Atari Star Wars from scratch

[pin_wiz_1]

Hi everyone!

I am new here so thought I would show you some of my recent work. I know this is the Announcements section but I was not sure where to post so I thought I would use this area. You see this project is now complete but luckily I took some pics etc whilst it was being built.

With a ton of help from the man known only as the "Dezter" I was able to build a MAME run Atari Star Wars upright arcade cabinet.

I have talked about this projet over at the brilliant JAMMA+ forum and the guys and gals on that forum were tons of help. http://www.jammaplus.co.uk/

How do I post the pictures to show you all?



erm - I guess that's how!

Here are some more pics of work in progress:












That one show the original cabinet we used to study before building the replica.

Regards

Brad

PS - I love the work markrvp did on his cabinets - inspired me to post here.
PPS - I also have built a MAME cabinet too in the shape of MS PACMAN but with a few alterations.

[pin_wiz_1]

Here are some more photos:




Above is the front of the cabinet which is ready for the pastic monitor surround and the yoke. This is slightly different from the original and we were able to make a more simplified and neater job of this part.

Then I sprayed the cabinet black in the areas that will not be covered by artwork. Used 2 coats of primer and 2 of the colour. Lights installed and marquee totally finished including artwork. Sprayed all metal work. Monitor is installed (very difficult as a PC monitor is huge compared to the space available in this cabinet - monitor is at an angle) and I have a piece of glass cut to size and ready to be tinted.

Had to clear some space to lie the cabinet down for applying the artwork. Then the T-Molding. Then the coin door.

[pin_wiz_1]

Here are some pics of the finished machine.









Apologies for the dust as rather than doing a spot of dusting I decided to play. Almost in its new home, although piano has been moved to a nicer spot and the SW will go in the corner. You can see my wireless keyboard and mouse in the colour of black to match the machine.

Comments would be  much appreciated.

Regards

Brad (Essex in the United Kingdom)

[Level42]

Very-very-very nice ! 

I guess the original Atari Yoke is the key to this whole project

How's the interfacing done ? Do you have pics of it running ? And the mounting of the monitor ?

This is the only exception where I too would use a PC monitor, since vector graphics look more real on a PC monitor than on a raster CRT because of the smaller dot pitch....

So, isn't that original yours ? I mean, why build a replica if you got the real thing ?

[IG-88]

What kinda of software you running in it? I'll bet that artwork wasn't cheap. 

[javeryh]

Incredible.  The talent on these boards is just amazing.   

[pin_wiz_1]

Thanks for all the great comments.

I was able to purchase a re-conditioned and PC ready Atari Yoke from these guys: http://www.westcontrols.com/files/index.php
They also supplied the plastic molding around the monitor and the metal hinged section the Yoke attaches to.

In terms of the feel of the controller etc - I would say it is perfect, not sluggish, just exactly the way it should be. Feels just like the original machine. I have used an AKI Analog Kontrol Interface to wire the yoke to.

The artwork is from: http://www.classicarcadegrafix.com/
It is a shame but they no longer supply finished artwork etc. I am really happy with the quality of the artwork I have applied to the cabinet. Went on really easily with no air bubbles etc (3 person job).

I have used a PC monitor which is the same size as the original. The actual image you see is pretty great and a good match for the brightness of the original machine. This was achieved with a little bit of work. We got the glass tinted to match the original machine and then set the monitor with a higher than normal brightness and colour saturation. When we put the glass over the monitor the picture was a little too dark. I judge this by the fact you should be able to see the stars during the game from across the room.

We re-tinted the glass to let out a further 20% light from the monitor and this did the trick. The area around the monitor still looks black as do the blacks in the game, but this time you can see everything perfectly even across the room!

It is true a CRT is not as bright as the vector screen, and I reckon it is the 20% we adjusted for.

Here's a couple of shots of the monitor playing away. Excuse the blurring but I had to hold the shutter speed a bit longer as no flash was being used.





I am running MAME32 and therefore I can play SW, ESB and RoTJ.

The monitor is stripped down and held in a cradle which slides onto a tilting shelf to lock into position into the cabinet. We built it this way so if ever the monitor failed we could easily replace it.

My original machine has since been sold and I wanted to replace it with a much less temperamental and totally mint machine for my home.

Regards

Brad

[pin_wiz_1]

More photos of the finished machine:

[spriggy]

Comments would be  much appreciated.

Well lick my balls!!!!!  Based on the pics you posted.. Job Well Bloody Done.. Looks great!  Actually.. looks quite awesome!!!!  Good to here your happy with the CAG artwork.   WAS known to be pretty dodgy at times.

God fricken bless ya!!

[(+_+)]

I'm very impressed seeing this was done from scratch. You must have really loved that game to dedicate all that work for one machine when you could have created a multi game cab. If I created a dedicated for every game I like, I'd need a warehouse, a ton of money, time and no wife and kids. I almost lost them from my last 2 projects alone.

Great job!

[horseboy]

Well lick my balls!!!!! 

That's probably the last comment he expected to hear.

[arcadefever]

  great job ...

i saw that project on the JAMMA+ forum ...

well done 

[jfunk]

Must...  control...  jealousy...

Wow.  Just wow.

[danny_galaga]

  just like a bought one!

[deadkenndys1105]

Umm I think its time for me to burn my mame cabinet and never look at another ever again. 

[Havok]

Terrible work. Looks horrible!







































































Hehe - had to take you down a notch, we're all too jealous, and don't want you to have too big of a head!

 

[pin_wiz_1]

Many many many thanks to you all for your kind comments.

I had previously built a MAME canbinet to play most other games on and will take some photos soon to show and tell.

It is true I love Atari Star Wars and just wanted a mint condition cabinet just like I remember playing in my youth.

Regards

Brad

[clockwork]

That's some beautiful work, man. Well done!

[Loki]

Awesome! Well done!

I want one of those 

[MameMaster!]

FANTASTIC!

You've been Retroblasted! 

retroblast.com

[ChadTower]

That is amazing.  I have a complete but water damaged SW cab I need to resore this year... I honestly have no idea on how to go about reproducing some of the water damaged parts.

[melarky]

Do you have the plans or dimensions of the cabinet?  I have been thinking about making a dedicated star wars yoke cab (to play the 3 games as well as any other fun yoke games).  Would be awsome to do one like yours.  I don't have access to a star wars cab though and wouldn't be able to get the dimensions (must have been nice to have the real deal there to measure off of).

Can you elaborate on the changes you said you made (just so we know what isn't 100% reproduction).  Thanks for sharing your work, your project looks amazing, needs to be in the hall of fame.

[ChadTower]

It would be interesting as well to know where he got the artwork from.

[leapinlew]

It would be interesting as well to know where he got the artwork from.

about half way in he said he got the art from CAG.

[vitaflo]

This has to be one of the best cabinet's I've ever seen.  If only you could get a real vector monitor and the Star Wars board in there.

I wish more people were able to do stuff like this instead of gutting an original cab (though I'm sure everyone would, if they had this kind of talent).  Kudos.

[Pixelhugger]

*jaw hits floor*

Most impressive.

[leapinlew]

This has to be one of the best cabinet's I've ever seen.  If only you could get a real vector monitor and the Star Wars board in there.

I wish more people were able to do stuff like this instead of gutting an original cab (though I'm sure everyone would, if they had this kind of talent).  Kudos.

and money! The art alone had to cost a pretty penny.

[pin_wiz_1]

More thanks to you for the great positive comments. Makes all the hard work well worth while.

I will do my best to get some measurements etc of the cabinet for you. The Dezter still has a template we used with lots of internal markings on it too.

And I will get round to photographing my MAME machine too.

And a massive thanks for posting the project on the brilliant RETROBLAST website.

Regards

Brad

[Anakin]

The force is strong with you....A powerful sith you have become.....Jealousy i sense in me....

[ChadTower]

Where did you get the art from?  Many of us have need of Star Wars sideart.

[pin_wiz_1]

As I mentioned in an earlier post: The artwork is from: http://www.classicarcadegrafix.com/

They no longer do the printing which is a real shame as the quality of their work that they shipped to me in the UK was excellent.

[MameMaster!]

mamemarquees.com picked up the artwork from classicarcadegrafix!

You can buy the SW art here---

http://tinyurl.com/2lejgx

[melarky]

looks like they don't have the kick panel artwork added yet, I'm sure it's on the cag hard drive just waiting to be added though...

[Santoro]

<jumps on the bandwagon>

That is incredible.  Well done.

[melarky]

Are the dimensions for this cab available anywhere already? I checked Jakobud, but didn't see them, would be cool to have these plans available (I would love to make one of these one day). If they don't already exist, we should get the dimensions from pin_wiz_1 and get them added to Jakobud (I love his plans, I recently finished a 2/3 scale donkey kong from his plans, they were great to work from).

[shardian]

Awesome Job.

[markrvp]

PS - I love the work markrvp did on his cabinets - inspired me to post here.

Hey thanks.  You are much more skilled than me.  This project is unbelievable.  I've got a Star Wars control panel and yoke, and this project has got me thinking of possibilities.  What I don't have is the black plastic bezel.  Where did you find yours?

[JustMichael]

pin_wiz_1,

First:   

I would say "WOW!" or "INCREDIBLE!" but these fall far far far short of how wonderful that cabinet is.  This is clearly a true labor of love.  You have made a Star Wars cabinet that is better than the original (IMHO)!!!

[spacies]

As someone once posted on my Donkey Kong build:

"This restores my faith in the Project Announcements".

Outstanding job!

[psychotech]

S & Hit!

Now, that's a cab! Star Wars as it was back in the day ..if not even better..

Really a great job, ..but we all need MORE PIX & INFO !!!