Hiya gang! It has been a while since I've done anything directly related to this site's specific money suck but I'm getting back in the mix. For a few years I've been putting off building a better machine for my two boy-type kiddos (now 8 and 7). After I built Darkade years ago they promptly took it over and then immediately started complaining about how much bartops suck. They want a 4p panel so they can button mash with their friends, or me, or eachother.
I toyed with several themes and designs, posted some idea threads on here for inspiration, almost bought a few junker cabs to convert but never pulled the trigger on anything. Now I've decided to build them a pedestal that is not themed, won't look out of place in the house, is kinda boring, but does all the game stuff that they enjoy.
I'm basing it on the vewlix style, but loosely so. This isn't a clone, the angles won't match, and the controls will be based on the gaming we're most interested in. It will be a build in two phases. Phase "Blanche Dubois" began when I began doodling on graph paper and trolling google images for inspiration. Blanche Dubois will complete when the panel is playable, but is sitting atop a box or small table or something. Phase "Blanche Devereaux" will begin when I've completed at least one unrelated project, feel that I've really put it off for far too long, and go buy some more wood. Blanch Devereaux will be complete when the handiwork from Blanche Dubois is positioned semi-permanently above Blanche Devereaux in some hot Blanche on Blanche action.
Plans for both Dubois and Devereaux (the double Ds in my life) are complete and it's only a matter of turning larger bits of wood into smaller bits or wood and then making them larger colored bits of wood.
This is the panel. It is ~19"x46" as shown. The smaller panels pull out mostly because I thought it would be neat. No real reason, it's completely unnecessarily and overly complicated. Just like life. The eagle eyed may notice a few places where my router skills decided to color outside the lines. I'll fix this with bondo, or in post-production so you all think I did.
These are the sides being done up.
This is a pro-tip. I call it "refreshing the factory edge." I don't own a table saw, but even if I did I'd still do this because in my experience most home tools just don't cut straight. They cut mostly straight. Even the big box stores only gurantee cuts to be within a 1/16th or sometimes an 1/8th. So after I make a cut I clamp to a known factory edge that is nice and straight and template bit the edge, thereby refreshing the factory edge. With bit changes and whatnot it takes me about 3 minutes. Yes it slows you down, yes it adds up, but I don't do this hobby because I'm in a hurry and it saves me time on the back end because everything fits together soooo much nicer. Boom, take it or leave it. YMMV.
Parting note: Rumor has it that there is some movement on the Space Base project. Not enough to merit a bump or an update, but enough to say that those wheels which seemed to be long stuck were actually slowly turning. We've adjusted the gearing on those wheels and hopefully we'll see some more on that front before too much longer.