newbie thinking about a cocktail cab

[pcal]

Hi.  After years of thinking about it, I'm ready to get serious about building a cabinet.  It's great to see so many resources available.  

- Cocktail cabinet, primarily because it's less imposing.  I know it's a bigger footprint, but my SO won't go for it unless we can throw a table cloth over it and use it as an end table.  Blasphemous, I know.

- A control panel that supports wide range of controls (spinners, trackballs), preferably some kind of modular design like some folks have done.

I know the trackballs seem to like about 6" of mounting space - am I trying to squeeze too much into a cocktail cabinet?  I really like the arcadedepot cabinets, but their control panels aren't really big enough to support this kind of thing.  I'm willing to build it myself to get what I want.  Question is whether what I want is feasible.

I dunno, just getting started here, wondering if any one has tackled the same problem.

Thanks in advance.

[paigeoliver]

Well, you can use a smaller trackball made for a cocktail table to save space there.

If you really want to have a lot of different controls then just make one continous control panel that goes all the way around the machine.

Or duplicate the Cinematronics cocktail design, as the control panels are full size, so each end should have room for several different controls.

The Cinematronics cocktail design should have enough room for a 4-way, an 8-way, a trackball, and a spinner. And it fits a 19" monitor easily.

 I would use this layout method myself.

Side one (read left to right).

4-way,8-way,6 buttons, trackball

Side two

4-way,8-way,6-buttons, spinner.

Putting a 4-way and an 8-way on each side will allow you to play all the cocktail mode games correctly. Obviously 2-player simulatenous games are mostly out of the picture.

[paigeoliver]

Or, if you are more interested in playing as many 1 player games correctly as possible then go with this layout.

Side one.

8-way, 6 buttons, top fire 8-way, spinner

Side two

4-way, 4 buttons, analog stick, trackball

[Lilwolf]

When I started planning for my cocktail table.  I went with what I had.  I had a great 8 sided glass table top.  Its the same size as a cocktal table.

I was going to have it a 4 sided table.  2 sided for vertical.  2 for horizontal.  But I had to many items to put on it.  

So then I changed to an 8 sided cocktail with very small cp's (ok in most cases) and there isn't a 'break' between them.  Next, the monitor can rotate. So each side is horizontal or vertical (or you can have it between two control panels.

I never built it... I got a sitdown cab now that I'm working on.  So maybe next year...

[Smack]

I managed to get quite a few types of controls in a small space. Believe it or not, it's a very comfortable layout...





Smack

[jakejake28]

do what smack did, add a 3rd panel for 2p games, that way you can play almost all games at their proper alignment... also, make mod cps like jelloslug did. i used his plans and now have 17 dif configs for my cab...

[Rocky]

When I get around to making a cocktail cabinet, I'm planning on doing something like Smack's (except for the cat   )

It is the classic cocktail design and look, but with 4 player ability. Horizontal and Vertical games in their native orientation.

Fitting in the controls you want is always a trade-off based on physics and your goals.

Good luck,

Rocky

[paigeoliver]

The only problem I see with smacks cocktail is that the buttons are all on the wrong side of the stick. Granted, I do play a few games with the right hand on the stick (OK, just Kangaroo and Frogger), I play 95 percent of my games with the left hand on the stick.

[Smack]

Its funny, when I had built my upright. I set it up with the buttons on the left of the stick. (I hadn't been in an arcade in years.)

When I got around to building my cocktail I remember saying to myself - I've gotta switch that around...

After cutting the 2 panels, I realized I had forgotten. At that point I said "screw it."

I wish I had. Someday I may get around to redoing the end panels and making a nice plexi overlay and stuff. I am really lazy though.

Smack