Finally Finished -> Scooby-Doo Mystery Arcade

[SuperRabbit0]

Well, my tabletop arcade The Scooby-Doo Mystery Arcade is finally finished, or at least finished enough I want to show the pictures  

This is my first project and it was a load of fun although I must admit there have been times I have been able to think of little else for the last month or so...

This is a small tabletop, just under 2 feet tall, built around a old Celeron 600 laptop I had lying around.  It was built for my 5-year old daughter (who loves Scooby-Doo)...

The basis for the laptop mounting is shamelessly stolen for BishmasterB's *great* Tron tabletop.  Many thanks to him for his great site.  Not sure what mine would have looked like without it.

Anyways, I'm thrilled with the results.  Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way!!!

[SuperRabbit0]

...and another of the back...

(This was supposed to have a pretty pattern of drilled holes but that turned out to be much harder than I thought.  Luckily I had some speaker cloth around and I think this looks great also...)

[SuperRabbit0]

An open picture of the back.  You can see the how the laptop was mounted...

[SuperRabbit0]

Just a close-up of the scratch built and programmed keyboard encoder my friend built for me.  Works like a charm, THANKS ROB!

[SuperRabbit0]

Finally one for scale with a pop can.

You can see the opening under the control panel.  This allows me to access the T-Stick for switching to 4/8 way mode.  I wasn't that happy with the way I mounted the back panel and want to redo that and mount this little panel at the same time so it is not stuck on there yet.  

I actually am terribly disappointed in the T-Stick.  I find it almost unusable in 8 way mode.  I've now tried both the light and heavy switches and dropped $50 Canadian on it and may just pull it out and replace with a dedicated 4 or 8 way.  Maybe I'll get used to it............

[AlexC]

Looks really great.
Congratz !!!

[flampoo]

That's so cool. I wish I could drum up an older, useable notebook to make a tabletop. And what a unique theme!

[bishmasterb]

Looks good, I like the overall size you ended up with. What did you do with the keyboard?

[SuperRabbit0]

Looks good, I like the overall size you ended up with. What did you do with the keyboard?

Thanks, Size was critical for me as I wanted to be able to pick this up easily and move it around the house (to the playroom, to the table, to the breakfast bar...)

When I removed the top of the laptop case to get at the laptop hinges and power button, the keyboard fell out as it was secured by that part of the case.  I thought it was for the better so never remounted it.

[SNAAAKE]

Cute

[danny_galaga]

damn, that looks good! and damn, another idea i thought i had that was unique! since ive been looking on these forums ive found that theres nothing ive thought of that someone else hadnt beat me to! although to date the project ive just completed seems to be fairly unique:

     http://dannygalaga.com/mame.htm

an electrically rotating cocktail cabinet.
my tabletop was to be a 1/2 scale upright with a laptop. theyre a great choice since you can get monitor and computer pretty cheaply from ebay in one hit.
my plan was to detach the monitor and just sort of flip the screen and computer back to back. i take it thats what you did?
your kid must be thrilled. most dads would make a rocking horse!

[Bomber]

I wish I could have had one of them when I was a five-year-old!

What exactly is the problem you're having with the t-stik? I'm thinking about using them in my next cab.

[SuperRabbit0]

my tabletop was to be a 1/2 scale upright with a laptop. theyre a great choice since you can get monitor and computer pretty cheaply from ebay in one hit.
my plan was to detach the monitor and just sort of flip the screen and computer back to back. i take it thats what you did?

Yeah, it opened really easy.  I popped out 2 screws from the hinges and the screen folded right around the back.  Was actually incredibly easy.

[SuperRabbit0]

I wish I could have had one of them when I was a five-year-old!

What exactly is the problem you're having with the t-stik? I'm thinking about using them in my next cab.

I don't want to badmouth the T-Stick because I think its a great idea and great that a company makes a product for this market.  Many people seem to really love them and having only one joystick on a panel this size is an absolute must.

But..................I just don't like it.  Joysticks are all about personal taste but in 8-way mode I can hardly get the thing to move the way I want.  When I had the original microswitches my 5-year old could barely move it.  I got the quiet switches and it improved it *a lot*.  Anysways, the thing is very well made and look beautiful.  But if you don't like a stiff joystick, avoid it.

As for the 5-year old comment, when I play it, it occurs to me if you told me when I was playing these things in arcades that I would have a machine that small that had every game in the arcade on it, I'd think you were nuts...

[Brax]

although to date the project ive just completed seems to be fairly unique:

     http://moncom.net/mame

an electrically rotating cocktail cabinet.

Sorry to burst your bubble but Eric completed one of these back in 2002.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021016113027/http://home.attbi.com/~elsmith2000/MAMECAB.htm

[menace]

Hey great job--that looks snackolicious scoob...

[danny_galaga]

although to date the project ive just completed seems to be fairly unique:

     http://dannygalaga.com/mame.htm

an electrically rotating cocktail cabinet.

Sorry to burst your bubble but Eric completed one of these back in 2002.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021016113027/http://home.attbi.com/~elsmith2000/MAMECAB.htm

hehe. im ahead of you by a day. i just noticed it the other day. the link was dead so i contacted eric. his new url is on my page:

http://dannygalaga.com/page2.htm

and yeah, my bubble is burst :-(  . but i wasnt trying to be first (just thought i was). just wanted to have a full screen for everything. boy, i tell ya its great having a full screen on all games! Still, if it's the SECOND machine in the world it's still fairly unique (",)

sorry to hijack the thread. the scooby-doo is excellent!

[big_garryb]

really really cute!!!! i have an old laptop i was thinking about turning into a jukebox.......... might think again now.

scooooooby ruuuubbbbby rooooooooo