Remaking my first cabinet

[DolansCadillac]

Hi guys, I've been lurking around since 2003 so first of all thanks for the ton of help and direction in the past. I built my first cabinet around then (a Lusid clone), but unfortunately without much experience with woodworking or design I made some bad moves that I didn't realize until after everything was put together. Had to start somewhere I guess. Here's a photo of the original:



Recently the cabinet has been sitting in storage, and I started thinking about revising everything I didn't like about it (CP, lack of devices, artwork, sound setup, paint job etc.). So I've collected a box full of new parts and spent a month coming out with a good layout and artwork, and I'm about ready to send the new CPO and marquee to be printed and to start drilling holes, but I'd appreciate any feedback first in case I've overlooked anything. Here's the overlay I came up with (along with some mock-up controls pasted on for illustration):



One thing that I'm wondering about is the spinner placement on the CP - I'd like it to share the center area underneath the trackball, since I play a lot of spinner games, and I also picked up a steering wheel attachment for it. I haven't had any luck finding something similar on anyone else's CP though - is this a bad idea? I've put about 4 inches between the trackballs edge and the spinner knob and offset it to the left, so I don't think it'll get in the way.

Thanks again and I'll post some WIP shots as soon as I get things moving.

[somunny]

I like the control panel overlay.  Is it going to be some sort of "ground zero" theme?  Very nice looking.

To me, the placement of the spinner seems a bit awkward.  And of course, if you bump the spinner while you're playing a trackball game, it will interfere with your movement.

[DolansCadillac]

Hey thanks for that. Yeah the idea was to make the trackball seem like a meteor, or hovering spaceship or something along those lines. It looks pretty sharp at full resolution with the full city details intact. The marquee is done in a similar way, it looks like this:



Originally I had planned to go with just a spinner, the trackball was a later addition since I knew I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't add one. I really wanted to give the spinner the same amount of prevalence anyway (and to make it useful for racing games), so I was trying to balance that vs. making sure the trackball isn't hindered by it as much as possible.

[somunny]

You're the one who will be playing it so do what you think will be comfortable. 

The marquee looks great, too.   Awesome theme.   

[DolansCadillac]

Thanks man! I'm really looking forward to seeing them printed. I agree with you about not being able to please everybody, I'd just like to minimize any awkwardness like you mentioned. The root of my problems with my last cab attempt is I rushed like crazy, so I'm taking it really slowly this time to avoid any 'fix it later' situations.