The Retroforce Game Museum-updated 9/9/08!

[welkstar]

I’m not sure where I got the idea to build an arcade cabinet.  Somehow though, I got bitten by the bug, and I eventually found BYOAC.  I spent about 3 months doing research before beginning the actual construction. My design went through MANY revisions before now. Originally, I was going to do a full on, full size Donkey Kong reproduction. Then it was a Galaga style, then a mini cab, a bartop, a cocktail, mini Donkey Kong, and then I finally settled on the Australian Lowboy style. I discovered this cabinet design while browsing the forum.  It fits my design goals, it’s more compact than the American cabinets, and it’s more minimalistic. I’m going to use the Maximus Arcade front end to power everything to make it easy to use as well.  I wanted an arcade that was minimalist, compact, and easy to use.  I think that’s why the lowboy style appeals to me.  It’s sort of exotic also; I’d never seen a cabinet like it before.

I’d like to thank people that inspired me like Artifact, Knievel, Leapinlew, holdennut, and Lord Hiryu.  Without your excellent work and attention to detail, I never would have gotten this far!  Btw-Artifact, I love the idea of a “Game Museum,” I hope you don’t mind that I’ve used it!

Some specs:

-Dell P4 desktop (free from work)
-Windows XP
-22” CRT Monitor (had a free 19” Dell, but I upgraded so the screen would fit the -proportions of the cab better)
-2 players, 6 Happ buttons each in straight “Street Fighter” styled layout
-2 Happ Competition joysticks with Versa Ball-tops
-3 inch Happ Arcade Trackball
-Custom artwork

Anyway, enough of that, onward to the pictures!

Some early concept designs and mockups for the cab and CP that I’ve abandoned.








Now the build pics…
First day of construction:
Cutting the pieces.


Bottom built


Assembled


Second day of construction:

Monitor shelf installed and test fitting monitor.



Control Panel Test Fit


I just had to stick in the controls and see how everything looked.  Nothing is wired yet, and this isn’t exactly the final layout, just playing around.


Third day of construction

Added a piano hinge and latch so I can easily work on the CP.


Attached casters.


Fourth day of construction

Speakers! I drilled the holes and then routed out 1/2” in the back to set the speaker units in. I need to figure out some way to secure them to the wood, I just threw ‘em in there to see how it looked. I may de-case them. Would that make the sound quality bad? I’m no audiophile, they just need to be LOUD.

Not sure if you can see it in these pictures, but I literally lost blood, sweat, and tears over this project.   




Rear door is installed.  For some reason, I really love these locks.





Here she is all wood-puttied up, and posing with the retro-vac! Like I said, the front door isn’t attached yet because I need to get another piano hinge, but I just propped it up with a 2x4 to see how it looked. It will also get a cam-lock like the back door.



Player’s eye-view. The controls sit at the perfect height for standing, even though the unit is rather small. The monitor is at a roughly 30 degree angle.


Control panel close up. I’ve since sanded the trackball area flat and flush with the rest, it wasn’t dry in time for this shot.


I plan to use this long weekend to complete the woodworking by routing the edges and then attaching the front door.  Then I’ll be painting it.  Do I need to treat the exposed edges of the MDF before I prime it?  Someone had told me to use a spray lacquer to seal it before painting.  I plan to use the prime-sand-prime-paint-sand-paint-sand-paint-etc-etc method. 

Next post-the artwork!

 

[welkstar]

The artwork, this is my favorite part!  I don’t know if anyone here is familiar with destructoid.com, but without knowing the mythos and memes of the site, this is going to seem confusing…

I’m an artist, and I knew from the beginning that I wanted to create my own custom artwork for this project. I just couldn’t decide on a name or a theme. Then, one night I went for a run with my iPod. I was listening to my favorite podcast, Destructoid’s Retroforce Go, and it came to me! “Retroforce” always has sounded like an old arcade game to me, and it just fits this project perfectly. You’ve already gotten a glimpse of the artwork in my banner, but here is the full piece. I’ve based it off the original Galaga sideart. Everything was hand drawn in Adobe Illustrator. I’ve even included the RFGO rubik’s cube logo! And of course, Mr. Destructoid.



I'm trying to finalize my design for the CPO and I can't decide which version I like best. The inspiration behind this is the Atari 2600 and it's retro-wood-grain-goodness. Maybe you guys can help me, which CPO is better; real wood grain or illustrated wood grain?  I may not use the wood grain at all, and instead do more of a space theme like my sideart.  I just thought the wood grain looked really great on lokesen's WeeCade 




Before I settled on the final side art design, I was toying with the idea of having these “D-toid Kids” as characters. I guess they would battle the evil Mr. Destructoid, destroyer of rubik’s cubes. They are obviously heavily inspired by Mega Man/Astro Boy. I decided they were unnecessary, and I didn’t end up using them, but I thought you might be interested…







Still need to do the marquee and customize the front end.

If any of you are familiar with Destructoid.com (I'm welkstar there as well btw), I’ve made a couple of wallpapers of my artwork for the site, and you’re welcome to download them if you dig it.

1440x900
1280x960

[KDOG]

Cool artwork. 

[GAtekwriter]

Enjoying following this one... thanks for sharing pics and graphics.

Jim

[Generic Eric]

Cool characters. 

[welkstar]

I got a lot of work done on The Retroforce over the long Labor Day weekend.  But unfortunately, things have come to a temporary halt as I spent all last week moving.  The cab has survived the move with only a minor scratch, but it will eventually be covered by the side art so I’m not worrying about it.  Anyway, on to the pictures!

Used some spray lacquer to seal the exposed sanded MDF.


My “Destructoid-green” t-molding arrived just in time!


Retroforce, meet Retro-Prime!





This is towards the end of a two-day long cycle of paint-sand-paint-sand-paint-sand…rinse and repeat.  It was a lot of work, but it looks fantastic!  All glossy-like






So after everything was all dry, I started to attach the t-molding.  Since I didn’t have a rubber mallet, and since the stores were closed, I had to improvise.  A little Yankee ingenuity later, and you have a rubber mallet replacement!  (aka: a hammer wrapped in a towel)



Sorry for the crappy photo... I cut a notch in the t-molding to go around the corners.


Sexy!


Installing components, beginning to wire it up!




Ground wire is daisy-chained.



In the middle of wiring/packing, what a mess!


Here she is all rigged up and in a playable state at the old apartment, sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, my camera had already been packed away.  I’ll take some photos of it in action in the new house when I get home tonight.




Hopefully I’ll get settled in the new place soon and I can continue work on The Retroforce.  Here’s my remaining checklist.
-finalize/order artwork
-make a screen bezel
-buy plexi glass for the screen/bezel area
-cut plexi glass for the control panel
-rig up marquee light
-tidy up my game lists/install other systems

So close!!!

[ARTIFACT]

Hey! I feel honored that I somehow helped/inspired you with my ARTIFACT Game Museum cab! Yes I think "Game Museum" is appropriate seeing how many games we have on these things, and that people learn/explore about games from the past.

... hence my name! artifact = something archeologists in the future find while digging in some cave... a past civilization (US!) had catalogued the history of video games and compiled them in one box (etc, etc)

take care, have fun!!

[Martijn]

very nice work ! I absolutely love your artwork. You are very good with gfx

Cant wait how the artwork + black cab + green molding will look