Mission:Arcade

[stones]

Hi folks, I'm fairly new here, and I thought it's as good a time as any to "project-announce".

If you want a little introductory info about me, my name is Rene (nice to meet you) and I'm a friendly Canadian from Ottawa, where we take hockey as seriously as foreign policy. I enjoy long walks on the beach and my idea of a perfect Sunday is a warm bath. Okay, maybe not. I could easily spend a Sunday playing a video game though, especially of the coin-op variety.

So about the project; the cab has a working title of "Narcade" and it's in fairly early stages. I'm currently keeping a blog about it, which is called MISSION:ARCADE (http://www.northernarmy.com/arcade). I'm building it with my friend Matt, who is the real woodworker, but I try to help out as much as possible by doing handy things like accidentally gluing my hand to my own face. We're both busy guys and so this build is taking a bit longer than I'd like, so I try to keep the blog fresh with some extra, arcade-related content in between build days. Speaking of which, I will warn you that this extra content contains some fairly depraved, juvenile language, so if you're sensitive to that sort of thing and/or dislike laughing, you can skip directly to the build-related stuff here: http://www.northernarmy.com/arcade/?cat=1

A few photos:


Pristine, untouched MDF. We all know this is an exciting moment.


My friend holding the first cut piece.


Just a few parts. I had to return that spinner, it was made seriously incorrectly (spins great when it's upside-down though!).


A LED kit, originally meant for the wheel well of a car, is going to be mounted on the cab.


The monitor (D9400). A bit of a song and dance getting this thing into a car. Hope it works!


More progress. Some cleats are put in.


The pedestal. In order to get down my main hallway, the pedestal needs to be able to disconnect from the cabinet body. It will slide onto pegs and be held into place by safety clamps. The pedestal won't have a coin door, but two 10" woofers. More of an aesthetic choice than a practical one.


Officially 3-dimensional. Another exciting moment.

Last but not least, some concepts of what I'd like the finished product to look like. If anyone prefers a certain one, I'd love to hear which:



Also, if anyone has any comments or questions or helpful tips about anything you may read here or on the blog, please don't hesitate. Thanks for reading, and best of luck on your own builds.

[csa3d]

Nice Mockups!  If you are putting casters on the bottom of this guy, you could put 2 LED bars under the cab for ground effects.  I'd be concerned that putting them on either side of the monitor would become a distraction personally.  Good mockups?  Whats your 3d weapon of choice?

-csa

[stones]

Hi, thanks csa. I was thinking the same thing about the LEDs, about being distracting, at least near the monitor anyway. I was hoping to give them a bit of a real-world test and move them around to see what works. The kit comes with a remote so worst case they can easily be turned off.

No 3D apps used for the mockups, I just modified a slikstik cabinet image using photoshop.

[Zobeid]

So about the project; the cab has a working title of "Narcade" and it's in fairly early stages. I'm currently keeping a blog about it, which is called MISSION:ARCADE (http://www.northernarmy.com/arcade).

The site looks good, but you lost a lot of points with me for dissing Crazy Climber.   

Crazy Climber is a classic.  From what you wrote, I have to wonder if you even knew how to play it.  I mean seriously. . .   "I’ve played about thirty rounds of this game, and still haven’t figured out exactly how to make my dainty elf princess climb effortlessly. The joystick seemingly controls the left half of his body, and the buttons control the right half."

The left joystick controls the guy's left hand, the right stick controls the guy's right hand.  The only "buttons" on a Crazy Climber machine are for P1 and P2 start, they aren't used during the game.

[billpa]

Id go with design 8 minus the neon except possibly as a ground effect if you go with casters (like someone else stated). I like the contrast of the speakers against the yellow. Nice design!

[dgordon86]

I like the linked site, its nice to see a arcade related website with some good clean typography!

easy to follow too.

[stones]

Zobeid: Sorry I can't achieve that high score in your heart, but thanks for reading the blog. Not to be taken too seriously though. I have since played the game with two joysticks as intended, although I have to say I didn't magically get any better at the game or squeeze any more enjoyment out of it. I appreciate your comments though.

billpa & csa3d: The ground-lighting is a cool idea, but only the main cabinet has the recessed bottom to support castors so to put the led kit there would probably be hard to notice. Also, the pedestal detaches so instead of having castors, it will have an adjustable foot, which means having the kit underneath that wouldn't be possible.

dgordon86: Thank you, that's awesome.

[stones]

Finished plans for the control panel. If anyone notices any glaring issues, please let me know.

Feel free to download:
Layered .PSD: http://www.northernarmy.com/arcade/images/control_panel_psd.zip
Flat .PNG: http://www.northernarmy.com/arcade/images/control_panel_png.zip