Mini Mayhem

[SirPeale]

I still have the Galaga theme music going in hy head after last night's "testing" session.  

I thought I was the only one.  I know about 'Tetris-Eyes' where you try to fit all shapes into Tetris areas.  But having the theme music to games happens more than I'd like.  Usually it's "Space Invaders."  How annoying is that?

[Stingray]

Pac-Man is another one that tends to stay with me for a while. I guess if we didn't like it, our cabs wouldn't have speakers.  

Speaking of speakers, here's what I did for mine. I removed the original speaker and mounted a pair of gutted computer speakers in it's place. I desoldered the volume control and relocated it on a metal plate that will be mounted behind a hole in the top of the cab so I can reach up and adjust the volume when needed.



I was having a problem with a high pitched noise during hard drive seek times. This was solved by turning the line out level down and volume on the speakers up. Thanks to CM for suggesting this solution in the main forum.

-S

[Iori]

Wow, been a while since I checked up on your project!  It is looking good!  Really good.  I love the super gloss finish... can see reflections in!  

[Stingray]

Thanks Iori! I'm pretty happy with the way the paint turned out.

Here's my latest pic of the full cab:



Got the coin door reassembled and working. The coin door lights are wired into the computer's power supply, so they come on when you power on the computer. Also you can't tell from the pictures, but I have got all of the wiring tied up and organized. Cleaned up that big rat's nest tangle inside.  

The only thing missing at this point is the back door, the lock for the coin door, and of course the artwork. On the subject of the artwork, since I don't have any yet, I just left the protective coating on the marquee plexi, which is why it's green in this pic.

-S

[greywolf22]

Wow Stingray,

Your cabinet is really coming along nicely.  Love what you've done with it so far.  

[SirPeale]

The only thing missing at this point is...the lock for the coin door...

On it's way.  Check your mail daily.

[Stingray]

That reminds me, time to check the mail!  

I posted this in the artwork forum, but I thought I'd post it here too. Just a Photoshop quickie of what it will look like with the artwork in place:



-S

[PedroSilva]

Very nice ... and I see you have found a solution for the CP regardingo to colors .... I like it ...

[Stingray]

Sort of forgot I had this thing. Found it when I was digging through some parts the other day. It's a presentation remote, with a small thumb-operated trackball and a few mouse buttons. It's got a receiver that plugs into the mouse port (which can be mounted anywhere inside the cab, since it's an RF remote and not IR). This thing works great for mouse operations in my cab. Previously I had a trackpad hidden inside the coin door, but this is a much better solution.

-S

[patrickl]

Oh, yes. Good idea. I have used one of these in presentations. Not very practical for everyday use, but for mame that would really be ideal. I bought a Cordless Optical TrackMan already. I hope that will work good too, allthough it is a tad bulky and cannot really be used handheld.


BTW that coindoor looks in really good condition. I was shopping for one of these on ebay for my repro Galaga cab (which one day hopefully will see life), but I found they were either completely rusted away or extremely expensive.

[Stingray]

Mine was in pretty bad condition when I got it. I took it apart and sandblasted it back to bare metal. It's been repainted with a rubberized coating that's made for protecting the underside of a car from rust. I'm hopong this will make it resistant to "quarter scratches".

-S

[SirPeale]

You didn't mention that you had a Midway coin door.  That lock I sent will fit it, but you'll need to either bend the cam or get an offset-out cam.

See http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/camlocks.html

[Stingray]

No problem, I've got a hammer that will do the job nicely. Thanks for the heads up.

-S

[Stingray]

Got the lock Saturday. It only needed a slight bend on the cam to fit. Showed up just in time, we had a little get-together Sunday and the cab got a lot of play that day. I was certainly glad that the door was lockable, didn't want anyone poking around in there while I wasn't looking!

-S

[Stingray]

After I finished designing my CPO, I realised that the carriage bolts were going to totally disrupt the artwork and generally make the control panel look crappy, so off came the panel. Took it back to the shop and welded studs to the back side, and filled in the holes.





This should really clean up the control panel. I'll post a pic as soon as I get it back on the cab.

-S

[Stingray]

No doubt about it, doing away with the carriage bolts was a good idea. I'm glad I took the time to do the extra metal work.

-S

[mozzer]

Unbelievable graphics!

One of the best cabs out there!

[Stingray]

Wow, thanks a lot! I really appreciate that. If you haven't seen it already, check out my "Mini Mayhem" thread in the artwork forum for better pictures of the graphics. On that note, I'd like to thank Patrickl again for allowing me to modify his vectorized version of the Galaga CPO. That certainly simplified the control panel phase of the design work. Everything else I did from scratch. I hope to get the side art and kick panel printed in the next couple of weeks. I haven't even started on the bezel yet.

Here's proof that everyone in the household can enjoy your arcade cab:



-S

[patrickl]

He he everyone has a cat shot. BTW, shouldn't that cat be painted blue? Or at least it should have a blue trim ...  

Hiding the bolts sure was a good idea, but man I hate how good your cab looks How the hell am I gonna build something now that doesn't look silly compared to this?  

[Stingray]

You're stand alond CP looked pretty sharp to me, just need to build the rest of the cab to go along with it. I'm off to buy some blue cat dye.

-S

[rob]

I agree with an earlier comment.  Probly one of the best (if not THE best) cab I've seen on here!  

Outstanding job bro!

[greywolf22]

Your a natural at this   Your cab looks great.  Regarding the cat picture. I thought my cat was the only one who liked to play the classics, I guess not  

[Stingray]

I'm pretty sure she was more facinated by her reflection in the tinted plexi than by anything that was going on onscreen. I'd love to tell you the cab was running Mouse Trap at the time, but best I remember it was Dig Dug.

Again, I really appreciate the compliments!

Next step will be re-wiring the control panel through a printer cable so it can be swapable (lack of foresight or I would have done this to begin with). Then I'll be building another panel for my steering wheel/ shifter setup. This cab has got to have a steering wheel!

-S

[Santoro]

Looking nice, Stingray.  I really need to learn metalwork next.  I like your CP a lot.....

[Stingray]

Thanks Santoro. Due to the odd shape of the control panel on this cab I think it would have been pretty difficult to make a replacement out of wood. Metal seemed like a natural choice. It certainly 'feels' like a real arcade game when I play it.  

I finally got my marquee light installed last night. Another little touch that adds more to the overall look than I thought it would.

-S

[Stingray]

Here's my swappable optical interface. Hacked a mouse to nine pin male din plug and my trackball to a nine pin female din. I'll build something similar for keyboard input as soon as my IPAC gets here.



Now I need to build a panel to mount my trackball on.

-S

[patrickl]

Does a trackball work properly on those mouse electronics? I bought a mouse type trackball . Apparently it's meant to be used on a mac, but as a windows moude replacement it works fine. Just not for games since it doesn't handle rapid motion very well. In fact it doesn't handle it at all (and may actually reverse motion).

[motorfish]

That looks really nice Stingray! I really like that cab a lot!!

[CthulhuLuke]

Whoa Motorfish, I didn't know you were in Redmond, Washington!  I'm over in Bothell, Washington, I'm sure you know where it is.  Actually right now I'm in Pullman going to school, but I'm home this summer and spring break back on the west side.  Know of any good places to look at arcade cabs besides the paper?  haha anyways, back on topic
  Looking good so far, the control panel looks a little smushed together for two people, but the cat is anxious to start playing.  The art is cool, I'm not way too fond of mini's but if you have one then it matches the car, very cool.  The trackball hack is also cool, where'd you draw the power from for the trackball optics btw?

[Stingray]

Does a trackball work properly on those mouse electronics? I bought a mouse type trackball . Apparently it's meant to be used on a mac, but as a windows moude replacement it works fine. Just not for games since it doesn't handle rapid motion very well. In fact it doesn't handle it at all (and may actually reverse motion).

It works great. I tested it in Centepede, Missle Command, Capcom Bowling and Tempest (I know it's a spinner game, but a trackball works okay), it worked great in all of those games. As far as handling rapid motion goes, it works just fine. I didn't even have to mess with any settings to get it where it needs to be.

the control panel looks a little smushed together for two people

Actually there's plenty of room, my brother in law and I play two player games on it when he comes over. Of course neither of us is a really big guy. I'm sure it would be a different story if we were both 300 lbs!  

The art is cool, I'm not way too fond of mini's but if you have one then it matches the car, very cool.

I do indeed have a Mini. The Mini on my artwork is a drawing of my car that I did in Illustrator. Everyone who sees it thinks it's really cool that there's a picture of my car on my arcade game.

The trackball hack is also cool, where'd you draw the power from for the trackball optics btw?

Directly from the computer's power supply. I ran it through the nine pin connector though, so everything runs through that same plug.

That looks really nice Stingray! I really like that cab a lot!!

Thanks! I'm really happy with how it's turning out. I can never manage to leave well enough alone, though. I'll have it together and working for a couple days and then I'll take it apart again to make an improvement. I try to get it back together during the weekends in case we have visitors.  

-S

[Stingray]

Got my IPAC last night. Here's my swappable IPAC interface:



Same deal as the mouse hack above, except everything is going to a 25 pin connector instead of a nine pin. I'm pretty much set up for swappable panels now. Just need to get on the ball and build some!

-S

[Stingray]

Got everything back together and working. Here's a peek inside my coin door:



And the back of the newly rewired and now removable control panel:



-S

[voodoochile]

That is the WORST cab I've ever seen!!!!

(Can you tell Im Jelous?)

awesome job!!

[Witchboard]

I didn't think anybody other than myself still used zip disks.  Good work on the wiring.  Nice and clean.

[Stingray]

I didn't think anybody other than myself still used zip disks.

My desktop computer has a zip drive built in, and I had an old external zip drive I wasn't using so I stuck it in there. It's proven to be very handy for transporting files to the cab. I use it way more often than I use the CD.

-S

[Ghoward]

Cool cab, looks really good......

I have to say you have some really cool stuff on the rest of your website to!

Gary

[Stingray]

Thanks Gary. I do tend to waste a lot of time, but at least I'm good at documenting it.  

-S

[Stingray]

Finally got my second CP assembled & working. Obviously, no artwork yet, and the buttons came out of the parts bin. They'll be replaced as soon as my Bob Roberts order comes in.

Tornado spinner, 3" Imperial trackball & an Omnistick Prodigy are the controls on this one. Good stuff!

-S

[Felsir]

I like the way you keep 'true' to the cab design (white and black button lay-out etc.) In all a great cab!

Can you show pictures how the CP is attached and detached if you want to swap it? Do you have to unscrew bolts or is it a lock mechanism somewhere? I've been wondering how to make swappable panels without the 'look' that it is a swappable panel (uh... weird sentence, I hope you get what I mean here... )

[Stingray]

Nothing terribly tricky about how they're held on. I use the stock panel clamps that were on the cab when I bought it. The bottom of my panels have welded tabs that the clamps latch onto. You just reach up inside the coin door to unclamp them. I agree that this does make the panels look permanently mounted to the cab.

-S