Taito Based with a few not-so-original ideas

[lemonflavoured]

Hi All, long time lurker, short time poster. After browsing these forums for a long time and always wanting to have an Arcade machine in the home, i have decided to take the plunge and create my own. I'm an I.T worker with little wood working experience and feeble arms but i will still endeavour to do this by myself as much as i think is reasonably possible. I work on an industrial estate and a wood working unit has just become vacant so i will be building the machine in there, so please don't mistake a professional environment for a professional person!

Like the title says, i've fallen in love with the Taito style cabinets and will be using the Taitorama plans from Koenigs.dk with a few modifications. Jahilton2002 inspired me with his Space Invader cab and has made me very aware of the attention to detail - i love his space invader poking through the back of his cabinet and was hoping to do the same with mine (i will PM him for permission as i don't think it's right to just rip ideas off).

I've already designed my CP and wanted a trackball and then decided for some spinners too for Arkanoid, a game i absolutely love. All this has to fit onto a 60cm wide piece of sheet metal i'm having fabricated around the corner from work. I loved the Taitorama artwork so will be following the theme but allowing for my own custom touches.

I also purchased some T-moulding from Arcade World UK and bought a 1.5 mm slotting bit but 1.5mm seems far too slim for the T-moulding "grip" and it bashes in the edges of the MDF if i try and rubber-hammer it home. Measuring the grip seems more suited to a 2mm slot so might have to order one of those - they aren't bloomin' cheap though.

I've got a spare 24" LCD at work that will be going in to it along with a variety of spare PC parts, nothing too fancy but for the Arcade hardware i really fancy the U360's and Ultralux buttons to create a very professional finish - the ability to illuminate only the buttons that are used for that particular game seems awesome to me and i will be using the lighting kit with the u-trak to continue the theme. I may even ask someone at work if they can drill the shaft (ooo-err) of the joysticks so i can get some transparent tops - but that's not important right now.

Here is a preview of the CP:



On with the wood work!

[Le Chuck]

I'm not digging the CP art.  Samus is cool and the trackball placement is slick but the style she's drawn in doesn't go with Sonic who is more cartoony, or the flat stripes.  I'd lose Sonic entirely and do some surface treatment to the stripes giving them a bit more depth - or lose Samus, who is just hanging out in a field of black. 

[jdbailey1206]

I agree with Le Chuck.  With the old Tatio machines you have a great template with what you are working with.  I would keep the lines but make Samus more 2 dimensional and work with your lines more.  If that was confusing reference the Metroid wallpaper below.  You could almost stay with your layout if you wanted but I, too would lose Sonic and maybe put three brains in lieu of the Sonic rings.  I also included some other peoples work to show how buttons overlaying lines can look good.  Also I would line up my top button to the rest of my CP buttons gives it a cleaner look. 

You wouldn't believe me if I told you but I just lost my edit.  So here is a quick breakdown.  Groovy Game Gear sells sticks comparable to U360's for cheaper and they feel better to operate.  The Zipppy sticks are the cheapest and I have seen a lot of guys put them in their cab.  Paradise Arcade sells the LED Lit ball tops you are looking for.  Or at the very least kits to modify the sticks you have. http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/en/50-led-joysticks   I always liked Jahilton2002's design.  It would be cool if you went along the same lines but put a brain instead of the Space Invader monster.

Good luck.  Welcome to the forum and don't be afraid to ask questions.

[EMDB]

I agree. Loose Sonic. Stick with one theme.

You could consider a 7 player buttons setup to cover the Neo Geo (4 buttons in a row) setup. I would also move the player 1/2 buttons away from the player buttons. More admin button could be handy. My guests like the additional ESC (to go back to the frontend) and PAUSE buttons. Special setup buttons should be hidden using shift functionality though.

[lemonflavoured]

Thanks for the excellent feedback guys - and i totally agree, i will remove sonic and add a few of those metroids in and look for a flatter samus, i used that image as the trackball placement was ideal for the opening of her gun. The top button above the main 6 is actually just a hole for the spinners. I am unsure on theme, really and am glad i took the dive and signed up to this forum as i want to get this right. I'll experiment with some more metroid stuff (as i do love this game) but if i can't pull it off there's never any harm in starting from scratch!
I'll check out those u360 alternatives as they are quite pricey, especially when you consider all the optional extras.

[lemonflavoured]

Well, i'm slowly making progress on the build and thought i'd share some pictures! i decided to laminate the cab as i tried painting a sample bit of wood and was not happy with the finish at all and deep down i knew that laminating was the only way to get the finish i wanted.



I also updated the CP art a bit, i am still unsure if it's what i want but it's an improvement on the previous metroid design (imo). My theme is "8 bit blues" hence the blue. The image i've posted is flat but sonic will be on the front face and the 2 button groups will be on a 45 degree bend underneath sonic.



I've also started working on the back door in the theme of the space invader cab i mentioned in my earlier post.



I'll be assembling most of it this week i hope but am still awaiting the control panel back from the metal fabricators. Hopefully that will be any day now.

[lemonflavoured]

I've just finished my control panel which took the supplier I use far too long to make hence the delay in updates. It's made from steel and is laser cut.

[Dawgz Rule]

Nice

[lemonflavoured]

A few more updates. The cabinet is nearly complete, just awaiting the marquee and bezel coming back from the printers then it's time to fire it up!

[TKW4rr10r]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what's with the dual spinners? What games require two? It's 6:30am and haven't had my coffee yet, so just that really caught me of guard.

Looks great, BTW.

[sabreerbasAlpha]

I've just finished my control panel which took the supplier I use far too long to make hence the delay in updates. It's made from steel and is laser cut.

Stunning my friend simply stunning. So glad you changed the art work up.Love that blue and black carbon look. And the sprite graphics on the CP are pretty damn cool...

[Drnick]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what's with the dual spinners? What games require two? It's 6:30am and haven't had my coffee yet, so just that really caught me of guard.

Looks great, BTW.

Games- Most importantly, do you like any games that use more than 1 spinner? Below is a (non-definitive) list of multi-spinner games

    Paddle Games
        Arkanoid Returns
        Off the Wall (Atari)
        Off the Wall (Bally Sente)
        Warlords (uses 4!)
        Pop'n Bounce
        Plump Pop
        VS Blok Breaker
    Flying
        Blasteroids
        Two Tigers
    Driving
        Super Off Road
        Super Sprint (uses 3!)
        Championship Super Sprint
        Bad Lands
        Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road (uses 3!)
        Ironman Stewart's Super Off-Road Track Pack (uses 3!)
        Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat
    Other
        Atari 2 player games
        Puzzloop / Puzzloop 2
        Puzzle Bobble 2/3/4 (a.k.a. Bust a move)
        Forgotten Worlds

[kuehnau]

I don't like the art, at all. I think the entire thing looks way too  busy and it's a ugly mis-mash of characters and themes. I also don't like that honeycomb design on it either. But if you're happy with it, then that's all that matters.

[thatpurplestuff]

Love that CP... you're making me reconsider my decision to not have spinners on my panel since those actually look like they fit well within a smaller space.  Nice work!

[lemonflavoured]

Thanks guys. I think design/art is a very, very personal thing. Some people will hate what other people love and i totally accept that, to each their own and all that. I think this is somewhat of a purist hobby in that we are trying to recreate an experience in the most authentic way we can. That being said, i didn't want to stick to a particular theme -  all i had in mind was some colours i like & some characters i like - and off i set. I'm very happy with how it's all come out! Spinners are easy to fit in a small space, i think they only need a 48 mm clearance if you use the larger weight so i would definitely include them in future cabs - but maybe not 2 (which was done for aesthetic reasons mainly but there are a few games out there that can make use of them. I mainly like spinning them with both my hands and pretending i'm operating a crane of some sorts...how sad).

[Drnick]

I mainly like spinning them with both my hands and pretending i'm operating a crane of some sorts...how sad).

I think there is a nice etch a sketch program you could install 

[thatpurplestuff]

Still love the dual spinners on your build and the placement looks so nice that I've incorporated a couple of spinners into my CP plans... I had a quick question though before I bite the bullet and order the parts.  Now that you've had it playable for a while, do you have any issues with the palm of your hand hitting the buttons while you are using the spinner?  Aesthetically it looks great but I just wanted to make sure that it plays well before I spend the money!

[lemonflavoured]

Hey! Yeah, the dual spinners worked great - your hand never touches the buttons due to the way you hold a spinner (at least i do, with my fingertips). I'm really happy with their placement. One piece of advice though, if you are using the spintraks from ultimarc, don't get them with the usb interface as they both register as devices controlling the same axis so you have to enable multimouse in mame and every time you reboot you end up rebinding controls. I got the utrak USB interface and wired them into that so one spinner is Y axis, the other is X.

And i finished this project, here it is: