*** Control Panel Review Arcades R Fun / My UA II Project***

[bent98]

My arcade cabinet is finally finished! Probably the most time consuming and hardest part of building a Mame cabinet is the control panel. I build my first arcade cab over 4 years ago and I decided this time I wanted the control panel to be done by a professional who has the proper tools. 

I needed a control panel that would fit the UA II design and I also wanted it to have custom artwork. After doing a lot of research Jack over at Arcades R Fun offered the most options than anyone at a fair price.

I had taken this directly from one of Jacks ebay ads, Listed below is the standard features and in bold are the additional upgrades I also selected:


•   Fully wired and ready to play  2 player control panel using Ultimarc.com's I-pac2 interface board.
Control panel is 35" wide and 18" deep,

•   2 Happ Competition 8 way joysticks for player 1/2 with a separate red ball top Ultimarc J-Stick for classic 4 way games like Ms. Pacman. Each player can have 6-7 play buttons. The 4 way red ball top is allowed up to 4 buttons.

•   Dedicated Exit button, 2 Pause Buttons per players 1/2, Player 1/2 both have Credit and Start buttons as well.

•   A total of 9 pinball buttons, 4 on each side and a front shooter/plunger button. Visual Pinball/Pinmame require at least 8 button for complete gameplay.

•   Flush mounted blue or red translucent trackball with invisible mount.

•   LED Illuminated trackball light

•   Your choice of polycarbonate overlay from Mamemarquees.com

•   No charge for custom panel top control locations.


Optional Upgrades;

•   Groovygamegear.com TurboTwist2 Spinner for games like Tempest, breakout etc.

•   Matching Plexi Tops to protect your investment.

•   Groovy Game Gear Electric Ice2 trackball allowing up to 7 different colrs with special lighting kit or 1,000's of colors if used in conjunction with Groovy Game Gear's LED-Wiz lighting controller board.
•   
•   Groovy Game Gear Nova-Gem Transluscent LED illuminated buttons coupled with their LED-Wiz controller board you can change light intensity and create light shows.


I also must say that it was a very enjoyable experience to work with Jack not only because he is such a nice guy but because he is great at what he does. Everything about my panel was custom and we spent a lot of time going back and forth tweaking button layouts, positioning, and design.

Here are some hi-res pictures of what the final product looks like. I have also enclosed two videos the first one is my cab running  LuminAudio Engine™ and the other running Mala FE with LedBlinky 3.6beta.  Hats off to Arzoo for working out a couple of bugs in LED BLINKY so quickly to make those wonderful buttons light with perfection.















HERE ARE THE VIDEOS:






In closing if you in the market for a control panel or a whole cabinet for that matter I whole heartedly recommend Jack over at http://www.arcadesrfun.com/ to help design and build whatever you need.

[scrapple]

I have massive chubb looking at this..

droooool....

I am  currently looking to get the 4 player version of this  from arcadesrfun myself....

Congrats on your purchase..

[quarterback]

Nice looking CP.   So, I gotta ask, what was the bottom line cost for all that arcade goodness from Jack?

[RoninEditor]

Hey man, I really dig your graphics, especially that bezel!  You design it yourself?  I'm currently doing something very similar but yours is a lot better than my layout right now... mine's too 'messy', I love how slick yours looks without being too crazy.  Congrats!!

[padstack]

Nice! I am using the same cab pattern (been at a standstill for about a year sicne my kid was born), only with green stain so you can see the woodrain and about 4-5 coats of poly.  SMOOTH AS GLASS!  oh well, I don't want to take away from your cab.  Looks SWEET!

[Donkey_Kong]

That's one of the coolest homeade arcades yet with the artwork everywhere on the cab like that.

 

[pmc]

Very slick. I like the trackball poking through the image of a DK Barrel. I also like the Bald Bull poster.

-pmc

[torcer]

I like it.  I notice that it uses alot of the same character art that I grabbed from the Arcade Art Library, but manages to look cleaner then my growing mess of a design.  I'm a bit torn on the Marquee art along the bottom.

[RoninEditor]

Yeah, I'm realizing less is more, like the side art on this is nice... gives you that feel of when we were kids in the 80's, the logos and character art that we recognize without being too crazy.  Like, with mine that I started (still suuuuuper raw) I think I've gotten a bit overboard and might scale it back a lot...

<a href="http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004704923843543753"><img border="0" src="http://aycu31.webshots.com/image/47470/2004704923843543753_rs.jpg" alt="Free Image Hosting at allyoucanupload.com"/></a>

What do you guys think... too busy?  Any good so far?

I was waving on doing something in the range of this or just doing some super basic, almost like just making a Ms. Pacman/Galaga cab.

[RoninEditor]

shoot, sorry, here...

[pmc]

Yeah, I'm realizing less is more, like the side art on this is nice...

[...]

What do you guys think... too busy?

Wow... that's some really dense (i.e., "tightly packed") artwork. Personally, I think it's a little much. I like Bent98's side-art better (and I really like the bezel).

-pmc

[bent98]

Thank You I am glad you like it.

When I get the time I will try to post a project thread for whole cabinet.

[RoninEditor]

Yeah, PNC, I think people might have an aneurysm when they see it, LOL.  I'm definitely gonna scale it back, might just replicate a cab (which gets no kudos I realize, haha)... but this (mine) looks like a spaghetti mess right now.

I still really dig the one in this thread though.

[Ummon]

What do you guys think... too busy?  Any good so far?

I know you were asking about your own artwork attempts, but putting it all in perspective I'll say that I think bent's is a good balance - if you like the multi-character art extravaganza thing.

[scrapple]

bent98, sent you a pm

[DeLuSioNal29]

The Overlay looks just like SlikStik's design (the button labels and such). Did Scott at Mamemarquees.com make it for you or did you do it on your own?

~ DeLuSioNaL

[DeLuSioNal29]

I agree with this positive review.

Jack from ArcadesRFun.com cut my control panel out as well.  I can vouch for the fact that he communicates very well from the original concept to the end product.  We designed the layout from the ground up (my quad panel has 2 joys for players 1 & 2 for co-op games like Smash TV) and he was very helpful with suggestions.

I ordered the last DIY kit (empty) panel that he will make though, as he only produces "plug and play" models with everything in it now.  On my panel he flush mounted the trackball plate and applied the overlay from mamemarquees.com along with the plexi and T-molding.  He did a great job and I would not hesitate to use him again.

I have included pictures of my panel that he cut out for me below.  I also included a picture of the panel with the controls in it that I installed myself.

Fine work he does....  Recommended to all!

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Stub]

  A total of 9 pinball buttons, 4 on each side and a front shooter/plunger button. Visual Pinball/Pinmame require at least 8 button for complete gameplay.


That is news to me. Can anyone name a game that uses 8 flipper buttons?

[DeLuSioNal29]

I use the additional ones for "bumping" the pinball machine.

[Ummon]

As far as I know, VP only has six inputs: two flippers, three bumps (right, left, center), and plunger (hold pulls back, release lets go - although I guess these would be separate if connecting an actual plunger?). At most, I see six buttons needed.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I am using future pinball, which has up to 11 assignable keys.  Sorry I should have mentioned that.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Stub]

So is there a Future pinball table that uses more than 2 flippers on each side plus 3 bumps? I just surfed through the larger tables i have loaded and cant find an example?

[DeLuSioNal29]

So is there a Future pinball table that uses more than 2 flippers on each side plus 3 bumps? I just surfed through the larger tables i have loaded and cant find an example?

I don't think there's an official table out at the moment, but Future Pinball is a construction kit that allows you to make your own virtual pinball tables to utilize all buttons.  For example.  You can use the first two left and right buttons as flippers, the next ones up would be the second set of flippers (usually smaller ones near the top of tables), the third row would be left and right nudge.  The fourth row would be center nudge button and options button.

The possibilities are endless.  Also, I use my 2 buttons on the side for other special keys in MAME such as shift, F10 (toggle to fast forward games for faster game initialization) among other things.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Ummon]

I am using future pinball, which has up to 11 assignable keys.  Sorry I should have mentioned that.

~ DeLuSioNaL

I've only recently checked out FP. The table download protocol is a bit clunky. Plus, most of the tables with pics (and a lot of them don't have pics) are old-style and I want tables similar to around '85 and up. Are they all original tables?

[DeLuSioNal29]

Yes, I believe all are originals, but people do an amazing job of re-creating classic tables.  However there are also some great newer riginal tables out there.  One in particular is called:  "Dead Hunters" and is great!

http://www.pinballhispano.net/blindmankind/

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Kajoq]

Oh man bent, You have got to let me know where you got that Little Mac punching Bald Bull picture.  That is AWESOME.

Cab is looking pretty good too!

[bent98]

I made it out of perler beads

[HeavyK]

I'm sure you've answered this before, I know the side art came from mamemarquees.com.  Where did the control plane overlay come from?  I've seen it before is is soley arcadesrfun's?  Also the bezel and marquee?  I thought it used to be on mamemarquees.com website, but I can't find it any more?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Heavyk