Life Force Themed Two Player Bartop

[tomstewdevine]

Hello,

Let me start off by saying I want full sized original cabs in my house, and I want many of them.  Right now I have zero. I love playing arcade and have fun building arcades but don't really have an arcade budget because I recently went to oktoberfest in Munich and spent my budget (I'm from the US).




But my dad remodeled his kitchen and I helped, on the way home I grabbed some wood that I could possibility use for something.  I've had that wood for a month or so. I brought it to my river cabin to think on it. My buddy and i had a few beers and drew this out roughly.  I mean I always wanted to use it for an arcade but this is the shape we came up with.




I don't have buttons or a PC that is ready, but I want two player 6 buttons each, 8 way joysticks.  Both of the other bar-tops I made have been one player setups and I want this to be different from those.  I have plenty of pc parts around the garage and should be able to put something together, I will be checking out my cities hazardous waste facility because the give away paint that people are trying to throw away.  I have a bunch of speakers but i'm not sure how to get them hooked up to a computer, so that will be a fun bridge to cross.

Like my previous project I want this to cost me as little to nothing as possible, while still looking nice, I figure if i can get the pc, wood, paint, graphics and software for free, Then the buttons, t molding, plexi shouldn't be a huge cost. Hey maybe after I'm done I can trade it for a full size original cab? if not at least make me enough money to buy some wood for a Lowboy build.

PS, On a different note I recently finally beat Rescue Rangers 2 for nes (emulated on my xbox) and my whole family was excited.





This is a list of every tool and part I needed to make the arcade and what it cost me:


Wood..................................................................................... Free Used Kitchen Cabinets
Wood Glue .............................................................................. Already had
Circular saw............................................................................. Already had
Clamps ...................................................................................Already had
Sander .................................................................................... Already had
Sand Paper ............................................................................... Already had
Primer .....................................................................................Already had
Wood Filler ................................................................................$7.99
Slot bit for router ........................................................................Already had
amp for speakers ........................................................................$4.74
PC .......................................................................................... Free, given to me by family
Monitor ....................................................................................$2.50 Craigslist
foamboard ................................................................................. Already had
(i will update this list as I go)

[tomstewdevine]

I got the wood home from the cabin and in to my garage. I was able to make a little progress the last couple of nights. I have the two sides cut, the mounting frame glued, and the boards cut. On my last couple of builds I haven't needed angled anything really. This one is different, so right now I need to cut angles edges on all my boards. Of course I will update as I go.  I like all feedback negative and positive.  I get that it's another bartop, but whatever, it should be fun to work on.

















And then I played a little Joust on my finished arcade:

[tomstewdevine]

Glued last night. Was only able to do the bottom and the top. Before that I cut angles on all of my wood, which was fun and simple, but something I hadn't done before so it was cool to learn.

[DaOld Man]

Looking good!

[Vigo]

Good re-purposing. 

Was a little worried when I read the thread title that I would see a kitchen cupboard with a monitor inside and a slide out cutting board underneath with joysticks mounted on it. 

[tomstewdevine]

Was a little worried when I read the thread title that I would see a kitchen cupboard with a monitor inside and a slide out cutting board underneath with joysticks mounted on it. 

Worried? Thats what I have planned for my next one, would that not be really cool? 

[tomstewdevine]

Glued two more panel's last night, I need more clamps......

[Vigo]

Glued two more panel's last night, I need more clamps......

One thing you can never have enough of.

Looking good!

[tomstewdevine]

Had a good weekend. My daughter turned 5 and her party was at Chucky Cheese, so I got to play some arcade games that were there. They had Terminator Salvation, Tokyo Drift, and these:

This was my favorite, you have to stack blocks without having them fall. It's a redemption game(boooo) but it would be really fun to have without the dumb redemption option because the game play is super fun, and the control is very original:


but I still got a lot done on the arcade. Here is my progress.
 
Glued on the rest of the panels:


Screwed in the back door, so I can take it off and on any time:



I need to decide what monitor to use, which one do you think would work best?




Took it outside and sanded the whole thing down:




As you can see the handle form the cut-board is giving me a hole right on the top:


I used wood filler to fill in the holes and cracks:



Then I put a the first coat of primer on:





Now I really need to get the pc up and working and decide on a monitor. I'm thinking I might go with the widescreen one because the shape fits the shape of the cab the best.  I would need to make sure it wouldn't stretch the game that wide, maybe find a way to put a bezel on the sides of the monitor so the game still looks correct. Anyway thanks for checking out my build.

[tomstewdevine]

I've been thinking about the look of the cab, I always like to choose one game and base the look on that game.  I'm thinking I want to be after a 2 player horizontal shump.  Can anyone think of a really good one, R Type is great but It's only one player at a time. I would like to make it after a game where 2 players play at the same time. Thanks for any suggestions.

[vwalbridge]

I'm thinking I want to be after a 2 player horizontal shump.  Can anyone think of a really good one,

Konami's Life Force


Bonus: It's played on a horizontal screen but has horizontal and vertical-moving stages.

[tomstewdevine]

Konami's Life Force


Bonus: It's played on a horizontal screen but has horizontal and vertical-moving stages.

Nice. Thanks vwalbridge that's exactly what I was looking for. Looking up online it says that it was originally called Salamander, I might make it with that art if I can find anything. Thanks for the help.

[tomstewdevine]

So next up progress wise; I have put 3 coats of primer on the cab, sanding in between each coat.



I Took apart 3 computer towers that people gave to me because they didn't work to try to Frankenstein something together. I ended up figuring out that this computer had a bad power supply. (anyone know how to fix a dead power supply?) So I grabbed a working one I had around and it fired right up. I went ahead and just installed XP again and wiped everything else that was on the hard-drive.



I did all the computer work in my little sunroom last night because the weather was so nice, which was much more enjoyable compared to working at my desk in my basement. I sit at a desk all day at work, and sometimes its hard for me to even touch my computer once I get home because I feel like slitting my writs if I have to be at a computer for anymore of my life................ anyhoo I'm pretty sure I'm going with the wide screen monitor, And I'm pretty sure I'm going with Life Force(thanks again vwalbridge). I played a few quarters worth and the game was really fun and exactly what I'm looking for.

Next up finding art for the CP and the sides of the cab, picking a color to paint the thing and ordering t molding, I have a couple joysticks with black ball top, and yellow buttons coming in the mail, so the theme still has to match those. I was thinking maybe a lighter grey color, black t molding, Then find good side art for Life Force and add some yellow to it to match the buttons. All that stuff will come later and I'm sure it will all change.....

And Happy Back to the Future II day.

[tomstewdevine]

I think I found the art I'm going to use on the sides of the cab:



I found the full size picture at this great arcade art website here:
http://blog.ultrace.com/art-gallery/

I think it's some pretty damn cool art, I need to figure out what i'm going to do for the control panel though, the one on the original cabs were a pink color and I don't want that. I will mess around with that tonight and see what I come up with.

[vwalbridge]

That is going to be really nice artwork. This theme could really be cool.

[tomstewdevine]

So I sanded the cab this weekend and it's prepared for the color paint.  The pc is working, I'm ordering a little more RAM and haven't installed any front end or anything.  I was able to get to the paint recycle place in town and pick up these two cans of paint:




I mocked up close colors and need to pick which on to go with. I have plenty of other paint to mix with two if I want a slightly different color, Which one looks better?





And then I'm just going to use part of the side art for the CPO, here are some rough ideas, input welcome:

[vwalbridge]

I'm diggin' the RED color for the paint. The orange isn't bad, but the red just pops more and looks more suited for the art. Also, for the side art, I'd definitely (and at least) round the corners of the art. If you just print out the box art and put it up there it's just going to look plain. Even rounding the corners a little will do wonders. (Sorta like Mario Bros side art) You could even get really fancy and try to contour the top of the art to the curves of the snake. Just an idea.

So for the control panel...I'd focus more on the snakes entire head. It's the focal point of the artwork and having it right on the control panel will give it that focus. Try to "zoom" out a bit and get the entire snake's head centered in the control panel. At the same time, try to eliminate that yellow line across the snake's chin. In other words, maybe have the snake and only the snake be the focus of the CP art.

Just some ideas. You have a lot to work with here and I like where it is going. Keep playing with it. AFAIK, nobody has done this theme before so you definitely have something original!

[tomstewdevine]

I definitely will be rounding the corners, i just mocked those up in Paint. And looking at it again, that yellow line really needs to go if I use that snake head on the CPO. I like both of the colors, but I can see your point of red jumping out a little more. Thanks for all the input.

[BAMBOO]

You know what would be cool?  If I could take out the Life Force letters, the flag, the Konami logo, patch all the holes and you could use that as the CPO.  But that might take some serious work.  I'm referring to the clean version of the marquee I posted yesterday.

[tomstewdevine]

You know what would be cool?  If I could take out the Life Force letters, the flag, the Konami logo, patch all the holes and you could use that as the CPO.  But that might take some serious work.  I'm referring to the clean version of the marquee I posted yesterday.

I think it's doable. I will try tonight.

[BAMBOO]

What is the printable surface area of your CPO?

[tomstewdevine]

What is the printable surface area of your CPO?

The CP size is 6.5" x 22.5"

[opt2not]

Just wanted to jump in here and say I like your theme, and I respect the colour study. 

[Jigenjuke]

Here is sideart for the Japanese cabinet.  Maybe you could get somebody to change the name for you. 

[tomstewdevine]

Here is sideart for the Japanese cabinet.  Maybe you could get somebody to change the name for you.

That is a beauty. I started painting the cab red, If it looks good I'm going to go with that for sure. I think I have the photoshop skills to pull off the name change.

[harveybirdman]

You've inspired me to play some Salamander tonight

[Jigenjuke]

Some more eye candy for ya.

Jigenjuke

[Jigenjuke]

One more...

[Jigenjuke]

Yet another...

[tomstewdevine]

Thank you so much for the Art. I love it. I worked on a possible CPO tonight from the Life Force Marquee Bamboo was working on.

[tomstewdevine]

Started painting last night.

[tomstewdevine]

Sand and second coat (plus I decided to paint the inside)

[tomstewdevine]

Did the third coat last night. Forgot to take a picture.... I think I'm going to put one more coat on each side then call it good.  It is coming out pretty smooth though. Joystick and buttons not in yet but should be here shortly, After the new art I have been shown I wish I went with black buttons instead of Yellow, because now I need the side art and CPO to match the yellow buttons.

I'm thinking I will use the first side art I posted because there is yellow in the picture. I think I will alter the CPO picture so that everything that's orange will be Yellow to match the buttons and side art a little better.

[tomstewdevine]

I had a nice and spooky Halloween weekend. Got some work done on the arcade cab, finished the paint job; really happy with how it turned out.



Going over the design in my head I wanted a couple speaker holes and a vent hole where I can mount a fan so I measured out a good spot and drilled a few holes.



And then Painted those holes.



Since the paint was out I tackled the bottom as well since it has yet to be done.



The holes turned out good, here are the speaker covers I'm going to use. I 'm going to paint the gold part black.




I mounted my monitor with screws I had around the garage, then setup side mounts on both sides to connect the monitor to the sides of the arcade cab.





And finally no more borrowing routers because I was able to buy this used one.



So this week I will route the t molding slot, mount the monitor, mount the PC parts. If my joystick and buttons gets delivered this week I will also figure out the layout for the control panel and drill that out too. 

I need to buy t-molding, a sheet of acrylic, a power strip. I need to figure out speakers, I have a ton of speakers but not made for the pc. I need a tiny cheap amp that connects speakers to the pc. Or find some broken pc speakers and see if I can salvage the little amp inside....

[BorgDog]

Interesting little project you got there, looks cool.

I've used a couple of THESE little amps.  Can be found cheaper on ebay, but may take a while to get to you.  The one I linked to runs off 12v which I share with my led marquee lights or just use off your pc power supply if you have one, they also have a 5V version.

[tomstewdevine]

Interesting little project you got there, looks cool.

I've used a couple of THESE little amps.  Can be found cheaper on ebay, but may take a while to get to you.  The one I linked to runs off 12v which I share with my led marquee lights or just use off your pc power supply if you have one, they also have a 5V version.

Thanks BorgDog, that exactly what I'm looking for.

[tomstewdevine]

I made a temp bezel from foam-board so I could place my monitor in the right position.



Since I finally have my own router I cut the slots for the t molding, now I wouldn't suggest doing this after you finally worked and got a good paint job but it is what it is and I won't have to do it again on any other builds.

Test with scraps, it will be a different color, I'm thinking black.

Control Panel


Then I mounted the monitor. This was pretty tough to get the right position with only one person. What I ended up doing was placing the cab screen side down and placing a big blanket underneath the monitor to hold it up until it was in a good position. I ended up getting it on my 3rd attempt, and the mistake holes will only show on the inside of the arcade. This is how I mounted it.





Then I mounted the power supply, motherboard, and harddrive, I powered it on and it worked.


Now to install some updated drivers since it's a fresh install of xp and install mame, I'm using .165.  I've used Atomic FE in the past simply because it works and it's easy. I just want a working front end that will be easy to make a Life Force menu screen, I hear mala is pretty easy to set up, but I think Atomic is too if I just look into it. So now the long journey of weeding out all the crap from this full romset I've acquired.

[emphatic]

Nice progress.

[BAMBOO]

I like it too.  Nice work on that revamp of the marquee.   

[tomstewdevine]

Small updated; I got the roms on to the arcade computer:


Arcade button for the power button.


Ran a Test:


I'm having a problem with unzipping the folders with the roms in them, I think some got corrupted in the transfer. So I need to figure that out. 

Here is my to do list for this project:

Remount Fan
Make Control Panel (waiting to receive controls)
Weed out roms that will not be used.
Install a fe and make a layout
Install xpadder and set it up
Hide Windows
Test each game
Change cursor
find desktop picture (shows during start up for a couple seconds)
put together speakers and mount
Paint speaker grills black and mount
get a power strip and mount
get, cut, and Paint Plexi
Print side art
Print CPO
get and mount fan grill
get and install t molding

And I think that's it.