Holt, MI
Okay okay, enough talk about schematics and relays, let's get to some of the design vision for this project. 
In all seriousness, this whole concept would have gone nowhere fast without @BingoPodcast, so I consider myself pretty darn lucky to have him as such a great friend. I'm forever indebted, m'bro!
Alright, mushy-time over. ARTS-AWAY!
(Oh, I almost forgot, now that I'm involved in this thread, prepare for its load-time to slow WAAAY DOOOWWWNN with all the animate gifs I'll be dropping.)
I think some of you may have seen that I recently obtained my EM arcade grail, a Williams "Penny Pitch":
After playing it (A BUNCH) I was still pretty enamored and was sort of lamenting the fact that there aren't a lot of games in a similar style. I love backlit animation, the small footprint is great, and hey...wouldn't it be fun to create one with my own artwork? But, wait, that's right...I do art stuff, not tech stuff. 
Enter bingopodcast .
So, I showed him some concept designs and we chat (A BUNCH) about how this might work. So, here's where we're at:
Title: Robo-Frenzy - An Electro-Mechanical upright arcade game:
Cabinet: Similar to Penny Pitch in size.
I'm already thinking about reworking the cab profile. I'd like to turn it into something that looks more like a robot itself, rather than simply a carbon copy of a Penny Pitch cab. We'll see if I can come up with something simple enough to recreate in wood.
*fingers crossed*
Anyhow, as you see, there will be a robot/gear motif. However, this cabinet will allow for the option of a 2-player simultaneous experience. The only control will be a wheel mech, which will be shaped like a gear:
I've already been calling around water-jet services in my local area and I've been assured we can create these custom controls. I'm pretty excited! If you've never heard of water-jet cutting before, here's a quick demo video. It's pretty astonishing:
Gameplay: The visuals will be displayed on a backglass via backlit animation:
The player (little dude on either side, Player 1 on left, Player 2 on right) will navigate his way from the top of the planet surface down to a basket o' parts at the depths of a cavern, avoiding the extending and retracting tentacles of the octobot. He'll fetch a part from the depths of the cavern and make his way back, once again, to the planet surface. The goal of retrieving the parts is to build a big bot to help stop the octobot. Each part brought to the surface will contribute to one of a few Frankenstein'ed pieces of a bigger bot (legs, arms torso, head) until it is complete. 1 point for each part successfully brought back to the surface and 2 points for each big bot completed. Once big bot is completed (via a series of backlit parts, natch) then the game repeats (little guy builds another robot) and continues for a specific duration of time (to be determined...likely around the 1-2 minute mark). We're trying to figure out if the timer will be displayed via a dial of some sort, kinda like on a Chicago Coin Twin Rifle:
...or if parts like those are just unobtainium, then we'll go for sort of an animated backlit clock-hand movement. We'll see.
That's all I've got right now.
