Miniature Arcade Project

[Corbo]

Hi all,

I'm working on a miniature arcade build.  I want to build it as small as possible whilst keeping it in proportion and maintaining an authentic arcade feel.  I'm blogging my progress here, please feel free to have a look and contribute if you can

http://minicade.blogspot.com/

[DaOld Man]

Very interesting.
You might want to look at Mala as a frontend too. It is very popular.
Good luck on your project, and posting some pics here would be a good thing too.

[Corbo]

Thanks for the tip I'll look into Mala.

I'll certainly post some pics up here, at the moment I'm just sourcing potential parts, artwork and plans.  I hope to get some woodwork underway in the coming weeks.

[alfonzotan]

Hi all,

I'm working on a miniature arcade build.  I want to build it as small as possible whilst keeping it in proportion and maintaining an authentic arcade feel.  I'm blogging my progress here, please feel free to have a look and contribute if you can

http://minicade.blogspot.com/

I've been thinking about a similar project myself... one thing that's crossed my mind is to get a cheap (used?) netbook for the innards.  That would cover both the monitor and the computer, and depending on the cabinet layout, you might not even have to separate the monitor from the netbook case.

[Corbo]

I've considered the netbook option, I have an Atom based one at home I intend to do some MAME testing with as I could remove the 10" screen and hook it up to the 8" model I've got for the cabinet.

I also have a Core2Duo PC kicking around and am looking into putting this into a mini-itx board and using SSD storage.  I can get a board which is 170x170mm.

The last option I'm considering is not putting a PC in the cabinet at all.  It could just have USB and VGA ports on the back and you could just hook your external laptop/PC up to it when you want to play.  I'll only consider this if space or heat becomes a big problem. 

What are you thinking about building?

[alfonzotan]

I've considered the netbook option, I have an Atom based one at home I intend to do some MAME testing with as I could remove the 10" screen and hook it up to the 8" model I've got for the cabinet.

I also have a Core2Duo PC kicking around and am looking into putting this into a mini-itx board and using SSD storage.  I can get a board which is 170x170mm.

The last option I'm considering is not putting a PC in the cabinet at all.  It could just have USB and VGA ports on the back and you could just hook your external laptop/PC up to it when you want to play.  I'll only consider this if space or heat becomes a big problem. 

What are you thinking about building?

Simple, small bartop, concentrating on early 80's games.  I like your idea of using downsized controls.  It'll have to wait until after I finish a full-size cab project that I've been plotting on and off since forever, though. 

Then again, I might just be lazy and buy an iCade... 

[Corbo]

It's the smaller controls that are proving to be the hard bit!  But hopefully by basing it on a Gauntlet 4 player cab it will allow a little more room for the control panel.  Good luck with your build.  If I had room for a full size cab I'd be working on one right now

[Rick Dangerous]

Hi

Nice and hard project !!! Imo the best way to have the smallest cab, you have to use a plug and play joystick with emu and games inside like this one , the bad side of this joystick is the number of game inside. Your idea to put and external pc is nice, but it will not make a standalone cab :-/
For the heat pb put more fan in
But yeah nice project anyway ^^ , and for the screen what will you use?

[Corbo]

Hi,

I intend to put a fan at the back of the cabinet.  The motherboard dimension is 170x170mm and has a built in GPU (Geforce 9300), it's designed for very small media centre PC's which have an even more restrictive case, so I'm confident this can be achieved without using a plug and play joystick. 

A pico-psu and DC adapter remove the need for a large PSU in the case which is a big help.

The monitor is an 8" LCD with a VGA input.  I'm not expecting this to turn out as small as some of the plug and play mini conversions, but it will be smaller than a bartop.

Thanks for your interest.

[Corbo]

Well the first build day is over, I hope to finish the cabinet build next Saturday when it will go off for spraying.

You can read more on my blog:  http://minicade.blogspot.com/

[Corbo]

I had a chance to do some more cabinet work today, you can read more on the blog:  http://minicade.blogspot.com

[dwilk1uk]

Wow - this gives me an idea what to do with all the mdf and t-mould.  Just when I thought i'd got rid of the last of the mdf dust.

[lloydclinton]

Very nice!

[Corbo]

Here's the latest pic of it up and running.  The artwork is just printed on A4 and stuck to the sides at the moment until I finalise the designs.  Very pleased that I've managed to squeeze a 6 button control panel into the limited space I have.  You can read more on the blog in my signature.


 

[Vigo]

 

Long live Gauntlet!

[vivificus]

Looks very interesting; are you going to have the marquee lit up as well? What kind of screen did you go with there?

[Corbo]

The original marquee was not lit up, I need to cut a hole where the white space is and put speaker mesh in, like this:  
http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=15110&PHPSESSID=3c74d06c904029be10e5bfea6062aeab

A lit up marquee would be fun, but I'm trying to keep it faithful to the original.

The monitor is an 8" LCD.

[Corbo]

Some intensive play testing to ensure good build quality.

[Corbo]

Painting begins, here's the first layer of undercoat.

[Vigo]

 
This thing is gonna be sweet when it is done!

Oh, and I love how fitting it is to use a tiny paint roller! 

[shrunkenmaster]

Looking great my man, can't wait to see this fired up 

[Corbo]

Finally finished the painting.  It's very glossy but a lot of that will be covered by vinyl artwork, so it should balance out nicely when finished.  Shown here with the speaker fitting clamped for the glue to set.

I really must take some pictures on something other than my phone the quality isn't great.

[emphatic]

That looks great! 

[Corbo]

Just the stickers and the plexi glass for the monitor, to go and maybe a little touching up from putting it back together again.  All pictures taken on my phone, I'll bust out the digital camera tomorrow for some better shots.

Shown running Lion King on Sega Genesis.



Running Gauntlet arcade here (of course!)




The rear (including finger prints).  Red button is power.  This is the only fan present, there is no fan on the cpu heatsink.  It's quite and cool inside.




Shown here with the hinged bottom half removed, and the screwed top half removed.   Speaker is at the top, then monitor, halfway down on the left is the LED controller and on the right is the mini pac, then the PC itself is on a removable tray which isn't painted.  Hard disk is underneath and all is mounted with rubber washers and sound proofing on the HD so it doesn't vibrate through the case.



 A close up of the speaker.  It clips on to the wood with a spring loaded clip that would normally attach the speaker to your laptop screen.  I've added a couple of cable ties for good measure.




 Looking in the back of the cabinet with the PC removed.  Just the control panel in here.




Finally a couple of me putting it together.

[Corbo]

OK I got the camera out, here are some better shots.  Still waiting on the perspex (lightly smoked) for the monitor which is why you can see the 4 felt pads.  There is some scuffing on the marquee but this will be covered with stickers. 

[Vigo]

This just keeps looking better and better! It's making me jealous!

[Malenko]

Looks amazing. Your button colors confuse me :p

are you getting stickers printed up or hardcore vinyl printed up?

[elkameleon]

For a minute there I though your paint job was seriously botched, until I realized it was a reflection of the carpet! Damn thats shiny!

[Corbo]

For a minute there I though your paint job was seriously botched, until I realized it was a reflection of the carpet! Damn thats shiny!

Hehe yes it's shiny!  If it wasn't going to be covered in a lot of vinyl I would probably have opted for a less glossy paint.  The T-Mould sections have about 3 layers of satin gloss to dull them and make them look like t-mould.  It's not as good as real t-mould but it kind of works.

Malenko I'm trying to source a good printer in the UK for a good arcade quality vinyl print.  I've made the artwork, it will cover the control panel, sides, marquee and the area above the start/coin buttons.

On the original gauntlet control panel the buttons are black.  The area of artwork where the buttons are located have a yellow background, so my idea was to make the original black buttons stand out, and the yellows blend into the art.  I also have green and red buttons so I may change them.

I've had a friend over and an XBox 360 controller plugged in the back of it today, we played a load of NES, SNES and Megadrive games 2 player, so much fun it's made it all worth it.

The problem is it gave me an idea....I could build a second slave cabinet (Gauntlet II!) which plugs into this cabinet and just duplicates the video and audio.  It would have a minipac for the control panel which would plug into the USB of the first cabinet.  You could then place them next to each other or back to back and the 2nd cabinet would be used for player 2.  That would be awesome, and more fun than using an Xbox controller.

Must resist starting another one before I've finished the first 

[Corbo]

I'm not sure how to put a video up here.

Have a look here:  http://minicade.blogspot.com/

The top post is a little video of the cab working

[Vigo]

The problem is it gave me an idea....I could build a second slave cabinet (Gauntlet II!) which plugs into this cabinet and just duplicates the video and audio.  It would have a minipac for the control panel which would plug into the USB of the first cabinet.  You could then place them next to each other or back to back and the 2nd cabinet would be used for player 2.  That would be awesome, and more fun than using an Xbox controller.

Must resist starting another one before I've finished the first 

That's dangerous thinking, my friend! The kind of thinking that doubles your project time. But, that sounds like a hell of a cool idea. A side by Side mini Gauntlet I and II is making me drool a little.  

[Nephasth]

Awesome idea about the slave unit. You wouldn't even need another minipac, just use a harness and connector to hook up to the minipac in the master unit, could do the same with your LED controller as well, all in one harness. Looking forward to seeing Gauntlet II!

[Corbo]

That's a great idea linking up the minipac.

I think I might have to give it a couple of months before embarking on a slave cabinet, if only for the wifes sanity.  Gauntlet 2 has exactly the same dimensions, just slightly different artwork so it would be fairly easy. 

[Corbo]

I've been clearing out the basement and making it into a usable space over the last couple of days.

I now have a mini man cave, fit for a mini arcade!

[Malenko]

I am LOVING this. 

worst case, you could get mame marquees/game on graphix to do the artwork.

[Corbo]

I am LOVING this. 

worst case, you could get mame marquees/game on graphix to do the artwork.

Yes they are in my favourites.  For the control panel I've ordered some 0.5mm Lexan, I plan to print my own CP and sandwich it under the lexan.  I'll probably turn to gameongfx for the side art and marquee.

Now the thing is working I'm too busy playing it to finish it...must get artwork!

[Corbo]

I've made my own control panel overlay.  I printed the art using a laser colour printer and cut a layer of 0.5mm Lexan to protect it.  I'm happy with it, but if it looks poor compared to the rest of the artwork when it arrives, I'll build a new CP out of 6mm MDF and put a nice thick perspex CP on instead.

[Malenko]

since you didnt reply to my PM, I'll take it as a no

Can you put some plans up? preferably traced/actual size

[Corbo]

Malenko sorry if you think I'm being rude but I swear I replied, I don't know why you didn't get it.  Drop me an email on neil (a t ) cbett d.ot c0m and I'll be happy to discuss.

As for plans, I used the originals from Jakobudd and scaled them down to 1/3 size.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5KnlpLAioNM/TbNAxieztLI/AAAAAAAAAA4/O89tuu8WnWA/s1600/gauntlet-sideLayout.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AnfWq5BWW5A/TbNAsBZbi9I/AAAAAAAAAA0/QX7FB_IqJqs/s1600/gauntlet-frontLayout.jpg

I then made some adjustments to get the viewing angle right for the display and to make the control panel comfortable.  I haven't produced any plans of the final design, but I have a friend who works in CAD design so I may rope him into knocking some plans up at some point.

I'm not really looking to make any profit on this it's for my own use, and it took a while to build, I'm not in a position to build any more to sell right now sorry.  I am more than happy to offer any advice, share my artwork or help you in any way that I can.  I hope you build one of your own, I love it!

[Woodshop Flunky]

This is looking really nice.  I wasn't able to visualize it before, but now I can see this is a really nice mini cab! 

And... I just LOVE the mini man cave!  The small curved staircase is awesome.  I would kill for a space like this to put my son's arcade.  Every time I went down there I'd feel like I was descending into Flynn's workshop.