Joe's Arcade

I truly appreciate all my customers.
I love that I can contribute to some truly incredible projects.
Some of the stuff I see over on BYOAC knocks my socks off.

Check out Barrel Of Kong for example, what an incredible project.
You have some AMAZING projects over there. Some truly talented, creative builders.

Joe was pointed in my direction from users of the BYOAC site.
He wanted me to modify an existing layout and I told him I could not, and would not.
It's not what I do............I do custom work.
Why pay me to modify somebody else work ?

I told Joe I would do something custom for him and that he would love it.
HE DID!

We finished off this MALA layout with a custom load screen and sound effects from Hyper Sports.
(Joe's favorite game)

KOMRADE Marquee

I love repeat business. It lets me know I'm doing something right and that people are truly happy with the product/service they receive.

I had the pleasure of working on a marquee for a customer.
Previously I had done a MaLa layout for his "KOMRADE" project.
Now I had the chance to work on the marquee for this project.
Next up is the control panel.

Back To The Future MaLa Layout

I've been approached to create a layout inspired by Back To The Future.
This will be used on a MAME cabinet with a horizontal arcade monitor.
I've designed it at 1024 x 768 this way I can easily scale it down to the required resolution after.
The customer wanted the layout to reflect the Back To The Future circuit.

I used an LED style font for the games list, and a font called "Impact Label" for the labels.

I've got two different backgrounds for this layout. One a galvanized steel background, the other a
polished metal.

For the load screen I was thinking something inspired by the Hover Board graphics, I'm awaiting the customers feedback on the idea.

I wanted to share the work in progress samples.

KOMRADE MaLa Layout

I was approached the other day to work on a layout with a Soviet theme and feel.
The story behind this layout and what it means is an awesome one.
(not my story to tell, but I was honored to work on this)

The layout is 640 x 480 and has both a horizontal and vertical layout option.
Each version has a custom load screen.

It took me about 24 hours to complete the layout for the customer.

Custom Street Fighter Project

I was asked if I could help create a complete set of art for a Street Fighter cabinet.
I've done a few bartops, but never a full size machine. I'm concerned about some of the resolutions,
some great images are available. But would they look good blown up ?
I'm unsure, but I will print samples when I get final approval.

It's a big job, I'm taking it slow. Getting one image done, then moving to the other.
For now I'm doing the marquee. You can see the evolution of the marquee. The lighter images were early on, the darker black background is what I'm working with now.

I thought I would share the samples.

As always feedback, input, criticism all welcome.

Sienar Systems Mala Layout

I was approached to do a Star Wars layout recently. Shockingly despite the popularity of Star Wars I had never done a Star Wars themed Mala layout before.

The layout was designed at a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels and scaled down to 800 x 600 @ 100 DPI.

It features a gameslist window, video/snaps preview and a separate window for game info.
 (not shown in this sample)
It was designed with two custom load screens and features the Imperial March as background music.
The music begins to play as soon as the layout boots up.
I gotta say it is pretty cool! Darth Vader sound effects are featured upon game start and game quit.

If I can find some cool R2D2 sounds I'll modify the sound effects to feature some additional sounds.

Welcome to Mala Layouts By Mike.

I've always wanted to own my own arcade games. It was a dream of mine to have my childhood favorites in my "man cave" when I became a home owner. I'm thrilled to say that I achieved that goal.
Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, and Popeye all in original Nintendo arcade cabinets now reside in my basement.

But these cabinets are more than just what they appear on the outside. Inside some have PC's , and the others have Jamma multi boards. The ones that do have PC's however all have Mala !

Mala has simply put become my favorite, go to frontend for all my arcade projects.
A few years ago I showcased some of my work here (and still do)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108912.0.html
I was approached by a user asking what it would cost to create a custom layout for him.
A light bulb went off in my head, perhaps others would be interested in my services ?
The rest is history as they say, not great history, just my history.

If I were to guess I'd say for myself, friends, and customers I've done 100 layouts ?
I've never had an issue, and every customer has been thrilled.
In fact it was a customer who suggested I look for another place to showcase my work.

It took my awhile to get here, but here I am.
Here you will find samples of my work, specs on the work, and in some cases I'll detail the process or time that went into it. I'll also ask the customers (if they so choose) to leave a public comment about the layout the received.

I'm hoping people in the coin-op scene will find this page of some interest.
I welcome any and all feedback, criticism, and opinions.

Thanks for looking.