"A Barrel of Kong" - A Bar Height themed Cocktail Cab [FINISHED]

[Maximus]

The nice thing about working with a barrel is that nobody expects them to look perfect so in that respect they are easy to make look good

[Maximus]

Testes testes

[Maximus]

Everything plumbed into the inner chassis

[Maximus]

Everything is contained in the chassis for easy removal and service

[mike boss]

Amazing progress.
Love looking at this thread.
Perhaps stupid question, why use the audio amplifier ?

[Maximus]

Amazing progress.
Love looking at this thread.
Perhaps stupid question, why use the audio amplifier ?

Thanks Mike.  The audio amp on the board is kinda crappy so this gives you better sound and easier control although in this case the volume dial will sit below the bezel so it won't be an adjust as you go option the way it was in little Ms Pac man

[mike boss]

Oh, ok.

I follow, I assume your using one of the typical 48/60-in-1 Jamma boards?
If so I know what your taking about, adjusting the volume is a real b**ch!
I have several boards like this.

I don't know if I missed it in the thread, did you post links to where you got the parts ?
I never thought of that audio solution, but I like it.

Lastly if I may ask, how do you wire it ?

[Richie_jones]

Great build...

Id find the lack of a volume control a bit of a pain, or is there going to be a software solution...

[DeLuSioNal29]

The audio amp on the board is kinda crappy so this gives you better sound and easier control although in this case the volume dial will sit below the bezel so it won't be an adjust as you go option the way it was in little Ms Pac man

Is that for the menu music?  Please tell me that you disable that on your builds?  ;-)

Great work so far!

DeLuSioNaL29

[PL1]

If you want a mechanical solution, you could use a pulley system to connect to an external wheel like this.



Three supports (green) hold the external volume wheel (yellow) so it sticks out the side of the barrel through a notch in the top lip of the barrel.


Scott

[Maximus]

Yeah you can disable the menu music. The amp is wired simply with a 3.5mm jack cable that runs from the board to the amp, speakers wire with standard clamp connections.

It's pretty easy to desolder the volume control pot from the amp board then extend it on wires to put it where you want, I did that on little Ms Pac man with the same model.

[rablack97]

love those amps........

[DeLuSioNal29]

Yup, I have one of those amps myself.  :-)

[Maximus]

Wiring up the power strip to the fused socket


Socket installed at the bottom of the barrel


Strip mounted.  This is the only wiring the barrel itself needs, everything else is on the game chassis

[mike boss]

Thanks for the info on the amp, I'll need to look into these for future builds.
Never even thought of the headphone jack !

BTW LOVE powerstrips ! Another thing I found out because of the good folks @ BYOAC.
What an amazing solution they are.

[Maximus]

Drop the chassis in place and plug in to the strip


ERRMERGERD DERNKEY KERNG ERN A BURL!

[DeLuSioNal29]

Can't wait to see the glass installed. Are you going to order more than one to save money and use the other one on a clone?

Also, how do you plan to do the bezel? (If any)

[LeedsFan]

Really loving this project!!!  I'm not a fan of those 60-in-1 type boards, but I can see why you went that route. Love how that barrel looks now after your TLC. Nice simple control panels to play the classics. I'd have gone with the Ultimarc Versa stiks to have powered switching between 4 and 8 way games. Nevertheless... this is an impressive build and the idea itself is kinda unique as DK is my all time fave game.

[Maximus]

Can't wait to see the glass installed. Are you going to order more than one to save money and use the other one on a clone?

Also, how do you plan to do the bezel? (If any)

Bezel art

For the glass I may see if I can score a used round table on Craigs list.  Or ikea also sells a coffee table with two glass 24" round surfaces for about $50 so that may be an option

[mike boss]

I can't keep saying enuff how fantastic this project is.

[Jigenjuke]

Can't wait to see the glass installed. Are you going to order more than one to save money and use the other one on a clone?

Also, how do you plan to do the bezel? (If any)

Bezel art

For the glass I may see if I can score a used round table on Craigs list.  Or ikea also sells a coffee table with two glass 24" round surfaces for about $50 so that may be an option

If that falls through you might even look into buying the glass yourself and cutting it to size.  Recently cut glass for my mini cocktail cabinets and the glass "cutting" went suprisingly well.  Lookin' great man!

Jigenjuke

[Maximus]

Yeah best price I have seen is 24" tempered clear 1/2" with 1" beveled finish delivered for $48, the bevel seems to add about $5 to the price but I like it for tables.

[rCadeGaming]

I'm guessing that little black thing the VGA cable's coming out of is one of those SLG's you see often, what kind of scaler is it attached to though?

[Maximus]

It's a Craftymech SLG converter, plug n play

[opt2not]

I'm guessing that little black thing the VGA cable's coming out of is one of those SLG's you see often, what kind of scaler is it attached to though?

You don't need a scaler for the 60-in-1 boards...they have VGA out.

[TheShaner]

Im curious what made you decide on going Jamma for this guy?  I can think of several good reasons, but am curious what your drive was on it.  Also, how do you like it?  I am about to build a cocktail and am debating the jamma approach.

Do you know what the difference is between Jelly and Jam?

[Maximus]

Do you know what the difference is between Jelly and Jam?

I'm scared to answer this.

I went with Jamma because it worked out well on the Little Ms. Pac-Man build and I think of these cocktail builds as very casual gaming cabs. I like the cheap virtually zero-config nature of the boards, that you can just flick on the power and leave it for people to use on their own. It plays the games well enough that your every day person wouldn't notice any shortcomings in performance.

[mcseforsale]

Do you buy the kit? 
Where do you get them?

I'm wanting desperately to start building wee cades for some curious customers and I want a zero-touch solution that cuts down on support issues.

AJ

[Maximus]

Do you buy the kit? 
Where do you get them?

I'm wanting desperately to start building wee cades for some curious customers and I want a zero-touch solution that cuts down on support issues.

AJ

You'll have to Googlize that stuff before you get my thread sent to thread hell for talking about things not sanctioned here.

[TheShaner]

Cool, that is about what I figured.  I like the idea of no moving parts inside the machine.  (fans, etc.)

Answer to the riddle:  I can't Jelly it in your ass!

[TheShaner]

The only hangup I think I would have, other than the finite game list, would be the actual menu system.  How is that?  I havent found a good video of the interface, but I hear it is craptacular.

[opt2not]

Do you know what the difference is between Jelly and Jam?

I'm scared to answer this.

I went with Jamma because it worked out well on the Little Ms. Pac-Man build and I think of these cocktail builds as very casual gaming cabs. I like the cheap virtually zero-config nature of the boards, that you can just flick on the power and leave it for people to use on their own. It plays the games well enough that your every day person wouldn't notice any shortcomings in performance.

I am a fan of wiring cabinets, including mame cabs to the JAMMA standard. It's a clean, self-contained solution of getting your wiring hooked up through-out the cab. Keeps it neat. 
Also gives you the option of potentially putting original PCB's in your cabinet.  The only downside for that is that you'd need a scaler to connect original PCB's to that LCD.

Either way, it's a clean organized solution and not very hard to hook up. Bob Roberts has a really good write-up tutorial of hooking up JAMMA from scratch.

[Vigo]

I am a fan of wiring cabinets, including mame cabs to the JAMMA standard. It's a clean, self-contained solution of getting your wiring hooked up through-out the cab.

Also a good method to mame a commercial cab without needing to gut it.

[Maximus]

Ordered the glass today. this was a difficult choice, I could either go cheap and snag an Ikea coffee table off Craigslist for $30 which would give me a perfectly good 29.5" 1/4" thick tempered glass top, or I could get all anal about the specific look and diameter of the build and pay $84 inc tax n ship for a new 27" diameter 1/2" thick piece with a nice 1" bevel polished edge.

Truth be told I'm sure either option would be just fine, but I have a feeling this cab may end up staying in the house after all, the wife really likes it, as do many friends and the fact it doubles as a nice piece of bar furniture raises the odds of it staying.

So needless to say I took the picky route and got the more expensive solution.

[yotsuya]

How's the stability on that thing? A wild game of Pac-Man won't tip it, will it?

[Maximus]

How's the stability on that thing? A wild game of Pac-Man won't tip it, will it?

Solid as a rock, you'd snap the joystick before that

[TheShaner]

Im still really curious about that built in menu ... how is it?  Smelly?

[Maximus]

super basic, just 6 tiles on each screen, each one a screen capture of the game, does it's job. Look at the video of bench testing a few posts back.

[TheShaner]

ok, thanks.  I did see a video of that interface.

[Vigo]

Truth be told I'm sure either option would be just fine, but I have a feeling this cab may end up staying in the house after all, the wife really likes it.

Franzia and Kong, what woman could resist? 

hope the custom glass pays off for ya.