Controls are in and the panel is installed. Need to wire it up.
Update (1-18-10)
A vinyl overlay for the control panel...
A vinyl overlay for the control panel...
Update (1-10-10)
My son Jordan helping me out and pre-installing some of the controls. We're just making sure everything fits. I have created a graphic design for the vinyl control panel overlay that will go over the top.
Driving though Nevada was... well... boring. Very long straight road - I-80. Things didn't start getting interesting until we drove through Reno. The area around the Lake Tahoe and the Sierra's is simply beautiful. Lots of white granite and pine trees.
Mario and I played around with the arcade cabinet before disassembling it. It was not working, nor could we get it working.
The official hand-off. This was bittersweet for me. In order for this deal to go down, my friend Kevin already had dibs and I agreed to let him have the arcade machine I built from the ground up for the rights to Mario's cabinet... good will, manly sort of code stuff you know. But I don't really want 2 cabinets at my house anyway and Mario's cabinet would give me something to do. In a lot of ways it is a better cabinet... or at least it has more potential.
After we loaded the arcade cabinet into the minivan we headed out for Clarke's Burgers. Mario wanted to try it out and they cook the burgers over a bed of charcoal. The burgers are really good. The place has one all kinds of awards. Good stuff.
Making some progress. Time to work on a new control panel. Switching it to 2 players with 8 buttons each and the new trac ball in the center.
After making the cuts...
My son Jordan helping me out and pre-installing some of the controls. We're just making sure everything fits. I have created a graphic design for the vinyl control panel overlay that will go over the top.Update (12-10-09)
It's sitting there... looking at me all the time. Not really working :)
Original Post (9-22-09)
My good buddy Mario was in the process of moving over the summer. Mario happened to have a ginormous arcade cabinet that he didn't want to move and he asked me if I wanted it. Of course, being the 80s arcade freak that I am I obliged... not only do I get a an arcade machine, but I get to see Mario as well. Only hitch is that I have to drive from Boise to Mountain View (San Jose area), across the desert, in two days!
So... I threw a kid in the car with me - Jacob - and we headed out Friday morning.
Our first stop was at a garage sale in Nampa... I don't know why I stopped. Was in the mood I guess. Nothing interesting so we moved on.
Turned south on 95 just past Marsing - a frequent road for us as it is the crossroads to many rock hounding places.
Shortly after we crossed into Oregon we ran across some vultures at Jordan Valley. I took this as a good omen :)
After an eternity, we eventually arrived in the most fabulous place in the world - Winnemucca! Who knew that people could exist in the middle of an arid desert. But not only do they exist... they have fun and gamble too! Not really my cup of tea, but we stop and eat pizza at the local Pizza Hut and get gas.
Driving though Nevada was... well... boring. Very long straight road - I-80. Things didn't start getting interesting until we drove through Reno. The area around the Lake Tahoe and the Sierra's is simply beautiful. Lots of white granite and pine trees.
We had planned to stop at a Motel 6 if we had too, but times are tough so we drove on through all the way Mario's. It took us all day!
We crashed at Mario's apartment (which was really sparse. He had moved a lot of stuff out already and lots of things were boxed up.
When I eventually woke up the next morning, I was feeling a little out of it. Serious bed head and droggy. But I was enjoying myself - even if I didn't look it.
Jacob really enjoyed Mario. Mario is like a kid magnet.. kids love this guy. Kids just know good people when they see them... and Mario is certainly a good person.
Mario and I played around with the arcade cabinet before disassembling it. It was not working, nor could we get it working.
The official hand-off. This was bittersweet for me. In order for this deal to go down, my friend Kevin already had dibs and I agreed to let him have the arcade machine I built from the ground up for the rights to Mario's cabinet... good will, manly sort of code stuff you know. But I don't really want 2 cabinets at my house anyway and Mario's cabinet would give me something to do. In a lot of ways it is a better cabinet... or at least it has more potential.
After we loaded the arcade cabinet into the minivan we headed out for Clarke's Burgers. Mario wanted to try it out and they cook the burgers over a bed of charcoal. The burgers are really good. The place has one all kinds of awards. Good stuff.We ended up leaving Mario and Mountain View around noon. We gained an hour when we arrived... I knew we were going to lose an hour going back... and I wanted to go to church on Sunday.
Jacob and I drove most of the way back in the dark so we don't have any good pictures. We ended up pulling off the side of the road near Jordan Valley at 3 A.M. I just couldn't make it. I'm not the young pup I once was.
In the morning, we did a little rock hounding before heading back home. Once home I discovered that the motherboard for the cabinet had died (I was going to upgrade anyway), but the big old Dell monitor was good (which I thought was going to be bad after it had bumped around in the car).
I plan on posting another blog post showing the progress of the cabinet. I plan on making a new control panel layout and installing the new trac-ball that came with it. It came with a 4 person control panel layout, but I would have to purchase another i-pac controller that would support that many controls and we would almost never use it. I could change my mind later though. Right now I've installed a much newer PC and a new front end interface (software) called Hyperspin.
