Fix it Felix Weecade AKA Monkey Island Bartop

[ark_ader]

Well after a hiatus of trying to make a bartop that is centered around a laptop, I have decided to make a bartop with a proper PC inside it.  We haven't had the best weather, and tomorrow is going to be a nice and dry day.

Thanks to Le Chuck for his wonderful artwork, I shall embark to create a Monkey Island themed bartop complete with attract mode with the excellent Michael Land score.

I have a mind to move the Xarcade into the bartop, but my trusty KeyWiz looks ready.  I have a "Happy" 2/4/8 joy (I'm looking for a smaller shaft for it) and plenty of buttons and two atari volcanoes. 

I have ordered this for £95:



To go into the server PC and I will rip out the existing Asrock 939 DualSATA2 board with a 1.8 939 and a spare 1TB drive.  I have various AGP and PCIe graphic cards to stick in.

If its going to be a weecade then I better utilize the WEEE directive. 

I also picked up some USB LED light strips at my local pound store, which should light up the marquee area.  I bought some USB powered speakers from ASDA (wallymart) which sound great and not too loud.

CP layout will be defender-ish as I plan to play a crap load of stargate and dig dug on it. 

Got everything ready for cutting.

If anyone could advise on the best way to put on the artwork, do I seal the wood first, etc.?.  Should I paint the outside MDF first or just the insides?

Any suggestions on the best place to get this artwork printed?  I have a shop local but I don't know what vinyl adhesive to ask for.

Pics to follow!

[DeLuSioNal29]

 I loved that game back when I had a 286!  Great theme idea and I can't wait to see it.

DeLuSioNaL29

[Le Chuck]

Paint all the mdf first, you don't have to gloss finish it, but a good primer coat and a smoothed out top coat will seal the wood and give the vinyl something to adhere to.  Adhesion to bare mdf would be lackluster.  Look forward to seeing it finally come to life.

[Woodshop Flunky]

Loved Monkey Island!  Look forward to your build.   

[ark_ader]

Got the wood cut and I did a pretty good job of screwing it up but after some decent sanding I'm ship shape.

Glue and screw tomorrow (going to be a fine day) then some painting.

I'll up the pics when the site settles down.   

[Drnick]

How much were the speakers from Asda, I need a set of speakers for the laptop I am doing currently, I have a crappy set of wharfedales that I may use. but they connect to a sub that I don't really need/want in there.  If the asda ones are less then a £10 then I may save 1/2 hour of my time

Also check your poundland to see if they have any tins of MDF Primer in,  Mine had a whole bunch of Dulux Difficult Surface Primer in.  Works like a charm

BTW,  Pictures or it didn't happen

[ark_ader]

How much were the speakers from Asda, I need a set of speakers for the laptop I am doing currently, I have a crappy set of wharfedales that I may use. but they connect to a sub that I don't really need/want in there.  If the asda ones are less then a £10 then I may save 1/2 hour of my time

Also check your poundland to see if they have any tins of MDF Primer in,  Mine had a whole bunch of Dulux Difficult Surface Primer in.  Works like a charm

BTW,  Pictures or it didn't happen

Thanks I'll look for that tomorrow. 

The USB speakers are these:



Yeah yeah pictures are coming I'll up them tonight.  Sunday is the busiest day of the week for me for some reason. 

I decided that I would leave the 939 in the PC (saves reloading OS etc) and I got a really nice ITX for £20 that just fits in the bartop with the PSU. Fast enough for everything, I just need a better graphics card.  You would be surprised how really hard it is to get a PCI card with any decent specification.  Yes I have bought them on ebay before, but when I unwrap it, I find out that it is PCI-e.    I have a box load of PCI-e. 

Unfortunately the on board graphics is dire, so I'm looking for a ATI 9250.



Weecade drawing - used my projector and traced the image out.  My Jigsaw is totally crap.  I took my time and it still  went to the right and inside the cut.  Had to go back to basics and use a handsaw.  Yeah it took freaking ages but its done now.  Realised I goofed on the rear pieces of the cabinet so I made some segment panels (which I can doctor later) to help with airflow.



That rusty £1 saw really comes in handy.  I keep trying to remind myself to WD40 it.  Drilled monitor support, need to find the right screws for the monitor.  Boring stuff.



Did lots more cuts and I have tons more to do, and I will do a better job of documenting.  My woodworking skills is as rusty as my saw, and I have a carpenter at the end of the street who can do my cuts.  But you have to have a go don't you? 

[ark_ader]

Got the primer yesterday (thanks Drnick) from poundland and its a lovely magnolia.  For £1 I cannot complain.  The ITX came in the post today, and I snagged another one, but it needs a 100W PSU.  I bought a 350W to power all the internals.

Painting today (if I don't freeze to death) and cab shell construction.  Found a place for the smoked plexi and now looking for a shop that can make the metal CP.

More pictures to follow.

[Drnick]

Where you getting the smoked plexi from,  I can't find anything locally.  I can get a piece of SolarGrey tinted glass for about £20 but I need to see it to figure if its gonna be any good

[ark_ader]

Where you getting the smoked plexi from,  I can't find anything locally.  I can get a piece of SolarGrey tinted glass for about £20 but I need to see it to figure if its gonna be any good

I haven't ordered yet but they have some good pricing.

http://www.trentplastics.co.uk/online/index.php?act=viewDoc&docId=5

I am having problems with the screen orientation.  I'm not sure if it should just power it on and deal with it.  I'm sure the bezel will hide all the sin.

Ordered a hole saw for the speakers, just located my previous set and they were rusted out.  Trying to keep my tools dry is one of the hardest jobs to date.

Thinking of making a keyboard drawer on rollers if I have enough clearance.

You will see what I am droning on about when I up some more pictures.

I still not sure about putting in the X arcade, as I have enough room for the ITX , Xbox and a Dreamcast.

[ark_ader]

Well it was painting day as I took a break of chopping my fingers off day yesterday.  I was using a hole saw for the speakers and my hand slipped taking the top side off my index finger.  I thought it was kind of funny untill I put TCP on it.    I didn't need the hospital this time though.

So I decided to cheat a bit and got the carpenter to finish off my cuts.  It looks all right but the next weecade I will try and build will be much smaller and less complicated.

I decided to pass on the cheap MDF primer and got a can of the proper stuff.  Its first coat so I will get a better finish the second time around.



I have yet to figure out the CP and I will not have enough room for the keyboard drawer.



I also have to try and get the blood off the speaker panel and reset the wood inserts.



I placed in the PSU and it is nearly the size of the ITX board. LOL Just trying to figure out if I need to side mount it.  The ITX unfortunately is a little motorboat and I could have gotten a cheaper PSU if I had known of the noisemaker.  I'm looking around for an alternative 478 cooler that will fit instead of stock that will not grate on my nerves.  I checked out the on board VGA and it is a little cracker.

Just enough room for the monitor, but if I mount the ITX vertical I can get the Xbox CPU in there as well.   Maybe.

Control Panel, more flying finger parts and build pictures coming soon. 

[dextercf]

Love that title, makes me interested!

[retrofuture]

I saw Monkey Island and had to look 

Any idea on what artwork you'll be using?

[vanrose72]

Any idea on what artwork you'll be using?

A red bartop with "Grog" in big, white letters on each side would be cool. 

[ark_ader]

I saw Monkey Island and had to look 

Any idea on what artwork you'll be using?

Le Chuck kindly gave me his artwork so I can finish the Weecade with it.



I haven't decided which color I am going to go with.  Maybe a dark teal.

A different Marquee and CP with interchangeable layouts.

Currently I am designing some wallpaper camouflage for my Kinect mount, so when that is done I can get back to the Weecade. 

I have decided 2012 was the year of the no showing cable on desk and my desk is like a Borg cube normally, so cable tidiness is an ongoing science.   

[dextercf]

Pro on the gfx.
Just hope you don't fudge it up with neon and crap now.. 

[retrofuture]

The artwork is superb 

Are they vectors?

[Le Chuck]

The artwork is superb 

Are they vectors?

No it's a mix of upscaled screen caps, developer art and some easy effects.  A few backgrounds were created but most are stock or stock and extended.  Original thread is here.  Thanks for the kuddos tho.  I am glad to see it getting some use, I can't wait to see how it looks in out of the printer. 

I got past the art and then decided to switch themes to Star Wars instead.  I've been on a bit of a star wars kicks this year as far as design goes if anybody hasn't noticed. 

[jigz]

That artwork looks fantastic!

[jmike]

That artwork looks fantastic!

+1

I would build a Weecade just so I could use this artwork.

 

[yaksplat]

I've been waiting for the art to make a comeaback in one thread or another.

I was thinking of making a bartop just to use it.....I still may.

[Malenko]

looks neat, I bet that artwork puts it over the top

[ark_ader]

I have been waiting on some more 9mm MDF to come back into stock.  Hopefully this Tuesday I should be close to getting the build done.

I have found a company that will do the printing of the side art, but the problem is the size.  The minimum order size is one sq meter, so it looks like I will be making alternatives to the existing set Le Chuck has given me.  I have been working on CP layouts, and playing some classic games on the ITX.  Looks like it will handle anything I throw at it so maybe I should add pinball buttons too.

Anyone know where I can get some marquee retainers in the UK?

[PL1]

Looks like it will handle anything I throw at it so maybe I should add pinball buttons too.

If you're not sure, install VP (getting started tab - VP 9.1.2 full install) and test play this table.   



If you're not happy with the results -- no holes drilled, no problem.

If you add two flippers per side and a ball launch button, you'll be all set with 99.9% of all tables.

Plug "flipper" and username "PL1" into search and you'll get about a dozen posts on pinball flippers that you may find useful, including flipper placement, wiring tips and MAME/VP/FP control overlaps that will save you inputs on your KeyWiz.


Scott

[ark_ader]

Why do you always post at 2am?  Can you eat pretty well on the dole?

I can eat pretty well working two jobs.  I post at 2am because I finish my studies and have about 30 minutes web time before bed.  I don't need a lot of sleep.

Hope that solves your mystery.   

[ark_ader]

Well I decided to take a break from studies, and it was a nice day, to paint my weecade project.

I was going to do a Monkey Island, but I wanted a Fix it Felix cabinet, so I changed some things around.  Monkey Island will be set aside until I make a full size cabinet.

I didn't think I got the colour right, but it looks fine in daylight.  It is a bit darker indoors but who cares.



I have all the rest to do, and I think I will pass painting the CP and just apply the artwork direct.

I'm going to have the MI artwork printed at the same time as I cannot think I will need 1m x 1m worth of image.

Just bought some Kades (the are awesome!) so I will be able to fit the Xbox in there too for giggles.

More to come.

[Termin8tor]

The Monkey Island theme must be cursed. Good luck with the Fix it Felix Jr.

Saint will have to rename the site BYOFIFJC.