Obligatory "been lurking for a long time and finally ready to jump in" statement goes here.
When I was around 9-10 years old my Aunt bought me a NES advantage for my birthday....
I thought that thing was AWESOME....not because it was awesome playing console games on arcade controls, rather because a dream was born; I had a dream of building a cabinet that housed my TV and my NES and attaching my advantage to the it and having my very own 'arcade' in my bedroom. All of my friends would think I was the coolest and play my arcade with me. Never did it.
Fast forward to a few years ago when a buddy showed me his NES emulator on his phone, a quick google search landed me on MAME and emulation and my dream was reborn when I landed on BYOAC.
I am a busy guy and over the past few years, I would lurk here when I found some spare time and thought that some of these builds were glorious and I wanted to do the same.
Until a few weeks ago.....a bar/restaurant in my area recently added a small 'arcade' to it's facility - about 20 or so classic games on rehabbed cabinets, mostly garbled together. I took my boys family there for lunch and my 8 year old son says "dad, wouldn't it be cool if we could play games t'like this at home?"
Enough said. I'm sold. I guess the apple really doesn't fall that far and now I am guaranteed to have at least one 'friend' that thinks it is cool to do this, I am jumping in to the pool that is my childhood dream. I really never did plan on growing up anyway.
So, since I am such a busy guy, I really haven't had enough time to pour over all of the undoubtedly amazing builds on here, there is one, in particular, that caught my (and a lot of others, no doubt) eyes; Chance's FLYNN's Arcade.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=135116.0Obviously, this is a stellar build, but more impressive is the attention to detail that the build thread has. I am a guy who is known for millions of ideas that I rarely complete, and when I do start them, rarely do I give them the polish that is required to be considered on the level of the high quality builds I have seen here, namely FLYNN's and others.
So, I have decided to use my own build thread, and you guys, as a way to force myself to complete this project in an UPSCALE fashion that is needed for me to receive the hallowed Spousal Approval that I am after. Please feel free to demand (and provide the wisdom required for) a high quality completed build on this one. I have no idea hos long this will take, as I tend to obsess over my current projects until they are 75% complete and then tail off...I DO NOT want to do that this time, so we shall see.
OK, so here it goes....
Controls: IL Convex, 2 ball top US360's, 2 ball top j-sticks, U-Track pearl Trackball.
TV: 32" TBD
Computer: Custom built Emulation machine with Nvidia TI750 and some other stuff that I built last year
Cabinet: Wide body, low profile LCD design. 4 player CP
Electronics: Ipac Ultimate I/O, IL RGB-LEDs, Spare PSU for Cab lights etc, OLD PC speakers/sub I have laying around
Design Goals:-3/4 Cabinet Birch with MDF CP
-LED backlight for the marquee.
-Faux 4-player coin panel. Matching color return buttons, theme logo vinyl graphic.
-Chassis mounted volume control and USB, located on front of the CP.
-2.1 audio system.
-Top cabinet ventilation. Going for a clean look, so i'll hide them up top.
-Clean and SEMI-organized CP wire job. (I doubt I have the fortitude to do the beautiful job on this that some of you have, but I'll Try)
-IL Concave RGB/LED buttons (black tops, lit rings) (As seen on the Two-Headed Beast/Flynn's)
-wire coin buttons on front panel add credits, no coin buttons on CP
-Magnetically attached marque holder.
-Hyperspin Frontend with custom GUI skin.
-Removable CP module. Bolts, washers and clamping knobs to make Cab/CP separation easy/painless,
Control Panel: -Modified from jarrett's "Space Paranoids" 4-Player design.
-4 player controls, P1/2 6-button, P3/4 4-button. 8way sticks, recessed trackball.
-4 Start button,
-2 MAME master control buttons: Pause and Exit
-no bolts or plates shown on surface.
-3 button power I/O somewhere. One latching for master power, then one momentary each for TV and PC.
Game list (Must Have's):- My simplified version of ALL-KILLER
-NBA JAM
-NFL BLITZ
-2on2 OPEN ICE
-Ghosts-n-Goblins
-Ms. Pac-Man
-The Simpsons
-TMNT
-GTA1
-Donkey Kong series
-Marvel VS Capcom
-Metal Slug Series
-Final Fight
-Double Dragon
-Mortal Kombat Series (possibly X)
-Street Fighter Series (possibly IV?)
-Golden Tee/Tiger Woods (trackball golf)
-Centipede
-Many, Many more...
Design steps:1. Front End design and Software configuration (CHECK!)
2. Planning, sourcing, materials (Started)
3. CP Build
4. Finalize Cab design
5. Built the Cab at the shop
6. Paint and/or Laminate the Cab
7. Artwork
8. Move the Cab to my basement.
9. Spousal approval
10. Beer, Juiceboxes & Video games.
Theme and Artwork. My sons are currently big Star Wars fans, especially Darth Vader. I am a casual Star Wars fan and I like the subtle colors/ design that a an Imperial themed cabinet can be, so that's the plan. A subtle, Dark Imperial theme. Also, I have a few ideas that I think will make my cabinet unique, and a few sources that I am hoping to be able to utilize....in true Chance fashion, I will keep those under wraps for now...
OK, so here we go. Time to get started.
P.S. Chance: I hope you are not offended by my blatant plagiarism, and if you aren't, get used to it as I am going to try to mimic your build early and often in hopes that I can end up with a flat out AMAZING build like you did.
If you are, let me know and I will attempt to be much less obvious...