Out of wall space

[2084]

Today I finished my latest wall mounted arcade project (Q*bert) which will probably be the last for a while as I am now out of wall space.  All of the machines plug into a recessed outlet behind the machine so the cord doesn't show (except for a little bit of the Tempest cord which I realized after seeing the picture I need to tuck back in).  All have a button that looks like a coin acceptor but they do not take coins.  All use LCD monitors (a CRT would not fit without making the cabinet a lot thicker and heaver).  I like this cabinet design as it allows the feel of the original while using only about 1/4 the space.

Robotron:  The first one I made.  Powered by a Raspberry pi.

Rampage:  My second machine.  The only one in which the CPO and bezel do not match the original.  Powered by Raspberry pi.

Stargate:  As plays defender.  Powered by a raspberry pi.

Fix-it-Felix Jr:  Also plays many other games that can be played with a single joystick and 2 buttons.  Powered by a Windows 7 PC.

Tempest:  Set up to be switchable between several versions including Tempest Tubes, As plays Major Havoc, Star Tac, Arkanoid, and Bomb Bee.  It has the spinner dial and volcano buttons from an original machine.  Powered by Raspberry Pi

Q*Bert:  Has a 4-way joystick mounted diagonally.  Has a knocker similar to the original which fires when Q*Bert or Coily fall off the pyramid.  Set up to play several version of Q*bert (Mello Yello, Qubes, etc.), Tylz, and Congo Bongo.  Also Raspberry Pi.

[JDFan]

Beautiful work --- ( Glad to see you finally caved to the earlier advice and hid those cables !!)
Also very good choices you made on having the widest variety of game types - pretty much a setup for everyone no matter what games they enjoy and not a Franken panel to be seen.   

Being out of wall space doesn't mean it has to stop as there is floor space for a couple Cocktail cabs in the room ! 

[Superfrog]

I love your work  very awesome projects 

[wp34]

That's an impressive and unique row.  The Tempest looks like leapinlew's awesome Tempest bartop is floating in air.

Nice work.   

[brihyn]

I absolutely love these, and have since the first time you posted the photo. I've been (im)patiently waiting until the day I can build one or more of my own. I'm thinking my first will have to be a gyruss replica.
I'm hoping to break ground in the spring with a new man cave workshop. the hop is to ultimately box off a side room of maybe 16x13, and if I do, I'll definitely have a wall of these!!

[shponglefan]

These look fantastic!  And they lend credence to using the Pi to power arcade machines, especially where space is more limited.

[williamavished]

Great project  

Is it stable enough

[Pinfritz]

WOOW I love this style.... all!!!      Whitch knocker do you used? do you have a link to a circuit for them?

[deadmoney5]

damn...that's freaking awesome!  Great Job!

[pbj]

Hiding the power cords was an immense improvement.

[Rick]

This is crazy! So awesome! (I'd never attempt similar, mainly because I have a couple of 'floating shelves' that my cat has given the old "45 degree downward angle" jump treatment...)

Nice collection!

[jbenesh]

Very nice.  Has me thinking about making a Gauntlet version.

[2084]

Thanks for all the positive comments.  I agree that it looks much better with the cords hidden.

As for the wall anchors - I use these ones available at Lowes (Item #: 334848).  I mount them directly to the studs exactly 16" apart using 2.5 inch screws (not the wimpy screws the anchors come with.  The matching anchors are on the back of each machine.  They are about the same height and the same distance apart on every machine so they can be moved around.  I'm not sure how strong they are but I have tested them to 200 lbs.  The machine can be removed by lifting it straight up.  Initially I was concerned about this happening by accident during aggressive play so on my first machine (Robotron) I put hole at the bottom for a screw which will prevent it from being lifted unless the screw is removed.  Later I realized this isn't likely (It is virtually impossible to pull it straight up with enough force by accident) and haven't used these.

I got the circuit to use the knocker from another thread on this forum.  In that thread there are a couple versions but I used the one below.  The GPIO on the Raspberry Pi is only 3.3V so for R3 I used 27 ohms rather than the larger resistor shown which seems to work fine.  The knocker itself is a standard Data East/Sega 500-5081-00 as shown on the diagram.  I got a used 30V/1A power supply on eBay to use with it.

I wrote some code in python to get the parameters that work well to control the knocker.  The following code works well:

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time

GPIO.setwarnings(False)
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(7,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.output(7, True)
time.sleep(0.05)
GPIO.output(7, False)

I used advmame 0.94 on the PI.  There is a knocker function in the qbert emulation which plays an MP3 when it was called.  I thought it would be a simple matter to replace this call with a voltage pulse to my circuit, but later found that this function is never actually called because of a bug in gottlieb.c within the vidhrdw src directory where this function is supposed to be called.  Fixing this bug and putting in a system call to my python knocker code worked well.  It might be more elegant to control the GPIO in the C code but I didn't bother because the method I used worked well.  In newer versions of MAME there are more built in methods of activating the knocker but these versions don't work well on the PI.

[a1pharm]

This is such a cool and novel way of creating a real arcade with a small footprint... I may have to copy this at my next abode...

 

[nitrogen_widget]

Very cool. Do you find significant differences between .96 and .106 performance wise?
Love the rampage one.

What did you use for a spinner?

[2084]

Don't know what the speed difference is between .96 and .106.  For my Pi builds I'm content with .94 and haven't bothered to upgrade.  The Fix-it-Felix game itself doesn't use MAME, but I do have a new MAME emulator on that machine - that will run games that the Pi won't, but for the games I'm running on the Pi the performance seems the same.

On the Tempest the spinner is the turbo spin 2, but it has a real Tempest knob attached to it.  It was discussed on another thread, but I really liked the way the original would make this vibrating noise when it spun fast.  I think this was due to premature wear on the bearings rather than something that was intended but when I played the original growing up it was part of the experience.  To recreate this the turbo spin is attached to a real spinner using some nylon gears.  It took a few tries to get it just right.

Very cool. Do you find significant differences between .96 and .106 performance wise?
Love the rampage one.

What did you use for a spinner?

[Minwah]

Nice idea!

[JCHusky77]

I really really love this idea. I think I may do this as well.

Do you have speakers in the machines??

Very well done and professional looking!

[BobA]

Great looking setup.  Looks perfect with the power cords hidden.   

[2084]

Each one has a pair of Logitech S120 speakers which are available on Amazon for <$10. 

I really really love this idea. I think I may do this as well.

Do you have speakers in the machines??

Very well done and professional looking!

[Slippyblade]

Each one has a pair of Logitech S120 speakers which are available on Amazon for <$10. 

Headphone bypass and volume knob.  I assume you broke those out with extensions to the cab somewhere?

[2084]

The speakers have a volume knob but it is not easily accessible.  I prefer to keep the speaker volume turned all the way up and control the volume in software from the Pi.  I don't have a head phone jack on the outside.  This would be easy to add but it is not a feature I would use. 

Headphone bypass and volume knob.  I assume you broke those out with extensions to the cab somewhere?

[mgb]

Awesome,
 one of the most original projects I have ever seen.

[stefano]

Wow!!!! Congratulations! One of the most interesting projects I've seen!
Please, give more details of the Raspberry Pi installation, the LCDs have HDMI or VGA connections (in case of VGA what adapter you used)...

How do you planned the cabinets? Scaled down and cutted the back from the original plans?

Best regards!

[2084]

Wow!!!! Congratulations! One of the most interesting projects I've seen!
Please, give more details of the Raspberry Pi installation, the LCDs have HDMI or VGA connections (in case of VGA what adapter you used)...

How do you planned the cabinets? Scaled down and cutted the back from the original plans?

Best regards!

Thanks for the compliment. 

All the LCDs I've used have both DVI and VGA connectors.  On all of these that are Pi based use the HDMI output on the Pi with a HDMI->DVI cable.  I used the "BlueRigger" cable that is about $6.50 at Amazon.  There are cheaper cables available but I had bad luck with some of those.  I think HDMI to VGA cables could also be used, but this isn't the way I did it.

I didn't scale down the cabinets.  In fact, on some of them (Stargate and Tempest) the control panel is actually the exact size of the original.  The Robotron control panel is slightly scaled down.  I made rough designs of each one prior to starting.  The goal was to maintain the character of the original cabinet but make it thinner so it can hang on the wall: this required keeping the monitor nearly vertical which it wasn't any many of the originals. 

[Superfrog]

Only thing what I was wandering about is where the heat is coming out?
Normally the fans are on the back, but how is your heating problem holding with these wall constructions?

Did I already say they are F*****G fantastic 

[2084]

Excellent point.  This is the major advantage of the Raspberry Pi - it uses <5W so there is virtually no heat and no fan is needed.  The lights for the marquee are LED so there is also minimal heat there.  Since there is no fan there is also no fan noise.  This is not the case for Fix-it-felix junior which has a Windows 7 USFF PC and fan inside.  The slotted area of that cabinet below the control panel that would normally hold the speaker (e.g. where it is in Donkey Kong) actually is a vent.  Even so that cabinet probably gets to be 90 F inside.  It hasn't cause a problem yet, but if it did I would add some fans and vents at the top.

Only thing what I was wandering about is where the heat is coming out?
Normally the fans are on the back, but how is your heating problem holding with these wall constructions?

Did I already say they are F*****G fantastic 

[leapinlew]

Looks good. I would consider some sort of paint finish around the arcade games to help define the space.

[2084]

I agree.  We are in the process of remodeling the basement so these machines may end up positioned differently and the whole area will be repainted.

Looks good. I would consider some sort of paint finish around the arcade games to help define the space.

[nitrogen_widget]

I agree.  We are in the process of remodeling the basement so these machines may end up positioned differently and the whole area will be repainted.

Hey man, I see you are from Rochester.
I just came back from my first trip to Strong Museum with the kids.

I can't wait to go back.
Without them.

it's a little over an hrs drive for me but was well worth it to play Dig dug, centipede, q-bert, tempest, & gauntlet legends on real cabs again.
Been years.
Was disappointed they didn't have a berzerk but, they had robotron 2084.

After playing those games with all those different types of controls I really do think you are onto something here with your wall mounted set-up.

[2084]

The Strong Museum of Play is great.  We get a yearly membership so it doesn't cost us to get in and tokens are 5 for a dollar.  I go a lot and would often go to look at their machines when I was designing mine.  Unfortunately a few of the games aren't in great condition - Their q-bert has a 8-way joystick and no knocker.   The vector screen on their Tempest is so bad that the game is almost unplayable.   They do change games in and out so if they don't have something on one visit they might have it on the next.  They also have a great pinball collection.  Their robotron seems to be on a really easy setting as it is much easier than I remember when we had a machine in college and much easier than the machine I have at home.  Their Fix-it-Felix machine is the one my kids saw and insisted I make one for home.

Hey man, I see you are from Rochester.
I just came back from my first trip to Strong Museum with the kids.

I can't wait to go back.
Without them.

it's a little over an hrs drive for me but was well worth it to play Dig dug, centipede, q-bert, tempest, & gauntlet legends on real cabs again.
Been years.
Was disappointed they didn't have a berzerk but, they had robotron 2084.

After playing those games with all those different types of controls I really do think you are onto something here with your wall mounted set-up.

[nitrogen_widget]

The Strong Museum of Play is great.  We get a yearly membership so it doesn't cost us to get in and tokens are 5 for a dollar.  I go a lot and would often go to look at their machines when I was designing mine.  Unfortunately a few of the games aren't in great condition - Their q-bert has a 8-way joystick and no knocker.   The vector screen on their Tempest is so bad that the game is almost unplayable.   They do change games in and out so if they don't have something on one visit they might have it on the next.  They also have a great pinball collection.  Their robotron seems to be on a really easy setting as it is much easier than I remember when we had a machine in college and much easier than the machine I have at home.  Their Fix-it-Felix machine is the one my kids saw and insisted I make one for home.

Yeah,
I did notice the Tempest screen was cock-eyed and i'd honestly never played robotron before and the fix-it felix was the first game my kids saw also.

Seeing & playing those games makes me want to get off my butt & work on my cabs now.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Awesome work!

[bitwise97]

Today I finished my latest wall mounted arcade project (Q*bert) which will probably be the last for a while as I am now out of wall space.  All of the machines plug into a recessed outlet behind the machine so the cord doesn't show (except for a little bit of the Tempest cord which I realized after seeing the picture I need to tuck back in).  All have a button that looks like a coin acceptor but they do not take coins.  All use LCD monitors (a CRT would not fit without making the cabinet a lot thicker and heaver).  I like this cabinet design as it allows the feel of the original while using only about 1/4 the space.

...

All I can say is - wow!  My jaw dropped when I saw the line of machines mounted on your wall.  I've heard of full-size cabs, bar-top cabs, mini-cabs, coffee table cabs, but this!  This is category unto itself.

Very well done sir!

-Sam

[AzureKnight]

You should have at least 3 more walls right?   

This is a very cool collection and a very innovative way of saving space.  I love the bezel on the Rampage build.

[jimmy2x2x]

Fantastic collection!

Not a criticism, just a question - how did you decide on each machines vertical position, my OCD would have demanded that all machines have an even gap between bottom of cab and the floor.

[Slippyblade]

Not a criticism, just a question - how did you decide on each machines vertical position, my OCD would have demanded that all machines have an even gap between bottom of cab and the floor.

Looks like the controls are at the same level on all of em except Felix...

[Nephasth]

Those are neat. Weird... but neat.

[DaOld Man]

Great job and a novel idea.
You can raise the machine up as the kids grow.
 

[yotsuya]

Those are neat. Weird... but neat.

You really haven't been around, have you? 

[rovingmind]

very nice

[brihyn]

are you connecting the CP's directly to the GPIO, or using something like a Kade as an interface?

[2084]

I didn't measure the heights precisely but mounted them so the controls would be about the right height for an adult.  Thus as someone mentioned all the controls are at about the same height.  Not all the cabinets are the same height, so if the bottoms were alight the tops wouldn't be the same and vice-versa.  This never bothered me because in a real arcade all the cabinets aren't the same height.  Of course one could use a standard design for all the cabinets so they would have the same dimensions, but this would cause them to loose some character. 

Someone mentioned moving them up as the kids get older.  Since I have 3 kids of different sizes and like the play them myself it is easier for short people to just use a stool.

Fantastic collection!

Not a criticism, just a question - how did you decide on each machines vertical position, my OCD would have demanded that all machines have an even gap between bottom of cab and the floor.

[2084]

On all of these I use the GP-Wiz40 to connect the controls via USB.  On the cabs that are Raspberry Pi based I do use the GPIO for some buttons on the top of the machine that control which ROM is used when launched and that tell the machine to shut down, as well as the knocker on Q*Bert.  For my next project I have some of the new B+ Pis that have more GPIO pins so I may do all the controls on the GPIO.

are you connecting the CP's directly to the GPIO, or using something like a Kade as an interface?

[brihyn]

hmmm...can you give more information on how you use GPIOs to launch specific roms?
have I mentioned I plan to build 1 or 2 of these myself? still love the design!

[2084]

It is pretty easy to use GPIO for this types of inputs.  First get using the wiring PI libraries:

git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi

cd wiringPi
git pull origin

cd wiringPi
./build

Check the installation:
gpio -v
gpio readall

After that you can just put something like the following in a shell script that runs when the computer is turned on:

if[ $(gpio -g read 4) -eq 1 ]
then
echo "Launching Defender" && advmame defender
else
echo "Launching Stargate" && advmame stargate
fi

There are also libraries to access GPIO from python.  There is a basic tutorial on how to do that here:
http://raspberrypi.nxez.com/2013/10/13/simple-guide-to-the-rpi-gpio-header-and-pins.html

hmmm...can you give more information on how you use GPIOs to launch specific roms?
have I mentioned I plan to build 1 or 2 of these myself? still love the design!

[yotsuya]

First off, let me state that I think the craftsmanship on these is outstanding. As far as the cabinets go, they look great.

But something that I've always wondered about is the purpose behind wall mounting them. They're about the same depth as a Woody cab, so you're not really saving space from that aspect. From your pictures, you're not doing anything with the space underneath them, so there's really no practical need for them to be wall-mounted. I could see if you had shelving or storage or something else under them why they'd need to be wall-mounted, but there's nothing there.

I mean, your reasoning could be something as simple as "because I wanted to", but I've always wondered why. 

Again, the craftsmanship on them is excellent. This isn't a criticism, just a question.

[Locke141]

I love everything about your builds.

Every time you make a new one I'm blown away all over again.

[2084]

I believe the Woody cab is 20" deep, I don't have any problem with that design, but those cabinets have significantly more material and bulk than mine.  I would guess they are at least 2x the weight if not more.  My cabs are about the same width but thinner, the Robotron is about 11.5" for example.  It would be possible to make it floor standing but something that thin would not be stable enough for serious play unless it was attached to the wall.  The other disadvantage would be that continuing the cabinet to the floor would allow less space for standing.

First off, let me state that I think the craftsmanship on these is outstanding. As far as the cabinets go, they look great.

But something that I've always wondered about is the purpose behind wall mounting them. They're about the same depth as a Woody cab, so you're not really saving space from that aspect. From your pictures, you're not doing anything with the space underneath them, so there's really no practical need for them to be wall-mounted. I could see if you had shelving or storage or something else under them why they'd need to be wall-mounted, but there's nothing there.

I mean, your reasoning could be something as simple as "because I wanted to", but I've always wondered why. 

Again, the craftsmanship on them is excellent. This isn't a criticism, just a question.

[yotsuya]

I believe the Woody cab is 20" deep, I don't have any problem with that design, but those cabinets have significantly more material and bulk than mine.  I would guess they are at least 2x the weight if not more.  My cabs are about the same width but thinner, the Robotron is about 11.5" for example.  It would be possible to make it floor standing but something that thin would not be stable enough for serious play unless it was attached to the wall.  The other disadvantage would be that continuing the cabinet to the floor would allow less space for standing.

But you don't stand under the cabinet, you stand in front of it. I don't have that issue with any of the full-size vintage cabs I own.

Anyway, just a question I've always had when I saw the photo of them all mounted in a row. I suppose, if anything, you always COULD end up using the space underneath for something at a later date, so you do have that flexibility.

[nitrogen_widget]

I believe the Woody cab is 20" deep, I don't have any problem with that design, but those cabinets have significantly more material and bulk than mine.  I would guess they are at least 2x the weight if not more.  My cabs are about the same width but thinner, the Robotron is about 11.5" for example.  It would be possible to make it floor standing but something that thin would not be stable enough for serious play unless it was attached to the wall.  The other disadvantage would be that continuing the cabinet to the floor would allow less space for standing.

But you don't stand under the cabinet, you stand in front of it. I don't have that issue with any of the full-size vintage cabs I own.

Anyway, just a question I've always had when I saw the photo of them all mounted in a row. I suppose, if anything, you always COULD end up using the space underneath for something at a later date, so you do have that flexibility.

Like beer holders.

[2084]

I believe the Woody cab is 20" deep, I don't have any problem with that design, but those cabinets have significantly more material and bulk than mine.  I would guess they are at least 2x the weight if not more.  My cabs are about the same width but thinner, the Robotron is about 11.5" for example.  It would be possible to make it floor standing but something that thin would not be stable enough for serious play unless it was attached to the wall.  The other disadvantage would be that continuing the cabinet to the floor would allow less space for standing.

But you don't stand under the cabinet, you stand in front of it. I don't have that issue with any of the full-size vintage cabs I own.

Anyway, just a question I've always had when I saw the photo of them all mounted in a row. I suppose, if anything, you always COULD end up using the space underneath for something at a later date, so you do have that flexibility.

At least for me having more options on where to place to feet makes a difference during longer sessions.  With many upright designs the control panel sticks out from the base to allow extra room for the feet.  Some people prefer to play from a bar stool (although not my preference) which requires more space under the control panel and can be awkward with some full-sized cabs. 

Although it would be possible to store something under it, I wouldn't personally do that.  I prefer a cleaner look.

[JDFan]

Would also think having them wall mounted makes cleaning up under and around them much easier and you don't get the wood rot on the bottom of them.

[Vigo]

If I had your setup, I would slide a barstool under each one. Because I see the barstool skootch space as a real advantage. I would probably also do a rail for drinks. I get where you are coming from with the clean look though. You do call to attention some of the visual differences between the games.

[gbeef]

This is so cool. just saw this…. Really impressed with the choices you've made..SMART

[ChanceKJ]

If I had your setup, I would slide a barstool under each one. Because I see the barstool skootch space as a real advantage. I would probably also do a rail for drinks. I get where you are coming from with the clean look though. You do call to attention some of the visual differences between the games.

I like that idea, a fancy solid wood rail along the wall broken up between each game. Kinda like the ones you see in pool halls. Then maybe matching stools with the logo on each for each game.

[Fast351]

I just wanted to say that those machines are a great collection of classic games executed in a really neat form factor and beautifully done!

I'm envious, and might borrow that idea when I get my man cave done

[Admiral688]

I love these cabs. Would love to build one of these for my wifes office for the wheelchair patients.

[jlfreund]

These are great!  I've been meaning to do a wall mounted cabinet for a couple of years now, and I think I will probably start this year, using these as inspiration (I really like the flush mount wall hangers for starters).

I'm curious about how the whole monitor enclosure with bezel was done.  What kind of monitor did you use?  It looks like a 4:3 LCD inside, which is an endangered species these days.  It would be great to see other pictures of the build if you have them.

[davidgilmour]

Awesome bartops, just brilliant 

[2084]

The basement is being remodeled so hopefully I will have more wall space soon.  My most recent project was this Galaga cabinet.  This time I built two identical ones at the same time, one is for a friend who is a big fan of the game.  I included a picture with the back of one off so folks can see how it was made.

[Slippyblade]

Um, why the chopped up yardstick?

[2084]

Um, why the chopped up yardstick?

Yardsticks are the cheapest straight wood of that size available ($0.69).  They are used to hold the LEDs in place for the marque.  I also have some that hold the bezel and marque in place from the back but those might not be as obvious in the picture.

[yotsuya]

Um, why the chopped up yardstick?

Yardsticks are the cheapest straight wood of that size available ($0.69).  They are used to hold the LEDs in place for the marque.  I also have some that hold the bezel and marque in place from the back but those might not be as obvious in the picture.

That's actually a great idea, my friend! 

[Slippyblade]

Agreed, I love seeing innovation like that.  I wonder if the freebie paint stir sticks from Home Depot work as well.  Free is even better than cheap!

[ChanceKJ]

the bonus is that it also saves time, as you don't have to measure the cut 

[nitrogen_widget]

Where do these mount to the wall and what do you use to keep them there?

[2084]

Where do these mount to the wall and what do you use to keep them there?

Here is a picture with the back on and the mounting brackets visible.  Similar brackets go on the wall in the opposite orientation so they hook together.

[brihyn]

Are you just using an ordinary wall switch for turning this on and off?
Hopefully you share more pictures of the insides of these, as you have a lot of innovative ideas that I'm loving! The wife is 100% on board with me building these once time opens up.

[stavros693000]

Today I finished my latest wall mounted arcade project (Q*bert) which will probably be the last for a while as I am now out of wall space.  All of the machines plug into a recessed outlet behind the machine so the cord doesn't show (except for a little bit of the Tempest cord which I realized after seeing the picture I need to tuck back in).  All have a button that looks like a coin acceptor but they do not take coins.  All use LCD monitors (a CRT would not fit without making the cabinet a lot thicker and heaver).  I like this cabinet design as it allows the feel of the original while using only about 1/4 the space.

Robotron:  The first one I made.  Powered by a Raspberry pi.

Rampage:  My second machine.  The only one in which the CPO and bezel do not match the original.  Powered by Raspberry pi.

Stargate:  As plays defender.  Powered by a raspberry pi.

Fix-it-Felix Jr:  Also plays many other games that can be played with a single joystick and 2 buttons.  Powered by a Windows 7 PC.

Tempest:  Set up to be switchable between several versions including Tempest Tubes, As plays Major Havoc, Star Tac, Arkanoid, and Bomb Bee.  It has the spinner dial and volcano buttons from an original machine.  Powered by Raspberry Pi

Q*Bert:  Has a 4-way joystick mounted diagonally.  Has a knocker similar to the original which fires when Q*Bert or Coily fall off the pyramid.  Set up to play several version of Q*bert (Mello Yello, Qubes, etc.), Tylz, and Congo Bongo.  Also Raspberry Pi.

love your work friend, well done....Just have a question regarding the Raspberry Pi's capabilities.......

I would like to build a bartop using a Rasberry Pi to power it ,but some of my favourite games are streetfighter 2, x-men vs streetfighter, Marvel vs streetfighter and shmups etc, etc. So my question is, do you know if the Pi is capable of running these mame roms?

thanks in advance mate 

[2084]

Are you just using an ordinary wall switch for turning this on and off?
Hopefully you share more pictures of the insides of these, as you have a lot of innovative ideas that I'm loving! The wife is 100% on board with me building these once time opens up.

Yes, just a regular light switch.  Less than $1 at your local hardware store that turns off the power for the whole machine so it never needs to be unplugged.  On the other side there is a push button that turns on/off the monitor, marquee light, and speakers.  This way it can be turned on and off quickly without having to reboot.  The pi itself remains on most of the time which isn't much of an issue since it uses <5W of power.

After I build my first one my wife really liked it and I've now built eight.

[2084]

love your work friend, well done....Just have a question regarding the Raspberry Pi's capabilities.......

I would like to build a bartop using a Rasberry Pi to power it ,but some of my favourite games are streetfighter 2, x-men vs streetfighter, Marvel vs streetfighter and shmups etc, etc. So my question is, do you know if the Pi is capable of running these mame roms?

thanks in advance mate 

I am not the best one to answer this question as never had an interest in the games you mention.  All of my builds so far have used the original Raspberry Pi (Model B or B+).  I am fairly certain these models would not do well on the games you mentioned.  I have gotten a few of the new Raspberry Pi 2s that came out earlier this year and are supposed to be 6x faster than the original models.  I have played around some with these newer ones and found they can do well with emulation of some 90s games that I have tried, although I haven't done much extensive testing and haven't tried the games you mentioned.

[stavros693000]

ok, thanks for the reply, I might buy one and test it out....they're not very expensive are they?
if It wont play those games I could always build a nes bar top, im sure the pi will run old nes games very well.

thanks again mate, and your wall of arcade is awesome 

[Slippyblade]

ok, thanks for the reply, I might buy one and test it out....they're not very expensive are they?
if It wont play those games I could always build a nes bar top, im sure the pi will run old nes games very well.

If you buy the Pi from a real dealer, then the current model is $35-40.  There are scalper vendors out there that are charging more, don't do it!  And yes, even the older model Pi's could do retro consoles without a problem.

[woosdom]

do you use retropie or something like that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[2084]

do you use retropie or something like that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not familiar with retropie.  I used advancedMAME, but I'm sure there are multiple ways this could be done.

[EvilNuff]

Tiny thread necromancy but how did you manage the artwork?  I am planning a bartop Ms Pacman for my girlfriend and have not yet gotten around to planning the artwork.  Did you scale down original and have it printed at 70% somewhere?  Create all new original?  Etc?  Thanks.

[2084]

Tiny thread necromancy but how did you manage the artwork?  I am planning a bartop Ms Pacman for my girlfriend and have not yet gotten around to planning the artwork.  Did you scale down original and have it printed at 70% somewhere?  Create all new original?  Etc?  Thanks.

The control panel art, marquee, and bezel art are all close to full size, but were all custom printed.  Not all the machines have side art, but those that do it was either much reduced (e.g. Qbert, Fix-it-Felix Jr) or custom (Tempest) due to the minimal space for side art which is much shallower than an original. 

[aldub516]

Hey good sir. I had pm'ed you a while ago, but i personally sometimes never notice i have messages so i figured maybe id resurrect this for some pointers. Im basically aiming to build dedicated mini cabs for a friend, much like your idea, (although you rocked it beyond anything)... My PM has more details, but being brand new to pi as it is, i wanted pointers on how you boot single games for each cab. I am using a raspberry pi 2, and as much as ive looked, there is minimal help on booting to a single game for this purpose. Of course im assuming you have them set up to boot to their dedicated game. Being new to pi this may be a stupid question, but is there an sd image that would be able to help me do this? or is it all about advmame and scripts or what have you?  While im busy learning EVERYTHING about pi, i wanted to know if you can help in that department. Being new, i dont want to spend a week learning the raspberry pi, just for you to reply and say "hey man heres the sd image, just replace the rom in the folder and youre good" lol. thank you for any help, and incredible job. I saw your work on google a long time ago and never knew who did it. I had that picture saved forever.

[dezmond]

Love these!!!!  Great work.   Can you open one up and snap a photo inside?  Or do you have a build thread on here?

Thanks!

Dezi

[2084]

Hey good sir. I had pm'ed you a while ago, but i personally sometimes never notice i have messages so i figured maybe id resurrect this for some pointers. Im basically aiming to build dedicated mini cabs for a friend, much like your idea, (although you rocked it beyond anything)... My PM has more details, but being brand new to pi as it is, i wanted pointers on how you boot single games for each cab. I am using a raspberry pi 2, and as much as ive looked, there is minimal help on booting to a single game for this purpose. Of course im assuming you have them set up to boot to their dedicated game. Being new to pi this may be a stupid question, but is there an sd image that would be able to help me do this? or is it all about advmame and scripts or what have you?  While im busy learning EVERYTHING about pi, i wanted to know if you can help in that department. Being new, i dont want to spend a week learning the raspberry pi, just for you to reply and say "hey man heres the sd image, just replace the rom in the folder and youre good" lol. thank you for any help, and incredible job. I saw your work on google a long time ago and never knew who did it. I had that picture saved forever.

There are several ways to do this.  A simple way would be to create a shell script  that runs automatically (e.g. "~/.profile")  that contains a command like "advmame robotron" which would automatically launch robotron on startup.  Of course this assumes you already have advmame and the robotron rom installed.  In most of my games I launch a simple python program that allows the user to choose a different rom at startup (e.g. with Stargate it is possible to have it run classic Defender also) by pressing certain buttons or to choose which program to run.  These programs are specific to each cabinet and the way the buttons happen to be connected, etc.  For someone who is not familiar with UNIX it would probably be easiest to start with a disk image such as the ones available at piplay.org. 

[2084]

Love these!!!!  Great work.   Can you open one up and snap a photo inside?  Or do you have a build thread on here?

Thanks!

Dezi

Thanks for the complement.  Unfortunately I didn't document building these with has much detail as perhaps I should have.  I have a picture earlier in the thread of my latest build (Galaga) with the back off one of the machine.  Now with 7 games up and 1 I gave away I really am out of wall space, and have no plans to build any more. 

[aldub516]

I am working on the basics of the pi and getting the emulator/front end running. But as i said i dont want to spend time digging in the wrong hole, are you saying i first need to have advmame/other emulator up and running and playing robotron.. then from there its a matter of script/commands? Any specific details you can add for programming the pi to boot and load to one specific game everytime, that would be great. Im at a weird crossroad of learning a whole new platform, as well as figuring out its work arounds to achieve my goal. Is there a possibility of using an sd image of yours to achieve this? Lets say i successfully piplay or retropie, what would my theoretical next step? Im sorry to swarm you with questions. As i said, hours of searching turned up only one response on some forum, also discussing script usage.

[dezmond]

One quick question, what's the read board in the back on the left bottom used for?

[2084]

One quick question, what's the read board in the back on the left bottom used for?

That is a GP-Wiz40 USB interface.  I get them from GroovyGameGear.com, although the ones on their website are a different color.  It basically allows the joystick, buttons, etc. to enter the machine via a USB interface.  It would also be possible and cheaper to use the GPIO pins for this (which I have done on some other games) but the GP-Wiz40 was easier and the cost wasn't a major issue for me.

To answer another poster's question, I'm not interested in providing SD card images.  I have several reasons for this: They wouldn't work unless you had the exact same hardware set up I do (e.g. same monitor resolution/orientation, same controls and outputs wired the same way), they are huge files (8GB), and it raises legal issues regarding my rights to distribute some of the software on them.  There are others who are willing to provide such images (e.g. piplay.org).  There is a lot available online and in books with regard to setting up shell scripts, python code, etc.  I think these tools and the Raspberry Pi platform work well, but I also recognize that they are not for everyone and others may be more comfortable in a Windows type environment.

[aldub516]

I understand not trading sd images, and I'd honestly rather do it myself. So I guess the pointers are what I'm looking for. I suppose I shall try and get piplay or Retropie running then start researching shell scripts. Anything you think of that may help, please feel free to drop knowledge. It would help a lot. Great work again! Knowing it can be done is half the battle

[DeLuSioNal29]

There is a thread about SD image sharing here:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141859.0.html

D
[Fixed link, was causing a browser error in Firefox. - Scott]

[aldub516]

so ive been doing my fair share of learning on the pi 2. Theres a lot of cool stuff going on. But even so, im still not sure which direction i should be really digging in. If i provide my options and what im trying to achieve, would you be able to atleast point me down the right path. Being a beginner, ive practiced setting up rasbian jessie, the N00BS setup which was nice and easy, as well as the retropie sd image. I also have found things like ultra slim which boots into a big emulator station and allow navigation of all your emulators and apps. BUT, as i said, my only goal is to turn the pi on, and boot directly (or as close to) a mame rom (robotron for instance) and nothing else,ever. I know im going to have to do a lot of reading on python, and scripts and everything in general, but can you provide your general setup? **IE youre running rasbian, with retropie installed, and running a shell script to start retropie and a specific game** or any other such combination? The ultraslim setup looks like it could be what i want, but for all i know it has no support for any kind of script or whatever. A simple program flow would really help me along my way. Thank you for all your responses thus far and advice

[haynor666]

Fantastic, I wish I had money and space for such cabinets

[2084]

Fantastic, I wish I had money and space for such cabinets

The main reason I made these is that I did not have space for traditional cabinets.

[haynor666]

Still You have free wall. On my four walls are shelves for games

[2084]

If you don't have any wall space then these aren't for you.

[polyomino]

Hi...

I'm new here.

Question, if you have a moment: What port of MAME are you using and what's your setup for the spinner input?

(Background. I'm doing a Tempest project with raspberry Pi and it looks like you're very well down this path. 
Currently using mame4all and a mouse input, the spinner doesn't have infinite movement. It stops after a couple times around, I BELIEVE because the "mouse" has hit the side of the screen. Any wisdom appreciated.



I'm MAME-ing an original cabinet.)

[the_Beaver]

I'm wondering if you could post the plans/dimensions for Robotron.

[Slippyblade]

I'm MAME-ing an original cabinet.

You're fired.

[yotsuya]

I'm MAME-ing an original cabinet.

You're fired.

I agree. That looks horrible.

[DesiredOutcome]

This is awesome and glad i found it. This would free up space for other things in my cave. Seems you have to do alot of fiddling. A more intermediate/advance level project as far as pi is concerned. I need to read more.