Arcade Slugger (metalslug inspired,my first 2P cab)

[mrPiklz]

Hi All,

After a few years of being inspired by all your amazing arcade builds/creative flare  here , I thought Its time i get my hyperspin setup a new cab.

So one of my fav games was  the  Metal slug series and had some spare pc parts so I thought its time!Time to build be a home for all my fav games,
so 'Arcade Slugger' was born,with most parts purchased (electronics) 2 years ago its only now I've had the time to setup the cp ,down the weeks ahead hopefully the full size cab parts too.


My chosen setup for CP based on HyperSpin and RGB lights:

2Player  7 Buttons(all rgb lit) each (4bottom row( in a line) for neogeo games the 6 for fighter games/rest etc)

ultimarcs RGB trackball

ultimarcs pacled64

paradise-arcades il translucent buttons (for admin/extra pinball side buttons)

paradise-arcades rgb lit buttons for player controls   and COIN P1 P2 lit buttons

paradise-arcades red led lit bubble top shaft 8/4/2 joystick x2

mini usb hub painted metalic black
3m vinyl on inside of base cp and top cover with
Acrylic based cover on custom Artwork - large format CP ( think like mortal kombat , curved edge)

21 inch screen dell based 16x9(bit old though might go wit hthe 24incher which i just bought) ,my prev workstation will now be the pc running the show ,Intel duo quad @3.5ghz ,280gtx,4GB
sound will be some old altec lansing stereo pair of desktop pc speakers and an old panasonic or yamaha separate subwoofer but  not sure which one yet

still to get :
custom retrozone ports for consoles (nes,snes,genesis,n64 etc)
the pads for those ports
the rest of cab panels still to design



pics coming right up ..

 
mrPiklz

[mrPiklz]

This will eventually be the marquee banner


size inspired arcades ive read about here and some i grew up playing with

[Unstupid]

The "R"'s look pretty awful.  Just sayin!

[mrPiklz]

I like it, just sayin lol no actually youre right its one to fix for sure! Be gentle with me damn it arcade controls peeps  im new lol ,its not finished yet lol

[mrPiklz]

checking the parts for a test fit

ahh to many wires!



had to add the  tabs to all the rgbs leds as they dont come with them premade, when i say i had to do lots,  i mean lots.



marquee test print on my printer to see if its what i need

[EMDB]

Logos / text on marquees should be large to attract. The second one is way too small, even the first one may be bigger. Try putting the words behind each other instead of below each other. The company logos are very nice but too small and too detailed for a marquee. Maybe the heads of two characters of the Metal slug series on the left and right would be nice. I attached a very quick and dirty mind spin.

[mrPiklz]

hey EMDB
cool! 
was going for a subtle marquee idea as the light logos will shine thru nicely as its not strictly an all out metal slug cab design per se  (well at least back then it wasnt meant to be)as the cp art alone ,when you see it, will def show any user who the fav game is on this cab   but now that ive seen your mock up its not such a bad idea for the marquee - I may have to make a new one with large logos !  cheers. mrPiklz




each and every character I wanted for cp design especially the big bosses needed to be stitched (some not even having much of ref point to stitch  other done from google image cache )back together!took about a week @ 2 hrs a night to finalize-ish  the design and stitch the sprites ,many thanks to that sprite-resource site http://spriters-resource.com/  for having all those original sprites grabbed from the game, i literallly had to stop myself as it would never stop id be adding more and more characters!

[mrPiklz]

another printer at home test with a first draft of cp design to see where i want the main characters, kinda feel I'm gonna have to add loads to have that 'wheres wally/wheres waldo' feel to it ,kids are are love looking at /finding all the tiny people!  (its already been done the final design im just uploading the images now!)

ps soz bout pics alot of them were done on a decent mobile but in low light, its the only way at the time otherwise i wouldnt have been able to document properly  of how i did it


slighty more recent version another print temp test.. next the proper poster print!

[mrPiklz]

priming white then grey for the car spray paint next....


originally thought id paint some black metalic spray paint (bmw cosmos black)for just the cp in the end i decided to stop that completely ,while it looked amazing,it was  too long to dry and the fumes and expensive and i only have a small area to wokr in and i had to finish hurriedly!! And most people here knows you dont rush paint jobs.


now i've gone the carbon vinyl route with some custom laser cutting, I have this top cover as a spare now,  I guess (for a future mini cab?)..

[mrPiklz]

ultramarc trackball bevel in blaze blue plastidip, whats great is i have more colours to test as i go with the colour choice of tmolding (which has just arrived today ,sweeeeet)etc so i could change this whenever gotta love plastic paint!..

[Drnick]

Digging the scan lines in your artwork   I take it they are meant to be scanlines and it's not just a dodgy print

[yotsuya]

Too bad you couldn't pull that off. I really like how the finish looks in that photo.

[mrPiklz]

Digging the scan lines in your artwork   I take it they are meant to be scanlines and it's not just a dodgy print

oh yes ! I added those lovely scanlines back in; so they start off as original sprites which are like maybe 40 x 40 pixels for the little characters ?lol and im making them 300dpi in quality(about A1 poster sized ) so scanlines were v important to keep it looking great at this large size.

[mrPiklz]

Too bad you couldn't pull that off. I really like how the finish looks in that photo.

Thanks! i wish too i could have one all in bmw metalic black! i saw someones build on these forums ,forget the name, who also did something like that ,thats where i got the idea from. Sadly my time is of the essence and i think i came up with a solution that will be worth it! and changeable! ...it involves plastidip and 3M vinyl carwrap.  heres some more pics close up with a better camera:





great thing about not cutting myself now and getting  a laser cut version is that the acrylic and top wood panel  match super-perfectly also these pictures have the acrylic top cover on them! it really is there i promise and its really transparent so glass like no scratches unliek whe ni did my own acrylic and snapped several! (i still may go for gameongraphix laminate print though as its hard wearing and i love the texture too)

[Gamester]

CP art looks really neat!  I feel like the Marquee would have a lot more 'wow' factor if you carried the colorful art style over to that as well.  I think your custom logo is nice (save for the weird 'R's), but the company logos in the background are kind of meh.  Would much rather see something related to Metal Slug back there than a bunch of arcade company ads.  The marquee is the first thing people will notice about your cab.  Make it pop! 

Just my $0.02. 

Oh, and I did the metallic paint on my project.  Turned out really nice, but was a LOT of work. 

EDIT: I would definitely go for the larger logo on the marquee.  In fact, I dare say you should go even bigger than your top example.  The smaller one is definitely way too small, IMO.  You might even want to consider a version of the logo that's all on one line to spread it across the marquee more, instead of having the words stacked.  Just a thought.

[Drnick]

Oh, and I did the metallic paint on my project.  Turned out really nice, but was a LOT of work. 

I can testify to "The Paint Job" being a lot of work.  Most of that work will be preparation.  The more perfect a surface you start with the better the end product.  I feel that Laminate is definitely the way to go in the future.

Although I can't figure out where you were planning on having the metallic,  Is it on the underside of the control panel? The top is obviously covered with the artwork. Talking of the artwork is it laminated or are you going to cover in plexi for protection?

[mrPiklz]

CP art looks really neat!  I feel like the Marquee would have a lot more 'wow' factor if you carried the colorful art style over to that as well.  I think your custom logo is nice (save for the weird 'R's), but the company logos in the background are kind of meh.  Would much rather see something related to Metal Slug back there than a bunch of arcade company ads.  The marquee is the first thing people will notice about your cab.  Make it pop! 

Just my $0.02. 

Oh, and I did the metallic paint on my project.  Turned out really nice, but was a LOT of work. 

EDIT: I would definitely go for the larger logo on the marquee.  In fact, I dare say you should go even bigger than your top example.  The smaller one is definitely way too small, IMO.  You might even want to consider a version of the logo that's all on one line to spread it across the marquee more, instead of having the words stacked.  Just a thought.

Hey Gamester! it was  you your build I saw many moons ago!  i liked your paint job i went and spent loads on car paint lol but i just cant wait for it to dry here is soo cold the filler/prime/paint would just not dry in time typical i pick a week to setup the paint /woodwork and the weather turns on me ! I painted the whole base and top of cp only(was imagining something like the whole cab like yours but didnt get that far)  and ill take your 0.02 cents!your most prob right  someone here also mentioned make more of the artwork style of metalslug ..I mean thier art was/is amazing  and you know what, i agree.

[mrPiklz]

Oh, and I did the metallic paint on my project.  Turned out really nice, but was a LOT of work. 

I can testify to "The Paint Job" being a lot of work.  Most of that work will be preparation.  The more perfect a surface you start with the better the end product.  I feel that Laminate is definitely the way to go in the future.

Although I can't figure out where you were planning on having the metallic,  Is it on the underside of the control panel? The top is obviously covered with the artwork. Talking of the artwork is it laminated or are you going to cover in plexi for protection?

yeah totally, kudos to those who have the patience and the skill/facilities  to do a worthy paint job on the whole cab, it does look amazing when its done.

I basically have the top painted and the base/inner base of cp only so that when it came to changing artwork one day  due to over zealous scratching on acrylic or a spill who knows , i would have at least a nice base colour to look at while the print is being printed         but in the end I went with carbon fibre 3m vinyl as its not super easy to do what i really wanted which was the authentic laminate on the whole rest of cab. but you know the vinyl looks slick too so far and pretty similar in texture ..will upload some more..

[Unstupid]

Love the artwork!  Only concern would be playability...  The controls look pretty far from the front edge.  Can you comfortably reach the joystick and buttons without the control panel being jammed in your hip?

[mrPiklz]

cheers ! yeah been testing it with a couple of peeps  before i even decided on wood cutting and seemed to feel ok ,the photo does warp it a bit(its a pano stiched gone awry) its actually alot nearer than it looks




putting on some chameleon 2 tone vinyl its hard to photograph but its purple/blue/black mix depending on light angle this image shows it better the kinda stuff used on fancy cars >





which t-mold to go for i like them all !

[dextercf]

This, this has something cool going on!
Cheers dude!

[mrPiklz]

this was tested on painted top(now ive got a better made version with the lasercut board /acrylic set but i thought id show this anyway

[mameshane]

is it just me or are the joystick holes on the wrong side of the buttons?

[Unstupid]

is it just me or are the joystick holes on the wrong side of the buttons?

Looks like he wrapped vinyl on the bottom of the cp. 

[mrPiklz]

is it just me or are the joystick holes on the wrong side of the buttons?

Looks like he wrapped vinyl on the bottom of the cp. 

yep im covering both sides to protect what is a very mushy mdf .but since then I have had this professionally lasercut


wiring some components here




lasercut  (boy did the mdf they used smell like pork burnt ends !stunk house for days)




bit of engraving of the name over the admin buttons

possibly will keep a spare led just to light this up internal/from theside in the dark its fetching

bought some of these to allow the stick to rotate without damaging the already delicate led cable

[mrPiklz]

 the ultimarc site has a picture of one with heatsinks ,but you dont seem to get them with your order;keep costs down /doesn't get that hot perhaps? but i had a look at my old pc gear & found  some really old vga heatsinks which happen to fit just about!



needed just a bit more room in the il button to have all the cables together, vry weak soldered cables although i love the brightness of them when their on,



Testing the hyperspin/ledblinky stuff