Ok well I have now started into the paint stage of the game. Wow, what a long strange trip its been. I have decided to use both spray paint and rolled paint on the cab. The only thing is that you can not use standard latex paint with spray paint as the oil and latex will argue. I decided to use oil all the way around. As I understand it, it will give a smoother and stronger finish. The other plus is that I can safely spray paint over the top of the rolled stuff. I found the same flavor spray paint as the oil I intend to use so it should all match up nicely. The Primer is Kils, and the spray is Rust-o-lium Satin Black.

I did the CP top with completely with spray as it would eventually be covered up anyway. I am really just painting it in case any edges ever show through. I sprayed a couple layers of primer, then sanded with 300 grit sand paper. Once I got it nice and smooth, I sprayed it with black matte. I also sanded it between coats here as well. This was way overkill for something that no one would see, but I would know.
I sprayed the CP outside and did notice that there were a few flecks of dust afterwards. Not a major thing as it would be covered, but I do not want this on the cabinet. Being that I live in Georgia (the pollen capitol of the world, and Canada), I decided to make a makeshift paint booth. This way I can keep sawdust and pollen out (sort of) and paint fumes in (sort of). Seemed like a good idea and seems to be working (sort of).

I wanted to see what the difference would be with spray vs. foam roller. I have read that using a foam roller will give a smoother finish than a standard nappy roller. Frankly I am a little concerned that the rolled paint will not be as smooth as a sprayed surface. More, I am worried that you will see roller marks. I poured a good portion of primer into my pan and started rolling the cabinet sides. Two things that struck me were how thick, and not smooth the primer was. I am going to finish the first layer of prime then sand. I am hoping that this is a primer thing and the paint will go on smoother.

I am now starting to work on the marquee and trying to come up with a name for this thing. A long time back I initially a design that I was working with. Once I designed my CP graphics, everything changed because the CP really set the tone me. So I am ditching the original marquee design (plus I no longer want to go with the MAME name) not that there is anything wrong with it, just not what I want. I really like Flashback but it has been used in a variety of flavors. But I do like it. I do not want anything that says cade or rama or anything like that.

(AT) Building one of these completely from scratch using only my own plans is an interesting ordeal. I want everything to be original in art, and design. It is a constant puzzle as to how you will solve the next part and trying to for see any future pitfalls before they happen. One thing I remember is how tired I was all the time. In addition to staying up late all the time to work on this, I was always thinking about it. There were so many things to think about too. There was of course the wood working and construction side of things, but there was also weight management, heat management, art design, paint design, computer design, electrical design, sound design, cable management, emulator front end design. I did not write the front end, but I used the front end to the fullest in combination with my own graphics, sound, and animation.

I then went after one of the parts that I have been dreading for quite some time. The bezel set up. The bezel is an important piece as it hides all the guts from the player. It also masks off any stray light that might come off the monitor, into the cab, or the opposite, light from the internal electronics that might leak out. This process actually went much easier than I thought that it would. Either I am getting better at this stuff or God happened to give his blessing that day.

I cut the two pieces that would support the bezel. I used the monitor brace as a guide. I cut 2 boards to the height above the monitor that I thought that the bezel should be and set them on top of the brace. I then used those 2 boards to hold the bezel rails in place. I glued them in. After it had dried, eagerly put the bezel and glass in to see how it would look. The board was too low. So, I cut some very thin strips of mdf (somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8) thick. I glued them to the current bezel rails. Still to low. So I added another set of strips and this time it was right. Whoopee!. I had to figure out how to keep the bezel and glass from slipping out. So I used another piece of angled aluminum. I cut a piece of wood that would span the inside of the cabinet. I secured it to the walls with angle brackets. With the bezel and glass in place, I screwed the aluminum piece to the cross piece.

Now I am working on the CP. So many crucial choices. Crap, what is a guy supposed to do?!?
In the background I have been working on the computer. I have a fresh load of Win XP on it and have loaded MAME and all the important little things we need to make a cab go. I had some struggles with the Arcade VGA graphics card.This was a 3 week nightmare to get set up. It finally took a call to Andy (creator of the card). It was 12 am in the UK. Completely not the voice I expected from him. Cool guy though. We had to force windows to load the drivers. It was rejecting them every way I tried. We thought it was a bad board initially. After we fought with it for a while we got it going. Thanks again Andy if you are reading this.

BTW here is my test bench for my cab and monitor. I figured that the air hockey table was as good of place as any.