ArcadeHell Marquee- opinions, suggestions?

[Brad Lee]

Something I started doodling up today, plays heavily on the nintendo logo. Technically it's a 6-in-1 system, but as my website is sixsixsix.com and it'll be a dark cab, it seems appropriate

Not sure what I want in the middle, or if I should close the 2 circles into the middle more. Right now its jsut a flat black background but I may use some stars or clouds, something unobtrusive

Maybe some change to the centered logo to make it blend better with the fine lines in the circles?

A semi-matching hell type landscape is my thought on the CPO shouldnt be too tough

For the sides I really would like to get some original Tempest artwork on it, some day when Ive got $100 burning a hole in my pocket. Currently it's plain black w/ red Tmolding. Sticks & buttons are red & black as well, so the theme is pretty pervasive.

[Sprucemoose]

Dear Lucifer,

Welcome to Hell.

Honestly, the overall design is ok, but Nintendo lettering and thoughts of Hell kind of conflict.  The middle section needs some work.  The hell design and "666" is a bit disturbing, I would think of going in a bit more positive direction, unless only you and demon dwarfs are going to be playing the cab.

[Brad Lee]

If I go this way Im worried that it may be a bit too dim with all that black in the middle, maybe fade the circles and add a light character in the center
Hmm

[Smack]

I don't have any suggestions for the marquee, but what about picking up some small gargolyes to perch on the top 2 corners on the front of the cab?

Maybe hack them to put some leds in them and wire them into the ipac to get them to flash at times with games that support it?

Dunno, just thinking out loud!

Then again, maybe some different font that looks middle earth or something...

Smack

[Harakiri]

The original looks like a supreme "arcade omen" to me!

Don't change it man, live by your rules!


PS: Hail Satan!  

[Brad Lee]

For those of you with large black areas(like all aroundthe outside here) does it stay pretty black when lit, or would a layer or 2 of posterboard work better? The light Ive got is pretty bright and I wouldnt want it washing out the outside. The dark parts in the 2 circles are fine to light, in high res theyre actually a pretty vivid green

[walls83]

If you want it truely black you prolly should use poster board..

[Brad Lee]

Thats what I was thinking, make a template out of black posterboard, cut out the circle oval. My current marquee I laid down some stencils and spraypainted the back side black, after a few coats it was pretty opaque but you could tell it was trying to light up.
One good thing about this is that it's as shiny as the plexi itself, since theres nothing on the front

[OSCAR]

For those of you with large black areas(like all aroundthe outside here) does it stay pretty black when lit, or would a layer or 2 of posterboard work better? The light Ive got is pretty bright and I wouldnt want it washing out the outside. The dark parts in the 2 circles are fine to light, in high res theyre actually a pretty vivid green

On the marquee I got from emdkay.net, the black portions stay perfectly black when lit from behind.  Even when the room is dark, there is no glow from the black portion, as there is with the silkscreened plexi marquees.  I really like the marquee I got from Brent, it is very nicely printed on thick photo paper.

Here is a shot taken with all the lights off.  You can see a bit of glow from the black areas on the other marquees, but on the MAME marquee, the only parts that show up are the ones that are supposed to.  It looks very cool in the dark, the MAME logo really stands out and looks like it is just floating there in space.

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/sinistar/finished5.jpg

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/emdkay-marquee1.jpg

[said7]

Is emdkay still in business?

I would like to get some artwork printed but his site appears to be broken.

Anyone got his email?

[Brad Lee]

^^^ is there a link to a site? That one of Oscars looks sharp

I think Im gonna go get a paper one done at Kinkos, see how it looks before goin to backlit or vinyl


This is pretty close to what the final should be, a little lighting/shading on the yellow text maybe(like the last one above) to give it some perspective

Does emdkay do oversize side arts, like say 24"x24"? Or is there anyone thats doing adhesive vinyl custom work. I might check out how those circle images blow up forthe side, and put the real tempest sideart on a back burner till I build another, then restore this cab to everyting as itshould be

[CthulhuLuke]

Hey man, I like the sketches you've got going so far, and that good-evil ying yang looks pretty killer.  One problem w/ yellow on red, is its VERY cartoony, like we used to have this book on cartoons that was that exact color scheme.  It would look good for something that wasn't so evil, but if you're really going for evil I suggest using a more demonic font, I'm sure you can find some online.  Even though this band is cheesy as hell, they're album covers are pretty awesome:
http://www.caratuleo.com/i/iron_maiden_-_virtual_xi-front.jpg
http://truemetal.org/metalwallpaper/images/numberofthebeast.jpg
So I'd say deepen up the red to a more blood-stained red, add LOTS of grime, like maybe rust the corners a little bit, MUCH more evil letters, a nice portrait of hell in the background along w/ some good skull shots or something in the front always goes nicely as well.
      -Keep up the nice looking marquees

[TalkingOctopus]

Is emdkay still in business?

I would like to get some artwork printed but his site appears to be broken.

Anyone got his email?

How is his site broken?  It appears to be fine to me.

http://www.emdkay.net/

[saint]

emdkay was switching web hosts and had some intermittent  issues I believe, but is still up and running.

[Brad Lee]

^^ Yeah I found that and had no problems getting around, he looks like the marquee man

C.Luke- the problems I have with a lot of the gothic/medieval/"dark" fonts is that they are either too thin to look good for headline type use, or that they appear to me to be too planned & perfect

Ive started on getting some dirt blood rust & stuff into it, but it's kind of a catch-22 in that I want it to look dark & evil, but at the same time, light up like a mofo when its the centerpiece of a dark room, ya know?

Ive been browsing throug hliterally thousanads of game marquees, title screens, boxes, etc and the ones that really stand out to me are the big bold, simple designs.

Ive been working on vectorisizing(is that even a word?) the circles so they can be resized to huge for the sides

(no updated picxs tday heh)

[Minwah]

Couple of ideas:

[hulkster]

hmmm, im confused, i could understand Arcade Heaven...but Arcade Hell?  does that mean you are making a crappy cab with no games?  to me, Hell would be a bunch of non working cabs, with no working roms on it!

[mahuti]

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9436

Satan's hollow.