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Author Topic: Finally, Project NERD is finished  (Read 5840 times)

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the_77x42

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Finally, Project NERD is finished
« on: October 08, 2006, 06:16:53 pm »
My buddy's parents both died in a car accident at the start of this summer, so this project was my way of keeping him sane and just spending time together. It took about two months to complete.

Pictures are located here. (Link updated April, 2019)

The cab was originally some junky Dynamo bought for $200 including Streeth Fighter III. I sold the SFIII board on eBay for $250.

Monitor is a 27" Billabs BL27CB0P. Computer is an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ in a mATX case with an ArcadeVGA. Controls from Happ, IPAC, artwork from mamemarquees.com, a SmartStrip powerbar from Bits Unlimited, and a Logitech Z2300 2.1 Speaker System.

Not the most original cab, but it sure is clean. It's not flashy at all, perfect for a trendy, small apartment. Power on by pressing P1 Start and power off by inserting a coin in AdvanceMENU.

Frontend: AdvanceMENU
Emulators: mame, gens (hacked for AVGA resolutions), zsnes, daphne

If I had to do it over again: Laminate instead of painting. I used two coats of primer and two (three in some areas) coats of melamine enamel.

Total cost (including $700 monitor and $800 computer): ~$2500CAD

EDIT: Project post mortem (twelve years later).
« Last Edit: April 21, 2019, 04:40:21 am by the_77x42 »

Timoe

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2006, 06:40:24 pm »
A very stylish cab.  You and your buddy should be proud.

The simplicity is classy.

leapinlew

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2006, 07:18:30 pm »
My buddy's parents both died in a car accident at the start of this summer, so this project was my way of keeping him sane and just spending time together. It took about two months to complete.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/1691/img2322qg9.jpg
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/2296/img2324kv8.jpg
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/6813/img2325da8.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/7539/img2326ai6.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/895/img2327im6.jpg

The cab was originally some junky Dynamo bought for $200 including Streeth Fighter III. I sold the SFIII board on eBay for $250.

Monitor is a 27" Billabs BL27CB0P. Computer is an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ in a mATX case with an ArcadeVGA. Controls from Happ, IPAC, artwork from mamemarquees.com, a SmartStrip powerbar from Bits Unlimited, and a Logitech Z2300 2.1 Speaker System.

Not the most original cab, but it sure is clean. It's not flashy at all, perfect for a trendy, small apartment. Power on by pressing P1 Start and power off by inserting a coin in AdvanceMENU.

Frontend: AdvanceMENU
Emulators: mame, gens (hacked for AVGA resolutions), zsnes, daphne

If I had to do it over again: Laminate instead of painting. I used two coats of primer and two (three in some areas) coats of melamine enamel.

Total cost (including $700 monitor and $800 computer): ~$2500CAD

It's a very clean cabinet! It turned out very nice.

The backstory with your friend is touching - good for you.

spacies

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2006, 08:38:09 pm »

Nice work.

Sad news about your mates parents, all the best to him .

kenners

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2006, 08:53:14 pm »
Nice looking cabinet, I was a bit surprised at the price but it looks like you packed some pretty nice stuff into that cabinet.

Congratulations

theCoder

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2006, 09:13:30 pm »
I agree with kenners...sounds a bit high on the cost.  Did you go with a new computer? 

Looks good.  Nice project for your friend as well.


the_77x42

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2006, 01:43:13 am »
Thanks for all your comments. :)

The computer is brand new.
Artwork was about $90 after duties and taxes. Plexiglass $20, tempered glass $60, $100 in paint and supplies, $200 or so at HAPP for door, molding, controls, $120 for some custom metal work on the steel monitor bracket and steel marquee holders, then all the misc supplies for another $100-$200.

I tell ya, bringing stuff across the border is a real pain. $800 for the computer is a little high because it's in a super nice slim, micro-ATX multimedia case. I also went for a beefed-up processor. Also includes about $100 for the AVGA and IPAC.

I did need to buy everything though. Screws, paint brushes, trays, rollers, sand paper, glue, all that adds up.

I figure the amount of money I would have spent travelling and going out for drinks more than covers this cost, however :)

danny_galaga

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2006, 04:37:26 am »

so when can we see the NERD marquee  ;D


ROUGHING UP THE SUSPECT SINCE 1981

the_77x42

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #8 on: October 10, 2006, 03:00:51 pm »

so when can we see the NERD marquee  ;D

I can send you a picture of my forehead, cause it's there in bright, red lettering ;)

the_77x42

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2006, 03:02:39 pm »
Oh, btw, I must thank all who sent their regards to my best friend who lost his parents... I think that most of the time the building of the cabinet is the best part, and it certainly was with this project!

the_77x42

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #10 on: April 21, 2019, 04:34:24 am »
It's been over twelve years now. Incredible. I'm still best friends with my buddy and we both still play the machine from time to time. The cabinet has been through a couple moves (including a tiny apartment) and it's always a hit at parties. I'm still extremely happy about the project and can only hope it will get passed down through the generations. I can't believe I paid only $200 for that original SFIII cabinet, including the game. What a steal. Comparable dynamo cabinets in my area are going for over $1000 now and they don't even include the game. I wish I had kept the original monitor. Looking through some old pictures I can tell that it was a WG K7000 and probably just needed a cap kit.

The cabinet has seen some upgrades over the years. Notably, the Billabs BL27CB0P monitor started to experience squishing around the edges. Since there is no way for me to send the monitor in, I recapped the whole thing myself almost ten years after the problem first started to bug me. Taken in its entirety, it was the most difficult job of the project. There were 72 caps.

I also decided to go with GroovyMAME as my main emulator. I upgraded the MOBO/CPU/RAM to a 3.2 GHz i3 550 with 4GB of RAM I picked up for $20, a 250GB SSD, and a Radeon 9600. I went with the 9600 because it's fanless and I wanted to eliminate as much noise as possible. That card performs perfect with GroovyMAME and Windows XP. The system is powerful enough now that it can actually run MK4. I made a post about using the Billabs BL27CB0P with GroovyMAME. I stuck with Windows XP because Windows 7 was having issues with the motherboard I was using in combination with the older video card. I didn't want to waste too much time with it as I prefer having more control over the XP startup screens and OS hiding. Since my video card is quite old and I'm running Windows XP, newer versions of MAME/GroovyMAME aren't playing too nice. I went with 0.178 as it's the latest version that works perfectly with the Radeon 9600.

AdvanceMENU is great and was forked into advmenuPLUS, which I prefer. It has support for custom layouts (that I don't use) and I found it more configurable and faster than AdvanceMENU. After all the configuration, my game selection interface looks like this.

On the game front, there are full sets of Daphne and 0.179. That's actually it. I removed all the console emulators since I build a small RetroPie box for my TV and it does the necessary upscaling. I want the arcade machine to be specifically for arcade games presented in their original resolution. The project is at a point where I can't see anything being added. I have dreams of making a cocktail cabinet or a sit down simulator. Perhaps those will take up the next twelve years of my posts. Thanks to everyone on these forums for all your knowledge and help.  :cheers:

leapinlew

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #11 on: April 21, 2019, 10:54:29 am »
2006. Lightning CP's and Mame Marquees - what a time to be alive!

I have no cabs from when I was building in that time frame. I sold them all. The only one close is a showcase cabinet I built in 2007.  I sold to a friend and see it from time to time.

the_77x42

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Re: Finally, Project NERD is finished
« Reply #12 on: April 22, 2019, 04:22:53 am »
2006. Lightning CP's and Mame Marquees - what a time to be alive!

It's like the retro of retro.