Converted MAME Project Done...

[melarky]

We just finished converting an old empty Virtual Fighter cabinet into a MAME cabinet.  We did this for trade, so we're not keeping the cabinet, but I thought it turned out really nice and figured I'd post a few pics of the finished project.

The person we did this for wanted it to be a 4 player control panel, and I usually don't like doing those (they always look so cluttered), but I thought this one turned out pretty good (it helps that the Virtual Fighter cabinet is already so wide to start with, the 4 player panel looks right at home on it).

We also printed up the artwork for the control panel overlay and marquee (thanks to the arcade art library).  He wanted a collage of arcade characters, and again, I usually don't like that look because I think it's odd when you mix the art styles of all the different arcade artists, it just never looks right to me, but we were able to modify the Arcade Fever image (mostly re-arrange characters and add a few more to fill in spaces) and I think it came out well.  I wasn't sure how it was going to match the grey laminate of the virtual fighter cabinet, but I think it looks really nice (and I really like the "burst" in the middle where we put the trackball).

I know that the buttons and joysticks obscure some of the art, but the artwork was decided after the panel was cut, so if we were going to mess around with measuring and placing charcters according to existing holes, it would have cost too much money in time and he would have had to give up other things on the cabinet.  I don't think it's too bad, and definately better than just painted grey (that was the other alternative).

I also don't usually like the chrome t-molding, but I think it suits this cabinet (it looks pretty sharp with the matching chrome t-molding and such).  It was a fun project, and I'm excited for the new owner to come and take a look and pick it up.

We cut the control panel and plastic on our CNC machine, and it was pretty dang fun (some tricky programming for a few parts, like a groove we cut on the bottom of the base to have it lock onto the cabinet, but it's nice and sturdy now).  It's also nice to have things like the flush mount trackball pocket all programmed in (I can move that part of the programming into other projects and will definately only flush mount from now on, it looks so nice).

[Jeff AMN]

That looks great!

You're right, the 4-player panel fits the cabinet perfectly.

[kizer]

I couldn't even imagine how many quarters I've dumped into Virtual Fighter. That game owned my soul for many days on end.

Nice Job on the conversion.

[TexFlood]

Melarky -

Nice job, it looks great.  You've got me curious, I'm planning to build a 4 player CP and I'm trying to get a perspective of "bigness".  What are the dimensions of the CP (length and depth) and the cabinet (width)?

[arcadefever]

you made it for me ?



 


love it 

[melarky]

Melarky -

Nice job, it looks great.  You've got me curious, I'm planning to build a 4 player CP and I'm trying to get a perspective of "bigness".  What are the dimensions of the CP (length and depth) and the cabinet (width)?

The control panel is 40" x 14".  For the angles, we just programmed in the angles of the cabinet and then scalled them up so they matched.

The cabinet was about 30" wide if I remember correctly.  40" wide was about the skinniest we could make the control panel, and I worried that it would look too wide on the cabinet, but it really fit on nicely.

We delivered this to the guy last Saturday and picked up a San Francisco Rush the Rock Alcatraz cabinet as trade.  He had problems with the steering (would never pass the self test and then wasn't very responsive in game), so we took a gamble.  Turned out working out really well for us because after getting it home and examining it, it turned out to be 1 screw was all it need to fix it.

The little coupler that holds the steering wheel shaft and the potentiometer needs two set screws (one on each side clamping down).  It was missing the pot screw, and we just happened to have one on hand with the same threads.  We threw it on, powered the machine on, and it has been perfect since.  It's a ton of fun and it's inspired me to make an xbox driving cabinet (going to probably borrow heavily from the Rush cabinet design).

[am_monkee]

great job on the cab. i, like you, don't like the mixing of the characters normally, but this one looks good. maybe b/c the cp layout doesn't look generically mame if that makes any sense. nice work.

btw, on the markade cab in the pic above, what size monitor is that?

[psychotech]

Looks great!

Really like the graphics around the trackball

[melarky]

great job on the cab. i, like you, don't like the mixing of the characters normally, but this one looks good. maybe b/c the cp layout doesn't look generically mame if that makes any sense. nice work.

btw, on the markade cab in the pic above, what size monitor is that?

That's a 27" in the Markade (that was our first arcade project, it's held up pretty good, but there are many things I would have done differently on it in hindsight).  I've actually been thinking about re-doing the control panel on that machine for a while (especially now that I see what flush mounting the trackball looks like, it is definately the way to go).  Have too many projects though, still have to finish that soda machine (it's painted, but I still need to finish the artwork and wire up a light for it etc...).

[shardian]

Looks great, but I have to ask: What is the blue splotchy thing in the background of the art?

[melarky]

great job on the cab. i, like you, don't like the mixing of the characters normally, but this one looks good. maybe b/c the cp layout doesn't look generically mame if that makes any sense. nice work.

btw, on the markade cab in the pic above, what size monitor is that?

Here is a better picture of the Markade (this is outdated as I've since ditched the dedicated 4 way for a spinner, we goofed when we were making it and had to top mount the 4 way (we cut the hole wrong and ended up patching it below and mounting it on top, so I was never happy with the look of that, and I never ended up really using it, the happ supers seemed to work fine when I played 4 way games, and the spinner has been a very welcome addition, some great spinner games on mame).

[melarky]

Looks great, but I have to ask: What is the blue splotchy thing in the background of the art?

Don't know whatelse to call it other than a blue splotchy thing

It was in the original Arcade Fever collage from localarcade, and I think an artsy person would probably explain that it breaks up the monotony of the blue background adding some interest and varience to catch the eye blah blah blah.  I think it looks ok, and when I sent the image over the owner of the arcade (to get his approval), he didn't complain, so it stayed

[psychotech]

 

Just noticed that you actually have BOMBJACK peering to the left and above the trackball (/mouse) buttons on your control panel!

Looked great already .. With the Bombjack detail, just awesome! 

Psycho.