Victorian MAME cabinet started

[dmhayden]

I've started a MAME project that I think is unusual.  I own an old Victorian style house and a normal arcade cabinet would look odd here.  So I'm going to build a roll-top desk MAME cabinet.

I'm starting with these plans http://store.yahoo.com/plansnow/rolltop.html and modifying from there.  The desktop surface will be the control panel.  It'll be on pull-out slides designed to look like a drawer to give your arms a little room when playing (I don't want to knock my knuckles on the desk sides while thrashing about during play. Below the control panel will be a second drawer that houses a keyboard.  All of this will raise the height of the desk up.  I'm planning on counter-top height so you can play on a bar stool or standing up.

The monitor and PC go inside the desk at the back.  I'll modify the depth to hold the monitor.

A shelf at the bottom will add stability (since the slidable desktop won't.

I've already put together a prototype 2-person control panel and bought a bare-bones Athlon 2400 system.  Oh yes, then there's the full set of ROMs.

Comments?  Any suggestions for a decent free CAD program to help with the drawings??

Dave

PS How the @!&*()!@ to you insert a decent url in these messages.  I have a link above to the plans, but I wanted you to be able to click the words 'these plans" and have it take you to the link.  I tried the url button on the "Add YABBC tags" section while composing the message.  That inserted url .. /url in the message... at the bottom of the message, not where the cursor was located.  I can't figure out what to do from there.

Is this one of those "it works fine with IE" things? I'm using Mozilla 1.5

[SirPeale]

[ url=your url here ] TEXT [ /url ]

[Tilzs]

Hope you have a good tablesaw because makeing a tambore is a pain in the ass. Good luck

[menace]

I can't wait to see the finished product!

[RetroJames]

I've started a MAME project that I think is unusual.  I own an old Victorian style house and a normal arcade cabinet would look odd here.  So I'm going to build a roll-top desk MAME cabinet.

I'm starting with these plans http://store.yahoo.com/plansnow/rolltop.html and modifying from there.  The desktop surface will be the control panel.  It'll be on pull-out slides designed to look like a drawer to give your arms a little room when playing (I don't want to knock my knuckles on the desk sides while thrashing about during play. Below the control panel will be a second drawer that houses a keyboard.  All of this will raise the height of the desk up.  I'm planning on counter-top height so you can play on a bar stool or standing up.

The monitor and PC go inside the desk at the back.  I'll modify the depth to hold the monitor.

A shelf at the bottom will add stability (since the slidable desktop won't.

I've already put together a prototype 2-person control panel and bought a bare-bones Athlon 2400 system.  Oh yes, then there's the full set of ROMs.

Comments?  Any suggestions for a decent free CAD program to help with the drawings??

Dave

PS How the @!&*()!@ to you insert a decent url in these messages.  I have a link above to the plans, but I wanted you to be able to click the words 'these plans" and have it take you to the link.  I tried the url button on the "Add YABBC tags" section while composing the message.  That inserted url .. /url in the message... at the bottom of the message, not where the cursor was located.  I can't figure out what to do from there.

Is this one of those "it works fine with IE" things? I'm using Mozilla 1.5

Isn't that more of a Colonial rolltop?  I love the idea though.  I live in an old craftsman that we are renovating (There is dust on the keyboard as I type this...sigh).  It has some Victorian accents and I considered a project like this as well although I was thinking more gothic with columns and alot of ornate woodwork etc.  Go for the Jules Verne look, maybe wrought iron joystick shafts, glass knobs, marquee lit with gas or candle light!  .  Love the idea, can't wait to see what you come up with and what it inspires from others.  Have Fun!  

[dmhayden]

I plan to buy the tambour from Vandyke restorers.  My table saw is hopelessly damaged and is headed for the dumpster.  I'm going to buy a new one.

[Frostillicus]

I've started a MAME project that I think is unusual.  I own an old Victorian style house and a normal arcade cabinet would look odd here.  So I'm going to build a roll-top desk MAME cabinet.

I'm starting with these plans http://store.yahoo.com/plansnow/rolltop.html and modifying from there.  The desktop surface will be the control panel.  It'll be on pull-out slides designed to look like a drawer to give your arms a little room when playing (I don't want to knock my knuckles on the desk sides while thrashing about during play. Below the control panel will be a second drawer that houses a keyboard.  All of this will raise the height of the desk up.  I'm planning on counter-top height so you can play on a bar stool or standing up.

The monitor and PC go inside the desk at the back.  I'll modify the depth to hold the monitor.

A shelf at the bottom will add stability (since the slidable desktop won't.

I've already put together a prototype 2-person control panel and bought a bare-bones Athlon 2400 system.  Oh yes, then there's the full set of ROMs.

Comments?  Any suggestions for a decent free CAD program to help with the drawings??

Dave

PS How the @!&*()!@ to you insert a decent url in these messages.  I have a link above to the plans, but I wanted you to be able to click the words 'these plans" and have it take you to the link.  I tried the url button on the "Add YABBC tags" section while composing the message.  That inserted url .. /url in the message... at the bottom of the message, not where the cursor was located.  I can't figure out what to do from there.

Is this one of those "it works fine with IE" things? I'm using Mozilla 1.5

Isn't that more of a Colonial rolltop?  I love the idea though.  I live in an old craftsman that we are renovating (There is dust on the keyboard as I type this...sigh).  It has some Victorian accents and I considered a project like this as well although I was thinking more gothic with columns and alot of ornate woodwork etc.  Go for the Jules Verne look, maybe wrought iron joystick shafts, glass knobs, marquee lit with gas or candle light!  .  Love the idea, can't wait to see what you come up with and what it inspires from others.  Have Fun!  

Oh man I used to be sooo into SteamPunk stuff.  Still am - it's such an awesome genre.  What a fascinating time-period that was.  That would be one awesome mame cab!

[RetroJames]

SteamPunk

Steam Punk?

Fulton's Vandals?

[dmhayden]

I believe roll-tops were invented in the 1850's or 1870's in New York.  The one that I'm patterning this after is very simple to match my very limited woodworking skills. It won't be a perfect match for the house, but hey, ya gotta compromise somewhere, right?  I figured it would look pretty cool and would be easy to open and close.

I actually was thinking of having no marquee, but I LOVE the idea of
glass knobs etc.  Not sure I'll be able to do that, but it's food for thought for certain.

Thanks much for the input.

[RetroJames]

Do you see what I see....

http://www.ohmegasalvage.com/Showroom%20Pages/mantles.htm

[RetroJames]

Is this a WICO?

[RetroJames]

 
  1905 CAILLE O SCOPE VICTORIAN ARCADE MACHINE  


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3268216610&category=20270

[dmhayden]

Ohhhh man.  You people are giving me way too many cool ideas

The mantels are a brilliant idea, especially for our house which has four spectacular fireplaces, but all on the first floor.  Still, I think I'll stick with the roll-top idea for now because it's a little more portable than a mantel.

I also considered victorian arcades, but I don't want to tear one apart and I don't have the skill to build a repro.

[menace]

For joystick handles you could use bathroom sink handles vertically instead of horizontally--maybe a nice porcelain with some ornate artwork on them--lets see if i can find a pic..here we go...  I love the idea of using the old door knob--make a great spinner!  See if you can do Jules verne proud

[Frostillicus]

SteamPunk

Steam Punk?

Fulton's Vandals?

Check this out

[RetroJames]

The marquee could be made from stained glass with an ornate iron border and those electric flickering candle bulbs behind it.

Also, for the coindoor you could get a couple of coin mechs from the old style gumball machines so when you put you penny in you have to turn the crank!

[Luxury]

awesome ideas!  i love it!  oh, if only i had the woodworking skills, my whole house would be steampunk.  

here is a quick design i made up if i were to do an antique cabinet.  use the rolltop for the control panel, and mount the monitor inside the cabinet vertically, and use mirrors and lenses to reflect it out.  then these could fold up and your left with a perfectly normal looking cabinet.  

EDIT:  oops...after looking at those plans - the viewable monitor is absurdy high.  so just imagine it being much lower - or not  
also - on second thought - this design wouldnt work though because the screen would still be backwards, so i guess another mirror mounted at a 45 degree angle inside the cabinet, with the monitor mounted horizontally would work.  it wouldnt have to be a big monitor though because of the magnifying lens - only a 15" or something.  

[Tilzs]

You can yoke flip your monitor so that it displays mirrored. That way when you bounce it off the mirror it'll look correct.

http://www.brasington.org/arcade/tech/flip/

[Stingray]

A lot of really interesting ideas in this thread. Goodluck, and keep the updates coming.

-S

[RetroJames]

You can yoke flip your monitor so that it displays mirrored. That way when you bounce it off the mirror it'll look correct.

http://www.brasington.org/arcade/tech/flip/

If you only use MAME you can screen flip in that app as well.

[Tilzs]

You can yoke flip your monitor so that it displays mirrored. That way when you bounce it off the mirror it'll look correct.

http://www.brasington.org/arcade/tech/flip/

If you only use MAME you can screen flip in that app as well.

Well yeah but then if you aren't in mame everything is backwards. Likely you'd have a frontend and everything on that would be backwards as well

[Harakiri]

OH my god!  

Never saw it that way, are you going to place it in the "Plaza"?  

[patrickl]

Won't you get problems focussing when you use a magnifying glass? You only get a sharp picture if you are at an exact distance from the lens.

[Frostillicus]

If I were you I'd mount the monitor like a Dragon's Lair machine, just barely angled up but mostly horizontal.  Then you can just have a couple of doors to open it or one big flip top door. It looks a little like a cabaret cab with a front door and roll-top cover.