The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Arcade Collecting => Miscellaneous Arcade Talk => Topic started by: KagatoAMV on April 25, 2007, 11:30:11 am
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I've a handful of Marquee plexis from my days working at an arcade. Has anyone created an backlit frame just to display Marquees? I'm looking for ideas on how to display them, short of creating a whole cabinet.
Thanks,
Nic
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simple...
just make a box that is the dimensions of the marquee...make it slim enough to hold a small florescent light...then mount it to a wall or set it on a shelf...!
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A lot of people build lightbox displays just for marquees. Google it.
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If you have a whole collection, you could make a larger box with molding separating all of the marquees. Then just use one or two fluorescent lights to light them all. Then it would be a decorative accent light thingy...or something like that. Anyways, this is what I am planning on to display a bunch of classic marquees in my gameroom.
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I don't think I have enough to make a decent "all in one" type of display, but that does sound like a cool idea. I did a google search and already spotted one I want to duplicate. :)
I have a Defender, Quartet, Space Ace, UN Squardon and Golden Axe Marquees in good shape. The Double Dragon 2 I have was shattered (by a customer) and repaired with clear packaging tape, not quite display worthy.
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You could stagger two on top of three to make a neat box. put a stripped dual fluorescent shop light in there and you are good to go.
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Replace your windows with marquees. Stained arcade glass.
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I don't think I have enough to make a decent "all in one" type of display, but that does sound like a cool idea. I did a google search and already spotted one I want to duplicate. :)
I have a Defender, Quartet, Space Ace, UN Squardon and Golden Axe Marquees in good shape. The Double Dragon 2 I have was shattered (by a customer) and repaired with clear packaging tape, not quite display worthy.
Wasn't space ace an angled marquee?
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Wasn't space ace an angled marquee?
Yes it is. I think if I build a lightbox for it, it will need to sit on a shelf rather than hang on the wall.
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Here's something we've had sitting around the shop for a long time. Sorry for the crappy photo qualit, but had to use my phone for the pics.
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w7/modessitt/BerzerkUnlit.jpg?t=1177622629)
(http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w7/modessitt/BerzerkLit.jpg?t=1177622721)
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What's neat about the boxes is that they're stackable. You could have an entire wall of lit up marquee boxes on one side of a game room and it would look great.
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Or you could go completely nuts, and do this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Bovvdm45U
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That = effin' awsome. :applaud:
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Or you could go completely nuts, and do this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Bovvdm45U
Has anyone figured out how to make this work??
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Almost looks like he hooked them up to one of those Xmas light boxes that do that.....
Now, if he had the marquees of the games in the gameroom doing it also, then I'd agree he's overly anal.....
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You could do it with a chase sequencer used for special fx lighting. OR you could hook it up to a LEDWiz using relays in place of the LEDs and the relays could switch the marquees. If you had the apropriate marquees for the game you were playing on the MAME cab, you could even set it to illuminate the marque.
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Hey all
I'm making a very simple marquee display for my workshop right now. Once I'm done I'll made a PDF of the plans.
Beck
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Hey all
I'm making a very simple marquee display for my workshop right now. Once I'm done I'll made a PDF of the plans.
Beck
And Pictures of the finished product I hope? ;D Sounds cool, look forward to seeing it.
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Thats very cool and would be goal to try to recreate if I only had a few more marquees :)
Trebeck, I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I'm leaning toward the idea of making something that looks as much like the top end of a arcade machine.
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What would you guys use for the light source to illuminate the Marquee? I know cabinets use a florescent light, but is that the best way? Also I'm guessign if you want to do something like that video, can you use florescent lights to flash like that?
Thanks! I'm really itching to make one of these.
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The Berzerk one I showed used two normal light sockets with those long 25W bulbs used in original Pac-Man marquees. There is a thumb-switch on the cord. Lights are mounted horizontally on a centered vertical bar.
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I've been considering attaching some of the ones that are too scratched up for backlighting to the sides of my This End Up crate-style chair and couch that are in the game room. Smaller marquees, like those for Nintendo cabinets, fit right in the indentation in the side of the chair. You can see what the chair looks like in the link below:
http://www.thisendsup.com/catalog.htm/1/45.htm
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here are a few i made a few years ago. i use to hang them on the wall in my game room , i am redoing my room they will be back on the wall soon.
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The Berzerk one I showed used two normal light sockets with those long 25W bulbs used in original Pac-Man marquees. There is a thumb-switch on the cord. Lights are mounted horizontally on a centered vertical bar.
I know the kind of light you're talking about, I need to find one of those. I'd much rather use light bulbs then a florescent fixture.
I'm debating between making a more traditional frame around the Marquee and trying to make it look more like its from a arcade cabinet (top and bottom slightly offset from the sides, the marquee held in place by a marquee retainer, that sort of thing)
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The Berzerk one I showed used two normal light sockets with those long 25W bulbs used in original Pac-Man marquees. There is a thumb-switch on the cord. Lights are mounted horizontally on a centered vertical bar.
I know the kind of light you're talking about, I need to find one of those. I'd much rather use light bulbs then a florescent fixture.
I'm debating between making a more traditional frame around the Marquee and trying to make it look more like its from a arcade cabinet (top and bottom slightly offset from the sides, the marquee held in place by a marquee retainer, that sort of thing)
You will need to give serious consideration to heat when using light bulbs over flourescent tubes.
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Eh don't use real lightbulbs..... they get hot enough and contain enough UV radiation that even with proper ventelation they'll fade your marquees over time. More importantly they are energy inefficient and are killing our poor planet. Lowes/Homedepot have 6 packs of florescent bulbs that fit into regular light sockets for under 10 bucks. Not only are they cooler, they don't have uv light so they won't fade the artwork, they'll save you around 60 bucks a year per bulb and you won't have to replace em for 5 years!
Do I need to break out the Al Gore video?
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Eh don't use real lightbulbs..... they get hot enough and contain enough UV radiation that even with proper ventelation they'll fade your marquees over time. More importantly they are energy inefficient and are killing our poor planet. Lowes/Homedepot have 6 packs of florescent bulbs that fit into regular light sockets for under 10 bucks. Not only are they cooler, they don't have uv light so they won't fade the artwork, they'll save you around 60 bucks a year per bulb and you won't have to replace em for 5 years!
Thats a real good point, my thinking was more against using a florescent tube fixture than really wanting incandescent bulbs. Personally I'm looking forward to the day when the LED bulb is practical.
Do I need to break out the Al Gore video?
Oh no! Not THE Sildeshow! ;D
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Why not use a few LED's With proper placement you'll get good light coverage...they turn on instantly, have no heat and last practically 4-ever.
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Eh don't use real lightbulbs..... they get hot enough and contain enough UV radiation that even with proper ventelation they'll fade your marquees over time. More importantly they are energy inefficient and are killing our poor planet. Lowes/Homedepot have 6 packs of florescent bulbs that fit into regular light sockets for under 10 bucks. Not only are they cooler, they don't have uv light so they won't fade the artwork, they'll save you around 60 bucks a year per bulb and you won't have to replace em for 5 years!
Flourescents have UV, that's how they work. The gas generates UV, the white coating inside converts the UV energy to a lower wavelength and the glass is supposed to block whatever UV doesn't get absorbed. In practice however, not all the UV energy is absorbed by the white coating or blocked by the glass, some of the UV energy escapes. Now, how this affects a person varies. Your average office desk jocky might appreciate the small amount of UV radiation they'll get, someone who has Xeroderma Pigmentosum will probably melt. Preserving something for years to come, well, if you must use flourescents the UV shielding don't tend to be cheap (http://www.pegasusassociates.com/UVtubeguard.jsp) :( But I think window tinting specifically for filtering UV would work equally well. Despite the desire not to use flourescents where I work, government desires to cut energy costs apparently supercede preservation of artifacts. Go figure. ::) Those people who are using flourescents will likely have faded marquees in another twenty years, depending on how the marquee is made.
Standard household incandescent bulbs, on the other hand, produce very little UV, if any at all. (Other incandescent types do produce UV, such as Halogen and Mercury vapor) If UV is the only concern, use incandescent bulbs. But like you pointed out, heat with incandescents is an issue. And heat is a damn good destructor of all things precious. While museums recommend using incadescents over flourescents, even they make a note never to place the bulbs too close to an artifact or to enclose the bulbs in the same case without adequate ventilation.
I suppose there are some solutions. Use UV shielding between the light source and marquee such as window tinting designed specifically to filter UV. The shielding will need replacement every ten or more years. Use low wattage incandescent with proper ventilation, but too close to the marquee would still cause burns. I think LED's are relatively safe, I've read of techniques to produce white LED's by utilizing InGaN to produce some spectrum of UV, but I haven't come across any yet. The light sheets look fun, but I haven't investigated if they produce any UV or not.
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Are you sure you've got that right man? Regular bulbs produce light by heating a filament and thus, like the sun, most of the entire radiation spectrum is produced by them because it's basically bottled fire.
I'm by no means a expert on florescents, but I thought they had been shielded since the early 80's so that they produce less radiation than the average bulb? And by less I mean as little as can possibly be emitted by any modern light source save leds. Now there are UV tubes, but those are blacklights and other speciality lights (such as for greenhouses.) So afaik, you don't need sheilding because unless we are talking about the el-cheapo 1.99 tubes your local super market uses, adequate uv sheilding is built in on "adapted" fixtures like I was talking about.
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Are you sure you've got that right man?
Pretty certain. I'm not a leading expert, I'm just sharing what I've learned over the years. I could be as equally wrong as anybody else.
Regular bulbs produce light by heating a filament and thus, like the sun, most of the entire radiation spectrum is produced by them because it's basically bottled fire.
No, Incadescents are not like the sun. The filament is nowhere near as hot and the chemicals involved help play a role in what light spectrum is produced. You can try some simple experiments. The Wiimote works by sensing IR (I know we're discussing UV, but bear with me). Light two candles and place them where the Wii "sensor bar" is, the cursor still functions. Try the same with two light bulbs. No effect. Point the remote at the sun and the remote will act funky. Point of the experiment is to prove that standard incandescent bulbs do not put out the same spectrum of light as the sun (or fire).
I'm about to contradict myself here, IL produce light that tends to be more yellowish or reddish with minimal or no blue. There are other bulb types such as Halogen, Mercury or those that are doped produce a much different light spectrum (true or bright whites come to mind).
Fluorescent generate UV as their function. It's true that some FL's have less UV radiation than others. But they all produce light the same way, so they all have some measure of UV. Some are admittedly worse than others with HUGE UV spikes at 450nm or lower. To accurately measure UV levels, one'll have to obtain a UV meter.
I'm by no means a expert on fluorescent, but I thought they had been shielded since the early 80's so that they produce less radiation than the average bulb? And by less I mean as little as can possibly be emitted by any modern light source save leds. Now there are UV tubes, but those are blacklights and other speciality lights (such as for greenhouses.) So afaik, you don't need sheilding because unless we are talking about the el-cheapo 1.99 tubes your local super market uses, adequate uv sheilding is built in on "adapted" fixtures like I was talking about.
Yeah, I know about that, however, what's expected and what's put into practical application aren't always the same thing. (BTW, you forgot tanning bed FL's which only have a coating on one side of the tube :P )
To really put a discussion like this at rest and determine what the best light source is regarding UV damage, someone will need to get a decent UV meter from eBay or some place and systematically test the bulbs.
I'd be more than happy to do it, even if it proves me wrong. But my funds are kind of short and I don't know if I can justify the $25 expenditure at the moment. Sucks being a servant :(