What can I do with this control panel?

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Vexorg
Posts: 3055
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:33 am
Location: Greensboro NC

What can I do with this control panel?

Post by Vexorg »

While it's certainly nice having an arcade cabinet around to play stuff on (100% arcade perfect... every time!) there's no denying the fact that my cabinet has seen better days. Having been originally converted from a Leland Quarterback, the control panel in particular is in somewhat less than wonderful shape. I'm trying to get some ideas on what I could do with this:

(click thumbnails for a larger view)
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Here's the control panel itself. The vinyl covering definitely needs to go (and in fact, the stuff on the bottom of the panel already has been removed, and it looks a lot better for it.)

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Here's the 2P side of the panel. This is one of the problem areas I'd like to do something with, as it's a real pain to play on for any length of time. I'd also like to have a third button on each side, and there's no room for it here. The junk under the plastic is a nice touch too...

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The underside of the panel. Doesn't look too horrible from this angle...

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...but you can see here that there's leftover holes from the original game (which used some sort of second analog stick.)

Based on what I've seen so far, here's what I'm thinking of doing:

-Take apart the panel and get everything down to bare metal;
-Spray paint the bottom and sides of the panel matte black;
-Change the layout to make the 2P side more usable (this would be done by moving the 2P stick roughly 2 inches over, use the hole for the 2P stick as button 1, add another hole for button 2 in between the current stick and button 1 locations, use the button 1 hole for button 3, and just cover over the current button 2 hole (it's not like my changes are going to make this whole thing any less of a hack job...) The 1P and 2P start buttons would also be moved, and a third button would be added to the 1P side as well (a much easier proposition than the 2P side...)
-Replace the plastic cover (this shouldn't be too difficult to do)
-Replace the vinyl (on the top part of the panel only, to cover up the old holes)
-Replace the current buttons and sticks with Sanwa/Seimitsu stuff.

If I get bored, I might go ahead and do a mockup of the idea I've got for the panel. In the meantime, a couple of questions:

-Is it possible to get the type of vinyl used for this type of stuff printed anywhere? If I'm feeling really ambitious, I might try to do a custom graphic...
-Is it possible to just get a new panel that would work for something like this? I believe that this style of panel is fairly common to Dynamo cabs, and if I could just replace the panel completely that might be the way to go at least temporarily, since I'm sure the idea I've got would be a bit more effort than a simple Saturday project...
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Pingu
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:54 am

Post by Pingu »

Bah, if your talking about moving sticks it's better to just make a new panel, one that doesn't cut in like that one does (, easier to make as well).
This would give you more room and player two might even have some space to relax his wrist on.
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