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Progress has slowed while I wait for a few parts to arrive. It was particularly frustrating to discover the IEC power jack/switch I bought, didn’t include a fuse. So that halted progress until the fuses arrive from Amazon.
But I did finish adding fans, constructing the back panel, and lighting the marquee. In the marquee pic, that’s the plastic with its paper protective coating still on.
The leds are just stuffed in there for now. I’m going to have to disassemble everything for paint, so I can’t stick them on yet.
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Ok, I got the parts I was waiting for and was able to reassemble for a little more gameplay.
At this stage I’m mostly waiting on my graphics to arrive. When they do, I plan to:
- Completely disassemble
- Soften the corner where your hand rests on the cab a little more
- Round over the outside edges of the two sides
- Sand and paint
- Apply the vinyl
- Reassemble
In the meantime, I get to play it
Oh and I have an upgraded CPU to install on the motherboard at some point. Not sure when I’m going to do that.
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Kudos for blaming the mother in law. Nice project man!
Never take advice from me,
you'll end up drunk.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
Kudos for blaming the mother-in-law. Nice project man!
Never take advice from me,
you'll end up drunk.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
My vinyl arrived today! Unfortunately I’m having some screen cutting out issues and I can’t figure out whether it’s hardware or software. Until I figure that out, I can’t disassemble and apply the vinyl.
In the meantime, here’s the marquee all lit up.
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This one looks amazing love the compact “portable” size can place it on any bar :D Great work so far.
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This one looks amazing love the compact “portable” size can place it on any bar :D Great work so far.
Thanks! If I were to do it again, I think I’d consider two changes, both are to make the whole unit a little smaller.
I’d try to find a smaller playfield screen. Probably a 19″ 16:9 would be perfect. It’d take the width down from 13″ to 11″.
And as much as I like the arcade inspired shape, I’d explore options with a more conventional backbox.
Having part of the back glass screen buried under the playfield has created a few problems. It really limited the layout options of the interior components. As is, I’m having to buy special right angle cables and adapters just to connect the monitors. If the cab were even a tiny bit smaller, even those wouldn’t work. Also, occasionally, Windows will pop a screen/dialog box/etc in the part of the backglass that I can’t see. I’m hoping that will be less of an issue once everything is up and running.
A more conventional backglass design would have avoided these problems. But aestheticly, I do like the way this looks a lot.
I suppose the other option would be to find a 12″ 4:3 monitor for the backglass.
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Ok, I think I got the screen blackout issue resolved. It was a bad DVI cable with a bent pin. I must have bent it trying to install the cable in a tight corner inside the cab. It looks like I even did a little damage to one of the DVI outputs on my GPU. Fortunately, it has two DVI outputs. No more installing the cables inside the cab. The GPU comes out now anytime I need to do that. I also purchased a couple right angle cables and adapters for both screens. No more screen blackout issues (so far anyway, fingers crossed).
While I was waiting on the cables and adapters to arrive, I worked on getting all the software setup and installed about 20 tables.
As I mentioned earlier, the cab will be a gift to my brother-in-law and his family. He’s a huge Mandalorian fan and they have their TV room decorated with nothing but movie posters. So I decided to make all the tables TV/Movie themed. I also only installed VPX. I suspect we’ll put FX3 on once it’s in his house and I can get his Steam account setup. But for now, just these VPX tables.
- Addams Family
- Attack from Mars
- Avengers
- Back to the Future
- Creature from the Black Lagoon
- Ghostbusters (Slimer)
- Hook
- Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure
- Ironman
- Johnny Mnemonic
- Mandalorian
- Monster Bash
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Shrek
- Simpsons Party Pinball
- Star Trek LE
- Star Wars (BorGlieb)
- Star Wars Data East
- Star Wars Trilogy
- Terminator 2
- Twister
I know there are a ton of great TV/Movie themed tables out there. If you have a favorite that you think I MUST include, let me know.
Now I get to enjoy playing it for a few days before it’s time to take it all apart and do the finish sanding, painting, and vinyl.
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This week has all been about playing the machine and installing tables. Here’s my current list of VPX movie/TV inspired tables.
- Addams Family
- Attack from Mars
- Avatar
- Avengers
- Back to the Future
- Bugs Bunny Birthday Bash
- Creature from the Black Lagoon
- Ghostbusters (Slimer)
- Goldeneye (007)
- Hook
- Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure
- Ironman
- Johnny Mnemonic
- Lord of the Rings
- Lost in Space
- Lost World Jurassic Park
- Mad Max
- Mandalorian
- Minions
- Monster Bash
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Pokemon
- Shrek
- Simpsons Party Pinball
- Star Trek LE
- Star Wars (BorGlieb)
- Star Wars Data East
- Star Wars Trilogy
- Terminator 2
- Transformers
- Twister
This weekend I’ll strip it down and begin paint and vinyl. I’ve never done vinyl before. Any tips or tricks you have to share would be appreciated.
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Work the vinyl from the center out a half at a time. Transfer paper is extremely helpful if its not already installed on the front face. Clean the surface really well and use a tack rag if you got one kicking around to get leftover debris. I usually split the back adhesive backing down the middle with a blade then you would line it up to where you like it. Take some masking tape and tape one side down while holding it where you want it. The other half that isn’t taped, fold it to expose the cut made in the backing earlier and gently work the graphic a little at a time with a credit card or something similar. If there is no transfer paper or I’m worried about scratching the vinyl I use a lint free towel folded over the top of the tool. Again work from the center out.
A more primitive method is to install it wet, but that will attract more dust. Use a tiny drop of dawn soap in a spray bottle. Don’t use too much or it will slide while you install it if you are rough with it. The good side of that is if you mess up the wet graphic can be peeled back (again at the expense of possibly attracting dust). If you do it this way be careful to give it time dry dry before manhandling it. I use a heat gun to help accelerate the process. If you do that make sure that gun stays moving or you can damage the graphic!
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I did a vinyl install earlier this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpQU0jyzkqQ
Creator of the first PinupPlayer PostDMD mods for VPX - PostDMD for Masters of the Universe VPX and Jaws VPX.
Head Proprietor of Pisces Pinball, a VPX table developer.
Lead Technician of MC Chase Amusements, a private arcade in our home basement.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
1 user thanked author for this post.
Lynn, that is super helpful! Thanks for sharing.
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Primer and paint are done and had a couple days to really dry. Time for reassembly and vinyl!
Not gonna lie The vinyl is not perfect. But damn, I’m still pretty happy, given that I’ve never done it before.
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Looks nice. This is The Way. :)
Creator of the first PinupPlayer PostDMD mods for VPX - PostDMD for Masters of the Universe VPX and Jaws VPX.
Head Proprietor of Pisces Pinball, a VPX table developer.
Lead Technician of MC Chase Amusements, a private arcade in our home basement.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
I love your work! Well done and it is great to see it come along.
The Mandalorian art works really well too.
Makes me wonder, is there actually a Mandalorian VPX table?You need to login in order to like this post: click here
I love your work! Well done and it is great to see it come along.
The Mandalorian art works really well too.
Makes me wonder, is there actually a Mandalorian VPX table?
There is! It was what inspired this cabinet theme. The VPX table is a retheme of Cybernaut. The pup pack version is awesome.
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Reassembly is temporarily on hold. I decided I need a small launch button in addition to the plunger and it hasn’t arrived. ZB Launch Ball just isn’t working reliably. I keep finding instances where it would really be easier to have a launch button. And adding the button is easier than futzing with ZB Launch Ball at this point. But that means I can’t drill the hole for it or apply the front vinyl. But Otherwise I’m really close.
i popped the buttons in to see how they look.
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Got my launch button today. Here’s a few more assembly pics before the finale.
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Just when I thought I was done…
I mentioned earlier I was having an issue with the playfield randomly blacking out during play. I’ve thought I solved it several times only to have it pop up again. Well, it popped up again.
I’ve also run into a problem with the backglass monitor not being recognized in Windows at boot at random times, requiring a restart. And the screen numbers seem to switch randomly at boot sometimes too, which throws VPX off.
All of this was making this machine really unpleasant to manage.
After trying everything I could think of (then trying it all again 2-3 more times) two days ago, I swapped the Radeon HD 7790 GPU for a GTX 750ti.
Both cards get pretty comparable scores on the benchmarking sites. But since making the swap two days ago, I haven’t had any of the issues mentioned above.
Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Maybe the HD 7790 wasn’t up for the task or maybe I got a bad card. IDK. This is one of the issues with trying to upcycle old tech. Sometimes you get a lemon.
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