Convertible Bartop/Full size?

[notbillcosby]

Hello party people! What follows is a semi stream of consciousness rambling through some ideas and potential problems I'm having with a cabinet design. Brain storm with me!

I'm currently in the pre pre pre planning stages of a cabinet build. I have the room and requisite dorkery for a full sized machine, but do have plans to move in the next year or so, so I'm really trying to think of a good way to either build this in stages, make it break down nicely, or some combo of the two. My initial plan was to build a bartop, with plans to attach a pedestal in the future, making it a full size cabinet. All of the guts could live in the top half, which could somehow un clip or un screw and lift off, and then the pedestal could easily be broken down into 5 boards and some cinder blocks or whatever would be weighting it down. I see the potential for this to be a wobbly cabinet though, without the rigidity required for a good get-mad-and-pound-on-it arcade machine.

The other issue I see is the overall size of this bartop. After having an XArcade for a few months, I have the desire to build my own panel with a slightly different button layout, and a dedicated 4-way stick in the middle so I don't have to find a clever way to take a restrictor plate on and off when I have the whole machine put together. However, my ideal control panel would be fairly wide at that point, making a bartop cabinet pretty huge. A few thoughts I had... I could just make the control panel stick out wider than the rest of the cabinet, but that ruins its chances for snuggling into a corner in my basement. NOT A HUGE DEAL! Just a thought. My other idea is making a quick release, quick-swappable control panel. The interface could live inside the cab, and I could use whatever connector (25 pin printer cable?) to let the control panel unplug and pull off. Why the hell would I do that? Well, I'd have one panel with 2 8-way sticks and 6 buttons each, and one panel with 2 4-way sticks and 3 buttons each, and maybe include a track ball or spinners on this one too. Start and Insert Coin buttons could be build into the cabinet to reduce the need to re-buy a bunch of buttons. This way is maybe more stupid than just making a wide panel, but it could be fun to have more tidy dedicated panels instead of one huge do-everything panel and would change the whole look and vibe of the machine upon switching them.

Anyway. Has anyone else attempted a two-half standup cabinet? Ideas and thoughts?

[notbillcosby]

I should also mention:

I've seen the plans for the WeeCade. It's elegant and lovely and would probably be the grown-up thing for me to make, but damnit, i want a big machine too. I would probably think about starting with something like that as a starting point for the bartop, just make a wider control panel fit. I feel like an XArcade is bordering on too cramped as it is... so the WeeCade woudl really really be pushing it. The other thing is, I feel like a full size cabinet should be DEEPER than the WeeCade. If I made the Wee, then a full sized cabinet, the full size would need to sorta envelop the WeeCade isntead of letting it sit atop a pedestal to make it look like a legit arcade cabinet. It seems silly, I know, but all the new cabs I've seen that you can buy that are made to be slim and work with a flat panel TV look goofy to me. If I want to stand up and play video games on my TV, I can do that already. It doesn't feel like an arcade experience though!

[Le Chuck]

There have been a few nintendo style cabs that have been chopped off just below the control panel.  Other than that they are full sized.  I imagine it would be fairly simple to build the top with a large square inset and when you build the base just make a box with the fitted square on the top to key into the upper.  You could even wire a coin door and use a USB or 15 vga style connector to marry them up for power and data.  Build a popeye, no body builds popeyes around here and it's my favorite cab.     

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=120791.0

[notbillcosby]

That IS a cool looking cab... I need to look into the Nintendo cabs more, I'm not very familiar with them.

After doing some more poking around this morning, I think maybe an Aussie Lowboy could be a cool option, and the top half of that would actually be remarkably close to a WeeCade. I have a rack mountable server that I plan on using for the brains (if I can get the damn fans to slow down!! I'm not too worried about this computer overheating on Mame...) and a 19" 4:3 flatpanel that might end up being too small... but I could pretty easily make that into a lowboy bartop I think.

[PL1]

Sounds like a good plan, NBC.

You might want to make a list of all the items you want to put on your removable panels then make a list of how many wires it will take.

Ground     - 1
P1 joy       - 4
P1 buttons - 6
P2 joy       - 4
P2 buttons - 6
-----------------
                 11 wires

Spinner     - 4
Trackball    - 7
-----------------
                 11 wires -- or 1 or 2 USB if encoder(s) are on the panel

Also consider enclosing the removable panels so the wiring isn't damaged in storage/handling.

Shponglefan is doing something similar here.


Scott

[notbillcosby]

Simple but great suggestion on enclosing the controls. I was definitely thinking of just making an inverted L shaped panel, but it would take very little work to add another L to that and make them enclosed "bricks" with an L-shaped shelf in the machine that each control panel block would sit in and bolt/latch down in one way or another.

I took my 19" LCD out tonight and decided it would probably be a bit small to build a cab around. And really, I'd LIKE to use a CRT to get the look right. Sigh... This is where I start spending more money and the cabinet gets less and less portable. If I do this in phases, a CRT "bartop" top half of this machine would still wind up being kinda big. Agh... I guess I have to figure out what's more important here.

[Le Chuck]

Build two bezels.  One that holds the LCD for when you're in bartop mode and have a shelf you can add once you go full size for the CRT.  Just make sure you've got the right cabinet depth. 

[notbillcosby]

Eh, if I'm doing that I might as well use the CRT the whole time, right? It'll be just as big either way...

<pre post edit> After looking at some lowboy pics again, you might be on to something; The crt would make the bartop cabinet tall rather than wider or deeper than the LCD option, because of the angle. Right? You wouldn't be able to chop it right below the panel to make it the bartop. However, I'm not sure how much of its life would actually be spent as a bartop other than in a moving van. Not poo-pooing anyone's ideas, just brainstorming still... but the bartop chunk may realistically only ever happen when I'm tearing it down to move it to a new location.

I do like the idea of using some sort of shelf to support the monitor. I'd like to use a TV without the whole case removed so it isn't permanently attached and i could open a side/back panel and take it out when i'm going to move it to further reduce how extremely cumbersome it is. Anyone have plans for a good way to do that, or does pretty much everyone actually suspend the monitor form the bezel in a lowboy? Maybe i'm doing myself a disservice by making it this back-slanty.

[paigeoliver]

Just build one, then build the other. The cost of wood and of old used CRT monitors is so low that you probably don't need to try to reuse your bartop cabinet.

Build the bartop with a vertical monitor and then do a horizontal on your full size machine.

[Le Chuck]

Just build one, then build the other. The cost of wood and of old used CRT monitors is so low that you probably don't need to try to reuse your bartop cabinet.

Build the bartop with a vertical monitor and then do a horizontal on your full size machine.

This isn't bad advice.  You'll learn so much on the bartop that you'll be ready to fix all the inevitable errors of first time cabinet building on the full size. 

[notbillcosby]

You're right, it isn't bad advice, but I think over my last few days of thinking this through harder and talking stuff out on here (even if it was just the act of getting stuff written out in front of me, it helped) I'm less concerned with having a functional bartop, and am more concerned with how to build a full size cabinet that can be disassembled for a move. That was the whole point in doing the bartop thing- the fact that I could lift the top half off and then dismantle the bottom half in order to move the whole thing easier, not so that I could have two machines. A functional bartop top-half would be cool(!), but ultimately isn't what I want. I want an arcade machine, damnit!  I think I'm about settled on a lowboy with two interchangable CPs; one massive CP would be impossible for me to lay out in a way that I'd be happy with that would also gel with the aesthetic of the machine.

It will be living in my basement, and I don't think I'll be in this house for more than another year. When I move, it'll be to a city about two hours away, so I'd want to be taking as few trips as possible. Not only would it be obnoxious if not impossible to move a cab up my steep narrow basement stairs, but it'd take up a good chunk of the moving van unless i can part it out considerably. There is a *very real* possibility that I'm over-thinking all of this, and it'd just be a matter of spending half an hour to take some screws out. As I mentioned, the computer I plan on using is a rack mounted server so i won't have computer guts strewn about the inside of the cab to cause problems during transportation. Maybe I just dive in....? After some careful planning of course! I just gotta talk myself out of spending so much time trying to beat my high score in Ms Pac-Man and spend some time learning Google Sketch Up

[paigeoliver]

There is NO REASON to build a cabinet to take apart for a move. Your fridge doesn't break into pieces does it, does your dresser, how about your couch? No, it doesn't and they are all just as awkward as any arcade game. Did you plan on taking all your furniture apart when you move?

The problem with trying to build a cabinet to break apart to move is that they tend to be top heavy. If you took your average 310 pound arcade cabinet and broke it into 2 pieces right below the control panel you would now have a 330 lb machine that breaks into a 250 lb piece and an 80 lb piece and guess which one is on top. Just take the monitor out and you get the same result. Heck, build with plywood instead of MDF and the whole thing will weight 100 lbs less.

You are totally overthinking it. A normal arcade game is 24" wide and 28" deep. This is less than your bedroom dresser and on par with most end tables. It will not make or break a move.  It is just another piece of furniture to go in the moving truck. It is really no different than a dresser or a couch. Fact is I bet you have some POS end table or drawers or something that would take up equal room on the truck even though it is the kind of thing you could replace at a thrift store for $5.

[notbillcosby]

That felt a little unnecessarily mean spirited! I don't plan on moving my fridge or disassembling my couch, but thanks for asking. If you've got any tips on making my couch fold into a smaller package so it isn't as much of a huge struggle to get out of my basement as it was to get it down there in the first place, I'm all ears! I'm also glad to know that my furniture is easily purchased for $5, that's good to know for the future. 

In all seriousness- It's less about having two magically lightweight pieces and more about something that's easy to get out of my basement. I know for sure that a top half and a collapsed pedestal would be way less of a big clunky unit to get out of my basement than a full, complete arcade machine, weight aside. If I make it so the TV can come out and i can break the machine down to it's primary chunks by putting screws in smart places and not putting wood glue in other smart places, it will make my life so much easier than trying to move a 300lb machine up a narrow, steep flight of stairs.

[notbillcosby]

I think my idea has changed enough since my original post that I should probably declare this thread no longer relevant. Thanks to everyone for letting me ramble out some ideas and for sharing some of your own!

[paigeoliver]

Cos,

Had no intention of being mean spirited. I just know from experience that a lot of people overestimate the difficulty of cabinet movement prebuild and do a bunch of unnneeded weird stuff to try to make it easier. I just wanted to drill home the idea that your arcade game isn't outside of the normal dimensions and weight of items one might have to move during a household move.

Real world example. I moved a Zaxxon style cabinet down the steps into my basement today by myself with no help at all. I am not a body builder. I am a 34 year old fat guy. I just took out the monitor and unscrewed the other pieces that come off easily and then just lifted it down the steps one at a time. I have probably moved 25 machines up and down my steps this year alone.

2 grown men can move basically any normal arcade game up and down the steps. Take the monitor out and it stops even being difficult.

It is misplaced concern to think getting your one normal machine into or out of the basement will be an issue. Heck, I have a Pole Position cockpit in my basement and that cabinet can't even physically make the turn on to my steps (took it apart into 100 pieces and reassembled downstairs).

[TOK]

I built a bartop for my computer room before my gameroom was complete. Once that was done, I built a base with a coin door for it to make it sort of a cabaret. The top and base separate with 4 screws.

This is probably way bigger than what you were thinking about, but my build is kind of old and I originally planned to use a 19" CRT.

[notbillcosby]

That looks badass! I KNEW I wasn't the first person to want to do this! Definitely not way bigger than I was picturing.