Day 3 - 31st March

Drilling the control panel

The second weekend of the project I devoted entirely to the control panel. I had got some button layout ideas and templates from slagcoin.com. I had decided on a 2 Player Street Fighter theme for the cabinet early on though despite traditionally Street Fighter using a 6 button layout I decided to go for an 8 button layout instead. This would allow me (through control mappings within the emulators) to use different arrangements for different games and still keep the shape each game was intended to have at the Arcade i.e. SNK games four buttons in a row, Street fighter 3x2 etc.

Control panel drilled

I cut the control panel shape and routed as I had with the other panels. After testing for fit against the other panels I taped the template to the board and began on cutting the holes for the buttons and joysticks. I ordered all joysticks and buttons from gremlin solutions, an online UK based company specializing in arcade cabinet parts. I went for Happ Competition joysticks and buttons as these were the buttons I remembered from my youth - they were a little more expensive but worth every penny. Once the first holes were cut I tested for fit which luckily were perfect first time. All buttons and joysticks were test fitted ready for wiring and testing the following day.

Control panel buttons and joysticks installed

I began at this stage to also begin designing the artwork for the control panel. Originally the cabinet was going to be predominantly black with red and blue accents though I was not happy with my initial artwork as it seemed too modern and also a bit too menacing with a little one in the house. Instead I decided to use the character artwork Capcom had produced for Street Fighter 3 online and Street Fighter 2 HD Remix. This gave me the majority of the characters from the street fighter universe to play with an in high resolution. I sent the artwork off for printing to JLSImaging - an eBay store specializing in Vinyl printing.