Brainstorm on cool additions to an arcade machine

[kahlid74]

I was just wondering what ideas you all have out there for attaching to an arcade machine.  This arcade machine is more for a fun time and not as much for show or nostalgic purposes, so all ideas are welcome.  Here is what I was thinking of adding.

Cupholders - Specific for beer bottles
Bag holder - for cheeetooos
Salsa holder - who is gonna hold it when you gotta do a super uppercut in streetfighter?
Speaker enhancement - Where you have trays that expand with speakers in them, making it a multi-speaker environment.
Mini foot stool for when I sit on my big stool.
Foot massager - ??
Fan - so when I decide not to turn the AC in the house on and it turns out to be 90 degrees out

Those are just some of the things I thought would be cool to have as "attachments" to the arcade box.

Any other ideas?

[menace]

cup holders are mandatory on all my machines!  you seem to like your relaxation methods--maybe build a sitdown cabinet around a lazyboy recliner--now that would be something...

[Zathras]

Hmmm maybe some tactile tranducers built into the CP so whenever there is a lot of bass coming through the speakers the CP shakes.

[Piss Ant]

Speakerphone for those annoying calls during a gaming session.

[Apollo]

Cupholders and headphones are a must.

[Tilzs]

How about an exercise bike that you have to peddle to power the monitor. Then you can get your workout and play games at the same time

[AmericanDemon]

Boooooooooo!  We want to play not work at it.  

[NoBonus]

How about an exercise bike that you have to peddle to power the monitor. Then you can get your workout and play games at the same time

Clever, but seems a bit too much like work.  You could add a bottle opener and a trash can...

[vputz]

How about an exercise bike that you have to peddle to power the monitor. Then you can get your workout and play games at the same time

Actually, I think something like this would be a bloody good idea (although maybe not cycling monitor power, but perhaps a fade-to-black on the video signal as you went slower and slower).  I'd at least be in better shape after a few hours of that... heh.

-->VPutz

[Blakey]

Cupholders and headphones are a must.

Well, mine's a cocktail, so it'l have plenty of cup space, but I am putting a nice little brushed stainless panel next to the P1 control panel. 105x105mm, power, reset, volume (controls cab speakers only), USB 2.0 x2, S-video out, headphones/line out. I couldn't think of anything else I/O wise (suggestions?).

The machine will also serve as a video recompressor when I get my twin tuner digital tv PVR (Topfield 5000T PVR FWIW), and will also serve music via iTunes, so I needed a fast way to move files on and off (USB 2.0).

Plus, as it will only have controls for two players, the extra two USB ports can be used for analog joysticks, or gamepads for 3-4 player action.

edit: forgot pic.

[REBIRTH]

Cup holders are a must, I agree.    I also have considered adding a CD player in there and a basic mixer - so I can listen to some good music while playing.  I have a stereo in the same room which I use, but always thought it would be cool to have one right in the game, piped into the Mame speakers directly.

[ErikRuud]

How about an exercise bike that you have to peddle to power the monitor. Then you can get your workout and play games at the same time

You pretty much have to do this for an authentic game of PropCycle!  

[Tilzs]

How about a bar monkey, You could easily build the shelfs for the bottles inside the cab and have the drinks come out right into your glass in the cupholder

http://www.barmonkey.net/

[patrickl]

A fridge and a microwave oven ...

[NoBonus]

How about a bar monkey, You could easily build the shelfs for the bottles inside the cab and have the drinks come out right into your glass in the cupholder

http://www.barmonkey.net/

Impressive... now if they just had a voice control on the bar monkey and a hose leading from the tap to your mouth you would never need to stop the arcade action (except to throw up and eventually pass out).  Wow, barmonkey... it seems like something the guys from Lamda Lamda Lamda would make.


NoBonus

[greywolf22]

How about add an "easy bake oven" attachment...little slot in the side where you put your brownie mix in and the heat of all the components cook it and you bring it out the other side  

[RandyT]

How about a bar monkey, You could easily build the shelfs for the bottles inside the cab and have the drinks come out right into your glass in the cupholder

http://www.barmonkey.net/

Hehe.  They should call that site "Build Your Own Hangover".  

Very cool though.

RandyT

[dmsuchy]

Take a refrigeration unit out of an old mini fridge, mount it in your cab and put a pony keg in there! Mount the tap on the CP for a really authentic Tapper machine. Oh you'll have to move your computer and stuff but gotta remeber whats important.

[GadgetGeek]

Is a cabinet complete without one of those 8 position coin holders to line up your quarters/tokens?  The things everyone ignores and uses the marquee instead.
http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/darts_foos/26106500.htm

[DrewKaree]

I can't believe in a so-called "branstorming session" no one came up with a beer tap on the side or in place of the coin mech....what about you gotta pour a tall frosty one to coin up?!

For those of you who don't/can't drink, you could put a soda fountain on the side, complete with several of your favorite flavors.  

Put a plexi "shield under your monitor, but over the wet stuff, caulk away, and blammo, no worries about electrocution.  All of your other electrical innards should go behind/above the monitor.  You may need to add a fan for cooling, but what's hooking up a fan to someone who built/wired a friggen cabinet?

[kahlid74]

Good stuff.

If anyone has links to small fridges that are modular or small tap systems put them in here.  I know that Jagermeister has a system that lets you keep Jager on tap, and it may just be small enough.

Also, what about a breathmint dispenser, that was tigger to the coin mechanism so when you put a quarter in to play it dispenses a breath mint for ya!

[DrewKaree]

It is true about great minds....dmsuchy musta posted as I was writing!

The size of your system won't depend on the tap size, it's the CO2 bottle and the keg.  I think a small dorm fridge would fit inside most all cabs, but I dunno if a quarter keg'll fit in there.  Mebbe if there's no lame "freezer" section in it?

[GadgetGeek]

Why put in a fridge when you can do this?
http://www.case.edu/news/2004/4-04/keg.htm
If it can be run off a cars cigarette lighter, do you think we can get it to run off the 12v lead off a power supply?  

[DrewKaree]

It's still in the works, no prototype yet, so it won't be available for cab use for a while.  We need "NOW" technology, man!  Cap'n, I'm givin' 'er all I've got!!

And for those of you wondering, --> HERE <-- is the Jager dispenser....kinda pricey, but if you're a Jager fan, well worth the price  

Another suggestion....how about the hot rollers used for hot dogs at your local (fill in convenience store name)

[Generic Eric]

how about one of these?

[NoBonus]

It's still in the works, no prototype yet, so it won't be available for cab use for a while.  We need "NOW" technology, man!  Cap'n, I'm givin' 'er all I've got!!

And for those of you wondering, --> HERE <-- is the Jager dispenser....kinda pricey, but if you're a Jager fan, well worth the price  

Another suggestion....how about the hot rollers used for hot dogs at your local (fill in convenience store name)

You should get the beer dispenser setup on that link instead of the Jager dispenser.  The one with the sankey couple will work with commercial kegs and the other setup will work with home-brew kegs (consequentally, you can get the home brew attachments at your local homebrew shop much cheaper than the sankey coupler).  You could always get a 5-gallon homebrew keg, fill it with 5 gallons of Jager, and be drunk forever.  But be careful not to carbonate your Jager in the keg... I did that once with iced tea.  It might be okay with Kool-AId or even Jager, but carbonated iced tea sucks!  A carbonated sweet wine might be good too... you can make wine from practically nothing and it will last for ever and does not need to be refridgerated.  Just an idea....

If you are worried about the fridge being inside of your cab (which could be a valid concern as fridges do leak on occasion and create heat), you could alway run an insulated line from a nearby (next to the cab or on the other side of the wall)  frige with keg into your cab...  of course, if you are going to do that, why run the beer through your cab at all...

NoBonus

[eb]

A clear ring around each button/joystick/etc so the controls that are used in each game light up via an LED under the panel, when that game is loaded. The function of each button is then displayed on screen on an OSD (A few projects are running at the moment that seem to be doing the legwork for this .

A TV tuner. Then, some sort of mechanism to sit the monitor up straight (probably will have to pull back the top of a full sized cabinet to achieve this), along with the idea about surround sound, so the whole thing unfolds like some huge freaking entertainment system transformer. Now that'd be cool

For pinball sims: a motion detector for bumping... so the machine physically does tilt when you hit it too much. Of course this means the thing should have a pinball trigger too

For the stupidly rich, a high res colour lcd screen at the top of your cab that scrolls to the appropriate marquee of the game you are currently playing.

I had thought of putting a bar fridge in, but the dispenser idea is tops!

[Kremmit]

Add a cigarette lighter.

[JAZ]

Aluminium kick plate on the bottom of the cabinet. Handy when you are about to set your highest score ever on Elevator Action (in 21 years of playing) when the PC decides to reboot because of a faulty power supply.