Hi everyone!
I’m posting to show you my new arcade cabinet.
It’s not going to appeal to everyone, as it’s slim, simple, has an lcd screen, has no t-molding, doesn't have a name, etc.
So not a purist or historically correct build, but never the less it’s exactly what I want
I became a byoac member in 2004, converted an old gutted atari cab to mame in 2005 (
Picture /
Thread), and gave it away the next year.
Have been on and off the forums since then, but when I saw
Blip being built (loved it!) I decided that I wanted another cab when we settled down.
And when I saw
Mimic - after picking up my jaw from the floor - I immediately got the idea for the second screen for artwork.
It’s taken until now as I wanted to move to a bigger place first, and I haven’t been able to prioritize it.
Software for game selection was mostly coded in purebasic back in 2017. I bought parts and tools over time, and MDF and control panel parts in 2018. Finally started the build in December 2019.
Was playable before christmas, so woodworking progress stopped, but today I finished the last trim pieces around the screen, so time for some pics.
The MDF is a special type from Portugal, called Valcromat, which is coloured before pressing so it has color all the way through.
It’s more expensive, but it makes it super simple and I like the look. (It comes in a variety of colors)
Inspired by Mimic, I went for RGB leds everywhere, to make it easy to pick up for guests. Servosticks, ultralux buttons, ipac ultimate, all from Ultimarc.
The leds are operational, and only the required buttons for each game light up, in correct colors. But I need to rewire a few things so leds are currently disabled.
The two 40 inch TV’s and the laptop cost me a total of $70, so it would have been a cheap build had it not been for the expensive control panel and colored MDF.
I’ve kept the design and construction very simple. It’s fixed to the wall by a large ‘french cleat’, so I just lift it up and slide it in place and it’s dead stable.
I'm not a perfectionist, so it's a bit rough when you look closely, but I'm happy with it.
Not going to put a thousand games on it. 20-30 or so is enough. I want to keep the frontend as simple as it is now, just left/right to switch games (all graphics change) and any button to start.
It's a bit more work to add games with semi custom graphics, mame layout files etc, so I'm only at ~12 games so far
Will probably have a few console games as well. (Last ninja, superfrog, super mario, ++)
I'll upload some build pics later. (Edit: Added some in the next post, and a video of the front end.)
Thanks to Laythe for help and code examples for purebasic and Ipac programming, and to everyone for inspiration over 15+ years
Let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Frode
(Norway)