XYXZYZ
07-16-2007, 10:47 AM
Lately lots of people have been posting pictures of their rooms of dooms and shelving catastrophies, and that reminded me that I haven't posted about the newest addition to my game room! Some of you may remember that a few months ago I made a post here requesting a hi-res scan of the Megadrive Gaiares box, for a little project I was working on. DJSquarewave came through on that. (thanks DJS!)
http://www.neoamusement.com/images/mdgaiares.jpg
And what kind of project? Well, my Sega Saturn and dedicated tate TV is a great way to play shooters, but I wanted something a little closer to home.I also wanted another arcade game, so a few months ago I bought a Strikers 1999 machine, which had a really nice 25" monitor. (Actually a vertical Dynamo cabinet with a Strikers kit slapped onto it, formerly a Raiden DX I think.) The plan was to MAME it for general shmupping use, but it looked so dull and drab... It's time for a makeover!
BEFORE- (on loocation)
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/strikers1945cab.jpg
Lots of guys that make MAME cabinets name it something, like "TimeWarp", "Ubercade" or "Cactus Flack's". Since this was a shooter oriented machine, I named it "Danmaku". (Shmup fans know what I'm talking about) I wanted it to look like the old cabinets that have cartoons all over them, but I thought it would be really cool if I used 80s Japanese mecha style art. So I made the marquee with the Gaiares scan, and a good scan of a Gradius phone card. I made the logo myself, I think it has kind of a Raiden look to it.
Marquee
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku4.jpg
The bezel was going to be a crappy upscaled version of the Xevious bezel, which I like very much. But then I remembered an illustration for a Famicom game called "Replicart" by the artist Kenichi Sonoda from 1987. (Anime fans may recognize his work from things like Gall Force, BubbleGum Crisis, and Gunsmith Cats) I really liked it and I always thought it would make great arcade art. So I scanned it from a Kenichi Sonoda artbook, cleaned it up and did a little cut and paste onto an original background. (I had to move stuff around to get the screen in the middle of the bezel) The control panel was difficult, It took me forever to come up with a design that I liked. I wanted it to look like spaceship controls, like many of the classic space game CPOs. Had Mamemarquees.com print it up, they did an outstanding job as usual.
I won't bore you with the details of the guts, just a PC running MAME connected to the cabinet with a J-PAC. (Kind of a PC > JAMMA converter thing.) Surprisingly, the PC's on board soundcard has enough power to drive the cabinet's speakers by itself.
And here it is, all finished-
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku1.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku2.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku3.jpg
All that's left to do is change the joysticks, I don't like the American style bat sticks for shooters. I want to replace them with Seimitsu LS32s, but I can't find any in the US. However I did dig up some of Happ's older joystick bases with the little actuator tabs, for a much tighter throw. That helps alot.
So what do you think?
http://www.neoamusement.com/images/mdgaiares.jpg
And what kind of project? Well, my Sega Saturn and dedicated tate TV is a great way to play shooters, but I wanted something a little closer to home.I also wanted another arcade game, so a few months ago I bought a Strikers 1999 machine, which had a really nice 25" monitor. (Actually a vertical Dynamo cabinet with a Strikers kit slapped onto it, formerly a Raiden DX I think.) The plan was to MAME it for general shmupping use, but it looked so dull and drab... It's time for a makeover!
BEFORE- (on loocation)
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/strikers1945cab.jpg
Lots of guys that make MAME cabinets name it something, like "TimeWarp", "Ubercade" or "Cactus Flack's". Since this was a shooter oriented machine, I named it "Danmaku". (Shmup fans know what I'm talking about) I wanted it to look like the old cabinets that have cartoons all over them, but I thought it would be really cool if I used 80s Japanese mecha style art. So I made the marquee with the Gaiares scan, and a good scan of a Gradius phone card. I made the logo myself, I think it has kind of a Raiden look to it.
Marquee
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku4.jpg
The bezel was going to be a crappy upscaled version of the Xevious bezel, which I like very much. But then I remembered an illustration for a Famicom game called "Replicart" by the artist Kenichi Sonoda from 1987. (Anime fans may recognize his work from things like Gall Force, BubbleGum Crisis, and Gunsmith Cats) I really liked it and I always thought it would make great arcade art. So I scanned it from a Kenichi Sonoda artbook, cleaned it up and did a little cut and paste onto an original background. (I had to move stuff around to get the screen in the middle of the bezel) The control panel was difficult, It took me forever to come up with a design that I liked. I wanted it to look like spaceship controls, like many of the classic space game CPOs. Had Mamemarquees.com print it up, they did an outstanding job as usual.
I won't bore you with the details of the guts, just a PC running MAME connected to the cabinet with a J-PAC. (Kind of a PC > JAMMA converter thing.) Surprisingly, the PC's on board soundcard has enough power to drive the cabinet's speakers by itself.
And here it is, all finished-
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku1.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku2.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/s/w/swarwick1/files/room/Danmaku3.jpg
All that's left to do is change the joysticks, I don't like the American style bat sticks for shooters. I want to replace them with Seimitsu LS32s, but I can't find any in the US. However I did dig up some of Happ's older joystick bases with the little actuator tabs, for a much tighter throw. That helps alot.
So what do you think?