I have caved in to some of the concerns about my controller...but only mildly. I have modified the joystick handles and plan to get new pictures up by tomorrow.
I also found out that once I took the cabinet off of the rolling platform I was building it on that it was shorter than I liked, so I've built a 4" platform that it now sits upon, which I think turned out nicely.
I can also finally show off the front end I'm using....which is Maximus Arcade. There are a dozen popular front end solutions out there, but I can tell you from experience that this is the only one that could pull off what I had in mind. I tried any number of the others and ran into minor issues that didn't have to be deal breakers, but required that I give up on what my vision was for the front end. Maximus Arcade has a robust front end, an amazing editor for building your own version of the front end (you can also easily set up multiple versions and switch between them). This was certainly THE way to skin my particular cat. I've been running it for a couple weeks and making tweaks (my first audio intro was WAY too long).
I plan to put up some screen shots and a quick video.
It appears I'll be working on a new Mame project for a friend in the near future and I look forward to posting some pics of that as it progresses as well.
Hope you all had a great halloween!
What is this all about?
I like steampunk, Harper Goff (designed the disney Nautilus from 20,000 leagues) and Kenneth Strickfaden (set designer and prop builder for Boris Karloff's Frankenstein. I thought it would be fun to combine all that into a MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator) cabinet to play video games and use as a jukebox. I found all kinds of inspiration at places like Stelter Creative's website, The Steampunk Workshop and many others. The cabinet wouldn't be nearly as fun or interesting were it not for my CarveWright carving machine, which I use almost every day. I used it for the Lithopanes and the marquee sign and much more. One last note, the image of Frankenstein in the lithopane is from a piece of art by Rick Baker (DaVinci of the special effects makeup world IMHO).
I hope you enjoy it.
Oh, yeah...I know those of you who are serious about MAME cabinets will beat me up for using the pre-made x-arcade controller...please forgive my current lack of electronics wizardry in this matter.
I've been contacted by some of you who are interested in plans...if you go to:
http://mirrors.arcadecontrols.com/OscarControls/unnamed/index.shtml
you can find the base plan I used. I modified it in several ways: I used 1/2" plywood instead of 3/4 (the 1/4" trim still gives you a 3/4 edge) and lengthened the base. I also changed the width a bit and modified the shape of the control panel.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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