Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: jasonbar on November 11, 2007, 12:29:40 am
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[not sure if I should post this in artwork, but this seemed like the place...]
A coworker who's an an amateur astronomer hosted a workshop for people who wanted to build telescopes. Everybody wanted a clever theme: R2-D2, a giraffe, a surfing penguin, etc.
For me, an arcade game. And what would be more appropriate than Space Invaders for a telescope?
A few short months later, I got it all together & kludged together some graphics (sharp readers will note that I mixed some Midway & Taito graphics on the same cabinet--sorry, I went w/ the artwork that I could find & download...).
Full set of pics at http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff97/infernolab/Space%20Invaders%20Telescope/?start=all.
Samples attached.
Enjoy!
-Jason
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:o
This is really cooooolllll :notworthy:
i want one :P
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How big is that thing?
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Sweeet!!
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Color me impressed... That's a thing of beauty, man...
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WOW ... I love it, and want one!
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That is really neat! How long did it take to build that badboy?
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That's a great project, congratulations on a such a clean execution of a good idea.
Also... Be sure to warn us if you're ever looking through that thing and see a bunch of creepy pixleated bugs zig-zagally marching down on us from the sky. I'd like to have time to get into a sideways-driving squiggly-line cannon and hide under some floating rocks.
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Thanks for you kind words--it was a fun project!
I put up a few more pics today to show how the telescope disassembles into 2 parts: the tube w/ mirrors & focuser & eyepieces, and the base, which rotates & cradles the tube to allow it to tilt up/down.
Same link: http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff97/infernolab/Space%20Invaders%20Telescope/?start=all
To answer all your questions:
- I think I started in late June or early July & spent only about 1-2hrs a week on average on it, probably.
- Somebody did a rough CAD model of the main parts, & I pretty much just went off his model (except for the shapes of the side panels of the base...and yes, I "cheated" & have a protrusion on the front for the control panel even though the real SI cabs didn't have that...).
- Cost was about $500ish for everything, including some extras. An SLR camera adapter, book, sky software, & a 3rd eypiece will put me at about $600.
- Size: Tube is cheap cardboard Sonotube from Home Depot: 7.5" dia x 48" or so long. I think the turntable base is 20" diameter, so I guess the base is about 24" high.
- Primary parabolic reflector mirror is 6" dia, 48" focal length.
- Tube graphics are from thinkgeek.com. Cabinet artwork is from various downloads, tweaked, printed @ Kinko's on vinyl, & glued on w/ 3M spray adhesive.
The first night I set it up, I could see the cloud bands across Jupiter, and when I looked @ the last full moon, I could clearly see peaks & valleys around the circumference of the moon--it's not just a perfectly circular disk up there in the sky w/ varying shades of gray--the circular border is actually jaggy--those mountains are pretty big relative to the moon's diameter!
-Jason
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I am real interested in a project like this. Did you go as far as shaping/polishing the mirrors yourself of was it mostly constructed from off-the-shelf parts?
It looks bloody great. :applaud:
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Thanks. We didn't get too hardcore.
Here's a rough breakdown of the materials:
- cardboard sonotube
- lots of 3/4" wood (a 4'x8' sheet is plenty)
- lots of primer & paint
- lots of wood screws & machine nuts/bolts
- 6 screw-on feet for base & back of tube
- 3 teflon pads (machined) for base turntable
- 1 sheet of smooth linoleum sheet to bear on 3 teflon pads for base turntable
- 4 teflon sheet squares (cut from sheet) for pitch bearing cradle
- 2 machined Aluminum rings for pitch bearing surfaces
- edge molding to protect ends of tube
- 3 big & 3 little springs for mirror mounts
- 4-legged aluminum spider to hold small 45-deg secondary mirror on "top" end of tube (machined)
- primary & secondary mirrors (purchased--about $190)
- focuser (purchased $40)
- 2 eyepieces (purchased, $40 ea.)
- Telrad target (purchsaed, $40)
- laser collimator to adjust mirrors (purchased, $75)
So, just some basic woodworking skills w/ careful measuring (heck, you should see how sloppy I got in places, and as long as the mirrors still line up, it doesn't matter!), a few parts that require a machine shop if you want to do them nicely, and a few purchased parts is all you need, plus some know-how (which I didn't have, but I knew somebody with it!).
-Jason
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So now the hot neighbor only thinks you are playing video games instead of watching her? Nice...
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Thanks. We didn't get too hardcore.
Here's a rough breakdown of the materials:
- cardboard sonotube
- lots of 3/4" wood (a 4'x8' sheet is plenty)
- lots of primer & paint
- lots of wood screws & machine nuts/bolts
- 6 screw-on feet for base & back of tube
- 3 teflon pads (machined) for base turntable
- 4 teflon sheet squares (cut from sheet) for pitch bearing cradle
- 2 machined Aluminum rings for pitch bearing surfaces
- edge molding to protect ends of tube
- 3 big & 3 little springs for mirror mounts
- 4-legged aluminum spider to hold small 45-deg secondary mirror on "top" end of tube (machined)
- primary & secondary mirrors (purchased--about $190)
- focuser (purchased $40)
- 2 eyepieces (purchased, $40 ea.)
- Telrad target (purchsaed, $40)
- laser collimator to adjust mirrors (purchased, $75)
So, just some basic woodworking skills w/ careful measuring (heck, you should see how sloppy I got in places, and as long as the mirrors still line up, it doesn't matter!), a few parts that require a machine shop if you want to do them nicely, and a few purchased parts is all you need, plus some know-how (which I didn't have, but I knew somebody with it!).
-Jason
Thanks man! :)
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Excellent work! I like the attention to detail.
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love it! just so happens im building a space invaders cab. where did you get the artwork from? i have some but i seem to be stuck on the front of the cab where the coin door goes...
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Howdy-
I got my art from tons of web searches. Google images, some arcade art sites, etc.
What I used--if you want any files, I can e-mail them to you or anybody--they're just free items I found from searching--nothing copyrighted:
- JPG of kick panel, Taito version, I think. 60k. Not high-res--probably not good for a full-size machine
- Then I photograhed my Simpsons coin door & made a crude Solidworks model of it and saved that as a JPG & overlaid it on the kick panel art
- AI vector art of Taito sideart. I used the same art for both sides & extended the blue background to be big enough to fit the shape of my "cabinet" (the marquee & control panel protrude on my telescope, unlike the real cab)
- AI vector art of Midway control panel overlay. Midway used 2 buttons for left/right, while Taito used a joystick.
- I found button artwork (I think from Johnny 5?) & overlaid buttons on the overlay artwork to complete the control panel
- JPGs & PNGs of bezel artwork, a few slightly different versions.
- ran MAME32 w/ overlay option turned on & bezel option turned off & took a screen grab for the screen. Edited the image to remove lots of invaders to make them spell out my initials, and then I found an old arcade font (that didn't quite match the SI font) & put the "first light" info in player 2's score. First light is the date when you first see something through your scope.
Found but didn't use:
- AI vector art of Space Invaders Deluxe bezel. It didn't really go w/ the rest of my artwork
- 2 AI vector arts of Space Invaders logo
- AI vector art of the blocky space invaders themselves (I didn't use those for the tube graphics--I just bought Invaders stickers from thinkgeek.com)
-Jason
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I was expecting him to say that when you look through the telescope it superimposes space invaders on the image.
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You give me too much credit, ChadTower! :]
Actually, you could put a big old space invaders stickers on the primary (parabolic) mirror on that telescope and go out & look @ the sky & you wouldn't see the sticker--your image in your eyepiece would just be a little dimmer b/c you'd be blocking some of the light that was supposed to be getting to your eyeball--wild stuff...
-Jason
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Got a new toy for my telescope: a bracket to hold a camera right up to the eyepiece to snap snazzy pics through the telescope.
I have a well-loved, old Casio Exilim EX-Z40 (4MP, 3x optical zoom). It has pretty decent manual control of ISO, white balance, focus, EV Shift (whatever that is), & zoom to take some fair pictures.
Aligning the camera to each eyepiece is a bear, but I got better by the time I got to my 3rd & final eyepiece (highest mag, fussiest, generally worst image quality but pretty darn good tonight for some reason...).
Pictures: http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff97/infernolab/Space%20Invaders%20Telescope/moon%201-31-2010/ (http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff97/infernolab/Space%20Invaders%20Telescope/moon%201-31-2010/)
The pictures are sorted in the order in which they were taken, going from low to medium to high mag eyepieces (though I messed around w/ the camera zoom during each setup, so the photos don't necessarily progress in increasing zoom levels...).
Mars was out tonight, but it's no more than a reddish dot with my scope. Someday I'll snap Jupiter & Saturn--those are both spectacular (though small) in my scope.
Thanks,
-Jason
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I didn't see the original post but thats very cool Jason. I'm a sucker for anything Spacies :)
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Those are nice pics, way to go! I've taken some astro-pics myself, it's a fun hobby and I've done my own marriage of Astronomy with this arcade hobby by putting my own photos into my marquee :).
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83998.msg878588#msg878588 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83998.msg878588#msg878588)
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Wow, Loafmeister--you've clearly got a nice setup there--I'll try the wife's new 10MP Canon point & shoot camera next--that should produce some better shots!
Thanks,
-Jason
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With the standard point and shoot, you can do great stuff with planets and the moon. Keep taking pics, that’s a great start!
I gotta get going on my astro-imaging page someday...
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The Space Invaders telescope doubles as a swell solar eclipse projector!
http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff97/infernolab/Space%20Invaders%20Telescope/solar%20eclipse%205-23-2012/?start=all (http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff97/infernolab/Space%20Invaders%20Telescope/solar%20eclipse%205-23-2012/?start=all)
-Jason
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Nice Dob mount!
I've got an older Meade 6" reflector on an EQ mount. But it is so heavy and difficult to move around that I rarely use it.
I've been considering building a Dob mount for it....maybe this will give me the inspiration I need.
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At least I caught the elderlyness of the thread within three posts.
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TopJimmy reviews the tape and rules- NO Necropsy. Bumped by the OP with relevant new info. Proceed with play.