'm hoping it does.  I'll let you know when I get around to doing it myself!  I have worked with the stuff before though and it is nice (I just haven't made a bezel out of it).   :cheers:
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2010, 10:17:19 am
javeryh - thanks.

My issue with getting this bezel done is probably related to how we built this thing. I'll grab a couple of pics to demonstrate, but essentially I have a TV that is recessed and tilted, and a plexi shield that will ultimately sit in front (as is pictured with the protective paper still on).

The issue is the space/angles around the TV that I need to cover up (so it doesn't look awful) with a black material is very tough to measure and work with.

What I was planning to do was cut and tape/glue some black bristol board pieces around the TV to make everything clean, and was then toying with the idea of painting the inside of the plexi to have a open 'box' where you look in to see the TV. Idea being that the paint will hide most of the crappy bristol board job and focus your attention on the screen itself.

I'll take pics to better explain.

In the interim - for fun, here's a video I made for my friends as a "teaser" for the King of Kong...love LED Blinky!

King of Kong Coming Soon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnGj6SaJBwA#ws)

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: saleem on April 13, 2010, 11:10:39 am
love the queen track,love the lights with the track.
 :applaud:
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2010, 11:14:32 am
Thanks - who doesn't love Queen right? I might release another teaser and put Radio Ga-Ga as the soundtrack :)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: MaximRecoil on April 13, 2010, 01:12:41 pm
Week 7

Decided it was time to get the audio going on this project, so I took my old amp/sub unit and got to work on soldering the connections to my car speakers. For the audiophiles, I ran these in series (each channel goes from amp to speaker +/- and then from that first speaker to the +/- on speaker two) - my limited working knowledge of home audio tells me that home amps run at 8 Ohms, and running two speakers in series EDIT: parallel brings it down to 4 Ohms on each channel, which is the appropriate impedance level for car audio speakers. I soldered these and then glue gunned them for good measure:

You most likely had it right the first time, assuming your car speakers are typical (4 ohms) and your home amplifier is typical (rated stable at 8 ohms). In this case, you would wire a pair of 4 ohm speakers in series (for 8 ohms) for each channel, so each channel of your amplifier will see a nominal 8 ohm load, which is what it is happy with.

With each pair wired in parallel, your amp is seeing a nominal 2 ohm load on each channel, which is not really good for it; though your amp may have built-in protection circuitry to prevent excessive current flow in the event of someone connecting a load that is too low. Also, your volume control can counteract the problem as well (i.e., don't turn it up too loud; your volume control adjusts output voltage to your amplifier).

You're speaker setup is a mess. Speakers in series OMG!

There is nothing wrong with speakers wired in series; in and of itself.

Quote
Speakers can change in resistance depending on the music. So with one bass beat one can dive to 2ohm, where the other is at 16 ohm.

This is true, but irrelevant.

Quote
That can give very strange results.

No.

Quote
So never put speakers in series, and better, don't use them parallel either.

I don't know where you got that idea, but you're wrong.

Quote
Is your setup 2-way, or did you just cram 4 full range ones into the top? Well better drive 2 full range ones properly, than 4 like you do know.

It doesn't make a difference; in and of itself. You're not using the word "properly" properly; since what you are suggesting is not necessarily the "proper" way of doing things (it is one of various "proper" ways of doing things).

Quote
Ohm calculations are very misleading in speaker-land.

No they're not. Ideally you want to match the speaker's nominal impedance to the nominal impedance that the amplifier is rated to be stable at.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: opt2not on April 13, 2010, 03:20:04 pm
Hey welcome back deepblue! Looking forward to seeing this one finished!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 13, 2010, 05:23:16 pm

You most likely had it right the first time, assuming your car speakers are typical (4 ohms) and your home amplifier is typical (rated stable at 8 ohms). In this case, you would wire a pair of 4 ohm speakers in series (for 8 ohms) for each channel, so each channel of your amplifier will see a nominal 8 ohm load, which is what it is happy with.

With each pair wired in parallel, your amp is seeing a nominal 2 ohm load on each channel, which is not really good for it; though your amp may have built-in protection circuitry to prevent excessive current flow in the event of someone connecting a load that is too low. Also, your volume control can counteract the problem as well (i.e., don't turn it up too loud; your volume control adjusts output voltage to your amplifier).


Thanks for the feedback - I figured I had it right at some stage. If I noticed problems I'll adjust it to run in parallel. I also love how audio people often have so much misinformation that is carried on from someone, somewhere. I'll admit I'm pretty useless with home audio, but I was pretty into car audio and actually tried to read up on the topics :)

The real question is - can I mount the two 10" subs (currently gathering dust in my crawlspace) in this thing somewhere? :D
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 15, 2010, 10:09:08 pm
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.

Back on what is working - LED Blinky is setup to not only strobe to Queen, but to light up the appropriate buttons for the game you select, do some fun animations in between, etc. What an amazing app - Arzoo deserves huge praise for making it.

So - my procrastinating on the bezel is coming to an end...and is one of the last major things to complete. Will try to tackle it (and finish it?) this weekend.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Blanka on April 19, 2010, 08:02:13 am
No they're not. Ideally you want to match the speaker's nominal impedance to the nominal impedance that the amplifier is rated to be stable at.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/technical-articles/228-a-secrets-technical-article.html (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/technical-articles/228-a-secrets-technical-article.html)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: dynasty_trs on April 27, 2010, 12:17:22 am
Loved the movie... Considered taking the trip to New Hampshire to see the cade and museum from the film.

Regardless... this build is top notch.  I know how family thing can be.  Cannot wait to see this thing in action.  Artwork is also really sophisticated for this build.

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: WhereEaglesDare on April 27, 2010, 06:18:31 am
Did you ever get that poster?  I'm sure its just lost in the mail.  :lol
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on April 27, 2010, 10:35:44 am
Thanks Dynasty.

No, unfortunately our friend who worked on the King of Kong didn't come back to the forum to check the PM I sent him. If by chance he reads this - I would still love a poster!

I have the cabinet nearly completed - I'm in the final agonizing stages of crafting a custom bezel and will then adorn it with plexi. Just taking forever.

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: jtslade on July 27, 2010, 10:25:41 am
Bump and Jump.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on July 27, 2010, 10:51:55 am
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!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: IG-88 on July 27, 2010, 05:13:57 pm
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?
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on July 27, 2010, 05:23:35 pm
Also want to get rid of the nag screens!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: shilmover on July 27, 2010, 05:36:10 pm
Want that Marquee signed by Steve Wiebe?

if so, PM me, I should be able to help...  :)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: IG-88 on July 27, 2010, 09:55:43 pm
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?
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on July 27, 2010, 10:01:24 pm
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.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: IG-88 on July 27, 2010, 10:05:20 pm
http://mame.joymonkey.com/ (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) :)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Bender on July 28, 2010, 02:41:48 am
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 (http://www.headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mame&page=mc64) (It's not just for mame 64)
I use it all the time and love it
great instructions too

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on July 28, 2010, 07:36:31 am
 :hissy:
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!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Flip The Switch on July 29, 2010, 05:19:06 am
Keep up the awesome work cant wait to see the end result with a game running :)
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: NeoFlynn on July 29, 2010, 01:44:03 pm
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  :lol
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on July 29, 2010, 01:59:15 pm
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.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Bender on July 30, 2010, 06:52:12 pm
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!!!!!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: jtslade on August 03, 2010, 03:46:34 pm
http://highscore.mameworld.info/ (http://highscore.mameworld.info/)

high score and no nag
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on August 03, 2010, 03:57:26 pm
Thanks jtslade - I'll check this out.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on August 05, 2010, 09:31:10 pm
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:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/IMG_2797.JPG)

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":

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/IMG_2804.JPG)

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

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/IMG_2806.JPG)

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:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/IMG_2813.JPG)

I left this to dry for a while.
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on August 05, 2010, 09:45:26 pm
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:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5651-1.JPG)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5652-2.JPG)

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:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5654-3.JPG)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5655-4.JPG)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5660-5.JPG)

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!

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5661-6.JPG)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5663-7.JPG)

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

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5664-8.JPG)

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

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/everythingelse/DSC_5666-9.JPG)

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!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on November 27, 2016, 09:21:58 pm
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:

Video of The King of Kong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv0b5dEKaxo)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/final/FullSizeRender%203.jpg)

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/final/FullSizeRender%205.jpg)

Admin Drawer:

(http://www.repeater.ca/images/final/FullSizeRender%202.jpg)

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!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Hippie459MN on November 27, 2016, 11:30:57 pm
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.

Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: deepblue on November 28, 2016, 08:37:33 am
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!
Title: Re: The King of Kong
Post by: Ian on November 29, 2016, 01:56:46 am
Your theme is sooooo 2008!   lol... jk.