Stargate Bartop

[TOK]

Nice work TOK.

You couldn't resist the tempation of posting until you were finished hu!? 

I wouldn't have been able too either.

Mate, I have just change my screen and now I can see things a whole lot better.
You Bartop looks better then ever now! LOL.

Seriously though, I am glad you thought my design was the one for you.
I did actually base it on the Stargate machine because I am a HUGE Williams fan also.

I love the little personal touches you are showing us all now, which is what separates all of our machines from the others.

Keep it up, the end is nigh. 

Thanks Spacies. I never understood the appeal of anything other than stand up machines until I saw your bartop. Being a Williams freak, I knew I had to have one. 

[Kaytrim]

I think I might tear it off and go to the 35% tint. The 20% is still just a bit too dark.

Now you tell me   I just picked up a roll of 20% at Wal-mart this morning.  I could take it back in exchange for the 35% I guess.   Let me know what how it turns out with side by side pics for comparison. 

TTFN
Kaytrim

[TOK]

OK... Probably won't get to it until early next week. If it gets slow at work, I'll snag it, and take some more pictures.

[Kaytrim]

I went ahead and opened the roll that I had tonight.  Held it up to the monitor with a game or two and liked the way it came out.  I'll stick with it (pun intended). 

[TOK]

Its been a REALLY long time since I updated this project, but I recently finished the marquee area and got art from mamemarquee's. It was the first time I ordered from there, and I was a bit skeptical when I first felt the material it was printed on. Felt very much like just plain old heavy paper to me, and I was afraid it wasn't going to light right. That concern turned out to be unfounded, because it really lights up just like the original did. Really hard to capture it in pictures, but the mamemarquees.com stuff looks fantastic in a dark room.

I brought it out in the garage to work on it, and might leave it out there for a few weeks now that Spring has arrived. Its fun to sit in the garage with a beer and play Defender or Stargate with the garage door open. 
I might make some Stargate stencils and explosion graphics for this in the future, but consider this project done for now. I would have had it done months ago if I didn't make it playable before I ordered the art.

Never, NEVER do that. 

[IG-88]

Wow, I forgot all about this. Great job! 

[spacies]

Man, you still working on this thing? 

 

Looks cool with that marquee.
Great job!

[TOK]

Man, you still working on this thing? 

 

Looks cool with that marquee.
Great job!

Yea. This has been sitting with a crummy looking paper placeholder marqee for months. Told ya I shouldn't have done the original project announcement until it was 100% done. 

[MazzMn]

Sweet!! Thanks for bumping this. It's a really great bartop example!!!
Also thanks for mentioning Strike Force I totally forgot about that game

[ark_ader]

I use the glass from old CRT anti-glare screens.  It has the right thickness and they are dirt cheap at the thrift stores or ebay.  You might need to route a groove for the glass but it makes all the difference.  You can also get the same effect from a custom glassmaker, but they never quite produce the same thing.

I love the build and your progress pictures, but I have some nagging questions. 

Is your marquee light too bright or is it the camera?

Could you have replaced the joy with an ultrastik 360 instead?

How about those 25c credit buttons for the bottom on the cab from GGG?

You mentioned a p3 500.  Would a p2 300 suffice?

Sorry for the questions, but I'm going to attempt a similar build and I would like your feedback.   

[TOK]

Thanks for the comments and questions!

The anti-glare screen is actually a really cool idea. Don't think I could have found one the size of this bezel, but thinking of the ones I've seen in the past, the look of them is just about perfect.

The marquee lights up just like a real one, but the camera doesn't capture it well. I'm sure there is something I could do to get that right, but I'm playing games. 

The starting point for my stick decision was that it have a red balltop. I'm sure the Ultrastick would be fine, though I have to say I really like the Sanwa. It has a great, light crisp feel to it.

I might build a base for this when I move it out to a room I'm redoing. If I do that, I'll get a real coin door for it. There is really no place on it currently that they'd look right. I set Defender and Stargate for freeplay, I do have a recessed credit button on the side of the cab for stuff that doesn't have freeplay toggles.

I'm sure you could find a build of MAME that would fly for classics on a P2-300. I'd start with .37. Your P2 is better than the main computer I had when I discovered MAME and it ran the .3x versions great.

[Neilyboy]

this is awesome!! thanks so much for the pics and keeping us updated!! Awesome work man!!

Neil

[ark_ader]

Thanks for the comments and questions!

The anti-glare screen is actually a really cool idea. Don't think I could have found one the size of this bezel, but thinking of the ones I've seen in the past, the look of them is just about perfect.

The marquee lights up just like a real one, but the camera doesn't capture it well. I'm sure there is something I could do to get that right, but I'm playing games. 

The starting point for my stick decision was that it have a red balltop. I'm sure the Ultrastick would be fine, though I have to say I really like the Sanwa. It has a great, light crisp feel to it.

I might build a base for this when I move it out to a room I'm redoing. If I do that, I'll get a real coin door for it. There is really no place on it currently that they'd look right. I set Defender and Stargate for freeplay, I do have a recessed credit button on the side of the cab for stuff that doesn't have freeplay toggles.

I'm sure you could find a build of MAME that would fly for classics on a P2-300. I'd start with .37. Your P2 is better than the main computer I had when I discovered MAME and it ran the .3x versions great.

Thanks for the reply and the suggestions.

I think you out did yourself on that build, especially the led buttons.

this is awesome!! thanks so much for the pics and keeping us updated!! Awesome work man!!

Neil

You said it better than I could Neil.   

[amadama]

Super job on this cab! Truly awesome. You put in some great tips that will help me out in future builds too.
Thanks!
Alex

[ace3093]

Great work!

I hope to make something this cool in the future. 

[TOK]

Bump/update on an old project: Since starting the gameroom, my bartop no longer had a bar (actually, it was never that cool, it just sat on a computer desk). It was getting a little bit of play out in the garage on the workbench, but I wanted to move it in with the other stuff.

My gameroom is like 12x25', not big enough for a bar with the amount of games I want in there, so I decided to try and make it look like a cabaret. Still have to wire some coin door lights, but I think it fits in nice.




Here it is at the end of its row to put the size in perspective. Its the smallest game in the room, but Stargate is always ready to deliver its big time ass whooping to arcade newbies. 


PS: Still need to do the trim and touch ups in the game room. All the little flaws disappear with the lights off, so it never gets done! 

[leapinlew]

Looks great. You consider doing any sideart?

With as much as you like stargate\defender - you'll have a full size machine in no time.

[LeedsFan]

This project is awesome!  I'm not really any good at Defender/Stargate but it's a game that demands a proper CP with the buttons correctly laid out. I'm currently working on my own Defender bartop and I used the exact CPO layout you were orginally gonna use. I really need to take some pics and get a project thread going.....

By the way. As regards original joystick I ordered one of these from Arcadeshop.de. It's not arrived yet so I cannot comment myself. But it's the only repro 2-way Defender stick I've seen for sale anywhere. I know you can get rebuild kits but they are no use if you dont have an original stick to restore.

http://www.arcadeshop.de/Joysticks-2-Way-Williams-Reprostick_1034.html

[TOK]

Lew: I had a tentative deal made for scaled down stencils, but the creator vanished. I have always intended to pick up a real Defender machine, but I'm kind of a victim of success with the bartop... It plays good enough that an actual Defender keeps getting bumped back for pins or other dedicated machines.

Leeds: There was a repro 2 way available when I did my cab. It was like $50 bucks, which was pricey but not a dealbreaker. Ultimately, I wanted to be able to play some other games on the machine. I have played dedicated machines in the time since I've built this and the Sanwa 8 way doesn't hurt the Defenders playability when mounted at the correct height.

Sorry if I'm repeating or contradicting myself -I haven't read back through my original build thread in well over a year!