My Arcade Machine

Control Panel

2007-07-11T14:51:00.000Z

First I printed the panel on sheets of paper.

Then I trimmed and glued them together, placed on top of the painted board and marked where to drill the holes.

After taping a cut piece of plastic in place, I drilled the holes.

Then I attached the plastic using mirror fixing screws and attached the push buttons.

Starting to look like an arcade machine now

2007-05-16T08:26:00.000Z

Just a few spots to repaint and then get started on the large panel on the other side.
Shame it's such a poor photograph.

We live and learn

2007-05-09T10:48:00.000Z

It was a mistake to leave the white outlines as primer. It's taking ages to carefully repaint them. If I'd put a white topcoat on the panel (like I did with the small panel after my experience with the other one) before adding the black, red and blue I would have finished the panel by now and had a better appearance. Well, that's what I'll do on the other side.

The last thing will be the fine black lines around the missile fins. Then I can get started on the small panel and think about making a fake coin door on the front panel.

Neighbours

2007-04-28T08:28:00.000Z

Since the weather has been warmer I've been working with the garage door open and people walking by in the street have been slowing down and peering inside but nobody has spoken to me. I wonder what they think. I can't help thinking about the Tom Waits song What's he building in there?

Red added

2007-04-25T14:00:00.000Z

That's the red section added. I'll probably need another coat of red and black. The next task will be painting the white outlines in top coat as they are only undercoat at the moment. I also need to figure out what to do with those missiles - leave them white or paint them gray? Should the white outline be gray too? Hmmm...

Progress

2007-04-24T10:52:00.000Z

It feels like I'm getting somewhere now. I did a lot of painting yesterday and I'm pleased with the results. This panel just needs the red sections adding. (My shoulder is aching from spending so much time painting).

Side Image continued

2007-04-22T07:47:00.000Z

After rubbing the lines visible through the back of the paper with the side of a pencil point I taped it to the cabinet and draw over the lines. I used masking tape to make the horizontal lines straight but it needed to be cut to half-width using a craft knife. There might be thinner tape available if I could be bothered to search. This picture shows the most of the blue background added and some tape still in place.

Large graphics

2007-04-22T07:41:00.000Z

I opened the colour image in IrfanView, and using edge-detect and inverse soon had something suitable for tracing. IrfanView didn't seem to want to print an image bigger than a single sheet so I opened the modified version in Microsoft Paint, reduced the margin sizes and printed in monochrome on our HP LaserJet printer. This picture shows the image before trimming and taping together. This is actually the seconde version. The first one turned out to be too small for my cabinet so I had to scale up 23% to make it look right.

Front Panel

2007-04-11T16:28:00.000Z

A little splash of colour

2007-04-05T16:09:00.000Z

I've dragged the cabinet back to the garage now that's the weather is warmer. The first thing I've done since the relocation is to put a bit of red paint around the invaders on the side panel. The light is not so good here so the photographs are not so good.

Slooooow

2007-03-27T18:17:00.000Z

More paint is slowly going on, The front panel has top coat but the sides are still in primer. I wish I had put top coat on the small panel before starting the graphics.

Transferring graphics

2007-03-02T11:39:00.000Z

The first stage was to edit the colour photograph using the edge-detect and invert functions to create an out line drawing. Then I printed part of the image only and stuck the sheets together.

The next step was to apply graphite (from a 7B pencil) to the back of the paper.

When I held the sheet up to the cabinet I realised that the original spacing of the invaders looked too cramped together on my cabinet so I cut them apart and taped them to panel. Next I traced over the lines to transfer the image to the panel.

The images transferred really well but the camera on my phone doesn't show it clearly. Next step is to repeat this process for the rest of the artwork and then start painting.

(Poor photo - the panel is actually white)

Artwork

2007-02-25T22:17:00.000Z

I was thinking about using a small photo I have of an original Space Invaders cabinet and scaling up using a grid but a couple of days ago I found a full size image (6ft tall). I'll print this on multiple sheets of paper, stick them together, trace the image onto the cabinet and then paint it. Closer inspection of the primed surface shows me that a lot of particles have been raised on the surface so I'll have to sand these down before painting. I wonder if I'll need to apply more primer after this.

Started painting

2007-01-24T13:01:00.000Z

Mdf is notorious for soaking up paint so I think I might need two coats of primer. Here's the first coat going on.

2007-01-17T19:00:00.000Z

With a little assistance I've moved the unpainted cabinet indoors after putting a little filler into some of the joints. The original cabinets and some of the better replicas use T-molding on the edges of the boards and I spent a lot of time wondering whether of not to do this. Eventually I decided that I didn't want to go to the expense of buying a router to cut a groove for the molding or alternatively I thought that cutting off the bottom part of the molding and glueing it in place might not stay stuck or make a mess at the edge if glue bleeds out. I intend to paint the edges black to give the impression of a cabinet with molding. If this works out I'll use molding if I ever make a second cabinet. Another point is that I haven't seen molding for the narrower 12mm boards for sale anywhere.

Control panel

2007-01-13T18:49:00.000Z

I printed a full size black and white copy of the control panel graphics but the piece of mdf I have left is slightly too narrow. I'm not sure whether to find another piece of board or scale down the graphics by about 5%. This might make sense as the cabinet is slightly scaled down or I should say I think it's slightly scaled down as I made up all the dimensions with no reference to the machine I hope to replicate. I'll have to think about the control panel size carefully. Meantime, I can start painting I think.

Push buttons received

2007-01-12T21:45:00.000Z

The buttons I ordered have arrived. I only need five for the control panel for but I'm going to use an extra one to add game credits because I decided not to include a coin mechanism.

Cabinet nearing completion

2007-01-06T18:41:00.000Z

The basic cabinet is almost complete now and I'm thinking I need to drag it indoors to paint it because the unheated garage is colder than the minimum recommended temperature for the paint. Plus, my garage is so full of junk I can hardly move.

FreeDOS rocks!

2006-12-18T18:09:00.000Z

Oh my goodness! An operating system that boots in one second! It's here, and it's free. All the old DOS applications and games I never got around to throwing away run beautifully and the package even includes OpenGEM, a super little GUI to help me out when I can't remember some of the DOS commands that were second nature twenty years ago. DOS MAME runs perfectly and I've been wasting hours playing the original versions of Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaxians, Battle Tank etc. One thing is obvious, I'm never going to have the reaction speed I had twenty years ago but the buzz of playing the games is still there.

Software

2006-12-12T21:02:00.000Z

To use a ROM of the original game I need an emulator and the best choices seem to be MAME for DOS or MAME for Windows. I've chosen the DOS version for two reasons, firstly it means I can use a very low spec PC and secondly it gives me an excuse to try out FreeDOS and have a Microsoft-free system which make things uncomplicated if I ever sell my completed arcade cabinet. That's assuming I ever have a completed arcade cabinet.

Building started

2006-12-06T21:45:00.000Z

The health hazards associated with mdf are well-publicised so I'm wearing a dust mask, eye protection and working with my garage door open.

Graphics

2006-12-04T19:01:00.000Z

I've been able to download a full size control panel and marquee. These will be sandwiched between sheets of clear plastics.

Let's make a start

2006-12-01T20:33:00.000Z

My model worked fine and I can make the basic cabinet from the three pieces of mdf as long as I don't make any mistakes or break anything. I took my oldest son with me and we bought the mdf and corner braces and he helped me carry them to the car and unlade them at home. I'll be doing the work in my garage but there's so much junk in their it's going to be very cramped.

Planning

2006-11-28T20:28:00.000Z

I've decided to try to make the bulk of the cabinet from 3 sheets of 2ft x 6ft mdf, probably 12mm thick rather than 16mm. this might mean that I make my cabinet 75% size of the original. I'll use those plastic corner braces to make my corners a true 90 degree and screw and glue the cabinet together for strength with all screw heads inside. I'll draw my plans out 1/10 scale and then make a cardboard replica so that I can figure out how it all goes together and and errors should show up.

Which style?

2006-11-21T19:16:00.000Z

The first decision to make is which style should I make - coffee table style (more likely to be allowed in the house by my wife) or cocktail (upright) style. The next decision is do I make a replica of one of the classic machines or, like most people seem to be doing, an original customized machine which can play various games. I've decided to be true to my original dream and make a replica upright Space Invader machine.

Because I can

2006-11-18T19:04:00.000Z

Do you remember the arcade games of the late 1970s and early 1980s? Games like Space Invaders and Asteroids? Did you ever wish you could have one of these arcade cabinets in your own home? No? Okay, so it's just me then. Last year I saw replicas of thee machines for sale for a few thousand Pounds and assumed that that my 25 year-old pipe-dream would always be just that. Then by chance, as things often are whilst surfing the web, I came across websites by people who had made their own arcade cabinets based around fairly basic computers and thought to myself "Wait a minute, I've got loads of bits of computers and moderately competent woodworking skill... I can do this!"

2006-11-01T17:20:00.000Z