I 
this thread.
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The first thing I think of when I see this is Up Down Up Down B A Select Start…
Great graphics & clever integration of the USB ports. Do they allow the use of other handheld controls?
Will this be a MAME cabinet?
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Thanks! Yes., you can use old style NES controllers or SNES controllers by plugging them into the USB port (or any USB controllers for that matter)
Rather than running MAME, it’s running a few Nintendo emulators (NES, SNES, etc) to keep it on theme.
The main game however is Tecmo Super Bowl, including the versions with current rosters…
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You had me with the graphics on your cabinet and control panel. That is just incredible. How did you manage to make that? Did you cut stencils or masking, or are those decals, or…?
Thanks!! The stripes on the cabinets sides and the gray border on the console was done with masking.
All of the other details were all done with vinyl using a Cricut.
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Cricut is one toy that I somehow don’t own yet. Thanks for the details. This is really excellent work.
Wow, that is impressive. I got my wife a Cricut and she used it a couple times, but now it is in the corner gathering dust…
Nice! I built my barcade before I had my GF but looking to incorporate new parts in a re-design of the control panel. 2 joysticks and 8 buttons each leaves a lot to be desired. I want a Tempest spinner and a trackball, so re-doing the layout and WILL use the GF to cut parts.
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Best arcade game Of. All. Time.
Yea - top 5 in my book.
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no. Just no. You can cut HTV, but not regular vinyl. It will kill your machine. Even just a tiny bit.
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There was a post here that someone flagged because it talked about cutting vinyl. I removed it because it’s potentially harmful. Lasering actual vinyl will permanently damage your Glowforge beyond repair, and it happens almost immediately - even one print can destroy your machine. It’s also potentially hazardous to you, since it releases corrosive gas.
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Cutting sticker vinyl is one of the uses I had wanted to use the machine for. It is done all the time on the slightly more industrial laser where I work - such as the vinyl boat name above. Creating custom stickers, etc. I assume this is from the chlorine gas and other nastiness generated when cutting?
Aside from purchasing (or building) a separate swivel knife (vinyl) cutter, is there any sticker material that can be used safely in a glowforge?
Yes, they make PVC-free versions of “vinyl”…
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Silly Goose… Robotron 2084. was the best.
though I have to admit spinning that knob on Tempest got pretty intense 
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Robotron is a great game, and clearly we could have a holy war about which is the GOAT.
I was lucky enough to buy a Tempest machine back in the 80’s, and my circle of friends got pretty good at playing it. One fluke of Tempest is that it allows you to ramp up your score by starting a new game within 60 seconds of a previous one, which lets you hop to a higher initial level. The resulting bonus is much larger than the score you can get from working your way up starting at the first level. We got to the point where I could individually get a score above 650,000, and a friend of mine could roll it over at 1,000,000.
Long story short, if you’ve never seen the higher levels of Tempest, you haven’t played the whole game. The first 16 levels slowly introduce the different enemy units, and then the color of the playfield changes and you cycle through again, but with more, and faster. When you’ve gone through enough cycles of 16, the playfield becomes invisible, which is a whole new level of craziness.
Before I owned the machine, my circle of friends dumped enormous piles of coin into it at the arcade, but never saw more than a few colors of tubes. It takes literally a few hours of solid, nonstop play to get the machine to reveal all of its secrets.
So I respect your opinion. I know people who swear by Joust or Marble Madness as the GOAT. But for the time period, the Atari coin-op vector games (Asteroids, Battle Zone, Tail Gunner, Tempest, Major Havoc, Black Widow, Star Wars, and Space Duel, to name a few) are in a league of their own for playability and originality.
Just don’t get me started about pinball…
EDIT: Tail Gunner is actually a Vectorbeam or Cinematronics game, which reminds me of two other classics: Star Castle and SpaceWar!
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Oh Wow.
thanks for the story on Tempest. I don’t think I ever saw anybody really high level playing it apparently. I had no idea that the tubes vanished. HOLY SMOKES
Oh you are SOOO right about the originality of the games, being awesome back then. Loved Battlezone. also if you ever play the PC version, to me it is still the most intense PC game ever made.
Did you ever play Tron Discs? That was really cool/fun and much like the movie. but that machine was super rare.
for Robotron I killed off 16 lives, to go to Class one day. review for the final couldn’t miss that. my all time best. and I had to crater it myself. still stings… LOL
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I played the Tron games in the arcade enough to be really impressed by them, but not enough to gain any level of proficiency. Definitely had some cool graphics. I remember playing the light cycle game a fair amount.
It is almost disappointing to go back and watch the original Tron movie. At the time of its release, the CGI was mind blowing. With the added perspective of time it is a lot less amazing, even though it was groundbreaking.
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Asteroids was my thing. I would play so long I got chased out of the store by the owner.
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yes seeing TRON these days isn’t quite as jaw dropping.