Arcade Cabinet is finally done!

[Vlaryn]

My Arcade is finally done. Here are some pics. After much feedback from the family I guess I will be doing some graphics for the lower front as well. I am going to work on a Blog and video to talk about the build in more detail if anyone is interested. 

[WeaponZ]

Looks really good!

I would love to read a blogpost with your experiences.

Where did you get the sideart and marquees printed?

[thegreatiandi]

10 hours ago, WeaponZ said:

Looks really good!

I would love to read a blogpost with your experiences.

Where did you get the sideart and marquees printed?

Same. Where did you get the side art buddy! 

That and controller panel art. 

[Vlaryn]

Thx guys. I had not found the time to put together a write up yet. I still hope to. Just gotta find the time. 

The side art I had printed from a company called printmoz.  I designed all the art myself. I basically  collage a bunch of art I found on the Internet together using photoshop to blend and make it all mesh well. I also had the marquee printed with them as well. I had them printed on 3 or 3.4 mil laminated vinyl with a matt finish.  I also went with there backlit film for the marquee. 

I am currently in the process of working on some art for the front. After I installed it in my game room I really felt it needed it. 

 

 

[thegreatiandi]

15 hours ago, Vlaryn said:

Thx guys. I had not found the time to put together a write up yet. I still hope to. Just gotta find the time. 

The side art I had printed from a company called printmoz.  I designed all the art myself. I basically  collage a bunch of art I found on the Internet together using photoshop to blend and make it all mesh well. I also had the marquee printed with them as well. I had them printed on 3 or 3.4 mil laminated vinyl with a matt finish.  I also went with there backlit film for the marquee. 

I am currently in the process of working on some art for the front. After I installed it in my game room I really felt it needed it. 

 

 

Thanks for getting back with us, man. 

So my question would be: vinyl? I would think that was super thick and an abrasive material. How was getting it adhered to the wood?

I'm on their site right now, and i like the price for sure...but i just wonder if this " banner " material will look good on the side of the arcade cab. 

[Vlaryn]

I think what you are selected on is a vinyl banner. I used the custom-decal and I added lamination. Is that the dimensions of your cabinet? I would also suggest adding a 1/2 inch black boarder around your prints to give you some flexibility of adjusting the positioning when applying it. Also another tip is to do your T-molding routing before adding the decals. Once you get your decal on the machine but before you trim off the extra fold the overlapping decal down and then run your razor knife in the routed groove. I think this makes it nicer so people or kids don't ever try and pick at the edge of your decal, now the decal edge will be under your T-molding. Also if you machine is 48 inches deep keep in mind the average door way is only like 29-31 inch wide. One of the main reason I went with a more shallow build. I will try and find some of the build pictures and post them.

https://www.printmoz.com/custom-decals

 

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by Vlaryn

[thegreatiandi]

1 hour ago, Vlaryn said:

I think what you are selected on is a vinyl banner. I used the custom-decal and I added lamination. Is that the dimensions of your cabinet? I would also suggest adding a 1/2 inch black boarder around your prints to give you some flexibility of adjusting the positioning when applying it. Also another tip is to do your T-molding routing before adding the decals. Once you get your decal on the machine but before you trim off the extra fold the overlapping decal down and then run your razor knife in the routed groove. I think this makes it nicer so people or kids don't ever try and pick at the edge of your decal, now the decal edge will be under your T-molding. Also if you machine is 48 inches deep keep in mind the average door way is only like 29-31 inch wide. One of the main reason I went with a more shallow build. I will try and find some of the build pictures and post them.

https://www.printmoz.com/custom-decals

 

 

So, that looks like more of what i thought lol. Nice...and thanks for the assist. 

So yes, my arcade is a 4-player cab that I'm finishing up. It has a 46" mon as the display, so i had to make it bigger. I would like to get that full 8'x4' like the original cut of wood..then i can just lay it on each side piece and trim accordingly.  I also created it in the garage as a modular cab so i can easily take it apart and move it indoors and rebuild it. Easy peasy. 

Now getting the graphics to look good on it and figuring out how to do graphics of the control panel is something else entirely.  You said you just came up with a bunch of art from the net..and placed it on a collage of sorts? Because that looks professional to me?! 

[Vlaryn]

Thanks, I  just used Google image search. Once you do your search you can use there tools option and select Size then select Larger then 2mp. You want to use the Highest resolution images you can find. Also I said I used photoshop to merge and lay them all out in but really I used a lesser known program call Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. They are an alternative to Adobes products. I think they are just as good and they only cost $50 each. No monthly fee. Then I just watched and read a bunch of videos on how to use them. I took my time and did not rush. 

[voicesinthedark]

Another thing you can do when using google image search looking for art to use is make sure you add transparent background to your search, so for example if you're looking for Super Mario Bros. characters you'd enter "Super Mario Bros. characters with transparent background". You might not always find ones with transparent backgrounds but a lot of the time just adding that to your search field will make it prioritize images with a white background or other background that's easier to use tools like magic eraser, etc. on it to remove the background. 

[Vlaryn]

Cool never thought about that.  Thanks. 

[voicesinthedark]

Yeah no problem, that's a trick I learned making and reconstructing box art and you wouldn't think it would make that big of a difference but once you really start getting into it you'll kick yourself for never doing it before.

[thegreatiandi]

17 hours ago, Vlaryn said:

Thanks, I  just used Google image search. Once you do your search you can use there tools option and select Size then select Larger then 2mp. You want to use the Highest resolution images you can find. Also I said I used photoshop to merge and lay them all out in but really I used a lesser known program call Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. They are an alternative to Adobes products. I think they are just as good and they only cost $50 each. No monthly fee. Then I just watched and read a bunch of videos on how to use them. I took my time and did not rush. 

Nice. I've never used that program...I'm on it though. I hate the monthly nonsense with Adobe nowadays.

1 hour ago, voicesinthedark said:

Another thing you can do when using google image search looking for art to use is make sure you add transparent background to your search, so for example if you're looking for Super Mario Bros. characters you'd enter "Super Mario Bros. characters with transparent background". You might not always find ones with transparent backgrounds but a lot of the time just adding that to your search field will make it prioritize images with a white background or other background that's easier to use tools like magic eraser, etc. on it to remove the background. 

Smart idea. I just created a intro video for my friends Rasberrypi/retro pi and made sure to get the white background pics. Easy to integrate these when you just have to key out one color.