Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: Thurman on July 24, 2005, 03:20:27 pm
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As soon as I moved into my house 2 years ago, I knew that I would have some sort of arcade cabinet in it at some point. When you walk through the front door, off to the right is an unused closet area which happens to be just about the perfect size for one. Well about 6 months ago a friend showed me his Mame emulator on his laptop and then the light went off..... I was going to build some sort of arcade cabinet!
After a few days of browsing around at cabinet ideas and designs, I stumbled across the BYOAC forums, went out and bought the book, and there hasn't been a boring day since. My cabinet is still a work in progress (and from what I've read, will ALWAYS be in progress, haha), but I've finally got enough done to show and tell. So here we go.....
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The first thing I did was brainstorm about possible themes for the cab. I sat down and thought about the stuff that I loved as a kid and the stuff that I still love now. Then I remembered Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and I knew that was the perfect theme for my cab.... it's colorful, magical, and it's something that would take everyone back in time a little bit. Perfect!
So I took a few days doing some mockups and color schemes. The two images that I just could not get out of my head were Gene Wilder's bemused expressions throughout the movie to go along with his velvet purple jacket. So I had a pretty good idea how my marquee and color scheme would turn out. And I decided to name the cab "The Golden Ticket".......
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Well since I don't really own many power tools, I knew that building a cab from scratch was not really going to be an option at this point. So I started shopping around at all of the local arcades and checking the classifieds for an empty or non-working cabinet. My budget was $50 max for the cabinet. After a few weeks, nothing worthwhile had turned up. But I was in luck.... there was going to be a Super Auction in a few weeks only an hour away. So I had my plan.
This was my first auction and wow did I have a good time. Just checking out all of the games and watching all of the action was worth it. But after an hour or so, I noticed that none of the games were being sold in my price range. So I wandered out back to relax for a minute when I saw it..... a row of broken down cabinets!! Jackpot! I went back and waited, and waited, and finally the auction moved out back ("had to get those out back before it got dark", haha).? After some intense action, I brought home a busted up Ray Storm for $1 ;D
The frame was in pretty good shape, the glass and bezel looked good, the marquee light worked, and you can see that the front panel had been broken into and was in bad shape. But I had my cab!
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A few bonus pics so you can see the front panel and the "quality" work that had been done under the control panel. ;)
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Once I started removing the paint, I realized that I was working with a converted TMNT cab. Once again.... perfect! I'm a little taller so I have problems when the marquee hangs right over the control panel. I like it to be recessed a little and the monitor angled back pretty far.
I could see a little burn-in on the 25" monitor that came with the cab, but I was hopeful that I could get it working and see how it looked. No matter what I tried, I could only get a flatline (pic below). Also, I'm no electrician and I didn't want to mess around with the monitor too much. So I just removed it and I'll have to come up with a plan later.
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Once I got it sanded down and looking a little better, it was time to focus on the control panel. I decided to go with 2 Happs 49-ways with the GP-Wiz49. I like the longer throws and wanted to keep my joysticks versatile.
I built a demo control panel in order to test out the joystick and button layout. I'm glad I did this because I put the 2P buttons closer to the joystick and if I play on that side for more than about 15 minutes, my wrists get really sore from turning them outward. Also, I still need to get a trackball (I'd like to find a purple illuminated one) and I also need to design some artwork, but the basics are all there.
So now that I had a working control panel, it was time to set this up for some games!! Here's a few pictures from the first day I had it up and running in the garage. You can see that I still don't have the monitor mounted; it's just sitting in a shelf behind the cabinet. Plus I cut out the broken section of the front panel.
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It was time to pretty up the cab. So I moved it inside for some painting and t-molding. I primed, sanded, painted, sanded, painted, then painted again.
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And here's where it stands today. To be continued.......
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thats prety cool...
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Dude, That is coming out so GOOD!. I'm STOKED on the talent in this forum!
-=XD=-
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Very nice Almost looks good enough to eat (wanka bar)LOL ;D
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(wanka bar)
!!!
:D
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I've had a request to show my FE layouts. I'm using Mamewah, and when the FE is opened you hear Wonka say "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams." Then you can hear some soft music in the background but can't really tell what it is. But after a few seconds you hear....... "Oompa Loompa, doompity doo...." I have it looping through the 4 Oompa Loompa songs and everybody seems to really like hearing them while browsing through the games. :)
Each emulator has it's own Wonka layout. Here's a few.......
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1 more
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Wow Thurman, It's looking real good. How about for the sideart "lickable wallpaper. Your visitors will want to lick the sides of your cabinet to see if the snozberries taste like snazberries! :P
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Thurman, I sent you a PM please read it over and let me know, your CAB is AWESOME and you FE is just plain incrediable!!!!!!!! I need to have your front end, I am a HUGE WONKA COLLECTOR!!! Let me know what you think, I sent you me email address so we can talk.
Thanks and AWESOME job,
Ken
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What a fabulous project and a great, original theme! I am a huge fan of the original Willy Wonka, so your artwork and MameWAH layouts are particularly appealing to me!
Great job!!!
-- Chris
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Man, that is one sweet looking cab. I love the Wonka theme and artwork. I cannot stop looking at it.
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If he wanted lickable wallpaper, it would have pictures of Reese Witherspoon on it, not Gene Wilder.
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I'm with everyone else on this one. Your cab is looking awesome! Keep up the great work.
UndeadMeat
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I need this frontend!!
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I need this frontend!! Is there a way that i can get a copy of the wonka skins and music you have??? I LOVE THIS FRONTEND!!! Please hook me up with a copy!
I do not mean to beg, but this is FREAKING AWESOME!!!
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Thanks for the compliments guys! I'm glad you're enjoying the theme because I knew that it worked for me. I'll be sure to post updates as they happen. Up next..... mount the monitor, add a coin door, and I'm still deciding if I want to add a kick plate. It's only been a few weeks but I've noticed a bunch of dirty footprints on the bottom of the cab!
Ken - I've PM'd you and I can hook you up with a few items from my layouts, not really a problem. Another option if you wanted your own original layout would be to grab screenshots from the movie and then add a little artwork using Photoshop (which is what I did). I'm no graphic artist but I did what I could.
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Hey Thurman,
Nice work. I'm a little late catching this one. I sporadically check the project announcements section (just to see if anyone bumped my projects :D). You've done a great job. I really like the theme and especially the purple.
Also, I noticed the marquees you have for the console fe layouts. Where did you find those? I have the boxes and cart scans from screenshot archive.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
KenToad
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$1.00 ??? I would have paid twice that! :)
As soon as I started reading this thread, I said to myself:
"Self, I sure hope this guy finds a way to get the Oompa Loompa Song in that cab somewhere!"
Nice work!
-Stobe
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KenToad -
I actually made the console marquees myself. I have title screens for all of the games so I just went down the list (about 35 games for each console), cut the title off the title screen, and reshaped it to a marquee size. It wasn't too much work so I'd say that each game took me less than a minute. I'd be happy to share either my small collection of marquees or the complete list of title screens.
Since NHL 94 is a favorite of mine, that marquee got special attention and is a picture that I found while browsing around.
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Hi THURMAN
great job you make it sound easy in photoshop.
cheers peter
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Fantastic Cab !
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Man that's a cool cab. If you do a kick plate I think you should think about ordering one in brass about a foot high and do an engraving of the golden ticket from the movie. Could be expensive but it would sure look cool. Nice work
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Awesome cab! And the poster above me had a great idea.
-Ace-
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Nice looking cab (and a lucky find I might add), original theme.
For the kickplate you could use some yellow plexi, (same color as the molding) or clear plexi with some artwork behind it...
And personally, I think a cab needs a coindoor, even if its not used, the front door looks so big and empty without one...
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that is a great cab good idea.........
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Any updates on this cab? Final pics or still WIP?
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Simply delicious cab and a brilliant marquee. The purple looks dazzling. I hope you made some progress and would very much like to see how it came out.
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I'm still here! I've had a few things happen over the last few months that have slowed down my progress on the cab, including taking a new job. But I have added a new coin door, and am in the process of adding a Golden Ticket kickplate. Plus I'm working on a fresh new marquee and control panel artwork. Stay tuned for updated pictures!
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Cool cant wait to see it ;D ;D
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I'm still here! I've had a few things happen over the last few months that have slowed down my progress on the cab, including taking a new job. But I have added a new coin door, and am in the process of adding a Golden Ticket kickplate. Plus I'm working on a fresh new marquee and control panel artwork. Stay tuned for updated pictures!
i would love to see the "golden ticket kick plate" :)
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wow great idea, just watched this movie the other day. Cab and marquee look great, and I really like the layout. I have to think that the oompa loompa song would get annoying, but its a good novelty. Makes me want to make my cab less generic. Can't wait to see the finished pics, great job.
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Humm, it's June. Anymore work done on this cabinet? I want to see the kick plate :)
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Humm, it's June. Anymore work done on this cabinet? I want to see the kick plate :)
I Concur
Photos Updates???
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Updates!!!
The cab already had a nice monitor mount in it (from the 25" arcade monitor). So I had to figure out a way to mount a 20" CRT using the existing mount. It took a few tries but I finally came up with the correct design. I removed the case from the 20" CRT, attached 4 metal strips to each of the corners, and attached those metal strips to the existing mount. I was a little nervous at first because it doesn't look very stable, but trust me this monitor isn't going anywhere. I gave it a few good shakes and it passed my inspection. It's a "floating" design.....
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Now it was time to put together a nice looking marquee. You can see earlier in the thread my marquee mock-up. I knew that an actual photo of Gene Wilder wasn't going to cut it so I spent some time with Illustrator and Photoshop. You can also see the final result of the mounted monitor along with Tailgunner's $2 bezel (cardboard).
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And I know a few of you have been waiting for this..... a Golden Ticket kickplate! I drew the design on a piece of posterboard, then bought a bronze kickplate from Home Depot. My friend is a graphical artist so she said that she'd take it from there. She took my design and copied it onto a black sticker. Using some kind of etching machine to cut around the design, she placed the sticker over the kickplate then peeled away the negative space. It turned out even better than I was hoping!
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That's really cool. My only concern is now that my wife has seen this it's going to be a battle for me to make a themed cabinet any other way than Wonka. I want to do like a pin-up girl cab or something, I suppose that's slightly different. Oh, well.
Any way, both my wife and I like you cab a lot, very nice details, especially the kick plate. :applaud: :cheers:
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And I know a few of you have been waiting for this..... a Golden Ticket kickplate! I drew the design on a piece of posterboard, then bought a bronze kickplate from Home Depot. My friend is a graphical artist so she said that she'd take it from there. She took my design and copied it onto a black sticker. Using some kind of etching machine to cut around the design, she placed the sticker over the kickplate then peeled away the negative space. It turned out even better than I was hoping!
OK, that's just sweet. The whole cab is sweet the way it was, but adding a kick-plate like that just about takes the show. I've got to find me some friends with that kind of know-how.
Doesn't bronze tarnish? Did she treat with some kind of lacquer to keep the shine?
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That is just beautiful. The golden ticket/kickplate really works wonders. Aren't you afraid someone might actually ... well ... kick it? Or is the sticker protected somehow?
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Way back on the monitor part, the first thing I wondered was why no one mentioned you might have vertical collapse and how to troubleshoot it.
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:o :o :o
That kickplate is awesome! How did I miss it before?!