Author Topic: New project in full swing (Read 4831 times)

steve_pss · « **on:** January 11, 2004, 08:30:37 pm »

Here's the 1st pic of my new cab's construction. I'm trying for more of a classic look. As everyone tends to lean towards the MEGAcab idea I thought it would be nice to make a leaner, less monstrous cab with an integrated, rather than seperate box, control panel.

Hope you like. More tomorrow depending on how far I get with construction.

Feedback is always appreciated!!

unclet · « **Reply #1 on:** January 11, 2004, 09:47:05 pm »

What a great feeling it is to get the sides up on a cab. Really makes the project worth while.... congrats and keep it going!

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #2 on:** January 11, 2004, 10:12:53 pm »

Excellent classic look! Very Atari-esque, I love it! Looking forward to more pics.

Apollo · « **Reply #3 on:** January 11, 2004, 10:17:21 pm »

Groovy. Looks like a nice shape. What controls are you going to have?

Pixelhugger · « **Reply #4 on:** January 11, 2004, 10:37:57 pm »

Excellent classic look! Very Atari-esque, I love it! Looking forward to more pics.

steve_pss · « **Reply #5 on:** January 12, 2004, 09:59:35 am »

Trying for all leaf spring controls. 2 ball tops and hopefully 4 translucent buttons per player

steve_pss · « **Reply #6 on:** January 19, 2004, 06:54:40 pm »

Update! She's almost skinned. More to follow

Stingray · « **Reply #7 on:** January 20, 2004, 02:51:39 pm »

Coming along nicely. Well done this far. I've just about come to the end of my rope on finding a cab locally, and may soon start a "from scratch" cab soon myself if nothing pans out.

-S

steve_pss · « **Reply #8 on:** January 20, 2004, 03:15:39 pm »

hehe - well hopefully your in the new england area because im selling this one the second its done!

Stingray · « **Reply #9 on:** January 21, 2004, 11:59:06 am »

Sorry, Oklahoma.

-S

SirPeale · « **Reply #10 on:** January 21, 2004, 01:25:19 pm »

Quote from: steve_pss on January 20, 2004, 03:15:39 pm

hehe - well hopefully your in the new england area because im selling this one the second its done!

Man! There seem to be a lot of people in the NE area these days here. Where are you?

nipsmg · « **Reply #11 on:** January 21, 2004, 02:58:56 pm »

yay New England!

I'm from CT.

My project is 70% built (UAII, Assembled, Painted, Working on getting t-molding on, and some pics, then building the CP, then Done!)

I'm going to post something soon.

I swear.

Really....

(god I wish I had spare time).
BTW steve, new cab looks great, can't wait to see the finished product.

--NipsMG

steve_pss · « **Reply #12 on:** January 21, 2004, 03:13:14 pm »

I'm from the Providence area, RI.

Just got my guy lined up a the sheet metal shop to make my control panals for this prototype cab and the others to follow.

Metal CP, eat your heart out baby!!

GO PATS!!!!!!!!!

SirPeale · « **Reply #13 on:** January 21, 2004, 08:42:07 pm »

Cool! I'm up in Brattleboro, VT.

We should have a get-together.

Problem is we need to all bring our cabs so we can all playtest them.

Or we could choose one person's house per month and play the cab that day.

Or something.

steve_pss · « **Reply #14 on:** January 21, 2004, 08:50:11 pm »

That's not a terrible idea peale. Maybe we should move this concept over to the main board and see how many New Englanders there are around here?

steve_pss · « **Reply #15 on:** January 27, 2004, 01:55:37 pm »

And the light box is now done.

Stingray · « **Reply #16 on:** January 27, 2004, 02:16:09 pm »

Still making nice progress. Keep the updates coming. Have you thought about what kind of artwork you'll be putting on it?

-S

steve_pss · « **Reply #17 on:** March 29, 2004, 09:34:54 am »

An update! Finally!
The board of directors finally OK'd phase 2 of the cabinet. So I now have in my grubby paws:

2 J-Stiks
1 IPAC2
More buttons than I can count
Tornado spinner
Factory refurb DellP2400
Factory refurb U series WG 19" VGA
T-Molding
Monitor Surround
Marquee retainer
Parts express vinyl
Smart Strip
and assorted bits and pieces

I finshed up the control panel last night. The vinyl does highlight any little blemish under the wood I doubt most anyone would notice. Bugs the heck out of me of course.

DougHillman · « **Reply #18 on:** March 29, 2004, 01:53:58 pm »

Steve, what are the dimensions of your cab? Overall height, overall width, and depth at the CP? I'm building something very similar with the addition of a modular control panel setup.

Looking very good so far.

Doug

steve_pss · « **Reply #19 on:** March 29, 2004, 02:02:30 pm »

Did I mention camera phones stink? I'll have to take some high quality shots later this week.

Overall dimention is 25.5" including cab sides, about 30 deep to the widest point at the CP. just over 6 high. We have a template for the sides so we can just pattern bit them out as needed with a router. When I get some time I'll have to get all the measurements and throw em in a PDF. Its taking forever to build this cab beacuse everything we're doing, we're doing with the express intent of reproducing. In example instead of just fencing the recesses needed to mount the j-stiks we developed templates that you just center of the center lines and route away. Instead of one-off'ing the sides with a jig saw we created a template on 1/2" MDF so we can replicate them. The pics are actually from our "beta" cabinet that we're using as a guinee pig to ensure the build of future cabs. Kinda sucks to be so retentive but once we're done (this week I hope) I'll have a design I can replicate with great ease. Not to mention as we're building the actual cab I've noticed it's coming out pretty darn perfect.

Ghoward · « **Reply #20 on:** March 29, 2004, 02:26:38 pm »

Looking good so far....

Gary

steve_pss · « **Reply #21 on:** March 29, 2004, 11:33:00 pm »

Finally finished the CP wiring and took some (relatively) decent pics. Excuse the quality of these. The MegaPixel was but a gleam in an engineers eye when I bought my digital cam.

steve_pss · « **Reply #22 on:** March 29, 2004, 11:34:13 pm »

and..

Minwah · « **Reply #23 on:** March 31, 2004, 04:15:40 pm »

Nice looking cab, and lovely control panel: Great work, I like to see cabs which don't have a removable box-style CP

steve_pss · « **Reply #24 on:** March 31, 2004, 04:53:39 pm »

And funny Minwah should comment (thanks btw) because I just finished a draft of the Mamewah interface. I used the vectorbattle font. the white box is snaps, the lower right box displays what controls on the panel control what for each game by loading custom files that cooincide with rom names.

Minwah · « **Reply #25 on:** March 31, 2004, 06:13:51 pm »

Quote from: steve_pss on March 31, 2004, 04:53:39 pm

And funny Minwah should comment (thanks btw) because I just finished a draft of the Mamewah interface. I used the vectorbattle font. the white box is snaps, the lower right box displays what controls on the panel control what for each game by loading custom files that cooincide with rom names.

That's pretty darn cool too

Have you made these 'custom files' for many games? From some requests I have had I bet some people would love to get hold of some of those...

Make sure you send the layout to Stuzza at screenshotarchive.com

steve_pss · « **Reply #26 on:** April 01, 2004, 03:50:00 pm »

I'm not sure what use they would be to other people. The files are a graphic file of the control panel. To give an example from a previous draft see below. I created a folder in mame called "cpuse" In photoshop i have each control in a seperate layer. Depending on the game I show the appropriate control, then save for web as a .png with the corelating rom name. I setup mamewah to show these files as the artwork 3 path. As you scroll down each file is pulled up in the same manner as the snaps.

Mimsy · « **Reply #27 on:** April 02, 2004, 07:18:08 pm »

Wow I didn't think about making Joystick graphics for the interface! Thanks Steve, you inspired me to do the same with my ArcadeCity project.

-Mimsy

steve_pss · « **Reply #28 on:** April 03, 2004, 12:13:32 pm »

She's almost done.. Just need to do the finishing work, get off ---my bottom--- and get my artwork printed and pray to god this WG 19" monitor works...

chrisindfw · « **Reply #29 on:** April 05, 2004, 04:14:06 pm »

I was wanting to do the same thing with mine. I like the 3d view of the controls.

What did you use to create the image?
It would be nice if there was a program to go through the mame folder and automatically create an image.

hmmmm idea spinning...

Quote from: steve_pss on April 01, 2004, 03:50:00 pm

I'm not sure what use they would be to other people. The files are a graphic file of the control panel. To give an example from a previous draft see below. I created a folder in mame called "cpuse" In photoshop i have each control in a seperate layer. Depending on the game I show the appropriate control, then save for web as a .png with the corelating rom name. I setup mamewah to show these files as the artwork 3 path. As you scroll down each file is pulled up in the same manner as the snaps.


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