At last I have a cab to work on

[teef two]

I really thought that I would have to get to the point of building a cab from scratch (and indeed this is something I will do one day).

However for my first machine I did want to get an authentic arcade machine to customise with a control panel. It has been a total nightmare trying to get one on ebay in the UK but finally today I succeeded. First off I was not prepared to pay well over the odds for a shabby cabinet. I've seen total tat go for well over

[paigeoliver]

I'd suggest trying a cap kit on the monitor and seeing if it comes back to life. If so then you can just get a Jpac and arcadevga and be done with it very easily.

[danny_galaga]

good price, and a nice looking cab   the jpac idea sounds like a great way to go

[NIVO]

Ive never seen that design before(must have a europen flare hehe) but I have to say i like the design, Much different lines that what im used to seeing. Good luck building it into what you dream up.

[Gunstar Hero]

What a cool looking cab!

[teef two]

Well still haven't heard back from the seller yet   but I'm hoping I will by the weekend. UPDATE: He's just phoned me and hopefully have it by next weekend - Woohoo!

Definitely some synchronicity going on with this though as I bumped into an old school friend last night who I haven't seen for 20 years and it turns out he now runs a body shop. So for the price a few beers and the materials he'll be able to knock out three our four panels for me. Nice.

For the panels I'm thinking of going with
1. Simple - two t-stick pluses with three buttons each (for all the "classics")
2. Optical - 1 or 2 trackballs plus a spinner and three buttons per player
3. Dedicated - Replica defender panel or as close as possible given the space limitations.

Others to follow will likely be game specific panels such as tron and star wars. I think I'll also need player 1 and 2, credit buttons and shift and esc buttons on the front of each panel. I know some people will recommend more buttons per player for the simple panel but I never played a game that needed more than three and I'm not into fighting games such as streetfigher so I just can't see the need.

Good suggestion on the cap kit from paigeoliver. If I am going to try this I will have to get someone else to do it as I'm hopeless with a soldering iron and just plain scared of discharging the monitor  .

Budget is not a problem so I may well go with a new hantarex polostar just for the convenience of the display options (i.e. jukebox possibilities at a later stage).

Just got to get hold of the thing in the flesh now. Can't wait - just like a kid at Christmas!