WOODY - vertical cabinet 99% (its never really finished is it?) 8/12/8

[nullb0y]

So, A couple years ago i had a nice woodgrain setup running ddr pads 2 player w/ trackball
And it had awesome neon underlighting on the control pannel
Unfortunately i kept running into alot of problems with this setup and went for a podium 4 player set and a vertical cab

This is my attempt to finish my vertical cab

The bezel needs to be trimmed a bit
The cp needs buttons (i cant decide what all i want on it)
And the marquee needs to be wood burned OR painted on

p.s. if you dont find a vertical cab named woody even slightly amusing... im sorry

p.s.s. I posted a pic of what it used to look like.... god it was ugly lol

More history:

This woodgrain was at one point a taito
It has a serial for U.S open inside it.... lame
then it was converted to a gals panic
then converted into a colsole mame which stoped working when the tv inside died
where i purchased it in trade for a dynamo cab
I built my little ddr machine out of it realising it was a bad idea... i decided to make it a vert
I blew the monitor when i rotated it and had to rebuild all of the brackets for the new screen
mounted the new screen and the pentium 3 computer (got rid of the p4 for a different project)
And then this part of the project started

[nullb0y]

Okay i have now trimmed the bezel better (bottom edge of screen was covered)
I also smoothed it out and blacked the edges off so it blends in better
the speakers were removed from the top of the cab (looked bad)
And the monitor bezel is held in place with some l brackets
(there is a lip on the bezel keeping it from moving forward the monitor and monitor mounts keep it from moving back and the l brackets keep it up)

[Hunk_4TH]

Very cool , nice job! What are you going to do to it next?

[nullb0y]

Well, I want to get a black edge peice for the CP (where its all messed up)
Mask off the ugly sony speaker install i did (looked okay when the cab was all neon'd)
then install some buttons (havent figured my layout yet)

I just got atomic FE to load So, im going to mess with that some more
 

[TOK]

Is that squished look is the result of the ATI software? Abandon it and let MAME do the flipping.
This is using MaLa and MAME flip with a Radeon 9550.

[nullb0y]

I fixxed the bug i was having with ati flipping
i was also using gameex when it was squashed
ive abandoned gameex

also, i noticed the above cab has 3 buttons
Is this ideal for a vert cab?

im going to attack the screwholes with a brown marker lol

[TOK]

Most vert shooters only use 2, but there are a couple that use 3. I could definitely get by with only two buttons if I had to.

[nullb0y]

i was going to use 4 but if i only need 3 then thats the way i will go,
I had it setup as a 6 button fighter before
So im thinking just a very basic
2 joys 3 buttons each start buttons and shift button (if shift works on minipac)
And my coinmech

[nullb0y]

something else i need is a plastic or rubber corner peice to cover the cps outer edge
the material is kind of rough right there and a bandaid is what it needs lol


Im not sure if i want the trackball but it would be nice to play centipede and such
I need to decide how im laying this out today....
Im probably going to go for a clean layout with very few buttons
worst case i can make a new CPO and mount the trackball on it
(i have more laminated flooring lol)

[nullb0y]

i think i found a way to lay out the CP without making a mess of things
Any ideas on how to router out the Trackball hole so i can flush mount it?
I was thinking of putting the metal plate i used before underneath the Cp and routering around it

[nullb0y]

  :dizzy:Decided to unclutter this game,
Im going to just have:
2 start buttons
2 joysticks
6 total player buttons

I figure i can swap out control pannels and get a 2nd ipac for that later

I will use shift functions to exit games and such i belive player 1 start controls the shift function
usually your not holding that and other buttons lol

[TOK]

Since Centipede/Millipede were about the only vert trackball games I could think of, and Tempest was the only vert spinner game (excluding weird control deals like Tron and Front Line) I also just chose to keep it simple.

You'll probably have 90%+ of the vert games playable with just that setup. 

[nullb0y]

That is exactly my thinking
I figure it would be easy enough to get a second ipac and wire up a spinner/tron/trackball pannel that i could swap out need be...
This is intended to be a simple vert shooter cabinet

Im going to go drill some holes for my joysticks and buttons now lol

this is my final design

[nullb0y]

Okay guys, I finished drilling and installing the CP
Now onto the interface
I decided i will keep my minipac for another project so this will most likely be usb or xbox controlers with joy2key setup

[Hunk_4TH]

Okay guys, I finished drilling and installing the CP
Now onto the interface
I decided i will keep my minipac for another project so this will most likely be usb or xbox controlers with joy2key setup

Very nice nullb0y!! The CP turned out really nice

[nullb0y]

thanks ^_^ now i just need to wait for a new minipac and usb cable lol
(my other minipac has the trackball and spinner stuff and will be used for that i also lost the cable some how?)

Right now im working on covering the rest of the front with flooring material to make it all the same

[Hunk_4TH]

thanks ^_^ now i just need to wait for a new minipac and usb cable lol
(my other minipac has the trackball and spinner stuff and will be used for that i also lost the cable some how?)

Right now im working on covering the rest of the front with flooring material to make it all the same

No problem Btw a little off topic but I like the sig Army Of Darkness was great!

[nullb0y]

Lol yeah, i like my sig and av

Today has been a very sucessful day
I thought i broke the monitor cause a ribbon cable ripped out
NOPE i soldered a new one up now i have the monitorboards properly mounted to the side of the cab
And guess what!
for the first time sence i got this thing the back door fits on it!!!!
I AM SO HAPPY ^_^

i also found the ps2 connector for my mini-pac lol
But the new ones on the way so ill just be patient and work on the cosmetics more

[nullb0y]

PROGRESSING NICELY
I finished cutting and gluing the front panels...
Now i must wait.....for the glue to dry lol

so, im probably going to have to smooth out the pannel infront of the cp, its definatly water expanded
So is the base, i hope extra contact glue keeps my kick plate on
the front im not worried about, the amount of glue / clamping/ the coin door clamps
it should set and be 100%  of course theres some expanded wood there too....
damn....

[nullb0y]

So, my front portions are finished
take a look at the pics

Now i need something to cover the cut edge of the CP

[nullb0y]

so, what do you guys think of it?

this is the issue with the edge...
you see raw wood

[nullb0y]

Today, i got the coinmech to accept tokens
and replaced the little 25¢ labels with token labels

[nullb0y]

Allright, Got my new minipac
Wired it up
Everything is working great ^_^


Well, theres allways more to do

I need to mess with the games list
Figure out how to get the FE to stop exiting when i exit a game
Change the music on the FE
And get the audio to stop skipping

I will post pictures later

[nullb0y]

I worked out the crashing issues

So, now onto the other things

Atomic FE quits out of game and FE some times when using player 1 and 2 start to exit a game
Gotta get that fixed

Sound still skips in some games
I will probably live with that

I need a different set of speakers w/ a volume control
Ive got unsheilded speakers which were probably the issue before with my monitor looking funny and disformed

Also, change the music for atomic FE to some 80's classics

Oh yeah and find my camera

[nullb0y]

Well i got a pentium 4 2.4ghz with about 800 megs of ram (512+ 2x128) for $10
So, i will probably just use that thing in the cab and replace the p3 1ghz

[nullb0y]

Status report
YEsterday i installed the new p4 2.4ghz with 700ish megs of ram
The arcade runs pretty much anything i throw at it without lagg or crashing

I also installed a keyboard shelf underneath the control pannel

[nullb0y]

small status report,
Collected a tron stick
need a blue left half for the handle but otherwise im up to 2/3 parts for the 2nd cp
I just need a spinner now
everyone keeps falling through on the deals i make....

[DaOld Man]

Greta job!! Good job of documenting progress too!