Come on in and stay awhile!
Welcome to my Arcade Construction and Toy Kitbashing site!
In this site I plan to document the background, planning, and progress
made towards building a home arcade system as well as my other hobbies
(action figure kitbashing) Stay tuned, photos and more to come!
6/18/09: Added Trek Blasters II to my Software page. Check it out now!
5/24/09: Added more to the Construction Diary on my 4-player panel and Spinner.
5/13/09: Considered a new plan for my 4-player cab... updating my Arcadia 2007 cab to 4-players, AND doing a cosmetic update to a "castle" theme, as between the Tron-colors and Transformers, I never really tied together a unifying theme.
4/28/09: Changed a lot on the site... moved around some old arcade diary files and combined a few things, then added a page for new software programs I'm writing.
1/29/09: Fiddled with a MAME layout file today, got some cool results (screen burn-in for Asteroids with MAME v.127)
1/19/09: Added my Superman album.
1/1/09: Happy New Year! Added a new GI Joe album to start my Cobra ROCC kitbash.
12/30/08: My KB 50% off sale haul
12/29/08: My post-Christmas sale haul (found lots of good stuff today!)
12/17/08: Color reference photo for my Galvatron kitbash:
12/7/08: Added new photos to the Scarlett album, plus a new Dec heroes album.
12/6/08: Added a new kitbashes photo album (Flash, Firestorm, Blue Beetle, Thing, Ironhide, Samurai Armor Iron Man)
12/3/08: Added a Scarlett album
11/29/08: Added Skeletor, Man-E-Faces, and Faker (final) photos to MoTU album.
11/26/08: Added finished Rulk photos to Marvel Heroes album.
11/25/08: Added new Rulk WIP photos to the Marvel Heroes album.
11/22/08: Added two new Lion-O WIP photos to the album.
11/20/08: Added new albums for MoTU and Thundercats. Also found a new logo I wanted to use for my kitbashing:
11/18/08: Quick photo of Lion-O work in progress:
11/11/08: Added a Captain America photo album, continuing the story...
11/10/08: Added a photo album for 3 figures I kitbashed: Spy Wolverine, Juggernaut, and Hulk.
10/3/08: Added one gif to use for an avatar (already have been doing so on other sites):
9/26/08: Working on designs for my Gauntlet (working title) cab:
6/24/08: Added Wasabi Man to the albums.
6/1/08: Added a She-Ra photo gallery for that kitbash.
5/27/08: Added a few photos of the SCI pedal assembly.
5/25/08: Added two new albums, one for my driving cab (SCI), and one for my new 4-player cab (project name Gauntlet for right now, although it will play much more than just Gauntlet)
5/24/08: A few final photos of the Galaga restoration. In the basement now:
5/18/08: Added photos of the wood grain paint job to the album.
5/17/08: Added more detail photos of the glass repair to the album.
5/16/08: Added more photos of the Galag restoration to the album. Also, here's a picture of the dipswitch instruction card (found it in the coin box). (right-click and select "View Image" to view full size)
5/12/08: Added some photos to the album (glass restoration) and this video link to myself playing it on Youtube:
5/11/08: The Galaga works!!! All I had to do was check some of the EEPROMs and make sure they were snapped in all the way. The whole thing could use a bit of dusting and I'm not sure the coin mech's are registering quarters, but I can set it to free play anyway:
5/10/08: Added photo album for my new Galaga machine!
5/9/08: My toy haul this week: the Fantasticar and HML Emma Frost, all for $10 at TJ Maxx. Woo hoo!
5/6/08: A couple of WIP shots of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (this page)
<< original figure (Domino from HML)
^ first sculpt, color test on paint ^ Resculpted hair, added some paint..
4/27/08: Added Ms. Marvel to the photo galleries. (Completed figure)
4/25/08: Updated Firestorm gallery w/ completed photos. Added photo galleries for Captain Mar-Vell, Return to Krypton Superman.
4/16/08: Here's a couple of pictures of my Captain Mar-Vell work-in-progress:
4/9/08: Added a new figure album for the Fall 2008 CustomCon.
4/7/08: My GI Joe Universe pics made it to CustomCon XIX!
Also, here's a picture of my Iron Man Armory, mostly non-kitbash stuff, just a cool display:
3/30/08: Added a gallery for my new Firestorm Kitbash. More galleries to come!
12/20/07: Came back to the 4 player modular design with a new mounting idea. On the Plan page.
12/18/07: Yet another 4-player layout plan.
12/17/07: New plans for a 4-player layout! See the Plan page.
11/20/07: Added a small jpg of my control panel layout to the Plan page. Back to the arcade hobby!
10/20/07: Started working with my new molds tonight: my new male basic for JLU figures (created a masked Sinestro, on the left) and my new 6" mold based on the Four Horsemen Mattel Batman series. (in this case, swapping Superman's head for Bats to eventually make a Hal Jordan Green Lantern). Photos on this page only so far until I re-org the site. Hal swivels at the waist, two joints at the shoulder, leg to hip, and eventually, knees (though this doesn't work yet). Sinestro is articulated at neck, shoulders, and hips only.
10/18/07: Added a photo of the pink stormtrooper to the album.
10/17/07: Added new Stormtroopers and Stormie Toons to their album.
10/10/07: New stuff on the kitbashes index page including a link to a new Stormtrooper file.
10/1/07: Added Wreckage and Wonder Girl to the kitbash galleries.
9/28/07: Added two new kitbash galleries, Disaster and Midnight Liger Zero.
9/20/07: Added an album for a new Martian Manhunter kitbash.
9/18/07: Added some albums for my other new hobby, Kitbashing.
8/30/07: Added a page for my coin door installation!
8/12/07: Added a page to display my new side art!
buddy!). He said he wasn't using it anymore and it was just gathering a lot of
dust. He actually threw in the case, DVD rom, and a broken video card in with the
deal, so it was all good. The only catch was, he wasn't sure if the mobo was still
good b/c he said he might have fried it or his memory. Good news, I was able
to install the DDR memory from my desktop into it and it works!! I then swapped
out the SDRAM memory from my cab and put it into my desktop -- funny now, my
cab pc outweighs my desktop pc now by a few Mhz and ram speed! All of it installed
beautifully, and was able to add another 40GB hard drive now (since I no longer
have the BIOS limitations on my old cab pc) in addition to the 17GB I was working
with. Tested it with Rampage World Tour and Rayforce -- both run the fastest
I've EVER seen them on on my cab, Whooppeee!
Also: scored a Golden Tee Coin Door off Ebay for $1, with a local pickup. Can't
beat that by a mile.
7/19/07 FINALLY got the trackball mouse hack tested and installed! I ended up
using a Belkin USB mouse (note: it did NOT work with the PS/2 mouse adapter...
I think because the voltage wasn't sufficient w/ PS/2). I pretty much followed the
directions under http://mamewah.mameworld.net/mousehack.htm and it all worked
once I figured out the GND connection. Note that the colors for x and y directions are
reversed on my hack (ie blue and purple are reversed, green and yellow are reversed).
FYI I'm using a 3" official Happ Controls trackball I won off Ebay a few months back...
for under $30 incl ship. This is the first time I've been able to test it, and really the
second mouse hack I've tried... I tried using a PS/2 intellimouse explorer mouse but
in soldering it I accidentally snapped the board in two (sob). I tried to jumper and fix
the board but must not have done something right because the computer didn't even
want to power up with it hooked up. See how it was done here!
7/4/07 Had some time this week, got to install my trackball and all controls
onto the final control panel. Also put up the front panel for the keyboard
drawer and realigned the drawer.
5/31/07 Got the final (corrected) version of my marquee!
5/14/07 Small update: Just wanted to add a photo of the Prototype 2 CP attached to the current state of the cab.
5/6/07 Update: Added a description of how I hooked an external power button to my TV, plus lighting up the marquee.
5/2/07 Update: Added a mockup marquee, holes for pinball buttons (installed one button to test the fit), and extra T-molding on the control panel box. There isn't any on the control panel top yet because I screwed up this prototype II (but it's there on the final, no pics yet). The MAME logo I found on the net and printed on transparency paper for the mockup. Holding it in place at the top, I made my own L-bracket out of -- get this -- plastic safety edge guard (about $3 for 8 feet at Lowe's). Paint it black, it looks great. Now to order the real deal from mamemarquees.
5/1/07 Update: Inspiration and History, Plan, Materials, Prototype I, Construction p1
4/30/07 Update: Latest Picture
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