Cabinet idea mini cabaret head to head Vs

[TheOneWithNoName]

The origins of this idea were me wanting a cabinet, not having much floor space, and remembering all the fun times I had in the poor excuses of arcades playing head to head vs games (typically racing games, but some others).

Idealy these mini cabs would:
• be small enough to sit over someone's lap while they are sitting
• be able to operate separately from each other
• connect together via a single cable (if need be a custom cable)
• be full featured cabs (8 way joystick, 6 buttons+start)
• have working coin door

I have two 16" LCD screens lying around that i plan to use for these.

This thread's purpose at the moment is to receive suggestions on how to work the head to head component of this build.
At this point, I plan on using a custom adapter internally to connect the two cabinets via a large serial cable.  Probably routing most data through Ethernet wrapped into that serial cable.

I have no idea how I will wrap the actual vs component into the cabinets.  I'm assuming that I'll have to have a custom wrapper for whatever mame emulator I end up using.

Thanks for reading and for any comments.

[WakiMiko]

Reminds me of this great project:



However, these are still far too big to sit comfortably on someone's lap. How do you plan to make that work, especially since you want to add a working coin door?

[yotsuya]

WakiMiko is right. Something has to give on your list if you want it to be small enough to sit comfortably on soneone's lap.

[paigeoliver]

WakiMiko is right. Something has to give on your list if you want it to be small enough to sit comfortably on soneone's lap.

What you are looking for is a laptop with a gamepad.

Arcade controls don't really work right if they aren't anchored down to something big and heavy.

The lapcade is just a bad idea. Sorry.

[Generic Eric]

I concur.
Consider the vigolix, or simply a bartop.
In the end, you may not find a use for the old monitors.

If you want something small, consider the nano arcades.  There was a TMNT one that used a tablet and small buttons.  It was about the size of those old celeco games.

It almost sounds like you want something like Chance's SNES advantage.  Its a stick stuff with an Intel NUC.

• have working coin door

A working coin door on your lap?

[TheOneWithNoName]

• have working coin door

A working coin door on your lap?

That list was more a list of hopes... For that size, you all are more than correct and a full size coin mech will just not work.  Fortunately, I do have some skills, and could probably make a custom coin mech if I needed.

A laptop with controls is not at all what i want.  If that were the case, I wouldn't be here as I already have that.
I also intend to have stands for when they are not needed to be mobile.

Thanks to the suggestions everyone.

[Generic Eric]

Ok,

New approach:

Check among the links in this thread for the 2014 UCA.

There is an example of each type in that thread.  There also links to the nominations of the past years.   I don't usually do this, but check those out and see if you can find something you are interested in and link it back here.

Another thing would help is if you could show us the area you plan to keep this thing?  How much room do you have? Where do you plan to play?  If you plan to have stands when you don't need it mobile, how much roomd do you have for those?

I think the idea of playing on your lap is what confused things. 

There is a neat project by someone for a stow and go type 4 player thing.
There is also a two player cocktail from imgur I shared recently.  We discussed an idea to have a KVM that would allow two games independant or, a two player game.

[nitrogen_widget]

cocktail cabinet?

[Generic Eric]

cocktail cabinet?

No

This is a 4 player cocktail.  I couldn't find 2 player.

Just kidding.  On this pic is a link to the thread I'm referring to.