Blitz cab MAME makeover [90% completed, looking good!]

[Jeff AMN]

I've already done a little bit, but for the most part I'm still at the beginning of this project. I have an old NFL Blitz cabinet that a local arcade distributor was kind enough to give me and I've pretty much gutted it completely. I'm tossing the control panel and installing one that I've already had cut out by Knievel a while back. Here's the Blitz cab (details on the project will come after the shots):



The marquee still lights up!




I'm planning on a 2-player cabinet that also includes a spinner, trackball, and dedicated 4-way stick. I was going to get an arcade monitor to drop right in where the old one was at, but I think I'm just going to use a PC monitor since it's my first time and i want to simplify things where it's possible to do so.

Later tonight I'll get some pictures up of Knievel's work on the control panel and share some of my artwork that I've been kicking around. I need to get my PC built or bought next, does anybody have any recommendations on specs (I want to run pretty much everything on this beast)? Any help for the PC side of things would be much appreciated.

[leapinlew]

You want to run everything?

Prepare to buy the best machine you can and still be disappointed.

The cabinet is a good start - I look forward to reading how it turns out. Good luck!

[Jeff AMN]

Well, by "everything" I mean the titles that SHOULD run well with a decent computer. I don't want to limit myself to a small selection of games because I skimped on PC power. Obviously there are plenty of titles that just don't work well no matter what type of PC you have.

[needlesmcgirk]

I just built a PC so I think I can help you out.

- Your main focus is processing power.  I got an AMD 64 3700+ 2.2 ghz, but any Athlon 64 should play the games that run well in MAME right now.  Don't break the bank on an Intel, unless you don't like AMD.

- Don't spend much AT ALL on a video card as MAME doesn't really use the gpu.  You only need to output your video with the card.

- 512 megs of ram is plenty.

- Any HDD will work fine.  Don't need to spend extra on SATA or SATAII, however your initial load up times may be a bit quicker with them (but I doubt it would be that noticeable)

- Sound card is pretty much unnecessary as the onboard audio on motherboards is more than enough for arcade sound.

[johnperkins21]

I just built a PC so I think I can help you out.

- Your main focus is processing power.  I got an AMD 64 3700+ 2.2 ghz, but any Athlon 64 should play the games that run well in MAME right now.  Don't break the bank on an Intel, unless you don't like AMD.

- Don't spend much AT ALL on a video card as MAME doesn't really use the gpu.  You only need to output your video with the card.

- 512 megs of ram is plenty.

- Any HDD will work fine.  Don't need to spend extra on SATA or SATAII, however your initial load up times may be a bit quicker with them (but I doubt it would be that noticeable)

- Sound card is pretty much unnecessary as the onboard audio on motherboards is more than enough for arcade sound.

I'd say get a decent video card, but you probably don't need a DX10 capable card. Something in the sub $200 range (X1900GT is an option). The MAME devs are starting to take advantage of the cards now, so you may as well plan ahead by getting something decent if you can.

Also, go with at least 1GB of RAM. You may want to do more than just MAME in this thing. Again, no reason to skimp now as it will end up costing you more later.

[(+_+)]

I really like that Blitz Marquee.

You have a lot of work ahead of you seeing your walls and floor need some work too. 

[Jeff AMN]

I really like that Blitz Marquee.

You have a lot of work ahead of you seeing your walls and floor need some work too. 

Haha, you're not digging the garage walls, huh?

Yeah, I know that things are going to get intense soon, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to. Like I said earlier, I'm going to post pics (before the end of the weekend) to show Knievel's work on my control panel. At least I'll be able to skip that step...

[horseboy]

FYI... I am not positive, but I am pretty sure that that cab is a Mortal Kombat 2 or 3 converted to Blitz. What does this mean for you? Nothing at all, just thought I'd mention it.

BTW, those are definitely my favorite cabs. 

[Jeff AMN]

FYI... I am not positive, but I am pretty sure that that cab is a Mortal Kombat 2 or 3 converted to Blitz. What does this mean for you? Nothing at all, just thought I'd mention it.

BTW, those are definitely my favorite cabs. 

It most definitely was a Mortal Kombat II cab...the service manual inside confirmed it. Oh, I guess when I peeled off the Blitz side art to find MKII sideart underneath it was a good clue too.  Yeah, it's probably my favorite style of cabinet as well. I do like some of the designs people have come up with here on the board, but if I had to work with a pre-built cab, it would definitely be this one.

[Knievel]

Good to see you're back at it Jeff, the CP should look great on that cabinet.

Let me know if you need any help with the assembly..

[Jeff AMN]

Good to see you're back at it Jeff, the CP should look great on that cabinet.

Let me know if you need any help with the assembly..

Well, I've ran into my first minor snag, but I think I can actually use it to my advantage if I'm lucky. The box I got from Knievel is about 3 inches shorter than the old CP box. It creates a bit of a gap between the top of the panel and where it should meet the cabinet. I think I can fix this by building another box to sit right beneath it with a slide out drawer for my mouse and keyboard.

I was hoping to get away without having to do any cutting, but I think I'll survive.

[leapinlew]

I was hoping to get away without having to do any cutting, but I think I'll survive.

Famous last words....


(be careful)

[Jeff AMN]

Here is a quick preview of the control panel. The joysticks for the 2 players are Perfect 360s and the one next to the spinner is a Super. The trackball is a blue translucent ball.

[Knievel]

Jeff another option for that gap would be an panel with all your admin buttons. If you look at my cabinets you'll see they all have them. Mine are usually about 3" high so you've got a perfect spot there. I normally have LISTS/EXIT.....EMU/PAUSE, works great with Mamewah.

If you do it you MUST get some decals from MikeD..
http://ironvulva.com/jump.html

[Jeff AMN]

Yeah, I think I'm going to do the admin panel instead of the keyboard drawer. Thanks for the link, that's going to make those buttons much nicer.

[Jeff AMN]

Assembling the CP box:



It all fits!


De-casing the TV. I'm using a 27" Samsung set and going through the component connections.


Priming the CP box...the final finish will be a black semigloss.


Here's the vinyl covering I'm using as my overlay. It looks speckled thanks to dust, but it's actually a smooth and shiny black. It should look nice with my lighted buttons.


Here's what's left on my scratch list:
    * Assemble computer and install OS w/ front end software, emulators, and games
    * Clean out the inside of the cabinet
    * Assemble and wire the control panel
    * Secure TV into the arcade cabinet and set everything up through a one button power up solution
    * Order new T-molding for the control panel and arcade cabinet
    * Finalize my marquee artwork and send it off to be printed from Mamemarquees.com
    * Configure my emulation software and get everything hooked up
    * Have a bunch of friends over for the unveiling

[Knievel]

CP box looks good Jeff.

Not sure how thick that vinyl is but you may want to leave the backer on there and sandwich it loose between the top and the plexi. With the vinyl being so smooth (and possibly thin) your TB plate and joy areas may be noticeable if you stick it down.

If you've got enough I would try sticking it down first and if it looks lousy then go with the loose method.


Amazing how little there is to those TV's when the case is off eh?
I take it you're going with the ATI component dongle thing, I used one of those recently on a 36" TV. Huge upgrade from the S-vid output..really sharp.

[Jeff AMN]

Yeah, I have tons of that vinyl, so I can play around with it for a bit and see what looks best. My mom has rolls of that stuff since she makes her own stickers for art projects. If I mess up, I'll just drop by her house again and raid it as needed.

[NiteWalker]

I'd go against sticking the vinyl down too. This wouldn't have been as much of an issue if the joysticks were bottom mounted (which I prefer; I'm not knocking knivel at all; I just prefer the joysticks to sit a bit lower, about 1/2" below the surface with the overlay included). I'd go with leaving the vinyl loose.

Beautiful work on the cp Knivel. You should post pics and some info on your templates over in the woodworking forum sometime.

[Knievel]

Thanks, I did post a picture of my templates awhile ago..somewhere. Tim's template tutorial covers the process very well.

Joystick height is a personal thing, like so many other aspects of this hobby. Myself I like to maximize the stick height whenever possible. Without top-mounting I find the Happ joys short, and the Ms Pan reunion stick unusable..without an aftermarket stick.
 
I include spacers with my tops that fill the 1/8" recess in the top of the Happ joy plates. They stop the artwork from dipping down in those areas, works very well. Of course if you use a non-adhesive CPO then it's not an issue.

[Jeff AMN]

Here's the panel and box after a single coat of black semigloss latex paint. It looks so good that I think I'll probably be fine with two coats. The perfectionist in me, however, is going to force me to do a 3rd coat though.

[Jeff AMN]

What do you guys think of this as my marquee art? It would be backlit and printed at mamemarquees.com.

[Knievel]

Goes well with the button colors. How about adding some red into the Mame logo?

Might be cool to have some old school charcaters on one side(pac-man, donkey, kong, etc) and some newer characters on the other side? But maybe you're all about the fighters.

Are you going to carry that theme onto the cabinet..blue t-mold on the left side red on the right side ?

[Jeff AMN]

Yeah, t-mold on the right is red, blue on the left. I've already ordered it and I'm just waiting for the delivery.

This was a first stab at the art. I only plugged Leo in there because he's the "blue turtle". I tried Pac Man out, and he looked good, but his roundness looked odd in there with the round MAME logo for some reason. I'm going to swap some stuff in and out, but this is my basic concept.

[Jeff AMN]

Here's the marquee I ended up liking best. You can't see it in this size, but there is a blue outline around Super Pacman and a red outline around DK. Any opinions?

[NiteWalker]

It's nice, but I liked the metal slug art better.

Maybe the metal slug art and a sort of classic character collage on the other side to even things out (because the metal slug art has the 4 characters and the vehicle. 

Whatever you end up going with I'm sure you'll love it.

[Knievel]

Heh, lucky guess on the t-mold scheme eh? That'll look great.

The logo on the marquee looks good, and I like the classic characters better.
The Kong art works really well with the red, and Pac with the blue. Did you try the Pac art from the original marquee?

[Jeff AMN]

Control panel assembly is underway. Tomorrow I'll start with wiring and LED/resistor soldering. By the end of the weekend I hope to have things finalized with the panel. My computer arrived today as well and I'll need to get everything configured, but I've already figured all of that out on my current desktop.

[Knievel]

Whoa that is slick and shiny, nice. *If* you find it's a little too much black you could always break it up a bit with some button halos like I did on the Woody CP. Maybe using some faux stainless steel vinyl or something..

[Jeff AMN]

The marquee is in my hands, and it looks stunning. I'll post pics of that later. I finished building the computer last night and soldering all my button lighting. The filament in the trackball is broken, so I'll need to get a replacement before seeing that lit up alongside my buttons.

I had to trim the mounting plates on my two P360s a bit to make everything fit.


After wiring the buttons, it will mostly look like a rat's nest under here:


LED there be light!


Marquee pics will be up tonight or tomorrow. Right now my focus is more on getting this done rather than taking pics, but I'll do my best to keep up.

[javeryh]

Woah, that's killer!!  Were the LEDs easy to wire up?  How did you do it?/what did you use?  Also, is that just clear plexi over black paint - it looks like a great finish job!

[Jeff AMN]

Woah, that's killer!!  Were the LEDs easy to wire up?  How did you do it?/what did you use?  Also, is that just clear plexi over black paint - it looks like a great finish job!

For the lighting, I'm using blue and red Button Blaster LEDs from GroovyGameGear. It wasn't hard to do. I drilled a hole in the bottom of each button, slipped the LEDs in the holes (after soldering on the resistors), and then drew 5V power from the PC to light them. They're wired in daisy chain fashion and thankfully all my solders were solid the first time around. I also am using Whammoed's Litemite power distribution board to simplify the whole power tapping thing.

That's clear plexi, but it's over a glossy black overlay. I used sticker material, but left the backing on. You can buy the stuff in rolls and it's meant to be fed through a sticker cutting machine, but I just used it for my overlay. By leaving the backing on I was able to avoid the mounting plates from showing through.

[Knievel]

Looks great Jeff. That 7th button is a tight squeeze alright 

Let's see that marquee!

[link2005a]

Any plans to stuff the 360, Wii or HDDVD players in this cab as well? I heard you say 'everything', I just didn't think you really meant...'EVERYTHING'!

 

[Jeff AMN]

The marquee! Nothing fancy, but classic and clean.


The photo makes it look washed out, but in person the colors are VERY vibrant.


Workin' on building that rat's nest.

[Jeff AMN]

The controls are done!

I've got my spinner spinning properly, my trackball tracking my movements, and my buttons lighting up the high score tables. The Perfect 360s are a dream, much better than I would have anticipated as well. Right now it's hooked up to a test monitor and I'll have it running to the TV (27" Samsung via component connection) tomorrow.

So, here are some pics.




If you're wondering why I'm doing all this on the floor instead of on some workbench...well, it's March Madness and I can't bear to watch it on anything else than my 61" 1080p TV. It's time, however, to accept that I need to move the operation to my garage to finish up. Tomorrow I'm going to attach the CP top to the CP box and continue on with my scratch list.

[Knievel]

Awesome Jeff! It's a shame to put t-mold on that CP..very cool the way the buttons are lighting up the edges of the plexi. That marquee is going to fit in perfectly.

[Jeff AMN]

Yeah, I was shocked to see the edge of the plexi light up like that. It goes all the way around and it looks pretty dang cool. The t-molding will look sharp, but I wish there was a way to show off that glowing edge effect.

[Knievel]

I scoured the universe for some clear t-mold when I was doing the Neon Mame, no luck though.
I was going to embed some EL wire in a channel and then t-mold over it. Would've been the shiznit.

[NiteWalker]

You could've tried putting a custom order in. It probably would have been expensive and with a minimum length purchase but I'm sure you could've made some of your money back selling the excess. Clear t-molding sounds hot.