Original cabinet, original game...

mikejmoffitt

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So, my roommate and I spent two weeks at school (the first 2!) working on this little project for our floor.

We have an old Joust machine on floor that I am working on restoring, but we wanted to make a custom cabinet running a game I'm writing for others to enjoy without harming this Joust. We liked the cabinet shape though:

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So, we measured it and traced it on some nice cabinet plywood (it was worth the extra for the cabinet grade):
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Then we got cutting.
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The first side looked good! We traced it for the other side:
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Here's my pudgy freshman ass doing some cutting of side 2:
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A few other simple cuts, and we had the basic shape down. A $10 fluorescent fixture and a nice old 21" Sun CRT monitor were bolted in place:
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Installed some simple stereo speakers into the top panel:
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Some nice aluminum to hold the marquee plexiglass in:
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The monitor wasn't very stable, but now it is:
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With the top installed, it begins to really resemble a real Williams cabinet:
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Onto the control panel! I laid out the buttons and stick placement by hand, then measured them and duplicated it for player 2. Some routing to get the joystick mount close enough to the surface so the sticks aren't too short:
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My roommate's woodworking skills are put to the test with the control panel, mimicking the original hinged design with the curves and everything.
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Take that sucker outside! In retrospect, I wish we'd used vinyl.
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Got our Sanwa parts in there real good.
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No arcade cabinet is right without ample T-moulding! For that, we dug out the slot-cutter:
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My roommate prepping it for painting:
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Me painting some:
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Looks pretty good! We ran out of black for the back door, but it looks rad anyway.
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Julian looks hyped out watching paint dry
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Now I'm drilling in the super sweet piano hinge for the panel:
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Awwwww yeeeeah so rad, that's an I-Pac board by the way for inputs. Uses PS/2 so we can bypass the 8-key rollover cap of a standard USB keyboard emulator.
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The world's worst temporary marquee is in place, pictured running is Fantasy Zone II DX:
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The cabinet isn't destined to be a multi-game emulation setup, though - I'm currently in the middle of writing a fighting game for this cabinet / hardware, but it's a slow process to make such a game... Here are some videos of some tech demos I've made, but the game isn't releasable yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7zPsckwmtw

And, the game in a less complete state running in the cabinet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzjXqgNmMJE
 
Nice work! The only thing we had in our common room was the smell of barf and unbathed freshmen.

hah
 
Looks great! Nice job. I can't believe he pulled off that control panel, everytime I see one I always marvel at the cool-ass bend on the front of them.

Pretty sweet, how many hours total do you think getting the cab done?
 
Very cool. I have a project in the works to do a homebrew cab myself... do you have plans to release the game as well?
 
Makes me wish we had some games in the dorm room back when I was at tech school. Unfortunately, that was a few years before I discovered that arcade games were something that normal (relative term, I know) people could own.
 
Yes, both members of Computer Science House.
Haha thought so, can't miss the 'beautiful' brick campus. Graduated in '09 (film and animation).

Cool to know there is a Joust floating around there and that you guys are using your intelligence to work on arcade stuff. Love to see this. I'm about 15 mins away in Irondequoit with a very modest collection (6 upright, 1 pin & a shuffle bowler).

I probably won't be much help but if you ever need an extra pair of hands, shoot me a PM. And if you want the challenge of a non-working Pole Position I have one in my garage that you'd be more than welcome to mess around with.
 
Haha thought so, can't miss the 'beautiful' brick campus. Graduated in '09 (film and animation).

Cool to know there is a Joust floating around there and that you guys are using your intelligence to work on arcade stuff. Love to see this. I'm about 15 mins away in Irondequoit with a very modest collection (6 upright, 1 pin & a shuffle bowler).

I probably won't be much help but if you ever need an extra pair of hands, shoot me a PM. And if you want the challenge of a non-working Pole Position I have one in my garage that you'd be more than welcome to mess around with.

Funny you mention that - we're going to be working with an old Alumn of CSH on getting an arcade up and running. He's converted the second floor of his barn to an arcade and has filled it with about 30 upright machines that will all need some work. I'll let you know if you want in on some of that.

We'd be happy to mess with Pole Position; Once I drive up tomorrow I'll see when it might be possible but we have friends with pickup trucks so it's totally not out of the question.
 
That turned out really well! Love all the work you put into it. I have been thinking about making a cab myself, so appreciated seeing how you did it and how it turned out. :)
Your right on the CP, instead of paint the Vinyl would have looked better, but that's a easy fix at any time.
Thanks for Sharing.
Ken
 
That's awesome that you made your own game and put it into a cabinet. I've done the same thing. Arcades are sort of making a comeback so maybe this will become more common. It's a great way to get more exposure for you game, especially if you can get it into an actual arcade.
 
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