My Next Cabinet...

[VectorGamer]

Here's my next (second) cabinet...this time the original artwork will remain (hopefully - depends on how steady my hands are) and it will be a true MAME powering a list of maze games (Pac-Man series, Pepper II, Mouse Trap etc.).

 

Still kicking around Mouse Trap since it will require 4 more buttons to be drilled into the control panel on the left hand side. Although, I'm going to have to add two more buttons for the "Esc" and "Credit Keys" (unless I wire up the coin door). I dunno...opinions welcome...

 

The cab has graffiti in pencil and knives, the plywood in the back is banged up and it sits on three legs. The monitor is dead and burned-in but the monitor glass and marquee are in really good shape. The control panel has cigarette burns and is torn.

 

My previous cabinet was a skeleton, but this one comes with monitor glass, coin doors, control panel, joystick and marquee which is going to cut costs and restore time. I'm more excited about this cab than my last one.

[IceCold]

Cool!

 

I skimmed your other thread. As far as I can tell you're using a horizontal monitor in that one and a vertical in this one. If so, nice!

 

I would really like to add a vertical MAME cab at some point. Let's hope you don't have any problems such as that IDE flash drive burning up and killing your mobo. Make sure to post some work in progress pics and some pictures of both cabs next to each other.

 

I started a vertical bartop a LONG long time ago based on Vantage(vertical arcade emulator, runs better on old hardware) but never finished it. Reason for Vantage instead of MAME was at the time I was real low on funds and only extra PC was an old 486 or P1.

 

Good luck!

[keilbaca]

I resurrected a Qix cab exactly like how you got yours, into a mame cab. I wired up the coin slots, and left a keyboard on the inside to escape out of a game. You can also make combination of buttons to exit out of a game, so say, player 1 and player 2 at the same time will escape out of a game.

[DaveD]

Whenever I see these old cabs being resurrected I can't help but wonder a little about their history and whether or not I ever put any coins into it. I spent a lot of quarters in those days. When you come across these old cabs do you ever know anything of their history? Like what states, locations they lived their useful lives in?

 

As long as it wasn't too detracting or deteriorated, I'd be half tempted to keep some of that art as is complete with the graffiti and scratches. Or at least keep an area that was original.

[VectorGamer]

Whenever I see these old cabs being resurrected I can't help but wonder a little about their history and whether or not I ever put any coins into it. I spent a lot of quarters in those days. When you come across these old cabs do you ever know anything of their history? Like what states, locations they lived their useful lives in?

 

As long as it wasn't too detracting or deteriorated, I'd be half tempted to keep some of that art as is complete with the graffiti and scratches. Or at least keep an area that was original.

 

That's exactly why I would rather purchase a beat up cabinet versus creating my own from scratch - there's history there. You would hope that back in 1981 that it was sitting in an arcade somewhere and in a really corny sort of way "hear the ghosts of gamers past." But, it is what it is: a part of history just as the 45 record is.

 

The Satan's Hollow cabinet I worked on still has the bar code on the inside. I have the original coin bucket, transformer, speakers and speaker grills. There is a hand written note documenting the mapping of wiring to joystick, buttons etc. There's also a document (I can't remember what it was but I believe it was regarding a repair) that is addressed to an individual in Philadelphia. I know that the cabinet was built in Chicago (it's a Midway cab, after all) and there's a document with an "inspected by" type of stamp on it.

 

I refrained from cutting up the cabinet which is why I ran into problems with the original monitor I received. The only way it was going to fit was to hack up the cabinet which I was not going to do. I had to add a plywood monitor shelf and a 1x2 but that's it and all that can easily be removed.

[DaveD]

I wonder if there are still records that could be consulted to learn where those machines were sold, maybe based on the bar code you mention or some other sort of serial numbers.

 

I visited many arcades in the day but only ever saw one Make Trax. I know it's a long shot but when I see cabs like the one above, especially the ones that were a little more rare, I start to wonder.

[VectorGamer]

Cool!

 

I skimmed your other thread. As far as I can tell you're using a horizontal monitor in that one and a vertical in this one. If so, nice!

 

I would really like to add a vertical MAME cab at some point. Let's hope you don't have any problems such as that IDE flash drive burning up and killing your mobo. Make sure to post some work in progress pics and some pictures of both cabs next to each other.

 

I started a vertical bartop a LONG long time ago based on Vantage(vertical arcade emulator, runs better on old hardware) but never finished it. Reason for Vantage instead of MAME was at the time I was real low on funds and only extra PC was an old 486 or P1.

 

Good luck!

 

I'm using a vertical monitor. I haven't updated the pics yet because I have to put the side art on yet.

[VectorGamer]

I found a site "gamestencils.com" that has a "Make Trax Mini" stencil set. But can you believe that I cannot find anywhere on this site their contact information? WTF?

[IceCold]

I found a site "gamestencils.com" that has a "Make Trax Mini" stencil set. But can you believe that I cannot find anywhere on this site their contact information? WTF?

What exactly did you need to ask him? He's an active member over at the BYOAC website(stands for Build Your Own Arcade Controls, mostly for MAME cabs). Member name of prOk. I'm thinking he runs this website too, and there's a contact button, so maybe try that.

 

Or just join BYOAC and PM him. It's a really good site if you have any interest in MAME cabs and arcade cabs. If you do a search for gamestencils.com on the message board, lots of people have restored cabs using his stuff, and it has come out really good. Haven't heard a single negative comment about him...

[VectorGamer]

I found a site "gamestencils.com" that has a "Make Trax Mini" stencil set. But can you believe that I cannot find anywhere on this site their contact information? WTF?

What exactly did you need to ask him? He's an active member over at the BYOAC website(stands for Build Your Own Arcade Controls, mostly for MAME cabs). Member name of prOk. I'm thinking he runs this website too, and there's a contact button, so maybe try that.

 

Or just join BYOAC and PM him. It's a really good site if you have any interest in MAME cabs and arcade cabs. If you do a search for gamestencils.com on the message board, lots of people have restored cabs using his stuff, and it has come out really good. Haven't heard a single negative comment about him...

 

Consumer advocates advise not doing business with a Web site that does not have their contact information published (email, phone, mailing address). Additionally, there is no return policy published. What's up with that?

 

More importantly, one of my credit card companies have stated previously that they will not act on a dispute unless I am aware of the vendor's return policy. What if I have to dispute a purchase? I have not contact info to speak of with Gamestencils.com.

 

I used their testimonial form as a means to contact the vendor. But, I received this error at the bottom of the page even though it said it was submitted successfully:

 

Error: unable to send email. $smtp_host may need to be set.

[DaveD]

I don't know what a "Make Trax Mini" stencil set is but there's downlaodable bezel art at this site.

[IceCold]

Consumer advocates advise not doing business with a Web site that does not have their contact information published (email, phone, mailing address). Additionally, there is no return policy published. What's up with that?

 

More importantly, one of my credit card companies have stated previously that they will not act on a dispute unless I am aware of the vendor's return policy. What if I have to dispute a purchase? I have not contact info to speak of with Gamestencils.com.

 

I used their testimonial form as a means to contact the vendor. But, I received this error at the bottom of the page even though it said it was submitted successfully:

 

Error: unable to send email. $smtp_host may need to be set.

 

I feel ya, but here's the way I understand it: he's just a hobbyist who put up the website to make it easier for fellow hobbyists on BYOAC and a couple other small community forums to buy stuff from him. If I came across that site on a google search, there's no way I'd order from him. But, if I came across the website because I saw people mentioning it and being happy with it, say on Atariage, byoac, etc. then I'd probably take my chances on it.

 

For example, when I do a search on byoac for gamestencils.com or prok, the guy's username, everything that comes up is positive.

 

Such as this one, from a respected member over there: "Welcome! Williams cabs are great first time restores! You will be very pleased with the Robotron stencils at gamestencils.com..."

 

or a lot of "oh just get those from prok, here's a link, they're what I used and it came out good".

 

It's totally up to you, I'm not in business with the guy or anything(and have never ordered from him)

[VectorGamer]

Well, I started working on the cabinet and I'm contemplating whacking off about 3/4 of an inch off the bottom of the cabinet sides. This would resolve several issues:

 

 

#1 - The 2-1/2 sq leg plates and legs I got to replace what was left on the bottom are not tall enough and as a result the cabinet sides would still be on the floor. The sides of the cabinet are about 3" longer (I did not measure) than the floor of the cabinet.

 

The leg plates mount on two 2-1/2 sq pieces of plywood which are stacked on top of each other (making blocks) and then mounted to the floor of the cabinet. I'm replacing all of them because their were either damaged or missing.

 

The legs are two inches long. With three 3/4-inch plywood to go through, I am not able to secure the legs with a nut. I am able to fix this by using a 1-inch hole saw to the floor of the cabinet and to the piece of the plywood block that is directly touching the floor. The outside piece of the block would have a 1/2-hole to accommodate the threaded hole of the plate.

 

#2 - To simply fix the extensive damage to the bottom of the cabinet.

 

I could give a fresh cut with a circular saw to the bottom and use a bowl as a guide to round off the corners with a jigsaw. Of course the issue there is getting a perfect straight line at the bottom of the cabinet which I suppose will need to use patch to straighten it out.

[prOk]

Consumer advocates advise not doing business with a Web site that does not have their contact information published (email, phone, mailing address). Additionally, there is no return policy published. What's up with that?

 

More importantly, one of my credit card companies have stated previously that they will not act on a dispute unless I am aware of the vendor's return policy. What if I have to dispute a purchase? I have not contact info to speak of with Gamestencils.com.

 

I used their testimonial form as a means to contact the vendor. But, I received this error at the bottom of the page even though it said it was submitted successfully:

 

Error: unable to send email. $smtp_host may need to be set.

 

I feel ya, but here's the way I understand it: he's just a hobbyist who put up the website to make it easier for fellow hobbyists on BYOAC and a couple other small community forums to buy stuff from him. If I came across that site on a google search, there's no way I'd order from him. But, if I came across the website because I saw people mentioning it and being happy with it, say on Atariage, byoac, etc. then I'd probably take my chances on it.

 

For example, when I do a search on byoac for gamestencils.com or prok, the guy's username, everything that comes up is positive.

 

Such as this one, from a respected member over there: "Welcome! Williams cabs are great first time restores! You will be very pleased with the Robotron stencils at gamestencils.com..."

 

or a lot of "oh just get those from prok, here's a link, they're what I used and it came out good".

 

It's totally up to you, I'm not in business with the guy or anything(and have never ordered from him)

 

Hi Guys,

 

Someone pointed this thread out to me so I went ahead and joined this site too

 

My name is Brian, I go by prOk on many gaming sites and I own Gamestencils.com. As has been said here already i'm a collector like many of you and I do the site just for the enjoyment of it really. Hundreds of games have been restored using my parts over the years with some really fantastic results and i've shared tons of restoration tutorials with the community at large. Plenty of references are available from popular gaming websites like byoac.com, klov.com and coinopspace.com and I wholeheartedly invite anyone to investigate my reputation for both customer service and product quality. I apologize for it being a touch unclear how to contact me through the store site, if you read the 'about us' link found in the Support box on the left hand side of the site I have most of the information that was asked for here. I am not an all encompassing arcade parts store and my products are very focused on restoration.

 

I've been collecting and restoring for 10 years, running Gamestencils for 5. I also have a fairly large classic console collection that has tons of atari 2600 stuff, coleco, jaguar, NES, SNES, and my personal favorite, Atari 8 Bit.

 

Anyway, that's my story and i'm sticking with it

 

/brian

www.gamestencils.com

[VectorGamer]

Consumer advocates advise not doing business with a Web site that does not have their contact information published (email, phone, mailing address). Additionally, there is no return policy published. What's up with that?

 

More importantly, one of my credit card companies have stated previously that they will not act on a dispute unless I am aware of the vendor's return policy. What if I have to dispute a purchase? I have not contact info to speak of with Gamestencils.com.

 

I used their testimonial form as a means to contact the vendor. But, I received this error at the bottom of the page even though it said it was submitted successfully:

 

Error: unable to send email. $smtp_host may need to be set.

 

 

My name is Brian, I go by prOk on many gaming sites and I own Gamestencils.com. As has been said here already i'm a collector like many of you and I do the site just for the enjoyment of it really. Hundreds of games have been restored using my parts over the years with some really fantastic results and i've shared tons of restoration tutorials with the community at large. Plenty of references are available from popular gaming websites like byoac.com, klov.com and coinopspace.com and I wholeheartedly invite anyone to investigate my reputation for both customer service and product quality. I apologize for it being a touch unclear how to contact me through the store site, if you read the 'about us' link found in the Support box on the left hand side of the site I have most of the information that was asked for here. I am not an all encompassing arcade parts store and my products are very focused on restoration.

 

I've been collecting and restoring for 10 years, running Gamestencils for 5. I also have a fairly large classic console collection that has tons of atari 2600 stuff, coleco, jaguar, NES, SNES, and my personal favorite, Atari 8 Bit.

 

Anyway, that's my story and i'm sticking with it

 

/brian

www.gamestencils.com

 

Did you just put that "About Us" on the site because I did not see it listed there previously?

 

Anyway - what is the size difference between a Make Trax Mini stencil set and what I would presume to be a full size Make Trax cabinet?

[VectorGamer]

Consumer advocates advise not doing business with a Web site that does not have their contact information published (email, phone, mailing address). Additionally, there is no return policy published. What's up with that?

 

More importantly, one of my credit card companies have stated previously that they will not act on a dispute unless I am aware of the vendor's return policy. What if I have to dispute a purchase? I have not contact info to speak of with Gamestencils.com.

 

I used their testimonial form as a means to contact the vendor. But, I received this error at the bottom of the page even though it said it was submitted successfully:

 

Error: unable to send email. $smtp_host may need to be set.

 

 

My name is Brian, I go by prOk on many gaming sites and I own Gamestencils.com. As has been said here already i'm a collector like many of you and I do the site just for the enjoyment of it really. Hundreds of games have been restored using my parts over the years with some really fantastic results and i've shared tons of restoration tutorials with the community at large. Plenty of references are available from popular gaming websites like byoac.com, klov.com and coinopspace.com and I wholeheartedly invite anyone to investigate my reputation for both customer service and product quality. I apologize for it being a touch unclear how to contact me through the store site, if you read the 'about us' link found in the Support box on the left hand side of the site I have most of the information that was asked for here. I am not an all encompassing arcade parts store and my products are very focused on restoration.

 

I've been collecting and restoring for 10 years, running Gamestencils for 5. I also have a fairly large classic console collection that has tons of atari 2600 stuff, coleco, jaguar, NES, SNES, and my personal favorite, Atari 8 Bit.

 

Anyway, that's my story and i'm sticking with it

 

/brian

www.gamestencils.com

 

Did you just put that "About Us" on the site because I did not see it listed there previously?

 

Anyway - what is the size difference between a Make Trax Mini stencil set and what I would presume to be a full size Make Trax cabinet?

 

Also, understand my reluctance to do business with a site that has no contact information posted. There is no name, street address or phone number posted to speak of. Credit card companies will not be willing to assist if you do not have a refund policy posted should anything go awry.

[VectorGamer]

Well, I'm messing around with MAME32 front ends and it is frustrating to say the least. I have found most of them require way too much time to setup messing around with INI files.

 

I found Kymaera the best out there so far but even that is quirky. I found it doesn't save settings at times and the game list setup has been a bear contrary to what the doc says. For example, highlighting the games in the top window of the game list selection doesn't work properly.

[prOk]

Did you just put that "About Us" on the site because I did not see it listed there previously?

 

Anyway - what is the size difference between a Make Trax Mini stencil set and what I would presume to be a full size Make Trax cabinet?

 

Also, understand my reluctance to do business with a site that has no contact information posted. There is no name, street address or phone number posted to speak of. Credit card companies will not be willing to assist if you do not have a refund policy posted should anything go awry.

 

Actually a lot of things have changed over the course of the last few weeks after the software was upgraded so it's likely that something you didn't see one morning was there that afternoon, pretty much everything has been being re-setup. The about us has been there since I set up the support box a couple weeks ago I think when I added the paint code page back and the download for the stencilling manual. While I understand your concerns, but i'm not putting personal information on a website.. this is just game parts, not wal mart. I've not yet posted a refund policy because well, frankly, i've never needed one. Nobody in five years has asked for a refund from me to where i'd need to quote some blurb of legalese but if it's that important i'm sure I can throw one together. I feel just being honest and giving a damn about customer service should count a lot more than what some lawyer thinks up to put in a textbox.

 

Now, to answer your make trax question. The artwork for the dedicated version of the cabinet is significantly different from that of the mini. Right now, I don't have a scan of a side of the dedicated to work from so I don't have those available. They are two very differently shaped cabinets, it's one i've wanted to do but right now i'm focused on getting Bubbles sideart done

[VectorGamer]

Actually a lot of things have changed over the course of the last few weeks after the software was upgraded so it's likely that something you didn't see one morning was there that afternoon, pretty much everything has been being re-setup. The about us has been there since I set up the support box a couple weeks ago I think when I added the paint code page back and the download for the stencilling manual. While I understand your concerns, but i'm not putting personal information on a website.. this is just game parts, not wal mart. I've not yet posted a refund policy because well, frankly, i've never needed one. Nobody in five years has asked for a refund from me to where i'd need to quote some blurb of legalese but if it's that important i'm sure I can throw one together. I feel just being honest and giving a damn about customer service should count a lot more than what some lawyer thinks up to put in a textbox.

 

Now, to answer your make trax question. The artwork for the dedicated version of the cabinet is significantly different from that of the mini. Right now, I don't have a scan of a side of the dedicated to work from so I don't have those available. They are two very differently shaped cabinets, it's one i've wanted to do but right now i'm focused on getting Bubbles sideart done

 

I have had problems with the last two packages I received that were ship via UPS being damaged. Would you provide a telephone number on the receipt in the event I need to contact you? I will get a receipt, yes?

 

Could you upload a jpeg of the Make Trax stencils that you have for the Mini Cabinet so I can see for myself if there's anything doable with them? And take a measurement of the width of the words "Make Trax" so I can get an idea? This would be much appreciated. Otherwise, I'm looking at a plain orange cabinet.

 

I have looked at paint swatches from Home Depot and the yellow I have is a very close match and the orange is close. Green is the toughest one to match, believe it or not.

[VectorGamer]

Sweet - no response...

 

 

 

 

Actually a lot of things have changed over the course of the last few weeks after the software was upgraded so it's likely that something you didn't see one morning was there that afternoon, pretty much everything has been being re-setup. The about us has been there since I set up the support box a couple weeks ago I think when I added the paint code page back and the download for the stencilling manual. While I understand your concerns, but i'm not putting personal information on a website.. this is just game parts, not wal mart. I've not yet posted a refund policy because well, frankly, i've never needed one. Nobody in five years has asked for a refund from me to where i'd need to quote some blurb of legalese but if it's that important i'm sure I can throw one together. I feel just being honest and giving a damn about customer service should count a lot more than what some lawyer thinks up to put in a textbox.

 

Now, to answer your make trax question. The artwork for the dedicated version of the cabinet is significantly different from that of the mini. Right now, I don't have a scan of a side of the dedicated to work from so I don't have those available. They are two very differently shaped cabinets, it's one i've wanted to do but right now i'm focused on getting Bubbles sideart done

 

I have had problems with the last two packages I received that were ship via UPS being damaged. Would you provide a telephone number on the receipt in the event I need to contact you? I will get a receipt, yes?

 

Could you upload a jpeg of the Make Trax stencils that you have for the Mini Cabinet so I can see for myself if there's anything doable with them? And take a measurement of the width of the words "Make Trax" so I can get an idea? This would be much appreciated. Otherwise, I'm looking at a plain orange cabinet.

 

I have looked at paint swatches from Home Depot and the yellow I have is a very close match and the orange is close. Green is the toughest one to match, believe it or not.

[VectorGamer]

Here's some progress pix...

[keilbaca]

Very nice!

 

What kind of paint are you using?

[VectorGamer]

Very nice!

 

What kind of paint are you using?

 

It's Ralph Lauren from Home Depot...

[keilbaca]

Very nice!

 

What kind of paint are you using?

 

It's Ralph Lauren from Home Depot...

 

Very nice. Its looking fantastic.

 

I can't wait to start building machines myself...

[VectorGamer]

I got a crap load of work done last Friday night. No progress pix to upload yet.

 

I got the T-moulding on, installed new speaker shelf that I made to upgrade from Mono to Stereo, cabinet light installed, marquee installed, coin doors installed, new control panel latches and control panel installed. I finished up at 10:30 and it looked really sweet lighting up the marquee in a dark garage.

 

I have a new 8-way joystick on order along with the KE-18 keyboard controller and 8-GB IDE flash drive. I'll wait on purchasing the monitor since I don't want this stuff sitting in the garage while the Retrocade is under construction.

 

That's a different thread...