Stickers and Sideart

I applied the instruction sticker on the control panel backer and the coin sticker on the front of the arcade. I bought them on ebay. The coin sticker is centered. I'm not sure if that's the right position but I like it that way. I also didn't bother to research the proper location for the instruction sticker and it still looks pretty good.

I bought the stickers and the sideart on ebay. I positioned the sideart 2 3/4 inches from the top of the cabinet and 2 3/4 inches from the rear of the cabinet. I taped it into place with blue tape.

I then removed the blue tape from the top of the sticker, removed the backing from the top of the sticker only, and smoothed the top of sideart on to the cabinet.

Then I removed the rest of the tape and the rest of the sideart backing. I smoothed it out slowly to make sure there were no bubbles. I didn't come up with this method. I saw it on YouTube.

Coin Box

The coin box sits inside the cabinet and collects the quarters so that when the owner unlocks the coin door, he or she can simply pull the box out and empty the quarters.

I found plans online for a Nintendo Coin Box to fit inside my cabinet. I built mine out of leftover 1/2 inch MDF.

If you decide to build a Donkey Kong replica, remember that Nintendo used the same cabinet design for a bunch of different games, including Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Radar Scope, and Popeye. I found a lot of good photos and tips searching for people who were restoring Popeye cabinets.

The bottom of the coin box holder sits about 5 inches high from the bottom of the cabinet. The top of the coin box holder has two holes to allow the quarters to pass from the coin mechs directly into the coin box.

Assembly - main bezel, marquee, control panel

There isn't much to say here since I spent so much time fitting the main bezel and marquee before I painted the cabinet.

I nailed the aluminum channel to the control panel rear support and dropped the main bezel into the channel. the top of the main bezel is held by a support bar that I bought on Mike's Arcade. The marquee fits into the top of that support bar and is secured to the top of the cabinet by - you guessed it - another support that I bought on Mike's Arcade.

I dropped the control panel into place and secured it from the underside with a pair of "control panel latches" that I bought on ebay.

I also stapled a piece of black poster board to the inside top of the cabinet and to the back of the monitor support. This can be easily removed if I want to slide the monitor out.