Marquee

I got Rickwood Displays in Milton to do this for me. They are pretty good, but make you explain EXACTLY what you want. I thought I did, but when I got my order back, there were a few things wrong about it.
I had been hounding them for days to get it done, as when I first asked they said that it would take 2 days "if that". Well it took nearly a week, and I rang them up nearly every day. After a few days it became clear that they hadn't even looked at it, and that pissed me off. I had driven over there one afternoon, just before they shut, on the assurance that they could get it done in 2 days. During the whole time that this was going on, my only form of transport, my mum’s car, was in the process of being sold. By the time they had done it we were driving into London to sell the car. But luckily they worked out a way to get it to me the next day.

So when that day came, I couldn't wait to see the finished product and get it into the cab. So the guy came in and we unwrapped the glass and tried to fit it in the cabinet. And lo and behold it was the wrong way round. Luckily the glue hadn't fully dried yet, so I told them to take it back, peel off the vinyl and turn it around. Which they did, and they returned it that afternoon.

Then came the front panel. This was the only part that was done right, and it looked sweet. So I put it to one side and looked at the marquee.

At first it looked sweet, but then I looked closer and realized it was not what I had asked for at all. It was put on OVER the Lexan not under so that you looked through the Lexan to see it. It was also done on a Gerber, and not a HP Designjet. I don't know whether this caused the slightly mottled appearance or what, but I was not a happy chappy. I was going to ask him to take it back as well, but it looked like the glue on this one was well and truly set, and my mum kept on going on about how great it looked. She hates it when I complain about anything, and I'm sure she would have objected if I told the guy I wanted him to do it again. Plus it probably would have cost me more money, unless I had a massive whinge, which I was thinking about doing because at this stage I was a bit pissed off that it had taken this long, and that it was still wrong, even after they had rung up for confirmation on how it should be. But I let it slide. Everyone who has ever seen it says it is sweet, so that made me feel better.

The design comes from the mame bad marquee over at Oscar Controls. Kelsey has kindly let me modify it for use on my cabinet and this site. Check out his site, it has some wicked marquees and artwork.

I bought the fluorescent light from Maplin Electronics for about 15 quid. It was damn expensive and I've since seen cheaper, so look around. I mounted it to the MDF board I had made, with the screws and brackets supplied. I should have put something in front of it, like red cellophane or something to make the light a bit less bright, but I didn't have anything like at hand, so I left it. I did put black tape over the hole where the original speaker used to be, so that the light didn't shine on the screen.
The JAMMA standard only requires a mono speaker and that was what the cabinet had, but it was in the way if I wanted to put in my light dead in the middle of the marquee, so it had to be moved. I didn't want to scrap it all together so I moved it down to just behind the control panel, where there was one hole on either side of the wood on which J-Pac sits.

I then mounted the marquee in front of the speakers and light and turned it on. I didn't screw it down, because I wanted to be able to change the volume.

mmmmm. glow-tastic goodness.

So that was the marquee done. Moving on...