The Finished Cabinet

The cabinet was sanded, primed, and spray-painted gloss black; the sides were then spray-painted with a light cloud of dark purple to match the purple nebulae on the marquee and control panel, with white Testor's enamel paint dabbed on with a toothpick for a starfield. Spray-priming and spray-painting the cabinet was a pain in the neck, and never came out with an even finish. In retrospect, I'd probably use a roller instead, or perhaps just go with black contact paper. I also should have applied some polyurethane, as the paint was scratched almost immediatey after bringing the cabinet into the house.

The marquee and control panel overlay are just Lucite from Home Depot, backed by graphics printed on 8"x23" Epson photo paper. I printed them on the Laserjet 8550 color laser printer at work. The paper is attached to the Lucite with spray adhesive. The marquee retainer is plastic corner moulding painted black.

Since the cabinet came with two 4 ohm car speakers, I wanted to keep them, but they needed an amplifier. I found an inexpensive set of PC speakers (two satellites and a subwoofer) from CyberAcoustics that used 4 ohm speakers; I ripped out the amplifier board and soldered the wires from the car speakers to it. The tiny subwoofer it came with just barely fits beneath the coin box; I cut a small port in the bottom of the cabinet for the subwoofer and installed the amplifier board so that the volume control can be reaced beneath the control panel.

The monitor is a Mag 19" that I bought from Best Buy; the swivel base has been removed and it sits on a shelf in the cabinet with additional supports to the sides and rear to keep it from moving. I originally wanted a 21" monitor, but the 19" barely fits as it is! I will probably replace this monitor eventually with an open-frame SVGA monitor if I can find one at a decent price.

The monitor bezel is simply foamcore board covered with black posterboard. Instructions for the jukebox, emulators, and a button reference for all the games is glued to the bezel. The glass over the bezel is the original glass that came with the cabinet.

Here, my niece and daughter test the finished cabinet wth a fierce game of Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon.

Next: The Finished Cabinet, v2