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homemade cab.

  • 17-03-2015 5:42pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭


    Hi , I'm in the process of building a cab for the kids playroom. I'm having trouble mounting the monitor definitely a two man job trying to find the right angle and depth etc.
    I'm thinking of a marvel theme but was quoted £260 for the side art. Anybody here design there own ? Is there much involved ? If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,785 ✭✭✭eddhorse


    Hi , I'm in the process of building a cab for the kids playroom. I'm having trouble mounting the monitor definitely a two man job trying to find the right angle and depth etc.
    I'm thinking of a marvel theme but was quoted £260 for the side art. Anybody here design there own ? Is there much involved ? If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

    What type of monitor is it? Flatscreen or the old CRT?
    I had to get help to mount my monitor, beast.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭dinky earnshaw


    eddhorse wrote: »
    What type of monitor is it? Flatscreen or the old CRT?
    I had to get help to mount my monitor, beast.

    Its a 19inch 4:3 lcd. I had planned on using a sony trinitron but decided having a smaller cab in the end. Im struggling more with deciding on the depth and angle of it. Trial and error I guess.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,147 ✭✭✭CathalDublin


    Gameongraffix are good but expensive, any printers should be able to print the graphics if you provide a vector of the artwork


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭dinky earnshaw


    Gameongraffix are good but expensive, any printers should be able to print the graphics if you provide a vector of the artwork

    Is there much involved in creating a vector? Can I just take jpegs from the web and convert them ?


  • Posts: 7,499 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    No but there's free art out there.
    I'd worry about the rest of the machine anyway.
    Any pics?


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  • Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 5,393 Mod ✭✭✭✭Optimus Prime


    Is there much involved in creating a vector? Can I just take jpegs from the web and convert them ?

    Have a look on Steves site here

    http://www.arcadeartwork.org/

    Lots of High res artwork for free you get charged for in other places. use photoshop to resize it to your needs.

    a friend of mine prints off the artwork for me, he isnt interested in doing mixers though ive asked him before a few times. Ive used sideart etc from steves site and just resized it for my own cabs.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭dinky earnshaw


    No but there's free art out there.
    I'd worry about the rest of the machine anyway.
    Any pics?

    Can't seem to attach pics . It's basically a copy of the project mame cab. http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/stepprojectmame.htm


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭dinky earnshaw


    Have a look on Steves site here

    http://www.arcadeartwork.org/

    Lots of High res artwork for free you get charged for in other places. use photoshop to resize it to your needs.

    a friend of mine prints off the artwork for me, he isnt interested in doing mixers though ive asked him before a few times. Ive used sideart etc from steves site and just resized it for my own cabs.

    Great site thanks for that


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,906 ✭✭✭Steve X2


    I dont have a huge amount of Marvel arcade stuff on the site(lots of console bits).
    Below is what I got for arcade.

    Name / Size / Resolution
    Marvel SH header for SF conv.psd.jpg / 25.29 MB / 8205x4725
    Marvel Super Heroes bezel.psd.jpg / 12.91 MB / 8433x6789
    Marvel Super Heroes cpo.psd.jpg / 34.86 MB / 10515x5846
    Marvel Super Heroes sideart.psd.jpg / 9.18 MB / 3630x4830
    marvelsh-vs-sf_marquee.psd.jpg / 54.97 MB / 15480x4950
    marvelsh-vs-sf_marquee_1.psd.jpg / 17.22 MB / 7740x2475
    marvelsuper_copy.jpg.jpg / 7.57 MB / 13333x4167
    Marvel-vs-capcom marquee.psd.jpg / 0.06 MB / 360x113
    Marvel-vs-capcom marquee-1.psd.jpg / 2.30 MB / 6406x2002
    Marvel-vs-capcom.psd.jpg / 2.31 MB / 6406x2002


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭dinky earnshaw


    Steve X2 wrote: »
    I dont have a huge amount of Marvel arcade stuff on the site(lots of console bits).
    Below is what I got for arcade.

    Name / Size / Resolution
    Marvel SH header for SF conv.psd.jpg / 25.29 MB / 8205x4725
    Marvel Super Heroes bezel.psd.jpg / 12.91 MB / 8433x6789
    Marvel Super Heroes cpo.psd.jpg / 34.86 MB / 10515x5846
    Marvel Super Heroes sideart.psd.jpg / 9.18 MB / 3630x4830
    marvelsh-vs-sf_marquee.psd.jpg / 54.97 MB / 15480x4950
    marvelsh-vs-sf_marquee_1.psd.jpg / 17.22 MB / 7740x2475
    marvelsuper_copy.jpg.jpg / 7.57 MB / 13333x4167
    Marvel-vs-capcom marquee.psd.jpg / 0.06 MB / 360x113
    Marvel-vs-capcom marquee-1.psd.jpg / 2.30 MB / 6406x2002
    Marvel-vs-capcom.psd.jpg / 2.31 MB / 6406x2002

    Fantastic resource thank you. So much choice there I may not go with marvel after all.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 195 ✭✭Damien King


    Hi , I'm in the process of building a cab for the kids playroom. I'm having trouble mounting the monitor definitely a two man job trying to find the right angle and depth etc.
    I'm thinking of a marvel theme but was quoted £260 for the side art. Anybody here design there own ? Is there much involved ? If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

    Hi, Hope the build isnt giving you too many headaches! I'll offer up my 2 cents:

    Monitor mounting/positioning.

    If you already know required height and angle of the monitor then the easiest approach is to cut a section of MDF/Ply etc. approx 200mm by the internal width of cabinet. This is what the monitor is going to be attached to. Find the centre of both the width and height and from there mark out your holes for the VESA mounting screws, the centres are probably going to be 100mm apart from each other.

    Attach the monitor to the board. fix some corner blocks to each end of the board at the rear side, have the 2 screws in each block going into the board leaving the one screw hole facing out into the cabinet side.

    Now this makes life a lot easier: Lay the cabinet down on its side. you can now position the monitor in place without fear of dropping it, support it with 1 hand and fire in your 4 screws with the other.

    The nice thing about this method is that you can fine tune your monitor positioning when you have it upright again. as long as you leave 1 screw in each side it will act like a pivot /swing. If you have to try a few different positions its not the end of the world as the unused holes wont be seen anyway.

    Just be sure that the screws are long enough to go through the block and nicely into the cabinet, but not too long so it bursts through the other side.

    Once you are happy with the positioning you can always reinforce it with more cornerblocks/batons down the sides.

    I actually have a build on at the moment and should be at the monitor fitting stage next week, I can take some pictures if required.

    Artwork / Printing

    Unfortunately you can't really convert a Jpeg to a Vector easily, a vector is more of a mathematical method of drawing lines and filling in colour. Its actually great if you are doing a graphic that needs to be re sized frequently and thats why a lot of company logos are done this way. They can be resized from a business card up to a van or billboard with without pixelating of tearing (jagged edges)

    When I'm designing artwork for clients arcade machines I will work in photoshop and work in the actual document size, file sizes can get quite large (over 1gb) but I find there are no nasty surprises when re sizing. My print guy prefers the photoshop format as well.

    If you want to do vector based art from scratch then Illustrator is the better software in my opinion, I still use it for designing cabinets as well. Its actually a great way to work out where to cut as you can draw all you panels and then arrange/flip/ rotate them on a virtual 8X4 sheet.

    If its going into a kids playroom then you might want to think about protecting that art from little fingers that just love to pick at stuff. I am also building one for a clients family/kids room at the moment and will be fitting clear polycarbonate sheets on to protect the artwork. I've gone a couple of mm thinner with the cabinet material so the T molding will still be perfect on the edge... here they are with the protective film still on. Its a new one for me but I'm actually going to do all future cabinets this way as it just looked great when I test filtted with the t molding. I'm steering away from printed vinyl and and doing it on photo quality inkjet media, it really does give the side a nice finish and theres no need to worry about artwork peeling away.

    342416.jpg

    Hope that helps

    Damien


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭dinky earnshaw


    Hi, Hope the build isnt giving you too many headaches! I'll offer up my 2 cents:

    Monitor mounting/positioning.

    If you already know required height and angle of the monitor then the easiest approach is to cut a section of MDF/Ply etc. approx 200mm by the internal width of cabinet. This is what the monitor is going to be attached to. Find the centre of both the width and height and from there mark out your holes for the VESA mounting screws, the centres are probably going to be 100mm apart from each other.

    Attach the monitor to the board. fix some corner blocks to each end of the board at the rear side, have the 2 screws in each block going into the board leaving the one screw hole facing out into the cabinet side.

    Now this makes life a lot easier: Lay the cabinet down on its side. you can now position the monitor in place without fear of dropping it, support it with 1 hand and fire in your 4 screws with the other.

    The nice thing about this method is that you can fine tune your monitor positioning when you have it upright again. as long as you leave 1 screw in each side it will act like a pivot /swing. If you have to try a few different positions its not the end of the world as the unused holes wont be seen anyway.

    Just be sure that the screws are long enough to go through the block and nicely into the cabinet, but not too long so it bursts through the other side.

    Once you are happy with the positioning you can always reinforce it with more cornerblocks/batons down the sides.

    I actually have a build on at the moment and should be at the monitor fitting stage next week, I can take some pictures if required.

    Artwork / Printing

    Unfortunately you can't really convert a Jpeg to a Vector easily, a vector is more of a mathematical method of drawing lines and filling in colour. Its actually great if you are doing a graphic that needs to be re sized frequently and thats why a lot of company logos are done this way. They can be resized from a business card up to a van or billboard with without pixelating of tearing (jagged edges)

    When I'm designing artwork for clients arcade machines I will work in photoshop and work in the actual document size, file sizes can get quite large (over 1gb) but I find there are no nasty surprises when re sizing. My print guy prefers the photoshop format as well.

    If you want to do vector based art from scratch then Illustrator is the better software in my opinion, I still use it for designing cabinets as well. Its actually a great way to work out where to cut as you can draw all you panels and then arrange/flip/ rotate them on a virtual 8X4 sheet.

    If its going into a kids playroom then you might want to think about protecting that art from little fingers that just love to pick at stuff. I am also building one for a clients family/kids room at the moment and will be fitting clear polycarbonate sheets on to protect the artwork. I've gone a couple of mm thinner with the cabinet material so the T molding will still be perfect on the edge... here they are with the protective film still on. Its a new one for me but I'm actually going to do all future cabinets this way as it just looked great when I test filtted with the t molding. I'm steering away from printed vinyl and and doing it on photo quality inkjet media, it really does give the side a nice finish and theres no need to worry about artwork peeling away.

    342416.jpg

    Hope that helps

    Damien

    Thanks for info. Not too many headaches yet . I built the cab in the playroom to save me carrying it up the stairs. Ill have to clear the room to lie it on its side which ill need to do for the tmoulding anyway.
    Your cab design is very similar to mine. My sides are 12mm mdf I planned on getting 1/2 inch tmoulding which is 15mm I believe. Would there be enough room for artwork and the polycarbonate ?
    I'm planning on trying to do my own artwork but finger painting while in kindergarten as a 3 year-old. Would you be available for a nixer if it doesn't work out?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 195 ✭✭Damien King


    Thanks for info. Not too many headaches yet . I built the cab in the playroom to save me carrying it up the stairs. Ill have to clear the room to lie it on its side which ill need to do for the tmoulding anyway.
    Your cab design is very similar to mine. My sides are 12mm mdf I planned on getting 1/2 inch tmoulding which is 15mm I believe. Would there be enough room for artwork and the polycarbonate ?
    I'm planning on trying to do my own artwork but finger painting while in kindergarten as a 3 year-old. Would you be available for a nixer if it doesn't work out?

    The polycarb is 2mm thick so that'll give you a thickness of 14mm overall. As long as the slot in the mdf is offset by 2.5mm the t molding will line up nicely with it.

    The polycarb can be cut to match the exact shape of your cabinet as well. You might want to re think doing it in the room as the dust from cutting the poly and slotting the mdf will be pretty major. its not the kind off stuff you want lingering around for the kiddies to breathe in.

    I should have this one done next week and can send pics. In the meantime feel free to pm me if you want to see pics of past work or just want general advice to help with the build

    Im always up for a nixer but realisticly its gonna be easter before i can take anything else on.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 207 ✭✭dinky earnshaw


    The polycarb is 2mm thick so that'll give you a thickness of 14mm overall. As long as the slot in the mdf is offset by 2.5mm the t molding will line up nicely with it.

    The polycarb can be cut to match the exact shape of your cabinet as well. You might want to re think doing it in the room as the dust from cutting the poly and slotting the mdf will be pretty major. its not the kind off stuff you want lingering around for the kiddies to breathe in.

    I should have this one done next week and can send pics. In the meantime feel free to pm me if you want to see pics of past work or just want general advice to help with the build

    Im always up for a nixer but realisticly its gonna be easter before i can take anything else on.

    I look forward to seeing your finished cab. At the rate I'm going the artwork might need doing by Christmas 😀. I didn't really think things through properly never even crossed my mind about the dust. The cab will need to come apart now. Might actually take the time to properly plan step by step how to do it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 195 ✭✭Damien King


    I look forward to seeing your finished cab. At the rate I'm going the artwork might need doing by Christmas 😀. I didn't really think things through properly never even crossed my mind about the dust. The cab will need to come apart now. Might actually take the time to properly plan step by step how to do it.

    Oh bugger, Will it not go down the stairs completed? You really will need to get that outside to do the work or completely clear the room so you can fuly sweep up afterwards, and thats assuming its laminate floorand not carpet. The mdf dust is pretty messy and if you are doing polycarbonate it would need to be cut while on the cab to get the shape to match perfectly, and that leaves nasty dust behind, I'd say if you breathe that in its in you for life...

    I stuck a few pointers with pics up a few days ago about how I cut t molding slots in a complete cab, you can find the thread here and i'm on page 2:

    www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057389835


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