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Another First Arcade Build - "Noiseland Video Arcade"
Dechene:
Holy crap I haven't updated for ages, blame that on Bubble Bobble...
I'm a bit behind on my photos, but here's a couple more.
The plexiglass being drilled in prep to be routed out:
This was great fun to do, my router is definitely my new favourite tool!
The plexi bezel being sprayed:
I was a bit worried that it would look like a real crappy bodged together sort of bezel, but it actually looks really really nice & glossy.
Just to make sure that you can't really tell it's just a TV in there, I also sprayed the front casing of it black too:
And the result of 1 coat primer & 2 top coats:
I picked up and almost bought a can of gloss black paint in the store, but changed my mind at the last minute.
I thought that black may be just too boring especially if I don't have artwork on the sides for a while.
I figure the brown will complement the orange & yellow used in the marquee & control panel, and will also look nice with the Red T-moulding I bought.
The control panel art sandwiched between mdf and plexi with buttons installed, I love it!
I've also done a fair bit of work on the PC for the arcade.
MALA will be my frontend, I've setup a simple & clean design using the same graphics & colours from my CP.
The comp boots straight into MALA and the Simpson's clip posted earlier by Rick is played on startup as well.
However I need some help with hiding windows.
I can hide everything except for the blue screen which says 'Welcome' and displays for 10secs or so before the desktop / mala loads up.
I have my own boot screen come up, but after that is displayed this damn blue one comes along and looks very out of place.
If anyone knows how to get rid of that screen it would be much appreciated!
Now I guessed that because the build went so well, I was going to have a hard time with the electronics, and I am...
Wiring:
I gave up on waiting on the network plugs to arrive from china, they've gone missing methinks.
Seeing as I probably won't be making another CP for this cab, the setup works quite well I think, I figured that I may as well just wire the buttons up
as you normally would. So I did, and then spent 4hrs in front of my computer "testing" the wiring in every game I knew.
Works GREAT! The I-Pac is a brilliant device, if you're thinking of getting one and are in Australia at the moment, buy it now!
The USD is very weak compared to normal, I nearly bought the I-Pac 6 months ago, it would have cost me $96 but I backed out.
I bought it for $72 just 2 months ago, and priced it at only $59 just a week ago, the rate will change back soon so if you plan on a cab in the next year, buy one now!
Speakers:
OMG. During the build I thought to myself, "hmm, my speakers aren't magnetically shielded, (car speakers), will that be a problem later on...?
Nah, they'll be far enough away from the TV to not affect it, she'll be right mate."
Nope, I was wrong. They certainly are close enough to affect the TV, in fact, when I plugged the PC in for a test fit, the whole top half was an awful blue / green / yellow colour, it looked ridiculous and was unplayable.
So back to google I went. And found out that the only thing people did to fix it was to move the speakers away. Not really an option for me at this stage...
So racking my brain for a while and reading up on how speakers are shielded, it occurred to me that I could easily shield them myself.
If anyone is interested in my high tech fix, here it is -> I went into the kitchen cupboards and got out 2 cake tins that are a bit bigger than the speaker magnets. I placed them on the back of the speakers, the magnets held them in place, and looked at the TV, the interference was all gone! Woohoo!! The cake tins absorbed & diverted the magnetic field away from the TV, and made it all pretty again!
I will mount them properly but just so you know, metal cake tins work fine in Mame Cabs!
Video cord:
My TV only has RCA inputs, my PC only outputs S-VIDEO
I ordered an s-video to RCA cord on ebay last week. It came today and I plugged it into the arcade pc and tv, but was very disappointed, the picture was in B&W! I had only tested the TV with my home PC which outputs RCA, it had always worked perfectly.
Searching around I realised that I had ordered a S-VHS to RCA cord which is different to a s-video cord. Stupid similar naming conventions!
So i headed out to the shops, but not one freaking store had the cord I wanted! Not even the home theatre stores had them, WTF?
I didn't want to wait 7 days for it to come in the post, so I Wikipedia'd it.
Wiki has the "schematics?" of the plugs, it was an easy matter to get an s-video and then an RCA cord and slice them both open to see the wires inside.
By connecting the grounds and the image carrying wires together from both, I made my own s-video to RCA converter, a bit of sticky tape and I was done!
I plugged it in not expecting it to work, but the picture came out perfectly! It is actually a more vibrant and stable picture than I had before so I am very very happy with it!
A mate came over today, we spent about 3 hrs playing '1944' and 'bubble bobble', had an absolute blast!
The control panel design also held up really well, no bumping and no sore hands so I think I'm safe with that.
I can't wait to complete this cab, every challenge has been so much fun to overcome, I can't wait to stand back and just watch it work seamlessly.
More photos will be up tomorrow, just a few finishing touches to get this finished and put it to work!
severdhed:
that looks great, i like the brown paintjob, very unique.
as for hiding windows, look through the Wiki, there is a section on hiding windows, including hiding that welcome screen.
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Hiding_Windows
here is how to hide the welcome screen, but you may want to read through that wiki page also, because there may be tweaks there you missed.
To hide the Welcome Screen (where you'd normally log in) you'll need to change from the default windows XP welcome screen to the other style by going to Control Panels >User Accounts >Change the way users logon or off. Deselect the “Use Welcome Screen” checkbox.
BurgerKingDiamond:
yeah man, it's amazing how good MAME can look on a nice CRT TV. I have it going to a 27" Trinitron thru s-video and it is awesome. Nice job on the cable hack. I guess it's not really s-video anymore, just normal composite, but if it looks good then nice.
Dechene:
Almost done!
Here's a before & after of my shiny new bolt heads thanks to Vebbo's tip:
They look great thanks heaps!
The obligatory under CP shot with a birds nest of wires, I could have made it neater but, meh.
The white button in the middle of my CP is now a pause button, very useful for when the kids start yelling at daddy to come inside...
The only major work I have left to do is install the back doors on the machine.
Hopefully I have time to do that soon as I don't really like leaving all those tantalising wires & cords for my dog to stare at all night...
You can see the cake tins behind the speakers at the back, I need to mount them properly, at the moment they are only held on by the force of the speaker magnets. I also need to clean up the wires a bit so it doesn't look so haphazard in there, but that shouldn't take too long.
And this is what it looks like from the front,
I have 3 different marquees that I've designed to choose from, it only takes a minute & a screwdriver to change them over.
But here's the biggest stuffup that I've made on this whole build.
I cut my T-Mold slot WAY to big! CRAP!
My brother-in-law is a builder and has some sort of a powerful 'glue' which you apply with a caulk gun, I'll be doing that soon as I can get the glue off of him, it should be fine though, just a bit fiddly to do and I won't be able to change colours if I don't like the red later on. Oh well, too bad, so sad.
Noiseland is almost finished, but I have 3 mates dying to have their own cabs, hmmm, I better strike while they've got their wallets out!
Rick:
--- Quote from: Dechene on November 10, 2010, 06:49:30 am ---You can see the cake tins behind the speakers at the back
--- End quote ---
Dude, you owe me a "Loca Moca" Java Monster drink. I read that, went, "what the --?", peered closely, saw them, and spit coffee flavoured energy drink all over my screen!
:laugh2: