Floor Space? What area for a driving cab?

[Generic Eric]

How much space would a driving cab take up? 

In order to properly plan, I'd like to know the area of space a driving cab would take up.  I am interested to know about driving games as well as flying/cockpit games, such as Star Wars. 

Thanks a bunch.

[Howard_Casto]

I really depends upon the particular cabinet honestly, they vary a lot.  The most popular cab to convert is a Daytona and going by guestimate and some dimensions someone sent for my project it has the equivalent of a 26 -28 inch wide, foot and a half deep "cabinet" section, with a 2 foot wide 4 1/4 foot long podium to house the seat coming out of it.  Some are a bit smaller in terms of how far they stick out while some of the crazy "ride on" cabs take up a whole room basically.

So big.  I'm making a collapsible one myself.  When closed up it'll take up about as much floor space as a standard arcade cabinet, so assuming I manage to pull it off (about halfway done atm) that might be a way to go if space is a concern. 

Of course there are those steel "sim" rigs, but those are overpriced for what you get (the seats are cheap and they are really flimsy, even the +300 dollar ones). 

You could probably make a removable wheel for star wars and the like assuming you can manage to stuff extra wires for the pot through the wheel's shaft.  Afterburner is even easier, fighter cockpits have the stick between your legs, so just make a removable base for a joystick in front of the seat.  Use your shifter as your throttle, assuming it's an analog shifter (most commercial ones are). 

[SegaOutrun]

which star wars? if you mean the model 3 game star wars trilogy, its playable but its has some graphical glitches. nothing major if you have a strong pc.

if space is an issue, you could make an upright racing cab. Mine is kind of an upright, (its more of a two in one), its a regular cab with steering wheel in the center of the cp. I use a stool to sitdown when I race so im not standing like a traditional upright. its not pretty but I can play street fighter and outrun on the same cab

[menace]

I'm in the design phase of a quasi-upright driving machine and the last two comments have piqued my curiosity--any chance howard or sega could post pics of what they have so far?

I too want the stylings of a sit-down without the floor space and was thinking something collapsible or modular would be the way to go.  My plan was to use the front section of a traditional sitdown (although slimmer since I'll be using a 21" touch screen all in one) but have the seat area using chairs already found in the basement.  I was also planning on pedal height adjusters so my kids could play it easily as well as me.

[BadMouth]

This is an important question.  I will measure tonight.

My old cab was next to a heating oil tank in the basement.
Even though the front part of the cab is wider than the seat area, It felt uncomfortable to have it right up against the oil tank.
Gotta have some elbow room and breathing room, as well as more space on the side you plan to enter and exit the cab from.
As said, will take some measurements tonight and post my thoughts.

[twistedsymphony]

It's important to note that most arcade cabinets are designed to fit, or can be disassembled enough to fit through a 30" doorway... This is generally true with the exception of some exceptionally large motion or specialty cabinets. (even my DDR machine fit through a normal door with a little dis assembly)

I have a Virtual On machine (Sega Twin unit) and if you take the plastics off the sides and remove the coin box each side can fit through a 30" door.

With that said I generally estimate 32" of width per machine, some are a little over (once fully assembled), some are a little under. The twin unit all bolted together total is about 64" wide and 64" deep not counting how far out the seats are angled back past the base of the machine.

I have a set of San Fransisco rush cabinets that are pretty much the same size, give or take an inch. I know this because I measured them all before designing my new arcade room so I could make sure they would fit. Most CRT based driving cabs will be right around this size.


If you want me to take any specific measurements let me know, I believe I've seen some detailed dimension of a Virtual On Twin Unit before here on BYOAC...


Also if you find flyers for a specific machine you can generally find  the fully assembled height, width, depth and weight examples:
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/flyers_video/sega/16310402.jpg
http://www.emuparadise.me/MAME/flyers/sfrushrk.png

[Generic Eric]

Thanks for your responses everyone.

Also if you find flyers for a specific machine you can generally find  the fully assembled height, width, depth and weight examples:
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/flyers_video/sega/16310402.jpg
http://www.emuparadise.me/MAME/flyers/sfrushrk.png

This is a good idea.  I am trying to determine the general foot print for one of these to know how much room I have to work with.

[Xiaou2]

Put two people in chairs side by side.   If LCD, then space is reduced about 2.5' or so.  Stick shifts could be located on opposite sides, so theres little need to make a large division between players. (such as making the seat more of a love-seat)

 Electronics, PC, etc.. can be housed Under the entire unit.  Lift off the seat panel, to access.   This will reduce size footprint considerably.  It will also add acoustic properties... amplifying the sounds, if speakers / subwoofer / and or bass-shakers, are places in there too.

 For further compaction, Seat unit could be house in such a way that it can slide lock in and out.

 Use of fold over seat backs, could further reduce space, in that the seats could tuck further under the monitor. (Or use of a raising LCD, that goes vertical when in storage state... allowing seats to slide deeper in without and modifications or folding)

 Use of a projector could eliminate need for monitor altogether.   Thus the entire seat assembly could be hidden into some kind of furniture... such as a specialized coffee table.

 Personally, Id rather sleep under a Pinball machine, than to not have one because I felt I didnt have enough space    heh

 Which if this is in a kids room..  could actually become a reality ... such as loft / bunk bed above the "Racing Machine".

[BadMouth]

Here are the Model 2 cab measurements from the driving cab info thread:
(This is from a virtual on cabinet.  The driving cab seat risers are a couple inches shorter)


So the footprint is 28.75" x 59.5"(This is without end caps.  We'll just call it 30" x 5').

The front part overhangs the base by about 4.5" on each side.
So if two cabs were pushed against each other in a twin setup, you're only looking at 9 or 10 inches between the bases for player 2 to enter and exit the seat.  The Daytona Twin manual says it's 62.5" wide including the endcaps, so there might be an inch or so more.

If you have the space though, I prefer to have twice that much between the bases of the cabs.
Games like Virtual On had the players enter seats from opposite sides, but that's not as easy when there is a shifter in the way.
(and no, I'm not playing with the shifter on the "wrong" side)

Also, if the cab is bordered on one side by a wall, I don't like having the cab right up against it.
For me, it's much more comfortable to leave 3 or 4 inches between the side of the cab and the wall.

So in summary (and IMO):

Standalone sit down cab: 30"x60" (add 4 or 5" to the width if one side is up against a wall)

Twin Cab setup with original spacing: 63"x60"

Two single cabs with my preferred spacing 73"x60"

[twistedsymphony]

...If you have the space though, I prefer to have twice that much between the bases of the cabs.
Games like Virtual On had the players enter seats from opposite sides, but that's not as easy when there is a shifter in the way.
(and no, I'm not playing with the shifter on the "wrong" side)

FWIW I have the divider installed on my Virtual On cab and I can get in and out of the seats from the center without much issue (and I'm a fatso) the hardest part is not hitting your heat on the hood since it sticks out in the center.

The San Fran Rush cabs are much more difficult to get in and out of. pushed up against each other there's almost not floor space to walk in and it's pretty much impossible to enter from the shifter side due to it's location.

Twin units are much easier to get in and out of... particularly Daytona/Initial D setups since the shifter is mounted to the dashboard instead of the seat, meaning you can

Width is pretty comfortable too, even if right up against a wall. I usually have to set in isle seats on planes so I can lean out into the isle since my shoulders are wider than the seats.... I'm comfortable in my sit-down cabs being right up against the wall. this might be different depending on controls though. On VO and SFR there aren't any controls off to the very edge of the machine, even if SFR is against a wall the shifter is in a couple of inches since it's mounted against the seat... Daytona or Initial D might need a little space since the shifter is right on the edge of the machine.

I feel like space on the sides is more important for uprights since you generally need to squeeze 2 players into the same control panel and as a result both players hang off the sides quite a bit to make room. With a sit-down cab you have a whole 30+ inches to yourself.... so as long as the controls aren't right on the edge you should be fine.

Of course the best thing is to mock it up and just test it and see what works best for you

[Generic Eric]

I saw this picture and I thought to myself, have I really considered how much room this will take up?

[twistedsymphony]

I saw this picture and I thought to myself, have I really considered how much room this will take up?

what I did when planning out my room (and the machines that would go in it) was lay down masking tape outlines on the floor of where the machines would go... you can make and look at diagrams all day, but until you realistically visualize how it will fit into your actual space you'll have no real concept of it.