"Woody" Office Desk Top From Plug N Play

[jaharr01]

       Hi guys, I'm starting a little project for my office desk. Not that I would have time to sit around and play games, but so what. So I'm gonna build a wood finished mini table top arcade. It has to be pretty small because my desk is not that big. So the idea is to build it from birch plywood and ash solid wood. It will have black T-molding,black zippy 4 way ball top, and black push buttons.The only art will be on the marquee. I am still at a loss what to put on there.If any one has any ideas please chime in.The guts will be from This:

I screwed the last one of these up I had when they changed the design of the joystick contacts.But i'm confident I have learned from my mistakes.

       The cabinet shape I borrowed from this build:

The screen will be a 7" DVD screen I picked up at walmart. I'm using the non DVD screen on the build and the other screen I'm gonna put in the headrest of my truck later.
       As you can see they changed the design of the Jakks board for the plug and play.It now has 4 little micro switches.

So i took the switches off carefully and I soldered all the wires to the connections


The plug n play has RCA jacks like this:

the DVD screen has this 4 pole 3.5mm jack

So after I connected and soldered everything, which was surprisingly simple. I ended up with this:

Here is the plug n play up and running

So I will probably cut it all out next weekend.

[JDFan]

Hate when it deletes your text before posting if you hit back 

Anyway was going to say - After building one with a similar screen I found out that it had a switch to use either 4:3 or 16:9 format - and found that the games look better in 4:3 rather than stretched to fit 16:9 - So you might want to test it some if yours has the same switch and build your bezel to cover the black bars on the sides if using 4:3 (I had already built mine before noticing and really like the look of the 4:3 better even though it is a bit smaller it looks better - I might wind up redoing my bezel to get rid of the black bars now that I use 4:3. Here's a screen of the 16:9 setting on mine and as you can see it is a bit stretched out of shape with this setting.

Just something to consider that might save you redoing it later !


For example here's a screen of both 4:3 and 16:9 settings (excuse the cheap camera pic - but gets the point across)

[BorgDog]

Cool.  I like these mini guys.  Did you JDFan or are you jaharr01 using a full size joystick ball (35mm?)

[JDFan]

Cool.  I like these mini guys.  Did you JDFan or are you jaharr01 using a full size joystick ball (35mm?)

Mine used a regular size Zippy (from China) 3.5cm diameter and regular size Happ buttons. (they barely fit and required cutting a channel in the bottom MDF as I measured without the microswitch in place so the buttons hit the bottom after installing them but luckily the extra 1\4" cut out of the bottom panel was enough to get them in there !

[ChanceKJ]

 

Love those new microswitches, are they harder to work with?  The board has a 2014 date on it!

Cool

[taylormadelv]

I love hacking these things! Does this unit have the "auto shut off" if you don't touch it for 6 minutes? I would love to keep attract mode up all the time!

[jaharr01]

Cool.  I like these mini guys.  Did you JDFan or are you jaharr01 using a full size joystick ball (35mm?)

Full size

[jaharr01]

Hate when it deletes your text before posting if you hit back 

Anyway was going to say - After building one with a similar screen I found out that it had a switch to use either 4:3 or 16:9 format - and found that the games look better in 4:3 rather than stretched to fit 16:9 - So you might want to test it some if yours has the same switch and build your bezel to cover the black bars on the sides if using 4:3 (I had already built mine before noticing and really like the look of the 4:3 better even though it is a bit smaller it looks better - I might wind up redoing my bezel to get rid of the black bars now that I use 4:3. Here's a screen of the 16:9 setting on mine and as you can see it is a bit stretched out of shape with this setting.

Just something to consider that might save you redoing it later !


For example here's a screen of both 4:3 and 16:9 settings (excuse the cheap camera pic - but gets the point across)

I'll look JDfan but I don't remember seeing a switch to change it. I'll look at the product page.Thanks for the heads up. Hey you got any ideas I could use for the marquee?

[jaharr01]

Love those new microswitches, are they harder to work with?  The board has a 2014 date on it!

Cool

No much easier I just pried the switches off and there was a hole there took a little micro drill and drilled the rest of the pins out. Then put wire through the hole and soldered .I had it done in 45min

[jaharr01]

I love hacking these things! Does this unit have the "auto shut off" if you don't touch it for 6 minutes? I would love to keep attract mode up all the time!

Dunno that's probably a better question  for JDfan and Chance

[Well Fed Games]

Yep, I love these plug and play builds. Almost feels like cheating compared to fighting with MAME or multi-boards. I still have the controls, units, TVs, and control panels to do a run of 4 eventually....

Anyway,  for the great picture documentation so far, I look forward to seeing how it turns out!

[JDFan]

I'll look JDfan but I don't remember seeing a switch to change it. I'll look at the product page.Thanks for the heads up. Hey you got any ideas I could use for the marquee?

On mine (a different brand but similar) - It has 3 buttons (FN, -, + ) the farthest left is Fn which when pressed brings up the contrast etc. - each press moves to the next option, the fifth or so option is Mode which can be changed from Wide to normal using the - button to change the setting. So not really a switch like I thought I remembered but one of the menu adjustment options.

[ChanceKJ]

I love hacking these things! Does this unit have the "auto shut off" if you don't touch it for 6 minutes? I would love to keep attract mode up all the time!

Dunno that's probably a better question  for JDfan and Chance

I wouldn't consider these to really have an attract mode at all. Just a menu.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but attract modes in part served as a screen saver to avoid CRT burn in, not just "Oh hey!! Put quarters in me". 

[jaharr01]

Hate when it deletes your text before posting if you hit back 

Anyway was going to say - After building one with a similar screen I found out that it had a switch to use either 4:3 or 16:9 format - and found that the games look better in 4:3 rather than stretched to fit 16:9 - So you might want to test it some if yours has the same switch and build your bezel to cover the black bars on the sides if using 4:3 (I had already built mine before noticing and really like the look of the 4:3 better even though it is a bit smaller it looks better - I might wind up redoing my bezel to get rid of the black bars now that I use 4:3. Here's a screen of the 16:9 setting on mine and as you can see it is a bit stretched out of shape with this setting.

Just something to consider that might save you redoing it later !


I was looking on the instructions but you have to change the format from the DVD monitor with the cable hooked in and I already gutted that 4 pole cable. I could order one off amazon and try it.

For example here's a screen of both 4:3 and 16:9 settings (excuse the cheap camera pic - but gets the point across)

[jaharr01]

I got antsy after work and cut out the sides. It's nice not dealing with so much real estate on theses mini builds


That wood will look nice all finished.

[Cobolisdead]

I can't wait to see this get finished! Keep up the good work man!

[taylormadelv]

I love hacking these things! Does this unit have the "auto shut off" if you don't touch it for 6 minutes? I would love to keep attract mode up all the time!

Dunno that's probably a better question  for JDfan and Chance

I wouldn't consider these to really have an attract mode at all. Just a menu.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but attract modes in part served as a screen saver to avoid CRT burn in, not just "Oh hey!! Put quarters in me".

The old Ms Pac/Galaga/Pole Position P&P would stay on forever, until the batteries died. If you entered into a game and just stayed there, without "coining" it up, the attract mode stays on forever, just like the real games did BITD. But they "fixed" this on the next version, making it so the screen goes blank if the unit is not touched for 6 minutes.

[JDFan]

Hey you got any ideas I could use for the marquee?

Perhaps something like this :

[jaharr01]

Hey you got any ideas I could use for the marquee?

Perhaps something like this :

To be honest with you JDfan it looks great but I'm not sure how it would look on that tiny marquee. I was looking for something more simple to put on there. I don't know what I could call it. I wanted something kind of simple but a bit more sophisticated. I don't know it's really hard.

[Generic Eric]

Hey you got any ideas I could use for the marquee?

Perhaps something like this :

To be honest with you JDfan it looks great but I'm not sure how it would look on that tiny marquee. I was looking for something more simple to put on there. I don't know what I could call it. I wanted something kind of simple but a bit more sophisticated. I don't know it's really hard.

Does the game remember the last game picked?  Like if you restart the controller, it is always at the same place?

[BorgDog]

You could take the marquee from this box I'm sure 

[Generic Eric]

You could take the marquee from this box I'm sure 

Great idea!

[JDFan]

Does the game remember the last game picked?  Like if you restart the controller, it is always at the same place?

Nope it boots to the menu select screen : (6 selections per side and the currently selected game screen in the center.)

[Vigo]

How about something simple:

[yotsuya]

I like the "Pac-Man" marquee on the box it came in, myself...

[Vigo]

I like the "Pac-Man" marquee on the box it came in, myself...

Heh, yep, can't go wrong there, as long as you ditch the bandai.com, namco and "12 classic games" patches.

[Generic Eric]

Does the game remember the last game picked?  Like if you restart the controller, it is always at the same place?

Nope it boots to the menu select screen : (6 selections per side and the currently selected game screen in the center.)

Allow me to elaborate.  On the menu screen, if you select galaga, power off, then back on, will the menu  show the cursor at galaga?  Or at another game?

[JDFan]

Allow me to elaborate.  On the menu screen, if you select galaga, power off, then back on, will the menu  show the cursor at galaga?  Or at another game?

It will always come on with Pacman selected (Upper Left corner of the games selection screen ) - so No it does not store the setting for what game was selected last time

[jaharr01]

Yeah the Pac man would look good. I just wanted something different. You creative F-er's are always coming up with cool $hit. Like that one guy that did " Little Bastard" damn I wish I would have thought of that. Chance had a Black background Namco that looked good.
 

[jaharr01]

What about?

[BorgDog]

a man never likes to hear the words little and wood (or any other euphemism) in the same sentance.  Just saying

And, I'm pretty sure my Little Bastard wouldn't mind if there was another. 

[jaharr01]

What about:
                       A LIL' WOOD

[JDFan]

What about?

Or with a rope font or Pinewood Font

NOTE : Rope Font Free Download Here ( http://designscrazed.org/free-cowboy-fonts/ )
 PineWood Font Here ( http://www.dafont.com/pinewood.font )

[jaharr01]

I like this one kind of

[yotsuya]

I like this one kind of

Well, if you're gonna call it that, that is the best one. 

[jaharr01]

I don't know Yotsuya,I really was just joking.But it is kind of catchy.

[jaharr01]

Started wood work last night.
The bottom



Test fitting



LED bar for marquee



More later

[jaharr01]

well it's about 95% done. I stained and painted the black inside parts. That marquee is pretty bright> I may have to put some kind of diffuser on it to dim it down a bit.It's only running at 5V so it would be hard to dim it with voltage. I used an inline switch to turn everything off and on.
Left to finish: 1. Polyurethane the sides and top
                      2. Install T Molding
                      3. Decide about art
                      4. Print and mount marquee
                      5. Make bezel and install
I still can't decide on artwork.I can use one of two that JDfan did or I can just put like Galaga art on it,since it will leave most of the wood finish visible.I'm leaning to like galaga or something like that.


Here is the inline switch

Oh $hit

before the sides and top were stained


After stain






                     
                     

[Well Fed Games]

Please don't call it Lil Woody. Great build. Maybe just decide which game you like the best and use that as the marquee, perhaps retaining the "classic 12 games" badge?

[jaharr01]

Here is some help from my Homey LT


He Can't Quite figure out what to do with the sides or even if it needs anything at all