So I just got back from a year in Iraq and I spent a lot of time down there reading comics on my laptop. I found that to be kind of a pain in the ass so when I got home and wanted to start a new project, I decided to create some sort of device which would allow me to read comics on a larger screen and more comfortably. Sure I could have bought an iPad and had the comfort and convenience of a handheld device... but what fun is that? Since I love arcade machines, I designed a comic reader that essentially is an arcade machine (Bartop-style) but doesn't play any arcade games. I know it doesn't exactly belong here but I enjoy posting my projects here and this one is definitely inspired by my love for games.
Like any of my projects, I mainly just measure my PC components and decide on the smallest possible size that will still allow for the overall theme. Here is the first pic of the side
The dimensions are (At the greatest) 18" deep x 16" wide x 31.25" tall
Both sides cut and sanded to be completely identical (So far as anyone else knows
Sides are now attached to the bottom
The light and marquee shelf has been installed. In the back, there is a lip that I put in there to block the rear door.
The rear door is installed. I drilled two 3" exhaust fan holes into the top and bottom, a button hole in the top left for the power button (Not using it after all) and a power cord hole in the lower-right.
Here's a shot of the rear door with the retaining panels on the back. I might have screwed up the cut of the rear door just a bit and this mitigated the possibility of any light leaks.
Retaining boards to support the control panel
I painted the inside with a flat-black spray paint.
Here's the control panel put in place to make sure it all fits just right.
I installed the monitor which was kind of a pain in the ass. It's a Dell 21" horizontal monitor which I have flipped 90 degrees. It's display height is 17" and width 11" so it is great at reading comics. I also printed out a sample of the marquee on 2 pieces of paper and put it in there. More detailed images will follow.
CP is in place and the mouse is there. I thought a lot about how to control this and given that I am using ComicRack, I decided to just leave a mouse on the CP. It doesn't look ideal and I could have used a trackball but I wanted to minimize the expense.
Here is a shot of the back of the monitor in the machine
Here's the computer. I had to secure it with an old measuring tape (Nylon) which worked out really well.
This is the working ControlPanel. I printed it out on 4 sheets and taped it there to see how it worked.
Here is the sideart for the right side of the machine and below that, the art file that I used. I made it as a regular image but I thought it didn't really work so I went with a photomosaic instead. I am still working on it though and will probably change it around a bit. This one is of Superman and the Daily Planet building. I wanted to go with what I believe to be the two most iconic comic book characters of the two largest universes (D.C. & Marvel) so I went with Superman and Spider-Man.
Here is the left sideart featuring Spider-Man. These are not complete and are made up of like 9 sheets of paper each so I could test it out. I like the look but plan on making some changes. I went with the Statue of Liberty because I wanted to go with an iconic feature of NYC. My initial thought was of the Empire State Building but I decided to change it to the statue so I didn't have buildings on each side of the machine.
Here's the art files for the Control Panel and the Marquee.
Here are the buttons I ordered for the CP. It is fairly simple and will just have a next page, last page, escape, and enter button. I am controlling it with a
GroovyGameGear KeyWiz40-ST. I have used this keyboard encoder in 2 of my last machines and I love GGG's stuff. It's a bit of overkill for 4 buttons but I don't care
That's pretty much it for now. I have read a good 120 books on it to test it and it works really well. For the art, I downloaded 45,536 different comic book covers from different sources all over the internet (Over 10GB) and used those to create the photomosaics for the sideart. One thing that I think is really cool that I did with those pictures was to create a screensaver which randomly displays those images fullscreen. This gives a great effect of displaying nearly a century of comic books of all different types randomly without any repeats. It's a pretty cool effect. For the sideart, I think I will go back and redo those with books only from the respective titles (Spider-Man for his side and Superman titles for his). All I really need to do now is finalize the CP by drilling the button holes and wiring it. I ordered the Marquee and CP from
GameOnGrafix and they should arrive soon. I am holding off on the sideart until I can afford them. I actually did this project on the super cheap. I had everything already except a few items. I paid $55 for the wood, glue, screws, marquee light, and other building materials... already had the laptop, monitor, cables, and components. I paid about $75 on eBay and other sites for the Marquee retainers, buttons, and the keyboard encoder.
All I need to do is primer and paint it all black and then put on the T-Molding (I went with black since I have about 60 feet on hand) and it will be ready and waiting for the sideart. I already made the bezel by painting the necessary area with the spray pain I used for the rest of the project but I accidentally broke it and have to redo it. That really upset me because I now have to go out and buy another sheet, cut it to size, and repaint it. Not a huge deal but a good deal of work nonetheless.
For those of you unfamiliar with
ComicRack, it is an excellent program for not only reading but also organizing your digital comic book collection. It worked perfectly for this machine and I was very happy to pay the $25 donation to show my support (Though it is not necessary to use the software). One of the best benefits of this program as it pertains to this machine is that you can load a comic; say Amazing Spider-Man #1 and so long as you have all subsequent issues in the same folder, it will seamlessly transition from book to book as you finish them without requiring you to open the next book manually. this is where the "Next Page" button really pays for itself.
Let me know what you all think. I know it isn't 'exactly' an arcade machine but I am hoping to get some good feedback on it. Lemme know what you think!
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Topic: Not exactly an arcade machine but arcade inspired... (Read 5114 times)
