Day 228

Today I got up the courage to do the bezel. I'd already had the plastic sheeting and I just needed the spray paint to finish the job. My biggest fear was that I'd screw this up completely and have to buy another sheet (around $20). I spoke to the guy in the paint department at Home Depot and he suggested a brand of spray paint that has a nozzle that isn't supposed to drip, run or spatter, and provides a nice wide spray.

So I cut the plastic to size and after a few trial and error tests of trying to put the bezel in place, I had to take the Dremel tool to take off some of the edge. Better to cut too little than too much, as my old Wood shop teacher used to say.

After finally getting it to fit in place, I took a china marker and marked the left and right sides and placed tick marks where the monitor shone through.  Took the sheet back out, masked off the area where the monitor should be and spray painted the rest of the inside.

After it dried, I took the mask off and put the sheet in place. Not too shabby, says I.

Now I have just enough plastic left over to do the marquee along the top. I still haven't established who will print the marquee art I've made up, so I'll do that today.

I also want to find some plastic stickers for the arcade control layouts. I'm hoping I'll find static cling stickers so I won't mess up the bezel.

Day 225

Well, today I finally got my laser games to work. My problem was that there were two instances where I would have to press the escape key in order to progress into and out of the games. I fixed one of them by upgrading one of the modules within Hyperspin, called Hyperlaunch. Hyperlaunch is a sub-program which allows certain emulators and PC games to work within Hyperspin.

Once I had that in place, I got rid of one of the little windows that would pop up whenever I tried to run either Dragon's Lair or Space Ace.

The other issue was I couldn't get the key settings to stick in the Daphne emulator itself. So I went into the configuration file and made the changes manually.

I also (with the help of other users on the Hyperspin forum) fixed the onscreen theme that shows the available games. One of the graphic objects sat in front of the game wheel so you can't see which game you're selecting.

I got the plastic sheet from Home Depot for the front of the cabinet and I need to lay out where the monitor is located so I can paint one side and get it placed. I also need to print out and place the controller layout for the buttons depending on which emulator or jukebox program you're using. I want to get this sucker finished before Christmas so Amanda can help finish decorating the side art.

Day 211

Last Saturday, my X-Arcade Solo Console finally came in the mail. It seems that the post office didn't like the label the seller put on the package and they sent it back. So he had to resend it, this time in 2-3 Day Priority (like that means anything, the Post Office just sends it when they feel like it).

Anyway, setting it took no time at all. Windows XP recognized it immediately. The only thing is that it doesn't show up like a game controller. The movements of the stick and the buttons represent keyboard keystrokes. Not that it's a bad thing, it just took me by surprise.

 

So far, most of the games are working just fine. Just got some fine-tuning to do and include a small program that will control the main volume via the stick and buttons. I'll have to get a trackball to sit alongside for some of the games, such as Centipede and Missile Command. 

I got some new cable staples to replace the ones that came with the rope lights. The ones that are there now have a bit of a gap between the rope light and the surface of the cabinet edges. I'll get that done when I have a chance.  I also need to resubmit my marquee to this banner company in Colorado. I didn't hear anything at all from them and I'm starting to think my submission got lost for whatever reason.

Day 201

Well, I spent the last few days filling in the blanks in Hyperspin and making the game menu wheels look nicer. I added Vectrex to the mix, but I'm still having difficulty getting the emulator to work within Hyperspin.

Anyway, last Sunday I was in Fuddruckers with my wife and they had wi-fi, so I thought I'd check my email. As soon as I connected to their internet, my Ipod Touch pinged me that an auction I'd been watching on Ebay was close to ending. Now this auction was for an X-Arcade Solo game panel.

X-Arcade's products are tough and they can withstand a lot of abuse. They're solid and well-made, which is why they command such a high price. When I saw this one on Ebay, there was one bid and it was going for $50 with free shipping. I figured I'd keep an eye on this and put it on my watch list.

Anyway, when my Ipod pinged me, I clicked on the view button and it opened up Ebay. It was going for $52 and there were two bids and there were two minutes left on the auction. So I put in my bid of $65 and it came up with me as the highest bidder.

So I waited, knowing full well that someone was going to snipe me and bid at the last second. But then the timer ran out and popped up with "You are the winner". So I paid the auction and now I sit....waiting...for the bloody Post Office to update their "Track and Confirm" web page. Hasn't been an update since this whole thing began. I realize that last Monday was a banker's holiday, but jeez. On one hand, the seller used Economy shipping, but on the other hand, he's only one state away.  I hate waiting.

Meanwhile, I've been working on my marquee art. Not having used the graphics program Gimp in awhile, I had to re-learn a few things.  But it doesn't look too bad...

Day 187

One thing I'd realized, is that with the power strip in the back the rocker switch that controls the main power is unreachable. This meant that while I could shut down the mini tower, the speakers, the monitor and the marquee light were still lit. I looked at the extension cords that were used for Christmas lights that had the foot switch, but those were two-prong outlets and all the equipment were three pronged.  So I found an extension cord at Fry's with a rocker switch near the outlets and I mounted it in one of the gun hardware holes in the front panel. It looks nasty now, but that will change when I pretty up the cabinet.

Now to the audio switch. Opening up the switch box, I found that there really wasn't a way to attach it to the left-hand side with the way it was configured.

So I thought, maybe the upper speaker grill would be large enough to reach through.

Came to find out that the rocker switch that controlled the speaker and headphone audio was the same size as the grill slots. So I opened up the marquee and attached the audio switch enough so it wouldn't slide around. Now I can reach up with my finger into the grill and press the switch.




Here's a small demonstration of the cabinet startup:

Day 176

Today I finally got the second side background done. I think I'll make a mental note to *NOT* ever mess around with contact paper again. I'd also started working on the Space Invader sprites and put a few of them up to get me started.

I also got my audio switch in the mail the other day. Now I can mount this somewhere and I can switch from the cabinet speakers to headphones. The problem is, where. I don't want to drill any new holes and I want the switch to be reachable without any bending or stretching. The only logical place would be one of the two holes in the front panel where the gun hardware used to be mounted. I'm also looking into the possibility of putting in a USB hub in the other panel hole so I can plug a flash drive in (or perhaps a 2nd-player joystick). But considering the PC is located where the coin box used to be, that may be a moot point. Oh well, I'll blow up that bridge when I come to it.

I'm still working on the marquee art and I'm not quite happy with the font I used, so I went to 1001freefonts.com to get something a little more appropriate. The next step is to get the acrylic sheeting from Home Depot and get that prepped and mounted so the cabinet doesn't look so ghetto.

The hard part is getting the arcade controls. My wife isn't too thrilled with the idea of spending a lot of bucks on that, so I'm going to keep my eyes out for a pre-made panel with a USB connector for a price that won't make her give me stink-eye about buying it.

One other thing I need is power control. I have a power strip which provides power to everything inside the cabinet, but it's difficult to reach. I need to see if there's a power strip with a separate rocker switch that I can mount in the recessed part of the top of the cabinet where the old switch now resides. Kind of like those extension cords for Christmas trees with the foot button. I know I could wire the current rocker switch up to the power strip but I don't know how and finding tutorials on that are proving difficult.

Day 159

Found a good Jukebox program called DWJukebox. Since I'm running low on hard drive space, I copied our music from the server onto a DVD and left it in the drive. The program has an unattended radio feature and I haven't explored that yet, but I do like the interface.

Yesterday was a test in patience as I started to work on the side art. I got two rolls of black contact paper and I worked on the side that would normally faced the wall, in case I really borked it up. But it was quite forgiving and didn't look too bad once I finished it. I'll post pictures once I've gotten both sides done. I decided to do the artwork based on this idea I found at the arcadecontrols website (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=102621.0).

I also decided on a name for the cabinet. Whilest Googling for information on what other people did for side art, I kept seeing that same phrase: "I want my quarters back". So I decided to call it, Quartersback Arcade. At least it'll do until I come up with something a little more catchy.