stevearcade
The Trevor Horn of UKVAC
Hi Guys, I don't think I've ever actually posted my cab here, so here you are:
October 2010, saw this Red and Blue Video Master on the bay, had never seen one like it and was cab-less at the time having sold my Goliath before moving house, so had to snap it up. Had Golden Tee 2 in it
and a black perspex control panel that obviously wasn't original. The joysticks were dead Universal 500s and the buttons were those little yellow backlit 25mm. Not really my style. But I liked the artwork a lot and like I said, I'd never seen one like it before so did a buy it now.
After a couple day I removed the top control panel to find a pretty messy couple of holes where I'd need to be mounting my new perspex
. Worse still the artwork on the front of the control panel was a lot worse in the flesh than in the photos on the bay, so it had to come off, with the intention of being replaced.
So anyway, a few months go buy, I'd bought a couple PCBs for the cab, but had no way of playing them yet as there were no controls
. Also held up by car problems and unexpected water bills
. But I finally get my finances in place and was good to go.
So I needed one wooden control panel to go under my artwork and perspex. Cue Andyman. Andyman, being the all round gentleman and legend that he his made me a new wooden control panel perfectly to the spec I sent him and at a very reasonable price
.
I ordered some new perspex cut to size from Trent Plastics with holes drilled. I can highly recommend them, their postage is a little dear, but their prices are super low for perspex cut to order, so it all balances out really.
I mocked up some simple artwork in Adobe Illustrator to tide me over (the artwork being a daunting job I'd save for another time). Unit504 took acre of my artwork printouts. There were "tests" of different printing materials, so they were on the house
. Legend! Although one was the wrong colour tone, the other was good. But I ended up accidentally gashing it up with a Stanley knife
. Inpatient, that afternoon I befriended the guy at Staples who thought it was amazing I had an arcade machine and he knocked me out some print offs at a discounted price
.
Also got a nice gremlins solutions order come through.
I needed a little T-Moulding to finish it all off. Aran from the Barn kindly popped a load in the post to me in exchange for those little yellow buttons I didn't like and was going to bin.
End result (for now
)
I know the colour's not a spot on match, but I'll get to that.
So I've just got it all together, when I acquire an old Pentium 4 with a Mark 1 ArcadeVGA from Strykr, Legend! So I make it into a MAME PC, buy a JAMMA Switcher from Jammaboards over in the USA and now I've got a nice JAMMA cab that can be switched to a MAME set up or run conventional PCBs with no problems at all
. A fully wired JAMMA cab with a Discreet MAME set up. This deserved a video
:
Not completely happy with my gaming (that's right I'm going to blame my bad gaming on my controller
) I decided to tinker with my joysticks next having read a thread by TheSharkFactor over on J+. It ended up with me ordering some custom made actuators for my Sanwas from Virtvic. In the future, I think I'm just going buy my whole joysticks from Vic. The guy's a legend. Anyway, this modification is best seen so:
Part 1
Part 2
Joysticks are now amazingly responsive. Tight as you like. Great for everything from Fighting to Shmups to Robotron
.
So onto the artwork: Undeterred by my blatant cock up on colour tone and with grander ambitions of true restoration I returned to Adobe Illustrator during the Christmas Break of 2011, this time armed with a squarely taken photo of the bezel, and I mock up this:
I will need to get a new glass and bezel made up eventually as mine is quite badly flaked in parts.
But this serves as the template for further artwork design tinkering and I crack the control panel at last. Here's the control panel front as it looked when I got it, minus the vandalism, sun damage and peeling glue
:
Now I have no idea what the original control panel would have looked like, as it came with a bodged black perspex thing. So I've mocked up a number of designs but my favourites are:
And the plain and simple:
So in due course, I will get one of these printed up and replace my make-do artwork of present.
Anyway, that's my Video Master JAMMA cab (so far). If anyone has one like it, or knows anything about them, PLEASE let me know. Photos, stories, anything. This is the only cab I've ever seen like it, and I'd like to know she's not alone in the world and has some siblings who are hopefully as loved as she is.
And here's my cat Jaffa showing quite a keen interest in the cab.
The Daytona in the back of this shot, never sadly saw any action. Money and time were the big factors here. It's probably in the back of Martin's van as I write this. Although it should be with Drawfull some time soon.
I'll post more pictures once I get the artwork sorted with the reproduction original design.
October 2010, saw this Red and Blue Video Master on the bay, had never seen one like it and was cab-less at the time having sold my Goliath before moving house, so had to snap it up. Had Golden Tee 2 in it
After a couple day I removed the top control panel to find a pretty messy couple of holes where I'd need to be mounting my new perspex
So anyway, a few months go buy, I'd bought a couple PCBs for the cab, but had no way of playing them yet as there were no controls
So I needed one wooden control panel to go under my artwork and perspex. Cue Andyman. Andyman, being the all round gentleman and legend that he his made me a new wooden control panel perfectly to the spec I sent him and at a very reasonable price
I ordered some new perspex cut to size from Trent Plastics with holes drilled. I can highly recommend them, their postage is a little dear, but their prices are super low for perspex cut to order, so it all balances out really.
I mocked up some simple artwork in Adobe Illustrator to tide me over (the artwork being a daunting job I'd save for another time). Unit504 took acre of my artwork printouts. There were "tests" of different printing materials, so they were on the house
Also got a nice gremlins solutions order come through.
I needed a little T-Moulding to finish it all off. Aran from the Barn kindly popped a load in the post to me in exchange for those little yellow buttons I didn't like and was going to bin.
End result (for now
I know the colour's not a spot on match, but I'll get to that.
So I've just got it all together, when I acquire an old Pentium 4 with a Mark 1 ArcadeVGA from Strykr, Legend! So I make it into a MAME PC, buy a JAMMA Switcher from Jammaboards over in the USA and now I've got a nice JAMMA cab that can be switched to a MAME set up or run conventional PCBs with no problems at all
Not completely happy with my gaming (that's right I'm going to blame my bad gaming on my controller
Part 1
Part 2
Joysticks are now amazingly responsive. Tight as you like. Great for everything from Fighting to Shmups to Robotron
So onto the artwork: Undeterred by my blatant cock up on colour tone and with grander ambitions of true restoration I returned to Adobe Illustrator during the Christmas Break of 2011, this time armed with a squarely taken photo of the bezel, and I mock up this:
I will need to get a new glass and bezel made up eventually as mine is quite badly flaked in parts.
But this serves as the template for further artwork design tinkering and I crack the control panel at last. Here's the control panel front as it looked when I got it, minus the vandalism, sun damage and peeling glue
Now I have no idea what the original control panel would have looked like, as it came with a bodged black perspex thing. So I've mocked up a number of designs but my favourites are:
And the plain and simple:
So in due course, I will get one of these printed up and replace my make-do artwork of present.
Anyway, that's my Video Master JAMMA cab (so far). If anyone has one like it, or knows anything about them, PLEASE let me know. Photos, stories, anything. This is the only cab I've ever seen like it, and I'd like to know she's not alone in the world and has some siblings who are hopefully as loved as she is.
And here's my cat Jaffa showing quite a keen interest in the cab.
The Daytona in the back of this shot, never sadly saw any action. Money and time were the big factors here. It's probably in the back of Martin's van as I write this. Although it should be with Drawfull some time soon.
I'll post more pictures once I get the artwork sorted with the reproduction original design.
