Makin' Progress

The arcade cabinet is really coming along! I'm knee deep in creating the artwork for the cabinet, starting with the control panel. I'm sticking with Cave Story artwork for the control panel only. Below the blue buttons will be a blue shaded Balrog with arms thrown up yelling "Huzzah!", Balrog's catch phrase. Missiles will be flying underneath the trackball toward the red button side, where a red Balrog will be in pain yelling, "Ouch!" My kids are huge fans of Balrog, calling him Lunchbox due to his lunchbox-like shape. Up above the Player 1 start button will be a small picture of Quote, the main character of Cave Story. Above the Player 2 start button will be a small picture of Quote with Curly on his back, a reference to the harrowing last level of the game. Finally, the background of the control panel overlay will be a cave and have various characters hidden in the background, including the two last bosses hiding in the top corners.
I'm also busy with wiring the buttons to the keyboard encoder, attaching the control panel latches, installing the T-Molding (which is already attached to the control panel), installing the speakers and subwoofer, and mounting the marquee backlight. I may install the coin door tomorrow, seeing as how it shouldn't get in the way of anything at this point. I really enjoyed mounting the buttons, trackball and joysticks. It really beings a bit of finality to this project. Granted, I still have a fair amount of work to do, but it is really neat to know that I am nearly done! Oh, I also found a spot that needs some touch up paint on the speaker panel. That sucks!

DONE!!!...?

Well, I have a feeling that I may be a bit premature in saying this, but...

CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARCADE CABINET IS FINISHED!!!

I finished painting what I believe will be the very last coat of paint on the cabinet tonight! I may be a little premature in this only because the paint hasn't dried yet, so I can't say really how this coat is going to turn out. I feel like it is done now though! I'm so happy! It's been nearly three years of slowing working at putting this together, and now it is ready for wiring up and playing!

I started work on the art tonight too. I think that I'm going to go for a collage of 8-bit sprites from my favorite games. So, characters like Mario, Bowser, Link, Ganon, etc, will be clashing against each other on the sides of the panel. I'm also adding characters from the PC game, Cave Story. I think it'll look pretty neat once it is done.

What the Hell?

I'm a big fan of the game Rez, by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. However, some found an interesting use for add-on equipment for the game, called the Trance Vibrator. Go ahead and read her article.

Crazy Updating

As you can see, I've had a lot to say today. I realized it had been a little while since I updated. I figured this would be a good chance to show the latest on my arcade cabinet project...

I Hate MySpace... Continued...

So, I decided to expand my MySpace page some in order to get my friends to come to this, my actual blog. I actually requested friendship with my friends from work and high school. Now that they know that I exist their, they can see the link on the front page to here. I also added some pictures so that people knew it was me. I still hate the layout and social implications of the site (which is probably a debate that I don't want to start on a blog, but in person) but it is the best well to let my friends and family know about my blog, so that they can see what I'm up to, no matter where I am.
However, to contradict myself (because I like being a Devil's Advocate), I have found a lot of my old high school gang. With less than a year from our ten years after graduation, no reunion has been planned. MySpace may be the best way to find our graduating class and plan a reunion. Having a central area to meet the majority of people in America is pretty handy in that aspect.

The Sick

A sickness has spread through my family, starting with Maia. She got over it in about 24 hours, and then passed it to Sean. Because of that, Sean missed his first day of Kindergarten! After that, Juri got the Sick from Sean and was miserable for two days. Several days passed and she got better, then it was gone. Last Wednesday night, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was shaking and hot at the same time, my eyes felt like knives were stabbed into my retinas, and I was overcome with a tremendous headache!
During the next day at work, there was a test that I was supposed to take with my old section, but I wasn't up to it from my illness (sorry Jene for all the work for nothing). I called Medical, but they said there were no appointments and call them on Friday if I don't get better. Well, that night, I felt better when I got home from work (after working all day).
Catching up to today, when I woke up in the morning, I still felt well and went to work. Near the end of the day, I began to feel all the symptoms creeping back. To top it off, when I got home, Sean was sick again too. So, who knows how this weekend is going to go...

Band Aids and Best Friends

So, my daughter has this freak obsession with Band Aids. For some reason, she will occasionally ask for a box of band aids, and then proceed to stick nearly the whole box all over her legs. It's really a funny sight to behold, but at the same time, it bothers me because of the mess she leaves from the wrappers and such. I really need to get a picture of her with band aids all over her and post it on this blog...

My best friend, Matt, was shipped out to the USS Enterprise, which is currently deployed, today. He carries on the Erson Twins tradition, following in my footsteps by going to the ship that I was stationed on three years ago. We recently received a wedding invitation from him and, of course, my family and I will be attending. So, I called him last night to wish him luck during his short deployment, since it is returning in November some time. During that call, he asked me if I would be his Best Man! I was very honored that he thought of me for this. Thanks again, Matt!! I know you can't read this on the ship, but thanks!!