Main > Main Forum

Howdy! Planning 1st cabinet. . .

<< < (4/5) > >>

Ioargra:
I see you are looking into building an LCD cabinet as well :)

I'd love to go with U360 joysticks on my design like you are doing, but they are kinda expensive for me. They definately look like one of the best choices for a joystick though! I'm sure you will be happy with them in your design.

I think initially I'll go for cheap, and later on I'll either build another or upgrade. Another thing I like is the differant lighted control options from GGG, but again they are kinda expensive for me right now. So I think I'll keep that in mind for the future as well.

I was thinking of using those coin buttons as well! I think they look awesome! I was thinking blue color for my project what color are you thinking about for your project?

Another possability if you want to insert coins is just to get a full coin door with mechanism. I belive they run around $20 or so from ebay.

From what I've read, the Turbotwist spinner seems to be one of the best choices for a spinner:
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=86&products_id=268
I'd also like to get a BYOAC tokentop for my spinner at some point in the future, GGG has those as well.

Anyway, just a few thoughts of mine as I was reading over your plans.

ark_ader:
I would make a cardboard mock up of the area you have.

Make sure the cabinet is comfortable.  I made my control panel at waist height and found that after a while it really hurt my shoulders.

Cocktail cabinets are coming back in style and help out when you have guests coming over.

Whatever you choose, please don't forget to document and let us know how you are coming along with it.   :cheers:

Zobeid:
I thought about lighted buttons and stuff, but it seemed like a distraction or a gimmick.

I have thought about a working coin door. . .  with mixed feelings.  That's obviously the coolest way to go, especially if I had it rigged for .984" (MAME or BYOAC) tokens.  But it adds cost, it adds weight, and I suspect after the novelty wore off it might seem more inconvenient than cool.  So I haven't completely made up my mind yet.

I was thinking the same thing about the TurboTwist spinner, it looks good.  I don't know if you saw this thread yet, I'm sure I'll want one of these. . .   http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=76931.0

I'm still waffling over some big issues.  I've basically laid out plans for two very different cabinets and trying to decide which way to go.

Plan 1 = Near-copy of Lokesen's Project Mame.  I really admire what he's done.  He's taken advantage of the LCD to make a cabinet substantially smaller and lighter weight, but with very little compromise of its functionality, and it looks great too.  I'd want to make a few minor modifications, though.  It could use bigger speakers and a bigger marquee, which means the top part of the cabinet would need a bit of redesign.  I'm also not sure I'd want to use the orange color scheme, but I'm not sure what I'd use in place of it either.  Some of the best looking full-side art that I like wouldn't fit onto the side of this thing, not without a lot of trimming.  (Maybe Asteroids side art could be made to mostly fit?)

Plan 2 = Full-sized Defender-style cabinet.  It would be big and heavy, but I could put the full "Defender Prototype" side art on it, and it would look fantastic.  Big speakers, big marquee, working coin door -- no compromises.  And I do, in fact, have room for it here.  So why not?

Gamester:

--- Quote from: Zobeid on February 22, 2008, 07:08:37 pm ---I thought about lighted buttons and stuff, but it seemed like a distraction or a gimmick.

--- End quote ---

Well, the LED buttons can be MUCH more than a gimmick.  They can be made to automatically light up to match the control configuration of whatever game is selected.  IOW, if one selects a game that only uses 3 buttons, then only those buttons will be illuminated. 

When you're talking about thousands of games with different control configurations, that's a pretty darn handy feature, if you ask me...

Zobeid:

--- Quote from: Gamester on February 22, 2008, 07:50:54 pm ---Well, the LED buttons can be MUCH more than a gimmick.  They can be made to automatically light up to match the control configuration of whatever game is selected.  IOW, if one selects a game that only uses 3 buttons, then only those buttons will be illuminated. 

When you're talking about thousands of games with different control configurations, that's a pretty darn handy feature, if you ask me...

--- End quote ---

Is it really?

I'm thinking when you set a game up and configure it, most of the time you'd typically duplicate the functions across the control panel.

I mean for example.  . .     Let's say you are setting up Astro Blaster, which uses one stick to move the ship and two buttons: laser and warp.  Your CP has two sticks with four buttons each. . .     So you configure both sticks to move the ship, the player can use either one.  On the left you have two laser buttons and two warp buttons, on the right you have the same.  Everything functions, all the player has to do is start jabbing buttons and see what they do.  :)

Lighting up all the buttons wouldn't tell him anything useful.

I suppose it might be useful if you could program all the buttons sharing the same function to appear in the same color.  All the laser buttons light up in red, all the warp buttons in blue?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

Go to full version