i'm in favor of keeping the original monitor orientation. decades of development by folks building thousands of these things probably will produce a more informed decision than us yahoos.

it means a bigger viewable space, more visible pixels for that classsic look, and you're not inches from the screen as you would be vertically. the thing almost reaches to the front of the cabinet.

if the glass is wonky, it's just smoke glass, it's not that hard to find.

And... it looks like the wooden sliding shelf under which the original CRT was mounted fits very nicely over the new monitor face, leaving just over an inch of the monitor's silver bezel exposed. We'd need to paint that silver bezel black. It seems that several bands of metal strapping could be bolted to the shelf and around the monitor housing as partial means of support. One potential issue is that the front side of the new monitor, if mounted in the same fashion with the housing intact, might impose on space needed for panel mechanisms on the underside of the control panel.

The half-mirrored reflector served also to allow an image in the back, lit by ultraviolet light, to superimpose over the CRT image projected from below.

I'm guessing 6-8 feet of metal strapping would be needed for each band, and we should use a minimum of three bands. Does anyone have this much strapping to donate to the project? Or should I go and get some? There's a good chance I'll spend a little time at the H.F. today.

If we're going to do some painting, I can help sand down that mounting shelf.

Booka, will you be able to spend some time at the H.F. today?

It is not looking good for me, but I did plan on getting down there this afternoon.

I still will try, but wife thinks her plans are the priority, and I am unwilling to disagree with her at this moment.

This project is stalled at the moment, for a couple of reasons.

First I played with a mame unit at home, and think it would be better to mod the case to put an Xbox or PS in it.
Second is need / interest. Wammie spent a fair amount of his time on it, and I spend some, but I am not sure that it is something the HF needs.

So having said this, I plan to box it up, and discard some parts such as the tube and other degraded electronics soon.

But if anybody has the desire to take this and run, I am more than open to handing it off too.

What I am thinking for the cabinet is similar to the Kiosk PC we have, but make it so it is self powered or charged to run at events we go to as a running media device.
Loop videos, photos and such with the option to become interactive if they want to browse. Need to think that through a bit more, and I am open to suggestions there too.

Where did this end up? I think it would be fun to do one from scratch as well. Does the screen need to be a monitor, there is no shortage of TV's to be had these days, which strikes me as working for an old skool cabinet.

I'd be up for designing a system. I think it would be fun to have a few around the space. Plus you could build a combination MAME cabinet/membership kiosk, that would ROCK.

We were joking the other night about the fact that we should just film Michael doing the $0.05 tour, but that might not be a bad thing to have as a new member/promo vid. Same concept.

Extra points would be wiring them all up with the parabolic cones so they can be as loud as folks want, but not disturb others.

As far as I know, it went nowhere. I looked at the shell I had brought down there over a year ago, and was going to find a way to dispose of the electronics and give the frame to a buddy so he can build it out.

I lost interest in the MAME side of things after spending a while with with the software and remembering why all my console systems get played for a few hours and then end up on a shelf. I like PC gaming, and while arcade is where I started, after a few rounds of the same screen I lose interest.

So having said that, if you want he shell, speak up, I am guessing the electronics can go, so I will find a way to dispose of the tube and boards.

I like the idea of a couple games down there, and will bring in the Atari all in one retro unit if I can find the box it is in, and I also love the idea of a video display system.

I think the video display system could be expanded to have the basic tour type video's that Videoman has done, as well as a nickel tour for prospects. But also start to build reference videos about woodworking, metalworking, electronics and the like. This could be done by just setting up links to other sources, and creating specifics for our stuff. I had talked with OttoPM about taping segments of his CNC setup for his class (to be used as future review) but I have slacked on that do to other priorities.

I have a 3CCD camera (Not as good as videomans, but it does work) that can be used to record straight to a firewire port (read mac, for the most part) an that could be used to record our content for any project / machine. But we should walk first and have a playback system first, for local playback at the HF.

i believe the cabinet is in the eventual paint room.

I've seen the shell, I just did not know the current state of ownership, et all. Re the boards, was the whole unit fired? I may have someone that would take some of the extra original stuff, so don't trash it if you haven't yet.

I've wanted to do some Kiosk type stuff for a while. I'm actually sitting on a pile of old ToughBooks with touch screens. Not super powerful boxes (like PIII's but more than enough to run a simple kiosk and ruggudized to boot. I think it makes sense to make the existing cabinet into an old skool pacman type thing and to spec a new unit for kiosk stuff. You would want either a keyboard or a touchscreen on a member kiosk. (or both) The fun bit is you could drop the cam right into the box and let them take a member photo right there. I've just never had the tools to bang a case out.

I have no shortage of laptops and the like to power the thing, so I can adopt the case in the short term, if there are no objecters. Do we know what size tube that had? It strikes me as being a rather low hanging fruit type project.

A *pile* of touchscreen ToughBooks, you say? I may have a use for such a thing as a control station for my robot. PM me if you might be willing to give/sell one to me...

This is the cabinet, right?

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detai ... me_id=8920

Looks like there was a monitor at one point for the unit that was donated, is this still the case? Also, it looks like the original unit was actually black and white and just vector, i.e. the glass was designed to allow you to see through as the backdrop color image was painted on. Is this going to work with a regular image? Strikes me as we'd have to swap the glass out for a mirror. (or just block the back of it to get the most reflection.)