Hello everyone!
Like all of you, I’ve been bitten by the arcade-building bug.
A few weeks ago I stumbled across
scoodidabop’s post on reddit, and I thought it was about the coolest thing I’ve seen in years. I had set up retro-pie almost a year ago, and loved being able to play all of my old favorite games; seeing that post made me realize that I wanted step-up my game and build one of those myself.
A few days later I discovered the BYOAC forums, and I’ve spent the past week obsessively looking through various builds, and finding myself in awe of the amazing machines that the members of this forum have created. I’ve scoured this forum searching for answers to my questions, and finding an answer to nearly all of them. I’ve decided that I
-want- NEED to build one of these to have for myself.
Background on me:
Planning: 6/10. I tell myself that I’ll over-engineer this, but in reality I’ll probably end up getting impatient and start building this thing sooner rather than later. I’m currently building a model of my idea in sketchup to make sure everything fits how I’d like it to.
Technical know-how: 6/10. I’ve built a few computers, set up some home servers, and networks. I’m confident that I can get software that is already written to work, but anything beyond extremely basic programming is out of my league.
Woodworking: 3/10. Actual woodworking skills are limited, but I’m pretty handy, so I think I’ll manage. I’ve been watching youtube videos (I’ve found
Steve Ramsey’s channel to be extremely informative) and have learned a lot.
Design Influences:
ChanceKJ’s
Flynn’s Arcade for the majority of cabinet.
Pauly’s
Ready Player One cabinet for his control panel’s button layout, and his eventually discarded
three-sided marquee idea. (I'm going to stick with a standard marquee. I would like the possibility of transitioning to an LCD marquee down the road)
Design Goals:
Have an internal frame to support the structure, at least up until the control panel. This will primarily used by adults. I’d like to make sure that a couple of grown men leaning on it while playing won’t make it fall apart.
Exterior will be made out of 3/4” cabinet-grade plywood. Birch seems to a popular choice. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
(No internal structure. Per advice in this thread, it isn't necessary)
Three-sided marquee, as mentioned above. - Locking quick-release rear access panels for easy access to the controls.
- 4-player coin door with a hidden free play button.
- 2.1 Audio system, with volume control.
- Tinted plexiglass screen to hide the monitor when not in use and allow for that “floating” look while the screen is on.
- RGB LED buttons and joysticks that change with each game.
Clear control panel? I’m not 100% on this yet, but I think it might be interesting to have all of the wires visible (need to make cable management a priority if this happens), back-lit by a soft LED. This doesn't seem to be feasible with my desire to have RGB buttons. I'm going to keep this idea for another build. (Already have plans for a bartop) - Light guns.
Equipment:
- Buttons: IL PSL-L Buttons [/url]
- Joysticks: TBD
iPAC4 to control all of the buttons and joysticks. One will not meet my needs. Either I will be going with two Ultimarc UIOs (and deleting the PACLED64s, or going with two minipacs. - PACLED64 x2 for RGB LED controls.
- 32” LCD Monitor
- Computer: Surpplus business computer ORDERED i5 2500. Will have 8-16GB RAM, a GTX750ti graphics card, and a nice SSD.
- Software: Hyperspin? I’ve heard tales about how difficult it can be, but it seems to have a lot of features.
Theme:
TBD
Questions:
Ultimarc U360s or servostiks? How much does microswitch vs analog effect gameplay? I'm primarily planning on running the classics, and some fighters. Some flight games would be interesting though.
Does monitor refresh rate have a massive effect on gameplay? I’ve found several low-lag, 60hz monitors that I would like to use. I’ve never had any problems with standard TVs when using my retropie. Is it much different with a build like this?? Would modern graphics cards be able to overcome the limitations of the MAME/monitor?
Next steps:
-
Finalize design plans in sketchup.
- Purchase materials
- Build cabinet/paint/install graphics
- Configure software
- Install electronics