Astrocade: 'finally finished' announcement

[stevodevo]

Nothing special I just wanted to post my 99% finished Astrocade project that has come to pass thanks to the BYOAC!  I have loved arcades ever since I was a kid and so when I first found BYOAC back in '04 I knew I had to build my own.

I'm not a woodworker by any means (my only D ever in academia, arrgh) so it had to be something basic.  To sum up, I used LuCid's cabinet plans, had my graphic design sister do most of the artwork, and built the control panel using an ipac, j-sticks, crayola trackball, and buttons from various vendors.

Originally I had a 27" TV monitor as well as a PS2 mission lightgun added into the mix.  The lightgun is gathering dust and the TV has been replaced by a 21" PC monitor.

I'm using MameWah as my frontend and have mame, neomame, zinc, and ultra64 emulators running on it. I used Peale's capacitor trick with a smartstrip to implement a single-switch power-on solution.

And now a few pics of it out in my messy garage... as well as some earlier shots showing it's evolution and progress.  The neighbourhood kids all like to come over when it's warmer and my now 4 yo son has a blast playing the 'astro pyooter'.

Thanks for looking!

[Well Fed Games]

Nice! Just a question- why the monitor switch (I ask as someone who is wavering on putting a 27" TV in mine)?

[stevodevo]

thanks fearsome... mostly I switched out the monitor because it was a cheap, crappy TV and I couldn't afford anything else.  I got the PC monitor from a buddy at work for $25 or thereabouts.  It sounds like a lot of builders are going LCD which would be great I imagine. I like the crispness of the PC monitor and it's actually a bit easier to take in when I'm standing directly in front of it rather than a larger monitor.

I did like having a light-gun but hopefully I can trade this one out or pick up a PC gun sometime in the future... I have HOTD on the cab just not in the frontend as well as a few other light-gun games that are currently being played via trackball!  In fact, my son's favourite game is 'the dinosaur game' - Jurassic Park!  ah well...

[SammyWI]

Nice job.  I like the artwork added to the bezel and the lower front of the cab.

[gbeef]

very nice. love the artwork.
I would've kept the crappy 27". CRT. but that's personal choice of course. I know i have problems working on the front programming i cant work on my blury 27"

[BobA]

Did your trackball get changed along the way?  It looks like it changed color and size. Nice first build.

[stevodevo]

Yes, good observation... you're seeing the original crayola trackball before I purchased a translucent red trackball from Bob Roberts.  Some of the items left to do are to put the LED under the trackball (it was in there but I haven't set it back up since I redid the printing for the CP), and possibly add LEDs to the coin door.