Take No Quarter - Whoops....

[Monkeyvoodoo]

As far as I recall, almost everything was faux wood, chrome, black and white in the 70's.

If you REALLY want to give it that 70's look, you need avocado green and burnt orange.      

 


Scott

I'm pretty sure that's my childhood home


Sent from where ever I happen to be.

[mgb]

I tried the white ball tops, and I have to say I like them. I was sticking with red originally because in my rose tinted memories, all cabinets had red ball tops


A lot better

Changing the orange to another colour would be alot of work. I would have to redo every ai file. And I feel that the orange works for it. Complements the wood well.

I'm glad people are liking the front end/bezel co-ordination. I think it looks neat but it will be difficult to do a rotating monitor setup with it. I know I don't really need a rotating monitor but I do like my shooters and it would be nice to have.

That right there is freakin sexy.
If that were my cab, I'd be like "that's the look, no changes"

[Monkeyvoodoo]

A quick question for the more experienced builders. I've been thinking of my buttons and was contemplating using GGG's Electric Ice buttons. I would keep them unlit until a game is selected and the active buttons would light up. Does anyone know how these buttons actually look when unlit? Do they look translucent or do they pass as opaque?

[Le Chuck]

You can check out the pics in the RGB Pushbutton Showdown

Button #4
Groovy Game Gear
Electric Ice 2 Pushbutton


This is a concave pushbutton with a custom printed circuit board with an LED and resistors.  This is also a custom pushbutton with an added switch mount that is capable of not only regular micro-switches but leaf and micro-leaf switches. The circuit board has a small ribbon cable for connection to a controller.    Extra attention may be needed in smaller panels to account for the leaf attachment arm. 
Assembly was straightforward and only took about a minute.  Its a simple twist on mount for the switch.

[mgb]

A quick question for the more experienced builders. I've been thinking of my buttons and was contemplating using GGG's Electric Ice buttons. I would keep them unlit until a game is selected and the active buttons would light up. Does anyone know how these buttons actually look when unlit? Do they look translucent or do they pass as opaque?

I have the electric ice buttons and I like them a lot.
  When not lit, they are opaque. Kind of a creamy white.
  When I built my machine, I was going for kind of a blacked out with white trim look and these buttons totally fit the bill.

[Woodshop Flunky]

Due to my current work overload, I still haven't been able to get into the actual physical construction yet. But I've found time to do other things like organize my rom collection and come up with some ideas for the art.





I feel like I'm on the right track but I don't think I've found the exact look that I want. Any suggestions?

WOW!  I really love your design here.  It's hard for me to imagine liking wood grain so much, but it looks great here.  And the t-molding really sets it off.

Great design job! 

[mgb]

Have you thought about using the GGG Iceball also

[mcseforsale]

EI2s are very cool.  As stated before when unlit, they are a dull white, but when lit, they are very cool.  You get different effects (with the same color) depending on room lighting.



Here's a good shot with half the panel in brighter room lighting.



AJ

A quick question for the more experienced builders. I've been thinking of my buttons and was contemplating using GGG's Electric Ice buttons. I would keep them unlit until a game is selected and the active buttons would light up. Does anyone know how these buttons actually look when unlit? Do they look translucent or do they pass as opaque?

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Have you thought about using the GGG Iceball also

It's sitting in my shopping cart waiting for the money to be available. Shame the White RGB buttons are out of stock right now

[mgb]

Here's another example of what the EI2s look like unlit. I like them unlit.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

They look great in the second picture. Can't even tell they light up. First picture they you can see the translucence. Maybe I'll just grab a few to look in person then make the final decision.

Awesome Cabinet by the way.

[mgb]

Yeah pics are sometimes hard to tell.
The best way I can describe them is, they're like a creamy white. But they're not exactly translucent.

[mcseforsale]

What are those balltops?  They almost match perfectly. 

Man, I need the EI trackball kit, too.  Santa was a stingy bastard last year.

AJ

Yeah pics are sometimes hard to tell.
The best way I can describe them is, they're like a creamy white. But they're not exactly translucent.

[mgb]

The sticks are Sanwa Jlws.
The ball tops are Sanwa white mesh balls.
If you'd like to spend $12 (each) for a ball (standard balls are $2) that has a pattern that is only viewable by sticking it in your eye, then I highly recommend them.
  Seriously though, the mesh balls are nice, it's just the pattern is not very visible on the white ones. Standard white tops would probably be just as nice except they would have the mold line on them.
 Boy, that was a long answer to a simple question.

[Rick]

Thoroughly enjoying this build! Can't wait to see some sawdust!

[Monkeyvoodoo]

No sawdust yet. But very soon. I just completed my Board at work Yay! which gives me more rank, more money and best of all, more time.

And to help with making sawdust I now have these:

I love Father Day tool sales at Canadian Tire. 

[eds1275]

I like it! The only concern I have would be the spinner placement directly over the trackball. There's some broken fingers right there if you ever want to play some Golden Tee. But it looks great! The symmetry, the simplicity of controls, the colours - very nice.

[rockyrocket]

Now this is exactly my taste, love the whole aesthetic really well done!.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Tiny update. Received the first delivery of parts from ultimarc, now just need my order from grooveygamergear. Should be finally making some sawdust this weekend if I can get past this headcold.

There will be pictures...


Sent from a pineapple under the sea

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Small update:

Progress is being made albeit slowly. Currently tearing down and repairing the original cabinet. Old damaged vinyl is off and the cabinet is partially disassembled. I'm not enjoying the 20 year old glue and staples though. It is slow going.

[eds1275]

Just power through it and get the rough stuff over with!

[Seith]

Keep it up, this will look glorious when it's done, I am sure of it!

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Got at her a bit this afternoon. Feel really good about the progress that was made. Lot of bad wood and particleboard removed. I have a feeling there might only be maybe 30% of the original cabinet left when I'm done.

[Monkeyvoodoo]

I've been doing some fine tuning to the control panel design. I'm aiming to have it something I can build without too much difficulty. But now I'm not sure where to go style-wise.

Here are two renderings:



I'm not sure which looks better; the wood and chrome or the all black edges.

As usual, all advice or critique is welcome

[mcseforsale]

Black on the sides of the CP.

Nice!

AJ

[Le Chuck]

Black on the sides but run the orange detail around the inside about 1" thick and .5" from the edge so it continues off the cab side

[mgb]

I like the black sides.
Keep pushing through because I've got to see this cabinet done.

Sorry but I have no room or money for building a second cab so I must live through you here and I love z backs:)

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Spent the afternoon making some sawdust. Unfortunately it's from tearing original cabinet completely apart. I even melted part of the rug (goodbye security deposit  ) But now I can finally start on repairing what I can and rebuilding what needs to be replaced.





This cabinet has been through some rough times and some haphazard repairs over the years. I kept finding more damage and replaced wood as i tore her down. Not to mention some of the particle board crumbled just by looking at it.

With some luck I can get some cuts done tomorrow and maybe a bit of bondo work as well.

[EMDB]

I see a "Build from Scratch" project starting.   You already have the tools and a full set of measurements / mounting example. Why don't you completely re-create the panels yourself? It's probably more easy than bondo-ing and repairing what you have right now...

[Unstupid]

I want to see what you did to the carpet! 

[Monkeyvoodoo]

I see a "Build from Scratch" project starting.   You already have the tools and a full set of measurements / mounting example. Why don't you completely re-create the panels yourself? It's probably more easy than bondo-ing and repairing what you have right now...

Would anyone be interested in the measurements for a Z-back?

[mcseforsale]

Yes, actually.  I was just thinking about this a couple of days ago.

Thanks!
AJ

I see a "Build from Scratch" project starting.   You already have the tools and a full set of measurements / mounting example. Why don't you completely re-create the panels yourself? It's probably more easy than bondo-ing and repairing what you have right now...

Would anyone be interested in the measurements for a Z-back?

[Monkeyvoodoo]

I want to see what you did to the carpet! 

Of course it's in the center of the room

[Le Chuck]

I see a "Build from Scratch" project starting.   You already have the tools and a full set of measurements / mounting example. Why don't you completely re-create the panels yourself? It's probably more easy than bondo-ing and repairing what you have right now...

Would anyone be interested in the measurements for a Z-back?

Yes.  Totally. 

[Dawgz Rule]

I've patched carpet before but that style is kind of tough.  Might work though if you pull a piece out of a closet area.  Just need to match the lay of the carpet properly. 

[eds1275]

That looks like a tiny piece of carpet. I'd just brush the hell out of it to try to pull off some of the charred bits. It might just be one of those things that only you see.

[Martijn]

I want to see what you did to the carpet! 

Of course it's in the center of the room

Are those pictures from the NASA Curiosity ?

[Monkeyvoodoo]

With all the recent rainy weather on the island I have gotten much done. I got the coin door refinished and made up some new inserts that follow what I remember from my childhood.




Also finally made some sawdust right before the rain.



Just waiting on clear skies and my groove cutter before I continue on

[Monkeyvoodoo]

I'm a little frustrated.

On closer inspection on the original side I'm finding more swelling in the particleboard. Right around the cp area.

I'm tempted to try to sand it level again but on the other hand I almost want to just create whole new sides from fresh plywood.

What do you guys think?

[nordemoniac]

I would go with a new one! Definitely!
I know some of the charm is to keep the original material, but a lot of these weren't build good enough too last. They didn't use enough treatment on the wood to prevent swelling etc.

The CP will be the part which will take most of the beating. And will also be one of the first thing you look at, so it should look nice!

If it was up to me, I wouldn't keep anything of the old cab, I would disassemble and use a trim flush bit on a router to create a new cab