Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: Troy on April 05, 2019, 04:36:31 am
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I am not sure this is an announcement as much as a beginning... But here we go....
So many years ago I built a 2 player cocktail cabinet, fairly standard construction at the time, plywood, computer inside and a cry monitor. Eventually I moved overseas and gave it away to a friend.
It's been 15 years ish since I built it and the itch to build another has been ever present, but I have not kept up with the ever changing technology. So I have a few questions.
Firstly the plan:
I now have 3 small kids so the aim will be a 4 player stand up cabinet. I want to do this one properly with quality side vinyls and a lit marquee, coin box, etc
4 player games I am thinking of are my childhood classics:
TMNT
Sunset riders
Battle toads
AVP
Simpsons.
DnD
But I also want to be able to play classic 2 players like street fighter etc.
My initial thoughts regarding 2 main players in the middle with 6 buttons each and another player on each end with 4 buttons each.
My questions:
Any other 4 players I should consider?
What is the go to computer/ processing hardware nowadays?
Which OS/ software are people recommending?
Thanks in advance!
Troydo
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For 4 player games, the D&D games, Knights of Valour series, Oriental Legend series, and The Gladiator need 4 action buttons per player. There are no arcade games that need more than that for players 3 and 4.
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Ohh yeah DnD how could I forget!!!!
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I have mocked up some drawings in Fusion 36 of the cab side and controller layout. I am a rank amateur in fusion, so i assume i have done it wrong, but since these will just be used as plans i think its OK... i am hoping i can print out templates form there...
The cabinet side is based on flynns arcade. The control panel is my own work, just a rectangle with 30 degree cut outs and the corners rounded. The control panel will be 1m wide and 0.332m deep. the plan will be to have it have about a 7 degree decline as well.
I have read as many suggestions as possible off the forum and noticed the controllers parallel to the screen is highly recommended so I have gone that route. I have placed the outside players buttons a little closer to the joystick than the centre two. the button layout and spacing of the centre 2 players follows the "standard Japanese arcade design" from slag coin.
Any feedback welcomed
(https://i.imgur.com/RPbvp8A.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/7IvLWxy.png)
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One other question, I would like to add a coin door to this project, mostly because I want to cast my own coins for it 🙂. Can I set it up so a single coin slot will give generic credits or will I need 4 slots?
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Current state of side art... I am an Illustrator noob... but am getting somewhere. Started with the "very mame" image that floats around.
(https://i.imgur.com/qu99ACr.png)
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Woof.
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Well at least your CP design is solid. Great job on that :cheers:
As for the art, there are many of us that aren’t too keen on the multi-character mashups where art style clash. It cheapens the design, and is non-commital to a theme. It’s cool if that’s your vision. But it kinda does it a disservice because of just mashing random images together.
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Totally get that! Really I wasn't sure what to put on there, so went that route. Cabinet is a long way from completion so plenty of time to play with it.
Its a bit busy for me really , but i dont hate it.
* updated previous image of side art *
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I had a background idea that I could do something similar tio Atari space duel, but with my family as astronauts, Unfortunately i cant draw... SO i have put together this... thoughts?
(https://i.imgur.com/Tt2Afec.png)
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That is much better than a random collage, but give the astronauts something to do.
Lose the stripes and lose the name. anything with cade in the name is bad.
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Maybe something like this.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=159740.0;attach=376661;image)
Of course yours won't be as good as this. My artistic talent is unparalleled.
Most of the original cabs I own do not have a name on the sides. That is what the marquee is for.
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Of course yours won't be as good as this. My artistic talent is unparalleled.
Most of the original cabs I own do not have a name on the sides. That is what the marquee is for.
Listen to Mike. He drew some sick art for my cab but it was just a bit too late since I already placed the order.
+1 to no name on the side panel. I don't mind the stripes but I think you have too many layers - they almost touch near the thin part at the top, which looks.... off.
EDIT: here's Mike's custom art for my cab.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180712/3bd2e5a7778c3dd14afe2f680b4f47f0.jpg)
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If you need a Saturn for Mike's pic feel free to use one of mine :)
http://www.threebuttes.com/Saturn.htm (http://www.threebuttes.com/Saturn.htm)
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Damn Boys! I need to get you over to paint the cab, Masterpieces! :P
I am playing with the layout again, Its hard to find images that stylistically work together.
The name was really only there because I didn't know what to put in such a small gap.
The stripes are based of the Atari Space Duel cabinet:
http://www.rotheblog.com/tag/sideart/#/2008/03/classic-arcade-games/vectorizing-atari-space-duel-sideart/
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Those work on Space Duel because it’s a deeper cab. Those thick stripes don’t work on your cab because of the shallower sides.
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Space Door? That sounds like a terrible game.
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Space Door? That sounds like a terrible game.
What chu talkin’ ‘bout, Mikey?
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Hmm changing the stripes is a ball ache.. will look at it..
Latest Version:
(https://i.imgur.com/wUGE6wd.png)
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Just humor me and post a pic without the stripes.
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I don’t hate the stripes - I just don’t think it looks good at the top of your slender cab.
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Will try without the stripes, but its not just a simple remove. Gotta change masks and stuff.. This is probably because i dont know what i am doing in illustrator :P
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Right.. i am p[utting this on ice for a while... i am over illustrator... here are a few more versions..
(https://i.imgur.com/y6dcZ3D.jpg)
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Thumbs up for the middle one. The one thing I would change would be to remove two or three astronauts. Definitely one of the twins (better both) and the one who is busy waving to the camera. There are too many astronauts and tether lines, it's too busy.
As for the astronaut's background pic, I would try to find a pic of a spaceship/station under construction/in repair so that the astronauts appear to be working on that instead of just hanging around in space.
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Well if you must have a border, the middle looks the best.
But if you want my opinion, here’s what I’d try.
I’d play with the sizes of things a bit. You’ve got a lot of small scattered images at the same size and visual presence that there is lacking perspective and grandness of objects of space.
I would scale up the earth and fill the top header area of your cab , but not obscuring the spherical shape of the planet. So leave some small black space in the front of that top part.
The astronauts are all at wacky sizes and so evenly spaced from one another. It’s hard to tell who’s in front. I’d make a couple guys bigger, so the seem closer to the camera in perspective, and I’d also overlap a couple in some areas.
I’d remove one of them too. Probably the one that’s duped and flipped. While you’re at it, raise the ship a bit and make it larger as well.
Remove the image of the asteroid at the kickplate, that’s just creating an anchor in your composition because it’s a small detail that has no reason to be there, and is attached to the frame edge. I’d get rid of the planet by the front CP area as well.
These are unnecessary and I know that you’re just trying to fill spaces here, but less is more. The planet in the middle near the monitor edge doesn’t need to be too close to center of that area. Offsetting it to the back edge more created a nicer non-symmetrical framing of it. If it’s too symmetrical it becomes boring and uninteresting to look at.
Also, I’d flip the black hole so that it’s angle isn’t in parallel with the ship’s and earth’s directional lines they’re pointed in. The black hole should be facing the front of the cab.
And the ships battling should be much bigger so you can see them clearer ,and I’d have one of them overlap the black hole’s outer edge a bit.
Try these things and see if that helps.
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thanks!
I thought I was done for a while but evidently I cant leave a project alone....
(https://i.imgur.com/G0lDnGQ.png)
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Did a little more work on the CP Pretty happy with the layout now.
Thinking of having the p3 and p4 coin buttons mounted under the lip and then i can get away with just a 2 coin door for p1 and p2
the back tab is not accurate in size, width and depth to be determined once tv is sorted etc...
(https://i.imgur.com/Ke3yPdf.png)
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Are you planning on doing any more cleanup on those graphics? Not sure if it's a black hole or a galaxy but it has a couple straight flat edges where it looks like the boundary of wherever you grabbed it from. I'd do something to blend that in so it doesn't look like a flat edge. And the edges of the planet up top I would probably clean up so it's not so jagged. Relative sizes of things are kinda bothering me but I don't really have better suggestions. You wouldn't really be near a planet of that size and also appear that close to a giant galaxy.
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Yeah, I'm with Gilrock, I'm just not feelin' it here.
Along with the Galaxy (I thought it was a black hole) feeling out of place, the astronaut ship kinda looks like the Millennium Falcon! Which kinda doesn't fit with the space suits... Not sure I like the mishmash of art-styles either. Line-art astronauts and planets, realistic rendered earth, CG looking ships...it's just all clashing with each other. You're also doing the "peek-a-boo" anchoring images along the border again! This is a big no-no in layout design. It draws the audience's attention from the focal point and makes people wonder what's over there?
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Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback. I am also having an issue with the art styles, and that's because I don't have the skill to draw them, so am borrowing them from everywhere, this makes it hard to get a consistent style. I had wanted a drawn/cell shaded look similar to the old cabinets, but that hasn't really worked.
The images are in no way final or completely cleaned up, they were just quickly snipped and tidied then popped in to see if I liked them, once I am happy with the design i will go back through and add transparency to the edges and clean them properly. was considering ditching the galaxy and adding an asteroid belt, but that might be lacking a bit of colour...