Decisions decisions -- An Introduction

[Avery]

Something I didn't see mentioned - you can always start small.

Get an encoder, some buttons and joysticks and start playing around with a control panel.  It gets you some experience with woodworking (you'll probably need a little no matter what route you decide to go). It gets you playing the games on your PC, and you can start cheap with a couple joysticks and buttons.

Go insane later! 

[Baker535]

Hey, we should organize a central Ohio get together.... at your house!   

I would do that, but there is a slight problem. I don't have a house of my own yet! I'm in the middle of finding a place to live with my girlfriend. For right now the Neo-Geo is at work and will stay there for a bit longer.

My work is a small design and marketing firm located in Powell. The Neo-Geo was a bonus for finishing up a big project and the fact I wouldn't shut up about arcade stuff. Even though I only have one cab, the game count is at 28 for it. So I'm sure I could find something for most people to enjoy. I can't wait to get a home so I will have it with my other gaming items!

Having a few people over to play after work hours or the weekend is not a problem, in fact there's a small little sportsbar/pizzeria/restaurant less than a block away... Nothing spectacular, but the food is decent and the beers are cold. They also have a cab or two. I believe one of them is a sit down California Speed...

I would be up for a Central Ohio get together... maybe we should get an official head count some time of people who could attend. Then choose an appropriate location for everyone to meet up and hang out.

For now on a small scale... anyone who wants to make arrangements is more than welcome to drop by!

-baker

Only if you put an extra set of buttons on that Neo-Geo for Street Fighter.

Why would I want to acknowledge that inferior fighters exist?

[arcadegamenut]

Something I didn't see mentioned - you can always start small.

Get an encoder, some buttons and joysticks and start playing around with a control panel.  It gets you some experience with woodworking (you'll probably need a little no matter what route you decide to go). It gets you playing the games on your PC, and you can start cheap with a couple joysticks and buttons.

Go insane later! 

Good point. The book mentions that as a possibility. I already have some games on my file server upstairs and I play them on my wireless laptop downstairs. Works pretty well.

[arcadegamenut]

I would be up for a Central Ohio get together... maybe we should get an official head count some time of people who could attend. Then choose an appropriate location for everyone to meet up and hang out.

I think what would be cool is if we could find a place (even a bingo hall, hotel room or something) where we could have a convention of sorts. People could bring spare parts to trade/sell (whole cabinets too if they wanted) etc etc etc. Almost like a convention.

I have no idea what the cost of that would be. If there's interest, I can call a couple of the local hotels here and ask. Maybe you could even make a weekend out of it or something.....

[paigeoliver]

A hotel meeting room should run about $100. Free if you can get a dozen rooms or so to go along with it.

[empire2k]

Check on www.superauctions.com periodically.

[arcadegamenut]

@empire: Great! Where'd you get the cab?

@all: I've been giving things some thought the past couple of days. I haven't heard back from the guy at TNT yet. Maybe they're on vacation? I'm not in a huge hurry so I'll wait the remainder of the week. If I still don't hear from them, then I'll try again and possibly e-mail as well as someone (Chris?) suggested earlier.

Anyway, I've been thinking about some of the other things that have been mentioned in this thread. It occurred to me that it might not be a bad idea to start with the control panel (I really like the design of the one in the book by the way). There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) It would get me started.
2) It would give me an idea as to whether I actually "need" to move forward.
3) I could keep the price down a lot more.

#3 would be especially true if I could convince someone like Home Depot to do the cuts for me thus preventing me from having to buy a saw, rent a truck to get a huge piece of wood home, etc. I know I'd still have to by a drill and a jigsaw/router to make the holes and mounting areas, but I could possibly handle that (as long as they aren't $400+ ). I'm pretty sure they (Home Depot) will make straight cuts for you, but I don't know if I took the plans for the 4 pieces of the control panel and asked them to cut it to those specifications, if they'd do that.

[Chris]

I'm pretty sure they (Home Depot) will make straight cuts for you, but I don't know if I took the plans for the 4 pieces of the control panel and asked them to cut it to those specifications, if they'd do that.

They won't.  They don't even promise precision in the cuts they do, and they charge you per cut after a couple of cuts.

They certainly won't cut anything at an angle.  Their saws aren't built for it.

[Tiger-Heli]

They would cut it down to 2 ft x 4 ft or whatever you needed it to be so you could put it in the Camaro instead of a truck.

[Steve Kaz]

Wow...what great responses! I knew there was a reason I joined.

So I agree about the building. Not because I possibly couldn't do it (I never like to say I can't do something), but the point of "Oops I made a bad cut" which could happen coupled with "Well now I need to rent another truck" makes a ton of sense.

Dude, i was in the same boat that you are.  i didn't have any experience with woodworking or computers (or have alot of the tools).  Like someone else said, i'm a tool whore and it was an excuse to buy new stuff (even though i borrowed a few from friends).

I ordered the UAII templates and rented the home depot truck.  I made one bad cut that i wasn't happy with, but i was smart enough to buy an extra sheet of MDF when i originally rented the truck, just in case.

The prefabricated UAII kits might be a good option for you, as they ship to your door and you don't need alot of tools to put it together, but i've had alot of fun putting it together.  it will instill alot more pride.

[arcadegamenut]

Steve,

  That's why I'm leaning towards possibly doing the control panel first. Computers are easy for me...I work with them every day. But the biggest hurdle in all this is trying to get the tools (price) and the wood (home) without spending an arm and a leg and my left ear.

  For example, out of curiosity, I typed in Table Saw to Amazon.Com. Most that I saw were in the $400 - $500 range. Since this is probably the only time I'd ever use it, I can't justify doing that.

  I'm also waiting to hear back from TNT. If they're able to come thru with an existing cab solution (or if someone else does), I can start from there and move forward.

[CJK]

[Tiger-Heli]

  For example, out of curiosity, I typed in Table Saw to Amazon.Com. Most that I saw were in the $400 - $500 range. Since this is probably the only time I'd ever use it, I can't justify doing that.

You don't need the top of the line tools:

Home Depot (Click on Saws and Table Saws, there's a Ryobi for $86.)

Harbor Freight - $79.99

[quarterback]

[pointdablame]

I'd hesitate before getting the Harbor Freight one.   

For the most part, I'm a big proponent of HF, and I've recommended them on a number of occasions here at BYOAC, however, there is one caveat I've discovered from them.     For anything that needs to be "precise".  Like "precisely level" or "precisely straight" or "precisely measured", I'd think twice. 

I'm local to a HF B&M store and have bought a TON of stuff there, but I've bought calipers that are inaccurate, something that should have been "square" that wasn't and a jigsaw that you can "angle for precise cuts" and there's no way to really lock it at 90-degrees (perpendicular to the wood).   

With that in mind, I'd be afraid that you'd buy that table saw (which can cut at multiple angles) and you'd never be able to get a perfectly precise exact perpendicular cut.

My 4-cents.

If you just squared the blade and the table top with a good square... would that not give you good cuts???  I don't see why that wouldn't work.

[CJK]

If you just squared the blade and the table top with a good square... would that not give you good cuts???

[arcadegamenut]

**UPDATE**

Hello again everyone! I thought I'd give you all an update on what's been happening.

I took the advice from many in this thread and put it to some good use. I believe I've put to rest the thought of building a cabinet from scratch....at least for now. The reason is because (again...right now...) I will only do this once, I don't have the tools (which I'd have to buy) and I'd have to rent a truck each time I needed wood. The hassle factor alone would be enough to sway me away.

Choice #2 is still alive and that it to start with a cabinet already built. I've had a couple of conversations with DrMoonSparkle, and he sure seems like a super nice guy, but he seems to keep insisting that I drive up there to look at the cabinets he has. Even when I hinted of a couple of his E-bay auctions would work quite well if we could come to an agreement on shipping, he still said I should drive up to see what he has. I understand why I suppose, but I'm not too keen on driving 200 miles (round trip) to do that.

Last Monday, I called tntgame.com, and as I had indicated previously, left a message on their answering machine. This past Sunday night, I again took the advice from here and followed up with an e-mail. On Monday morning, I received an e-mail from Terese asking information such as exactly what I was looking for, how big, whether or not I could pick it up, etc and she said she'd print that out and give it to Tom and he'd see what they could do to get me what I want. Cool! 

So I'm waiting on that before proceeding any further.

If that fails to lead to anything, then I will save pennies...quite a few....and purchase the slikstik cabinet. I really really like the design of that thing and the classic controller that comes with it. In fact, even if I get a cabinet from tntgame.com, I'm still tempted to get that controller.

The good thing in all this is that I didn't jump out and buy something right away. I've been patient enough that the "Hey...this is really really cool and I NEED IT NOW" has worn off enough that I'm even prepared to wait to do anything for several more months if needed.

In the meantime, I'm still enjoying visiting this site (and participating from time-to-time) , watching e-bay auctions, etc.

I've also joined "forces" with another board member and we're working on something together that I'm sure a few people will really like.

Stay Tuned....

[CJK]

Looks like some sound decisionmaking. Please keep us posted on your progress, and good luck!

-- Chris