One of our favorite arcades growing up was Virtual On. Out of all the games in the arcade, this one made you feel the most bad ass. Sitting in the cockpits with two joysticks and a bunch of buttons that did cool stuff, can’t get much better than that. Never played it on the port for a Blast City cabinet, but I’m sure it’s just as fun. Check out the marquee in our store HERE, and a playthrough below:
We had a great time at NWPAS weekend. Got to see a lot of great games, meet a lot of cool people, and lost pretty bad in the pinball tournaments.
One of our favorite things is always meeting new people. Had the opportunity to print some marquees for Boss Robot Games and a group of youngsters who produced their own shmup called Zatonis. Always good to see the next generation of gamers creating cool stuff.
We always like seeing things restored to their original state. Scott was sharp enough to recognize an incredibly rare War of the World’s in the wild and picked it up. With a little artwork pieced together here and there, we were able to get him a bezel/marquee/cpo. Good work on the restore Scott!
“I had an idea of creating a pre-production game after reading about a similar project many, many years ago. Before the supply of games dried up locally I got a deal on a Star Castle machine in a sad state. It was loaded with many wasp mud nests and some rodent droppings. I cleaned it up, clamped and wood glued the cab back together, added a back door, and set about converting what was left into a War of the Worlds. Beyond the marquee, artwork was not available. I created what I could through pictures of some of the few machines that have been found over the years. I stitched together picture of the control panel artwork from three pictures taken at angles. Blending the image into one was probably the hardest part of the project. The monitor clear “gel” was created from a piece of art hanging on my wall for years; I kept it because I thought it was neat at the time. Little did I know I would need it many years later! The city scene was created on a clear piece of classroom overhead transparency. The art from that was also image filtered, touched up, and sized as good as I could get it. I found my local Lowes could custom cut glass for the monitor bezel and marquee. The control panel plexiglass was cut and drilled by me and I also ordered a set of new clear orange buttons. For the art (the marquee, the monitor bezel) I used black electrical tape to help cushion the glass edges and also adhere the art. I cut out the monitor viewing area using an Exacto knife and I finished it up with a straight edge. I went ahead and kept the white border as I liked the look. There is still more to do, I bought a can of bondo, and the custom wired game board needs attention but the cabinet looks the part now. I am happy with the results!”
-Scott
Check out the marquee in our store HERE, and a video of the game below:
We thought this one was pretty cool. One of our customers put together some generic Capcom images to get this marquee. Looks absolutely excellent when back lit. Good stuff Gerry!
For one reason or another, certain Neo Geo marquees have been extremely difficult to locate. Breaker’s was one of those. We are happy to announce we have found a good copy, scanned it, and cleaned it up. Check it out in our store here.
One of the most beautiful uses we have seen from our marquees is the bar top at Another Castle Arcade in Marysville Washington. Using several dozens of the marquees, and sealing with epoxy, they were able to create a 20 foot bar top that was extremely unique, vibrant, and able to withstand the wear and tear of everyday bar use. Check out the full bar at anothercastlearcade.com.
A while ago, we had the pleasure to work with Barcode in California. They purchased a TON of marquees to make what appears to be one of the most badass walls of all time. Take a look at their lovely establishment with their Yelp account below:
Just got this in from one of our awesome customers. Jeromy put together a Jagermeister themed arcade and it looks super clean! The only thing it’s missing is a built in fridge to keep the Jager in. Thanks again for your order Jeromy.
“I had been wanting a Multi Arcade for quite some time and when I purchased a Pandora’s Box 6 1300 in 1 game system I definitely enjoyed it.
As much enjoyment as this system was, I still wanted more from it. I knew that it would see more action if it were in an arcade cabinet. I also figured it would be a great addition to my home bar for when we had guests. Best if all it would mean no more cables strung out across my livingroom.
I wanted a cabinet that had a sleek look and didnt take up a large amount of space. Unfortunately the pre made cabinets were expensive and were much larger than I wanted. They also weren’t made for my arcade contoller to drop into. I eventually decided to do my own build based off of a Vigolix arcade I found online. So after some careful thought and planning my project began.
The Vigolix plans i had come across was for a small, single player, kid sized cabinet. With some calculations I was able to size it up to fit my needs, and customize it to fit the arcade controller. With my mind set, off I went to Home Depot for my materials. With some planning and work, later that day I had an arcade cabinet built. Best of all it was much cheaper than buying one pre made and it was custom.
The following day I painted the cabinet black, placed the order for the LED strip lighting and started designing a marquee. I decided to stick with the Jagermeister theme I already had with my bar. After playing around with some ideas I came up with a marquee design I was happy with. Once my design was finished I sent my idea to Tim at ArcadeMarquee.com
He looked it over, stated it would work and I placed my order.
While I was awaiting shipment of my finishing touches I masked off then painted some plexiglass for the marquee and screen. To say the least, I was excited to get this project finished and see the final results. In the meantime I let the paint dry and I waited. Once everything I needed to finish the project arrived, I jumped back in full force on my project. I couldnt wait to see it all together and have my vision come to life. Now that it is finished I have to say, it came together even better than I had expected. The arcade cabinet looks great in my home bar and it’s a project I am proud of.
The lighting looks great, the cabinet looked amazing and the arcade marquee was one of the perfect finishing touches that pulled it all together.
I couldnt be happier with how this project came out.
Thank you once again ArcadeMarquee.com ”
-Jeromy
Every time someone sends some pics of their light boxes or the project they’ve been working on, I always think “geez I don’t think anyone will be able to top this”. Then, invariably, someone sends in a more badass project. Check out Mike’s project with write-up below:
“I made this five panel light box to decorate our basement game area. I’m not sure my kids appreciate the retro-ness of it yet, but I’ll keep working on them. My wife and I choose the particular five marquees because we have a fondness for those games and also because these all have their own creative designs and were more than fancied up words (ex Star trek or Defender). Crazy Climber has slightly different proportions than the others which resulted in the black side strips, but that is just about my favorite game when I was a kid, so it had to be here.
The inside is illuminated by five volt LEDs (led strip that has a usb connector) powered by a USB brick. The brick needed to have a mechanical switch which I connected to in order to have a switch on the outside of the cabinet. This switch has three positions,: illuminated, off and charging. This involved opening up the brick and soldering new connections to it. A touch switch wouldn’t work for me unless it could be made accessible to the outside but I was worried that would weaken the frame. I don’t know the run time until it goes dead, but it is long enough to last an evening and I expect quite a bit longer (the brick is rated at 12000mAh at 5volts. I can attach a recharger to a nearby outlet. I could also just plug it in, but I really don’t like cords showing. The LEDs are arranged around the edges of the entire box and also along each dividing strip and adhered to the back interior of the cabinet facing the front. Flickering was a problem towards the end of the initial single led run so I had to split it into two runs with a second power feed which solved the issue. For good measure I also applied plastic adhesive mirror panels on the interior back. Cabinet depth is 2 ½ inches. I used 1×3’s for the perimeter, and ripped the same 1×3 so they had a depth of 1” for the center strips. A table saw was used to cut the slots to hold the glass. I got the glass at Lowe’s, as they would cut it for free. All the wood pieces that are showing are attached to each other with various metal angle irons. The back is screwed on. It is fairly heavy, but it hangs fine on a cleat.”
-Mike
Switch:
WINOMO Heavy Duty Toggle Switch Flick ON/OFF/ON Car Dash 12V DPDT with Waterproof Cap
Finally took the time to get our original scans of Time Crisis marquee put together. Time Crisis is one of those games that people remember as one of their favorites from their childhood. Time Crisis 1 is quite rare however, as the more popular and super earner Time Crisis 2 was more highly sought after. Really difficult to compete with a 2 player game that earns about twice as much. Check out the marquee in our store HERE, and if you’re feeling nostalgic, check out a play through of the game below, where yes, once again the president’s daughter has been kidnapped.
