Galaga Multigame Mini MAME Cabinet is FINISHED!

[InsaneDavid]

I've been working on this one for a long time, full story is at my site here (needs an update which will happen this weekend) (http://classicplastic.net/dvgi/special-galagamultigame.html) and I'm calling it finally finished. The finishing touch was the addition of another hundred or so songs to the background jukebox that plays when browsing the game menu, three additional games and their screenshots, and the long awaited bezel art.

For those that didn't click the link above, the long and short of it is this is a roughly 3/5ths size Galaga cabinet running MAME v0.60 with a vertically oriented monitor.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/2011-GalagaMame01.jpg

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/2011-GalagaMame02.jpg

The bezel artwork took me about a month to do. I started with the only available high resolution bezel scan that can be found online. This source image was scanned in multiple parts so the color is incorrect and irregular. Additionally the bezel that was scanned is missing quite a bit of paint and was in pretty bad shape. First off I resized the bezel to the dimensions of the glass on my mini cabinet. This smashed down some of the artwork so after getting the over all size oriented properly, I moved over fresh versions of the invaders with the proper dimensions. The rounded corners around the screen were also moved over from the original and properly scaled down. I then stretched the moons and planet back to being properly round. The only place things remained "squished" a little were the invaders at the top of the bezel, but due to the pitch of the glass they don't look out of place.

I then got to work on cleaning up the missing artwork and fixing the damage the scan had. I had to redraw some parts, change a couple things around, and put back in a lot of missing paint. After that it was time to work on getting rid of most of the scratches (I left a couple in there to give it an effect of being printed on glass) and color correction / color matching. An example of this is that the blue was actually five different shades in the scan.

Then I moved the information from the two older instruction cards onto one and put pictorial diagrams for each function. After failing to find a printer that would print the bezel, I ended up doing it myself on four sheets of premium gloss paper and it came out awesome. Since then I've found a local printer that will print it for me so I'll have them do a single sheet eventually. I set the bezel art on the smoked glass and then set a sheet of clear plexiglass atop it, which holds it down and protects the artwork. Since I cut the top plexiglass to the exact size of the open area, it doesn't move and can't be knocked off the cabinet.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/2011-GalagaMame03.jpg

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/2011-GalagaMame04.jpg

I did manage to blow out the audio amplifier when I was relocating some stuff so I had to run out and buy a pair of cheapy PC speakers to pull a new one out of. I wasn't happy about tossing another $20.00 into the project but that's what I get for being stupid with the audio board I had in there before.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/2011-GalagaMame05.jpg

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/2011-GalagaMame06.jpg

And as I've said many times about MAME, the frontend is GameLauncher, each game has a screenshot I created personally.

I'll have a new video of it up on youtube within the week. I'll post the link when I get it online. I was just viewing the video today and it's a little dark due to the unseasonal rainy weather that took place over the weekend. However I can't shoot a new one until late April as the cabinet is currently in "storage" at my parent's place until this Summer.

EDIT: Video is here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4xW7f56p8). ...It ended up running much longer than I originally intended.

[Fontaine Le Funk]

Bravo to your attention to detail! I remember another post of yours with this cabinet's origin, and shit has it come a long way. I hope others learn from your examples of HOW TO MOD A DAMN CABINET TO MAME RIGHT. :) Hmm whiskey... Great job !

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

That cab never fails to impress! Great job!

I can't recall, did you ever do any extensive research to its origins? Did it have any kind of paperwork or labels inside of it that provided evidence to who made it and whether or not they were similar commercially mass-produced cabs?

Also, does that damage right below the fire buttons drive you nuts?

Personally, my OCD would drive me to get an identical repro control panel overlay without the tear.

[InsaneDavid]

That cab never fails to impress! Great job!

I can't recall, did you ever do any extensive research to its origins? Did it have any kind of paperwork or labels inside of it that provided evidence to who made it and whether or not they were similar commercially mass-produced cabs?

When I did the repairs and picked up the cabinet in December of 2009 I attempted to research the origins but came up empty handed. There are absolutely no manufacturing tags, makers plate, any kind of serial what so ever. The only identifying characteristic is that each panel of the cabinet has a letter of the phonetic alphabet written in pencil on the inside. For instance this one is "Golf" so I'm going to assume that there were at least a handful of these constructed in a small run. If I remember correctly the other Galaga was Hotel and the Pac-Man was Charlie.


Also, does that damage right below the fire buttons drive you nuts?

Personally, my OCD would drive me to get an identical repro control panel overlay without the tear.

I'll probably replace it one of these years. Honestly it doesn't bother me anymore but at first I'll admit that it was irritating me. The control panel overlays seem to be some kind of automotive wrap that is then adhered and heat shrunken around the control panel, it doesn't appear to be a vinyl sticker. Originally it was sticking up quite a bit but I filed it down to be smooth, again it's almost like fiberglass.

[c0ldb33r]

I'd like to see a YouTube video of the menu with the music. Good job :)

[InsaneDavid]

Thanks for the above comments everyone.

Video is up, here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4xW7f56p8).

It ended up running much longer than I originally intended.

[cyberfluxor]

Ah good job, it looks to have come a long way. The video does a fine job covering the workmanship put into this machine. The bezel artwork is awesome and your attention to detail shows.

[Flack]

It's one of the cleanest MAME cabinets around -- hell, it's cleaner than some restored Galaga cabs! And that smaller scale makes it unique and gives it some personality. Great job, man. I'm definitely jealous.

[CRTGAMER]

Very nice! Love how you implemented the Game Launcher with the screenshots.

A tease, a site that has a Galaxian Mame Front End theme.
http://www.i-modernist.com/emulaxian/frontend.html

You would select a game by shooting your choice. :)

[InsaneDavid]

Very nice! Love how you implemented the Game Launcher with the screenshots.

A tease, a site that has a Galaxian Mame Front End theme.
http://www.i-modernist.com/emulaxian/frontend.html

You would select a game by shooting your choice. :)

I saw that when I was looking up stuff for my Galaxian cocktail table. While I commend the creativity and work that went into creating an interactive frontend like that, it's still too clunky for my taste. The same goes for Hyperspin, which is freaking awesome, but doesn't make a whole lot of sense for cabinets not in a commercial environment. The other thing that cracks me up is when people run something like Hyperspin on a machine that can BARELY run the frontend as it stutters and chugs along. LOL

Thanks again for the comments everyone!