First time builder - Star Wars Bartop

[acjgoblu]

As a disclaimer, I'm not sure if this qualifies as a true project (as I didn't cut the cabinet myself), but wanted to share my bartop that I'm just finishing up.

I'm a first time builder and got a LOT of help from this site, both active help from members of this forum as well as hours of research and troubleshooting along the way. Special thanks go out to HaRuMaN who provided me the DIY kit and answered more questions than I'm sure he usually has to, TkW4rr10r for the sweet modder system, stpcore for high quality printing service, and jmandmc from Focus Attack and AndyWarne from Ultimarc for getting me the perfect parts to complete the build. SlammedNiss also hooked me up with some vinyl decals. Really can't recommend working with any of these fine folks highly enough, they were all quick and efficient and super helpful.

I started working on this in early January 2016 and just finished this past weekend. I decided from the beginning that I wanted this to be a multipurpose bartop. I have fond memories of playing arcade games as well as early generation consoles growing up, so the machine emulates MAME, Model 2, NES, Genesis, SNES, and Dreamcast. I went with HaRuMaN for my DIY kit both because of his great rep on the boards as well as his ability to fit 2 player (6 buttons each) controls with a central trackball on the control panel, which I didn't think I'd be able to get. This is using his Ultimate Widescreen model. I got some Sanwa JLFs and admin buttons from Focus Attack, then added an Ultimate IO I-Pac from Ultimarc with ClassicRGB buttons, an Aimtrak, and a UTrak trackball. Lastly, decided to go with Star Wars for the artwork because Star Wars = amazing. I did all of my artwork myself using Gimp, then sent it off to stpcore for printing.

Anyways, I had a ton of fun putting this together, and will continue to have a ton of fun playing now that I'm done. I'm hoping I can eventually share this with my daughter (only 2yo now) so that she can enjoy a part of that experience that I had growing up. In the meantime, fun for me and guests 

Thanks again to everyone on the boards, truly couldn't have done it without the help!
 

 

[05SRT4]

Wow you did really good on this build. Any plans to upgrade the track ball to LED?

[acjgoblu]

Thanks!

Definitely thinking about it - wanted to see what it looked like without and might upgrade it at a later time. Always good to know that Ultimarc can get me the upgrade within a few days if and when I decide to pull the trigger!

[efp9teen78]

Very cool I'm trying to work out some star wars inspired artwork on my cocktail cab that I ordered from Haruman. Then I get to move on my bartop  also ordered from him.

[acjgoblu]

I ended up using some HD wallpapers for some of my images. Fortunately there are plenty of good high res star wars images out there!

[efp9teen78]

Do you have any pics of the inside how did you cram the pc inside there got to imagine it was a tight squeeze

[acjgoblu]

Yup, it was tight. I had to decase to get it to fit. In honesty, I had next to no experience with computers prior to this project...so if I can do it, anyone can. I just pulled out the motherboard, hard drive, and power supply and affixed them to the inside of the cabinet with velcro. I kept the computer fan attached to the motherboard as well and mounted it to the inside of the back door for additional ventilation.

[Birdman042]

Very nice build! 

[acjgoblu]

Thanks!

I thought I'd have a bit of a letdown when the building was over, as it really was a fun process, but playing is (of course) just as fun!

[efp9teen78]

where did you get Gimp from I keep getting errors when trying to install it

[HaRuMaN]

Looks great!!   

[nipsmg]

Did you have your CP custom cut by HaRuMan?  I didn't see a similar layout on his site.  Also, what kind of TB did you use?

[HaRuMaN]

Did you have your CP custom cut by HaRuMan?  I didn't see a similar layout on his site.  Also, what kind of TB did you use?

Yeah that's a custom cut.  That's the U-trak by ultimarc.  Works great!

[acjgoblu]

I just downloaded Gimp from their main website (gimp.org). It's a large program, and I think I needed to attempt to install more than once as well. Helps to be upgrade to the most recent version of your OS (I'm on a Mac, and it didn't work for me until I upgraded to OSX Maverick).

And yes, HaRuMaN did custom cut that for me - that's the great thing about working with him! After seeing the size of the trackball housing, I'm all the more impressed by Lee's ability to fit everything I was asking for on one CP. As you can see in the attached pic, the underside of my CP is quite busy, but everything fits and it works perfectly for my needs.