Hi all, I have wanted to build one of these cabinets for a long time. Finally getting around to attempting it. I have been reading lots of information found on this site, and my thanks to all the information that has been provided by everyone else.
I am starting this thread to start getting specific help for my build from you experts. Please feal free to critize and offer suggestions.
My goal is mostly to play the old school classics with MAME, and maybe some of the older fighters, like MK and MK2. I am also now pretty sure I want some pinball to be able to be played on there.
I decided to build a slim cabinet since it will be a LED screen. (I realize crt is 'better' but I don't want to deal with it, I'm not going to change this decision). Design is very similar to others that have come before. I have used previous builders sketches provided here and modified them to fit my choices.
I finally decided to go w/ MDF, I almost went with ply mostly to avoid the weight, and potential risk of water damage as this will be in the basement (basement is dry, but you never know). I did end up going with MDF mostly because of its ease to work with and paint. I decided I will build the base w/ 2x4's and plywood bottom shelf such that the MDF sides are raised up off the carpet 'just in case'.
For the screen, I WAS set on the idea of a 16:10, but then figured out that they pretty much don't exist anymore at the size I wanted, or are too expensive for my use here. I saw 4:3 monitors were still available, but they weren't very big, and if I flipped onevertical to get better use of the available space for all the vertical games, then horizontal games would be kinda small......so I went with the idea I saw a few people mention, and I am not sure I have seen someone post of pic of actually doing it... I got a 16:9 32", the LG 32MA68HY-P (IPS panels) I plan on flipping it vertical, with a tinted sheet of glass/plexi in front of it, hoping to hide whatever part of the screen is 'not' being used at any given aspect ratio. My biggest fear here, especially now that I have it, is its size. It seems big. Anything Horitzontal is fine which is why I went w/ 32" for the width when playing horiztonal games, but anything vertical is big. And Future Pinball running full screen vertical is even bigger.
Current plans for controls are two 4-way/8-way switchable servostik's, 6 buttons for each, a spinner w/ two buttons, a track ball, and some side buttons for pinball.
Plan on screwing and gluing the top and upper rear panels. Only screwing on the middle and lower rear panels for access to the monitor. And making a 'door' on the front panel where the coin door is to access the computer from the front easily. Also a drawer under the control panel.
Pics below show the two sides cut-out. (I cut one out, and used a flush trim router bit to copy the second). Also shows how games look on the monitor, and how big it will be when in place in the cabinet (all of the screen will be visible to the user through tinted glass, none of it will be hidden behind any form of bezel)
Base is 22" deep. total height is 75". Top of control panel should end up being about 37" screen angle is ~14deg Inside width is planned to be 24"