My "New Year's" Custom Arcade project for 2010 completed in the 11th Hour...

LeeB99

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My "New Year's" Custom Arcade project for 2010 completed in the 11th Hour...

So, over the last couple of years, I have been making custom games during the winter months to put in to the arcade just in time for our annual "New Year's Eve" party. Last year, it was a custom pedestal setup with a 42" plasma all wired up to play PS3/PS2/PS1, Xbox and Xbox360 games with the arcade controls. It was a HUGE hit, and is a great piece to have in the arcade. I was LITERALLY wiring it up as the first guests were arriving last year.

This year, things were a little different. We have had TONS of ridiculous stuff going on with our house and personal lives, and these things made it VERY difficult for me to get the project done on time. But somehow, through determination and just being on a mission through many setbacks, I managed to finish a totally custom Radiant Sivergun arcade machine and get it in the arcade just before guests started to arrive. The amazing thing is that I didn't even have the artwork until after 2PM that day!

If you are not familiar, Radiant Silvergun is considered by MANY to be the ultimate overhead space shoot-em-up, and is the spiritual predecessor to Ikaruga -another highly regarded game that didn't get much noteriety until a version of it was made available for download play on the Xbox360 through Xbox Live Arcade. The Saturn version of the game, which was the ONLY home release that has been available since 1998 often commands a MINIMUM of $150 and upwards of $300 for complete mint copies. Since the Saturn was never "hacked", the only way that you could play the game at home was with a legit copy of the game and a japanese converter cartridge (if you have a US Saturn system).

Since the Saturn had an arcade board counterpart, the "ST-V", which is mostly known in these parts as the board that "Die Hard Arcade" was released on, Japan and Europe saw the release of the arcade version of the game on an ST-V cartridge. I have had this cartridge and boardset for a number of years, but always wanted a dedicated cabinet for just this game. I have also been a fan of the "Big Blue" Capcom Qsound cabinet, so when I aquired one recently at auction with a dead Marvel Versus Capcom boardset in it, I decided that it was time...

One of the more tricky parts of the conversion, other than the custom artwork, was to wire up the ST-V board to The Qsound stereo amplifier and speakers. The ST-V board has support for stereo sound, but it is not amplified. I had to decifer from foreign guides the pinouts on pin header "CN24" and then wire it into the qsound amplifier. Since the qsound amp runs at full power and only accepts a regulated input signal, I had to make a custom wiring harness to go between the ST-V boardset and the Qsound amplifier which contained a stereo volume potentiometer. At first, I was only getting sound out of the left channel. At first, I thought that I had to put the board into "stereo output" mode, as the ST-V board manual states that you must be sure to turn a switch to the proper position on the boardset. I looked EVERYWHERE, and no such switch exists. Looking very thoroughly through the BIOS settings revealed that no stereo mode option was present there as well. As it turns out, I had done nothing wrong, and the stereo outputs for that specific ST-V board were not working properly. I had recently purchased a spare board, and the problem went away when I swapped out the boardset with my backup.

All in all, it turned out GREAT. I have attached a couple of pics...

Lee
 

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Very cool, but one tiny info correction

Ikaruga is the spiritual successor of Radiant Silvergun, not vice-versa. In fact, in development, Ikaruga was codenamed "RS-2", though the eventual gameplay was a complete 180 from Radiant (no powerups, pure black and white aesthetic).

On a personal note, I'd love to see a custom Ikaruga machine done built into an american cab (not a candy) - and using the Naomi or Dreamcast version.
 
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Guess I got my description backwards. I was in a hurry when I wrote the description, as my family was waiting for me to leave to go to church this morning. Anyhow, attached are a couple of control panel images. I will go grab some pedestal images (last year's project) and post those as well. I collaborated with Sean from MCS to come up with the art style and overall concept. I think it turned out nicely. Glad to know that there is some love out there for this game...

Lee
 

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Sweet! I've never heard of that game before - but it does look really cool. (I watched some Youtube gameplay footage).

Also, great job on the artwork! I like the style of it.
 
Pedestal Pics

Here are a couple of pics of the Pedestal setup that we did last new year's. The first photo is of it with Street Fighter 4 running on the PS3, and the other image is of my son playing Afterburner: Climax with the flight stick and throttle assembly bolted on to the control panel. You can also attach a force feedback steering wheel in the same manner. All you do is remove the front center two screws that are fastening the control panel down (it is hinged in the rear) and using wing nuts on carriage bolts and large washers, you thread them down in to place and the controls are securely held in place. Works fantastic. The PS2 and PS3 units are under the 42" plasma (NO LCD's HERE!) sitting on top of what is basically like a "shelf" that used to join the pedestal to the original separate CRT assembly. The Xbox and the subwoofer for the THX certified speakers, which were put in place of the originals just above the controls, are inside the cabinet behind where the coin door used to be. You can easily reach inside the opening to grab a wireless controller or game, as it works great for storage of small items. With the subwoofer hidden inside the cabinet, you get great sound without having bulky items visible. I think it worked out great overall...

I bought the Capcom "Big Blue" for only $25 at an auction. It was in overall solid and sound condition, but I had to apply the vinyl on it to turn it "black". If you look carefully, you can see that I didn't bother to apply vinyl to the inside of the panels, as very little of this portion of the cabinet is visible. Although you can see it surrounding the monitor just above the control panel in the pics...

Lee
 

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That is awesome! The fact that other folks can complete custom jobs like this gives me hope on building a single player Space Lords cabinet (I've got CPs & a board set, just need to build something to put it in...)
 
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