"Arcade Classics" - not my name choice **COMPLETE**

[firedance]

Hi Guys n Gals,

Started work on my fourth bartop, this time its for a work mate as he saw my "misspent youth" and wanted a 2 player version, did have some construction pictures on a SD card but the  card reader on my pc tower decided it didn't like the the 16gb card and corrupted it, tried to rescue the pictures using various programs but could not be saved  , have now got this to read cards https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LFIXC8I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 so hopefully no more lost pictures 

anyways this is how far i'm upto, like i said it's quite similar to my "misspent youth" one just wider, going for a different approach for the marquee as my workmate is paying me "mates rates" so will add a few extra touches

the measurements of this bartop are 524mm wide (500mm wide control panel + 2x12mm mdf edges), 565mm high not including rubber feet and 470mm depth.

as you can see from the pictures I've gone for building it using side screws instead of battons i find this easy even tho you may see the filled screw holes through the vinyl, more on that later, painted the inside using "dulux once" - https://www.therange.co.uk/decorating/paint-and-painting-accessories/interior-paint/interior-woodcare-paint-varnishes-and-stains/skirting-board-paint/gloss-skirting-board-paint/dulux-once-gloss-paint , had used a tester pot before on other bartops just the MDF edges so thought i'd go for a large tin this time and paint the insides, seemed to take for ages to dry on the flat surfaces and soak into the edges  the tester pot didn't, maybe they changed the formula as i had the tester pot for ages  , anyways did a second coat on the edges and it covered it this time, maybe i didnt paint it on thick enough.

Once that was finally dried i added the black vinyl that wraps the top and rear fan section, the 2 ARCTIC 80mm fans for the rear exhaust,wires just tied up for now until needed, the fan grills are from ebay via china, like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2Pcs-8cm-Computer-PC-Case-AC-DC-Fan-Grill-Metal-Wire-Finger-Guard-Protector-G1JH/132764348371?hash=item1ee95f2fd3:g:a~AAAOSwYytak2vR, drilled straight through so i could use 25mm m4 countersunk bolts to bolt fans,MDF and grills as one instead of screws for the fans and then more screws for the grills.

The bottom intake fan is 120mm arctic, attached using the same method for the 80mm fans, in my parts box i had a gold fan grill, guess it came off a dead PSU at some point, so used that as its on the bottom it shouldn't matter  .

In the 5th picture you can see a bolt sticking up on both sides near the rear, that's my kinda fix for the rear door hinges as i followed the guide for drilling the holes on the rear door, it said 3-5mm from the edge then a 26mm hole but really it should have been at least 8-10mm, will expand on how i fixed/bodged it in a later post.

on the top you can see 2 black strips, only placed there for a test fit, front one will be for holding the plexi and the rear one will be hiding a mishap with the vinyl wrap and to make it look neat and tidy  , will attach with black screws when i'm ready.

the black thing at the  front strip is a 3.5mm volume control adapter, like this one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Earphone-Headphone-In-Line-Cable-Volume-Control-Audio-Extension-Adapter-3-5mm-/322759270161?hash=item4b25f39f11

Well that's it for now, been a busy few days, any questions just ask 

[Richie_jones]

That control panel looks thin...what buttons and joysticks you using?

[firedance]

That control panel looks thin...what buttons and joysticks you using?

similar kit to this one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arcade-Game-DIY-Kits-Parts-USB-PC-Encoder-Board-20-Push-Buuttons-2-Joysticks-/282976476200?hash=item41e2b65c28

should have enough clearance for the joystick, if not then i can always use a forstner bit on the base to drill a shallow hole, the control panel will be 12mm MDF, never routed out a recess for the joystick mounting plate, hopefully my guess work is correct 

[Richie_jones]

Buttons may be ok. But doubt those joysticks will fit. Joystick is mounted from underneath so you've all ready lost your extra 12mm mdf

[firedance]

If you look at my other bartop builds (links in signature) they are all very similar, so should be fine, famous last words, have already wrapped the panel, will attach the hardware and see 

[Mike A]

Those controls are absolute junk. Think hard about upgrading.

[firedance]

Those controls are absolute junk. Think hard about upgrading.

i like to think of them as well used arcade controllers, sure the micro switches are noisy and the joystick is little lose but my nephews have given their bartops some hammer and nothing as gone wrong yet, for all the controllers and the encoder you can't really complain when i got the 2 player set for £22.99 delivered from china to the UK 

just out of interest which joystick and buttons do you recommend ??

[Mike A]

If all you care about is price, I really can't help you.

[firedance]

price isn't an issue but certainly helps to keep the costs down 

so what are your recommendations for my future builds ?

[Titchgamer]

Sticks and buttons are a personal preference but as Mike said those kits are the worst of the worst.

One of my Joysticks cost more than your whole kit lol

But if you want to get quality parts look at Sanwa, Happ, Ultimarc etc.

All can be brought from reputable uk dealers like Ultimarc or Arcade World.

[firedance]

1st and 2nd pictures show the underside with the 120mm fan and gold grill, it's also wrapped in vinyl.

3rd picture is one of the rubber feet, the rear ones have a bolt straight thru that will attach to the hinge for the rear door.

4th,5th & 6th pictures are the exhaust fans, one is a PST version so instead of having 2 wires to the fan controller i only have 1 after daisy chaining them, i didn't have any M4 nuts so just used M4 T/TEE nuts instead, did remove the 4 little spikes tho so no one can catch there fingers on them.

7th picture is for the little plastic block that could be used to contruct the bartop, i choose to use it so the rear door doesn't close too far inwards, bought from here - https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-rigid-joints-white-24pk/p/0345244

8th picture is 20mm x 20mm softwood batton, was glued and screwed to the side (30mm screws) then on top i used type E m4 nuts, like these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M4-x-10mm-Hex-Drive-Screw-In-Threaded-Insert-For-Wood-Type-D-20-Pcs-100005-/270924758220?hash=item3f145fbccc so i can secure the control panel.

[firedance]

Sticks and buttons are a personal preference but as Mike said those kits are the worst of the worst.

One of my Joysticks cost more than your whole kit lol

But if you want to get quality parts look at Sanwa, Happ, Ultimarc etc.

All can be brought from reputable uk dealers like Ultimarc or Arcade World.

yeah parts can be very expensive, i know of all the brands you have mentioned, even used some happ parts years ago when i made a basic joystick with 6 buttons for mame, just wondered what Mike A recommends for future reference

[firedance]

Control panel vinyl wrapped and hardware installed, work mate wanted blue and red controllers and just a simple black control panel.

tidied up the wires so they look niceish and keeps them away from the joystick, speaking of which i test fitted the control panel, the bottoms of the joystick are about 3mm from the bottom surface, bullet dodged   

from the underside of the control panel where the joystick is to the bottom is approx 41mm, even pretended to play MK to test, no rubbing issues at all.

Will need to maybe hot glue the smaller buttons in as i only had a 25mm forstner bit but they are 24mm, the outter most top buttons will be for coins and top inner ones with be player starts

used a couple of washers on each screw that holds the joysticks on as they are 12mm and didn't want them to push the MDF thru to the black vinyl on top.

panel is 500mm x 218mm, should have been 220mm but slightly undercut still works tho, will stick some 12mm chrome trim along the leading edge.

[Titchgamer]

Well my personal choices for a “regular” panel is Sanwa JLF sticks with either Sanwa Or Ultimarc buttons depending if I want concave or convex.

[firedance]

https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/Sanwa-JLF-TP-8YT-Ball-Top-Joystick.html

nice looking sticks, guess mine are very very very cheapo Chinese knockoffs 

https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/Sanwa-OBSF-30-Arcade-Button.html

again mine are cheap knockoffs.

[Titchgamer]

https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/Sanwa-JLF-TP-8YT-Ball-Top-Joystick.html

nice looking sticks, guess mine are very very very cheapo Chinese knockoffs 

https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/Sanwa-OBSF-30-Arcade-Button.html

again mine are cheap knockoffs.

Yeah the look and feel of a JLF is very different to the chinese knock offs!

At the end of the day when it comes to arcade gaming the quality of the controls is everything.

Different sticks with different gates and different types of buttons impact greatly on the genre.

Shmups for instance leaf switches are generally considered the best but they are no good for fighters.
Then you have sort of hybrids like the gold leafs which are general all rounders.
Most fighter guys prefer convex buttons over concave.

Then you have different gates on different sticks 4 way for pac man which plays horribly on 8 ways etc.

Basically what ime saying is dont cheap out on your controls and put some thought into what games you want to play and what you are willing to sacrifice in terms of authenticity and playability.

[firedance]

thanks for the very good advice 

yeah 4 way games really do suck on 8 way  and no its not my knockoffs lol

have got a zippyy stick somewhere that as a green 4/8 way bracket at the bottom, doesn't feel as slack as ones i've used on this build, yeah i know they aren't great either 

[barrymossel]

thanks for the very good advice 

yeah 4 way games really do suck on 8 way  and no its not my knockoffs lol

have got a zippyy stick somewhere that as a green 4/8 way bracket at the bottom, doesn't feel as slack as ones i've used on this build, yeah i know they aren't great either 

I bought that Chinese set as well. Upgraded to servostiks and IL buttons. A real big upgrade believe me. And automatic switching between 4-way and 8-way. Well worth the money!

[firedance]

Here is the rear door, like my previous bartops i'll be mounting the computer on it as there isn't room on the bottom of my slim bartops, wrapped in white vinyl outside. painted inside.

used a 20mm camlock, not sure if i'm going to use the notch in the arm hence its on wrong for now, similar item -  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16-20-25-30mm-Cam-Lock-Door-Barrel-Draw-CabinetMail-Box-Locker-Cupboard-2Key-Jd/142824972713?hash=item21410821a9:m:mKM_j8di3jt1sGYXSkUepxw

drilled a 30mm x 6mm deep hole with a forstner bit then a 15mm hole which was elongated it to make room for the barrel of the lock, plenty of room for the nut on the rear.

The chrome led momentary switch was again from ebay,similar item - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chrome-4-Pin-12mm-Waterproof-Led-Light-Metal-Push-Button-Momentary-Switch-12v-/292180373757?var=&hash=item44074eb0fd will light up blue when the pc is on, drilled a 20mm x 6mmish hole with forstner bit for the nut, didn't have a 12mm drill bit so used the 10mm i had then slowly widened the hole with a step bit (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=step+bit&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB788GB788&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBxpvY4KPdAhXUFsAKHd5dCqQQ_AUICygC&biw=1920&bih=943), yes i know they are for metal/plastic but needs must, did come out a little "woollie" tho, easily fixed with round file

Last picture shows the 26mm inset hinge i used - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/26mm-KITCHEN-CABINET-CUPBOARD-WARDROBE-STANDARD-HINGES-FLUSH-INSET-DOOR-EU-/252206139461?hash=item3ab8a84845
the small hole to the right is for the power cable.

Had to remove the base plate as it wouldn't fit otherwise, the rear door is a tight fight but even with a few extra mm it wasn't going to happen, should be secure enough with the bolt and few screws, once it's fully up and running shouldn't to open it up very often.

(yes i know my paint is covered bits/dust etc, left it outside to dry a little but the wind got up, doesn't matter anyways as that's in the inside,doesn't look that bad from a small distance  )

[firedance]

pc hardware installed, work mate for whom i'm building this for had a old pc, turns out it was a celeron 1.6, 2gb ram 80gb IDE HD and windows XP  , that quickly went to recycling, he did have a 19" relisys lcd, kept that and reused the pc from my "neoncade" as i planned to refresh that anyways at some point.

PC specs - HP DC5800 core 2 duo (3.0ghz) SFF, 4gb ram, 250gb HD and ATI HD5450 1gb for mame HLSL, only tested a few games so far with the HLSL enabled, seem to play ok, will need more testing.

Tried to keep all cables as neat as i could, the fan controller on the rear of the pc controllers the fan inside the PSU, if it wasn't there it would run full speed all the time, faulty temp sensor perhaps ?

secured the power cable with some metal band - (https://www.screwfix.com/p/ced-galvanised-all-round-band-12mm-x-10m/18298?tc=AT7) so hopefully it can't be pulled through, soldered the power switch and led to the momentary switch, surprised myself by wiring it correctly the first time lol, used heat shrink tube to tidy things up a little.

that's it for now, next up will the speakers & bezel

[javeryh]

How wide is that panel with the computer on it?

[firedance]

approx 497mm wide  x 403mm high, from the base to the top of the PSU is about 100mm, should just squeeze it in when the monitor is in place.

i do have a Dell 7020 sff i5 3470, that is even smaller - https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/uk/en/ukbsdt1/optiplex-7020-desktop/opt7020sffompub-v1/specifications?guid=guid-501c6863-5540-4daf-b90e-6ea2ca7910ec&lang=en-us

you thinking of going the pc route for your awesome bartop ?

[javeryh]

approx 497mm wide  x 403mm high, from the base to the top of the PSU is about 100mm, should just squeeze it in when the monitor is in place.

i do have a Dell 7020 sff i5 3470, that is even smaller - https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/uk/en/ukbsdt1/optiplex-7020-desktop/opt7020sffompub-v1/specifications?guid=guid-501c6863-5540-4daf-b90e-6ea2ca7910ec&lang=en-us

you thinking of going the pc route for your awesome bartop ?

Thanks - I'm kicking around the idea but I honestly don't think I can fit one in there unless I buy a mini-itx or something and I've spent too much already!  It is only 9-5/8" wide (about 245 mm).

[firedance]

245mm is pretty tight for most PC's, guess it's pi for you

Or if you could find one cheap enough you still could go the pc route

https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=ms-android-google&ei=2omRW_OHNoybgAaozrmQCg&q=mini+itx+motherboard+size&oq=mini+itx+motherboard+size&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.3..0j0i22i30l2.1822.2776..3536...0.0..0.232.744.2j1j2......0....1.........0i71j0i67j0i22i10i30.S1hdKLh8Bu4

[javeryh]

245mm is pretty tight for most PC's, guess it's pi for you

Or if you could fit one cheap enough you still could go the pc route

https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=ms-android-google&ei=2omRW_OHNoybgAaozrmQCg&q=mini+itx+motherboard+size&oq=mini+itx+motherboard+size&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.3..0j0i22i30l2.1822.2776..3536...0.0..0.232.744.2j1j2......0....1.........0i71j0i67j0i22i10i30.S1hdKLh8Bu4

Been looking at THIS... I think it would work for a bartop looking to run MAME and SFIII and Killer Instinct as the two most advanced games.  It is TINY.  I may take the plunge - only thing holding me back is figuring out how to wire the power button.  I'd probably have to open up the case...

[firedance]

Nice n small pc, might be ok for mame but am sure it would struggle for new games as the CPU/GPU isn't that great - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Intel+x5-Z8350+gaming

not sure if this would fit or be any better than the above for modern games as it's onboard gpu as well - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-7010-USFF-Dual-Core-i3-3220-3-3GHz-4GB-RAM-DVD-RW-No-HDD/372421027949?hash=item56b605e86d:g:q28AAOSwHupbiTCg

 Height (inches/centimeters)  9.32 / 23.67
 Width (inches/centimeters)  2.56 / 6.5
 Depth (inches/centimeters)  9.44 / 24

could always decase it to gain a bit more space ?

[firedance]

Used these for the speakers, cheap and cheerful ones from amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071ZFYWL8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Used small 12mm screws to screw into the plastic body to attach the L brackets so i can mount them inside the bartop, cut some small squares from a metal waste paper basket that i've had for a few years, purchased from "Poundworld" (dollartree) for the grills, glued them on for ease of installation, was a little tricky to line up the speaker cone with the holes then mark for the screw holes, could have done with another pair of hands, got there in the end, also tidied up the wiring, just tied back the 3.5mm jack cable for now.

Bezel and marquee box all in one, wasn't sure how to do this so did it this way, the thin piece on top is some kinda fibreboard, not hardboard, was off a picture frame backing, will paint it all black then use some chrome tape to line the "L" shape then install some white leds,the top piece is scrap 12mm MDF that just happens to be about 74mm tall, haven't drilled the hole for the wiring but i will

To the rear of the bezel i've added some 20mmx20mm batons to the edges to add strength as i know from my previous bartops it can curve the mdf when i attach the monitor the way i do it (see previous bartops), was wood glued and screwed (30mm screws) and yes my routing skills aren't that great, had to free hand some of it as i didn't allow for the bevelled edge of the monitor surround.

not sure how to mount the marquee sign yet, will add a full height plexi for the front so didn't know whether to have the marquee printed in reverse and stick it to the inside of the plexi or stick it to a small piece of plexi (500mm x 74mm) then glue that in place at the front of the marquee box, then the full length plexi on top, hope that makes sense, thoughts ?

[firedance]

Painted the bezel in gloss black, applied foil tape to the marquee area and then installed the bright white LED strip, have wired it so it will use 12v from the PSU.

Added a Gloss Pearlescent Pearl Ivory White to Blue vinyl wrap to both sides, doesn't show that well in pictures tho, looks like this - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gloss-Pearlescent-Pearl-Ivory-White-to-Blue-Purple-Green-Vinyl-Car-Wrap-Sticker/271957412398?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=570789440219&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Used some contact adhesive to glue the 12mm chrome trim to use as T-moulding, on my other bartop it was supposed to be 12mm but was like 11mm, this one from a different eBay seller was just about spot on, the foam backing peeled off easily tho hence the use of contact adhesive.

added some stickers i made myself, it also hides a small scratch that i put in the vinyl wrap about 10mins after i applied it  (must be more careful in future).

the bezel/marquee isn't fixed into place as yet, just shown to give an idea of what it will look like.

Last picture is from the intake fan pointing upwards, shows how close the marquee is to the speakers and yes i've missed a screw off the bracket for the speaker before anyone posts 

[firedance]

late update - had a 3 week holiday and real life got in the way but now it's finished, didn't take any pictures of the finishing touches tho.

stuck the marquee in with superglue was tricky and a few choice words were said but it's in there and not going anywhere, did have to use black insulating tape around the edges as there was a little light bleed, the marquee plexi is tinted and so is the bezel so came out slightly darker than expected but it's not "in ya face" while playing, played tested it for a good few hours works well, workmate as paid so all ready for collection.

Until the next build TTFN