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Rooter's Pinball
rooter:
The Idea
I finished up my first MAME cabinet over a year ago and wrote my own game for it. You can see it here. Now I am ready to build my own pinball cabinet and table. I was intending to create a Future Pinball table, but after going through a lot of the forums, I think I will probably make a Visual Pinball table. I am posting here because you guys are way better at this stuff and I like having you look over my shoulder before I screw anything up too majorly.
A few years ago, I bought an empty Golden Eye cabinet for $40. I wanted to use an existing cab because they are more solid than anything I can build and I really want to come as close to the feeling of playing a real table as I can. The wood, glass and legs to build my own cab probably would have cost more than $40 anyway. It's not a wide body cabinet, so I was worried about getting a monitor that fits well, but it looks like a 40" will fit perfectly.
The reason that it has taken so long for me to get started was the cost of the main screen. A few days ago, I found a link to a 40" Sceptre 1080p display for only $299. The deal was just too good to pass up. I thought it was going to be a complete piece of junk, but after taking the frame off, everything seems very well made.
Current guts
Gutted Goldeneye Cabinet: $40
Playfield: 40" Sceptre 1080p monitor/tv: $299. The picture and viewing angle are fantastic on this, but I'm not happy with the refresh rate. I will have to put the screen back together at some point to use the TV somewhere else and upgrade.
Backglass: 27" AOC 1080p monitor $219
ASRock G31M-S R2.0 Micro ATX MB: $43
Intel Celeron E3400 Wolfdale 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor: $47
2GB RAM: $20
64GB SSD Hard Drive: $80 (Windows boots in 10 seconds and I haven't even tried to optimize it yet. I can't wait to see how Hyperpin reacts.)
4TB SATA RAID: $238 I need the space! When the machine isn't being used for pinball, it backs up all the other computers on my network and is used as a media server for streaming music and movies to all the TV's/computers/iPhones/iPads in the house.
On-Board video: Currently too slow to play Visual or Future Pinball. I'm hoping I can use it for the DMD later.
NVidia GTX 460 1GB: $139. I compared it with the GTX 550 $5 less. The 460 is 20-40% faster and and runs 10C cooler! Tried ATI and had major graphic issues with VP.
Sound system: Harman Kardon Soundsticks III: $112[/color]
12 various buttons: $16
KeyWiz40-ST: $36
Stern/Sega/Data East Black Front Molding Lockdown Bar: $55
4x MOLEX 15-pin Connector Kit 0.093: $18
12V Power Supply: $8
24v Power Supply: $20
Guts to Get
LED DMD + Controller
Nudge detection: undecided. Anyone?
Plunger: undecided. Any suggestions? I may try to go with a trigger like the one that comes with a normal Golden Eye machine, but I'm not worried about it because I will be painting the case at some point anyway. I was thinking about getting Nanotech's Mot-ion set up, but I have only heard bad things about the plunger.
2x 12V-DC industry relay for flipper force-feedback
Am I missing anything? Anyone else have any cool ideas I can stea... err borrow?
The software set up has been really annoying so far and I'm only tinkering with one screen at the moment. It's such a pain to download a Hyperspin media pack, a Hyperspin video, a game table file, and all the ROMs separately for each game. Future Pinball has been crashing on me and just getting Visual Pinball running seems overly complicated.
Edit: VP is getting closer, just need to sort out the back glass now. Future Pinball no longer crashes on me. Running everything on pretty low settings. I can barely notice the difference in the rendering, but I can see a wobble in the ball at anything less than 60fps. My friends didn't notice it, but I didn't point it out to them.
I would really appreciate any help/suggestions for the items listed in blue.
Thanks!
TopJimmyCooks:
is it just the pic or is that display exactly the same width as the cabinet sides? If so, that seems like a big challenge.
drventure:
--- Quote from: TopJimmyCooks on March 16, 2012, 10:42:07 am ---is it just the pic or is that display exactly the same width as the cabinet sides? If so, that seems like a big challenge.
--- End quote ---
No Big deal. Worst case, you cut out about an inch for a "channel" on either side so the screen sits flush, put the side rails on and presto, perfect fit.
Awesome find. I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap pinball cabinet. I'm just about done with my jukebox build.
How's that sceptre for sideways viewing angles? That's the main concern I have. Blowing 300$+ and getting tv with crap viewing angles.
yaksplat:
You don't have to worry about viewing angles with a plasma.
rooter:
--- Quote from: drventure on March 16, 2012, 11:05:34 am ---
--- Quote from: TopJimmyCooks on March 16, 2012, 10:42:07 am ---is it just the pic or is that display exactly the same width as the cabinet sides? If so, that seems like a big challenge.
--- End quote ---
No Big deal. Worst case, you cut out about an inch for a "channel" on either side so the screen sits flush, put the side rails on and presto, perfect fit.
Awesome find. I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap pinball cabinet. I'm just about done with my jukebox build.
How's that sceptre for sideways viewing angles? That's the main concern I have. Blowing 300$+ and getting tv with crap viewing angles.
--- End quote ---
Exactly! I am planning on cutting the channel out this weekend. I think this way works even better because the edge of the screen runs all the way up to the side rails.
I have been able to view the screen perfectly at all angles so far, no noticeable fading at all. You can seen the pixels a little bit, but nothing out of the ordinary. 1920 pixels stretched over 40 inches will do that I guess, and you normally don't watch a giant TV from 2 feet away. I'm probably just a little spoiled with my iDevices that have pixels too small for the human eye to make out individually. I have a feeling it will be less noticeable when I put the glass on top. I'll have to compare this screen up close with others I see in the stores next time I am out. I usually judge a TV's picture by looking at it from the distance I would view it from my couch.
I had read that using plasma screens under glass was a big no-no.
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