Help me plan my cabinets

[FALSE]

Hello, long time mostly forum lurker here,
Looks like I may have FINALLY found a buyer for my tiny ass condo and am soon planning to buy a bigger house with room for a few cabinets.
I should have a few extra bucks after the move so I can finally build my first cabinet(s)!
When it's time to actually build them I'll start a project thread but for now I hope to use this as a thread for my stupid questions.

My goal is to start out with two identical cabs, one with a vertical and one with a horizontal screen.
Two players on both, trackball and/or spinner on one or both, maybe guns on one or both (would probably add guns at a later date).
I'm wanting to keep the cab construction relatively simple so don't want a rotating monitor or modular control panels.
I do plan to make these cabs as clean and professional looking as possible.

Now questions...

1. I think I'm above the average person as an all around handy man but haven't done any woodworking in probably 15 years. Do you think building two cabinets at the same time and expecting a professional finish is unrealistic for me (or anyone without much experience in woodworking)?

2. Maws is long gone : ( How is everyone planning their game lists nowadays without it?

3. Since I don't have Maws to filter games, could I have some opinions on which cab (or both) I should add a spinner or trackball to? I definitely want the Golden Tee games (which I believe are all horizontal) and definitely want many of the bowling games (which I believe are mostly vertical), so that puts a trackball on both cabs. What about the spinner? I love me some Arkanoid and other breakout type games, but really cant think of many other spinner games off the top of my head.

4. Any other comments or criticism please.

5. Could anyone recommend a good cabinet to copy for a 2 player + trackball/spinner? Don't want the controls to be crowded.
I have tons of cabinet plans... I was thinking a mortal kombat cab or maybe a sunset riders cab since it was a three player cab and would give the extra room for a trackball.
 
Thanks for any answers and thanks to all you forum pro's, I've learned a hell of a lot from you folks over the past several years.

False

[yotsuya]

I'd make two matching Dynamos.

[Vigo]

2. Maws is long gone : ( How is everyone planning their game lists nowadays without it?

MAWLER 

[FALSE]

I'd make two matching Dynamos.

That would be good but it seems plans don't exist for Dynamo cabs.

2. Maws is long gone : ( How is everyone planning their game lists nowadays without it?

MAWLER 

SO HAPPY you shared this!
I already know I'll be wasting hours playing with this.

Thanks

[bfauska]

If you are ready to shoulder the cost of two machines that will be basically identical except for the vertical vs. horizontal screens maybe it would be worth looking at the new trend of giant small-bezel LCD screens that stretch from one side of the cab to the other and from the CP to the marquee box. You can run either vertical or horizontal games with their original bezel images at the original screen size or bigger in most cases. The savings on the second PC, encoders, and controls could probably make the cost about the same for a more flexible machine.

For example
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,139647.0.html


ALSO, I've got a Dynamo HS-5 which is a very versatile cab that I could probably pull some key dimensions off of if you've got any questions.

[BadMouth]

1. I think I'm above the average person as an all around handy man but haven't done any woodworking in probably 15 years. Do you think building two cabinets at the same time and expecting a professional finish is unrealistic for me (or anyone without much experience in woodworking)?

If you have an area where you can make horrible dust clouds without recourse, invest in an extra sheet of wood and make one nice side template that you can use to make all four sides.  Then use the template with a router and a flush trim bit to make your sides.  As long as your one template is good, all four sides will be perfect.  This is just wood we are talking about.  If you mess something up, you can just bondo or buy a new sheet of wood.

3. Since I don't have Maws to filter games, could I have some opinions on which cab (or both) I should add a spinner or trackball to? I definitely want the Golden Tee games (which I believe are all horizontal) and definitely want many of the bowling games (which I believe are mostly vertical), so that puts a trackball on both cabs. What about the spinner? I love me some Arkanoid and other breakout type games, but really cant think of many other spinner games off the top of my head.

World Class Bowling is my go-to bowling game and is horizontal.  People who like Golden Tee usually prefer it to any other bowling games.
It's an awesome party game.

Me personally, for the horizontal cab I'd have a street fighter layout with a trackball in the center and a spinner for each player (to play racing games like Ivan Stewart's off-road and super sprint).  The joysticks on the horizontal cab would be best suited for fighting games and beat 'em ups.

For the Vertical cab, I'd have 2 joysticks more suited for vertical scrolling shooters (shmups) and then a dedicated 4-way pacman style joystick in the center.  I'd probably only have 3 buttons per player on this cab, so I'd use the extra room to give the 4-way joystick it's own set of buttons.

There was only ever one gun game with a vertical screen IIRC.  It's Fast Draw Showdown and isn't emulated.  There was supposedly a PC version released, but in all my searching I could not find a copy or even a picture to prove that anyone ever owned a copy.  So the guns would go on the horizontal cab.

5. Could anyone recommend a good cabinet to copy for a 2 player + trackball/spinner? Don't want the controls to be crowded.
I have tons of cabinet plans... I was thinking a mortal kombat cab or maybe a sunset riders cab since it was a three player cab and would give the extra room for a trackball.

I usually use the x-arcade tank stick as a point of reference.  I used one for years and felt it was pretty comfortable.
For two joysticks and a trackball, it's about as short as you can get and not feel cramped at all.
If given room to work with, I use it as a starting point, then go wider as the CP allows.

[FALSE]

bfauska - I hadn't seen a cab like that yet, very cool. Might be worth exploring for me. I may take you up on the offer for some Dynamo measurements when it's closer to the build.

BadMout - Great advice overall thanks. I'm thinking I'll put 2 servo sticks in both cabs to cover 4 and 8 way games. Might be able to get away with just one servo stick per cab (can't think of any games that use 2 4-ways other than karate) but I'd want player 2's stick to feel identical to player 1's.

Horizontal cab will probably be a street fighter +1 layout for the neogeo games, with a tackball in the center.

The vertical cab is definitely going to be for shmups, always liked the raiden and 1942 series and recently discovered the Cave games (awesome) via mame on my laptop.
If I don't have a trackball on this machine I might put a spinner on it. May not even have a spinner on either cab.
I may eventually make a racing cab later so I'm not to concerned with being able to play the 360 racing games.

Thanks again.