My 21st Century 4 player Showcase Cabintet! --UPDATED PICS AT BOTTOM

[JRoz]

Hey Guys, so I built my first 4 player arcade machine about 2 months ago and I need some advice on the cosmetic side of the machine.  I live in New York City so keep in mind that my space is limited!  Due to the lack of space, I decided to go with a unique approach, a sorta modern showcase cabinet I like to call it.  I haven't really seen anything like this but I really like the podium look.  I decided to go with a Slik-Stik Quad Panel that I got at a pretty good price.  The podium I bought cost me roughly 50 bucks thanks to a dude that was planning on trashing an old Showcase cabinet.  He sold me the whole thing for 50 bucks which was white and all scratched and beaten up.  I didn't keep the monitor piece of the showcase and just took the podium instead.  I bought some of that nice black vinyl which works great!  Literally no bubbles on the podium and it goes on nice and thick!  The next step was creating my screen.  I went with an LCD (yea I know you guys probably don't like that part) but I went ahead and cut a nice thin MDF faceplate around the LCD to keep that original arcade 4:3 ratio.  Its a 32" screen which is roughly 26".  If I could do it over again I think I would have went with a 37" but I got the tv for such a good deal that its fine for now.  One thing I regret not doing is carving out an area on top of the faceplate for my marquee.  Now I am stuck using a glass picture frame that is currently ducktaped to the top of the monitor which literally falls off all the time lol.  The last thing I did was to buy a wire hider kit from home depot to hide all the cables from the monitor to podium.  I covered it in the same black vinyl as the podium and faceplate to keep it consistent.  My PC is actually sitting on a slant inside the podium and it actually has a large vent in the back(bottom) of the podium where i am able to vent it.  I have a AC powered fan that sits in the podium to keep everything nice and cooled, and is all connected to a ac adapter on the outside that sits behind the podium.  I have one of those AC adapters units that all off of one main feed.  The pc is in the main socket, so once I turn on/off the pc..everything else turns on or off.  I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or comments/suggestions on my first arcade, but would really like some help on the following 3 questions:

1.  I do not currently have the LCD hooked up to the ac power supply adapter and for now have just been turning it on/off from the side panel.. my question is, is it safe to plug it into this power unit unit?  I notice that it cuts all the power to the accessories that are plugged in when my PC turns off..and its basically the same thing as pulling the plug out of the wall.  Is it safe to do this with the LCD?

2.  The marquee is not really working out for me.  I bought one of these 5 buck picture frames with the glass cover and just put the marquee behind it.  The problem is I have nothing to mount it to the top of the screen...so after awhile the duct tape just gets warm and melted from the heat of the LCD and it eventually falls off the top of my monitor  (yea its fallen 3 times now and has shattered the glass 3 times..when do I learn??).  One suggestion by my girlfriend was to just mount the damn marquee/picture on the wall and have it just hang over the arcade unattached.. but I'd like to have it all together and "attached" looking.  Any ideas?  I was thinking some type of L brackets may work ..but how could I fasten it to the top of my LCD?  Gorilla glue? lol.

3.  This definitely needs to be fixed-  The wire hider (middle section of my arcade) is somewhat ugly  The base of the podium, the 4 player controller, and the screen are all wide and bulky..and I have this little skinny section to "connect" the two together.  I really would like to build or put something in between the two and thought I'd maybe just get a plank of wood that is two feet wide or so and wrap it with the black vinyl.  The problem is..I don't have the room to cut or build something like this so I was wondering if you could all suggest something?  

Other then that is been alot of fun putting it together and I give alot of credit to all of you guys and your ideas..now I need to perfect my front end and get all of my games going!

I will have more pictures on tonight but only had time to take a quick shot before I went to work today....

[JRoz]

I just realized after looking at everyone's custom handbuilt arcade machines..mine looks pretty ghetto.  I have 0 wood working skills..maybe i should have kept the showcase monitor cabinet piece  

[SNAAKE]

stop stealing my artworkz yo 

that looks ok. we've seen far worse around here before. whatever works for you. you dont even need woodworking skill to have a nice cabinet. you can just buy those mameroom kit anyway.

[JRoz]

I think one of your clients may have sent me it..and I got it printed from mamemarquee  .  Anyways, as far as buying a mameroom kit..I wanted to keep my podium and faceplate..I just want to build out the connecting or middle piece to it now.  I think once I fill in that area it will look better.

[mwong168]

This might sound like a bit of work and I am not sure if you plan on moving this anywhere in your place but if I was to go with the route of having a wall mounted LCD/Plasma  and a control panel podium I would fish wires and use a wall plate like this:



This way you don't need to have the wire hider kit for just one wire I am assuming, HDMI, which takes care of picture and sound via TV speakers.  This way if you need remove the podium you can easily do it without leaving any wires dangling or hook up other devices to it such as a bluray player?  The other alternative is to build the rest of the showcase cabinet    This will solve this wiring hiding and marquee issue.

As for the front end, you are on a good start so far with Maximus Arcade.  Now just find the images for the marquee, game stills or even 30 second video previews so it looks like this:



Another front end that is really nice as well is Hyperspin, download a few of the MAME themes for some of your favorite games and give it a shot.  It is free to a certain degree, all they as for is a small donation to download all their themes and art packs or else if you don't mind waiting 3 minutes between each theme.  I have over 300 roms and that would take me forever to download so I just paid for gold membership.  Either way Maximus and Hyperspin were both money well spent in my opinion since it enhances all my projects so much and when friends come over they just  

If you have any questions regarding either front ends feel free to drop me a message.  Hopefully this summer I will finish up my showcase cause it current sits like this:



Now I know why everyone says work on the control panel last cause one you get it 100% functionally you sort of put off completing the rest of the cabinet and move on to other projects.  Good luck and post more detailed pics when you get a chance.

[JRoz]

Hey Man, you are the reason I went with the podium in the first place!..I love the work you did.    As far as the roms and emulators and all...I have all of that down...got all my emulators/games/artwork etc...I just meant like little game tweaks and settings here and there.  But yea I agree...I am not moving the arcade yet but I think my best bet is to finish off the showcase cabinet...but a little differently.  Since I have the lcd mounted on the wall..I think I would just build a little shelf or board that is as thick as the podium to go in between.  I think I have a good Idea..i'm going to take more pictures of it tonight and then photoshop what I'm thinking about doing.

thanks
Jason

[Dizzle]

I'm finishing up a four player showcase-style with an LCD mounted on the wall too.  Wish I would've went with mwong's suggestion for the wires.  Most of those wire hiders are meant to be painted though.  I'm sure you could improve the looks by painting the conduit to match your wall.  I'll be painting mine -- I've also got a center speaker which helps hide things.

[JRoz]

I added a bunch more pictures. I think my best bet is to lower the screen a little more, and build my own wire hider/cabinet esk piece of wood in the middle and wrap it with the extra vinyl I have.  This I think will make it look a little more together as a machine.  Let me know what you think.

thanks!


(please bare with my 10second mspaint job ...you get the idea

[mwong168]

Hey Man, you are the reason I went with the podium in the first place!..I love the work you did. 

Thanks but my showcase is far from complete, I mean it works 100% and had quite a bit of use by my friends.  I almost picked up the real deal last Friday when I came across a Tekken 4 dynamo showcase cab for $75cdn.  I thought it was a typo or something but I got in contact with the seller and he was like first come first serve.  I called my friend who has access to a pick up truck and another good friend of mine who know his arcade stuff and is as picky with me when it comes to stuff like this.  I had him inspect the cab for any serious damage and the unit was in pretty good shape and nothing that couldn't be restore with a bit of TLC.  But the problem is my other friend with the pick up said it wouldn't be possible to load the unit because it was huge and would need a bigger truck.  So I passed because my idea was to use the monitor half of the showcase with my existing podium and if it didn't flow well I could scrap my existing podium and just use the entire Tekken 4 showcase cab.  I just figured for $75, I would easily spend that alone in materials like MDF, t-molding, glass, paint, etc and time alone for more then $75.  Oh well in a way it worked out for the better because there is now way it would have fit down my basement stairs and that is another reason why I didn't bother.  I will finish my showcase and make it a dedicated corner to save space but still stay somewhat true to the original plans this summer.

There was another slim showcase build using an LCD posted a few months back, perhaps you should search for that and get some ideas.  Another thing I might do for my showcase is get a bigger tube TV with HD component inputs.  A few weeks ago I missed out on someone giving away a 36" Sony Wega CRT   I managed to grab another 27" Panasonic like mine for free last month but right now I am keeping my eyes open for someone giving away a 32"-36" and see.

Wish I would've went with mwong's suggestion for the wires.

Never too late to run the wires and plate    I just helped my brother in law a few months ago fish a bunch of cables in his wall and his setup over this fireplace is so clean now.

[JRoz]

Yea I think for now i'm going to just build my own wire hiding type column in between the components until I move out of the city.  Once i'm out i'll probably switch over to a real show case monitor..keep an eye out on ebay..the showcase cabinet I bought was 50 bucks..it included it all..but I had the dude trash the screen portion of it..why?...mmmmm not sure why?

[JRoz]

Hey Gents,

After a year of figuring out what I should do for the middle column I finally went ahead and did it!  Just moved into my new apartment and took a few pics and a vid below.  Let me know what you think of the final product/upgrade.

thanks,
Jason

[JRoz]

Damn...nothin?

[TOK]

I think its really cool, but its just begging for a bigger monitor. One as wide as the control panel at least. 

[drventure]

+1 on the monitor size. It doesn't quite some proportional to me.

The cp layout looks good, but, ok, I'll drop into picky mode...... I don't really care for the art, but then, my tastes run a little off 
I would have mounted the trackball plate under the overlay, having that big black square there just looks unfinished to me.

And that marquee needs a backlight (or is it just turned off?)

I do like the lit balltops, if I could do that reasonably easily with u360's, I'd be all over it.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I think a bigger monitor would be more proportional to the CP, BUT I still think it looks very nice and I like the cp art.

[JRoz]

thanks for the comments guys..yes yes i agree i should have went with a bigger monitor.  I really wanted to go with a 37 or 42 but found a good deal on this 32 and my inner cheapness got a hold of me.  I plan to upgrade the actual PC next, I want to get updated games and be able to play SF4 and the newer ones.  Yea the track ball black area was definitely something i was planning on covering.  The reason I didn't is because it would never sit flush (it would always have creases where the outlay sat.  Also, I figured over time people would be rubbing there hand on it, that after awhile it would ware down.  (lots of Golden tee going on) haha.  I'm also planning on putting some plexi-glass over the panel.  The marquee definitely needs some LEDS.  I basically hung it on a picture frame temporarily to put up some pics...going to put some leds behind it to give it a nice glow.  So yea in a few years i'll definitely get the jumbo screen.  Originally I didnt have as much space but now that i'm in a larger apartment I definitely can go bigger

[javeryh]

Looks very nice although I do agree with the comments about the bigger monitor and the art.  If you are going to put some plexiglas on top of your CP then you should definitely hide that trackball mounting plate (you won't have the issue you are worried about with the mounting plate outline showing).  Also, I think your artwork (which I like) would benefit from some button "halos" or whatever they are called - basically outline where the groups of buttons are and maybe change the button colors to all black or something so they stand out a little more - from the pics I couldn't even tell player 2 had a 6 button setup!  I'm really just being nitpicky though - your cabinet is awesome and I'm sure you have a blast playing some fighters and 4P beat-em-ups.   

[JRoz]

yea I agree its a little tough to see the buttons from the pics.  In person though they are very distinct.  I personally like how they blend into the graphics - I think its too much going on if you see every button.  (especially since the art is very busy as it is) haha.  I do like the idea of designating each area of the buttons though -good call..maybe just boxing off each area.  I figure the glow of each stick sort of designates each area.  I need to figure out what I want to do about the trackball area.  I actually haven't really noticed that area until you guys mentioned it .  I'm only 25 now, maybe when I grow out of the fighter style theme I can re-surface it with a more classy conservative look .  For now its all fighters haha.  Definitely a lot more work to be done, Appreciate the comments.

[JRoz]

probably hard to tell, but everyone that says i should get a bigger monitor..should i go with a 37 or 42?  Or just go as far as the control panel..damn i wish i just got a bigger one in the first place.  (current one is 32")

[severdhed]

i think it looks good, adding that wide box from the monitor to the pedestal makes it look alot more complete.   as for the TV size, i dont see anything wrong with it.  I just picked up a showcase cabinet for free here a few weeks ago, and i was very tempted to just use the pedestal portion and a TV mounted on the wall, however i decided to go with the complete cabinet.  i had a 27" CRT tv that i installed in it, and that size is fine.  sure it was designed for a larger monitor, but i used what i had, and i am quite happy with it.  one nice thing about your setup, it wouldn't be too difficult to upgrade the TV if you find a good deal on a larger one.  just don't go too large because when you are standing really close to them, they can be hard to look at if they are too big.  if you want a bigger screen, i'd take notice to how far away your head is from your current setup while playing, then go to bestbuy or walmart or something, try to position yourself that same distance from the display models and see what size feels right.

[JRoz]

hey good advice, I got my whole showcase cabinet as well but just took the podium section.  I would have done the same thing except i'm here in NYC and space isnt exactly a luxury haha.  I wanted to go with the slim look and now the middle portion has really put it together.  I agree I can't go to large..its a 32" lcd so the equivalent 4:3 size is roughly 26/27"s.  Thats what I thought the originals were, maybe a little smaller.  IF anything i'd upgrade to a 37 if i found a great deal.  Good luck with your set up though..yours should look real legit

[SNAAKE]

here in NYC and space isnt exactly a luxury haha.

yeah no joke. I threw away my showcase podium with a huge panel like that dont have room in my new place. build a slim vewlix cabinet instead...

[JRoz]

Whats a vewlix cabinet?...the set up I have now is perfect for my place..actually I have tons of space on both sides of it, and actually if i wanted to go over board I could fit a full size showcase in their.  At this point though I'm only considering the following upgrades.

plexi for the panel - if I ever get time to cut 100 damn button holes!
larger LCD - 42 max if i can find a good deal

Definite upgrade - LED lights for marquee

[SpaceHedgehog]

Whats a vewlix cabinet?...
snip

Haha. . one of these: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=95907.160

Funnily enough I'm planning a Showcase Cabinet to go with it! As everyone has said, a bigger monitor would be good but it still looks great.

[JRoz]

hmm I need to figure out what i'm doing for my marquee.  As you can see I need to build it from scratch.  Right now I basically having it sitting in a thin picture frame with plexi-glass in front of it haha.  Any ideas?  Should I just make a slim box for it to sit in and have some LED lights behind it?