Ok here is the Rundown:
My friend is working on an XBox game called Forza Motorsport. They have a mode in the game where you can run three xboxs and have the 3 screen effect like in Ferrari F355 Challenge. (
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=7770)
So him and I want to build a 3 screen Racing Cabinet to support this. This is going to be a really huge and hard to build project. My questions are:
1) screens to use: I am leaning toward 24" TVs, but 3 of these are going to be really heavy. I was hoping to get away with maybe 3 19" flat panel monitors but I am not sure if the screens would be big enough.
2) Frame of the cabinet: If I use TV I am thinking of welding a metal frame for the floor and posts to support the TVs. Then wood to enclose and maybe some fiberglass. I also want to make it modular so it can come apart somewhat easily.
3) Dual Purpose: Add a Playstation so you could play Gran Turismo as well.
4) controls: I want to keep swapping to a minimum so trying to find USB controls that can work with xbox, PS2, and PC would be awesome. (but probably a pipe dream)
3) Things to add: There will be a small CPU added to run MAME. I am going to use a EPIA motherboard and run everything off of Advance CD. It will just be a few games that would work well in a cabinet. I want to add a car stereo into the cabinet when it is done and a small mixer to have it so you can hear the game and music at the same time. I know that you can do this in the game and through an xbox but I think that having a stereo would be awesome and it would work across all of the game platforms.
4) Costs: I am not stupid enough to think that any of this is going to be cheap. We actually have all of the Game systems and computer stuff that we need (3 xboxes, ps2, motherboards, and misc computer crap), but we still expect to spend around $2500 or so in parts (screens, wiring, power supplies)
If anyone out there has any really good pointers or suggestions or even some bad ones I could really use them. This is going to be a long and ongoing project I expect planning to take a good month or so and then probably about 3 to 4 months of weekend time just fabricating stuff.
Thanks in advance for helping out or at least reading this and laughing at my hubris.