CBO's cabinet conversion

[Crashburnoveride]

Hello all. Like most of us here I've always dreamed of having my own arcade machine. I finally started to make that dream a reality. However I'm not as clever and talented as some on this forum so this thread may seem boring to most. My goal is to just get my feet wet in the arcade realm and create a basic fun multicade. I'm going to be sharing my build here and asking questions along the way.

Using an old Dell computer.
Windows XP.

I have too many projects going on to build my own cabinet so I bought an old cabinet off craigslist and drove an hour to pick it up. Its just the cab no guts. It was a War Final Assault machine so it used to look like this:





Pretty awesome looking. I bought it looking like this:



The control panel board was hacked up so the first thing i did was replace it. Happened to have some scrap mdf around.







I bought happ buttons and sticks. Enough buttons for fighters.  Cut the holes.







Touched up the paint a little. I've still got a lot of work to do stay tuned. Any tips or advice is appreciated!!

[Crashburnoveride]

I'm planning on using a flat panel tv so I'll be trimming the back off by 8 inches. It just doesn't need to be so colossal. So cutting on the green line.



You can see I mounted one joystick. I had some trouble tho! Almost ruined the board but it'll work! So excited for this thing!!

[Crashburnoveride]

I had an old 17" tv I thought about using but it was just too small. I eventually found a 25" flat screen on CL for $15! I just went and picked it up. Its not the largest screen that could fit but I'm very pleased with it for 15 dollars. It has a vga port too. So I dont need a fancy video card.



This next picture is my mock design for the cab. Cut 8", I already have carbon fiber wrap for the cp, and I found this gaming sticker bomb wrap on ebay for the CP sides. I think it will look cool and unique.



It came with a coin door and I'm not sure what I'll do with the marquee yet. 

[yotsuya]

Awwww, you lost me at cutting the cab....

[Slippyblade]

Looks like the same cab as a Mortal Kombat.  I think I woulda just bought an MK resto art kit and gone from there.  How much was the cab, itself?  Any idea what you are gonna do on the sides?

[Crashburnoveride]

Awwww, you lost me at cutting the cab....

Why?

[Crashburnoveride]

Looks like the same cab as a Mortal Kombat.  I think I woulda just bought an MK resto art kit and gone from there.  How much was the cab, itself?  Any idea what you are gonna do on the sides?

Ya that would be cool actually slippy. I havent cut it yet so I'll do some research on that. I can't remember exactly but I think I paid $100 for the cab. Maybe less but not more. As of now nothing on the sides unless I find a graphic I really like.

[yotsuya]

I'd keep it full sized - you never know down the road what you might do with  the cab.

[Crashburnoveride]

I'd keep it full sized - you never know down the road what you might do with  the cab.

Well you may be right. If there comes a time when I can justify spending 200+ dollars on a set of stickers. Definitely can't do that now! Yikes...

[smass]

I'd totally mortal kombat the crap out of that thing.  I understand the budget issue, but I agree with Yots, if you have the room don't cut her.  Maybe Santa is reading the thread and can get you the artwork - if you are a good boy of course...

[Mike A]

Cutting that cab won't substantially reduce the cost of the artwork. It will, however, limit the future use of that cabinet. Who knows? Maybe you will get infected with the arcade bug. You will not be able to stuff an arcade monitor in there in the future if you butcher the cab now.

[leapinlew]

Cut it! There are a bazillion of those cabs and if you want to go with a big honking CRT later, sell it and get a new cab.

[Malenko]

I dont think cutting the 8" off is worth all the extra work. Its not just cutting its moving the braces, the casters, extending the back door (or back top plat the door butts up against), etc

[yotsuya]

Cut it! There are a bazillion of those cabs and if you want to go with a big honking CRT later, sell it and get a new cab.

Quiet, you!

[SuperGojira2001]

I wouldn't of cut the cabinet in case if you wanted to put in a CRT. 

[Crashburnoveride]

Well, for now at least I will not be chopping the cab. Most of you will be happy. I got the monitor mounted. The guy I bought the cab from gave me a piece of glass but its too big doesnt fit.  So I'll have to have it cut or buy something new. 



While cutting the lexan for the cp the bit slipped off and scratched it! Live with it or spend money on another piece??



 

[zinger]

You could try and cut the glass yourself with a $3 glass cutter. 

After all the time you'll put into this thing, you're not going to want those scratches on your control panel. I would just get another piece.

[Crashburnoveride]

After all the time you'll put into this thing, you're not going to want those scratches on your control panel. I would just get another piece.

Ugh... you're right. Cuz once you put the micro switches on the buttons dont fit thru the holes anymore do they? I figure they dont so I probably want it perfect before I wire everything up. Im going to check today if my local hardware store cuts glass too.

[leapinlew]

How is the glass too big? Is it too tall? If it's too wide, you will need to cut a new piece, but if it's too tall, it might need to be slid up more into the marquee area.

[barrymossel]

You could try and cut the glass yourself with a $3 glass cutter. 

If it's tempered you shouldn't cut I guess? Will shatter, right?

[Mike A]

There are ways to do it, but for your personal safety, don't try. It will probably crack or shatter or both.

[Crashburnoveride]

There are ways to do it, but for your personal safety, don't try. It will probably crack or shatter or both.

I'm definitely letting the hardware store cut it for me. They only charge $1 per cut. 

[Crashburnoveride]

How is the glass too big? Is it too tall? If it's too wide, you will need to cut a new piece, but if it's too tall, it might need to be slid up more into the marquee area.

Its too wide AND too tall. Literally just think the dood gave me any piece of glass he had around when I bought it. But oh well I'll figure it out.

[Crashburnoveride]

So what do u guys do for a monitor bezel? I was gonna tape and paint the backside of the glass black. Then maybe use foil tape to block all light. Thinking about glueing some dark foam in a square that will smush up to the tv edges to seal that gap.

[Crashburnoveride]

Ok WTF.  Whats the secret here guys? 

[PL1]

Ok WTF.  Whats the secret here guys? 

Check out Selfie's thread here.


Scott

[Spawn2k]

Ok WTF.  Whats the secret here guys? 

The way i make plexi overlays for my mame cabs.
1) Cut the plexi as close to the original cp as possible.
2) Clamp the plexi to your control panel and use at least 3 clamps on different sides so it will not slide around.
3) Use a flush trim bit and a router to route the outside edge.
4) Use a step drill bit to make holes where the buttons are. You just need them big enough for the router bit to fit though.
5) Use the flush trim bit and router to route button holes.

This will make a horrible mess but the plexi will be an exact copy of your control panel. I use a shop vac after each button hole. The biggest thing you have to watch out for is flakes of plexi getting under the router base. A flake might get caught and you will be dragging (and scratching) your overlay. The router may bump into a clamp and you will have to reposition the clamp so its out of the way. Do this one clamp at a time.

[rackoon]

forstner bits baby. Oh yea   Make the pretty holes in the plexi

[Malenko]

clamp the plex to the CP, dremel it out. Its a poor mans router, just get a triangle shaped bit, plunge near the outside and do a loop. Get a pack of the cheap sanding bits in case they get clogged.

Its messy but effective.  Optionally, measure everything and get a piece of plexi CNC'ed

[Crashburnoveride]

Thanks for all the suggestions. This forum has been great so far. I'm getting another sheet of lexan and avoiding the plexi. Will be buying a forstner bit this go around. *fingers crossed* will update y'all with how it went!

[Mike A]

Lexan (polycarbonate) is harder to crack, but it scratches easier than Plexiglass (acrylic).

[Crashburnoveride]

P.s. my local hardware store was scared to cut my glass. Idc if it shatters so i might score it and use my father in laws brake (break?) I already have a score tool for tile. If it shatters do people use 1/4" plexi for the screen cover? Or should I have a new piece of glass cut? Was thinking too maybe use wood with just the screen cut out and a smaller piece of plexi there.

[Malenko]

I use plexi to replace monitor glass all the time. The stuff hardware stores cut isnt tempered , so it'll break into sharp jagged pieces.

[Mike A]

Acrylic is optically clearer than glass. It is more durable than glass. It is much lighter than glass. The main downside is that it is far easier to scratch than glass. As long as you can keep people from poking the screen, acrylic is the better choice.

[opt2not]

Acrylic is also less static-resistant than glass. So dust will accumulate faster on acrylic than glass will.

[jennifer]

Well, for now at least I will not be chopping the cab. Most of you will be happy. I got the monitor mounted. The guy I bought the cab from gave me a piece of glass but its too big doesnt fit.  So I'll have to have it cut or buy something new. 



While cutting the lexan for the cp the bit slipped off and scratched it! Live with it or spend money on another piece??



 

   There might just be some hope for you yet .... A gutted cab like that doesn't seem much of a loss if you were to just chop around on it, but it does have a name and number, and still holds the secrets of a long life (maybe someday, for someone else?) but for now, that extra cab, will help keep it more stable in heated battle, and bonus points to others around here  with the OMG what!!!  mentality .... HEY JENNIFER, what do you think of acrylics? Jenn?... Oh never mind, She must have went to her mothers....Sorry

[Crashburnoveride]

Alright alright... I got another piece of lexan and went with a step bit this time.



I must reccomend the step bit it worked amazingly well! Cut great holes quickly with little mess.



And I got some stuff mounted before I ran out of time. Finally over that hurdle! 



What free front ends do you guys reccomend? Something easy to setup doesnt need to be fancy.

[markc74]

For frontends, there's a lot of options out there - it depends whether you want bling (Hyperspin), Easy (Mala et al) or sandbox (Attract Mode).

Personally, I think Attract Mode is the best there is but it's a marmite conversation and it depends on how you want the whole thing to look.

Your joysticks look a little low to me btw. If they're comfortable then great but usually they sit a little higher I think. You can either route out some space underneath or get longer shafts if mounting in thick wood.

[Crashburnoveride]

They definitely are lower than yours, but I'm not interested in routing it. So I'll probably leave it as is and get longer ones later if need be.

[Crashburnoveride]

Your joysticks look a little low to me btw. If they're comfortable then great but usually they sit a little higher I think. You can either route out some space underneath or get longer shafts if mounting in thick wood.

Does happ sell longer sticks??

[Crashburnoveride]

Is this how you wire these with the zero delay encoder? Is there no ground wire that connects everything? Also hiw should I mount the encoder board? Put little washers behind it or can all the pokey solder points just rest on the wood?

[PL1]

Is this how you wire these with the zero delay encoder? Is there no ground wire that connects everything?

That switch is wired correctly.

One wire on the Common (COM) tab, the other on the Normally Open (NO) tab, and nothing on the Normally Closed (NC) tab.

The ZD encoder is an "active high" device -- apply 5v to an input to trigger the related output.

If you look at the underside of the ZD PCB, all the wires/traces on the outside are tied together so that's the 5v "daisy-chain" and the inner wires connect to the inputs.

Also hiw should I mount the encoder board? Put little washers behind it or can all the pokey solder points just rest on the wood?

As long as the surface you're mounting the encoder on is non-conductive (i.e. wood, not metal), it will be fine.


Scott

[Crashburnoveride]

Awesome thanks. I will wire it all up tonight! 

[Crashburnoveride]

All wired up!!



Testing a few roms in mame.



Getting error messages like this with about 50% of the roms i download and have no clue how to fix it so i just delete them.



Wife and brother in law testing some games.



So I tried setting up mala, but for some idiotic reason the download doesnt include all necessary files. What garbage is this? So I'm going to try maximus when i get home today. Its only $9.99 why not? Obviously still need glass and cosmetic work, but it was fun to get it operational!! Im sure I'll be tweaking this thing for a long time.

[Crashburnoveride]

I have ordered a new piece of tempered glass and am waiting on that. I wanted glass so i could paint the back side black around the monitor, and be able to scrape it off with a razor blade if I went with a larger display later on.

I downloaded maximus and even tho its stupid easy to setup it isnt working for my mame emulator.  I selected the exe file, but it says artwork cannot be located. It found my sega emulator but i had difficulty mapping controls and couldn't play a game, but it did load the game.

Another thing I did yesterday was extend and replace the computer power button with an arcade button placed up on the top of the machine.



I used some of the cabinets old wiring to give me a quick disconnect option for when I need to pull the tower out to work on. So far I can handle all the wiring and physical aspects of the arcade but software is frustrating me.

Any ideas on how to get mame to work in maximus?

[Crashburnoveride]

Little update. I installed a new 18" marquee light.



Got new bolts for the doors and those are on now. Also bought new front leg leveler bolts and shoved a rubber cap on them.



I just cant see myself spending hundreds on a full art kit so I might just give it some fresh paint and buy cheaper multicade side art. Not as fancy for sure but better than nothing. I need new T molding in places too.

As far as mame in maximus a google search informed me the .xml file in mame needs to be edited in newer mame versions. All verbage of "machine" needs to change to "game" and then it works. So I got mame going.  maximus takes forever to boot up tho. Playing snes roms made me realize i need more buttons for menu navigation. So i have some more black happs coming in for dedicated quarter bittons located near the coin door. I can't wait for my glass to come in so it will look legit!

[Crashburnoveride]

I picked up the glass from my local shop. Its a peefect fit and only cost $40. Got to painting it.



So I gave up on maximus because it was slow and didnt support mame well at all. I tried attract mode and wow! Easy to setup, free, looks good, and functions well! If only I had just started there! I'm rocking the original theme, but am definitely excited to read up and try a new theme. Here it is with glass installed and you can see the KI marquee I bought.



So idk what the deal is with my windows xp, but internet explorer sucks, and won't let me download google chrome. It wont even load google.com and blocks my favorite ROMsite. Seriously? So for every rom I have to download it on my laptop and transfer it to the arcade pc via usb storage device.  Very annoying but it works. So instead of pulling back the machine to plug in the stick to the pc I bought this:



I will install it somewhere inconspicuous on the cabinet and will just make things easier. Plus I guess you could play the arcade wearing headphones if for some reason that was needed. Added bonus. Still workin on it but dang that glass helps a lot!

[Mike A]

Setup the cab on a wireless network. You can easily transfer files. With remote access software you can work on you software from your couch.