Initial D Arcade Cabinet (part 4)

Now my converted Initial D cabinet is assembled and mostly working. It’s time to add the game-specific decals. These will make it look more exciting.

I had researched the three versions of the Initial D Arcade Stage game featured on this style cabinet. Out of these, I liked the look of Ver.2 the most. The blue and white looks much better to me than the green of ver.3.

My order was placed with Arcadeartrepro.com and took just a couple of weeks to arrive. For reproduction prints, I couldn’t have been happier with the quality. All printed sheets look and feel exactly right to me. I was really pleased I get all the prints for Initial D version 2 from the same supplier.

I needed the following prints:

• Left and Right side panel artwork
• Left and Right base artwork
• Monitor bezel instructions
• Cabinet base top artwork
• Seat back artwork

Applying the prints

Installation was quite straight forward, and just needs confidence. I place the printed part in the correct place. Then I hold it with masking tape on the leading edge. Start from underneath and remove the backing paper. Apply the artwork slowly from left to right. Make sure not to trap any air pockets. The printed material is very thick so if you do need to remove it slightly when applying, you can do. Just taking your time is the key.

I’m very happy with the results.

As mentioned before. I had before adapted an original Sega arcade pedal unit for the G25. To do this I removed the original potentiometers and replaced with 10k ones to match the Logitech resistance rating. The wiring is very straight forward and I followed the diagram found here:

For the gear shift I wanted to use a Sega UP/Down selector that I purchased to match the cabinet. I was pleased to find out that the G25 shifter does not need to be connected to the wheel. Everything else works without it. I connected the shifter switches to my I-PAC USB controller board. Start and View buttons are also connected to the I-PAC and mapped in each emulator as keyboard presses.

I’ll go over the details of how the controls and steering work in my next post.

Neil – 8bitplus