and so it begins

[BioFreak]

Hey all,
managed some time to do some more work this weekend.

Filled the last of the holes, stripped the cabinet down to just the shell and took to painting the primer coat.

It's not bad the prime coat is alittle lighter than the final grey that I'm thinking it's going to be, but I had it around the house already so I figured I'd use it.

[BioFreak]

Hello again,
I also managed to get a marquee light installed.

You'll see in the picture that I used some white sheet metal that I had laying around the garage as a backing for the light, kinda hope it will help reflect the light around the area.

Anyway the light I picked is a thin 21" no hum light from home depot,
Not really sure if it's going to be bright enough but I figured I'd give it a shot and see what happens, if I don't like it I can always return it and get something else.

Later freaks!

[BioFreak]

OK so I had a second today and I printed out a quick test sheet to see what it would look like,
1. in my maquee
and
2. lighted.

I think it doesn't look that bad.

It's printed on just regular paper and at a low quality setting, again this was just a quick test.

The image is from a sticker I bought at the auto parts store and scanned into photoshop.

Looks like that light may work after all.
Anyway, back to the real world.

Oh I almost forgot, yes that wood colored frame around the marquee is going to be painted, I just cut it yesterday and haven't had a chance to yet.

Later!

[BioFreak]

Hey all,
My dad and I did some preliminary work on painting the final design on the cabinet last night. Here are the pics.
We started by adding alot of acrlyic paint to the cab but realized we weren't getting the look we wanted, so we actually ended up using a paper towel to wipe some of it away and in doing that got much more of a weathered metal feel to it. It's very early and there will be much more done and the lines will be tightened up but as you can tell I like to add WIPs as much as possible just to see what people are thinking and to see if anyone has any ideas.
So here they are, a view of one side panel and a view of the door.
Later FREAKS!

[BioFreak]

Ok it's been a while since I had a chance to post, mostly because I've been locked in my garage with cans of paint trying to get this thing finished. So far I'd say we have about 12 to 15 man hours into the art work, I'd say we still have about another 10 or so for the majority then just a little clean up work after that.
Here is a look at the door and front bottom panel.
Enjoy.

 

[quarterback]

Ok it's been a while since I had a chance to post, mostly because I've been locked in my garage

 





  Looks cool!


edited to fix my typo

[Crazy Cooter]

Hell yeah it does.  I'm excited to see how it looks when finished.

[BioFreak]

Thanks for the words of encouragement!!!

Happily and sadly I start a new job next week so
I'm not sure when it will be final, but I'm itching to get it done.

Here are a few more wips, still needs a lot of work but you can see the direction we are headding.

The deck still needs some work, this is just the first pass of paint.
Still needs shading and for many of the lines to be tightned up.

Enjoy.

[babydickonboard]

lookin better all the time...i really like sides and front.

[BioFreak]

Well it's almost done.

Paint is 95%

The cabinet is in my family room and has been officially broken in with 3 hours of game play last night.

Just waiting on a few other finishing parts.

Initial observation,
1: IT'S HUGE! The 36 inch depth really hits home when you actually put it in your house, hahahahaha.

2: Witht the paint scheme that we ended up going with, it looks like the arcade cabinet  that would have been on the ship from ALIEN, that is if they brought an arcade cabinet with them. Hehe. I love it!


Todays lesson: Buttons not working, check your ground wires.
I connected the wiring for the deck and I thought I totally hosed my i-Pac.
3/4 of the buttons weren't registering. I'm thinking I'm screwed! Come to find out, I'm using the radio shack white euro terminal blocks for my ground wires and I had the wires to far in so the screws were actually contacting with the wire casing and not the metal of the wire. Duh! So basically nothing was being grounded correctly. Luckily I fixed that and everythign works fine again. Horray and whew.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for all the help. I'll post some final pics when I have a chance.

All good things must come to an end!

[BioFreak]

Mostly Final Pics for the few of you that have been asking for them.
But first a few thanks:

Thanks to Gene, Don, and Paul for all the help in the design, build and paint stages of this project.

Thanks to Kristy for letting me play Bob the builder while she took care of our 3 year old daughter.

Much thanks to everyone on this board, without all the information up here this project would not have been possible.

Thanks to Andy at Ultimarc for the great products and support, I'll buy from him again in a second if I ever make another one of these!
http://www.ultimarc.com/

Thanks to the killer list of video games
http://www.klov.com
with out that site I never would have found the bio freaks cab design and never would have had it for inspiration for the final paint sceme.

and thanks to http://jakobud.com/ for the original defender and motral kombat cab specs that my cabinet dimentions were taken from.

All the best to everyone here!
I'll be lurking in the shadows!
 

Here are two more pics.

[c64rulez]

It sure does look like a piece form that spaceship in ALIEN.
Amazing artwork, though not for the faint of heart.

I think it would fit perfectly in my Dungeon   

[BioFreak]

Hey Freaks!
It's been a while since I had an update so I figured I'd add quick one.

Sadly I've not finished off the marque or those last touches to the paint.

But on the up side, the reason for it is because the thing is so playable just the way it is.  I've had many a late night playing this thing and it's tons of fun.

Thinking about adding a couple of bar stools just to extend the play time. :-)
and I will be adding one of the new TopGun LCD light guns this month,
so that'll be a nice touch. WIPS to follow when that gets added.

I have seen one major issue, because the player 1 and 2 buttons are setup so that if you press them both at the same time the  game your playing is exited and your returned to the mame menu, we've been in the middle of several games and just been ejected in the scramble to keep playing. I've got to fix that!

Everything else about this has been a blast.
Later Freaks.

[BioFreak]

So I just placed the order with Lik-Sang for my TopGun LCD light gun.
The clock is ticking!
Ihope to have it by this weekend.

Best part is I only have to pay the shipping cost.

My Birthday is this weekend and I just happened to mention to my mother that
I was thinking of getting this thing for my arcade cab and she was like how much is it?
Go get it! I'll give you the money.

Ahahahaha, 31 years old and my mom is still buying me toy guns. Hahaha.
Hey it saves me $40 and I don't get a lousy sweater for a gift. Yahoo!!!

Anyway, WIP picts to come after I get it installed and functional.

Rock on Freaks!

[BioFreak]

My gun was just delivered.  Wow 3 days from Hong Kong! Nice!!!

but I'm stuck at work and I'm playing hockey tonight.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

[BioFreak]

Hey Freaks!!!
Wow I can't believe it's been almost a year since I started this project.

I thought I was going to be able to post final pictures by this point, but the longer I have my cab the more I realize it will never be "final".
So I'll just post the new picts I have.

For the past several months I've tweaked things here and there and got some more paint done. Wanted to post a few updated pictures with the temporary paper marque,
the  semi completed ctrl panel paint,
and the latest and greatest additions two new bar stools.

I got a great deal on two tall unfinished bar stools and I made sure that they got the special Toxic treatment, complete with biohazard esc seat and blood dripping down the legs, just for that special touch. :-)

Keep up all the great work gang and thanks for the inspiration!