Another Project Mame Cabinet!

[Showbag221]

G'day All!

I've been a long time lurker in these forums (years, actually), and after years of trying to make the decision to build my own mame cabinet, I decided that the timing was right to give it a go. So far its going really well, I'm very happy with the results I've achieved so far, although I'm sure for some of the more experienced builders around here, you can see a whole host of rookie mistakes!

I've actually got a blog up and running at the moment (on my unfinished table tennis scoring website) that goes into far more detail than I will here. From this point on I'll probably cross-post anyway, but you can all check it out here http://tabletenniscomp.com/mame/.

So here is the image dump up to the point I am now. I will probably end up redoing the control panel acrylic (not happy with how it all lined up), but for the most part I'm pretty chuffed with the results. I won't comment on what I've done so far as the pictures are self explanatory, and I'm sure 95% of the forum knows what I've done. If you want details, just head to my blog!


















What I'm really trying to nail down is the theme. I want it to fit into my house well (I find regular arcade cab art awesome, but a bit loud for a living room), so I was thinking something minimalist but awesome. The render you can see up there is actually a Unity program I'm developing to help me switch between designs quickly and easily to visualize them. Its in very early stages of development at the moment, but when I've completed it I will release it free to the community! Also, if you want to see a particular cabinet design in the program, if you want to make a 3d model of it then I'll try to incorporate it!.

Anyway, thats a good enough start, please let me know what you think, and be sure to pass along any wisdom you may have!

Cheers

Tom

[Baumer]

Looks great.  Is that a 32" tv you have in there?  I'm on the fence between 27" and 32" in terms of keeping the cab narrow but still have enough vertical height of screen.

[harveybirdman]

I would like to commend you on only going with 6 buttons per player, you are definitely right, any more would look retarded.  If you're sticking to MAME I really like the idea of a bezel that only shows a square portion of your screen.  I am not a fan of flat screens, but to see it implemented in such a respectful manner is refreshing.

Great progress so far!

[vwalbridge]

Clever! 

[Slippyblade]

First post is an almost complete scratch build cab?  Way to go!  Looks great so far, can't wait to see what you do for the art.

[yotsuya]

I would like to commend you on only going with 6 buttons per player ...  If you're sticking to MAME I really like the idea of a bezel that only shows a square portion of your screen.  I am not a fan of flat screens, but to see it implemented in such a respectful manner is refreshing.

Great progress so far!

I'm going to echo this.

[Showbag221]

Thanks for the comments guys!

I was originally only going to use it for Mame, and I still might, but seeing some really nice hyperspin front end work here on the forum I'm thinking I might install other emus as well. I think because of this I'll keep it as a widescreen Bezel, seems silly to me to cover up perfectly good monitor space, and I don't mind at all the look of the widescreen monitor in this cab (the boarderlands 2 build of this cab uses one and looks schmick!)

My buttons arrived yesterday and I got them fitted and wired in. Was such a simple process, and everything worked as advertised first time! Couldn't resist giving The Simpsons a whirl (my favorite game from my childhood). I've also got my bits-and-pieces computer that will power the cab up and running, so I'm a lot further along in the process than I thought! I'm still trying to nail down a theme, I think I've got something but will try and hammer it out until its something that I'm 100% happy with.

Cheers

[Showbag221]

I sorted out the computer (after screwing around with bluetooth drivers for an hour or so) and downloaded mame and added just one rom - SFII. I was too excited not to put it all together and have a play! This was a very sweet moment.



And here is my wife "not" enjoying playing it. She looks huge (tall!! -- don't ever say 'huge' to a woman), but she's over 6ft, and in this shot is wearing heels, so it isn't really the height of a normal person (I'm a shade under 6ft and it felt super comfortable to play).


I'm ashamed to say that she beat me in the first 3 rounds... All the memories from my youth were no match for her "Wiggle the stick and smash buttons!" technique...

Pretty stoked to have gotten this far to be honest, I can't wait to finish and start another (my brother seems pretty interested now he's seen mine!)

[yotsuya]

Thanks for the comments guys!

I was originally only going to use it for Mame, and I still might, but seeing some really nice hyperspin front end work here on the forum I'm thinking I might install other emus as well. I think because of this I'll keep it as a widescreen Bezel, seems silly to me to cover up perfectly good monitor space, and I don't mind at all the look of the widescreen monitor in this cab (the boarderlands 2 build of this cab uses one and looks schmick!)

I'd like to retract my previous statement. 

[yamatetsu]

I agree with yots, that cab will definitely look worse without the bezel. The bezel is what ties the lower and the upper part together. Without it, you will have - lower part - big black rectangle - upper part.

[yotsuya]

I agree with yots, that cab will definitely look worse without the bezel. The bezel is what ties the lower and the upper part together. Without it, you will have - lower part - big black rectangle - upper part.

I'm not offering any sort of opinion, I'm retracting my kudos for the bezel because he's not doing it anymore. Seems silly to have it there if he's not doing it. 

[yamatetsu]

Well, I'm still naive and idealistic, I offer my view of things  Some people have accepted my suggestions and made their cabs better for it, some haven't. If Showbag reconsiders doing the bezel, fine. If not, also fine 

Showbag, I have made a quick comparison pic of your render with and without the bezel.



IMHO the one with the bezel looks way better. The bezel sorta flows into the speaker panel, tying everthing together. Without it, to me it looks like something is missing.

[Showbag221]

I may have been a bit confusing with what I said. I'm still planning on having the Bezel, I'm just going to keep the widescreen aspect vs making the screen smaller but going to a 4:3 aspect. I expect it'll end up looking something like this:

[rablack97]

Very nice woodworking, and fast too.

Did I miss something, or how are you gonna use your keyboard drawer, if you covered it up with plexi?

Good luck cutting out that shape with it bent like that.

How did you bend that plexi, you have that little hump at the bend? You should pre-cut and then clamp it at the backside of CP, put some weight on the top as close to the beginning of the crease as possible, and then heat and let it fold over.

Me personally, I would re-do teh front and remove that drawer, that keyboard is small and it looks to be bluetooth.  So why make a spot for it on the machine?  I mean you can't even type in the small space.  The drawer gap etc, is gonna make is look like a hot mess.  Its a really good build and that would take away from the clean lines you already have and make it look rigged.

Because your not overhanging your CP, that just doesnt look right.  I would just store that else where, or if anything, make a hidden hatch underneath the CP with a hinge and strong push magnets.  Push and it falls right out.  That way you keep that clean look up front, which is highly visible.

Overall though very nice start.

[vwalbridge]

Did I miss something, or how are you gonna use your keyboard drawer, if you covered it up with plexi?

Ditto...and...why do you need a keyboard at all? Maybe I missed something too.

[Showbag221]

Very nice woodworking, and fast too.

Did I miss something, or how are you gonna use your keyboard drawer, if you covered it up with plexi?

Good luck cutting out that shape with it bent like that.

How did you bend that plexi, you have that little hump at the bend? You should pre-cut and then clamp it at the backside of CP, put some weight on the top as close to the beginning of the crease as possible, and then heat and let it fold over.

Me personally, I would re-do teh front and remove that drawer, that keyboard is small and it looks to be bluetooth.  So why make a spot for it on the machine?  I mean you can't even type in the small space.  The drawer gap etc, is gonna make is look like a hot mess.  Its a really good build and that would take away from the clean lines you already have and make it look rigged.

Because your not overhanging your CP, that just doesnt look right.  I would just store that else where, or if anything, make a hidden hatch underneath the CP with a hinge and strong push magnets.  Push and it falls right out.  That way you keep that clean look up front, which is highly visible.

Overall though very nice start.

Honestly, I've been thinking more and more along these lines. I'd rather have the control / front panel being one solid piece of plexi than having the drawer cut out. It was a good idea in principal I think, but the more I think about it the more stupid it seems to me to have the drawer there. Its actually a keyboard / mouse combo, however I'm doubting once the machine is up and running that I will need it much... It can just sit on top of the computer in the bottom compartment. Nup, you've sold me, I'm going to re-do the front panel to be one solid piece, I echo your comments about clean and minimal lines (one of the main design goals of this cab -- doh!)

The bending with that little bump is due to the front of the control panels shape. I am actually having a little bit of a problem with this, if anyone who is good a woodwork can lend me a hand? Heres a small drawing of the problem I have --


I've routed the front of the panel to get the curve, but ideally I'd like to keep the front completely straight? Any ideas how to do this? I'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to woodworking but can learn reasonably fast.

Thanks for the comments and ideas guys -- keep em coming!

[harveybirdman]

I'm no wood working wiz but could you not just flush trim it with the front panel then redo the round over?

[rablack97]

I'm no wood working wiz but could you not just flush trim it with the front panel then redo the round over?

flush trim won't work, the router won't be at the correct angle to flush, it would have to ride on the CP, it he has both attached together

Well you were trying to achieve something done with a metal CP with wood my man.

The problem is this isnt a 90 degree butted angle, so your gonna have to  dismantle and shave off that bump and do some sanding to get it round and matched up with the front, better get good with bondo and sandpaper.

Your going angled CP and flat front, most folk with this design go from angle to angle front, then tie it in with the coin door front.

It can be done, but your gonna have to put some grease into to it.

[geeteoh]

100 grit sandpaper stapled (around the edges) to a block of wood. You will be able to put the round over back in as well. MDF is easy to sand. I think we are all use to automated methods. Sometimes the simple way is the easiest.

[Showbag221]

Wow, massive bump 2 years later...

So, my wife and I split up and I've moved into an apartment where there is no room for a full size cab. It felt such a waste to throw it away (at about 90% complete, only needing artwork), so I kept it in the laundry where it was taking up space. I had vague ideas of turning it into a bartop cab, but really never got around to it. Money is a little bit tight at the moment and I really didn't want to spend any more on it. A couple of weeks ago our town was doing its council hard rubbish pick up and I spotted an old LCD monitor that someone was chucking out and I thought 'This'll be perfect for a bartop machine!', so I snapped it up, plugged it into the old rig and it worked perfectly. So I figured I'd give it a go, at first just using the materials that I already had to see if I could get something decent. I went into it with very little planning (I've used the 'weecade' side shape, but everything else has been made up), so as you will see in the following photos I redid things like 3 times. Oh well, I'm enjoying working on it again, and am looking forward to having it done.

Here is the teardown / rebuild progress photos.
















I've also finally worked out a theme, because my girlfriend and I are massive fans, it is going to be Game of Thrones themed. I've started working on the art, here is a preview of the sides:


Looking forward to posting more updates!

Cheers

Tom

[Mike A]

Glad to see a project resurrected.

[Ian]

Yep! Relationships are hard on this hobby (or is it the other way around)   

Glad you came back with a better idea! (I am not a fan of the artwork btw... if you want to go GOT there is a ton of amazing artwork out there.... )

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3c/a1/65/3ca16584bc446fb18d9c7b235e239f78.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5d/d8/bb/5dd8bb3834054ac7e1c4bb2242d1d439.jpg
http://static.hypable.com/wp-content/gallery/game-of-thrones-ascent-concept-art/game-of-thrones-ascent-concept-art-5.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c1/b1/55/c1b155ff8c12214372555c3186fe5f1d.jpg

just examples.