Nic card came, woohoo :). Thanksgiving (arcade included) was a hit. The machine got no more than 30 minutes rest between the 4 kids that came over, as well as my fianceé's mother, who has insisted on being on top of the Robotron highscores (tho the margin right now is about 1,500 points).
Updated artwork, still need to do the waves.

Sorry about lack of updates (power failure killed my lan card, still waiting on replacement). Still working on the artwork, and making some headway. Kinkos quoted be $35 to print the vinyl underlay (or $30 for paper), but I forgot to ask about lamination. I'm going to get some quotes from some local printshops shortly, but I don't think I'm going to find anybody willing to do the job for significantly less than that (though higher quality may not be difficult to find). Regardless, it's going to be a while until the artwork itself is ready for print, so I'm in no hurry.
Ultimarc has released the T-Stik plus, which is just a bracket that allows you to switch their T-Stiks from 4-way to 8-way by lifting upwards on the joystick, and twisting. Absolutely a better solution than some of the motor-driven ones I'd come up with. At $5 each, they're certainly a lot cheaper too. Currently out of stock, but I'm shooting to get two from the next batch.
Though there are some great jukebox apps available, I have yet to find one that's perfect for me. Digital Jukebox and Virtual Music Jukebox have, so far, come the closest, but neither are very well suited to 640x480 screen resolutions and the blurriness of the TV (as opposed to a PC monitor), and I'm just not stoked on the idea of paying for software that doesn't do the job I need it to. IPlay, on the other hand, looks like it has overcome both of these problems(and it's free, to boot), but I've tried repeatedly, on 3 different pcs, to get it installed and running and so far have not been successful. Using Mamewah as a shell may be interfering with some of the other applications that IPlay installs and is dependant on, but I don't know for sure. I'm planning on making my own (I'll be using Director, so the projector files should be cross-platform to a degree). but that too will take some time. The final product will be free for non-commercial use (which I assume will cover just about everybody that'd want it anyway), but it'll be at least a few months until I have anything worth showing.

Well, there's a guestbook type thing now. Click the post button on the left to add something. Here's a preview of the CP underlay graphics I'm working on.

Hinged the control panel and coin door panel on the cabinet today. Used a piano hinge for the control panel top (and now I need some sort of gasket or weatherstripping to prevent light leakage when I get the LEDs installed), and cabinet hinges for the coin door. Pics soon. Working on the marquee and underlay graphics, but they're going to take some time.

Received and applied the labels Nannuu from the Build Your Own Arcade Controls forums generously donated to the community.

Had a break in the weather and got a whole lot done today.
Acrylic has been cut, trimmed, drilled, beveled and mounted, and it looks great. The control panel itself has been painted, and t-molding added. Buttons (other than the one I'm missing) are all wired up for the most part. Panel top has not yet been mounted or hinged, and I need to get a holesaw and a grommet to run the wires through the control panel box.





Not my handwork. I was just impressed by it. This is the mount for the trackball.