Project Moonwalker

dalehitchy1 · 9 Sep 2016 at 23:11

My sisters kids loved the arcade machine I built them last year

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18694123&page=2

So its time to build another. This time... it's for me. I have learnt a lot of things from my last build (from software, woodworking skills and general setup) so I hope this will be a lot better.

Will be same shape as last time:

The plan is to have all by buttons white, along with the ball on the joysticks. Im looking into design on the sides. Last time I used a poster which I glued on, which saved my a lot of time spray painting the things. This time, I probably wont have as much choice in Micheal Jackson moonwalker posters. I am considering cutting out some sort of stencil and spraying it on the sides.

dalehitchy1 · 9 Sep 2016 at 23:15

I have found a google image of the kind of design im looking for on the side. I think this person has done this on a canvas but no reason why it cant be done on an arcade cabinet.

http://img03.deviantart.net/3ec2/i/...jackson_stencil_artwork_by_hkdomo-d5ru4t0.jpg

dalehitchy1 · 9 Sep 2016 at 23:26

Last time I went with the raspberry pi to run my machine. The majority of the cabinet was empty space! This time, Im using a windows PC. For £10, I managed to get a dual core pc, 4gb ram, and a decent sized hard drive to get a lot of games on there.

Software wise, I can't talk about what emulator software I will be running. However, my Front end, which is the UI and the software that organises all the box art, manuals and videos is called Big Box.

Last time, I used the common raspberry pi OS but this has a lot more customisation. There are a few other front ends I could have chosen (and many which are free) however with big box I paid a small amount, and can install on as many computers as I want. The benefit of big box is its very very easy to get up and running. No coding, tweaking or watching lengthy video tutorials on how to get this set up. A wizard guided my on bootup on how to get it running so I have stuck with it.

So here is a video of my Front end up and running. Just to point out to the mods again.... this is NOT emulation software but software that organises my media, games and emulators

Mcthommo · 10 Sep 2016 at 08:58

Dale
I'm looking at doing a similar build for my godson's 12th birthday and wondered what emulation software u are using- can u pm me if u get chance pls

LewisRaz · 10 Sep 2016 at 12:07

Look forward to seeing this get built. That frontend looks great! Better than retropi.

dalehitchy1 · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:20

Mcthommo said:
Dale
I'm looking at doing a similar build for my godson's 12th birthday and wondered what emulation software u are using- can u pm me if u get chance pls

Im not sure how I can private message you. cant see the option. The software above is bigbox / launchbox but thats not the emulator.

I cant name the emulator on here as I will get in trouble.... its a RETRO emulator thats has many in one.... so you dont need to download seperate ones. Youtube tutorials on it and im sure youll come across it.

wedrum · 10 Sep 2016 at 18:24

turbo outrun awesome

dalehitchy1 · 10 Sep 2016 at 21:06

Slightly changed the colour and the video intros for each console.

At 1.23 you can see attract mode. This will cycle between games and platforms randomly every 20 seconds if the arcade is left untouched for a certain amount of time. From that point onwards im not doing anything at all.

It's much better than the raspberry pi... as this just sat silent if your on the main screen.

ALXAndy · 11 Sep 2016 at 13:45

dalehitchy1 said:
I have found a google image of the kind of design im looking for on the side. I think this person has done this on a canvas but no reason why it cant be done on an arcade cabinet.

http://img03.deviantart.net/3ec2/i/...jackson_stencil_artwork_by_hkdomo-d5ru4t0.jpg

Ahh this brings back some fond memories !

When I was in my late teens my main wish was to own a SFII arcade machine. I ended up finding a company in North London who supplied me with said machine but man, it was a wreck. There was no glass in the front and it was some manky old brown chip board.

I replaced the glass and spray painted it (the same as you did on your previous project only with glass, not perspex) and then covered the entire machine in a medium blue vinyl. Once that was done I found an old SNES poster that came with the SFII edition and it had a big side on picture of Ryu doing a dragon punch. I got my cousin to come round who was excellent at art and drawing etc and got him to draw the design onto the back of some matt black vinyl. Bingo bongo, one large silhouette on each side of the machine. It looked seriously badass, and I sold the machine on for about £500 a few months later.

dalehitchy1 · 11 Sep 2016 at 20:10

ALXAndy said:
Ahh this brings back some fond memories !

When I was in my late teens my main wish was to own a SFII arcade machine. I ended up finding a company in North London who supplied me with said machine but man, it was a wreck. There was no glass in the front and it was some manky old brown chip board.

I replaced the glass and spray painted it (the same as you did on your previous project only with glass, not perspex) and then covered the entire machine in a medium blue vinyl. Once that was done I found an old SNES poster that came with the SFII edition and it had a big side on picture of Ryu doing a dragon punch. I got my cousin to come round who was excellent at art and drawing etc and got him to draw the design onto the back of some matt black vinyl. Bingo bongo, one large silhouette on each side of the machine. It looked seriously badass, and I sold the machine on for about £500 a few months later.

I did contemplate doing a street fighter one - i do have about 6 games on there of all the different SF games. I think restoring old cabs can actually be cheaper if you can grab an old arcade. I went with moonwalker because i played the sega version so much and I always loved the moonwalker film ^_^

Today I have put some of the cabinet together. As I'm using a PC this time, ive added the drawer (not as smooth as I like at the moment), as well as the door at the back so I can access the PC.

whiterabbit · 11 Sep 2016 at 23:15

Well this is certainly different from what is usually posted here. Looks like a really fun project.

Subbed!

Kryja · 14 Sep 2016 at 11:43

Looks really interesting and fun. Always wanted to build something like this. So you would recommend using a fully fledged pc rather than a raspberry pi for something like this?

dalehitchy1 · 14 Sep 2016 at 17:09

Kryja said:
Looks really interesting and fun. Always wanted to build something like this. So you would recommend using a fully fledged pc rather than a raspberry pi for something like this?

Absolutely. I was ok with getting the PI set up in terms of OS and putting the games on, but when it came to the USB controller encoder, I had to tweak lots of config files which I was only able to do via the command prompt. With PC, im hoping it will be a lot easier and from looks of it, it will be.

Retropie does not run MAME games very well either. With my Pi 2 I was able to run upto the PS1 so anything above that gen you will need a PC for.

You have a plethora of front ends to use on PC too, from Launchbox, Maximus, Hyperspin and Mala. Ironcally, my PC based build will be cheaper. I got the PC £10 at a car boot vs £30 for a brand new pi plus another £10 for decent storage.

dalehitchy1 · 14 Sep 2016 at 17:12

Ordered 2 vinyls today (in white) to go on the side of my cab. They wont be as big.

mikeggratton · 15 Sep 2016 at 09:25

Looks to be a great project, looking forward to seeing it progress

Kryja · 15 Sep 2016 at 12:49

dalehitchy1 said:
...With PC, im hoping it will be a lot easier and from looks of it, it will be...

That's good to know as I've got a load of spare parts doing sweet eff ay that could be put to use. How big is your storage this time versus last time?

dalehitchy1 · 15 Sep 2016 at 13:47

Kryja said:
That's good to know as I've got a load of spare parts doing sweet eff ay that could be put to use. How big is your storage this time versus last time?

My pi was 32 gb vs 500gb pc.

I doubt I'll use anywhere near that amount....I think I have about half left. As most games are about ... At least the 2d ones a few mb. It's only when you get on the PlayStation and n64 you start loosing space as these are roughly 700mb

A lot of the space will be taken up by your videos.... If I didn't use these I'd have way more space for games.

whiterabbit · 15 Sep 2016 at 15:31

love plating N64 games on my pc emulator. Have you used some of the high res packs?

dalehitchy1 · 15 Sep 2016 at 17:31

whiterabbit said:
love plating N64 games on my pc emulator. Have you used some of the high res packs?

I'm only running a dual core with no gpu.... Factor in that many n64 (and some ps1 games) require an analogue input it just won't work on arcade controls.

I will be removing the n64 platform... And limit PlayStation games on there

whiterabbit · 15 Sep 2016 at 20:17

dalehitchy1 said:
I'm only running a dual core with no gpu.... Factor in that many n64 (and some ps1 games) require an analogue input it just won't work on arcade controls.

I will be removing the n64 platform... And limit PlayStation games on there

That's a shame but I'm sure they will love it anyway!