Wood Sides Added!

I went to a small office in a hu-ge industrial unit in Acton today - They are called Vinyl Depot on ebay, but they have another name for this office. They mainly make artwork for film and tv shows.

The wood effect vinyl is called "Rustic Oak" and it is quite good a match for the original Trimline wood effect. It's a slightly brighter colour - but still looks awesome.

I stuck the stuff down in literally 5 minutes per side - really easy - no bubbles or anything. I overlapped the edges AND stapled them to the sides (where the T-moulding will hide them, obviously!

I have also cut the front black plastic vinyl - ready to go on tonight (possibly)

Also, secured an RGB monitor - ready for collection on Sunday. BUT! I am still on the case to make the damn TV work with jamma! I will NOT let it beat me!

After the rest of the painting (back door and top) and vinyl sticking (front and top) I will probably get onto fabricating the coin door/coin box etc.

What a great day!

Marquee Ideas

Here are some ideas for the Marquee-

A Little Progress

I've made a little progress at work today -

Bandsawed a bit of excess off the back door - my dodgy measuring ;)

Had aluminium marquee / screen retainers bent up.

Fitted back lock - just to hold the back door on.

I have managed to source an Arkanoid board off of a good guy on www.jammaplus.co.uk (Yay!)

Still awaiting some wiring instructions for the screen.

need to order up the wood effect vinyl covering for the sides...

Got A Screen :(

I got a £10 14" colour TV from a car boot sale today. Also got a £1 19mm flat drill for the back door lock hole and some L brackets (for a bit of strength)

Got the TV and knocked up a quick and dirty switcher / harness / scart hack to test the screen and the boards I have.

Can't get a picture at all. not sure what is wrong. I tested the boards out on my cocktail cab. Only 1 board out of the 3 I have actually works - and it has colour / graphics issues :(

I tried the board out on a known working supergun I had lying around and it works thru scart on the tv fine.

I'm stumped as to why my setup doesn't work. I have followed the instructions to the line and it still won't display.

The really annoying thing is - The first thing I ever built using electronics was a home made supergun and it worked fine, first time!

On the good side - I took the back off the tv and the mounting holes will be absolutely fine for the machine - providing I can get it to display!

If I can't - I may have to go the dirty Mame route... Boo!

90% of woodwork done

After milling the front & back door apertures for the coin door/box and back vents I got at home after work.

Made a lot of mess. Wish I had a workshop :(

Anyway, what you see to the left is how far I got.

I made some small mistakes, which was bound to happen, but nothing major!

Before I start painting / laminating etc. I will have one final measure up and will be drawing all the parts up in cad. These will be available for anyone who wants them afterwards.

The image you can see on the right is the assembled cab with the uncut screen panel and my Phoenix control panel (borrowed for testing purposes) *It all fits!*

I have now only got a few small things to do to complete the woodworking.

Next job will be to find wooden laminate (such as Formica) to cover the sides. The front and top will be covered with plastic laminate (bought from Paperchase)

Then, it will be on to sourcing a 14" colour arcade monitor. I may use an old TV for this. I already have all the other arcade bits to do the internals.

I forgot to mention coin door / coin box / coin box door - I will be making them myself at work.

Progress on panels!

I managed to get the side profiles done on my CNC machine today.

I also cut out the aperture for the marquee and drilled the holes for the on/off & volume in the back panel.

The pic says it all - I am pleased with todays "work" - when I should have really been "working"

A ha ha ha har!

Marking out and wood cutting.

I cut a few pieces today from the lengths I had done at the DIY store.

All that remains to be cut from the main drawing are the profiles & angles on the sides of the cab - which I will be milling on a CNC machine at work very soon.

The base and screen panel aren't done yet either, I will need to buy just a little bit more mdf to get those pieces done.

At the same time as buying the base & screen panel I will get the batons with which I will be making the inside corners of the cab. Hopefully by the weekend I can fit the cab together in some kind of fashion.

Even just with the profiles drawn out on the sides, it looks like it's coming together.....

I have even decided what the next machine will be, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, there!

Got wood!

Here is a quick pic of the screen form the cad program I used to draw up the parts.

I cannot get the profiles cut via beam saw (not with the company I emailed anyway)

So, off I went to Homebase (Hampton) tonight and got one of their surprisingly helpful staff to cut up my arcade cab blanks for me with their cross cut saw (wish I had one of those)

I now have the blank sides cut to rectangular size and the width of all the other panels to size.

Tomorrow I will mark out the angular cuts and rads. If the panel will fit on one of my cnc mills at work I may take the easy (and more accurate) way out and do it on there. At least both sides will be *EXACTLY* the same if I do that.

All the other parts - kick plate / front panel / screen retainer / top and 3 parts of the back will just need cutting to height on the works bandsaw.

Hopefully by the weekend I will be able to start getting a cab shaped 'thing' dry bolted together.

Dimensions of machine

I will be using my original Phoenix as a template for making my version of the Trimline.

I measured all the outer dimensions with a steel ruler, tape measure and a bevel protractor for the angles. The curved corners are estimated.

I drew up the machine using a cad/cam program called OneCNC, which I use at work, where I am a CNC miller.

I have emailed a timber company to ask if they could cut the cab profiles into 18mm mdf / plywood using a beam saw. I am awaiting a reply on this at the moment.

If they cannot do this, I will have to have the rough rectangular shapes cut and do the rest of the detailed cuts myself using my works bandsaw and/or various woodcutting tools (circular saw, jigsaw and various sanders)

Introduction

I intend on remaking a Taito Trimline arcade machine.

Taito Trimline arcade machines are a "cabaret" machine - which is a stand up machine, but not quite full size - a midi machine if you like.

Taito Trimlines came in different flavours (different games, artwork and control layouts)

These types of machines were popular in Germany, where floor space was important.

Some of the various Trimlines I can think of (from members help on www.jammplus.co.uk) are-

Phoenix (the one I have)

Crazy Climber

Polaris

Space Invaders

Jungle Hunt aka Jungle King

There isn't much info about them on the internet, but the most popular versions of this machine seem to be Phoenix and Space Invaders.

I intend to make my version of the machine and put Arkanoid into it, as Taito never made an Arkanoid in this style of machine. If all goes well with this project I may make more Trimlines with other Taito games in them. Maybe a Bubble Bobble would be nice? Who knows?