Abobo's Big Adventure Arcade Build

[BoMToons]

We were keeping this under-wraps until Comic Con, but now that it's over, I thought I'd show off all the work that went into this arcade cabinet project.

Last year we had a demo available on a flatscreen with a usb nintendo controller. This year we wanted to TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL so we made this cabinet.

The main challenge we faced was building something that could collapse down into my trunk for transport. We also decided to build it in 2 pieces so it could be a table top (limited booth space) and a full size cabinet (for my garage).

I drew some sketches, then worked with a friend who's an engineer to make some blueprints. Then I took the prints to my father and bro. in law who are carpenters. They made some minor adjustments to the plans and built everything. I sanded and painted the 3/4 inch plywood a few times to give it a smooooth finish. The controller is from www.xarcade.com (the tankstick with trackball). Finally, Jeff Bandelin (a.k.a. Johnny Utah) was kind enough to draw up the graphics for the stickers, including the NES skin for the tankstick controller.

Inside the hidden drawer I put an old laptop paired with a 40 dollar monitor I found on craigslist. With as3's new fullScreenRect function we're able to fullscreen our game without affecting performance!

The final product came out so much nicer than I ever imagined it would. The cabinet was a big hit at Comic Con and, as a bonus, it runs MAME arcade emulator for hours of 2 player arcade fun!

Here are links to some press on the cabinet from CC. I'll post some WIP shots after:

http://www.destructoid.com/exclusive-abo bo-s-big-adventure-makes-a-comic-con-deb ut-178934.phtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwFi262c9 KE&feature=channel

http://www.gemakei.com/forums/index.php?
topic=44656

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRPZNHXbP U0&feature=related

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=
0ryh9fHvDwU&feature=related

http://www.niubie.com/2010/07/gran-tribu to-al-nes-en-abobos-big-adventure-comic-
con-10/

http://stage1-1.blogspot.com/

http://www.i-mockery.com/blabber/2010/07 /22/i-mockery-at-the-2010-san-diego-comi c-con-preview-night/

[BoMToons]

Here it is, early in construction:

[BoMToons]

Assembling the back-lit marquee:

[BoMToons]

A working marquee!

[bigjonny13]

This shit is awesome.

[PestoForce]

Drilling the holes for the tankstick legs:

[PestoForce]

You can see how the legs will fit in those holes.

[PestoForce]

Looking pretty nifty now!

[PestoForce]

Painting it up!

[BlackmarketKraig]

Holy wow! This is incredible BoM! What kind of arcade sticks are those?

[Abobo]

Jeff graciously did up the art for the decals. The marquee art here is an early version which we changed later:

[Abobo]

After painting and double checking that everything still fit together right, I re-sanded and painted the individual pieces until they were as smooth as I wanted. The original raw plywood really sucked up the paint and had a rough finish so it took a good 3 or 4 rounds of sanding and painting to get the finish where I wanted it.

[Abobo]

I had the stickers printed on vinyl at a local sign shop. All the stickers for the whole cabinet cost around $200. Here's a pic that got me real excited to see everything coming together.

[Abobo]

Here is the final marquee with Jeff's 2nd draft:

[idiot-monarch]

On the one hand, this thread is awesome. On the other hand, it sorta ruined Abobo, the NG user, for me since now I can't tell myself it's really him anymore.

[BoMToons]

The final touches involved the Tankstick, available here: http://www.xgaming.com/store/arcade-joys ticks-and-game-controllers/product/x-arc ade-tankstick-includes-usb-cables/

This was a great plug n' play device that has a usb connection for the trackball to act as the mouse and another usb for programmable keyboard input. It has a lot of features, including a bunch of programmable slots for custom key mapping and MAME comes with a preset for its standard configuration. It's constructed REALLY well and feels way authentic.

We wanted to make the tankstick look like a NES controller, so I got some custom red buttons from http://www.lizardlick.com/pages/pushbutt ons.shtml.

Installing the buttons meant taking apart the tankstick, but installation was straightforward and took about 10 minutes for all 4 buttons.

[BoMToons]

Once again Jeff came through with a great design for the NES tankstick:

[BlackmarketKraig]

At 7/29/10 02:31 PM, BoMToons wrote: Once again Jeff came through with a great design for the NES tankstick:

Holy god that looks awesome!

All of you guys did great work.

[BoMToons]

A last touch of polish were these instructions for the bezel, made by Jeff:

[BoMToons]

A look at the final product in action at Comic Con:

[PestoForce]

Random close-up:

[PestoForce]

Taking Abobo for a spin on level 2:

[bigjonny13]

At 7/29/10 02:41 PM, BoMToons wrote: A last touch of polish were these instructions for the bezel, made by Jeff:

Lol, joy on a stick.

[PestoForce]

At 7/29/10 02:27 PM, idiot-monarch wrote: On the one hand, this thread is awesome. On the other hand, it sorta ruined Abobo, the NG user, for me since now I can't tell myself it's really him anymore.

I borrowed Abobo's account to post with, he got really angry so I stopped using it and gave it back to him before he squished me like a grape.

Anyone wanna come over and play on my new arcade cab?

[NewEvolution]

Thing's pretty dope, and doesn't look all that difficult to make although time consuming. Really makes me want to whip one up for home use and pack it full of MAME stuff.

The NES look came out great, though it's kind of bizarre seeing an LCD screen in a retro cabinet. I don't blame you for not going with an appropriately sized CRT though, seeing as it would weigh nearly as much as the entire rest of the setup.

[BoMToons]

Yeah, if this weren't designed for easy travel, I would have preferred a 24 inch CRT in there. You don't notice too much once you start playing though.

[Zyphonee]

wha

[Hapless]

At 7/29/10 03:57 PM, Zyphonee wrote: wha

Wha

[JohnnyUtah]

i'm so proud...

*wipes away tear*

[Lintire]

An incredibly good arcade machine, by all accounts. By this stage, I'd usually abandon my home, family members and financial assets to run across the country to play it, but unfortunetly I have this teensy problem of not living in America.

Still, utterly great work on a helping of Awesomesauce.