MY FIRST CUSTOM ARCADE CABINET

It’s exciting to finally share my first custom arcade cabinet.

This bad boy sits inside my cubicle at Blue Sky Studios. Anyone can take a break from the grind at work and come play some of their favorite retro video games.

It’s currently running on a Raspberry Pi 2 model B with EmulationStation. It’s emulating Atari 2600, GameBoy, GB Color, GB Advance, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, PS1 and MAME with space for additional consoles in the future.

Additional controllers can be plugged into the USB ports to play up to 4 players. The 25¢ push buttons actually work as quarters but you don’t need to actually pay. I also made sure that any MAME high scores are saved for the competitive gamers out there.

Here is a video that shows more:

My First Custom Arcade Cabinet from brockoli on Vimeo.

Special Thanks:

Nellie (my wife): For her patience. Love you! Now let’s play some Yie Ar Kung-Fu and Balloon Fight!

Ozzy Fernández and Tony Kordos: This cabinet would be nothing without their incredible work. I altered the original work for the sides of the arcade cabinet. You can see more of their insane portfolio here: http://ozzyfernandez.daportfolio.com/ and https://www.deviantart.com/tonykordos/gallery

UNKNOWN ARTISTS: I’m still searching for the artists that did the original illustrations I used for the marque and will post their names once I find them.

GameRoomSolutions.com: For everything! Ryan went above and beyond. I couldn’t be happier with his service. VISIT HIS WEBSITE!

Retropie Forum: Wow, this is an awesome and creative community. Anytime I got stuck, someone on the forums would bail me out.

Tyler Kakac: For his time, tools and expertise. He is a good friend.

CuddleBurrito.com: He helped me bring my vision for the custom ball tops and dust washers to fruition. Mad skills man!

Arcades.To: For answering all of my questions I had about my build. Check out their Facebook page.

Paradise Arcade Shop: They answered a lot of my questions and I bought some cool stuff from them. Thanks guys!

I am sure there are many people that I have missed. Building this arcade cabinet was a collaborative experience. If you helped, thank you!

TOY OF THE WEEK Wow, I need to do another update on life as an animator. It's been awhile. For now I MUST share a very awesome new toy I got today. This is going to fly off the shelves people. Say hello to BB-8. This little guy will be in the new Star Wars Episode VII. This toy is a remote control droid that is controlled via your iphone and the BB-8 app. The creators of Sphero have really outdone themselves. I can't wait to charge this guy up and play with him. For now check out a video below to see him in action.

Welcome Lincoln Samuel-Lawrence Boyts! Nickname Link.

TOY OF THE WEEK: REVOLTECH TMNT FIGURES

These bad boys just arrived! These are exactly what I dreamed TMNT figures should be like when I was a little boy. It was always frustrating to have my figures with no bendable elbows and legs. These figures however, have 63 points of articulation compared to the 7 points of articulation on the retro TMNT figures.

I ordered these through bigbadtoystore.com and they are going fast. If you want one I suggest getting them now. The first wave sold out and the second wave seems to be coming to an end too.

Each character comes with a stand, an additional emoji face, weapons and some fun props like the a pizza that breaks up into individual slices. Another incredible feature is the eyes are articulated. You can grab their bandana in the back and rotate it left and right. Rotate it far enough and the eyes go pure white for fight mode.

TOY OF THE WEEK: SNOW DAY!!!

Hi everyone. My little family and I made it out to NY safely before the blizzard hit.

I had an awesome first day at Blue Sky but the day was ended early due to the Blizzard warning. The following day at Blue Sky was cancelled so everyone can remain home and safe from the snow storm.

I took advantage of the snow-day and went outside and took pictures of my Peanuts action figurine set. I love these little guys and I am super excited to put them on my desk tomorrow at work.

4 YEARS

Just over 4 years ago Nellie and I took a step of Faith into the unknown. We decided early on in our relationship it was best to pursue dreams and not give into the fear of failure. So we moved from Washington, DC to Los Angeles, CA to pursue dreams.

You can not step into the Boyts household without being encouraged to pursue what makes your heart beat fast and have no regrets.

We loved our cute little apartment in Glover Park, DC and made some amazing memories there. It was really hard to leave a place that was fun, beautiful and had good food and move across the country to a state that we knew nothing about.

Fast forward 4 years and we have fallen in love with a new home all over again. Los Angeles is beautiful, fun and has good food. Do you see a pattern here?

Our first year in LA was so much fun because there was so much to explorer and people to meet. I had this crazy itch to learn character animation and I could not shake it. Nellie was super supportive and encouraged me to go for my dreams. The next 3 years in LA have been centered around me learning character animation, doing what we can to afford living in LA and start making babies! Haha. It has had it's tough moments but we have come out stronger for it.

I always wanted to experience the freelance industry and it has been a positive experience. I have learned so much and I am thankful for all of the studios that trusted their visions in my hands.

In four years our family has grown from two to four (with baby ninja on the way). I have reached out and achieved some of my 5 and 10 year goals earlier than expected. We have made incredible life long friends that we are going to miss dearly each day that we are away.

So that brings us to today. In less than 72 hours our little family will step out of our comfort zone AGAIN and move across country to White Plains, NY for another adventure. We can not imagine falling in love with another place after the last two. However, each time that we have taken a step of Faith our blessings and joy have been multiplied.

The contract at Blue Sky is only four months. However, we can not help but feel we are closing a big chapter in our life story regardless of what comes after May. In June we will welcome our son and begin to look for a new place to live, make memories and achieve goals.

I wanted to share all of this with you because our lives have been living proof that you can take a step of Faith and be better for it. Do not be controlled by the fear of failure and live your life with no regrets.

Layla, I Love you my little cutie. You are a wrecking ball in our home and we Love it. You bring an energy and newness that overflows into our hearts. We can't kiss you or hug you enough. I am your daddy and I promise to Love you, cherish you and support you in all your dreams to come.

Thank you Nellie. You are my pillar and my beauty. I am tired and without you I would have not made it through the tough times. I will continue to Love you, cherish you and encourage you to reach for your dreams. Thank you for believing in me and trusting me. I will do my best to make you proud.

To all of our friends in LA. We are going to miss you A LOT. We never felt like we had enough time with each of you. It actually feels like we just started to get to know you. Please stay in touch and if we make it back to LA anytime soon we can not wait to see you again.

MY NEW 3D PRINTED LUXO JR. PIXAR LAMP

HUGE thanks to my coworker and friend Justin Wilcott for this sick 3D printed Luxor Jr. Pixar Lamp. He printed each of the parts for me on his 3D printer and I assembled it. This sucker is going to be on my desk forever!

I found a little hardware store nearby and bought a couple metal springs to add that little extra bit of detail. I also remembered I had a LED non-flicker tea light at home. I asked Justin if he could carve a rectangle hole in the back of the lamp for the LED tea light switch. I disassembled the tea light and Justin cut off the excess plastic around the battery casing. It worked perfectly!

IN AWE

It is always hard to describe the impact that Star Wars had on me when I was a young boy and saw it for the first time. There are no words to fully describe it. It left this imprint of wonderment and awe that has stayed with me even to this day.

BLUE SKY HERE WE COME!

Hi everyone! 

This is exciting news! This January Nellie, Layla and I will be headed to White Plains, NY. I will be a Temp Animator on Blue Sky's new film, Peanuts. We are excited for this new chapter in our already amazing adventure and we could not have done it without you!

Thank you to everyone who has supported Nellie and I along the way. There are way to many people to list them all. A big thank you to Animation Mentor, Bobby Beck and all my great mentors for sharing your knowledge and inspiration. The BIGGEST thank you goes to my beautiful wife, Nellie, for being so supportive and understanding during the many sleepless nights of character animating. I will continue to work hard, push myself and make you all proud.

We will be in LA until around mid-January so if you want to meet up let us know!  If you are in NY or nearby let us know that too.

26 Foods we have been eating wrong!

ANIMSQUAD

Hi everyone! I took a nice break after finishing Animation Mentor and spent time with my beautiful and supportive wife Nellie. Our daughter Layla, now one year old, has grown and changed so much this past year. I am so blessed and thankful I got to experience it.

While my wife continues to be supportive and Layla continues to grow and change each day I need to get back into the swing of things when it comes to improving my character animation skills.

I really enjoy in-person mentorship so when I learned more about AnimSquad I signed up. I am taking a 12 week in-person workshop with Disney animator, Marlon Nowe.

I have two assignments during this workshop. I will be completing a one person dialogue shot and a two person dialogue shot. My REEL needs some improvement and refined animation. My goal for the next 3 months is to achieve genuine acting choices in each of my shots to strengthen my reel.

MONTY'S CHRISTMAS

It is really hard to believe November is here with December coming up quickly. 

Nellie shared this commercial with me tonight. It is done very well and I love it. I hope you enjoy it too! Maybe it will bring back some great memories from you past Christmas celebrations from your childhood.

DISNEY'S FEAST