From Truxton II (to) Pleiads

[DarthNuno]

The horrible control panel. This will also be a "goner" and be replaced by an original one (already on its way from the States)

Do you will use an US panel version on that cab? Does the size is the same? Only the metal panel I presume (and use the Spanish repro overlay), or also a US CPO?

[Superully]

bruno, i haven't been able to get a repro of the us version, but in a way that's good, because the design of the american version would not fit your european glass bezel. however, i intend on using a centuri pcb (which features the warp button), therefore i've ordered a rough phoenix control panel from the states (which cleared german customs 3 days ago, so it should arrive here shortly). hopefully this panel will fit into the european pleiads cab somehow - keep your fingers crossed. if that's the case, i will edit the european control panel overlay to include the warp button, have it printed and put it on the phoenix control panel. sounds good?
however, all this will only work IF the panel fits. i will find out as soon as the panel arrives ...

[Superully]

look what the cat dragged in today!!!



a first peek inside ...



freed from its "bubbly boxy grave", here's the rough, american, original phoenix panel which i'm planning on using as a backdrop for the (edited) european control panel overlay version.



here we go, this is it. let's compare sizes ... DAMN, TOO BIG! I had expected something like that. But "too big" is better than "too small". Fortunately, I know someone who will be able to fix the "size problem". We will return to this later on ...

[DarthNuno]

Maybe It would be more easy to build *from scratch* a new control panel with the correct sizes?
But it's good new that you I know someone who will be able to fix that one 

The original US artwork is beautiful 

Thanks for the pictures 

[Superully]

i think it will be easier to "shrink" the existing control panel. all the holes are there, so are all the wires.
but i completely agree with you: the phoenix artwork is amazing. however, it is damaged and the control panel is full of rust (you will be able to see this in the upcoming pictures), which means i would have had to replace the old overlay by a new one anyway. i really hope this will work out the way i've imagined ...

[Superully]

bruno, could you add the following to your "things-to-do-for-superully-list", please?

- take a picture of your black plastic monitor bezel and take its measurements (internal and external). unfortunately it's not that easy to get one from someone else ...

[DarthNuno]

bruno, could you add the following to your "things-to-do-for-superully-list", please?

- take a picture of your black plastic monitor bezel and take its measurements (internal and external). unfortunately it's not that easy to get one from someone else ...

No problem my friend 

Because I'll have to remove the control panel, bezel,...  for taking new pictures for you, can you list me all the measures you need and if possible show me via pictures, for example like Screen did for his fabulous Pac  Man cab...



...what you're looking for precisely?

[Superully]

bruno, here's the updated "things-to-do-for-superully"-list 

- safely wrap up the glass bezel and send it over to germany (keyword: bubble bubble bubble bubble blubble ...)

- measure the size of the front art as shown in the following picture:



- take a high-quality picture of your pleaids front art so that it is possible to vectorize it (be careful to use a straight angle without any reflections)

- describe / take photos of the way your kick plate is attached to the cabinet (as you can see in this thread, mine had a lot of screws and nails  )

- take a picture of your plastic monitor bezel and measure its internal and external dimensions. does yours look like the one in the following picture?



i think that's it for now, i'm sorry to bother you that much. hope you'll find the time to help me out! thx, greatly appreciated 

[Superully]

the restoration process continues ...

i've decided to deal with the control panel first, so i disassembled it to clean up its parts and the panel itself. here's the result after disassembly:



first step, clean the dirty leaf buttons and the rusty screws / springs





result: the dirt has gone, but there's nothing one can do against the yellow spots on the white buttons. after 25 years in an arcade, this is the way buttons look like, even after hardcore-cleanup. right now i have a tendency towards replacing the old buttons with new ones to fit the colours of the control panel. more about that later when it comes to the control panel overlay itself. what do YOU think? keep the original phoenix buttons or exchange them for new ones? i know, i know, they are original, but i will get a completely new control panel overlay, so wouldn't it also be logical to get new leaf buttons? hmm, still thinking hard about that!



after the control panel parts had been cleaned, i turned to the panel. as i've said earlier, all i need is the metal plate, that's why the beautiful phoenix artwork has to go. it really hurts to remove it, but it IS damaged, the panel IS rusty, so get over it and do the job you came for 

i'm using a tool normally used to scrape old wallpaper off the walls. it works perfectly on the control panel, too. aaaaargh, i hate to do this to the phoenix artwork 



DONE!!! did i say rusty? i meant: RUSTY!!!



for sale: used phoenix control panel overlay. has some minor damages, i would rate its overall condition as AVERAGE. buy-it-now-price: €50 



because the metal panel is too big to put it into a rust remover bath, i'm applying the fluid with a brush. always wear gloves when you're doing this, you won't get the smell off your hands otherwise ...

[Superully]

as you should know by now, i'm planning on using an american pleaids board (which features an additional warp button). therefore - and because of the fact that the former phoenix metal panel is larger than the european version - i have to edit the design / layout of the control panel overlay to include the warp button.

after many hours in EDITING HELL  my floor looks like this:



i've tried to stay as close to the original as possible while adding the warp button. i've included all the elements from the original version (although some had to be shrunk / mirrored / enlarged / (re)moved). and finally i've changed the language to english, because this is the version which is going to be played later on.

for my part, i can't wait to see this printed and i'm quite happy with the results, but you can judge for yourself. what do you think of "my" version? would you change something?

bruno's version:



superully's version:



speaking of having this printed: bruno, when i take a closer look at your control panel overlay file, i realize that there is some kind of crosshair (see the following picture) in every corner and that there is a white border around the picture itself. what is the function of that crosshair? is it necessary to include that for the printing process? do i have to add a white border around my edited overlay, too? i've never had a control panel overlay printed before, that's why i'm asking. if not bruno, perhaps someone else knows the answers to this ...

[DarthNuno]

speaking of having this printed: bruno, when i take a closer look at your control panel overlay file, i realize that there is some kind of crosshair (see the following picture) in every corner and that there is a white border around the picture itself. what is the function of that crosshair? is it necessary to include that for the printing process? do i have to add a white border around my edited overlay, too? i've never had a control panel overlay printed before, that's why i'm asking. if not bruno, perhaps someone else knows the answers to this ...

Once the reproduction overlay printed, these lines are done in order to know where to cut precisely. Maybe it would be useful for something else?
According the guy who printed it for me, it's better to have -in that case- more to print... more is better than less... that's the reason why the black border is bigger than the original one... and the cross hair are there to show the real size and where to cut... More is better than less 

[DarthNuno]

New stuff for you 

I'll use this tripod in order to fix my camera. I've tried to put it just in the middle of the artwork :



Here's the result with flash on :


[click on picture for full size picture]

As you can see, the flash hides some parts  Here's an other version, without the flash 


[click on picture for full size picture]

Here's the size of the kickplate artwork :









For the colors matching, you can use the ones on your side arts... colors are the same 

Hope it can help 

[Superully]

bruno, thx a lot for your efforts, somehow i'm a big fan of your "ruler pictures" 

now to the other pictures: i'm not that much of a graphics expert, therefore i think you're pictures might just not be suitable enough for me and my minimal skills regarding editing. for example the city on the lower left seems to be distorted. of course that's because of the focal length of your digital camera which does not match the human eye (i guess your camera was too close to the kick plate, too). the pictures you've taken without the tripod seem to be better in colour and lighting.

would it be asked too much to bring some lights into your gameroom (during daytime?) and photograph the front art in seperate parts (without flash)? we wouldn't have the distortion problem then, I could stitch the pictures together manually AND the completed picture would be of a higher resolution. have a look at this picture to understand what i mean (it's just an example):



i know, i know, i'm really asking much of you, but i'm putting so much effort into this machine and i want it to be as perfect as possible. how perfect would it be without a nice kickplate artwork?

one thing just came to my mind: don't you have an a3 scanner? how about scanning the artwork? this would result in the best quality possible ...

thx a lot, bruno, you will get my marble madness marquee for free 

[DarthNuno]

Ooops, I won't be able to use my A3 scanner for that   
This one can is only able to scan items who are directly in contact with the glass. If the thing to scan is not in contact with the glass of the scanner, the result is very blurry 
I didn't have that problem with my previous AGFA A4 scanner, but I don't use it anymore since I have the A3
Using more light will be difficult. I don't have white spots or other sources of light for that.
Daylight would be an issue, but I would have to put the cab outside... 
Not easy as you can see...

[Blanka]

Where did you buy that ruler Bruno? In France? I think in France rulers with inches on one side are illegal and manufactures are put up for dead penalty I think. In the Netherlands all DIY stores are selling mm/inch combined rulers, which always have the mm side on the wrong side if you want to measure anything.