Gameroom decor: high score board

[pipcade]

So, I had this bright idea to have something in the gameroom that keeps track of high scrores. Sure, some games store them but some don't and I thought it would be cool to have them all in one place and would be a cool piece to have on the wall.

My wife's office was throwing out one of those board with the white letters on it (menu boards) like this:

and I thought that would be perfect but the letters/numbers are EXPENSIVE and I'll have no easy way to get enough zeroes.

So then I was thinking about cutting a board, spraying it with magnetic spray paint (or using a sheet of metal painted black). For letters and numbers I was thinking of printing out white letters on a black background, laminating it and putting them onto magnetic sheets. Then I could put a homemade frame around it. This would be a little work but wouldn't end up costing a ton and I could make it look like I want and be as big as I want.

Then I remembered I have a decent dry erase board and was thinking I could use that with some day-glo/UV-reactive dry erase markers and put a plexi lid in front of it so that only I can change the scores, etc. - that would prevent it from getting too messy. This seems pretty easy to do but seems like it would never look very good.

Whichever I choose, I was thinking of using some LED xmas lights to light it up too by embedding the lights into the frame I make.

So, any other suggestions for a high score board or tweaks to my ideas above? I'm looking for relatively cheap (<$50) for something that looks pretty good.

 

[Dr Galaga]

A lot of times you can find the letters pretty cheap on greed-bay.

 

[WadeLanham]

I was searching on ebay recently and I could have sworn I saw the lettering there produced new and sold very cheaply. They might have been slightly different and they might not have worked with your board, but it'd be worth scouring ebay IMO.

Wade

 

[Angry_Radish]

I've been using the UV reactive dry erase makers that are for some sort of kids crayola thing, they don't rub off easy like the normal makers once dry and I usually either have to use a magic eraser or use glass cleaner to remove it.

 

[WadeLanham]

I've been using the UV reactive dry erase makers that are for some sort of kids crayola thing, they don't rub off easy like the normal makers once dry and I usually either have to use a magic eraser or use glass cleaner to remove it.

I've thought about using something like that too, but can't find a black dry erase board locally. Are you using a black or white one?

Wade

 

[pipcade]

A lot of times you can find the letters pretty cheap on greed-bay.

I looked there and they are still expensive and I still have the problem of not getting enough zeroes. Right now I'm leaning toward the magnetic board.

 

[Angry_Radish]

I use a white board, the black ones are just too expensive. The writing glows great under the blacklights so I really don't mind.

I've thought about using something like that too, but can't find a black dry erase board locally. Are you using a black or white one?

Wade

 

[jscott]

I have a beer sign that lights up the board below used in bars to advertise specials, looks sweet.

 

[Area69]

While much more expensive, I've always thought one of those digital scrolling marqees would be the trick. And I think makezine.com featured a digital marquee project in their previous issue. No sure if it could be made program-able.

 

[driph]

I used chalkboard paint for a high score board. It worked out well, the main concern is prep, or starting out with a smooth enough surface area so that you can actually erase what's written up there.

Gonna look around and see if any of the chalk I'm using is UV reactive, and eventually mount a blacklight underneath the shelf.

 

[Steverd]

I'm using a Neon/Fluorescent Black board to display the HS on the wall.
It comes with markers.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00094ALB0/ref=ox_ya_oh_product


Steve

 

[Oryk Zinyo]

I'm using a Neon/Fluorescent Black board to display the HS on the wall.
It comes with markers.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00094ALB0/ref=ox_ya_oh_product


Steve

I've thought about these but I think I'd like something a bit larger, maybe 4' x 6' and that gets extremely expensive...

 

[Angry_Radish]

I haven't tried it yet, but I was thinking about getting a piece of plexi and painting the back black and mounting that on the wall in a frame.
Think it would work?

 

[pipcade]

I haven't tried it yet, but I was thinking about getting a piece of plexi and painting the back black and mounting that on the wall in a frame.
Think it would work?

Funny - I was thinking of this today. Do that and use some dayglow dry erase markers and maybe even mounted a black light above it if it's not in the direct view of my overhead blacklights. I have some scrap plexi I may try it on.

 

[pipcade]

While much more expensive, I've always thought one of those digital scrolling marqees would be the trick. And I think makezine.com featured a digital marquee project in their previous issue. No sure if it could be made program-able.

We are sorta talking about that over in this thread

 

[benkeezer]

How about Lite Bright?

I saw this on ThinkGeek and available on Amazon. It's a 4 sided Lite Bright. Looks like there is room for lots of high scores.

 

[FrizzleFried]

I was thinking one of those lit neon dry erase boards that have a lit border with a clear plexi between it that lights up the marker nicely... but once I looked around and found that even smallish ones cost in the realm of $140-$160, I nixed the idea. I am thinking about running up a bunch of copies of the little 3" x 3" "high score" cards that arcades would put on games. I could even put the logo of the game at top... list like 10 lines...at the end of the day at power down the highest score gets posted if it beats the last posted highest score, etc...