Pixel Troll Arcade (COMPLETE!)

[Dafu]

[UPDATE: The machine is now complete! I couldn't be happier with it, take a look at the attached photos]


Hi all,

I'm a brand new byoac member. I've been reading the forums for some weeks now, but only registered recently. I've realized just last month that there is a whole mame cabinet craze going on, and I've been completely sucked in by it to the point of rabid obsession (I couldn't sleep the first night at all). I'm in the planning and parts gathering stage of making my own cabinet, very much inspired by Mountains cabinet with a blue color theme. To that end I've spent a number of days now working on my own unique CP art. Have a look below and please reply with any suggestions/comments.

A little background on how I went about making this, to those who may be interested:
1. Ran a bunch of Mame games and took screenshots of various games, that I then edited to cut out the characters I was interested in
2. Wrote a script for Blender that takes the character files and creates a "3d-pixel" representation of them, that I then arranged so that they look like they're flying out of the middle (trackball)
3. In Gimp I created a bunch of layered effects, most interesting would be the crt-scanlines effect which is just a repeated gradient fill with lens distortion and shading on top.

This took many hours and failed attempts as I'm neither a 2d nor 3d artist. But I'm pleased with the "final" result, and am now even more excited about the next steps!

The actual image is 35x15inches at 300dpi (actual panel will be 34x14, 0.5 inch bleed), below is a scaled down screenshot.

As for the rest of the project, I've got some parts already:
- 27" TV, JVC turns on when unplugged and plugged back in, and remembers svideo input type, works great with a Smart Strip
- 3ghz 1gigram, 80gb HD, ATI 1300 Radeon (I plan to play more than Mame games on this eventually, hence the more than needed videocard)
- Creative Labs speakers+subwoofer
- Smart Strip power bar
- Woodworking tools
- Buttons, tmolding, router bit, and other nic-nacks are on order
- Ordering joysticks/spinner/trackball when Ultimarc is back in business next week.

Sadly winter is in full force outside, so while I can do some of the woodworking already in my garage, I have to wait for the right temperature to do any spray painting. I'm guessing that the CP alone will keep me busy for a while though.

[Ond]

Welcome to the forum Dafu,  nice idea with the CP art, for what it's worth here's my suggestions.  I've been staring at that CP art a good few minutes, the extruded characters are very cool but a little lost in the overall blue.  Perhaps de-saturate the gradient lined background or choose a different shade, I'd accentuate those 'flying' motion lines which radiate out from the centre to each character as well.  Just suggestions to add 'snap' to the idea and strengthen the theme.  Good luck with the build.

 

Ond

[saurian333]

Hi Dafu, welcome!

Mountain's cab is gorgeous; his efforts are definitely among those that inspire us all.  This is a great forum for getting ideas and inspiration.

I like your CPO a lot.  After reading his post, I agree with Ond about the characters getting "lost" in the blue, and he's made good suggestions.  (He's definitely another one to follow if you want to see some amazing work )

Good luck with your build!

[Gamester]

I agree with Ond's comments, and I'd also like to see the characters extruded even a bit more so that the 3D effect is more pronounced.

Good start though...

[Dafu]

Thank you for your advice folks! With your suggestions I've made the following changes:

1. Add more depth to the characters, giving them equivalent of 2 "pixel" thickness, I found that adding anymore starts to look too odd.
2. Added a drop shadow to each character to make them pop out more
3. Run a color filter on the characters, which fixes their washed out colors (which were especially evident on Galaga character)
4. Changed the bottom portion of the border around the art to flatten out instead of come to a point
5. Pushed the trackball up a little, I realized that I wasn't accounting for how much room the trackball will take inside the cp.

Here is the updated file.

[binarydump]

It is certainly an improvement, but perhaps stretch the characters and make them narrower at the bottom to give the impression they're being sucked in (or struggling free) of the trackball.

Also it may look better with fewer but larger characters to assist in exaggerating their pixelyness.

[saurian333]

I agree, it looks better now.  binarydump's suggestions sound cool too; of course that might not be what you're going for, but it's an interesting idea.

I do agree with the fewer characters part.  Perhaps take out some of the smaller, less important/distinct ones and make the remaining ones a bit bigger.  I keep thinking that as cool as it is, it's a bit busy-looking; this suggestion might help that a bit.

[dekar24k]

Just a quick comment; if you want to have a full MAME romset (with CHDs), you will need a bigger hdd than 80gb. I know it sucks when you've set up the system and configured the front-end, only to find out that you have to replace the disk with a bigger one and install everything over again.

Best of luck with your project and welcome to the forum!

[Gamester]

I agree with dekar24k on the hard drive size.  Unless you plan to have a pretty minimalist setup, you'll be surprised how quickly the disk space gets eaten up.  A fairly complete MAME ROM collection with no CHDs can easily consume 20-30GB.  Preview videos for your FE... another 20-30GB.  Then if you throw in any other emulators and their associated ROMs, the disk requirements can skyrocket.

Really just depends on what you're planning to do with it...

[Dafu]

Thanks guys, I will get a new HDD, probably a seagate in 500gb-1tb range. I bought the system used, so the HDD is probably 5+yrs old. I don't trust it. I'd love to do RAID1 as well, but have to stop my spending somewhere:)

[drventure]

Yeah, put a 750gb min in, esp if you ever might move any media (mp3, etc for a juke maybe) over to it. I've suddenly taken a fascination with Dance Dance revolution and Step mania, and, lo and behold, I've got 5+gig worth of Japanese Dance tracks on my cab now 

and +1 on ond's comments. The guy knows his graphics 

[saurian333]

+1 on the bigger HDD.  So far I've collected the ROMset, videos, graphics, and a few others, plus whatever the OS takes up (Linux will be around 1GB or so when I finalize it)...I'm up to almost 80GB already, and that's without CHDs.  Not to mention the other emulators I'll have on the thing.  I'll probably live with a 160GB since I have one lying around, but 750GB is a good suggestion, since you can easily get one for around $50 or so now.

and +1 on ond's comments. The guy knows his graphics 

That he does.  *nod*  That he does.

[Dafu]

Today I picked up the cabinet I'll be working with. Very exciting. I haven't had the time to do more than unload it into my garage and take a few pictures, but from the outside it looks like it's in a great condition. The sides have some varnish over them and will need to be sanded. The back and top are pretty raw and were probably not meant to have a finish on them, not sure what I'll do about those yet. The speaker panel only has cut outs for one speaker in the centre, so that whole panel will have to be replaced with one meant for 2 speakers. One of the first things I'll do is cut out the control panel entirely, I'll be putting in a new cp thats ~5-6" wider than the cabinet. I may need to extrude the coin door panel to support the new cp.

Does anyone have any experience in mixing plywood panels with mdf panels? I want a black finish in the end, painted (either a fine foam roller or spray paint, or both). Will I run into inconstancies trying to paint on sanded plywood (no wood texture, I hope) and mdf? I don't think laminate is an option since it would increase the thickness of the panels beyond 3/4"s and t-molding wouldn't fit well.

[saleem]

i would have thought that mdf and plywood would be ok together.thats a right tasty looking cab there,shame we cant get cabs like that here :cry:wood glue should be fime depending on how strong you want things and perhaps batons with screws?

[drventure]

Are those real stained wood sides on that cab? If so, I gotta say I think I'd refinish them, not paint em black.

If you do go paint, you may want to check out that "spray bondo" that's been mentioned around the forum. It does an excellent job of filling grain. Just check out Ond's Retro Futuristic Arcade build thread.

[saurian333]

Are those real stained wood sides on that cab? If so, I gotta say I think I'd refinish them, not paint em black.

Definitely agree.  I think it would look great with some work.  That's a pretty unique-looking cab, and it would be a shame to hide that.

If you do go paint, you may want to check out that "spray bondo" that's been mentioned around the forum. It does an excellent job of filling grain. Just check out Ond's Retro Futuristic Arcade build thread.

Well, you should check out that thread regardless, actually. 
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88912.0

[Dafu]

I had a few hours this evening to work on this cab.

I started by opening the back panel, and gutting the inside. The inside of the cab was almost perfect, there are few small dark stains on the bottom of the cab in the corners, they should come off easily. I have the cab sitting on a little cart with 4 swivel casters, I built it just for this project:) It's very helpful.

The cab was supposed to be mostly gutted already, so I was surprised to find a number of things inside that I can make use of. I kept:
- Coin door in good condition, with the whole mechanism and coin bucket (with $2.00 of quarters inside!:).
- Marquee light
- Marquee black plastic retainer, and plexi glass in good condition
- Two plywood boards in excellent condition that I used as a base for the TV
- A yellow standard pushbutton in great condition, attached to the coin door mechanism inside the cab, not sure what it was used for?
- Little plastic clips that screw onto the cabinet and let you run a plastic ties through them to hold wires in place
- Power jack

By the end of the night I had the cab nicely cleaned out, and I installed a very solid stand for my 27" TV. It fits in perfectly without having to decase or modify it in anyway, I'm very happy with it. It might be on a slight sideways tilt, maybe I messed up the measurements or the support moved a little as I was screwing it on, its hard to tell, putting a level to it seems to be ok, but maybe the cart is a little warped too:) No big deal, I can always shim it later. I sure put a lot of holes in the sides of the cab to hold the TV support, 16 on each side.

As for refinishing the wood instead of painting. I really don't want to do that, I'm willing to do what it takes to make it painted black and smooth. This spray on putty sounds interesting.

[saurian333]

Nice!  Bonus quarters!

I think the refinishing idea was personal preference on our parts.  If black is what you definitely want, then go for it, for sure.

Are you going to spray?  If you haven't decided and think you might go with a latex wall-style paint, I must suggest a "mini" roller.  They come in 2-6" lengths and are only about 1" or so in diameter, usually foam.  I wish I had bought one before I started; I used it on my last coat and got much better results than with a standard roller.  If you're spraying, then never mind that.

Either way, I didn't have the best luck with wood putty to cover my screw holes, and you obviously have lots of those to worry about.  If you have experience with that and can make a puttied hole perfectly smooth, that's great; I had mine perfectly smooth and flush with the surface, and they still showed through the first two coats of paint, so I must have been doing something wrong.  I think I'd try Bondo next time.  Don't have any experience with the spray-on Bondo stuff that was mentioned, but it does sound like it would be the way to go if you're trying to smooth a wood surface.

Was that pushbutton actually wired to the coin mech?  I wonder if it was a credit button, for testing/maintenance or something.

Anyway, looks like you're off to a great start.  Your monitor shelf looks very sturdy.

[Dafu]

Tonight I didn't work on the cabinet itself, rather I spent 1 or 2 hours cleaning up, and hanging up a plastic sheet to enclose half of my garage where the mdf cutting will happen. I bought the plastic sheet in a roll, not realizing that its thinner and weaker than your average grocery bag, but it should stop some of the dust, if I don't accidentally tear it up first. My garage is still a huge mess, what I wouldn't do for a proper workshop...

I also took photos of the coin mechanism that came with the cabinet. Anyone familiar with this type? There is also a metal bucket, and metal insert for it. Is this the whole thing? How do I test it out? How do I adjust coin weight/size?

[saurian333]

Tonight I didn't work on the cabinet itself, rather I spent 1 or 2 hours cleaning up, and hanging up a plastic sheet to enclose half of my garage where the mdf cutting will happen. I bought the plastic sheet in a roll, not realizing that its thinner and weaker than your average grocery bag, but it should stop some of the dust, if I don't accidentally tear it up first. My garage is still a huge mess, what I wouldn't do for a proper workshop...

Ugh, I bought a plastic sheet "dropcloth" like that before I started painting.  What a scam.  Can't even get it unfolded without tearing it to shreds.  I got a better one at the dollar store.

I also took photos of the coin mechanism that came with the cabinet. Anyone familiar with this type? There is also a metal bucket, and metal insert for it. Is this the whole thing? How do I test it out? How do I adjust coin weight/size?

I have zero first-hand experience with those things, but it looks to me like it could be all there.  They vary quite a bit; some of them, I understand, are designed to only accept quarters (or tokens, I suppose), and can't be adjusted.  But I think most of them are adjustable, from what I've seen.  If you can find a model number or something to Google, you can probably turn up a manual.  Someone else might be able to help more with that.

[CheffoJeffo]

Glad to hear that the TV fit. 

The yellow button was most likely either a TEST or SERVICE button (connected to the corresponding pin on the JAMMA harness).

The mechs appear to be standard Canadian quarter mechs -- they aren't adjustable, but may be modifiable using one of the tutorials (I've never tried).

[saurian333]

The mechs appear to be standard Canadian quarter mechs -- they aren't adjustable, but may be modifiable using one of the tutorials (I've never tried).

Well, just keep a bunch of Canadian quarters handy, then! 

[Dafu]

Today I cut the speaker panel, with slots for holes. I started with 3/8" drill holes, and then connected them with jig saw. Unfortunately the jig saw blade kept bending on me, so while the cuts are more or less ok on the surface, they do bend inside. I'll try to even/smooth them out tomorrow, need to buy a file.

The plastic sheet I hung up last night really helped to contain the nasty MDF dust.

Also, I remembered earlier today that I have a broken external HDD with a fancy on/off button. It lights up with two blue rings when on, and it just so happens I'm going with a blue theme with my cabinet. I took it apart, and I hope to make something of it for the admin panel, but the circuit board for the LEDs looks complicated (for me:), it would probably be easier for me to find some blue LEDs and put a cherry switch on that.

[Dafu]

It's been a while since I updated. After the second day of working on my cabinet I went back to lurking on the forums, while working in my arcade in the spare hours. Last night I've finally assembled most of the controlbox/panel, wiring is not done yet. I want to share some photos with you. It's not perfect work, but it is my first cabinet, and first woodworking project of any significance, so I'm quite proud of the results! Some specs:

2x Ultrastik, with 7 buttons per player
Mag Stik Plus, SpinTrak, 2 buttons
Start buttons, no coin buttons, coin mech will do that job
Utrak trackball
2 Ems TopGun 2 lightguns
Embedded tiny keyboard
2 external usb ports

The control panel is your "standard" Knievel layout (with color scheme inspired by Mountain's work), but the controlbox is a little different. The front panel of the control box swings open to reveal two gun slots in the control box, hiding the EMS guns. The panel that swings open has two grooves on each side that act as handles for opening it, as well as slots to run the EMS gun wires through, so that the panel can be closed back while the guns are out. This front panel also has a small usb keyboard embedded into it, flush with the panel. The keyboard is not the most comfortable thing to use, and it is partial obscured by the control panel, but for quick admin work it's fine, for heavier work there are the external usb ports for a real keyboard and mouse.

[syph007]

Hey, nice job!  I don't think Ive seen a front gun drawer like that before, turned out nice!  I'm not usually a fan of the front keyboard drawer, but you did it well and I like it! 

I better get back to doing mine, I can't let you beat me!  

[Dafu]

I'm back to working on the cabinet itself. I've spent a few nights extruding the coin door panel. I needed to do this because the new control panel sticks out too much, making it awkward to reach the coin slots. Originally I wanted to do nice big curves like Mountain did on his coin panel extrusion, but decided that it will probably be too much work trying to get the curves nice and smooth. Instead I borrowed the biggest round edge router bit I could find, and used that to curve out the edges. I'm pretty happy with the result, but it turns out that the control panel doesn't exactly rest on the extrusion like I intended, its about 1/8" above it, so I'll have to glue on a sheet of 1/8" mdf next.

[javeryh]

Man, that is one nice looking CP.

[Arca-noid]

Nice control panel Guy....

[Dafu]

I started painting the cabinet few nights ago. Here are some photos after 2 coats of tinted primer, and 1 coat of black paint. I'm using alkyd enamel primer and paint. I took these photos when the paint was still fresh, so it looks a lot more glossy than it will be in the end, I picked a satin finish. I'm sanding in between in each coat on all visible surfaces. The inside parts of the cabinet are not sanded, and painted rather carelessly, I mostly just wanted to seal up the mdf on the inside.

I still need to apply 1 to 2 coats of paint, and a coat of clear coat.

[BurningBeard]

Your CP looks awesome 

[Dafu]

I've spent last few hours playing around with the marquee design for this cab, so I had to finally decide on the name, Pixel Troll Arcade it is. Here is the marquee art, I'll go order a print of it tomorrow.

Also a photo of the current state of the cab. I would say it's around 90% complete, I've done little on the software side so far though...

Things left to do:
- Install the marquee
- Install tempered glass for the screen, 31% vlt
- Touch up paint where cabinet got scratched in the move from garage
- Install t-molding
- Software

[Dafu]

I've finished the cabinet last week! I've been tinkering with the software, and I can probably keep tinkering with it for months to come, changing settings, getting more emulators, what not. At this point I feel comfortable calling it complete!

Take a look at first post for updated photos.

[Arca-noid]

Nice job man. Like the color scheme 

[opt2not]

Very clean build. Nice job!  But the sides are lacking artwork!  (sorry, the artist in me couldn't help it)
A big single space invader (like the one in the marquee) on each side could be pretty nice looking. Just a thought.