Author Topic: New Project: Defender Bartop from a Defender Addict (Read 7099 times)

Inman · « **on:** October 15, 2006, 10:23:50 am »

My wife tolerated the first full sized Defender I built because she
thought it looked good in our rec room / basement. Then I built a
mini Defender for the kids in the family. Now I'm working on a Defender
bartop. Here it is if you wanna take a look:

The rest of my Defenders can be viewed at my gallery:

www.valleyofparadise.com/pics

Questions:

1) What do you think? I like the no marquee look. Functional for lit
buttons too, etc. How can I improve on this concept?

2) Will my wife tolerate a Defender tabletop for my next project?

3) I'm using Gamelauncher locked down by the Deep Freeze software.
www.faronics.com Anyone ever use Deep Freeze with their cabs?

Interested in comments. Feel free to shoot holes in my ideas.
Thanks for listening.

cw · « **Reply #1 on:** October 15, 2006, 04:24:42 pm »

looks really nice... Great job on the artwork how did you do it?

spystyle · « **Reply #2 on:** October 15, 2006, 05:41:01 pm »

That is super great!

Keep up the good work :)
Craig

Inman · « **Reply #3 on:** October 15, 2006, 07:21:28 pm »

I used stencils for the artwork. It's fully assembled using dowells. Haven't glued it together yet, but I will when I finish touching up the paint here and there. Plan to put lighted buttons on the angled piece of wood, which is where a marquee would typically be located. More pictures soon....

slider2732 · « **Reply #4 on:** October 16, 2006, 08:23:24 am »

I'm still waiting for your server, so i can load the page up...eeek

Totally interested in this, while i own Defender cabs 525065 and 511205.

*waits*

Couple of minutes waiting now and i'm on Cable.
Will check again later, but thought i'd give ya the heads up on possible connection troubles.

Inman · « **Reply #5 on:** October 16, 2006, 11:01:32 am »

Hmmmm..... I"m having the same problem. There must be a problem with my provider. Will post pics elsewhere if it's not resolved soon.

Inman · « **Reply #6 on:** October 16, 2006, 11:05:23 am »

ISP had a hardware failutre. Try checking again a little later. They said the site should be back up any time.

slider2732 · « **Reply #7 on:** October 16, 2006, 01:06:32 pm »

K, cool..will do

As for ideas -
Depends on how your CP is to fit in, but the top area would lend itself to coining up ? Could have lit coin-mech 25c pushers on the top there and ya just have to press one to coin up the game.
If you put a Williams logo in place of a marquee it might look good......between the coin-mech buttons and where you might well see a Williams logo on a real machine.

Perhaps do the area silver, as in the most desirable of the Defender coin-mechs and to look for all the world like the coin-mech from a real cab.
If that doesn't work and look good, well, coin-mech's on my two are both standard black lol

slider2732 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 16, 2006, 01:15:02 pm »

FYI - your site has just come back up

Yes, i was hitting refresh lol

Inman · « **Reply #9 on:** October 16, 2006, 02:58:48 pm »

Neat ideas about using that marquee area to coin up... hmmm.... Going to work some more on it today & will post more pictures later.

Stobe · « **Reply #10 on:** October 17, 2006, 09:54:06 am »

Quote from: Inman on October 16, 2006, 02:58:48 pm

Neat ideas about using that marquee area to coin up... hmmm.... Going to work some more on it today & will post more pictures later.

Then you wouldn't have to take your hands off the controls to coin up. Just head-butt the buttons!

-Stobe

theCoder · « **Reply #11 on:** October 17, 2006, 10:42:10 am »

Great job on the artwork.

What size/type of monitor are you planning on using?

If you are not going to have a marquee, you could cut 4 inches off the height. Why did you make it so tall?

I used dowel pins on my last project. No screws anywhere, but it is strong as a tank.

Looks nice.

Inman · « **Reply #12 on:** October 17, 2006, 11:05:35 am »

Thanks for the feedback, fellas.

The marquee area is officially set to be a "coin up" area, and I like the idea of painting it a metallic silver. Putting a Williams' logo in the middle is something I am considering as well. As for the dimensions - it's 24 inches tall, 18 inches wide, and about 21 inches deep. I have a gigantic bar in my basement, and it should look just fine in the corner. Too busy to work on it last night. Hope to get more done later in the week. More ideas / any ideas welcome.

Inman · « **Reply #13 on:** October 17, 2006, 11:07:38 am »

Oh, yeah - for the monitor... I have a spare 15" Sony Trinitron with a very nice picture that would fit fine. I also have a 13" TV that I may use. ....will need to do some more testing to determine which will look the best.

spacies · « **Reply #14 on:** October 19, 2006, 09:55:14 pm »

Looks great.

Did you cut the stencils yourself?
I want to build a Defender Upright but I think I will get the stencils cut professionally.
Did you use them once and chuck them away?

Hopefully your wife lets you have a cocktail.
My Multi Willaims cocktail is now my work desk

as I don't have room to put it anywhere else.

My Multi Williams bartop

My Multi Williams cocktail

So you can see I am missing an upright machine to go with the others.
Maybe after the Galaga, Pacman and Ms Pacman I will build a Defender.

All the best with your projects.

Inman · « **Reply #15 on:** October 20, 2006, 03:29:42 pm »

Those are cool. I really like the Williams multi control panel - looks like you took advantage of the small cp space. As for the stencils - yes, I had them professionally cut at stencilsonline. The full sized Defender is very nice to have, and it was my first project.

I'll be posting more pics of my Defender bartop next week. I have done some more painting & it's about to get the finishing touches.

spacies · « **Reply #16 on:** October 20, 2006, 05:06:01 pm »

Thanks.

I will get mine cot by a pro as well.
I think I will build a full size Defender. Its one of those games that every instantly recognizes.

Here is the link to the bartop build: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55284.msg542770#msg542770

Look forward to more pics as you go.

IG-88 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 22, 2006, 07:30:22 pm »

Quote from: Inman on October 15, 2006, 10:23:50 am

My wife tolerated the first full sized Defender I built because she
thought it looked good in our rec room / basement. Then I built a
mini Defender for the kids in the family. Now I'm working on a Defender
bartop. Here it is if you wanna take a look:

The rest of my Defenders can be viewed at my gallery:

www.valleyofparadise.com/pics

Questions:

1) What do you think? I like the no marquee look. Functional for lit
buttons too, etc. How can I improve on this concept?

2) Will my wife tolerate a Defender tabletop for my next project?

3) I'm using Gamelauncher locked down by the Deep Freeze software.
www.faronics.com Anyone ever use Deep Freeze with their cabs?

Interested in comments. Feel free to shoot holes in my ideas.
Thanks for listening.

Just curious, why are you using the lockdown software anyway?

Inman · « **Reply #18 on:** October 24, 2006, 03:07:33 pm »

Lockdown software? You must mean Deep Freeze. The key reason for using Deep Freeze is for software load stability....

From the Faronics web site:

"Deep Freeze instantly protects and preserves original computer configurations, eliminating routine IT maintenance while allowing complete unrestricted access to a workstation. Regardless of the changes made to a workstation, simply restart to reset the computer to its original state. The result is a protected, parallel network, free of viruses and unwanted programs. Deep Freeze is available for both Mac and Windows platforms"

With this software, you simply need to power off and then on again to put the machine back into it's original state. This is especially useful if you are making a cabinet to give away to a friend or relative. Save for a hardware failure, the answer to the problem is always simply to power off & on again / reboot.

As for highscores.dat files, etc. - you can set up a "thaw space" for those files, which is essentially a writable partition. I was just wondering if anyone else is doing something similar. Deep Freeze is about $25 per seat unless you make a large bulk purchase.

Too busy lately to work much on my bartop. Hope to make some more progress this week.

Jason

IG-88 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 24, 2006, 03:32:31 pm »

Hey, thats a great idea! That would eliminate alot of trips over too the family's place to fix a 5 minute problem.

So that "Thaw Space" lets the highscore.dat file update and then saves it before each reboot 'eh? Too cool.

Inman · « **Reply #20 on:** October 24, 2006, 05:04:37 pm »

Yeah, that's it - and it's worth the $25. With the cost of gas these days, it could be made up by elimating a lengthy road trip. I believe the trial version is at this link:

http://www.faronics.com/html/choose.asp

There are some other programs like this out there (like Symantec's Goback, etc.) - but Deep Freeze seems to work the best. And yes, the thawspace is nice too. There are times when a writable area of the drive is nice to have.

Headed home now - ready to get to some more arcade buildin'. Hope to wrap this one up soon.

Jason

Santoro · « **Reply #21 on:** October 30, 2006, 08:10:40 pm »

I like the paint, can't wait to see it done!

Inman · « **Reply #22 on:** November 07, 2006, 03:18:45 pm »

I'm working on it. Sorry for the delay. I'll get some more pictures up this weekend.

Inman · « **Reply #23 on:** November 18, 2006, 10:37:35 am »

Well, I'm back to working on the bartop. I loved the idea of painting the
front angled wood silvery metallic to imitate a coin door & then painting a Williams Logo on it, but I wasn't able to get that done. I settled for black. There will be lighted pushbuttons on that piece though for coin ups... Here's a couple of shots of the bartop on my bar, of course!:

The red t-molding turned out nice. Next, I plan to work on the control panel, monitor, and bezel. I will likely place an old laptop inside for the emulation gutz. More progress pictures later.

Inman

spystyle · « **Reply #24 on:** January 05, 2011, 08:14:26 pm »

Resurrecting a good old thread

I am soon to build a mini Defender as well


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