Sometime in March '99, I received an email from a guy named Craig.  He wanted to tell me about his arcade cabinet project.  Now, I'm always happy to receive these emails as I love to showcase people's work.  This project, however, has a couple of unique touches I haven't seen before (that I know of).  After he sent me some pictures and the details, all I could say was "awesome . . ."  Craig said that when he has friends over, the machine nevers gets a rest -- I believe it.  Craig has agreed to share his project with everyone here.  Thanks Craig :)

Added information and a screen shot of the Roswell frontend.  Looks good :)

Roswell 88201's features:

• Pentium 233mhz, 32 megs RAM
• 19" SVGA PC monitor
• THREE interchangable control panels (components by Happ Controls) featuring trackball, spinner, and joysticks
• Control panels protected by plexiglass
• Interfaced via PowerRamp PC Joystick
• Customized marquee and wrap around cabinet artwork
• Protective kickplating around the bottom
• Customized menu system

The Cabinet

A large graphic of the moon's surface completely wraps every inch of the cabinet, down to tiny stars on the monitor bezel (see closeup of bezel bottom further below).  Craig painstakingly reproduced the moonscape from Hubbel Telescope pictures, painting every square inch by hand.  Well, actually he admits somewhat sheepishly that it's wallpaper ($99). :)  The base of the cabinet is fitted with custom-made aluminum diamond kick plates for protection.  I personally really appreciate the simplified color scheme for his control panel - I think it gives it a look of class.

The Marquee

Craig made the marquee on his computer using Paint Shop Pro 5.  It was printed on photo quality paper at a local print shop.  The cost of printing was approximately $50.00 because he had to have two copies made.  One is left as is, the second one he cut out the Roswell lettering and the earthrise, leaving nothing but the black behind.  Then he applied it to the back of the picture.  In other words, the black is doubly thick, the letters and earth rise singly thick.  This ensures that when the marquee is illuminated, the black is dead black and the neon green lettering and the earthrise glow brightly.  The marquee was then sandwiched between two pieces of plexiglass.  Click on the marquee to get the original graphic he took to the printer.

The machine has not one but three interchangeable control panels.  Craig chose to utilize this design because he did not feel there was a singular control panel layout that "correctly" encompasses all of the 330 games on his machine.  As you look at the pictures, notice how well laid out and playable the controls appear.

Original Control Panel

Click for larger views

The first (Main) control panel is based on two joysticks. Craig based the design of this panel around the game "Defender" because it had the most buttons. The ergonomic design of this panel very comfortably works with approximately 90% of the games on the machine. Compare this to Dale's graphic of the original Defender control panel.  Notice the connector.
 
 
Trackball Control Panel
 

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The Second panel is designed around a track ball and was based on "Missile Command".
 
 

Spinner Control Panel
 



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The third panel is designed around a spinner control and was based on "Tron".  Spinner by TwistyGrip.

Inside the Control Panel

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Each panel has a wiring harness that ends with a 36 pin Molex connector (A molex connector is a molded plastic multiple-pin connector used for quick connection/release in arcade games). Swapping of the control panels takes less than a minute and is very easy to accomplish. The panels can be swapped on the fly with no re-booting needed.  All arcade buttons, joysticks and trackball are from Happ Controls.  The control panels are finished with Plexiglas to protect the control panel overlay.

Did you notice the sticker on the bottom right of each control panel? :)

The Interface

The controls are converted into keystrokes by a circuit board pulled out of a PowerRamp PC joystick ($39.99 retail).  He chose the PowerRamp because it has 4 macro settings which memorize 4 completely different sets of keyboard configurations. This enables the machine to be used for MAME as well as standard computer games (e.g. Duke Nukem, Quake etc.) all at the flick of a switch.  Notice the use of quick connector blocks (available at Radio Shack among other places).  In case Craig ever has to do any re-wiring, all he'll need is a screwdriver, not a soldering iron.

Coining Up

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Inside the Cabinet

Here's the rest of the details...
 
• Craig's cabinet is controlled by a custom menu being programmed using Visual Basic with an HTML backdrop.  It's not ready for prime time yet.  The way it works, however, is slick.  To play the machine the user simply toggles to their game of choice by tapping the center joystick up or down. Once the desired game is highlighted, they press the "Select" button to load the game.  If the player decides at any time to change games all they need do is press the "Menu" button and the game menu returns.  A friend of his is developing the custom front end specifically for this machine. When complete, sensors will be mounted to each of the control panels. When each panel is mounted to the machine, only the games that apply to that panel will appear in the menu. A photo of the control panel will appear on the screen. The controls in the photo will be labeled (left, right, fire etc.) As the player toggles through the list of games, the labels under the controls will change to match the game selected.  Definitely slick!


Craig has since sent me a picture of the front end in action.  Some of the features include being able to quickly scroll through the list of games via joystick - push left/right to skip by letter (6 clicks to the right and you're at the "F" games), high-speed scroll after holding joystick up/down for 3 seconds, proper Windows 98 shutdown via the menu & player 1 button.  Very cool :)
 

• There is a pair of amplified speakers in the header which includes volume control as well as a headphone jack for private play. Inside the cabinet is a subwoofer (which you can see "Inside The Control Panel" above) with an external switch. When activated it shakes the whole box.

• One thing about the cabinet is the lack of T-mouldings.  Craig stripped off all of the mouldings, filled the grooves and laminated all the edges.  The end result is a sophisticated furniture-like feel that is different from the other cabinets he owns.

• The bottom of the box has two twin nylon rollers in the back with nylon feet in the front. It can be moved quite easily by one person yet does not budge during gameplay.

• The computer is controlled by a wireless keyboard with a hidden infrared sensor. There is also a hidden control that is mapped to the "Tab" key for keyless configurations of the games.


Craig says the project took him 4 months.  I think it was worth the effort! :)  Craig has let me post his email address in case anyone wants to talk to him about it.  Thanks Craig!