My first (Fisher Price!) Mame Bar Cab - Now nearing completion of construction!!

[Cretster]

First post here - great site from what I've seen so far.

I've wanted some sort of arcade cab for years and just finally got round to making my first (very crude!) attempt at a Mame cab.

I wasn't sure how much of it would just be purely the novelty factor when planning this so was a bit concerned about longevity or realistic useage of anything I might build.  Thus I decided my first project would be something very basic that will enable me to run mame and use arcade controls in a basic custom cab, no frills in terms of the cabinet itself, just purely something to house it all so it can be moved if need be and to mount the controls.

The wife would go nuts if I suddenly plonked a full cab in the living room, and as my garage has benches along all walls, there's no space for the footprint of a full cab sadly.  So I decided on a bartop style.

I've built a very basic cab over the last few evenings - maybe about 5 hours in total to cobble it together I guess.
It houses the guts of an old ASRock K7S8XE mobo and athlon 1.6ghz cpu that I had lying around in a box of pc parts.
Some sort of AGP card (don't even know what!), a meagre 512mb of DDR333 memory and a 200gb seagate disc of questionable reliability.  Fresh install of XP and Mame32p (0.74) on it, with Mamewah and a shortcut to it in the startup folder.

Controls wise I got a set off ebay of 16 buttons and 2 sticks for £27.  They're not the nicest things in the world but seem ok to get started.  I run them through a ps2 keyboard mimicking device called "PC Arcade Controller MK 2" which has a built in wiring loom:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230504393775&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT



That's it so far, and it works.  I'm pleased, but it's made me want more!

What I really want to do next is add a touchscreen overlay panel and some jukebox software if necessary.
I have Mamewah installed and a few different emulators set up in that, so was wondering if that would be able to handle launching something like that, and if so, are there any decent/free jukebox programs I could try?  Sort of rhetorical question that one since I haven't searched on that yet!

Ideally I want to use my second set of controls and add in extras/alternatives like steering wheel etc but I'm sure most people want this when they start out but few end up doing it ultimately due to the complexity.

One thing I have found that may or may not be an issue is that the controller interface that I have, uses very specific 'keys', and misses out some keys that I want.  For instance, two of the buttons it offers are left/right win keys, which open up the windows start menu as well as performing the command specified within a given rom.  

This is a bit pants!  I'm assuming if I made mamewah the shell instead of explorer then that would cease to be an issue but I want windows still to function normally at this point.  Hopefully I can get around that with some level of keymapping.

So there it is!  Sorry it looks a bit like some parts of an old garden shed at the moment but it all has to start somewhere and I want the setup to work well before I worry about how it all looks etc!

[smalltownguy]

Welcome to the group! It's a great addiction..err..hobby.

I can see you've already been doing quite a bit of reading, to understand what it is you want. That's one of things that's very important for people to understand about this hobby is that it is every bit as much or little as you want to make of it. There will be as many opinions as there are people. No one arcade cab is better than another, because no one arcade cab is ever truly finished.

That said, I commend you on your braveness in putting up your first attempt. My 1st Mame cab attempt was MUCH cruder than this, and I never would have been courageous enough to show it to the world.

You mentioned something about a steering wheel control. Given your approach to a multi-function cab, I'd highly suggest getting a Turbo Twist 2 spinner from Groovy Game Gear. RandyT (member of these forums) makes a great product and the kicker is that the TT2 spinner offers optional steering wheels that drop right on top of the spinner knob, allowing you to enjoy driving games when you want, but no have to keep the wheels on your control panel when you don't. Very slick.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62443.0

[Cretster]

I don't mind showing it at this stage as we all have to start somewhere, and I want to try and make sure I have things working correctly before embarking on loads of effort/time/cost of building a decent bespoke cab for it all.

Traditionally, I'm a function over form type person, but miraculously I got the wife to agree now that I can build a full size cab which opens up more possibilities for sure!

Thanks for the link to that spinner btw - looks pretty nifty, albeit possibly just a little on the small size maybe.  Will consider it though!

I've realised last night after adding in Zsnes and Project 64 to mamewah (nearly working properly but a few minor bugs), that modern consoles must offer a nightmare scenario when it comes to controllers and integration in an arcade cab.  I realise many people won't consider console games as they're not true arcade, but I want as much variety of favourite 'video games' in mine regardless of platform.  I've no idea how people add in controls for the likes of an N64 or PS2 with perhaps 2 sticks or 1 stick plus D pad, plus loads of buttons, never mind 2 players potentially!!!

The current problem that I am really having relates to lack of ability to run both a keyboard & mouse AND arcade controls simultaneously in order to make setup as easy as possible.

The controller device I use (mentioned in first post) uses a keyboard PS2 port.  I can have the mouse at the same time in use but not a second keyboard.  I also have a Saitek USB multimedia keyboard and I thought this would give the solution, but despite installing the original drivers/software for it, it is not recognised by XP on this machine and will not function at all sadly.

So I bought a PS2 splitter cable.  One plug to use up one port in the back of the PC, and 2 sockets, one marked mouse and one marked keyboard.  In theory this allows me to use the arcade controller in the Keyboard PS2 socket, then in the mouse socket to have this splitter running a regular keyboard and mouse.  It doesn't work though and I only get 2 of the three devices working at any one time.

It's a nightmare since I'm constantly having to swap over the arcade controller and PS2 keyboard plugs to set things up then test them and do zillions of reboots.  Uses up masses of time that would be much better used elsewhere and is driving me mad!!! 

Does anyone have an obvious solution to get around this so I can use all 3 at the same time?  I could buy another USB keyboard but no guarantee that will work since I know this Saitek one works well on other machines.  It's a fresh XP install, so not sure why it would fail to recognise the keyboard, especially with the genuine drivers installed (have tried without too!).

Very grateful if anyone has a solution to this.

[Cretster]

Problem with keyboard solved.  Got a new USB one today and its fine.  Ace!

One thing that bugs me at the moment (no idea how this happened) is that within Mamewah, when I press 7 to bring up the menu window, it is appearing, but is very very faint, and is difficult to see the window and the options within it.  It's as if the opacity is very low somehow.

This worked fine originally so I must have changed something which affected/caused this to happen but I've made TONS of changes in the last 48 hours so no way of backtracking this fault as such.

Can anyone suggest what would be the cause of this particular fault?  It's useable still, but really annoying!

Thanks in advance if any of you can suggest the cause.

I forgot to ask also - I just fixed a problem with zsnes not opening the roms directly, but I have an issue with both zsnes and project64 that when I hit the esc key to quit back out of the rom being played to Mamewah, it goes back to the menu screen of the emulator in question instead of quitting the emulator and going back to Mamewah game lists.  If someone can tell me where the setting is that affects this it'd be great, thanks!

[smalltownguy]

Your answer is

Here

[Cretster]

Great - thanks for that!

Oddly enough I had just begun messing with the layout files after swapping in the one from the mame setup and finding it worked.  I then found settings for transparency which I thought it must be but it didn't help.  Hadn't quite found the opacity one but I was obviously on the right lines.

Now to sort out the issues with the emulators not closing when I esc the rom files...... 

[smalltownguy]

Which emulators are you working with? I know there's some folks out there that have done a great job creating some wrappers for some of the console emulators out there incorporating the Esc function. Others just require a small tweak of an .ini file or downloading a hacked version of the emu.

Which ones are you working with?

-STG

[Cretster]

I'm using Project64 and Zsnes as they seemed to be the most popular ones for snes and 64.

The ini files are ones from emuchrist site but edited of course for the relevant directories for various bits like the executables and rom folders etc.
I'm sure it must be a setting within these ini files but I haven't found out what.  Yet.....

[smalltownguy]

This is copied and pasted from UncleT's Mala setup guide. These instructions should work just fine for you too.

project64
- Goto http://www.pj64.net/main/download/func,select/id,2/
- Download “Project64 v1.6” (not the v1.7beta) into "C:\Emulators\InstallFiles\project64\” directory
- Goto http://www.emuchrist.org/cpviewer/applications.htm
- Download “Nintendo 64 - Project 64 ver. 1.6” hack file into the "C:\Emulators\InstallFiles\project64\” directory

project64 (Nintendo64)
- Double-click the "Project64 1.6-setup.exe" file and install into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\project64\" directory

- UnZIP the "Project64 1.6 Hacked" file into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\project64\" directory, thus replacing the existing “project64.exe” file with this new one.

- Double-click the “project64.exe” to start the application

- Go to "Options/Settings", click on Options tab and uncheck "Hide Advanced Settings"

- Go to "File/Open Rom" and start any ROM game, then check "Options/Always on Top"

- Go to "Options/Settings", click on Options tab and check "On loading a ROM go to full screen"

- Close\exit the emulator window

zsNes
- Goto http://www.zsnes.com/
- Download latest “WIN” version into "C:\Emulators\InstallFiles\zsNes\” directory

Try this info, with your own paths, of course.

[Cretster]

Cheers - I'll try this tonight when I get back in from work.

[drventure]

+1 Gotta start somewhere, and you have something playable in 5 hours! Mine wasn't playable for about 1.5 years 

This looks like a great test bed to try out all the various configuration elements, play with the CP design, maybe swap out sticks to see what kind you like best, etc.

Nothing wrong with that at all

[Cretster]

The plan has moved to 'Phase 2' now.  Behold the behemoth that has begun construction in the last night or two in my nerve centre (garage):



Hopefully this one is going to look ok once it's done, but it'll require a lot more effort to look half decent since it's allowed in the living room/den.
And whilst I really LOVE doing stuff involving woodwork, my skills at finishing stuff I've made is usually lamentable.

I need a bigger monitor for this one though so need to find a cheap 19-22" LCD from somewhere.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

Your garage looks like mine (the set from Steptoe & Son) hence the reason the photo's of my cab are always on the lawn  )

Making progress on Phase 2. Very cool.

I see from the top right hand side of your photo a UK 3 pin plug. What part of the UK are you based? There's quite a few of UK based cab builders on here 

[danny_galaga]

Your garage looks like mine (the set from Steptoe & Son) hence the reason the photo's of my cab are always on the lawn  )

Making progress on Phase 2. Very cool.

I see from the top right hand side of your photo a UK 3 pin plug. What part of the UK are you based? There's quite a few of UK based cab builders on here 

The other clue was that he paid for stuff in POUNDS in his original post 

Nice work Cretser, and nice garbage err, garage 

[Silas (son of Silas)]

The other clue was that he paid for stuff in POUNDS in his original post 

I didn't spot that! Doh!

[Cretster]

Ha ha!  Yeah - am in the UK, more specifically the Isle of Man (which getting technical isn't actually part of the UK but to all intents and purposes....).

Here's what my garage more usually looks like just to defend myself.  Only a single sadly and I've filled it with machines & workbenches, so more a workshop than a garage since there's no way of fitting a car in now!

My little Snap On collection! 


And the rest of the stuff - mill/lathe/bench drill etc etc

[danny_galaga]

My little Snap On collection! 


And the rest of the stuff - mill/lathe/bench drill etc etc

Now that's a shed worthy of a man 

Snap on make freaking great screw drivers!

[Cretster]

Cheers mate - It's took me a good few years to afford all the tools and machines I want, but I've learned the slow/expensive/painful way to buy decent tools.  That said, I don't actually own a single snapon screwdiver!  Just sockets and spanners mostly.

I've also got a networked shuttle PC with a touchscreen glass monitor in there.  It hooks up to my garage hifi for all my MP3s stored on the network, and also means I have access to all the acrobat files for my car/bike/whatever for doing maintenance etc, and it doesn't matter if I have oily hands as I can just wipe th screen clean without getting the keyboard & mouse filthy. 

[Cretster]

Made a bit of progress this evening after having a really crap day where I found myself repeatedly wanting to (repeatedly) bang my head against a wall.

I've got a rough control panel cut out and fitted, and have roughly mounted the 19" monitor it's probably going to be using.  Looks really small in there though.  Am sure a 22" one would be better and it seems I just missed out on a bargain one locally. 





Got some of the controls fitted too.  It's taken a lot of careful measuring and chin stroking to make sure that there's enough room for two players stood side by side, without too much elbowing and shoulder barging potential! :
I've arranged the buttons in a slight curve layout, as I found my fingers sort of wanted to sit like that naturally, and it also seems to be a good compromise that allows for a comfortable angle on either single orr two player gaming.  Hopefully at least.




Here they are zoomed out a bit.  As you can see there's plenty of room for the 2nd player set, and a reasonable gap in the middle.  I've done it this way so that I can also add the likes of a spinner/trackball etc should I decide to later.



In hindsight though, I'd have set the buttons a little lower down the panel, but having said that they do seem to be a comfortable setup.



Next, the cabinet is very wobbly.  At present despite it having a lot of sideways/horizontal braces between the two side panels, there are no front or really back panels.  I think what's needed are some battens, or framework on the inside edge of the panels to help keep it all rigid.  Will help it all to end up weighing a ton also. 
I have got some castors, but am not yet sure about fitting them or just to have it sit on the bottom edge of the panels or whatever.  Castors would be good for moving it, but they're far more likely to trash the carpet because of the small surface area the weight would be spread on.

[Stobe]

Don't worry too much about the screen.  If thats a 19" 4:3 monitor, you're better off with that then a 22" widescreen anyhow (IMO).

Also, looks like you're going to be plenty close to the screen.

About your buttons, I was warned early on about the upward slant making Player 1's right elbow aim towards Player 2.  Looks like you have enough width to avoid that, but just something to keep in the back of your mind.  Obviously, if you plan on playing more 1 player games than 2 player games, by all means take the selfish route and look out for #1!

How are you planning to finish the edges?  Are you going to use the veneer iron on stuff?  Or t-molding?

Keep up the good work.

[Cretster]

Thanks for the feedback - it's useful and appreciated since I'm so new to this.

Do you think the screen should be recessed further back then?  It's roughly 2.5" back from the front edge of the side panels.  It's all a bit random as I'm not working to any plans.  Basically the design of this one is based on the dimensions of the donor panels I had (a chipboard wardrobe!), then I saw a flat pack cab on ebay (called 'Slimline Master') that I've roughly used as a form for the overall profile.

The new 19" monitor actually almost looks square but I'm sure it must be 4:3.  It's a Sony one but I forget the model. 

It will very much mostly be a single player situation when it's used, so if the button layout does result in elbows then I can live with that.
Interesting to hear people have figured stuff like that out, but I just kind of arranged them how my hand felt comfortable.

Not sure yet about the finish in any respect.  I don't intend on leaving it with this fake wood grain finish since I can't easily reproduce that across the parts that are not made from the donor wardrobe.  That being the case I think I'll end up painting the whole thing but have no idea at this stage what kind of paint would be suitable.  Something thick to hide imperfections would be good, especially if it means I can avoid using loads of filler.

As for the edges, again, I don't know.  I aquired a router at the weekend so in theory I can cut a slot for T-molding perhaps, but I'm not convinced I'd do a good job.  As an alternative I guess I could try and get iron on stuff (and the pattern wouldn't matter if I'm painting it), or else possibly will sand the edges and add some sort of filler to smooth it all since it's chipboard.

Not sure, and am open to suggestions.

Oh yeah, the wife did actually suggest covering it with fake leather with foam behind it, then adding buttons, like an old fashioned chair out of someone's 'study' or something, and I like the idea but it sounds like a lot of work.

[Stobe]

Look at this link regarding your monitor.  The one on the left is the Sony you have, and the one on the right is the 22" you missed out on.  Hope this makes you feel better!

http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?03d4bd0a35c45e333fa6d6a9562e93f4

Just don't ever share this same information with the general public on craigslist.  I like ridding people of their old "small" 19" monitors

[Cretster]

Ha ha - yeah, I realise on a widescreen that there would be loads of crop/banding but I was hoping previously for a larger 4:3 screen really.  On reflection the screen would be overkill if it was bigger than 19 at such close range!

[severdhed]

i have a 19" LCD in my first cabinet and it doesnt seem too small. like it was already mentioned, that is better than a 22" widescreen.  i could be wrong, but i believe most 19" LCDs are 5:4 ratio, not 4:3, which makes them look more square.

as for the casters, if you are planning on using this on carpet, you would probably be better off using some of those plastic furniture slider things, they work great under my cabinet.

[Cretster]

That's a good point about sliders, but there's only 2 rooms in my house that are carpet and the rest is hard floor (downstairs anyway), so I'm not sure.

But then once it's in position in my Den, it shouldn't be moving hardly so maybe the sliders are a better option just in case it needs the odd tweak as they'll be less likely to mark the floor as bad.

Never realised 19s were 5:4 but that explains why I thought it looked more square.

[Rick Dangerous]

Nice work man, the result will be really great, i like the colors of u'r buttons, nice choise  , working without plans is hard, but you did it well

[Cretster]

Yeah thanks bud.
Buttons came as a big bundle and I didn't know half of them would be pink til they were here.  Just cheap ones for now though til I'm happy with the rest of it.

Anyway - made some progress again tonight. 

First I added the second set of controls for P2:


Tried to hinge the control panel at the front using posh wardrobe hinges (like kitchen unit ones) but after spending ages cutting the slots for them and attaching them I found there was no way of providing enough clearance for the panel to open forwards due to the lip on the front edge.  Doh!

So then I grabbed a couple of normal hinges and added them.  Took a few minutes and was perfect first time!


Now I can get to the back of it real easy for swapping wires around during setup and for any maintenance or change to the controls etc.

Next, I moved the screen back a couple of inches following comments earlier in the thread.
Then, I decided I needed to sort out a couple of side panels for the screen due to the width of the cab.  Here they are, just sitting in place.


Then finally for tonight I began a rough cutout for the screen controls, to make sure they are still accessible.  Will tidy all this stuff later.


So it's slowly coming together I guess!

[Nicodumas]

So jealous you have the work space to do all of this. Looks like you are having a blast going it. And the buttons, it gives the cab "character," yeah... lets go with that 

[Rick]

The plan has moved to 'Phase 2' now.  Behold the behemoth that has begun construction in the last night or two in my nerve centre (garage)

Whoa whoa whoa!!  When did this all happen?  Dang it.  I read the opening post and thought, "well, that's cute" and haven't been back since.  Am watching intently now.

 

[Cretster]

So jealous you have the work space to do all of this. Looks like you are having a blast going it. And the buttons, it gives the cab "character," yeah... lets go with that 

I've waited a long time to be able to have my own workshop and whilst it's a third of the size that I want (I can't get my project car in to work on for instance) I'm still grateful for it.
We should move on from those buttons I think now.    They're temporary anyway!

Whoa whoa whoa!!  When did this all happen?  Dang it.  I read the opening post and thought, "well, that's cute" and haven't been back since.  Am watching intently now.

 

Heh!  Well, I liked how the mini cab turned out (ie I could just tell that it was something that would actually get used instead of being an ornament), and I did a deal with the wife so that it could live in the house so I thought sod it - why waste time.  May as well just get on with it.

Plus we got some extra wardrobes for one of our bedrooms but there were too many so it seemed like an ideal opportunity.
Just don't expect it to look pretty any decade soon!

[Cretster]

Update ahoy!! 

Spent a lot of time over the weekend making this cabinet very strong!  Up until now it was basically that the two side panels (15mm chipboard) were the actual 'frame' of this cabinet and as such it was really wobbly side to side, but now that I've added tons of 44x44mm battens down the length of it and around 3 sides of the base* etc it really is sturdy!


The other thing I've done is to add more panel parts to the front.  So now the control console has a bottom panel as well.  This has a slight gap beneath it for ventilation but you wouldn't normally see it anyway.  Then there is a lateral brace panel across the front, below the control panel, and then there is a large squarish panel which hinges downwards to give access inside to what will be storage space for something or other. 

The PC will be housed above this area, behind the control panel, so while it's possible this area might house the likes of a hifi amp or something (I have a spare Cambridge Audio one I was thinking of using for the audio, but with line out to a nearby Hifi also), who knows.



*Note that beneath the front cupboard area there is currently open space at the front, and nothing across the bottom edge of the cabinet.  This is very deliberate, and is basically so that once I have found a suitable set of pedals for driving games, I can add them in here, nicely recessed. If anyone has suggestions for pedals that aren't on a weird shaped housing (ie something with straight edges for easy integration and a natural looking fit) plus also will integrate easily in terms of the software setup, then please let me know.

Steering will hopefully be by way of a TurboTwist 2 Spinner and 7" wheel once funds permit (sadly not at the moment), and hopefully there'll be some sort of gear lever also.  In my dream world, a small panel in the middle of the control panel would fold down out of the way (controlled by servos) and the steering wheel and gear lever would rise up automatically and lock into place (like a detonator in a Bond film or something) but I'm afraid I don't think my electronic skills are up to that.  It might be feasible using a pair of servo testers or something but who knows.  If I'm brave or someone could help then perhaps that's something for a 'phase2' sub project....

[Cretster]

Another little update - I've found stuff that I think would be suitable as an alternative to painting the cab:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160418616994&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Appreciate anyone's thoughts on this but I think it would give it an authentic arcade cab finish.

Dug out a spare Denon amp tonight that will have its own shelf inside the cab so it can run its own sounds, but also run a line out to any other system:


And some nasty looking Sony midi 'hifi' speakers that I'm gonna take the drivers out of.  I think these are actually from the 80s and I know they work, so while they're not the last word in quality I think it's quite rude to be using them!  The two 5.5" mids will fire downwards above the screen, and the tweeters will be positioned each side of the screen firing forward.



Tonight I got the speaker panel fitted (no holes cut yet), and a shelf for the amp.  Also fitted a trailing lead multiplug inside the back so everything can hook up to that, and then just one cable coming out of the cab.  Here's how it looks tonight:


I'm pleased so far.  

[jimmy2x2x]

Looking good!

Adhesive vinyl can look great, you just have to do some serious prep work - get the surface very smooth and very flat.
Then take great care when applying it, ensure you get no air bubbles trapped
Its not as durable as laminate, but a hell of a lot cheaper.
If you don't intend moving the cab around much and take care not to scrape or knock it, it will last a long time.

[Cretster]

Thanks for the comments jimmy - the main outer panels are pretty smooth except where I need to fill in the screw holes (loads of em!), so vinyl should be ok I hope.
Was wondering about adding cigarette burns and chewing gum for authencity but this cab is not really designed to be particularly arcade authentic per se.


I done funked up the other night anyway.  I cut out the two 6.5" holes for the main mid range drivers below the marquee area and fitted one speaker, then realised the matching one for the other side has gone AWOL!!  Grrr.  Hopefully it'll turn up soon enough.
Here's how the speakers are hopefully going to be arranged:


As mentioned on another thread (I thought I'd get more response that way), I have a 7" touchscreen monitor that I want to incorporate somewhere in the cab but not sure quite where yet.  Will end up here if I get no better suggestions:

[Cretster]

Sorted:


To my dismay though when I hooked it up I have found that the red colour signal is not working for some reason.  I know it was previously fine, and the display can show red no problem (ie in the OSD menu), but the signal through from a vga source is not giving me any red, which results in a weird picture.  Hoping it's just a bad connection that will resolve itself but I doubt I'll be that lucky.....

Any suggestions?

[Rick]

To my dismay though when I hooked it up I have found that the red colour signal is not working for some reason.  I know it was previously fine, and the display can show red no problem (ie in the OSD menu), but the signal through from a vga source is not giving me any red, which results in a weird picture.  Hoping it's just a bad connection that will resolve itself but I doubt I'll be that lucky.....

Any suggestions?

Check the pins on your VGA cable. I've accidentally bent them before, usually against the metal shroud, and while you'll usually get a picture, sometimes colours are affected.

[Cretster]

Cheers mate - just had a look and they're ok.

Guess I can try to test for continuity from each pin on the monitor board to the end terminal.  No idea what the pinouts are though.
And it has a connector part way down the cable just to add to the potential cause.  It's like some sort of mini din plug or something and the two halves screw together.

One issue now is that there is lots of hot melt glue holding the casings/circuit together since I had to hack off the bottom section of the casings tonight so the monitor fits in place.  Could make it nasty trying to open the sodding thing up to get to the end of the VGA cable.

[Cretster]

This is the main part of the cable in question so at least I can get a spare if I need to, although if it's a fault with this section it might be fixable anyway.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370194892507&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en#ht_500wt_1154

[Cretster]

Just a quick update since it's kind of bled over to another thread...

Here's the current state of the cabinet (prior to tonight when I began painting bits of it at least):


It has a steering wheel and pedal set integrated now, with the wheel folding away quickly inside the cab so it's not visible.  The only sign of this arrangement is the cutout on the lower side of the front panel.  Quite pleased with that.
With:


Without (folded inside):


Here it is hidden away inside:


Amp has its own little shelf now as well, just above the pedal area.

I've fitted some cold cathode tubes, and I'm just beginning to decorate the cab with some satin black paint in some places before I think about applying vinyl covering.

I've got some chrome buttons coming which are LED illuminated - 6 red and 6 blue.  Should look nice.
Fixed the little monitor too so I'm pleased about that.

[Cretster]

Ok - this won't be most people's cup of tea at all I'm sure, but being a MASSIVE fan of the film Commando from the 80s, I decided I was going to have a Commando themed cab.  It will make me smirk like a child every time I see it.

So after a fair bit of time spent in photoshop, here is the marquee I've come up with, made up of screenshots from the film.  I'll be adding a title above this but here is the background in all its cheesy glory, just well, because. 

[Rick]

You're a funny man, Sully. I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last.

[Cretster]

Glad it's not just me then.  

The more times I watch that film, the harder I laugh.  If Matrix was here, he'd laugh too!

I just received a dozen of these today too:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHROME-EFFECT-ARCADE-BUTTON-BLUE-NEW-/390177106975?pt=UK_Video_Games_Coin_Operated_MJ&hash=item5ad85e2c1f#ht_1483wt_1138

6red and 6 blue.  Also ordered some red 9/16 t molding today too.
Not sure how I can cut the slot yet but am working on that.

Can't wait to get this thing fired up and configured.  It's come a long way since the phase 1 build just 6 weeks ago!

[Rick]

LOVE the Commando theme. It's just so versatile. It was really Arnie's first breakout funny movie. So over the top. Such a classic. You can keep your "get to da choppah!", but for me, it's the fight scene with the Green Beret that clinched me as a life-long fan.

[Cretster]

Good man.

Welcome back John.  So glad you could make it!

Bennett is the best villain the world has ever known.  I only wish they'd made a whole string of those films, but then better that they didn't since it would be impossible to beat that.  And they must have used up the world's supply of p1ssant soldier extras (although in reality I think it was about the same half dozen over and over and over!).

[EvilNuff]

Commando's a great cheesy movie.  If you're going to make it Commando theme'd I think you are required by law to include a bunch of one-liners somehow.

[Cretster]

You must be psychic!
That's exactly what I wanted to do.  The plan was to have a large bennett on the side,or possibly the main cast with LED eyes that could light up at the same time as an appropriate wav sample from the film would play.  The problem is I'm not sure how I could do that.  A mate says I can just write bat files to control the wavs, but not sure how I could co-ordinate that with controlling the LEDs.

Probably not happen but that was the general idea.
I also wanted to motorise the whole steering wheel transition too, but I think that would be a nightmare for a simpleton like me.  If I could do it though I'd have it play the transform sound from transformers of course.

[emphatic]

One of the best themes ever!  I love the father-daughter dynamic between Arnold and that chick from Charmed who played his daughter in Commando. I love the scenes in the start with them eating ice cream and petting forest animals.

[Cretster]

Cheers mate.

Gotta admit I wasn't expecting such a positive response to this theme actually - it pleases me much that you dudes have such good taste. 

I just hope that it doesn't end up looking like a polished turd once I've finished making it.  It's at the stage I really hate now - prettification.  Totally my weak point!

[Rick]

It's at the stage I really hate now - prettification.  Totally my weak point!

You're lucky! We must be genetic opposites - I've got a million over the top completion ideas and irons in the fire, but haven't cut a single piece of wood yet. I still have to make all of my paper dreams a reality. (Every night, I spend two hours or so with my 3D model - anxious to build!)

Yours is at that stage I hate, only because once its done, you can't do more. Of course, asd I understand, its onto the next cab!  (I have two more 'in the works' once mine is done.)

Congrats - yours looks awesome.

[Cretster]

I soooo wish I had the patience to do all that as I would have much nicer results if I did!

Applied the first piece of vinyl to it tonight, around the screen.

Also, the LEDs have arrived for my fancy new buttons and the new Happ Competition joystick has turned up too.


Having thoughts about building a better control panel already since I can't quite figure out how to make this one look how I want! 

[Cretster]

Covered the speaker panel last night so it's slowly beginning to look better now: 


I've also cut the slot for the t molding but it's a shocking job.  I'd bought a router attachment for the dremel to do this but routing end on into chipboard with a 3 mm bit and expecting nice neat results is apparently a 'bit' optimistic!

The t molding is here now so once the main vinyl bits are on the sides I can glue that in.

[Cretster]

Right!  This evening this project has moved to the next stage. It's now been migrated from its birth in the garage to the 'den' where it will take its rightful place.

I couldn't quite figure out where or not it needed any further sawing/drilling/sanding/filling but reached the conclusion that anything like that which may still need to be done 'should' be minor.  This is good as it means I can probably get away with doing such things as late night clandestine ops without the mrs knowing that I'm doing woodwork inside.  That's also good since I don't want to be cahoneless! :

So, having bolted on a beam at the base of it with some castors, I managed to manhandle the behemoth round the front of the house, in through the front door, and into the room where it's going.

After a bit of very minor fine surface filling on already filled screw heads I decided to have a bash at fitting the vinyl covering on one of the side panels.
Really wasn't looking forward to this as I was convinced that it
Would be full of bubbles
Would be badly aligned in terms of the 'grain'
Would get creased up
Would rip
Would look awful anyway due to surface imperfections

Fortunately none of these things happened and it actually went on really well and looked good afterwards.
Then I decided to try doing some of the T molding.  I'd read that a hot glue gun is the thing to use where the push fit alone is not enough to secure the molding in place so I dug mine out and set to work.
Have got one side very nearly finished before I ran out of glue sticks alas.  You can see where I've run out just before the bottom of the cabinet.

But even though the tmolding is not a perfect fit by any means, I'm still really pleased with how this is now beginning to look.
Finally it's starting to look a little like an arcade cab and not some random bits of wood bunged together.



No door on it at the moment and it only has one side panel covered but I'm getting my motivation back again now that it's starting to look better.

[BadMouth]

It's come a long way. 

Gotta finish her off so you can play!

(I say that, but I never leave my stuff alone long enough to play it.  sigh)

[Cretster]

Cheers mate.

Ok - not much more to look at tonight pic wise, but today I applied the vinyl to the other side of the cabinet so it looks fairly nice overall now from the sides at least!  

Did a couple of bits of trim here & there, but I'm ultimately stuck because I don't have any gluesticks so I can't get the rest of the Tmolding on yet.  Was going to get some but my mate turned up and the local hardware store was shut when he left.  Will score some at BQ on my way home tomorrow then.

But this evening I decided I HAD to see it running.  So I set about installing the PC.  Had to remove it from the baby cab first.  Luckily the motherboard/PSU/HDD nestle neatly beside each other on an internal shelf so that seems fine.  There's an awkward panel across the back though behind the mobo thanks to mr haphazard here just bunging the cabinet together any old how, without really thinking it all through or planning it. :whatever:

Anyway, I got it provisionally installed so I decided to fire it up and check it all worked.  Imagine then my utter dismay as I found the monitor did not power up at all.  Gutted!  Swapped power cables to no avail, and started wondering just how much sawdust had got inside and if something had gone bang without me realising etc.  Then I remembered it had a tiny rocker switch for main power as well as the power button on the front.  Doh!  Sorted anyway.

So, once it was fired up I plugged in the cables from the Arcade Controller 2 to the buttons on the control panel, and decided to fire up Mamewah.  Result!


No sound yet since it wasn't plugged into the hifi and the amp is not yet installed in it, nor speakers wired up, but it felt ace having it switched on and playable, with the (blank) marquee lit up etc.  Tons still to do, lots of trim work, wiring for the red cathode tubes and the steering wheel etc, plus all the speakers and the second monitor and so on.  But it works!

One thing that I decided today was that it would be handy to install a trackball in the control panel then it saves having to have a mouse installed.  But then I thought, why bother, since I can install a mouse touchpad instead.  Easier for using windows then.  Not sure if that can be used as a trackball in emulator games but we'll see.
Not sure about how to house a keyboard either but we'll see about that too.  

One thing I have to suss out straight away is how to get the control menus etc for Zsnes.  The first thing I wanted to do was try out SF2 Turbo but the controls were all funked up, and I couldn't find a way to bring up a controls menu.  Was pressing the normal menu button loads of times til I realised I wasn't in Mame any more I was in Zsnes!

This looks helpful for all that anyway.
http://slackware.sukkology.net/packages/zsnes.svn/zsnes.svn/docs/Windows/readme.htm#default_keys

It's coming together anyway and at least I can do setup tests now when I can't do cabinet/hardware or can't be bothered,

[Cretster]

Not much left now in terms of construction dudes.

The front door panel has been sanded to fit better on the edges and the vinyl added over it.  Replaced the handle to pull it open with a more simple one after a fella on my forum took the piss out of it! 

The LEDs in the fancy buttons have been wired up now as well, and I've cut and painted trim strips to go either side of the screen to give a nice join between the screen panel and the side panels.  3 coats of satin black paint which is an effort unheard of with me previously!!


I've housed the two switches for the cold cathodes in the control panel, and have replaced the tweeters with some new, front mounted ones for better sound and better looks.

Still need to cover the bottom panel around the pedals.  Was thinking about adding a layer of acrylic over the vinyl since feet will be moving a lot around the pedal area and it will inevitably get scuffed and knackered.  We'll see though.



So, I still have various finish things to do like the graphics to print for the marquee, and for the control panel, plus little touches here and there, but it's very close now to completion.

Last night I found a much better gfx card to put in (Radeon X1650 512DDR2 AGP) so I've done that.  Also got epsxe working now, although I don't know how to get the games to mount through the front end.

I've actually swapped from Mamewah now to Gamex after someone pointed me at it and I gave it a try.  It's really nice but I'm sort of surprised not to see it appear really on here.  Hope it's not a taboo product or something!

Now I can easily play Tekken anyway.

All construction criticism & feedback appreciated since this is my first (proper) effort!

[Cretster]

Did another addition to the project today.  I've been wondering how I could properly integrate a keyboard to the cabinet for ease of use with windows as & when required.  Long term use hopefully it won't be needed too much, but for now with ongoing setup hassle it's a must.

There's nowhere I can rest a keyboard on it, and I can't fit the favoured slide out drawer due to the steering wheel setup that I fitted.
I have a teeny bluetooth one but it's barely bigger than a phone keyboard and is a pain to use.  So what to do?

Well this solution is not the prettiest, and infuriatingly, I've found that it's slightly on a twist somehow, but hopefully I can resolve that.
But it works.  Basically it ia stored inside the cupboard section on a long pivot arm that swings it out below/past the stashed steering wheel, and upwards to the front of the control panel where it is ideally positioned for typing.  As I say the implementation is not the most beautiful in the world but that can be improved a bit if I can be bothered in future. 

Pleased though as it means no having to hold a keyboard in the air or balance it precariously etc.  When stashed, it is fully out of sight too.

Here you go:
Out of sight inside the cupboard - where is it?


Door opened to reveal the keyboard inside, lurking beneath the steering wheel:


It swings out past the wheel like so:


Then folds sort of like this:


Fully up now:


I used nyloc nuts on the pivot points so that I can torque them up just enough to make it all moveable, but stiff enough that it holds it in place even when typing.

Quite pleased even though it could look a bit nicer.

[Cretster]

Hi everyone
 
I've been fairly busy lately with a lot of changes to my cab (now christened the cheesy name of Commandotron900 ).
 
I've added a 3" Happ trackball and a set of 3 'mouse' buttons, pinball flipper buttons & pinball launch button.
Have got working interfaces for xbox360 wireless controller, various console pads, and a whole new relatively powerful PC that it's based on.
 
Originally the arcade was using a P4 3ghz machine, with some very very basic and old graphics card.  It worked ok, until I began using PCSX2, when it quickly became apparent
that it wasn't up to the job.
 
I then built a better machine running an E6600 core2duo processor, which helped, but even overclocked to an extent was not enough to play some PS2 games.
 
Tried to get round that by getting a faster E8400 cpu but couldn't really overclock it for some reason.
At that point I figured "It's silly having an arcade machine with steering wheel & pedals, and not having it able to play modern PC based driving games", so I scraped a few quid
together and got some used goodies: i5 2500K & board/ram, an Asus 6850 graphics card (first time in 15 years of PC use that I've bought a half decent one!), a sandisk 240gb
SSD, and a new PSU.
 
Well it flies along now as you might expect, but much to my surprise, it still struggles with the odd PS2 game here and there.
In particular, I want it to play GT4 nicely.
For the most part, it does do and keeps a decent frame rate going at about 60fps or very close to it from what I can see, but every few seconds it "stutters" (freezes for a
fraction of a second) which makes it unplayable really.
I've no idea where to start with what settings I should try changing in PCSX2, or the video plugins etc so I'll have to go and do some homework on how to use all that.
 
I've installed a few decent driving games now, but annoyingly there seems to be no way with some of them to avoid the use of a keyboard.  So with that in mind, I've had to
rebuild the way my keyboard works with the cabinet, in order that it can be folded away when not running PC games, but can be used at the same time as the wheel etc, and
hold itself in place while in use.
 
This is the solution I've come up with for now (please excuse how the machine looks in terms of finish aesthetics - it's my intention that once I have the cabinet and hardware
setup to work exactly how I want that I will then eventually take my time building a much more refined version of the cabinet and transfer the hardware, but have a full working
machine in the meantime):
 

 
You can see here (above) this is with the main front door panel folded down, and the keyboard folded back on itself against the inside face of the door.  This is how it will sit
when locked away, for playing MAME and console games.
 

 
This second pic is with the keyboard in situ for any PC based games, since the keyboard being readily accessible seems to be a necessary evil, even with the main driving
controls set up for the wheel/pedals etc.
 
 

 
 
I also decided the project needed a bit of 'reinforcement' in the audio stakes:
 

 
So I dug these out from my garage and dusted down/tested them, then installed to the cabinet.  Great improvement except for 2 issues:
1) Slight hum when in use
2) The Alpine amp runs from the main PSU, meaning it forgets its settings every time the machine is powered down.  Not sure how I can get round this.  Is there any way a
computer PSU can provide residual 12v supply to a device without being properly running?
 
I did wonder about using a very low power 12v power supply (not a PC one) to wire to the "Battery" terminal on the Sub amp in order to keep the amp's memory running 24/7,
although it will still get unplugged once in a while and forget its settings, which will be annoying.
 
I wonder if I can bridge an output from my main hifi amp and add a crossover to power the sub?  The main speakers are tiny so there should be enough spare power.
 
Cheers!
Jim
 

[Cretster]

So here we are overall at the moment, included the recently added trackball & mouse buttons, pinball buttons, front USB/headphone ports, front playstation controller sockets, reworked keyboard (kb and wheel fold inside):




Next is to get the marquee made properly, concentrate on software and games, then maybe think about improving it cosmetically.

Still need to figure out this subwoofer thing though.

[Cretster]

Oh, and I still need to find another cheap 7" vga LCD to go in the hole above the monitor where the old one was until it broke.