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Author Topic: "Steve-O-Cade" major update to Bigbuffs Arcade Project  (Read 14629 times)

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bigbuffs

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"Steve-O-Cade" major update to Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« on: June 29, 2011, 04:10:41 pm »
So after about 2 years of wanting to build an arcade I finally decided to tackle the project. I had a week off a work so I wanted to start doing a good portion of the work on my week off. I was able to find someone selling some empty Golden Tee cabinets that were in pretty good shape and seemingly big enough for what I wanted to build. It cost me $100 which I thought was a good deal seeing as it was gonna save me a lot of time trying to fabricate my own. Here is what I got.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2013, 02:26:30 pm by bigbuffs »

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2011, 04:17:10 pm »
Between wood, misc. parts (marquee retainer, speaker cover, coin door, etc.) and so on you came way out ahead of $100. And now you can redeem it from its history as a golf game.  ;D Nice find, looking forward to what you create with it.
Completed projects: Pac bartop (Plug & Play), 30th Anniversary Pac cab (MAME), Point Blank (PS1), Centipede (arcade hardware- light restore), VS. Super Mario Bros (arcade hardware- light restore) Tetris Cocktail (SNES), Arcade Classics upright (60-in-1, then MAME), Multi-Raiden (arcade hardware). Pac Man vs.(Gamecube),

Working on: Pinball Re-theme, Homebrew arcade arena shooter

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2011, 04:46:51 pm »
I wanted to have a bigger control panel even though I am only planning on doing 2 players (though I may eventually go to 4). So I traced the control panel that was already on the machine onto some MDF and added about 5 inches on each side and in the front. I then started laying out some possible button configurations and decided on a 7 button for each player layout. I added 6 more on top for player start and coin insert and possibly some FE controls.
After getting the buttons all cut I realized that they weren't going to all fit in the box that was there for the old control panel so I had to cut a couple of pieces of MDF and extend the box to accommodate my control layout.I also cut a new piece for the front of the cab as the old one has a bunch of holes in it for what must have been a credit card reader and whatever other crap they crammed on these things. I cut out a spot for the coin door in the new piece because I like the authentic look. Of course when I enlarged the CP box it ended up hanging out to far after the CP was placed on top so I ended up having to redo the control panel. Actually I just added some pieces back to the CP with wooden dowels and re-cut it with a curve in it rather than having the squared off look. I am still trying to decide on a trackball so I haven't cut out a spot for that yet. I also want to add a couple of mouse buttons but their placement will obviously depend on the size of the trackball.
I am currently trying to design a CPO and also a marquee. I am trying to keep the black and white colors on the original cabinet so i'm trying to keep that in mind when designing the artwork. I was trying to come up with some ideas for names for the arcade. I was originally thinking about doing a Seinfeld theme because me and my brothers all love Seinfeld but I wanted to keep it more video game related. My brother suggested Noah's Arcade from waynes world (were all big 80's guys too) but I think I have decided to call it THE WIZARD from the Nintendo movie starring Fred Savage. I will try to post my artwork ideas so far but any suggestions for design or colors or anything is welcome as I am not very artistic so I typically end up ripping off other designs.

shilmover

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2011, 04:48:24 pm »
Got the old control panel still?  Need one of those.

B
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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2011, 04:51:20 pm »
Nice start, and that's a good sized cab too.


bigbuffs

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2011, 04:53:38 pm »
Between wood, misc. parts (marquee retainer, speaker cover, coin door, etc.) and so on you came way out ahead of $100. And now you can redeem it from its history as a golf game.  ;D Nice find, looking forward to what you create with it.
Ya I was really happy to find a nice cab like this for cheap. I was originally thinking it would likely cost me $150 and thats actually what this guy wanted but he said he just wanted to get rid of it so he'd give it to me for $100. The guy is a pinball machine fixer and said he had bought a truck trailer full of old arcade and pinball stuff. This was actually 1 of 4 Golden tee machines that were in the trailer.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2011, 04:56:31 pm »
Got the old control panel still?  Need one of those.

B
Are you talking about the Golden Tee CP? Cuz yes I still have that.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2011, 05:01:14 pm »
Got the old control panel still?  Need one of those.

B
Are you talking about the Golden Tee CP? Cuz yes I still have that.

Yup.

Wanna sell it?  :)  PM me
My projects...

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bigbuffs

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2011, 08:31:34 pm »
Just thought I'd share some of the artwork I've come up with so far. Any help or suggestions in this area would be appreciated because it is definitely not my strong suite. Here is a picture from the wizard that I wanted to use as inspiration for the marquee.

Then, here is the marquee and the CPO that I am working on. Was kind of looking at doing like a marble looking CPO. Also I'm planning on adding some outlines for around the controls and stuff.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2011, 08:37:09 pm »
$100 is a good deal.  I've always liked that cabinet style.  I've seen people mount a small second monitor where the instruction card is at below the marquee. 


derep

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #10 on: June 29, 2011, 11:47:50 pm »
I would use a game instead of a movie.
Otherwise i'd crop out Fred and pals.

The smoke cp doesnt really match either

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2011, 12:19:05 am »
I would use a game instead of a movie.
Otherwise i'd crop out Fred and pals.

The smoke cp doesnt really match either
Well i'm not planning on using the fred and pals picture I was just going off that for the marquee and changing the colors around. As far as the control panel I was thinking about reversing the colors and doing mostly black but we'll see as i'm still in the planning stages for that.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2011, 12:27:57 am »
I've been working on getting the CP all set up. I've got all RGB buttons and light up control sticks too. here's what it looks like right now. Still need to get the computer installed, maybe a few more coats of paint and I'll be getting pretty close.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2011, 05:41:52 am »
With the smooth lines of the cab, I'd consider not putting any artwork on it. The white vs black contrast is pretty striking.

Either way, that's a very nice looking cp.

bigbuffs

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2011, 08:17:35 pm »
So i have all the buttons wired up to a gpwiz and everything seems to be working pretty good. One thing that is really nice about this cabinet is that the control panel housing will slide completely out of the cabinet which made it much easier to get inside my house. Also it has a locking position when you slide it out which makes it easy to work on wiring everything. You can see in one of the pics I have the CP slid out and locked so that I could wire everything up. I also tore apart an old computer case and used the ATX mounting part to mount my GPWIZ and LEDWIZ to. Then I think i will lay the computer down in the back of the cabinet which is completly empty right now. I have the computer all set up with hyperspin and a bunch of emulators and everything is working really well so far. I'm trying to find a 27" computer monitor which seems to be the biggest that will fit in this cabinet, but until I get that I temporarily hooked up and extra 24" monitor I had and I am gonna use that for a while. I used a couple of brackets that the originally monitor must have been mounted to. I just moved them a little and I am resting the monitor on them. Nothing real secure but it will work for the time being.  I still need to get all the LED's wired up but I did manage to get the joysticks hooked up.



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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #15 on: July 11, 2011, 02:34:53 pm »
Your controls are Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo far apart.
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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #16 on: July 11, 2011, 06:53:29 pm »
 :applaud: looking good i also love this cab  :applaud:

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #17 on: July 14, 2011, 04:31:33 pm »
While I do agree with BurgerKingDiamond that your controls are far apart, I do enjoy the overall look on your cab so far.  The white on black is really pleasing.   Do you have any plans for the area between the speakers in the top panel above the screen?   I believe currently there is some sticker there having something to do with a GT players card thing.    What is on my (long) list of things I'd like to do, is to incorporate a small screen, maybe 7 or 8 inches, and then use it as a secondary display.  I've seen just a few others do this, and I'm told there is a way that you could have it display some information when you launch a game.  For myself, I always envisioned it displaying the control information from CPViewer.  So that the mini screen would tell you what the buttons do for that game.   Some newer Golden Tee cab's already have a smaller screen in that exact spot.  And I've always wanted one of those cabs for that reason.   Just an idea I guess.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #18 on: July 15, 2011, 02:50:59 am »
Its looking really nice.  Much better than the original Golden Tee beast.

But i have to agree about the control spacing, but if you are happy with it that's all that matters.

Are you planing on a track ball or spinner in the middle? (you could probably fit player 3 & 4 controls in too  :))

bigbuffs

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #19 on: July 15, 2011, 08:32:19 pm »
I have been spending more time getting Hyperspin set up and playing alot of the games too so I haven't gotten much more done to the cab yet. I do plan on having a trackball and RL mouse buttons in the middle. As far as the controls being far apart I wanted to have a lot of space for two people because I hate being crowded while playing (plus my brother is a big dude and needs plenty of space). My girlfriend is talking me into making it a 4 player cab but I would have to redo the control panel if I decide to go that way. I have also been spending a lot of time getting the button LED's wired up. I originally got single color LED buttons but decided I wanted RGB's so I switched out all the LED's and am working on running wires to each one which is taking way too long. As far as the space between the speakers, I was thinking about just putting some artwork up there and have it backlit like a mini marquee but someone mentioned having a second screen there and it just so happens I have a 7 or 8in touchscreen monitor that I used for my carputer before I sold the car. So, I think I may try to mount that up there. Seems like it would be a really sweet feature though im not sure what I would have it display. Maybe just duplicate the display.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #20 on: July 15, 2011, 08:35:43 pm »
Seems like it would be a really sweet feature though im not sure what I would have it display. Maybe just duplicate the display.

If I had that, I'd probably throw up either the game marquee or something from CPWizard.
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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #21 on: July 15, 2011, 10:22:04 pm »
I am not one for blowing sunshine up someone's arse but I really like the looks of this thing!  The black and white are really kind of eye catching......keep up the good work.
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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #22 on: July 16, 2011, 03:51:34 pm »
Very nice! That huge ass control panel is BEGGING for a illuminated trackball in the center!;)
I just finished working on a World Class Bowling Deluxe cabinet, which is basically identical to yours. I kept mine as a trackball mame with the three buttons only. Everything new is led illuminated, of course!
That bright white part of the cabinet kept bothing me, since the cabinet is in a general livinig area of the house, we always look at it. I applied cherrywood finish roll laminate and fresh 7/8" black t-mouling and now it looks like another piece of furniture in the house, man what a difference on the eyes!

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #23 on: July 24, 2011, 10:53:21 am »
Things are coming along a little slower now but here are a few things I've gotten done. I mounted my power strip in the cab just using hot glue. This is one of those Eco strips that senses when you turn something on and then it sends power to the rest of the outlets. Picked this up at walmart for $18 and it works perfect for and arcade cab. As soon as I turn the computer on the monitor and speakers will turn on too. I also got the second monitor hooked up. As you can see in the picture I used a 4 pin molex to power the monitor. I actually did this when I had it in my car so I will just leave it this way and power it through the PC PSU. The space cut in th cab was at the perfect height so all I did was cut a couple of grooves so the cables running from the monitor would fit nice. Once again I got lazy and just used hot glue to mount the monitor in place. I'm working on a fiberglass cover for the opening to cover the ugliness of the hotglue and the rest of the open are left by the old cutout. I also got some speakers that I need to mount behind the cover as well. The speakers have a remote line to control the bass and the volume so I need to find a decent place to mount that as well. I want to mount a power button for the computer either right above or right below the second monitor so I may try to put the speaker controls somewhere close to that.





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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #24 on: August 02, 2011, 03:56:19 pm »
So before I got too much further I decided to go with a four player setup which means i will have to redo the control panel. I set up a new layout using autocad and was just looking for some suggestions if I should make any changes. 7 buttons for each player , mouse buttons for the trackball and the four in the top of the control panel with be for FE/emulator control.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #25 on: August 02, 2011, 04:19:10 pm »
I am sure you posted it somewhere here but what monitor did you use?

and what is the top mini monitor for?

I have an golden Tee 99 i might make into a mame trackball game and looking to take the CRT out of it. 

it is a working 25 in crt but I am just sick of CRTs. 

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #26 on: August 02, 2011, 06:44:56 pm »
I am sure you posted it somewhere here but what monitor did you use?

and what is the top mini monitor for?

I have an golden Tee 99 i might make into a mame trackball game and looking to take the CRT out of it. 

it is a working 25 in crt but I am just sick of CRTs. 

The monitor is a "24 Asus but it is actually not the monitor I plan on using in the end. I have a dual monitor setup for my home PC and this was just a test monitor. I plan on going with a 26or27" in the end to maximize the space. One thing I have found with the asus monitor is that the viewing angle from the top and bottom isn't very good. Because of the slant of the cabinet the monitor doesn't sit at optimal viewing angle. It hasn't bothered me but my girlfriend who is a lot shorter says sometimes she has a hard time seeing the screen. As far as the second monitor I just put it there becasue I had it lying a round and I'm not sure what I'll use it for but some good ideas were suggested in previous posts.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #27 on: August 02, 2011, 07:31:57 pm »
Yeah I hear ya I have an asus monitor too.  So i hear ya on the angles.  I just flipped mine around

there is photos on http://www.extendedplayarcade.com/mamecocktail

or i will post them below





I am not sure if that idea helps?  but you can flip the screen in some Front End to my understanding




I am sure you posted it somewhere here but what monitor did you use?

and what is the top mini monitor for?

I have an golden Tee 99 i might make into a mame trackball game and looking to take the CRT out of it. 

it is a working 25 in crt but I am just sick of CRTs. 

The monitor is a "24 Asus but it is actually not the monitor I plan on using in the end. I have a dual monitor setup for my home PC and this was just a test monitor. I plan on going with a 26or27" in the end to maximize the space. One thing I have found with the asus monitor is that the viewing angle from the top and bottom isn't very good. Because of the slant of the cabinet the monitor doesn't sit at optimal viewing angle. It hasn't bothered me but my girlfriend who is a lot shorter says sometimes she has a hard time seeing the screen. As far as the second monitor I just put it there becasue I had it lying a round and I'm not sure what I'll use it for but some good ideas were suggested in previous posts.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #28 on: August 02, 2011, 07:56:02 pm »
You are going to run into that issue with the bigger monitor unless its a pva or ips screen.  Most LCD screens use TN technology, if you do a search here you can read all about the differences, but long story short.  TN's will always have bad angles because the LCD crystals are at right angles to the screen, whereas in the other two, they are parallel.  A lot of times the viewing angles will be decent side to side, but will be bad top to bottom.

I would ditch the extra buttons for players 3 and 4, you don't need more than 4 buttons for them since there aren't any 4p games that I can think of that use more than 4 buttons.

I would also rethink doing a 4p panel, unless you actually have 4 people over that want to play arcade games, its sort of a waste of space and money.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #29 on: April 02, 2012, 12:10:43 am »
So I finally got back to work on this cab. I decided that it was just too big for my house and that I needed to make it smaller so I ended up cutting off the back end of the cab and redesigning the layout of it. I have the constronstion of the cabinet pretty much done now with only a few more things to do on the basic build. I will post some pics soon of what I have done.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #30 on: April 02, 2012, 09:24:22 am »
I'm trying to find a 27" computer monitor which seems to be the biggest that will fit in this cabinet, but until I get that I temporarily hooked up and extra 24" monitor I had and I am gonna use that for a while. I used a couple of brackets that the originally monitor must have been mounted to. I just moved them a little and I am resting the monitor on them. Nothing real secure but it will work for the time being.  I still need to get all the LED's wired up but I did manage to get the joysticks hooked up.

You can trim the inner MDF back a few inches and fit a 28" 16:10 lcd in it. I have the same cab and am going that route. I currently have a 27" tube tv, case and all in mine! It was a pain getting the tv in, but to fit the lcd, all that is required is trim the mdf back a few inches, mount a 2x4  w/ vesa mount and done! The tv required trimming the bottom where the glass sits, and also trimming the top where the glass slides up into. But the GT cabs are great for conversions I think! Also a 27" 16x9 lcd is about 22" diag. in 4:3, whereas the 16x10 28" is a little over 24" in 4:3.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2012, 09:26:28 am by redbeard30 »

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #31 on: April 02, 2012, 10:31:53 am »
Can't wait to see the photos of the cut down and redesigned cabinet.

I have an older golden tee 99 cab that takes up a ton of space.  I thought about doing the same thing to the cabinet (cutting the back off and installing an LCD) seeing the cabinet itself isn't a worth anything.   My Father in law actually played the machine so hard he broke it.  I haven't had a chance to see what was wrong with it (i checked all the fuses and changed the power supply still doesn't work)

The house I am in now might be (I sure hope so i don't want to move anymore but with this economy anything can happen) the one I am going to be in for quite awhile.  I am not going to gain anymore space for my game room.  It is a total mess now but I can post a photo of it to show you how I need to make my cabinets slim as well.

Anyways i can't wait to see your photos


So I finally got back to work on this cab. I decided that it was just too big for my house and that I needed to make it smaller so I ended up cutting off the back end of the cab and redesigning the layout of it. I have the constronstion of the cabinet pretty much done now with only a few more things to do on the basic build. I will post some pics soon of what I have done.

bigbuffs

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #32 on: April 02, 2012, 12:22:17 pm »
So, I hacked off a large portion of the back of the cab to cut down the size of this beast some.

I was still trying to salvage as much of the origional material as possible but most of the cab is made of particle board so it was hard to keep it from ripping apart. I cut a new smaller side design from the origional and clamped it back on to see how it would fit.
I put the new cut out onto the old one and traced around it. After cutting it and seeing how much wood filler would be needed to get it back to a nice smooth surface I decided that I would be better off just cutting new pieces.
I had some plywood sheets left over from another project so I decided to use those instead. I traced the new outline onto the plywood and cut one out, then clamped that onto the sheet and used it to make both sides exactly the same.
Here it is attached to the cab. The plywood was not the best quality so I used wood filler on any of the rough parts to try to keep it as smooth as possible. I plan on using side-art so any imperfections should be covered by that.
I got a 26" lcd monitor cheap from wal-mart and I used the old monitor mount to mount the LCD in place. I just drilled out some holes in the mounts and screwed into the wall mounting holes in the back of the monitor. Worked really wel actually.
I mounted the wheels back on the cab from the part I cut off and then cut a new smaller bottom piece where the plug-in will mount. I used as samll of piece as possible on the bottom because I am going to have the back piece removable with thumb screws so if i need to get at anything from the back it will give me more room and be easy to take on and off.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #33 on: April 02, 2012, 12:35:38 pm »
A few more things. I actually designed a cut a new 4 player control panel and also I re-did the box for the control panel so that the new layout would fit all of the buttons and stuff. I added a trackball in the middle with two mouse buttons on top of that. After cutting all the holes and installing the trackball I realized that the holes for the two mouse buttons were too close to the trackball and wouldn't fit so I had to fill in the holes with wood filler and sand them off. Then i moved the buttons up about 1 inch so now they will fit. Also here are a front and back pic of everything I have on the cab so far all sanded down and primed.


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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #34 on: April 04, 2012, 08:51:39 pm »
Quote
You can trim the inner MDF back a few inches and fit a 28" 16:10 lcd in it. I have the same cab and am going that route. I currently have a 27" tube tv, case and all in mine! It was a pain getting the tv in, but to fit the lcd, all that is required is trim the mdf back a few inches, mount a 2x4  w/ vesa mount and done! The tv required trimming the bottom where the glass sits, and also trimming the top where the glass slides up into. But the GT cabs are great for conversions I think! Also a 27" 16x9 lcd is about 22" diag. in 4:3, whereas the 16x10 28" is a little over 24" in 4:3.

I ended up getting a 26" TV/monitor and after cutting up the cabinet and working on a different structure I made it so the monitor will not be as sloped a it was before. Hopefully this will eliminate the poor viewing and problems and make it easier for everyone to see.

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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #35 on: April 04, 2012, 09:13:14 pm »
Couple of more pics and updates to add. I cut out a bezel for the monitor. I was trying to find some really hard cardboard or something similar to use for the bezel. I ended up finding a sheet of tagboard type stuff at lowes for 8 bucks so i went with that. It was a little harder than I wanted but it worked. I cut it using a box cutter which took quite a while and left my hand pretty sore but it turned out pretty good. I gave it some coats of black spray paint along with a few screws then I drilled out a hole in the bottom corner where the IR sensor on the monitor is.

I also cut the very last piece I had for the main construction of the cabinet. Then I trimmed out some holes for the extra monitor I want to use and the speaker holes as well. I'm planning on using the tagboard again on this hole piece to cover it up I want to find some type of perferated metal or plastic to use for speaker covers and also for fan covers in the back but I haven't found one yet. I also had to cut the top of the control panel back about an inch due to the new design of the cab.

I'm just starting to work with gbeef from arcadepix.com on some design ideas. Were just in the planning stages but I'm pretty excited about finally getting into some art ideas for the cab.


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Re: Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #36 on: May 14, 2012, 12:11:30 am »
Here is an update of some things I have done to the cabinet. My work has slowed a bit and I have been working on a lot of smaller detail stuff lately. I had gbeef do some artwork for me and he just got that finished up and I am really happy with it. I cant wait to get it all printed and installed on the cabinet. It is going to look really good when its all installed! I had been looking for something to use for speaker covers for quite a while and I finally found something that worked really well thanks to our city wide clean up. I ended up using the some older monitor back covers. I cut off the parts that had holes and gave them some coats of paint. the larger of the two pics I used for the back cover of my cabinet. I thought it would work well to help vent and also allow the sound from the subwoofer to be heard better.


Here is the top front of the cabinet with the speaker covers installed and the the smaller monitor in place. Also the back of the cabinet as well with the vent installed on the bottom and some fan in place as well to help keep air circulating and keep everything cool.

I got these thumb screw things for the back cover of the cabinet and also some t-nuts to screw them into. I thought this would be good eas of access to the back. The thumb screws make it easy to take the back panel off and put it back on without the use of tools.

 I also did alot of routering on the control panel. First I routed out spots on the bottom for the joysticks. I then used t-nuts again. This time I used them for mounting the joysticks. I drilled out a small are on the top of the CP so that the t-nuts would sit flush with the top. I also glued in each t-nut to help them stay in place better as I have found that MDF doesnt have as good as hold as most other wood does. Since this will all be cover by an overlay and plexigalss the t-nuts will not be seen. This will also make it easy to unistall the joysticks if necessary without doing any damage to the CP. It took me quite a while to come up with a way to mount the joysticks. I wanted the to sit nice and high but I also wanted to be able to remove them fairly easily. Because the CP in MDF you cant really just screw them right to the MDF because everytime you would unscrew them it would weeken the hold of the screws. I think what I came up with will work well but I may look into getting some longer joystick shafts at some point.


After hooking up my first 2 player CP and seeing what a mess the wires made I decided that I needed to find a way to make this 4 player CP much neater. The fact that I have all RGB buttons means that I need to use a lot of wires. Each button will need six wires run to it. With a total of 38 buttons that makes a lot of wires. I looked a lot at what other people had done to try to find a way to make this cleaner and I found someone who used a laminate to basically cover all the wires. I also read that alot of people used cat 5 to wire up everything so that is basically what I have dedcided to do. I have 2 LED control boards and 2 input control boards. So I basically just layed out on the underside of the CP where I wanted each board to go and them I routed out a path to run all of the wires. As you can see from the pics this stuff make a huge mess when routering but it should make for a nice clean look once everything is all wired up.


Right now I have some black and white templates of the artwork printed out and I am making some adjustments to make sure everything will line up correctly. I found a digital printing place in town where I live so I am going to go talk to them about possibly printing me out some graphics. I'm not sure if they will have backlit material though for the marquee so I may have to go the online route but I am hoping to get that taken care of this week. I am pretty much ready to get the computer back in this thing and star doing all the wiring for the CP. I have been working a lot lately so I havent had much time at all to get things done it just been a small bit here and there but I am planning on being about 95% done with this thing in about a month. The one thing I would like to do but probably wont get to for a while is hooking up some guns maybe using AIM trak so that I can play shoot em up games to but I know that I wont get to that for a while.

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Re: "Steve-O-Cade" major update to Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #37 on: June 22, 2013, 02:30:28 pm »
So I have done a ton more work on my project since last posting on here. I have taken pictures randomly throughout the process and I am finally coming back to my thread to update the progress of my cabinet. I will try to continue from where I left off but it has been a while so I may miss some things or possibly repeat some by mistake.

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Re: "Steve-O-Cade" major update to Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #38 on: June 22, 2013, 02:53:15 pm »
In all of my reworking of the cabinet I have decided to make the entire back remoavble so that if i need access to anything it will be much easier. I cut some squares in the top back piece for a couple more fans and also put a handle on to make it easier to move around. You can see what it looks like from the front and the back in these two pics.



I also got a power button that has an orange led light that will match the cabinet colors. The power button will go on top and right in the middle 2nd monitor.



While trying to tear apart my speaker remote It stopped working (which means I get to spend more money but what the hell I stopped keeping track) so I decided to order a whole new speaker set that has a much better volume and base control remote. Here is the speakers I ordered. You can see the nice seperate control it has for turning the volume and bass up and down and it also has a aux in and headphone jack.

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Re: "Steve-O-Cade" major update to Bigbuffs Arcade Project
« Reply #39 on: June 22, 2013, 03:05:40 pm »
When I got the speakers I took apart the controls (and managed not to break them this time). The front plastic piece came off fairly easily. I then cut a whole in my front panel that houses the speakers, 2nd monitor and power button. After I got everything in the panel situated how I wanted it, it was time to start fiberglassing. This was pretty much my first time doing this so it was pretty ugly and took a lot of sanding and bondo.
     
You can see how i decided to tape off the monitor and the volume controls which didnt turn out too well. There was a pretty noticable gap after I removed the tape so I ended up adding more bondo and filler after I removed the tape. Since I had the whole monitor glued into the back of the panel I removed it and tore it apart and one again manged to break something. I cracked the screen which really sucks because it is or at least was a touchscreen. Though I had no use for the touchscreen I just ended up cutting a piece of plexy to replace the cracked screen. After several layers of paint and sanding I turned out pretty good. Though you can see some unevenness in the sunlight.
You can see I removed the ring around the volume control and gave it an orange to match the artwork.