Glad to see this place is still kicking! I attempted to make my own control panel about 10 years ago, but never did get it completed. Everything was going great until I mis-cut a hinge slot and screwed up my CP top. Once that happened, I lost interest in it and never messed with it again.
I came across an old shoe box full of buttons, T-molding, an IPAC (PS2, lol), 2x 8-way sticks, a 4-way stick, and a bunch of other random build related things from my first attempt. I thought, well... it's a shame to let it go to waste, so here I am.
This time around, I've got a man cave, so I've decided to go with an actual stand-up cabinet instead of just a portable CP. A few weeks ago, I started thinking up some ideas on what I'd like to do. The man cave is still a little strapped for space, so I was shooting for something 'slim' that didn't stick out too far from the wall. I've also got angled ceilings, so the height against the wall is too short to stand a full size machine up against it. After doing some online searching for thin/slim solutions, I came across the Vigolix build.
The original Vigolix is more like a half-size cabinet, which isn't exactly what I was shooting for. Once digging further into it, I saw where some folks had made a larger 2-player version by doubling all the measurements. This would be the style cabinet that would work best for my situation, even if I did have to make some additional height/depth alterations.
So far this is what I've got in mind...
- Custom short/thin Vigolix cabinet made specifically for the available space in the man cave
- Initially, cabinet will be 100% designed for MAME
- May possibly add classic consoles to it later, but only if I can find a way to easily play with the intended controllers
- Main control panel will be 2 player controls with one additional 4-way stick
- Button layout will be 4 on bottom, 3 on top... Really looking forward to playing some old fighters
- Theme will be classic arcade... Centipede, Missile Command, Galaga, Asteroids, Galaga, etc.
- Since the cabinet is thin, definitely cant go with anything CRT... planning on going with a 27" widescreen PC monitor
- Due to the widescreen, planning on seeing if I can get one of those digital bezel things to work with it
- PC wise, still not sure... from what I've read on BYOAC, something with an Intel i5, 8GB RAM, Win 7 x64
- Due to space concerns with the short ceiling, going to find a way to incorporate speakers into the marquee
This weekend I bought a 1/4 sheet of paneling and did a mock up (below). Not a huge fan of the batman ears on top, and would like to level them off but wont be able to due to space concerns with the monitor/marquee. Going to drop the control panel by an inch or so, plus tilt it a little bit... feels weird with it flat.
One question I do have is getting custom artwork done for it. I am really drawn to the side art of the old school Missile Command cabinet. I know there are many folks who offer custom side art, but am having trouble understanding how I can give them my cabinet dimensions and then have them design side art for it. Obviously, the original side art of the Missile Command cabinet will not fit on mine, is there a way to redesign the old art to make it fit in the space that I have available?
Here's a pic of the mock up.