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Sonic840

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Sonic Spinball was my very first Sega Genesis game, and has a special place in my nostalgia. I knew I wanted to make a Sonic Spinball inspired shadowbox, but it took some time to work up to it. I decided to make a complete pinball table in stead of a summary or just part of a table. I selected the "right" table from level 1: Toxic Cave. The digital version of the shadow box was developed using Affinity Designer. This Illustrator alternative, is great for separating each element into a scene.


Digital version:

Sonic Spinball - Digital version

Shadow box version:

Sonic Spinball Shadowbox
00 Background

Individual elements for Sonic Spinball sprites/backgrounds are not readily available online. I ended up taking sprite composites into my favorite pixel editor Pixen (https://pixenapp.com) where I manually separated the foreground stage, background stage, and individual elements. The background was built up and expanded in Pixen to built up into a full background element for printing:








01 Parts

Each stage element was printed, cut out, backed with board/foam-core, and outlined to remove white edges.


This specific shadow box is four layers of foam core thick. This separates the foreground and mid-ground elements from the background. The toxic pool at the base of the stage is slanted down to extend from the background to the full foreground.







02 Background Assembly


03 Foreground Assembly

Background, mid, and foreground element assembly completed. Ready for the sprites and details!


















Rings, markers, baniks, and logo added!



















Custom frame and final build:

IMG 0106 copy
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I am slowly improving at building shadow boxes! The A Series SoC Shadow box is certainly my most ambitious built yet! This post details how I went about building it. I've always been fan on bare CPUs and it's shocking just how small modern SoCs are compared to the "Big Iron" CPUs of yesteryear! I started collecting dead/"practice" boards from scrap sales and built up a collection of logic boards from the iPhone 4 to iPhone 12. None of these boards work, which makes them "cheap" and perfect for display. I've always wanted in leverage transparencies in my builds. Specifically in the text boxes. In previous builds like my PPC G5 shadow box

PowerPC G5 CPU frame

I'd fake it by printing a blurred background onto the text cards themselves. However, this time around, I got a printer that works better with inkjet transparencies. My good epson is no good for this paper media, the ink they use runs/spears. But the second-hand OfficeJet I found works great! Nice and dark prints on the transparencies. But it can't print white ink.... the solution I came up with was back-spraying the pages with white spray paint. I used a stencil of the text outlines and kept the stencil about a quarter inch of the transparency when painting to create a "fade" effect. The effect I was going for overall was "smoky black glass".

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Once cut out, another problem presented itself: transparencies are flimsy... how do I mount them to the background above the 'iPhones'...

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The solution was foam core borders, sliced to make a track in the foam for the transparency cards to sit in. Normal CA glue was then used to hold them in place. I wanted to make the text cards "float" over the iPhones they were describing. I initially went with pins, but quickly found this was too difficult to level and the cards would deflect and bend. I went with foam core stacks in stead.



The background presented its own challenge. measuring in at ~23x25, I could not print it on a single piece of paper. However, the OfficeJet I found could print large format paper. So a stich job was in order. The background I selected (a photo I took of one of my silicon wafers) was perfect for this because of the repeating pattern. I could cut the overlapping pieces at the pattern to avoid harsh seam lines. Edging the prints in coach sharpie also helped to get rid of the white seam line.

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The iPhone board holders were printed and cutouts were made approximately where each logic board is in the actual phone. I wanted this shadowbox to be interactive. Magnets were used to make the boards removable and "finger holes" were cut for easier access to each board.

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I was able to get some of the A Series variants like the A5X, A6X and so on. Each "Varient" CPU was displayed on a card. Which was also affixed by a magnet.

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Some CPU variants were way too expensive to get... like Apple's new M1 or the later generation X or Z versions. They have printed stand-ins I can replace later when scrap prices come down. These I could use pins to mount!

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Some logic boards and CPUs are "stacked". When removing this A5 from the board, the DRAM came off and exposed the raw SoC. likewise, Newer iPhone designed hide the CPU inside a stacked logic board. Though desoldering the PoP for the A5 was a happy accident, I de-soldered the "daughter cards" on the stacked logic boards on purpose to display the SoC package.

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Final assembly and layout! The glass cover is also held on by magnets and can be easy removed. Though for the photos, I removed the glass altogether to eliminate the glare.

Overall, this shadow box features 11 real iPhone logic bards and 11 CPU variants (6 real, 5 printed). including the frame, it measures 24x26.5x4"


This project was completed just in the for Apple to announce the A15 in their September 2021 announcement! Maybe I'll make a bolt-on expansion for future additions. :)


Physical version


Digital Verison

Image
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Over 1 million views!!! on the old version of Computer hardware poster?

It's kind of odd but true!
The old version continues to pull in the visitors, while the new one is left out in the cold. 



Version 2.0:  Computer Hardware Chart 2.0 by Sonic840

Version 1.7:  Computer hardware poster 1.7 by Sonic840
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Computer Hardware Chart 2.0

7 years after the last published version, an update to Computer Hardware Chart is finally here!

Measuring in at 7200 × 9600 @ 200ppi (30" x 40" ARCH-E), CHC v2 has 75 CPU sockets/slots, 30 peripheral card slots, 17 internal disk drive interfaces, 57 peripheral ports, 44 kinds of RAM and more.

As before, I'm providing a high-res version for download for those with the means to print themselves for personal use or who want to keep the digital file for easy viewing. Please do not sell this image! The only site permitted to sell prints is currently DeviantArt. If you find it for sale elsewhere, it's not from me. 


300DPI version (exceeds DA's limit for image uploads so this is on sta.sh in a .zip...):

Poster v2.0 300-01 20160131.png

Big thanks to the folks who proofed the draft of CHC 2.0 and who purchased prints of version 1.7 from DeviantArt!  The funds from those sales helped me acquire some of the hardware for version 2.0. 

Computer hardware chart was developed to help folks visually tell the difference between the plethora of computer interfaces developed over the years. This chart is geared toward consumer computes, however I've included some server and enterprise components. Version 1 was a project I developed in College. At the time, I had a rich supply of old hardware from my personal collection and availability to newer hardware from my job at the time. The professors I had in my provided support, feedback,  and a plotter to ditto off copies for class. After I graduated and changed jobs, I lost easy access to new hardware and progress was stopped. CHC version 1.8 (a special version commissioned for for a McGraw-Hill book) of the poster outgrew the parent program I developed it in (Photoshop CS3) and I began the process of moving to Illustrator CC in stead. This allowed me to preserve the original individual photos and allow for a very detailed final product. This necessitated the complete re-shoot of the majority of the photos in version 1.x. Each individual photo was taken with my trusty PowerShot 630 at 8Mpx. This little camera has been through a lot. Including a complete lens replacement because of a rather destructive accident, and being too close to an exploding firework which left it badly dented. I have newer cameras, but I really don't like the current generation of CCDs in budget camera, and they have not been able to beat the macro on my Powershot 630. 

The sources for the bits in CHC came from several sources. the majority was out of my personal hardware collection. I've been collecting vintage Macs for years and have built up a pretty large collection. For stuff I did not have on-hand I was able to photograph hardware from my work or from friends. Other hardware has been acquired from online resellers like eBay, Alibaba, and mouser. On rare occasion, google images were used for non-released hardware to impossible to get hardware (like XDIMM and XDR. Essentially all the fuzzy ones...). 


Intentional omissions: Custom USB ports from devices like cell phones, telecom CPU sockets, high-end server CPU sockets (IBM power series, most SUN Sparc, and DEC CPUs), custom or one-off connectors, backplane connectors, uncommon sub-D or DIN interfaces, laptop dock connectors, laptop power ports, CPU voltage card ports, and stuff I don't know about. :) (Smile) 


THe future of CHC. I think I've exhausted the reasonable space available in a traditional wall chart. Even in version 2.0, the text and individual objects are getting pretty small. I would love to covet this to an iOS app. I am not a programmer... but would really appreciate if I could get a template Xcode project where I could plug in image resources and descriptions to get me started. 

I hope you enjoy this item, Thank you!

-Sonic84

Images from CHC source hardware:

sonic840.deviantart.com/art/CH…

sonic840.deviantart.com/art/CH…

sonic840.deviantart.com/art/CH…

sonic840.deviantart.com/art/CH…

sonic840.deviantart.com/art/CH…


Did you find an inaccuracy or type-o? Mention it in the comments!

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Nearly done. I missed a socket which is now on order and should arrive in a few weeks.
I'm expecting a late January release for v2.0. 


version 2.0:

CPU sockets/slots: ~76

RAM: 46

HDD: 15

power: 13

ports/cables: 71

Peripheral card slots: 30

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Featured

Over 1 million views! by Sonic840, journal

Computer Hardware Chart 2.0 by Sonic840, journal

Computer Hardware Chart 2.0 progress by Sonic840, journal

USB-C by Sonic840, journal

Still working.... by Sonic840, journal