New Cab Pics! New Cab Pics!

[grafixmonkey]

Yay, finally found my digital camera and some time, so I got my cab pics all ready to post!

I'll start with a pic that shows the thing up and running, but before the paint job.  Got it up and playing games just in time for some family from out of town to be able to see it before they left, just did the first (last?) coat of Rustoleum today.

Note that I have many images to post, but I went to great lengths to make their total collective size only about 700 KB.  This pic is low resolution, but there are better pics of everything coming up.

[grafixmonkey]

Here's what it looks like with its paint job!  (but no panel yet - still wet!)

[grafixmonkey]

A shot that shows the CP and all its buttons.  Now, I read that whole debate about four player panels and stuff...  in the short few weeks the cab has been up playing games, I have used all four players simultaneously at least five times.  So I'm happy with it!

The pile of quarters in the middle of the artwork (yellow airbrushed letter B points to it) has text around it that says "Press for Free Play When Lit", and the four players' coin buttons are there.  There's a pull chain that deactivates these switches by disconnecting their ground loop.  When the ground loop for the buttons is disconnected, it also disconnects the ground wire for some lights.  So, when the buttons are off, the lights go off, and you can tell you have to grab the tokens.  

The artwork is about a week and a half of photoshop work, where I took 92 or so screenshots ranging from must-play classics to cool new stuff.  The yellow airbrushed letter D points to a continuous bolt of lightning, which passes through all the controls from one side of the panel to the other.  The airbrushed letter A points to a special piece of artwork - each player has a little montage next to the joystick, which contains images of the game characters that joystick plays in those multiplayer games where the joystick you used determined which character you were.

The airbrushed letter C points to my trackball's mounting plate, which some people have asked about.  It's the more expensive variety of mounting plate from Happ, and shows no hardware at all on the panel surface.  The mounting hardware is welded to the bottom of the black metal piece.

Those are illuminated, medium-size round pushbuttons from Happ.  Fit with their 12v LEDs, $4.60-ish each, they almost glow too brightly!  I may insert a switch to tone their glow down a bit, or turn them off.

The TFB joysticks on the two sides are for games like Tron and Tempest, where a trigger-fire button was used in the arcade.  I feel it's a reasonable way of duplicating the gameplay of those few games, even if it isn't perfect.

[grafixmonkey]

Since I mentioned coins and tokens and credits, I should show my coin system.  The machine will use both quarters and tokens, and both will give credits.  This picture shows the coin chute that goes from the coin slot to the top of the mech.  Look for a small round hole in the side of the coin chute.  Infrared LEDs placed on one side of each hole will shine on infrared detectors on the other side of each hole, and the beam will be interrupted when the coin passes through the slot, triggering a pulse and giving a credit.  (So all coins / tokens / slugs register credits).  From there, any quarters go into a piggy bank, and any tokens are rejected back into the reject bins.  This way, if I want free play with coins, I just load the reject bins with tokens and people can grab one, stick it in the slot, and it comes back for reuse.  Plus, taking the suggestion someone made that some games are ruined by infinite easy credits, I can also grab say 10 quarters per player from the piggy bank, hand them out, and have a limited credits game.

incidentally, I got the infrared components from a friend who built a foosball table that would play against you all by itself.  (very nifty project!  thought you guys would like it.)  It used infrared to detect the position of the ball, and given that information would move the board pieces and kick the ball when it was in kicking position.

[grafixmonkey]

And a pic of the full back of the 4-player coin door, with the LEDs shining.  Those things are bright!  

Happ part number 91-10WB-123W.  They're 12-volt wedge-based LEDs - three LEDs on each unit - that fit both the illuminated pushbuttons and the coin door lamp sockets.

[grafixmonkey]

Here's a shot of the cab that shows what the lighted components look like, in a room with the overhead lights on.

[grafixmonkey]

I thought the view looking under the side of the panel was cool.    So I took a picture.   It's lit only by the coin door lights underneath.

[grafixmonkey]

Here's how my cab gets power for the non-IPAC components.  I cut one of the standard PC connectors off of one end of a fan power cord, and crimped on a four-pin female molex plug.  Gives me standardized power plugs throughout the cab, and all I need to do if I need an extra plug is crimp a splitter cable.

[grafixmonkey]

Here's how I did my ground loops.  14-16 gauge disconnects, and  18 gauge black wire.  If only one wire is going in, I strip extra wire off and fold it over double.  If two are going in, the disconnect still crimps securely to the wire.

[grafixmonkey]

Here's the whole wiring mess...   Not too bad for a first try?    

[grafixmonkey]

I kept the wires organized with these.  Got 15-pin Molex plugs, although I ended up rethinking my wiring system and only using 12 of the pins so I could have gotten the 12 pin connectors instead.  I sketched a pin layout onto a piece of paper, and just stuck to it.  Plugged the panel molex connectors into the ipac molex connectors, and it worked the first time with no debugging!  

[grafixmonkey]

Here's what the IPAC looks like.  I think if I did it over again, I would have only the buttons that have a chance of being used in those Molex plugs, and have the rest in a big "admin button" plug.  (player 1 and 2 buttons 7 and 8 would be there, as well as players 3 and 4 buttons 6, 7, and 8.)

Note that I left five buttons for players 3 and 4...  I'm wiring the top fire button of those players into button 5.  That way, I can tell Tempest and Tron and Arkanoid etc. to accept button 5 or button 1 as the fire button, but the extra stick button won't cause accidental button presses in other games where it's not necessary.

[grafixmonkey]

Here's something I thought people might be interested in for wiring, if they haven't heard of it already.  These wire splices were done by soldering the wires together and brushing the exposed metal joint with liquid electrical tape.  The next day, the black stuff had become a nice, thick, hard rubber, and I'm not at all worried it might rub off or get punctured.  It's almost tougher than the wire's original insulation.

[grafixmonkey]

Here are the cupholders that are going on the side of the cab tomorrow.  Should go nicely with the black paint.

[grafixmonkey]

And, finally, the sound system it's plugging into.  I love this setup for the heavy action games!  I can feel the glorious, simulated analog and ancient 8-bit bass, pumping through the air!

I've had these Klipsch Chorus-II speakers for several years, and I still love 'em.  There's another 15-inch speaker just like that one, on the back of the box.  (but it's a passive "bass radiator" not an active speaker.  Same idea as a bass reflex tube, I guess.)

[grafixmonkey]

The amp for the speakers, another oldie but goodie I've had around for a long time.  Someday I'd like to add a volume control to the cab, that would shine infrared at this thing and turn the volume up and down.  There's too much volume difference between the games.

[grafixmonkey]

One last shot - this is how I supported my CP.  I arranged for spaces between the controls, where I could put a crossbeam.  Got two decent crossbeams in without having to compromise control positions.  

You can also see two button holes on the side of the cab.  Those are mouse buttons that plug into the OptiPAC, so I can use windows without cluttering the panel.

And, that's all folks!
at least for now.  Tomorrow will probably see the whole thing put together, unless it ends up needing another coat of paint, but it didn't look like it was going to so I'm hoping.  

Oh yeah, and I have to figure out how to drill six 7" deep holes to fit #10 mechanical bolts, so I can secure the panel down by anything other than its own weight.  Still working on that issue.

[DaveMMR]

That cp artwork is insane man!  It defies the minimalist approach that some would prefer, but I'd definately be the type of person that'd be staring at it for at least 10 minutes, picking out individual games, before even touching the joystick!  Excellent job!

As for buttons glowing too brightly:  nah I say leave them be.  Nothing attracts someone to your panel quicker than lights (the same way people flock to Vegas almost hypnotically).  

So here's a question though: are you just using that a podium style cp for the computer or are you adding the rest of the cab to that?  

[grafixmonkey]

Hey, glad you like it Dave!  That's exactly what I was going for with the screenshots.  Plus, the camera kind of auto-adjusted the levels and I didn't fix it so the picture is a little misleading - the screenshots are all dimmed down to half brightness or so, which puts them in the background, especially when the lights are dimmed in the room for gaming.  And my friends were all poking through the shots looking for games too when they saw it.  

I'm debating about putting a screen on the back...   this thing is pretty easy to move without any rollers right now, and would make a good addition to an entertainment center in a bachelor pad.  It's sturdy enough to be lifted by two people with the protruding sides of the panel.  The wood support beams are placed so that adding an arcade style back is easy to do, and it would definitely be cool to have the whole marquee and enclosed screen and all, but it'd be a lot harder to move and take a lot more space just to itself.  I do like the screen being right there in front of the controls, but found the panel is wide enough that if I'm playing on the far left or right joysticks I'd prefer the screen be either farther back or larger than I'm willing to pay retail for.

So, I'm considering a couple options.  If I find a nice PC projector somewhere for only a couple hundred, I'd jump on that like Man Show Juggies on a trampoline, stick it right underneath the controls facing out the back, and be able to play games just by aiming it at a wall.  If I find a 25" or larger PC monitor used for a real good price, I'd be tempted to gut it from the plastic case and fix it to the back of the panel.  

Other thing is, I chose Emulaxian as my frontend, and have heard that it doesn't run that well on normal television resolution, and a plain TV would be the cheapest way to get the size screen I want.  I've also tried playing with font sizes in Mame32, and getting the game titles readable on a TV screen means cutting out all title info except the first nine or ten letters.


Another thing about this project, not related to the screen - I was going so much for getting the dimensions I thought would look good, I forgot to make it deep enough to house both my coin mechs and my PC case!  I believe I can still remove the motherboard and attach it inside, with the drives on brackets that I attach to other parts of the wooden case, but I at least made it a lot more complicated to achieve my original goal of turning this into a fully flexible self-contained DVD player, MP3 jukebox, game machine, and video capture workstation.  

Here's what my plan was for that:
I bought this huge honkin' piece of aluminum siding (picture).  If I chop it into sections and drill holes in it, I can attach all the various input and output plugs the machine should have to metal backplates on the case.  It would have  S-video and composite in and out jacks, two stereo audio ins and one out, a digital SPDIF audio out, and a coax cable-TV input, and would perform as a TIVO, DVD, CD, and digital media player.

[hulkster]

thats an awesome looking cp!  a few questions though if you dont mind ....what are the dimensions of your cp?  also, have you put 4 people up to the cab and tested the elbow room?  im really pondering building a 4 player cp, but just want to make sure i get the elbow room right.  what do you think?

[matt888]

Looks good Grafixmonkey!  Projector prices have been falling alot in recent months.  That would be ideal for your setup.  The IR coin credit was a good idea!  Did you consider using Laminate instead of paint?  It's awesome stuff to use and can be applied over paint if you ever wanted to do it in the future- really gives it that "furniture" touch!  I'm only bringing it up because I was going to use paint, but a friend showed me just how easy it is to work with!    

Matt

[grafixmonkey]

Panel dims are 53.5 x 16.5.   3/4" particle board with 3/32" plexi.  Artwork printed on matte paper, cuz I thought the glossy might rub ink off onto the plexi, and the glossy surface under the glossy surface sounded like it'd be weird.

4 people fit great on the panel!  I hired 3 friends while I was building it, and had them stand where I thought the controls should be.  I set the joysticks on top of the cut piece of wood, so they could see which way they would be moving them, laid out the buttons next to them, and went from there.  The angled sides of the panel help a lot too, because the 4 people end up in a semicircle instead of a line.  Another thing that helps is that the two side joysticks are angled inwards.  If I'd thought this out before I cut it, I would have realized I should leave them flat for 2-player games that need 2 sticks per player, but I guess I won't miss those games much, and having them at angles spreads people out more.

I considered using laminate, but when it came down to it I didn't already know how to work with it, and I wasn't sure I would like my first cab enough to go all-out on it.    I've already found enough little problems that I might build a second one, and move the controls over.  (for example, the coin door is too low.  Wish I'd thought of it before, but you have to bend down to put a coin in the slot.  Also, it's not deep enough to put the coin mechs and the computer both inside.  The base needs to be either a lot deeper, or a little wider and a little deeper with the coin door off center.  Or I have to remove the PC components from their case and attach them to the wood.  

The other thing I don't care much for is the angle.  I think it's way too steep, and my wrists start hurting if I play rapid button slapping games.  Tell me what you think.   I airbrushed the outline of the CP since it was black on dark brown.

EDIT:  incidentally, that angle measures to about 11-12 degrees.

[hulkster]

thanks for the dimensions.  i really like your cp, with the button on the joysticks and everything.  if i ever created a 4 player cp, i would want a trackball on it so i can play golden tee, so i would want some space in between player 1 and 2.  anyway, do you have plans for your cp?  if so, would you share?

[grafixmonkey]

I'll share what I have

but I didn't really follow plans...  I cut the bottom box first since everything else depended on that.  Then, I cut the pieces for the top section, with the angles and everything.  That was the difficult part, the one I might be able to give you some plans for.  I assembled the bottom box and the top angled box separately, then rested them on top of each other, using notches in the bottom box's support beams to hang on to the top box.  That added some extra stability and made it rely less on screws, but took a lot more time.

I *should* have cut the control panel last, using the top box as a guide to make it fit perfectly, but I didn't I tried to assemble the angled box around the existing CP...   so there are gaps here and there.  

I think you need a table saw to build this design the way I did.  I'm pretty sure it can't be done safely with a circular saw without redesigning.

[grafixmonkey]

so somebody suggest me a name for this thing.

current option:

BAAM    (Big Ass Arcade Machine)

[matt888]

I was a bit intimidated with the possibility of using laminate at first too, but it's outstanding stuff!  Just make sure you have enough to cover all surface areas (2 4x8' sheets for example).  Get laminate glue (it's milky and applied with any kind of cheap brush/foam).  Use a laminate trimmer (I suggest the Porter Cable models that are new for around $100 or on Ebay for $50).  

Apply glue on wood.  Let dry for 5 minutes or so.  Apply glue to the back of the laminate piece(laminate piece should be slightly larger than the wood area you're covering) and let dry for 5 minutes or so.  Apply the 2 surfaces together because it bonds to itself, but not really anything else.  Trim with laminate trimmer.        Ta Da!   Sweetness!

[grafixmonkey]

And here she is!  All done!

[grafixmonkey]

oh yeah, and added a Tornado spinner.

I spun it before I started typing.....   still going....   haha!

[snekse]

The airbrushed letter A points to a special piece of artwork - each player has a little montage next to the joystick, which contains images of the game characters that joystick plays in those multiplayer games where the joystick you used determined which character you were.

 

I'd love to see a collage of this artwork.  It's a great idea.  Might not work into some ppl's art designs, but it would certainly work with mine!