It's taken a while, but here are some initial designs for a Xevious Bartop.
Zorg kindly supplied me with his fantastastic vectored artwork around which the design is based.
I'm trying to be as sympathetic as posible to the original cabinet design while it scaling down - hopefully retaining the classic Xevious shape.
Tiled print out with 10" CRT for scale.
Traced and ready to cut.
Got some time today to cut out the sides. Starting with an MDF template.
I made 4 extras (two shown here), I'm building two of these - one for my brother and one for me - as we're both big Xevious fans. I'll keep the template in case I build another one at some point in the future.
Then routed the T-Molding slots out.
The Atari switches have arrived. I'm going to be using original tall plastic cones .
Xevious is one of my favorite games ever. Looks tight with the monitor in there. Once the controls are in, are you going to have room for the computer?
Cool project! I agree with TOK, It's gonna be tight. Can you remove that shielding around the monitor? That might give you a little more leeway on where to mount stuff (the main-board too). Also, don't forget the use of Hot Glue. Indispensable in my opinion.....On one of mine, I actually had to extend some of the wiring but I mounted it (main-board) to the underside of the top of the bartop to give me some extra room.
There should be (famous last words!) enough room in there for the 48-in-1 and mini atx psu. I'll see when I get there! At least there is the option of taking the shielding out should needs be.
Is that power supply flat or is there like a little flange on the bottom of it?
The way its sitting, you're going to lose at least 1/2" if you mount the cab base flush with the edges. That means your supply is going to have to come forward, with the front edge nearly at the base of the tube just eyeballing it.
This would then put you close to where the stick bases could contact the supply if you bottom mount them.
If that thing on the bottom of the supply is something you did to account for the thickness of the cab base, ignore this.
Not trying to badger you about it, but I built a much larger bartop and there are still spots in there that are tight.
TOK please feel free to Badger away!
The 'flange' sticking out is where the fan is mounted. I'm thinking of recessing it into the base. Alternatively there may be space behing the marquee with the fan venting upwards.
Laid the joystick (mag-stik plus with ball top) in place. It looks like some creative routing needs to take place to give the restrictor plate mechanism enough room. Good job it's got a short throw.
Test fitted the base for scale.
Pics give an indication of how much room is available inside.
By the way where did you get the dinky little monitor?
Ebay for sale at £25. As luck would have it the seller works on my site (2000+ people so it's difficult to know everyone!). He had 30, I bought 4 for £90.
They're NOS as far as I can tell.
Very nice. Good luck! I'll be watching.
Well a few spots of rain today, but for a Bank Holiday not too bad. It usually trashes it down!
I'm going to have to be a bit cute on the angles around the marquee or it's going to end up with less depth than I want.
I tried out some marquee retainer (that I got in a big bag of 'junk' free when I bought a second hand monitor - 33" Hantarex, Lord knows what I'm going to do with it!), but although it's exactly the shape I need it's 28" across and my two cabs are 14". Taking into account the width of the cut it won't span both cabs.
I'm also having a think about how to hold the monitor plexi in place. I'm thinking of having it slide in from the top and retained by wooden blocks top and bottom. I really don't trust my routing skills to recess a groove in the sides to retain it. This is the first time I've used a router (my first cab ), but I'd like to get the finish as good as possible.
Spent today catching up with the second bartop and starting to produce the speaker housing for both cabs.
I bought some black rectangular speaker grille, from eBay, to mount under the marquee and will place two 2.5" shielded speakers in there.
The more I look at it, the more I think you'll be unhappy with the viewing angle. If you don't plan on playing it much, you'll be fine. I don't play my mini-galaga much because it's so small.
It looks like you'll have to look pretty straight forward on the thing to have an unobstructed view.
It depends on difference in height of table and chair I suppose.
I spent quite a bit of time (hopefully), getting the ergonomics correct. I can't see marathon sessions on them though!
I've one of the cabs in front of me and it feels pretty good. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the viewing angle's pretty wide height-wise (if the concern is the marquee obscuring the view).
The cabs are 'usable' objet d'art pieces really. I'm trying to build something that does justice to the original artwork, is pretty playable, and a bit of fun.
Your Mini-Galaga is superb by the way.
A first draft of the control panel and CPO front.
Yep, it's going to be tight.
The left hand player buttons are the controls for the 48-in-1. The Magstik mount is shown, as are the Atari cone buttons.
Tested out the CP today. I'm still playing about with it - the difficulty is getting the cone buttons away from the player buttons. Currently the tendency is to rest your third finger on the cone.
I'll play about some more before making a template.
Lew, how did you attach your monitor plexi on your (rather fabulous) Galaga bartop?
The Marquee has a much wider aspect ratio the the original. Not a bad thing as it gives the oportunity to place a few more ships in there.
this whole thing looks great!
I tried using velcro, but I don't use that stuff for anything anymore. I used 2 small black screws at the top of the bezel in the black part of the artwork. You can't really tell it's there.
I really like the monitor you're using. The marquee looks good too.
ooh! I'm rather fond of lil CRT's. Good show, old bean!
Thanks Bender. I'm still trying to figure out how to finish the sides without artwork. Your Benderama has a great laminate finish, but finding laminate sheet (that's not through a high-end manufacturer) as pretty difficult and expensive.
I may have to paint or vinyl, but I'd really like to get the toughness of laminate.
seems like one roll should do your whole project, oh yeah it comes in grey and white too!
Thanks Bender, I'll try to find some in the UK.
I'm mounting 2 1/2" shielded speakers behind there, with some black speaker cloth the hide them. From the images I have it looks similar to the original cab, but it's the best I can do anyway!
Cheers Bender, I'll give you a shout if I have difficilty finding some here.
Putting some piano hinge in, the idea is to have the back and sloping top hinged in two parts for easier access to the inners. Since the back panel is pretty small, having the top removable will mean I'll be able to get anywhere inside except to the bottom of the control panel. I'll leave the base screws visible for that.
Probably placed centrally at the top of the sloping back panel.
Did I mention that building two is a right royal pain in the ? You have to do everything twice you know - what's going on there?
I've spent an hour a night trying to get something done - it's difficult when my 'little darlings' pick up pieces and run off with them!
The retaining pine bar across the top pulls the side panels together and acts as a lock for the top sloping panel. The barrel lock will interface with the bar to hold down the top and back.
http://www.blackheathproducts.co.uk/ are a very good cheap laminate supplier, ~£30 for a 4m x 1.5m sheet!
This Thread and This Thread are very useful resources on getting laminate within the UK for a sane price!
Thanks parag0n (and Bender). I think I'm going to cover the both cabs with laminated vinyl from http://www.arcadestickers.co.uk/.
Hot glue is crud. Both back doors have come apart, so They're being PVA'd together at the mo. I don't know whether the hot glue is not very good on MDF or not, but sticking it to pine 1/4 dowels doesn't work for me.
Well, all the hot glue's off now , time to wait for some new sanding disks to arrive.
The holes are now drilled for the locks and air vents. I picked up a few vents (and cab handles as I bought a job lot), which have a leather texture to them. Very 80's .