My first build. It's for the "Kids"

[sin360]

Ok so after thinking about it for about the last 10 years I'm finally starting on my arcade cabinet.  Told the wife it's for the "kids" I'm the biggest one. So I wound up with a free cabinet of my choosing from our local arcade and games distributor. He took me around his warehouses and let me pick what I wanted. So I chose the Spider-Man cabinet because it the 4 player C/P and I had it in my head that I was going to fit everything in that c/p so I didn't have to build one from scratch.

So apparently it incredibly hard to stuff 4 players and a trackball in a 36 inch wide c/p. I tried in autocad and it just wasn't coming out comfortably. So I scratch that idea and started to design one from scratch. Currently I have everything coming in this week that I think I'm going to need. I'm using two Minimus AVR with the kade loader for the encoding purposes. I haven't decided which encoder I'm using for the trackball yet since that's the only thing I haven't ordered.

This weekend I should be starting to build my c/p. So here are some pictures to start with. I'm learning illustrator as I go so any tips would be greatly appreciated. The graphics on the c/p are still a work in progress. Here is the marquee and the bezel I'm also thinking about using even though I'm thinking of changing the marquee. I haven't decided on side art yet.

Cabinet


Marquee


Bezel


C/P



The hole next to Ryu is going to be the spinner.

[eds1275]

Move pacman up, move trackball down. Easier to reach for the kids, less smashing your fingers into the screen!

My honest opinion on the art - the marquee sort of works, but the screen bezel and control panel absolutely do not. The art styles are so different from character to character, and they are all just floating in space.

[a1pharm]

You and everyone you invite to play on that machine are going to have to stare at that cab art.  I know you have already spent a lot of time working on it, and I am not trying to minimize that effort by saying you should start over.  All of the art is essentially sticker/clip art, with no unifying theme or format.

Look at the Spiderman art on the cab.  Notice how everything is tied together, and the virtual absence of clipart.

If you have made up your mind about your art, you may just want to make the CP and bezel black, and just put stickers on it (you would save a lot of time, money, and probable headache later).

If you showed this too me 10-15 years ago, I would have commended you for how awesome everything is.

Cheers!
 

[pbj]

leave...the...original....art....alone....

[Vigo]

My personal opinion is the spiderman art is already really cool. I don't know about if you care about spiderman or not, but I would personally keep the marquee and bezel art, and replicate the same control panel art that is already there, but just modify it to fit your new control layout.

[Cobolisdead]

My personal opinion is the spiderman art is already really cool. I don't know about if you care about spiderman or not, but I would personally keep the marquee and bezel art, and replicate the same control panel art that is already there, but just modify it to fit your new control layout.

I agree with Vigo on this.


Also, I am totally jealous that you got to pick a cabinet out of such a selection.

[yotsuya]

I'm glad you guys said something. I figured he said it was "for the kids", so I figured, "Screw it, why say anything."

[sin360]

Here are a few more pictures from today. Yeah I scrapped the artwork, trying to decide on something different. I had the same feeling looking at it even though it wasn't finish it just felt like it was all over the place. Waiting on a trackball from the same person that gave me the cab. His employees put the old ones in a box and they are trying to find them or they are just going to take one from one of the cabs sitting in the warehouse's. So I wont be cutting my hole out for that until I have the trackball in hand and know the dimensions. The last picture I was trying the see if my inside curves looked ok.

[Vigo]

Pic makes me think of:

[TZC]

Pic makes me think of:






I'm sure you're not Cropsy really. Nice inside curves  good luck with the rest of it

[sin360]

Here is a test fit making sure the angle was good.

[sin360]

I took it to my shop today to test fit the c/p on the cabinet, but I have to fix a small problem with the back edge. I installed Euro cup hinges they work great. I wish I could just bring it to the house, but it's a surprise. Also I have a bunch of buttons that I was given so I had them soaking in soapy water for about a week. I cleaned them and and now the nut won't screw on. It go on about two threads then gets real tight. Does anyone have any suggestion or ran into this problem before?

[sin360]

Here is a picture of my two Minimus AVR  boards right after I finishing soldering wires to them. I figured out my buttons problems. He had just gave me the nuts and buttons separate so I don't have the right nuts for some buttons. I went through every single one trying them out one by one to match everything.

[sin360]

Here is a picture of me testing all the hardware that's going into the cab.
Motherboard: MSI NF980-G65
CPU: AMD Phenom II 965BE
Ram: 8GB
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250
P/S: 550W
I'm gonna us this WD 320 as my O/S drive and a 1TB for my storage.
Everything I had on hand except the motherboard and P/S. Which cost me $20 and $15.

[sin360]

Well it's been a long time since I've updated this. Life took over and I put the project on the back burner. I have recently started working on it again and hopefully I'll have it finished soon. The home made spinner I made worked, but not the way I wanted it to so I bought a Turbo Twist 2. Here are some pictures of the joysticks mounted and the top holes filled. I used some blue loctite on the nuts so they shouldn't come loose. I figure I don't plan on changing the joysticks and if I ever do I'm just gonna cut some slots on the screws to fit a flat head from the bottom. I bought some pico vinyl from happs for my control panel. Then I'm going to to put my graphics vinyl on the top.

[tomstewdevine]

I am very new to this arcade thing compared to most, I'm not great at building them yet. I do not know very much.

That being said, I think you are squandering a great thing here. A person gives you a amazing cab complete with original art that needed a little fixing up, and you are putting this ginormous control panel on it ruining the whole aspect of how nice it looked before. I feel that with the control panel you built the games size ratio is completely off. The screen and marquee now look far too small.

I think you should consider using the original control panel. Or at least something with that size of the original.

If I were in your shoes I would keep it as original as I possibly could at least on the outside, simply because it will look better.

[reptileink]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sell this cabinet to someone who will love it, and build one from scratch or find some beater cab somewhere.

I would KILL for a Spiderman cabinet in that condition (with coveted multi color coin buttons).  That control panel is WAY oversized. The kids are going to have to stand on stools to reach the top.

PLEASE re-consider using this awesome cabinet as your base instead of cramming everything onto a huge control panel and defacing that beautiful original artwork/cabinet.

If you still want to continue, please do not trash the bezel/marquee. Someone out there will want it.

[Aceldamor]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sell this cabinet to someone who will love it, and build one from scratch or find some beater cab somewhere.

I would KILL for a Spiderman cabinet in that condition (with coveted multi color coin buttons).  That control panel is WAY oversized. The kids are going to have to stand on stools to reach the top.

PLEASE re-consider using this awesome cabinet as your base instead of cramming everything onto a huge control panel and defacing that beautiful original artwork/cabinet.

If you still want to continue, please do not trash the bezel/marquee. Someone out there will want it.

+1

The Sega Spiderman was an awesome game, and I'm sure you could make enough money selling it original to be able to build a new one from scratch or find a replacement.

[harveybirdman]

What they said^

Build a pedastal, don't maim for mame.

If even PBJ is saying don't spoil something you should probably listen.  He's usually the first to challenge us to show up at your door with cash to buy your cab if we don't like it.

[a1pharm]

Keep doing what you're doing (the damage is already done, right?).  Even though the panel is huge, it really won't matter if you and your guests like it.  Haters gonna hate.