[MOC] Sega Classic Arcade Machines

[SpacySmoke]

If you like this, please support it at Lego Ideas: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/96810

Classic Sega Arcade Machines made with Lego bricks! Perfect for any Lego City arcade! As an old school Sega fan, these games have the quintessential "Sega" feel. Simple yet challenging gameplay, colorful and interesting graphics, and most of all, they're just fun to play.

I originally wanted to create 5 cabinets: these three plus Hang On and After Burner. However, I've been so busy with family, work, and other hobbies that it took nearly half a year of on and off building just to finish these. I figured it's about time to show them, yes?

Out Run

Sega's Out Run came out in 1986 and has been a long time favorite of mine. The game is iconic to me on many levels; the music, the graphics, the gameplay, the Sega-ness of it all...it's just perfect.

This was the first arcade cab I worked on for this series and I worked on it on and off for months trying different ways to build it. It's still not very close to the real thing, and I'm still thinking of ways to improve it. I'm talking mostly about the front section; the real thing is much slimmer than this.

The stickers were custom made in Photoshop and Illustrator. The Out Run logo was found off the web and the Sega logo was created using a font by HariHariSonic.

BTW, all of the stickers in these photos are virtual; they were applied in Photoshop.

Some Out Run cabinets have this little step on the side. I decided to include it since you can easily remove it if you don't like it.

The screen for this cab is on a 1x2x1 brick. Not ideal, but there wasn't enough room to put a 2x2 tile in there and still have all the current dimensions.

This is how a minifig looks playing the game. I kept going back and forth on whether the coinop device should be 2 studs wide vs. 1 stud wide. Neither is accurate as it should be somewhere between that. Eventually I decided on 2 studs wide because I felt the coinop panel on the sticker should be larger than 1 stud wide.

This photo also shows how the cabinet can rotate left and right to approximate the movement of the real arcade machine.

Thunder Blade

Thunder Blade was the second unit I worked on. I thought it would be easy because it's such a simple design compared to the others. The problem was scale. If I added in all the details of the real unit, it became too tall. So I had to remove some things to shorten it down to something closer to minifigure scale.

The helicopter skids took a while to get right and I finally hit on this solution after other tries didn't work. Other methods were too big, too fragile, or too small. This one was the closest to the scale I wanted to achieve.

The model is pretty stable. The chair is probably the most fragile thing though. It's mounted on half of a 2x2 turntable plate. It could be stronger with an extra plate in there, but I felt that it added too much height to an already tall model.

Like the Space Harrier cab, the screen here is on a 2x2 tile, so it can be switched out with other screenshots.

Here's how the build looks with a minifigure. Obviously, the foot rest is kind of useless, but it's there for accuracy.

You can also see how the chair swivels like the real thing.

Space Harrier

This was the third cabinet I worked on. I nearly gave up on it after a couple of failed attempts to build the front and seat sections. I took a break from it and tried to build Hang On, but that didn't go well either, so I came back to this.

I decided to start from scratch and start with the basics: just study the dimensions and details of the real thing for a long time. I figured the front section would be 4 studs wide, the middle would be 3 (with SNOT sides) and the seat would be 2 (also with SNOTted details). This led to the use of some technic beams to add support to the weak 3-stud to 2-stud connection. Once I built the floor of the actual cabinet (the red and white section) and the seat, everything came together really quickly. In fact, I think I took less time on this than the other two.

The front section was a bit of a pain though. There aren't any Lego bow pieces that have the same curvature of the arcade cabinet, and I didn't want to use hinges because I wanted smooth sides to make stickering easier, so this brick-built approximation is what I came up with.

Connecting the front section to the floor was another issue I had to deal with. At first I simply used hinged bricks to attach it, but because it's a 4-studs wide piece connecting to a 3-stud wide floor, I could only connect the two section by just 2 studs (offset). This was too weak for me even though it looked fine. So I redesigned it to use a combination of technic pieces and clicky joints. This worked really well because it's connected to the technic substructure and it's really strong. The only con is the clicky joint is visible at the back of the cabinet. I'm fine with the tradeoff.

Stickering was hell for this one. First, finding good source material was difficult. There really aren't many good shots of the Space Harrier cabinet artwork out there on the interwebs. I even searched in multiple languages. Eventually I found some photos that I had to manipulate in photoshop to create the stickers of the dragon and the back "jets". All the rest I created in Illustrator and had to customize to the dimensions of the Lego pieces. The fonts come from HariHariSonic. Sadly, his site is 404 right now.

Here, you can see how a minifigure will look at the controls. A minifigure can't actually grab the control stick; that's just a camera perspective trick.

This picture also shows how the cabinet can turn and tilt. It's mounted to the floor using the new ball joints.

Minifigures

The proposed minifigures for this project. I had originally wanted Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue to be included, but I felt that was just another license they would have to get if this project passes review.

Yu Suzuki is the Sega game designer responsible for Space Harrier, Out Run, Hang On, After Burner, Virtua Fighters, Shenmue and many other iconic Sega games.

That's it for now! I want to continue with the series and may try to tackle After Burner next.

Thanks for looking!

[Lego Spy]

Awesome, very well designed.

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Those were the days ...

Outstanding MOC!

[Chilis]

So cool! I really want these, hope you`ll get all the way!

[lightningtiger]

AWESOME......I loved playing Out Run, Space Harrier and of course Afterburner !

Excellent designing and good luck on Lego Ideas again 'SpacySmoke'.....Brick On ! .

[weavil]

Those are fantastic! Spent too much money on them as a kid.

[Vorkosigan]

Awesome! Different subject matter, tricky to get so much detail in this scale. Your stickers look very nice. Great job!

[dr_spock]

Cool builds. The sticker work is excellent. I don't remember those arcade machines. Is there such a thing as Arcade Dark Age? That pistol joystick looks dangerous for the minifig player.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Absolutely fantastic!

I remember Out Run and Space Harrier when a was a child and you have done a real masterpiece! :wub:

[gcanik]

So harking back to an earlier time. You so capture the spirit and feeling of the games and your stickers totally make the machines. Great job!!!

[SpacySmoke]

Thanks for the compliments guys! I'm glad I'm not the only one with fond memories of playing these games.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite arcades was actually at Disneyland -- the Tomorrowland arcade had all of the deluxe cabinets and I remember playing the massive Galaxy Force II deluxe cabinet there...that thing was so impressive that when I started playing, a crowd gathered around to watch. Living in California at the time, we would go to Disneyland at least once a year, and we'd always play in the arcade after riding Space Mountain or watching Captain EO. That reminds me, I totally want to make a Galaxy Force II cabinet as well.

[sithewok]

Oh, man. As a huge fan of the older Sega games, I am in love with these. They are great.

[doydy]

These are great! Can't stop staring at them especially Out Run. Supported!

[weavil]

That pistol joystick looks dangerous for the minifig player.

It's the "force feedback"!

[Hoexbroe]

Really well done. I like them!

[peedeejay]

This is simply amazing. Brings back some memories! :)

[*thomas*]

This is just so COOL !!!

[glendo]

this should be in Lego Ideas.

[gazumpty]

If you like this, please support it at Lego Ideas: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/96810

Come on glendo you need to do more than look at the awesome pictures .... this is a brilliant looking project and will have my support!

[Bennemans]

[finnbricker]

Supported! These are absolutely fantastic. It must have been very hard to create such detailed models in minifig scale. I would definitely get two sets and create a game arcade on the second floor of one of my modulars.

I would suggest you make instructions for these and start selling them.

[King Andy]

Already saw them on MOCpages but I can leave a comment here too. Great arcade machines, they really reassemble the real ones.

[SpacySmoke]

Out Run cabinet updated!

There were some things that really bothered me about the original build, and when something bothers me, I can't let it go until it's corrected.

Here's what I wanted to accomplish:

• Use a 2x2 tile for the screen (the old build used a 1x2 brick)
• Get rid of the gaps below the top section
• Make the front section sleeker and more accurate to the real thing.

So I started with redesigning the screen area, because I felt it was important to use a tile for the screen which would allow it to be swapped out with different screenshots a lot easier (you could have different screenshots printed on different tiles). I also used the build technique I used on my Space Harrier cabinet to get rid of the gap below the marquee/top section. This all changed the internal structure quite a bit and I basically had to redesign it almost completely.

It was all for the better though; the redesign allowed for more space, which let me add some internal detail. So now you can open up the back of the cab and see the pcb and other components.

I was even able to make the screen look kind of like a CRT! See this cross section to view the build and details (some parts removed to show detail):

I still want to redesign the base, because I think it should be narrower, so maybe that will be what I'll tackle next. 

By the way, this project only needs about 1,600 more supporters to get to the 10,000 mark! I'd appreciate the support if you like this!

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/96810

Thanks! Comments and questions welcome!

[Capparezza]

I remember playing Outrun on a Sega MegaDrive as well as on these Arcade machines. Very true to the original! Good luck with your Ideas project.

[Canadianbricks]

I really hope this becomes a set. Outrun is one of my favorite games.