It's Alive!

With one final thrust of effort on a day off of work, I managed to finish all thepainting & wiring! It's now 100% playable (though currently still needs a bezel & a second spinner.

Progress!

Well now that it's been like 9 months since posting any progress, I figured I should get this up to date a bit. Since I last wrote I managed to get the marquee installed, build, paint & wire the control panel, and install the monitor with a proper angle.









closeup of a classic coin slot.

Finally ordered artwork

I Finally locked down my art order from Mamemarquees. Basically stuck to the pics in most recent thread but used all-white text for the marquee and fixed the text kerning a bit. I'll post some pics when the artwork arrives.

In other news, the SlikStik Tornado spinner seems to rub like hell and is almost unusable. Happ Controls was on the spot with great service, though, and have already offered me a replacement and RMA shipping label. Hopefully the next one doesn't have the same flaw as I've read some similar reports at a post I dropped on arcade controls forums. PCB posted a great fix if the replacement has the same issue.

Also, my cup holders have finally shipped from Happ :) There'll be spots for beers!

Finalized MetaCab Art (Finally!)

So I was still futzing with the CP art and Marquee art and just now feel it's finally ready for ordering from Mame Marquees. I've been over-analyzing since I couldn't make up my mind about control layout until now and also don't want to order anything twice from mame marquees since it's sorta pricey.

I am now locked in on a 19" LCD monitor, 2x spinners (both with silver skirted SlikStik Tornado knobs), 1x 3" Red Happ Trackball, 2x 4/8-way switchable Ultimarc MagStik Plus, 2x 6-buttons, and a variety of pinball/utility buttons.

Here's the latest cabinet mockup with marquee and CP overlay updated.


Here's closeup of the new Marquee look (just changed font to Intellivised & added some red.)


And here's a closeup of the new CP Overlay.


Once I've triple checked my measurements, I'm going to finally place the order from Mame Marquees which should break the deadlock I've been in progress-wise. I'm going to wait until I have CP Overlay to start drilling any holes as this way I can guarantee everything will line up with CP and Plexi.

I've got almost everything else I need (other than plexi, T-Molding, and a few other odds & ends from Radioshack). As can be seen by the typical cluttered workbench photosbelow.

New CP Overlay Design

I've decided to knock the sides off and do a T-Shaped control panel after all. It's a bit big (not more than 5" extension on sides and 6" in front so not too bad) but very versatile so I'm thinking it's the best all-around design I can come up with that doesn't require switching CP's. It seems far more tasteful to me than the stupid rectangle idea I started with.

I'll be putting the P1/P2/pause/quit buttons below the monitor and find a way to trim down that glass so that they can simply slide in the glass track.

I also decided to clean up and simplify the design in a way that I think better ties in with the Taito side art. Here's a quick mockup of this CP in place.



Note that I've also come up with a first draft of marquee art. I may take another look at it when it's not 3:30 AM :P Also note that I think I'll do some Red T-molding for the control panel - I think that will really pop (though White or Black would also work).

I also think I may go all out and design a bezel that ties it all together as well. I think seeing the white lines against a jet black bezel around the monitor will look really sweet.

Concept CP mockup applied to photo

To help me visualize how it will look to have the notched CP design installed I skewed that first CP design to make it look like it's installed in the cabinet.



I'm no longer sold as it looks really clumsy just having a giant plank wedged into the cabinet. I'm thinking an upside-down T-design like Ubercade (with nothing aside the side panels -- having it instead jut out left/right after it extends beyond the kick plate) will look at least slightly more elegant.

Doing this, however, means I now need to find a new spot for my coin buttons, P1/P2 buttons and Exit/Pause utility buttons. I've seen some folks put them under the monitor bezel but this means I'd have to either replace the nice tempered glass that came with the cabinet or find a way to cut it (which I've never done). Alternatively I may put the coin buttons on the front vertical side of the cp box like I did on Metacab Jr. and put P1/P2/Pause/Quit up by the Trackball.... back to the drawing board, at least partially, I guess.

CP Overlay - v3 finally ready for commentary

After much dickering around thinking of overboard 2-spinner/2-trackball cp's, I think I've at last simplified it with 1-spinner/1-trackball. 2x 8/4-way joysticks w/ 6 buttons. Utility buttons in very nonstandard columns to either side of the side wall of the cabinet, thus a rectangle notched for the sidewalls. It seemed this would be a good out-of the-way spot for them so overthrow on trackball/etc doesn't accidentally hit quit or anything.

Below is a pic (the grey rectangles are the 8" notches for walls thus what's between them is standard CP size for a Taito cab. This means there will be some jut into the room but trying to envision two players crammed in the 23" between side panels feels too shoulder-to-shoulder. This gives a little breathing room which should be fine given the 170º viewing angles on the new LCD monitor I've ordered.

Better photos of empty Metacab

As promised, here's some better pics of the empty cabinet. Dunno if you can even tell given the quality of the phone pix, but these reflect the fully cleaned up sides post-marker and magic eraser.




Also, here's a shot of the control panel prototype I roughed in with cardboard.



As you can see, I'm not using the T-shape used by Ubercade (another Taito MAME cab someone made). Instead, I plan to notch the control panel so that it actually has some button space on either side of the sidewalls of the cabinet. This should fit in pretty well and while it looks weird, what mame cab CP doesn't look unauthentic given how many different controls they typically employ.

I feel this design gives the most free space for the controls so that utility/P1/P2 buttons aren't infringing on the trackball/joy/spinner area. I wanted to be sure not to put buttons above the trackballs since overthrow rolling of the hand e.g. when bowling sucks when it accidentally quits your game.

So basically, top row is two trackballs (possibly I'll add another Player 1 Btn 1 for centipede etc next to that but I think the block of 6 below should work for both players without being too non-ergonomic.

Bottom row is spinner, 8/4-way joystick, 6btns and then another block of the same for player two.

Then pause, quit, coin, and P1 left of side wall and coin2 and p2 right of sidewall. Pinball buttons horizontal on sides/front. I'm still toying with option to put coin buttons on the front since this seems most like using actual coin door at least in terms of where you're reaching. I have no plans to actually use the coin door any time soon - just keeping it for looks.

I'm hoping to finish the Adobe Illustrator version of the control panel layout which will be the basis for designing a CP overlay to scale... hopefully this will be my next post & not too long in coming.

Metacab the Elder - the saga begins

Wow - long time no work. Since Metacab Jr. reached playable completion, I've slacked mightily and had another son. Primarily due to the latter, I still haven't finished the bezel issue on Metacab Jr. but that's another story.

In much more exciting news, I've finally started moving forward on Metacab Jr's big brother, Metacab (Sr.).

The plan (which has swum in my head long before reaching the state it's at now) is to make a horizontal multi-cab that can play just about everything from MAME to console emulators

19" CRT TV for monitor (I don't want to have to cut a hole in the back which eliminates the 21" CRT Computer monitors I have from the equation :)

swiss-army control panel (not literally, just in the way it combines everything in a single board). This took a lot of thinking but I've finally settled on a design which has all of the following: 2x Trackball, 2x spinner, 2x 8/4-way switchable joysticks with red ball tops, 2x 6-button player buttons, side/front buttons for pinball (L/R/plunger), utility buttons for coin 1/2, P1/P2, pause, quit.

Front USB for if/when I get some console controller adapters, as well as for StepMania dance pads I've got.

speakers w/ subwoofer (cheapo computer-style should be fine)

I originally was hoping my brother-in-law would build it for me in exchange for my wiring up a cabinet for him but he's gotten too busy with refinishing a sweet 60's muscle car ('69 mustang? I can't remember exactly... ) as well as his busy schedule with work/kids so it just didn't work out timing-wise.

Instead I responded to an ad on Craig's List for empty arcade cabinets for sale locally & stopped by to a nice guy named Marty here in Minneapolis who had several for sale. I was initially torn between a black (i think, converted) Tiger-Heli cab and an old golf game with blue side art and chrome t-molding.

Then I saw it... a classic Taito cab with the manufacturer painted out but otherwise identical to this arkanoid pic:



I'll post better pics later but for now here's some crappy camera phone pics taken with my blackberry pearl: (love the crumbliness I get in low light?)





It was originally a vertical (golf game, I think) but came with monitor glass (featuring taito logo - cool!) and an old 19" vertical plastic bezel which sadly won't fit on Metacab Jr. Coin door in tact on the front though it will need a new lock to keep it closed. Other than some very minor scratches and rubbed off paint it's in great shape! no water damage, etc. I already touched up the black with marker and used a Magic Eraser to get all the scuffs off an it's looking awesome already.

More later as I get time... Control panel design is already nearing the end of concept phase... So hopefully I can post on that soon.