Gamesomnia - inspired by Knievel's Woody Cab

[ragnar]

I'm considering another option which I dread the thought of.  Skipping the marquee altogether and putting a piece of oak in its place.

You're going to need a stronger light.

Really?  I think I just grabbed the smallest one thinking it would be sufficient.  Well, there goes $15.

EDIT: long day.  I get the joke now    Well played.

[ragnar]

Hmmm.... I like what you did with the overlay.  Also, I noticed you did not mitre the bottom of your CP box?  Is it visible  at all?  I'm going to be recutting mine for the THIRD time because I can't seem to get the joints to line up but now I'm wondering if it is worth it.

The bottom of the box is mitred unless I miss your meaning.

It looks like the bottom panel to your CP box is not mitred but maybe I'm not seeing it properly.  Here is a shot of mine upsidedown.  There are no edges showing on the plywood because I mitred the 4 side panels and the bottom panel:



Don't get me started - I didn't sand the thing properly and when I went to stain it it came out terrible so I had to make another one. 

 

Oh, that piece.  Ya, it is a bit loose fitting.  Ijust  hinged it on one side for easy access.  I can explain it in detial if you'd like.  But it is inset into the box a bit so you don't actually see that piece.  I'm actually going to post some pictures hopefully tonight and you'll see hwo it went together a bit more.

[ragnar]

Been gone all week on travel for work.  Anyways, I have the cabinet almost totally done.  I have to do the marquee and speaker grill and that is it.  I have alot of pictures that I need to upload hopefully this weekend.  If anyone has requests for pics, let me know.

Two comments on the CP.

--- 1 ---
9 button PRO:
N64 emulation is greatly aided by the 9 buttons.
9 button CON:
Sometimes your fingers fall off of the buttons you need for a game and there is no "feel" for you to tell.  I can see how 6 or 7 buttons have an advantage in this area.

I plan on drilling a dent into the center button for each player.  This way, placing fingers where they should be without looking is easier.  This is kinda like the bump on the 'f' and 'j' keys on computer keyboards.  f and j on my keyboard anyways.

--- 2 ---
The other mess up, though minor, is that my left joystick could have been farther left.  Not the end of the world though.  I did the joy center 5-1/4" from the left edge.  I could have done 4-1/2" with no problems.

[ragnar]

Finally, some shots of the current progress.

This post has a few shots of the control panel innards.  Also, I wired the admin panel as follows.  I made 2-3 foot wires with female attachments to connect to the microswitch.  On the other end of the wire is a quick connector and labeled tag (for example, P1 start with a female connector).  The control panel has wires coming out of it that have the corresponding connector and label (for example, P1 start with a male connector).  So, one the CP is installed it is easy to make the final connections to all buttons that are exterior to the control panel.

The other shot in this post is of the fan at the top of the cabinet.  I did not plan properly so I could not use screws to attach the fan.  The solution?  Some cotter pins that I had in the basement.  They are probably over 30 years old.  I wouldn't doubt it if they were 50 years old.  They were my dads.  So, I got the cotter pins in the holes as needed and bent.  It actually holds the fan in place surprisingly well.  Just as tight as if I would have used screws.

[ragnar]

A closeup of the marquee.  It is important to know that you have to plan this part out.  For most of the cabinet, I used 2x2s as cleats.  if I did that in the marquee area I would have had some strange shadows in the corners.  So, it is important to use L brackets here.

A pic of the monitor bezel to show how it looks with the curved side.  Also, I think I used a 10 degree slant.  I can measure it upon request but the angle turns out to be just about perfect.

Another shot of the cabinet and a final shot of the door with hinges.  Those are your full inset cabinet hinges.

[ragnar]

Some more shots.  Including the underside of the CP and the CP edge which got something like a 1/4" radius router bit to make a nice transition from where the T-molding ends to the bottom.  The issue is common, 3/4" t molding and something like 1" total CP thickness.

The orange and red buttons are on top of the Cabinet.  The orange is the shift button.   The red is shutdown.  I admit that a third startup button would be nice but I have bigger fish to fry until I ever do that.

A pic of hte CP/admin panel and a shot of Mala running.  Yes, I have work to do on the GUI but I needed something to start with/play with.  Once I get the marquee done I plan on doing a big revamp of the Mala layout.

All that is left is the marquee and speaker grill.

[mrtuesday42]

is it just me or is your cabinet rather short? maybe that is just the impression i am getting from the pictures...i like the curvy edges to it, looks pretty good. thats a crazy amount of buttons imho. also what kind are they? they look smaller and different than my happs...

[ragnar]

The very top is about 5' 11" tall.  In hindsight I do wish that it was a few inches taller.  Maybe 6' 3".

I wanted to save money on the oak plywood by using one sheet.  Later I made a mistake and needed a second sheet.  This is the "in hindsight" part.  I should have just intended on it being a bit taller.

So, I'd say that it is on the shorter side but it's not so short that it is abnormal.  The CP is at about 38.5" in height.  I don't know the monitor height off hand but I am fairly certain that it is within 1" of the Kneivel woody monitor height.

I should take a good side shot of it and provide some measurements.

My buttons are black Happ buttons.  9 per player.  The layout actually works very well for N64 games I could not be happier.  But now I think i need a CPU upgrade as only 1/4 or so of the N64 games work.  When not using it for N64 emulation, it is pretty much setup as the common 7 button layout that most are familiar with in that the two rightmost buttons are not used.

The only thing with 9 buttons is that when you are not looking your hand might slip left/right.  I want to dent the center button with a small drill bit so your fingers can find the "home location" without looking for it visually.

[andrewbean90]

great job

[mrtuesday42]

ah. the pictures made it look super small to me. but 5' 11" isnt too bad. what if you textured the main like 6/7 buttons that you use? you could do what we do for surf boards, take some salt  and some resin and put in the buttons, then rinse, and you have a nice texture left behind

[ragnar]

ah. the pictures made it look super small to me. but 5' 11" isnt too bad. what if you textured the main like 6/7 buttons that you use? you could do what we do for surf boards, take some salt  and some resin and put in the buttons, then rinse, and you have a nice texture left behind

That's interesting.  Any good articles with detailed instructions on how to do this?  Good thing I bought 2 extra buttons as spares    I can use them for testing.

[andrewbean90]

love it

[ragnar]

So, I watched the ESPN Fab 5 documentary. It was pretty good. Reminded me of being young (I'm 35 now) and what those 5 kids represented.

So today (24 hours later) I was playing NBA Hangtime (1996,97):
NBA Hangtime

And I played as the Mavericks which has Juan Howard and Chris Webber on the team. And I won!

To all you that remember 1991 and the Fab 5, it was awesome! To all others. If you only knew ;-)

Best thing that happened on this cabinet yet.  had some fun playing Popeye tonight and some more Dig Dug.  Dig Dug is awesome.

Next cab, should I move is going to be a 4 player cab that can also play fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.  No u360s on that but this is all 8+ months out

[Epyx]

The very top is about 5' 11" tall.  In hindsight I do wish that it was a few inches taller.  Maybe 6' 3".

Nice work so far! 

As for the height...any chance of being able to add caster wheels? You could get a few from Home Depot to add an inch or two? Or build a small stationary base?

[ragnar]

Epyx,

Thanks for the comment.

The height works out nicely.  If I could do it again, I'd make the marquee higher.  Other than that, I would not change a thing.  But the screen height and control height is perfect in my opinion.

The only problem is that i probably game once a week for a few hours.  Too much other stuff going on.

[Epyx]

The height works out nicely.  If I could do it again, I'd make the marquee higher.  Other than that, I would not change a thing.  But the screen height and control height is perfect in my opinion.

Ah gotcha, awesome then! 

[crashwg]

Classy build.  I like it.  I think the monitor "bezel" is a little on the large side in that game of Dig Dug though... 

[The Habbler]

Classy build.  I like it.  I think the monitor "bezel" is a little on the large side in that game of Dig Dug though... 

I think that is his frontloader and Dig Dug is just a screencap.