ambitious reproduction? practical?

DPtwiz

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I've been thinking this over for some time now, I'm really on the fence if this would be desireable or profitable. I want to do a full machine reproduction, and I'm close to making a deal on an Atari 4 player football. I've thought over what parts will need reproduced, what parts will have to be substituted with something modern, like the monitor and emulation instead of original boards, etc.

I know the biggest part will be reproducing the 4" trackball assembly, and I am going to get pricing at 2 different machine shops. Any thoughts? Opinions? I felt 4 player football would have some appeal to non arcade collectors, cool piece for the football fan, or to put in the man cave.
 
sounds pretty awesome.

hopefully you can make it work so you don't have to sell everything you own to get the project going and 'hope' they sell.

good luck, I hope you do it
 
I'm not interested in football in particular, but I like the idea. I'd either repro/shrink the board, or do an fpga version. Other solutions will have to be much more careful about latency. Most solutions that aren't the real hardware or fpga don't cut it for me.

For the monitor, I'd at least keep mounting the same so that folks could provide their own CRT if there is no way to source it yourself. Possibly have a cheaper option without a monitor so they can put their own in. Eventually we'll be able to emulate CRTs with modern displays, but we certainly aren't there yet.

I'd kill for a Warlords cocktail version of this. I've got it in my mind to learn more about fpga dev (I've only dabbled a bit) and start working on an fpga version. Would be pretty slow development though.
 
I've a 4P football cab (as you know) I've re-fabbed all of the panels (except the top) and I've been trying to get put back together for 2+ years to no avail.

If you made this cab... I would get it in a heartbeat... I would want new control panels (as mine are pretty beat up) and the coin door hole cut to the original coinco door size. Everything else I have and would intend to use... (trackballs,wiring,monitor,ps, and pcbs)

I love this game and want it so badly in my game room...
 
4" trackball actually :D i'm looking into that too. I agree that FPGA is going to change the hobby for the good, it's potential is huge.
 
4" trackball actually :D i'm looking into that too. I agree that FPGA is going to change the hobby for the good, it's potential is huge.

I think monitor advances will help a lot too. I may go ahead and prototype a filter meant for 326 dpi displays like the iPhone 4 and see what a part of a 19" screen at that density would look like. I don't think there are larger displays at this density yet, but I haven't really looked yet.
 
Have you considered talking to the newly reformed Atari about being involved or at least signing off on this? Could be a huge marketing opportunity.
 
Your love of the halfling's leaf...

Just a heads up:
They made 2 versions of the 4P football cabinet and they are very different from each other. The control panels are also a different shape for the 2 cabinets and NOT interchangeable.


To take on something like this you would be better served to come up with a multi game pcb similar to Jroks MWMS that would run all the Atari b/w trackball games. This would be Atari 2P Football, 4P Football, Soccer, Baseball, and Basketball. I am pretty sure these could all be played in the 4player cabinet setup with Basketball being played with 2 players on one side/control panel. Of course play calling would have to be worked out on the FB games also.


..
 
If it's just a one off to do it, I say go for the 4pl Football or anything you want. If it was to sell, and you had the rights to do it, I can only think of a few that might sell a few.

This is interesting to me, as I'm planning on a replica Quantum build, although I'd just be scratch building the cabinet. I'm also wanting to build a new cabinet for my 2 player Football, using the ToG sideart on woodgrain formica.

Would you still be using white melamine covered particle board for all of the panels? I just mean as a panel material, not for the white. I'd definitely use a white vinyl on the sides for the 4 player Football cabinet.

For my projects, I'm really leaning towards birch ply. Reason is, less worry about moisture swelling (if it were ever an issue), lighter, and it would take vinyl art really well, after a sealer coat.
 
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