So now that I understand enough that I ACTUALLY should have been allowed to start trying to build something-
The (frustration associated with the) complexity of my other projects has led me to wanting to build a few cabinets that I can just walk up to, flick the power switch and then play.
Round 2 of that paradigm has become...
BitKit!
I will say first that if you have a vertical JAMMA cab and don't own one of Aaron's boards then you are probably doing yourself a huge disservice.
Really inexpensive for how cool and easy it is, and there are so many good games on it already that for an old schooler like me there are certainly many hours of squandered time built in
And so, finally now I am refining cabinet builds to bare bones necessity (thanks to a lot of failed trial and then wisdom offered by other byoac crew) and it all makes putting something together happen relatively quickly now- when I have time that is (but that would be another thread...)
Anyway, to me, a solid base is a 25"x31" piece of 3/4" cabinet plywood with a frame of 2x4 above and casters below.
NOT hard to do (as long as you have a flat/level section of floor- which I don't sadly.)
Choose your side panel profile.
I spent a lot of time with graph paper, pencil and a protractor to defile a Rock-Ola cabinet design to come up with this outline that better fits in the ArcadeLoft above the workshop.
The knee-wall and limited space are a challenge anyway and it was hard to find anything other than off angle pictures to work with to try to recreate a Rock-Ola feel.
Apologies to purists of course, but I am dealing with a dire situation out here and I'm no Billy Idol, but- I want my MTV!!!!
I ALWAYS agonize about control panel layout and this is no exception of course.
Just when I thought I had it sorted out with a separate dedicated 8 way and 4 way stick with this button layout for ambidexterity...
Then the Ms. Pac-Man Twin thing happened.
So NOW I am at a Mag Stik Plus left and a dedicated 4 way leaf right.
Still with ambidextrous Button 1 and 2 layout with dedicated Vanguard 4 button layout on right side.
Works great this way actually.
To make sure it all works I HAD to mock up a panel and see, right?!
This may not be the final layout but I can sort out if everything works at least.
Proper 19" arcade monitors do not exist in my world.
If I had an un-spendable pile of $$ and could just buy something from the mainland and not care that it cost $1000 to ship to me it would be ok, but other than that I may as well live on Mars.
Best I can do currently is scrounge as many consumer tubes as I can (ironically, sadly most out here are Trinitrons and huge-) and hope for yokes that match whatever I can buy for chassis while I figure the rest of this crap out.
Who knew what a rabbit hole the CRT thing would come to be?!
Desperate times, desperate measures.
Universal Chinese arcade chassis (while I sort our something more authentic and robust I hope?!)
Tuned with Aaron's other brilliant work, TPG 2.
If you want to play with CRTs (and why wouldn't you?!) you need to own one of these.
After I had sorted out that I could actually build a functional screen it was time to cram it into the box.
A few bits of 2x4 and my funky frame plates-
And it actually fits.
Mounting depth measured to make sure I can get a proper bezel and some plexi over it eventually.
I'm stoked it plays already!