Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Looks amazing! Love the write ups, because the pictures make it look quick and easy.

Haha, thanks Ron. Lemme tell ya, it does look easy, and honestly, after doing one of these, it probably would be easier doing another one. But this first go round, yeesh, there are definitely some sticklers to watch out for. Luckily I've been able to correct everything in some fashion. Probably not as good as if I had the perfect tools and such to do it right the first time, but good enough that I'm perfectly happy with the outcome so far.

I've actually solved one problem to fix already, the cabinet edges. I looked online for any sort of laminate or molding I could put on in place of T-Molding and low and behold, on a website called, T-Molding dot com, I found an alternate type of molding called U-Molding.

Instead of the T-barb for fitting in a center grove:


U-Molding just grasps the sides of the cabinet edge and fits snug against everything:


I even found someone else online who used it for their cabinet because of similar issues as me, and I think it will work perfectly.

Jay: your machine looks great! I am very impressed, even before it's completely finished!

Well done!

Allan.

grodog wrote: ↑March 21st, 2020, 1:07 am Jay: your machine looks great! I am very impressed, even before it's completely finished!

Well done!

Allan.

Thanks Allan!

Quick update, no pics.

I haven't posted anything since I haven't had much worth showing; I was trying to figure out what I wanted for a marquee and for the side art. Today, the marquee came in (which I actually designed myself) and while I'd love to show it off, I really want to wait until I get the back light into the cab and mount the marquee, proper. I'm off Friday and assuming Home Depot is open, I should be able to get the mounting strips and lights.

Now that the marquee is in and I'm happy with the print, I plan to move forward with the side art. At first I was going to go with a theme that was game related, like Dragon's Lair or an amalgam of classic game icons, but in the end I decided I wanted to go with some sort of retro-80s vibe and I found a fantastic piece of art that is definitely a throwback for anyone that was around back in the day AND it still maintains an "arcade game" theme.

I'm going to reach back out to the artist this week to pay for a digital copy of the game and have it sent to the printer for printing up. Hopefully, I'll have it in another week or two, at most.

Saw this on K&KA, thought it might be of possible interest, Jay: https://github.com/mcgrew/dwrandomizer

Allan.

That's a pretty cool mod for DW. Honestly, I played very little of the early Dragon Warrior games back in my NES days. I think I tried playing the original but never completed it. At some point I would love to revisit DW 1 and its sequels when I get a retro console setup.

Well folks, here it is, after two and a half months, i can officially consider the cabinet done. The side art finally arrived this week and I got the U-molding on. Initially I wasn't sure if I would put any vinyl on the front, around the coin door or control panel, but now that I have the side art on, I think I will. I'll probably spend some time designing up something myself, similar to the marquee, sticking with the 80's neon look and colors. Now, technically, the cabinet is done, it's up and running, fully playable.

However, earlier this week I found a new image that runs on a Raspberry Pi 4 (currently using a 3b+) and decided after seeing how well it is set up, to order a Pi4 from Amazon and planning to download the new image as soon as I can. Once I get that done and the Pi swapped out, I'll shoot some actual video of the cabinet running various games and then upload, to watch.

So, without further ado, here is my own custom built, full-size, arcade cabinet.

Kick. Ass.

Love it! The Star Fighter panel is awesome!!!