Hi! I've begun the building of my second Arcade control panel. As the other one I've built, it's a one player control panel using a PSX pad hack. The photo I'm attaching shows what's been done at the moment. With the help of my father, I've cut, and assembled the pieces of wood. The results are excellent, better than I expected. I've tried to make this part as easy as possible. That's one of the reasons for this desing using a simple box with side tables attached. But I have other two reasons: it looks authentic, as it mimics the design of Arcade cabinets, and I get an angled control panel without adding difficulty to the cutting and assembly. I've already sanded it and it's ready for gun paint (when I drill the holes for the screws of the stick). I think it will be light grey, with blue buttons. I'll add some decoration: arrows around the stick (a T-stick in blue), and a MAME logo on the top left, possibly cut in thin wood. I want to keep it minimalist and elegant. For this model I've angled it a little more than the previous panel, because it's a little taller. I've also made it to have a larger base so that it cannot move at all, no matter how strong you push. Since width is not a problem, I've decided to put the four remaining buttons on top: coin, start, pause, reset... The button layout is now different from my previous panel, which has a normal 6 button layout in 3 rows.
The second photo I'm attaching shows Win98 with my ArcadeVGA on a SCART TV. I've been testing different configs in order to have Windows with the best display possible. I'm using 720x480 interlaced. Among the interlaced modes, it seems to be the one that flickers less. Of course it's not good for your eyes health if you stare at the screen for a long time. 640x288 (non-interlaced) is very stable and much more comfortable, but it's a too low res mode for use with Windows because you can't have access to some menus and buttons. I've noticed that using this size and colour scheme makes Windows much more readable and comfortable. I'd like to know what kind of config you have in your machines (users of Arcade monitors/TVs running windows).