A Break in Time

To all those who've been wondering where this project got to, I managed to have a rather nasty accident a while ago and shattered my right wrist, which is rather limiting for both my typing and arcade machine making. It's going to be a while before I recover still, but as soon as I'm up and running again I'll let you all know.

How Artistic

Done a few things over the past few days but nothing really worth taking a photo of. I bought some glass, one large piece of smoked glass to go in front of the TV, and two pieces of glass for the marquee. The glass looks very tasty, I'm glad I went with it instead of plexiglass, it will really improve the overall look.

I've also been working on getting the artwork nicely designed before I start printing it all out. It's been a pretty difficult job for me really, I'm not particularly artistic. No scratch that, I have no artistic talent at all. However after a lot of photoshop work these are my current designs. Any comments are welcome!

We have vision!

Things are moving along in leaps and bounds now. Shouldn't be much longer before this project is completed, and I'll be spending all day reliving arcade classics!

I've now finished painting the cabinet, I ended up putting on 5 coats of black on the outside, so you can imagine that the layer of paint is actually quite thick. Actually, I still need to put on a layer of clear varnish, but that will come after I've put the artwork on. The glossy black paint looks real nice, but the varnish should make it perfect.

I also installed the layer of covering on the control panel, and it looks (and feels) pretty sweet. I put all the buttons and joysticks in, but I've yet to wire them up.




Now, onto the major news for the day. I found the perfect TV at a second hand store. It has a nice big screen, has S-Video input, and it fits in the cabinet with only half a centimetre to spare. How good is that?? And just to add to the goodness, I got it for only $120 instead of $140 (Aussie dollars), cause they couldnt find the speakers to go with it. And since I'm providing my own sound, I wasn't fussed at all.




Last thing I've done lately is get a hold of some speaker grills, and install them. Not much involved with that, apart from cutting out some speaker holes, drilling some screw holes, and screwing them in.


I still need to organise the glass for the front, design and print off the artwork, and get the computer up and running. Not long to go now!

Coat, coat, recoat

The second layer of black went on today. I say it every time, but wow, what a difference a recoat of paint makes. It's still a little bit streaky, but so much better than before. I'm going to do at least one more coat, probably two. By that stage it should be absolutely shining. Here's some piccys:




The computer speakers that I ordered a few days ago also have arrived. I got the Creative SBS370 2.1 speakers. The reason I went with computer speakers is that they are magnetically shielded, so they wont cause the TV to do funny things. They actually sound really nice as well, very crisp and clear. Can't wait to hear some old school arcade tunes running through these :)

Black is the New White

Started on the black painting today. As you can see in the pics it looks very streaky and pretty crap at the moment. Another coat or two should fix that right up though. It looks as though I didn't stir the paint enough, although that's not the case. I also bought some clear varnish which I will put on once I've done another one or two coats of black.




I also found a local source for some perspex, so I just need to make up a template for the pieces I want cut, and then that will be all sorted. I'm actually thinking of using glass rather than perspex though, as it appears its cheaper or at least similarly priced, and should look nicer.

Don't Forget Your Undercoat

I've spent quite a few hours over the last couple days doing some painting. So far I've put on two coats of primer/undercoat, and tomorrow I'm going to start on the proper black paint. It actually looks pretty nice with the white paint, but I'm sure it'll look even better black. I haven't decided what type of finish I want yet, matt or gloss. I'll probably go with the gloss but you never know. Here's a pic, I'd take more but hey its just white paint.


Oh and in case you're wondering why I didn't paint the control panel, that's because I bought some black overlay stuff from the guys at OzStick, which is meant to protect against rubbing from hands near the controls. Which is going to be important as there will be a lot of usage.

Odd Jobs

Today I just did a few little odd jobs which I'd been meaning to get around to, and since the shops aren't open due to the Easter holiday, that was about all I was going to get done. First of all, I attached the remaining two pushbuttons that I bought a while ago. There is one on each side of the machine, for pinball games.


Next, I replaced those ugly hinges on the coin door, with some leftover piano hinge. I have to say I'm much happier with the look now, and I just need to fill in the screw holes with some wood putty and no one will be any the wiser.


Last of all, I changed the shelf for the fluro light thanks to a suggestion from my Dad. I rotated the shelf 90 degrees, and then actually screwed the fluro light into this shelf. This now looks a lot neater. And yes I know no one is actually going to see this, but it makes me feel better inside.


I'm not sure if I can really do much else now until the shops reopen. I was going to wire up the buttons today, but I decided it would actually be best to do this after all the painting has been done. So stay tuned, this project is only going to look cooler from here on in!