I hadn’t been looking at it, but all the art is available so just a matter of assembling it into an overlay. I’ll plan to work on it once I free up. There are a couple art restorations I have in flight right now, a recreation of the Mutant Night marquee and a restoration of the Three Wonders marquee, both will take a fair amount of time. So, it might be a few weeks but I’ll start putting out overlays again soon enough. 
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Great looking game room, Ars. Thanks for sharing that pic. How fun!
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@ ArsInvictus Is that a Japanese style Namco Cabinet on the far left? That looks sweet. How much did you pick that for if you don’t mind me asking?
Would love a Generic Cabinet overlay like the Namco or Astro City Cabinets with control panel in Vertical and Horizontal for games that don’t really have any artwork. I’m just putting it out there as a thought not a request, You guys already got your hand full as it is. I appreciate all the work you’s do.
PS. Yes I see you said its “Namco Exceleena 2” I jumped the gun looked at the picture first and didn’t read your whole message LOL
DK
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Get ready to lock and load, light gun fans, as I’ve got two great Midway light gun shooters from the 90s for you (one new and one that’s an addition to one you’ve seen here already)! I’ve tested both of these with the AimTrak and they work well – I will be revisiting these and other light gun games once I get the Sinden light gun and I will update the overlays as necessary.
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Revolution X (Midway – 1994)
Aerosmith were never shy about milking their somewhat cheesy image with flashy technology, including a Walt Disney World ride and a Guitar Hero game, but this mid-90s rail shooter from Midway was somehow both the least and most impressive of their extracurricular experiments. The game’s “Music is the weapon!” mantra and dystopian rock band-fights-censorship schtick were cringe-inducing even at the time, but the game goes all-in with its cheese, and over 25 years later it feels strangely reassuring. (Remember CDs? Remember… Aerosmith?) Though not the most imaginative or varied gun game ever made, Revolution X is a great reminder of Midway’s 90s heyday, and it has a sense of style and silliness that make it worth a few rounds fighting Mistress Helga alongside a pixelated Steven Tyler.
The MAME version has 3 screen sizes – a Medium size (on the left above) that shows the most CPO artwork, a Large size (on the right above) with a bigger screen and a Full size that makes the screen the entire monitor width. The RetroArch version just includes the Large size as it’s the best balance between screen size and artwork.
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Midway – 1991)
Before Midway had players firing CDs at armies of rollerblading goons alongside Aerosmith, it had them shooting machine guns at attacking Terminators alongside Edward Furlong in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The mechanics are similar, but it’s perhaps easier to root for humanity against killer robots. The game puts you in the flesh-covered endoskeleton of a T-800, battling through a series of stages modeled after the movie, grabbing weapon powerups and shields along the way. Though the technology was somewhat older in Terminator 2 vs. Revolution X, the former often actually looks better as it doesn’t scale its sprites quite so aggressively.
The original design in this overlay is by @walter.farmacia (the left image above) – in addition to adjusting the brightness, I tweaked his design to add two additional screen sizes that give you more game and less cabinet. The two versions also have different speaker panel styles. The MAME version has all three variants, while the RetroArch version just has the middle size (the right image above).
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Thanks @DonkyKong, yeah, we’ve discussed creating some generic overlays for games we haven’t created dedicated art for, but just haven’t gotten around to it. It’s definitely a great idea and something we should have
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I might be willing to do a vertical version if there was interest. Although I’m not sure I could compete with @PapaShine’s 3D rendered Control Panel.
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I think that would be awesome @Duimon! Your work is amazing and right now @papashine has been on a break from making these overlays and renders, so no competition
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Yeah, this would totally rock! 
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I was just thinking, I think with the new MAME.lay file you could (Maybe) even set it up that you have a default vertical or horizontal cab overlay (.ini files for that), but could refer to a marquee folder that has marquees that would be displayed so you would at least have a game(rom) marquee placed. I would have to look into that, but maybe someone knows more about layfiles(new layfiles setups) and might already have a way to do that.
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Hello. I just signed up to say what amazing work. I don’t know quite what I’ve even signed up to here yet aside from what’s shown in this thread, I’m very out of date on all things emulation.
This is probably going to be a bit long but I hope that will be offset by how much I post in the future lol
I’ll try and keep it short.
Been thinking about making a mame machine for 20 years and never got around to it due to zero practical skills or tools, and never settling on a shape or control system despite a couple dozen detailed mockups built in sketchup. I wanted it to be unique and modular, so prebuilt was out, plus I don’t really have the room for a regular arcade box let alone a huge frankenstein mame cab, also I really didn’t want a frankenstein cab so It never happened. I have collected over that time a whole lot of components to make it happen though… controls games etc…
After finding the vcabinet and these overlays it has absolutely solidified I have to do this. It doesn’t take up much space (wall mounted) and makes 200+ games a unique yet original experience
I bought the plans for the vcabinet and hope to find someone to cut soon.
I want to say thank you all involved for sharing this content free, it is stellar work.
So, that’s the genuine thanks bit done here’s the bit where I’m asking for something 
I wonder if any of you have heard of the electrocoin xenon. It was a cabinet from the UK with a 25" monitor and smoked glass across the whole front often used here as a generic replacement for whatever cab succumbed to water damage - or just bought seperately for the latest jamma kit to go in, from the early 90’s. It came after the electrocoin goliath which didn’t really have any specific features like its successor did.
I have fond memories of playing r-type II robocop and street fighter II - after it was succeded and relegated to the generic cab in these. There were about 8 or 9 in a row back in 92/3.
I wonder if I try to compile some references of it, someone might have a go at recreating it?
It seems like it would fit nicely as a generic overlay too. The speakers and coin insert were under where the bezel would be if it had one… which it didn’t.
I’ll just share a couple pics for now to show what I’m talking about and see if I can find something better for detail. I wouldn’t mind trying myself but I know I don’t have the experience and skill for 4k recreation… But maybe I could start trying certain parts and get some help to put them together?
That said if the hard work means nothing to you personally, and it’s all free, then I can understand how the effort might not match up with the result so. Just asking.
I don’t need the xenon overlay to convince me to finish what I started 20 years ago 
Here it is, there were 2 control panels, one displayed here and another I haven’t found a picture of yet that was mottled grey metal same as the speaker panel, with the xenon logo in that sticker printed on the front in white. That came later I think.
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Welcome to the forum, Orb.
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Welcome Orb! I’m glad the vertical overlay format has convinced you to build a cabinet, I agree that it makes it worth it on another level with the cabinet art. Make sure you keep us posted on your progress!
As for the Electrocoins Xenon: I’m sure we could create something that captures the overall look. One question I would have is, what about it, in your mind, stands out as the thing that would make it feel most authentic to you? Is it the speaker panel/coin insert section? The particular style of control panels? The stickers? Something else? Just trying to get a sense of what would make it work for you. The speaker panel part would be quite doable – the control panels would depend on the game but we could come up something I’m sure. The smoked glass front and the overall shape wouldn’t really translate, as we typically crop out the cabinet sides and we don’t really do much with glass. If you can find any other reference images, that would help as well.
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Thanks for the welcome benlogan, Thoggo. The cab is quite tall 75". Standout differences are the higher than usual screen placement, the speaker/coin insert, front leaning smoked glass panel and thinner than usual marquee. yes also the stickers - everything you suggested really
On thinking about it more, it’s true there’s not that much to specify its differences on a flat screen that’s going to be tilted back slightly with no standout specific art… Especially if the glass element is not there.
Perhaps it’s not such a great idea after all - unless I can think of a way to get an illusion going.
I will go and find everything I can that might be of use to share, and also experiment with this illusion idea myself on an art program. I can do basic PS type work myself, just not ultra hq work
Leave it with me for now and if I come up with anything helpful both in reference and planning I’ll post. Thanks for thr replies.
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Ok I have done a cheap mockup of the general idea. I do not have the opportunity to actually test because I don’t have a computer capable at the moment. My gfx card died recently and is in rma. Also I don’t even have any emulators or games right now!
But the idea is to creep a little of the T molding near the bottom sides and warp the dimensions of the monitor to give perceived upper cab lean forward depth while keeping (or trying to) keep the ‘monitor’ looking straight vertcally on a leaning tv… phew. I hope that doesn’t sound like nonsense I’m not sure. so here’s the rough mockup:
This auction page is where I built it from, it has a few pictures
I’m not so sure I ought to have asked anymore, seems like something complicated that I should get done myself when I eventually can, and then maybe ask you nice people to just HD it later huh?
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Black Widow (Atari – 1982)
This game had kind of flown under my radar, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, both at a local arcade that just opened and on MAME. Black Widow was a conversion kit for Gravitar, which wasn’t a huge hit when it was released, and it plays like sort of a cross between Tempest and Robotron: 2084. Players control a spider who shoots the bugs crawling in its web to turn them into dollar sign-shaped “grubsteaks” (you know, like spiders do), using one joystick for movement and the other for firing. Some bugs lay eggs, which hatch into more annoying bugs, while others explode or fly around, Galaga-style, and yet another large bug called the Bug Slayer roams around and competes with you to clear out the tasty intruders. The game’s colorful vector graphics set it apart from a lot of games of its time, and it’s actually pretty addictive.
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Yeah, that’s the sort of thing I was imagining @Orb, we could create something in that vein. We have a variety of options for controls, and the speaker panel wouldn’t be super difficult to recreate. Typically in an overlay we avoid adding reflections on the “glass” as it tends to detract from the game more than it does on an actual cabinet, though I still would like to explore better ways to do reflections. I think the biggest challenge would just be finding the correct marquees, as it looks like these were a bit shorter than typical marquees – do you have any idea if there’s a source out there that would have scans? Or did they use the same marquees but just cut them down or cover up part of them?
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I’m conscious of the post count about this matter and don’t want to make it all about me forevermore so I’ll make this the last post on it.
Until I have the leaning television to work out warp angles from it’d be guesswork. It’s a very niche thing too isn’t it? It’d be a wonder if anyone else visiting wanted that 
I didn’t realise when I first asked, the extra challenge created by me not using a vertical screen you see.
Anyway, to answer about the marquees- It usually had that default unigame one in my mockup, a game specific one with the bottom hacked off, a sheet of paper with the game name printed on or none at all. Nothing fancy around my way. It was a strange decision on electrocoins behalf to make things difficult.
I’d be fine with the Unigame one only as my intent was to use this for any games that didn’t already have any overlay set mostly, and maybe a few kit games I actually played in one. So there’s only really one to recreate.
Black Widow looks very nice. I mean it when I say these recreations make me want to play games before my time to experience them. I was 5 when that came out 
It goes to show how much the art was worth as a draw and again, kudos for bringing it back.
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This is the earliest game I played on in the wild, and was fascinated with. It was pretty old by then but must have been still making money when I got to visit arcades
The artwork was recreated on a lot of schoolbooks.
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Space Duel (Atari – 1982)
Keeping the Atari vector goodness coming! A childhood favorite of mine, Space Duel was the “true” sequel to Asteroids, adding a variety of novel features, the most notable being two-player simultaneous play. Atari had the genius (or insane?) idea of linking the two players’ ships together, creating the opportunity for both concentrated firepower and outright mayhem, as one player can thrust and send the tethered ship careening across the screen (early examples of both realistic physics and video game trolling). Space Duel also replaced the asteroids with colorful shapes that change across the levels, and added aggressive alien attackers (including some that “play catch” with their projectiles), shields and bonus levels. (One thing to note: you’ll need to have a Select button mapped as this game has you press Select to choose the game type and then Start to actually start the game.)
EDIT: Sorry, I forgot the image in the RetroArch version! If you downloaded it, please redownload.
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