Hey all, still new around these parts but I've lurked on and off for quite some time. Finally in a situation where I might actually be able to put together a cab after all these years! (It's been on that 'third tier' of my 'to-do' list for a decade) and wondered if anybody had done/seen a design similar to the one I'm kicking around.
Basically I wanted to make something relatively portable, fairly smallish, but also something that wouldn't scream "You have an arcade machine in your bedroom?!?" to folks that may visit (still gonna be a number of years before I'm financially secure enough to devote an entire 'mancave' to this sort of thing!)
I have a few years-old laptop laying around that I've experimented with that will be up to task for what I need (must...keep...costs...down!) but I basically have two questions I haven't been able to find particularly satisfying answers to through searching here or google.
1)Re: Laptops: is there any reasonable way (when I say reasonable, I mean easy) to more or less rip off the monitor from a laptop, separate the guts from the monitor, and still have them connected? I cracked open the laptop to experiment a bit but obviously there's not a whole lot of excess cable to work this sort of thing out, and what little I could find online seemed to be horror stories of how rigged-up solutions for longer cable runs tended to really jack up picture quality, etc. It's not a huge deal (I have a few LCD monitors laying around that I can rig up easily) but I just really like the idea of using the laptop screen if possible, simply because it's there.
2)Has anyone ever seen/heard of a build like this? Here's the rundown:
Essentially, I was thinking the whole shebang would be more or less a 'box' (though not a plain boring rectangle don't worry!) which would basically just be a stand-alone CP, with extra depth to place the laptop in underneath (and I realize it makes the whole thing a bit bigger than 'necessary' but I want to keep the laptop intact so that I could easily swap out for a decent small-form factor desktop unit once I have a few extra bucks kicking around) The top would more or less be a 'lid' that folds down, that has a monitor mounted in the top that fits over the CP entirely. Basically the unit would look like a nondescript wooden box of some sort (a chest maybe, or sorta like those 'all-in-one' turntable/record player things that were all the rage a few years ago) but all it would take would be lifting the lid and setting it in place to have yourself a game of Pac Man/Street Fighter/Pachinko Sexy Reaction.
Basically I'm hoping...
a)I'm really, really unique! or...
b)I'd love to see if there's other similar designs so I can steal idea-- erm... be inspired by them, as while I have plenty of ideas I haven't decided on the most elegant/my favorite solutions to the unique issues this build might have (Mounting the monitor in/on the lid, plus making the lid and main body integrate well and fit over the sticks/buttons when closed without completely jacking up gameplay being the primary one... but even stuff like what sort of hinge/mechanism to use for the lid, etc!)
Thanks in advance all, and glad to finally be contributing to the discussions I've been reading for so long!
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Topic: Wood Finish, Folding Bar/Table Top Idea? (Read 1020 times)
