A Height Adjustable Sit-Down Cab Idea (non cocktail)

[wxforecaster]

With my son now getting old enough to help, and a recent visit with an old childhoold friend getting the "classic arcade" bug back in me, I am finally considering building my first MAME cab.

Having scoped out some projects, I had fallen in love with Knieval's work here:
http://knievel.webs.com/theevolution.htm, especially with his control panel layout and modest use of LED controls.
Coincidentally, while trying to work out the PC end of things first, I was looking at some of the newer front ends like HyperSpin, and came across this demo on YouTube.


This is when a light-bulb went off. Rather than tackle a standard fullsize cab, I wanted to think outside the box.
My desire is to essentially build a sit-down cab that would amount to the "lower half" of a standard cab -- control panels, coin door, computer/wiring guts. This would allow something that's extensible and somewhat portable.
Goals:
-   Adjustable “feet” to be able to raise/lower the cab for seating (couch, chairs) or standing.
-   Use HDMI to connect to any TV/monitor
-   Easy to move with a couple of able bodies, but heavy enough to be stable and sturdy.
-   Addition of USB ports to the front of the control panel box to plug in controllers for other gaming systems (i.e. modded Intellivision controllers)

Has anyone attempted such a project?  Specifically, one with adjustable height? How did you account for sturdiness/weight? Are there any issuing with using HDMI to export display/sound (specifically aren’t MAME games designed for 4:3 ratio rather than most of today’s widescreen TVs)?

Thanks in Advance for any ideas/thoughts/etc…

Evan in Kansas City

[drventure]

My original plan was to do something similar to this.

In the end, I didn't go that route. I had intended to use one of those electric "lift table" mechanisms to raise an lower the unit.

I still think something like that could work quite nicely hidden inside a coffee table. It'd take some planning to keep the end result off of crapmame, but I still think it could be done.

If you really wanted to do just a rollable CP, you might consider some heavy duty lockable casters for the base, put a skirt around the unit so that only the bottom .5 to 1 inch shows, then you can roll it around, but lock it for stability.

Lots of possibilities there. But then, where do you store it?

[bkenobi]

Perhaps more technically challenging, but one other way to make the unit roll only when wanted is to have the casters retractable.  I was envisioning a leaver of some kind that would drop the wheels down.  I don't think it would be that tough for a lighter cab.  It might be much more difficult for a heavy upright.  I have nothing to sketch with here, so you'll just have to use your imagination I guess.   

[RayB]

37,000 games and Hyperspin supports 3D ?!?