"The Varsity Club" Dual Monitor Arcade *Reconstruction has begun* 12/29/09

[markrvp]

Thanks a ton man!  I honestly thought non stop about this project for about 8 months.  It has been neat as to how things are coming together.  I predict that I will be about 90% done in two weeks.  I have a bottleneck of things to do right now, but I should be out of the woods soon.


I am now trying to determine where to locate the volume control.  This is not fun, as I have prepared for most everything else.  Such a dumb little thing to do and such a pain in the butt!

Under the CP.

[mccoy178]

My exact thoughts.  Pics to come later tonight.

[Raven..]

I'm not crazy about frankenpanels, but that is impressive!!

I would love to have a cab built just like the bottom half of that one.....basically a wooden candy cab.  (Two player only though  )  Any plans to post your blueprints?

[Pixelhugger]

Just went back through 6 pages to catch up on this build. DAMMMMIT Mccoy I am really impressed. I've been so absorbed in my own project for so long I was unaware of the amazing stuff other people are doing. I've been seriously humbled. That monitor mount is crazy!!! And the plexi bending jig thingy. Man that stuff is just inspiring!

[mccoy178]

Pixel, that means a ton coming from you.  I think we share a lot of the same frustrations on our projects.  I've been following your project for the past ten years and I decided to get started on mine.  I am lucky though, I'm given the opportunity to work on it at OSU all day, so I get an advantage over most.

EyeDoc, the only blueprints I have are an Adobe Illustrator file that is of the side and all the pictures.  I hope to make a tutorial or pictorial on how to build a cabinet.  I have been trying to offer pictorials on some of the smaller details that are hard to find.  I hope to combine these things so noobs of the world have another resource to find out how to do the dumb things like paint the plexiglass or use a metal cp or whatever. 

Thanks again fellas, I'm gonna keep plugging away.

[mccoy178]

Today I accomplished a few tedious things that I have been wanting to finish.  I figured out what to do with the volume controls, made a cabinet friendly harddrive holder, and I transfered all my software files to the new computer.  Here is a pictorial of how I mounted the volume controls.

I decided to put them on the bottom of the cp box.  I also didn't like the looks of the factory box it came in.  I decided that plexiglass would be an easy option.  Here are the supplies used:



I decased the controls and drew the hole template onto the plexiglass:



I then uses standard drill bits to drill the holes:



Here is a picture of the controller sitting loose in the plexi.  I was happy with the looks:





Once I decided that it looked okay and would function, I had to figure out where to locate it on the cp.  I choose the 1P side and just far enough in that you would have to look for it to find it:



I routed out the area and superglued the plexi into the spot:



Here is to give some perspective of its location.  I also drilled out a spot for the Shazaam button on the front left side of the cp box:



I also painted the controls black to match the cabinet.  All in all, I'm very happy with the results.  Once I get the box painted, I'll show some completed pics:

[mccoy178]

If I had one major ---smurf--- from my first cabinet, it was how ridiculously hard it was to mess with the computer and especially the harddrives when it was decased.  I've been thinking about a solution and I used $2 in plexi to find it.  Here is a tutorial on how I made it.  There are no holes drilled yet, but it should be obvious how the shelving works.  I tried to leave as much space as possible for cooling.  Let me know what you guys think on this one as I don't want to burn up the goods.  I'm contemplating throwing a little fan on it, but I don't think it's necessary.

Okay, I just measured a Harddrive and that is how I made my cuts.  I wanted it big enough for four drives and I just cut it as I went.  Here are the supplies used:



I only exposed the parts I was glueing and used that as a rough guide:



I glued and clamped down the shelves for both sides:



Here is one half complete:





I just glued on a top and bottom and a couple support pieces.  All in all, it took a little over an hour.  I also added a long piece on one side for mounting purposes.  I plan to paint this black tomorrow.  More pics to come:

[markrvp]

Don't paint it black - it looks badass clear like that.

[arcadegamenut]

Last cabinet you'll ever build eh? What if I offered a collection of dead presidents?

[mccoy178]

You'd have one dead builder from insanity!

[mccoy178]

Well, today I took everything back to the workshop to put it all together.   I didn't get a lot done today but it was a very exciting day indeed.  Seeing it all together just had Golden Tee written all over it!  I did mount the motherboard, powersource, and harddrive shelf to a removal piece of mdf.  That was again just a huge pet peeve of mine on my first cabinet.  I hated messing with the computer stuff because it was such a ---smurfette--- to remove anything.  This should be somewhat hassle free.

Not much description here, just pics:

Here is the board I used after painting


I measured out the holes on the motherboard, drilled out the locations, and put in the standoffs:







Here is everything mounted:





Here it is sitting in the cabinet:

[mccoy178]

One last update.  Nothing special, just a few pics of the cabinet and the painting of the cp:

[NinjaEpisode]

Alright dude, I gotta hand it to ya, that's some awesome work.  But, really, you need to go spend some time with your woman now.

[markrvp]

Nah, just dedicate the cab to her in a private ceremony.  I'm sure she'll forgive you for ignoring her these past 8 months during the planning and construction phases of the cabinet. 

[dweebs0r]

Nah, just dedicate the cab to her in a private ceremony.

That cab is awesome but that just aint gonna work.  Why not have wedding pictures and family photos cycle through on the top monitor in a continual loop.  Maybe then you could get her to forgive you, but I doubt it.

-D

[mccoy178]

Wife?  What wife?  If worse comes to worse, I'll have to get the internets for the top monitor.

[2600]

Hey McCoy have had a couple people sent my way from you and thought I'd check out your work.  Looks like you've been very busy.   
Glad to see it's coming along, but where is the project you were talking with me about?


Also call me paranoid, but is anyone besides me worried about the hard drives being so close to the monitor and degaussing circuit?

[mccoy178]

I decided to go with the bigger monitor instead of the PSOnce screen.  Also, I may shield everything that is on that board.  I'm still contemplating what to do.  Stop making me paranoid!

[NinjaEpisode]

Wife?  What wife?  If worse comes to worse, I'll have to get the internets for the top monitor.

She spent last night with me, but..............I couldn't get her to stop calling out your name at the most inopportune times.  It was quite annoying. 

[mccoy178]

Finally she is yelling out my name.  If I had to hear one more random name I was gonna shoot her.

[horseboy]

McCoy, I couldn't find the answer to my question in the depths of this thread. Where in the hell did you get a terabyte of hard drive for $300?

[mccoy178]

I keep buying 300 gigs when they drop at or below $100.  Hope that helps explain better.

[horseboy]

Sure does.

How are you going to go about getting the second monitor up and running? A second video card? I don't really understand how that works.

[mccoy178]

Well, a lot of the functionality relies on HowardC.  He is working on some dual monitor support.  As of now, mame allows for monitor selection, so for mame specifically, I could have the FE on the main monitor(17"), and have mame start on the second monitor(t.v.).  When mame starts, johnny5 would replace the fe on the 17".  Now in the long run, I would like to have the t.v. as the main monitor and have the FE on the secondary monitor.  Otherwise, have them flipped so this setup would work with all emulators.  Howard's program, the way I understand it, is supposed to allow me the ability to choose what programs use what monitor. 

To answer your question, right now, it will have limited capabilities, but in the future I think it will have a bunch of utility.

[horseboy]

Sweet. BTW, do you ever sleep? You post at all hours of the night.

[Tiger-Heli]

To answer your question, right now, it will have limited capabilities, but in the future I think it will have a bunch of utility.

In the NEAR future, judging by Aaron's re-write of the video core: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=54061.0

I think Horseboy was asking more about the How rather than the Why.

I would assume this would be either a dual head video card or possibly you can use multiple video cards, and the appropriate software.

[mccoy178]

Horseboy, I sleep a little here, a little there.

Tiger, how have you been?  Hope things are going well in your neck of the woods.

I ordered the marquee last night and the coindoor yesterday.  Talk about getting excited!   I fired up some gt2k just to tease myself.  Everything is running fine.  I had to install some audio drivers, but that was an easy fix.  I don't know how to configure the component video just yet, but I am going to try and tackle that one today.  More updates to come.

[Timoe]

more pictures

[mccoy178]

Patient young jedi.

[Stingray]

Wow McCoy, I'm impressed. Nice work, man!



-S

[vader]

Fantastic McCoy,

The workmanship is awesome and top notch, but I'm highly disappointed that
you haven't posted any pics today.  I go to 3 places on the net, BYOAC to look at your
thread, ESPN, and that other board.....now post pics before I get down to 2


and no excuses about a life or something

[Timoe]

[Patient young jedi.]

I'm not seeing the picture here.  Did it not load properly?

[mccoy178]

Here is the pinball button housings.  I made them from eyeballing the measurements.  I was very happy with the looks.  Tomorrow I will clean them up and paint them.

First I made up my a template on cardboard:



After I cut and bent the metal, I sat them in the cabinet to see how they fit:







Here are the enclosures from a few angles:

[mccoy178]

Allright, for Timoe, here are some pics of the cabinet.  I also took pics of the power button and the shazaam button.  Enjoy!

[mccoy178]

Pixel, here are some upclose pics of the bezel:

[Timoe]

^ that guy wears an Atari T-shirt.  What-a geek. (look in the reflection)

Those are the pics!  wow.


When do you get your Tmolding?

Do you have any close ups of that nonsense blinking thing between your two monitors?

Whats that big giant hole for,  where a coin door should go?

[mccoy178]

I love Atari.  I gave up the whole trying to not look the part long ago.

I ordered the tmolding tonight.  I have 5/8th's already and the 3/4 should be here by Tuesday.

Here is a pic of that nonsense on my old cabinet:



I also just paid for the 4 person over/under coindoor.  Talk about making me sick to my stomach!  I was going to just put a waste paper basket there, but I guess I'll go with the door since you mentioned it.

[Timoe]

Thats really cool.  I guess if you could find a coin door "type" device to plug that hole that would look good also.

That betabrite thing is neat.  Rather than google like an upwardly mobile individual, do you have any links to info on how to incorporate the betabrite stuff?

Your cabinet is cool now.  Its got everything. 

[mccoy178]

Silver made a program that will look at your rom folders and produce files that are displayed on the beta bright.  You can of course customize them if you like.  For example, with mamewah, when you switch emulators, it tells you the emulator you are using and then when you select the game it displays the title.  Once you exit, it goes back to the default emulator message and changes with each emulator.  I'm too lazy as well to find the linky's.

[MYX]

That thing is a monster!. Any guess as to how much it weighs? This is an awesome job. You gotta be grinnin ear to ear looking at this thing.