RE: Remanufacturing FAQ

G'day folks,

I think taking a person through all the steps to construct or repair a given
cabinet would be an excellent way to organize the FAQ. Finding an expert
who's built a "typical" cabinet from scratch would be the best source of
information.

By "typical", I'm suggesting that an easily constructed/repaired (from
common materials) cabinet that requires easily learned techniques be
selected from a pool of popular games. At times during the FAQ, the reader
would be sidetracked to other popular games that require a different (but
commonly used) restoration technique.

Unfortunately, I have little experience in restoration, but let me use
Robotron as an example. The FAQ would describe how to find the dimensions
of the original cabinet (and make a "pattern" to cut wood to), and the first
step is to buy plywood (instead of particle board). Another section should
discuss stapling, screwing and tricks used during construction.

An alternative would be to repair an existing cabinet...quite a bit of
discussion on bondo, plastic wood, etc would be merited. At this point, the
reader would have a cabinet to apply artwork to.

Once the cabinet has been prepared (sanding, primer, etc.), stencils for the
side are made from another source of information. Colors are mixed and
checked...I'd suggest mentioning some quantitative way of determining when a
person has the right color. I'd include a sideline about side art stickers
even though Robotron doesn't use them. This also leads you into the next
section (and any sidelines about legalities).

Control panel art and marquees are more difficult, since the copyright
issues seem to pop up more often. Up to now, you've been able to site
sources of information without worry. But to point a person to a database
of CP overlay or sideart scans might be risky. Perhaps it is best to assume
that the reader can find this information on their own?

Describing how to improve the scan to the point that it can be used for a
control panel is probably several sections. Followed by another section on
how to talk to a printer about what types of equipment are used in the
remanufacturing process. Finally some sources for raw materials (and how to
evaluate them) would be a good to include.

Cabinet hardware (like coin doors, locks, joysticks, buttons or bezels) is
going to be difficult to construct, so I'd focus only on restoration.

I'd route folks to the appropriate arcade WWW site or Conversion FAQ for any
internal electronics. There's already enough in this
restoration/remanufacturing FAQ, and a line has to be drawn somewhere. Let
folks figure out how to find and buy the equipment to wire the control panel
from these other sources.

Finally, have a tech writer involved as early as possible in the writing
process...I can't tell you how much Doug J's contributed to the FAQs that I
helped to write! I've found over the years, that it is better to work with
a small core group of people (a tech writer and several experts) rather than
to poll a community of people. Also, I like to have a bunch of reviewers go
over the final product.

                Steve Ozdemir
                sozdemir@att.com

ps - I'm drawing on some WWW sites that I've surfed across in the past. One
guy showed in gory detail how he either restored or constructed a Ms. Pacman
cabinet from scratch. I know of a few collectors who opted to construct a
cabinet from scratch (and most said they'd prefer to start with a beat up
version of their cabinet next time...an excellent point to make in this
FAQ). Also there's been a bit of discussion over the years about how the
high prices for arcade games is going to lead to knock-off market...much in
the way that old classic cars are copied!

-----Original Message-----
From: Commander Dave [mailto:david@hiwaay.net]
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 8:29 AM
To: vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: Remanufacturing FAQ

If we do this, would we be sticking to just the artwork type stuff or are we
talking a full blown FAQ about restoration of a cabinet? I am assuming the
first
as a full blown restoration FAQ would be too huge a project to tackle at
this
time. Also, is there any procedures for creating a FAQ (like newsgroup
creation)
or is it more "start writing it and they will come" type deal? Any thoughts
on
getting started with this Steve?

Anyone want to contribute possible topics in a "remanufacturing of artwork"
FAQ
to be fleshed out later? I can start keeping a list and create an outline
(unless someone else volunteers...Anyone, anyone?)

-Commander Dave

A major one would be "legalities" for sure.
Received on Tue Sep 7 11:20:09 1999