Hey Orion; I just checked some of John’s work and discovered that one of the things he does that increases the immersion in the bezels is the front art reflection in the arcades sides, so I tinkered with some of those, to see if I could get the same result in just a couple steps (easily batched if needed).
I am sharing below the quick steps to achieve this, in case you find it useful for your project. If you do not, or you do not like the addition of this effect, please disregard
In this example I worked with Double Dragon 2.
Here is a nude background of the arcade:
You can paste the game’s bezel, and darken/shadow its sides a little bit so it gains depth:
Then copy their sides separately, flip them horizontaly, and place them with a tiny margin between:
You can then trim them by the shape of the black section of the arcade sides (do not include the rubber bands), and apply to them a 30% opacity, and a 8pt Glaussian blur:
Obviously it depends on each bezel, as sizes are different (and I know that you are trying to approach the full bezel display), but in case some bezels have the same proportions (or their negative space is the same), the above steps can be scripted as a PS action to batch multiple front panels at the same time.
Ok, my wall of nonesense ends here
Cheers and keep rocking those realistic bezels!